Quote:

Originally Posted by Govoni

.... And her answer had been mentioned! Despite her shortcomings with this subject, it gave Olivia a little hopeful brush against her soul. See? Befriend and/or date a Ravenclaw. It will surely be the best decision you ever make. As if to affirm this to herself, the blonde cast a loving glance towards her Ravenclaw, a little surprised to see him giving very intense looks up at the Professor.

Rooney Bronwyn was a very intense person, though... Something she appreciated about her boyfriend. Intense in his loyalty and his love.... One moment, Liv had been smiling in his direction, genuine smiles and such.... but then in the next... He was going off. On a very long, ranty-style monologue. Oh, my.

Well... Technically, Roo wasn't wrong. Two answers couldn't be right, if it came to a quiz or exam. But maybe both could be jolted down and then explained? Maybe this would work best as a short-answer question. Or in the form of an essay.

Er... "There are a lot of rings around Saturn... but more are formed all the time, I think. Because they're made up of debris that gets pulled into Saturn's orbit... or something." Her memory was sketchy. Don't quote her on this.

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Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

"They had a GHOST as a professor last term?!" Kane asked, unable to help himself from shouting out his thoughts. That was SO COOL! No offense to the pretty professor lady, but that was AWESOME and he was disappointed he'd missed it!

Right, erm, back to the question. He raised his hand - a little late now, whoops - and chuckled.

"Sorry, I mean, um...Saturn has got seven rings, I believe, and they're all made out of dust and ice and other stuff that is basically space junk that got caught in an orbit around the planet," he explained.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Well, now this was getting interesting. Class started with some kid sitting on the floor, then Brent offered up his seat, and now the girl across the table from him had a completely different suggestion. Soon enough, Brent found himself sharing two seats with the Botros', which was amusing in some ways and...kind of awesome in others. He and this girl were now sitting pretty close to each other. Heh. He grinned at both of them then turned back to the professor.

...wait. They were taught by a ghost last year? COOL. Brent heard his lil bro echo those same sentiments, except a little bit louder, of course. This school just had all kinds of surprises. Okay, so...question and answer time. Brent raised his hand. "Seven," he simply said. There was no need for anything longer. Simple question and simple answer.

"All of you are correct!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurange

Thing was, when the first year Hufflepuff - Raphael? Derfale? Ah, Derfael - made his comment, that was the point of absolutely no return. "Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet assumed to be really far out, yes, but it's largely theoretical and hasn't been proven yet since it was theorised in 2016. BUT with the algorithms and telescopes currently programmed, we're a lot closer to finding it." But Derf raised an important question, and since he just so happened to be nearby, swiveled to face the boy when he made his response, even if it happened to be to her question. "With all due respect, Miss -" Now brace yourself.

"A planet is a body that has mass, which obeys three definitive criteria. Firstly, it must orbit a star. Secondly, it must have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium. This is achieved when flow velocity is constant at any point in time, effects of which would result in the mass being roughly spherical since effects like gravity are balanced by a gradient force. Thirdly, the mass has "cleared the neighbourhood" of its orbit, so to speak. So basically, the orbit of the mass has no obstacles that can exert a gravitational force of significance on it, and all those obstacles would be pulled into an orbit around the mass itself. Other debris would be slung away or consumed." WOW OKAY WOODS, DEEP BREATHS PLEASE. "So considering the fact that Pluto is only 0.7 percent the mass of things in its orbit and has its movement affected by them, it has failed to meet the third criteria, and never deserved the status of planet in the first place. It's a literal lump of ice. The demotion to dwarf planet is extremely unlikely to hurt its feelings."

But just in case they had missed it, a TL;DR version for them. "Astrophysicists and cosmologists certainly haven't come up short for a definition if it's existed since 2004. Not to mention the fact that the basis for the IUA naming it a planet in the first place was based on erroneous data, and was proved for decades after that Pluto does actually have more in common with comets than other planets, what with its eliptical orbit and chemical composition."

And on that note, he'd just lean back into his chair and resume solving the kinematics question he'd copied into his notebook shortly before class began. Until someone said something worth writing down, which as time progressed, he was starting to doubt. It's like nobody read anything after this was discussed in previous years. Nothing but dull, repetitive answers. Seven rings. But - OH THERE IT WAS. THANK YOU, CHARLOTTE KETTLEBURN. Pointing at her and nodding approvingly, Brian had to acknowledge the truth in what she said. "That, exactly. Charlotte's right. You could even argue it has one ring consisting of millions of particles." Definitions like this one were arbirtary. Defining planets? Less so. "But Professor Burbage was hired while she was still very much alive, and was definitely qualified to teach us. Maybe too much so. We could do a great deal worse than be taught by a ghost. Take from that what you will, but Hufflepuff loyalty was not something to be crossed.

He'd never been more glad he was leaving this school.

There was another student that was currently speaking way too many words at the moment. The ghost again. "Mr Woods would you care to teach this class? I must not be as qualified to teach this class as you are. I mean you have to be very qualified seeing as you're what? A seventh year. I'm well aware that she was hired while she was alive. I'm not shooting down her credibility. I just don't agree with how that was handled." If the post had opened up last term for this position she wouldn't be here right now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

What the professor was talking about was really interesting actually, and Hattie actually made some notes, and circled it. She wanted to do a little more research around that. Why if they didn't really have a solid definition, or if people couldn't agree what a plant was, why were some things planets and some moons. It was kind of interesting to Hattie. She wanted to understand it more. But now onto Saturn. She liked Saturn. It was a cool planet, and it had a really cool name after all.

She raised her hand to offer an answer. "I believe that Saturn has four main rings, and then 3 that are a little fainter than the others"

"Correct."

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Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Wait...what? Noooooooooooooooooooooo he hadn't been talking about that!

"I was-sn't talking about Pluto, professor," the first year chirped - and he had no opinion on the matter regarding Pluto and its planetary status because, well, he did not know definitions of anything yet and hadn't reeeeeeeeeally given his Astronomy textbook much of a proper read. He did know about the moon and moon phases though! Not that that helped him much right now or anything. "I s-saw s-somefing in the paper...or Quibbler...muggle paper maybe...about a planet really REALLY far away from the S-Sun...and it has a really REALLY long orbit...like REEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLY long...."

As the lecture went on, the first year found himself MORE confused and thus his hand went right back up to ask a question - he had no idea how many rings Saturn had, so he couldn't answer that anyway. "Professor! If fis Union fingy demoted Pluto...fen it knows what does-s-sn't make a planet...s-sso fat means-s-s fey know what DOES make a planet a planet...right?" Because you couldn't say something wasn't something without knowing what made it something...right? His brain was starting to hurt thinking about this...but it seemed WEIRD that a science wouldn't have a definition for something so important as this!

He was veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery skeptical.

And answers were aaaaaaaaaaaall over the place with this Saturn question...so that was confusing too.

Clearly...this was just not going to be his subject. UNLESS THEY TALKED ABOUT MOON PHASES!

"Could you tell me what you mean by planet nine?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Artel

Now was the time to try to save face. She may not know what order the planets were in- or, okay, how many rings Saturn had- but she knew some nice space trivia which she could probably bring up now, in-amongst listening to her classmates and trying to note down any extra information they gave out. She may be clueless about Astronomy now, but she didn't need to stay that way, she resolved as she put her hand into the air.
"There are two in the picture," she pointed out with a slight frown. "But I thought they were just made of rocks floating around, so how can you really count that? Also, for Pluto and Neptune, doesn't it sometimes change? So that they get closer and further away? Because it's not a circle?" Her father had been complaining about that when making an order for some client, that it had been affecting his modelling of the planets and therefore his charmwork. She wasn't really sure how, but it sounded important, anyway.

"There are two that we can see with the human eye but there are thousands and possibly many more than what we know of right now. That's correct the orbits are not a circle but more of an oval if you will."

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Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Skylar had to admit she wasn't very sure of Professor Salvatore right now, considering how the woman seemed quite set on the fact that Pluto was maybe a planet - a debate that would happen until the end of time? Odd; scientists deemed pluto to be a 'dwarf planet' almost a century ago and yet she was maybe questioning that? What did this woman know that researchers did not? Needless to say, she was skeptical.

As far as how many rings Saturn had, her peers definitely were adding complicated answers to the simple question, but Sky didn't mind because it WAS a complicated question and depended on what maybe was considered a ring. "Seven main rings. Technically. But there's at least seven other rings outside of the main rings and well Merlin only knows how many others." It was definitely a confusing question

"Excellent job!"

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Originally Posted by slytherus

Oh, good! Professor Salvatore believes Pluto should be a planet too. Why shouldn't it? Pluto deserves to be a planet!

Astronomy seemed fun and easy so far. There wasn't anything complicated really. Many of these things were known to muggles as well, so he should be able to have a grasp on it. Now, how many rings does Saturn have? He has no clue, to be honest. Never really counted them in the picture books. "Seven," he put up his hand and took a wild guess. Seven, the magical number.

"Correct."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

Did we have another passenger on the "make Pluto a planet again" train? Janelle had a feeling that the professor just might be pro Pluto. As usual, she took copious notes while her classmates and the professor spoke. You never knew when a piece of information might be needed later. Better safe than sorry.

Then, another question was thrown out to the class. Professor Salvatore sure knew how to pick the questions with more than one possible answer. Janelle raised her hand and when called on, began to answer. "Saturn actually has thousand of rings made up of ice and rock. They are grouped into seven bigger rings. Those are what we think of when we picture Saturn's rings."

"That's true."

Quote:

Originally Posted by FwooperOnYourLeft

How many rings did Saturn have?

Hmm.. well that was sort of a trick question..ish.. Leon raised his hand and gave the answer he had.

"Well, it has seven rings, four main ones and three fainter ones.." The older boy paused for a second though as if trying to figure out how to word the next part of his answer, "However. Scientists have been able to see that these rings are actually made of hundreds or thousands of tiny little rings.."

So ring groups? Maybe? Ehh.. he hoped that answer went over well enough.

"Correct but from what Astronomers and Scientists have learned there are around 500 to 1000 if not more 'rings'." She really didn't like the choice of words she had to use to explain the rings, she never really cared for calling them rings.

"You're very correct."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goblinfrog

Kitty raised her hand. "I've read that Saturn has many rings - thousands and thousands, and that we can't be sure of the exact number. There are seven big ones, which I think consists of these thousands of smaller ones." The whole part about seven rings she just added in right there to fit in with the answer of most of her classmates.

Her hand stayed in the air. "Professor, I have a question about the International Astronomical Union's decision to remove Pluto from the planet list. It's just that, I know the Muggles did the exact same thing at the same time." She swallowed. "Was that just a coincidence, or were they coordinating in secret?"

She often wondered why Muggle politics seemed to reflect wizarding politics, and this was a perfect example of that happening.

"There are witches and wizards that have worked with muggles at NASA and other parts of the world. I guess you could say that they were working together on this one."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hey Ju

The class had barely started but Matt was dozing off big time.

Biiiig time.

Planets were cool and all, but LOOKING at them was so much better than just talking about them. He was tired. Matt had done a lot of reading lies and moving around that day and he was too tired to talk. Unless it wasn't in lessons. He'd be up for talking outside of lessons.

But yeah, he was not up for this and so he rested his head on top of his hands on the table and... nap time it was.

Now she had a student sleeping. If he wanted to sleep then it was his choice. His house points to lose but she would be talking to him after class was over.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

Colt raised his eyebrows and give her an "are you serious look?" I mean the dude just said it. Why bother wasting his energy. He shrugged and said, "Well like he said.." he nodded towards his mate Leon. "Neptune is our eighth planet...?" Like duh. "I would have considered pluto but obviously that isn't considered a planet anymore by NASA." There. All done. He learned this back in the muggle world plus he was interested in this stuff. He knew this already. Kace was big into looking at the stars and learning about them. He picked up a thing or two. Now onto the next question.

He was not impressed Leon's hand was first in the air yet again. He chuckled and heard his answer. He nodded towards him again and couldn't have said it perfectly himself, "What he said.." he smirked now as if this was a game. He was going to put a disclaimer. "Even better yet, I'll give you a fun fact too. The first astronomers thought the rings were moons." How about them apples professor.

"Glad to see that you're paying attention, Mr Winchester."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holmesian Feline

The planets.

That made sense given the picture available to each of them at their desks. And it would be cool to do some artwork with the images, the planets showing up as a number of colors against the deep black background of space. At the first question, Cassie knew the answer, though had been soundly beaten to it by a few of her classmates so she kept to herself. No need to keep repeating it over and over. Soon enough, Professor Salvatore was speaking again anyway moving them on.

Poor Pluto…a planet demoted.

Now a bunch of question were laid out and Cass tried to think on just what to answer and what she actually knew of everything. “To me a planet is a mass in space above a certain size that has an atmosphere and gravity and orbits around a star.” That certainly seemed like something that fit all the planets in their solar system. As for rings of Saturn, there was a few answers already given. The Ravenclaw had to admit that she wondered if ‘rings' really were a figurative or literal thing like someone had said.

"See what I mean, the actual definition of the word itself is to each their own."

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Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Now she felt bad because as uncomfortable as sharing a seat was, her little cousin was on the floor. Abeys didn't belong on the floor, not even a little, and the brunette smoothed his hair before turning her attention to Brent. "We can push our chairs closer together and I'll sit in the middle. That'll save room," She whispered, careful not to call attention to them as she started doing just that. Also, about Pluto- "I'm sure lots of people just starting don't know much about Pluto, Abey. No biggy." He could sit now, too, did he see?

...What were they talking about now? Rings. Junia liked rings-the shiny kind that you wore on your fingers. The planet kind wasn't as interesting of a topic to her, but she figured she needed to know these things if she was going to pass any of the important tests in her future. Thing was-Prefect Rooney was right when he said the questions weren't easy ones. Well, at least she didn't find them easy, and not for the reasons he was giving, either. It was just that she wasn't interested in these types of facts and that made it hard for her to remember them. Was anyone else having this problem?

..."Professor? About the rings, well, why do some planets have them and others not?" Seemed wildly unfair to her.

"Objects with a lot of mass have big gravity wells, meaning that they exert a bigger pull on other objects. The outer planets are more massive, they have bigger gravity wells than the smaller inner planets. Space debris, such as small bits of rock and ice, get caught in the big gravity wells of the outer planets. When they are in the gravity well of an outer planet, like Saturn, they start to orbit the planet. The debris have enough momentum that they don’t get pulled all the way into the planet, instead they orbit around it."

The comments about the ghost well those were going to be ignored for the time being. Caroleena turned her head towards the Ravenclaw Prefect. "I have a point to my babbling, Mr Bronwyn. In the future there could be found out that Pluto is a planet but as Mr Bronwyn has stated on my lack of teaching skills, apparently twenty years in this career isn't enough experience, that I have given you a false answer. If you were to answer the question on an exam you have put down Neptune but if you for your own sake and as such mine you are more than welcome to consider Pluto as an actual planet the so be it but don't put Pluto as an answer on your exam." Now on to the next part. "A planet does mean a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star. I'm talking about the bigger picture of space. What I'm trying to say is a planet isn't defined by a size or a specific color." The blonde woman looked around at the students to see if they were listening.

She might be getting off track with this one but hopefully they understood what she had said before about the planets. "A dog is a distant relative of the wolf but not every dog looks the same and that is due to the different breeds. Each breed had to meet the requirements and the needs that in the past humans needed from them." She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Now with planets there are many differences between each planet. If someone said that a dog needed to look like a wolf to be a dog then we wouldn't have the many different breeds that many muggles and witches and wizards keep as pets. No one planet has to be the same towards another to be considered a planets." There point made, she had to move on at some point or else the class would never end. "I'm not entirely certain as to way they call them rings but it could have something to do with what Mr Lewis has said. I've noticed that sometimes we as humans, whether muggle or magical tend to keep most of the old terms for sentimental reasons." she looked around at the class. "As Miss Kettleburn has stated Saturn's rings are composed of almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material." Okay enough of that. They had to move on.

"Moving on, I would like all of you to get into a group of 2 to 3 people of your choice. As a group you must choose of the eight planets that you would like to research for our activity. Please right down on a parchment or in a notebook what you think are the most important facts that people would need to know about the planet of your choice. I don't have to approve of the planet so choose whatever one you like. Lastly please take your time to research these planets." Caroleena walked to the back of her desk as sat down in her chair. "If anyone has any questions you can ask me."

OOC: If anyone needs Caroleena's help just ask! Class will continue in about 36 hours.