 Pet Space Rock Extra Credit Post 2 Teapot Occamy| gryphons&giraffes&goats,OH MY | chaser of the truth | flutiful❧
Penelope had been spending a lot of time studying for final exams and NEWTs recently, but tonight she was taking a break from studying. This trip to the observatory would be more focused on stargazing with her pet rocks, although she did have plans for doing some revision for exams. After laying a fuzzy blue blanket down on the floor, Penelope arranged the three pet rocks on the blanket and sat down facing them. "Petra, meet Luna and Aquila. Luna and Aquila, meet Petra." Her next words were aimed at Petra. "Aquila really belongs to Lady Helena, but because she's a ghost and can't take care of Aquila herself, I take care of Aquila. Luna is mine, and she's named for the moon because she sort of looks like a full moon and Luna is the Latin word for moon. They are rocks that come from the Earth." Picking up the three rocks, she held them up to the window so that their googly eye faces could look out up at the sky. "You, Petra, come from space. Once part of a meteoroid that mostly burned up in Earth's atmosphere as a meteor, leaving you, a meteorite, on Earth's surface." Penelope was reviewing astronomy by teaching her pet rocks. Explaining it to others was a wonderful way to remember things. "Earth is just one small planet in a system of planets orbiting a star that we call the sun, which is just a small part of the Milky Way Galaxy, one of many other galaxies in a universe that is so large that it's difficult for us here on Earth to comprehend the enormous size of the universe. Some of the stars that we can see are thousands of light years away, so by the time that the light has reached Earth, the star might not exist anymore. We see the light of the star as it was years ago. There are closer stars though, like our sun. The sun is what we call one astronomical unit away from the Earth. One astronomical unit is 149.6 million kilometers. That seems like a large distance, but on an astronomical scale it's not very far. Earth is close enough to the sun to be warm and habitual, but not all of the planets are. Mercury and Venus are closer to the Sun and get really hot on the side of the planet facing the sun. Planets further out like Neptune that don't get as much heat energy from the sun are really cold. Those planets are just parts of our solar system. There are lots of other stars visible from Earth, and if you look at them you can see patterns that we call constellations. A lot of constellations are ones that were recognized by the Ancient Greeks, but there are also some modern constellations. Most of the Greek ones are associated with myths." Astronomy for Pet Rocks 101. "Aquila is named after a constellation that's supposed to look like an eagle."
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