Scribble scribble.

That was an interesting fact about Milky Way bars. Even though the professor hadn't been talking to her, she made a note to try it sometime. Because not only did it sound like a neat little experiment, it also sounded delicious.

Anyway, back to the actual class. And Layla had no idea why the planets were positioned the way they were. It was just the way it was. But she didn't think that answer would fly in this class. So......thinking. "Maybe the gas planets would explode if they were closer to the sun......?" Made sense to her, since the sun was basically a ginormous ball of fire. And fire caused gas to explode.

So she wasn't imagining? Thank Merlin she wasn't losing her mind! It was enough with the hair, body aches and hot flashes. Now THOSE were horrible. Beverly grinned at professor Airey and resumed munching. He just totally made her day because she loved to eat and chocolate made her feel better. NOM.

Writing things down, Beverly had to hold it from giggling when he said gassy. Hehe. A lot of students now a days passed a lot of it. Unfortunately, she wasn't excused from that. At the mention of 'gassy' again, she lowered her head and covered her mouth with her free hand. HAHA. HA.

She raised her hand to give the question a shot. "'Probly the closer the planets are to the sun has something to do with it?" Like, the closer they were the rockier planets were? Meh, she wasn't an astronomer, 'kay.

No one? Airey looked down at his little cauldron of gold foiled coins and frowned briefly before he returned his gaze towards the semi circle of desks and raised hands.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Caleb blushed. He had SORT OF nodded off when Flamsteed started singing and missed it, and now he could hear it in his voice that he was mad that he hadn't thanked him. Whoops. He had been too focused on jumping back in the lesson!

"Thanks for singing, Professor. It was lovely," he said with a smile.

Ok, onto the question now. "Perhaps there was more helium and stuff out there? In the further reaches of space? Plus they're further from the sun and that probably has something to do with it," he explained. Yeah, that made sense right? Except for Pluto.

Smiling faintly at the thank you, he instead attempted to focus more on the Slytherin's response to his question. "You are certainly on the right track, Mr. Newell," he nodded. Really, this question was a correlation of everything they had covered this term, so it was hopefully good review. "Good thinking."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edward Penguin

Ian listened to the professor's responses. He had seemed rather pleased that Ian had complimented his mother, but Ian's head drooped a little when Professor had said there would be no one leaving the room. Did that mean no one would be getting nutella? Ian thought to himself. He raised his hand and asked, in a rather wobbly, slightly weepy voice, Professor, you gave out chocolate coins, but I have an allergy. Why can't we get some biscuits to go with our nutella? Ian looked around for the nutella and was disappointed when he didn't see any.

Ian heard the question about gassy planets and was quick to answer, Perhaps their digestive systems can't break down the proteins as well as the rocky ones? Ian was pleased with this response. It was clever (at least in his own mind) and it sort of addressed the actual question.

WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! Allergic to chocolate? Oh what a sad sad life the young man must lead. Not that Airey was in love with chocolate as some other Gryffindors he could mention, but still quite sad. "Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Tinker. Had I known about your dietary restrictions I would have provided you with an alternative. There is a potion you can take, did you know that?" he asked. Obviously this would not help him right now considering he had none of the said potion nor any means to get it. "One that allows you to temporarily not be allergic to something. Might want to think about going to brew that for yourself in the future."

And speaking of digestive systems....what? OH THE BOY WAS TELLING A JOKE! Erupting into a another fit of senile laughter, the astronomer wheezed and well, the outer planets weren't the only thing gaseous around this Astronomy Tower.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grrr..Meow

Bays jaw dropped.. omg why couldn't his brain think right now.. ughhhhhh… he was happy to have his good looks back but he'd like his brain and young bones… he might as well give an answer.. raising his hand "errrrr….. maybe the "dark stuff"…i mean space.. in-between the planets are filled with different things??" ughhh he sounded so stupid.. back to what he knew best.. note taking..

Bay jotted down more notes of what other students were saying.

Dark stuff? Dark matter? That was an entirely different oooooooooooooooooh! "Very good, Mr, Bay," you are precisely correct." Believe it or not, and he better believe it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionesclone

Instead, he'd answer this question, yeah? Yeah. "Professor?" he called, raising his hand in the air, "Wouldn't the gases of the planets near the Sun be... vaporised during the early days? Because of how hot the Sun is?" This was his logic on the matter. ... Pause. "Maybe that's why the planets that are further away are... larger. ... Because... of all the gas."

Tapping his chin thoughtfully as the Head Boy spoke. "Good, Mr. Summers. When the young Sun began to shine, its intense radiation and solar winds blew away dust and gas into space, not giving the inner planets any time to accumulate gases. The denser the element, the higher the melting and condensing point, and the closer they were held by the Sun's gravity. Dense things are more attracted to the pull of the Sun, you could say."

Which had been a running joke for himself and his colleagues at NASA, mostly about those that were always trying to brown nose their supervisor. Ha. Oh the memories...

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

Now that was a good question. Tough one but good nonetheless, Sander thought to himself. He listened as the other students shared their answers while he tried to think of a plausible answer to that question.

When he thought he had one probable answer, Sander raised his hand and gave his answer.

"Professor could it be because the inner planets are closer to the sun where the temperature is higher? Heavier rocky and materials thrive in higher temperatures and end up condensing into solid bits."

....and the outer planets? Hmmm...

"As for the outer planets, the temperature levels are lower and even though there are still rock and metal still present, there is more hydrogen and helium around them than there is with the inner planets. More hydrogen and helium makes for a more gaseous planet."

Did he make sense? Sander decided to wait and see.

Nod nod nod snort nod nod snorting again. Snorted up a fly. COUGHING. HACKING. Okay, he was alright now.

"Correct, Mr. Strand," he nodded with a small smile. For some reason he was laughing in his head far more than he should about the last part of the boy's answer, about gases.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady of Light

..... UH? Bliiink. Back to the what Airey was saying.. She'd almost missed his question, oops? She raised her hand, trying to concentrate on the answer than NUTELLA. Gosh, Dels. Focus. "Uh... well, the inner planets are closer to the sun, right? So.. like, when the solar system formed, the rocks and gas in the inner ring of the solar system was released much sooner or faster as compared to the outer ring? And so... uh.. the planets that were formed in the outer ring had more..err.. rocks to collect? And.. yeah. That's why they are bigger, I suppose." Right. She managed to say something, even if she wasn't sure if it made any sense.

RINGS! Oh Airey was pleased as a comet to hear the Hufflepuff bring those up. "Excellent, Miss Starr," he applauded. "I am glad you mentioned rings." Which was the cue for a long explanation coming so everyone hold on to your quills. Or maybe not a long one just yet. More like hinting at what was to come. "While the terminology does not include the word ring specifically, our solar system can actually be divided up into three separate regions. The inner region, the intermediate region, and the outer region. Terrestrial planets occur in the intermediate region while Jovian planets in the other. There is a line called the frost line that separates the different planets in our solar system."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Did she have to raise her hand to answer, since she was already talking to the professor about mothers and the such? Ehh...better to be safe than sorry. She raised her hand. "Is it because of the Sun? I'd think planets closer to the Sun would have to be made of stuff like rocks, so that stuff wouldn't clash with the gas from the Sun," she said. "We wouldn't want the solar system to go BOOM! Then the planets on the outside, they're okay to have lots of gas, because they're further away from the Sun."

...and THAT was Sophie's opinion on the matter.

Clash. SNORT! That was another cute thought and had the astronomer suddenly thinking about his suit collection and how certain colors of tie clashed with certain suits. "The Sun DOES play a significant part in all this, but keep in mind that the region closest to the sun, the inner contains all the components necessary to create a planet in gaseous form, but the temperature is not one where anything can form." He wasn't really going to go into the whole BOOM factor...because that wouldn't happen. Potentially have the Milky Way Galaxy collide with another, sure, that was far more likely than to have the Solar System go KABOOM!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

"Does it have anything to do with proximity to the sun? Maybe gas planets can't exist within a certain distance near the sun? And rock planets can't exist a certain distance away from it?" Hoping that she wasmr sounding totally stupid, Lux prepared herself to take more notes.

"It has everything to do with it," he nodded.

SPOILER!!: LOL ANNABETH! XD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ivana R

"You say it because you're an old rat and probably are suffering from Alzheimer... I don't like mnemonic sentences and I'll never use them in my whole life. They are stupid!" Annabeth whispered between her teeth while she was apparently smiling at the teacher.

Annabeth hadn't written her homework and she hadn't the slightest idea about the issue. Though she could venture a guess. She always could. Anna raised her hand.

"Professor, I promise I'll think about the mnemonic stuff," she grinned, "and I can open the coins for you, though I think we should consider that they are made with a large amount of sugar and hydrogenated fat, which are no healthy... Well, anyway, about your question... I think it's due the proximity to the Sun. It should have something to do with the gravity and the centripetal force... Erm... the high temperatures of the Sun...and solid materials as iron and other metallic elements." She made a pause to breath, then added, "Inner planets, the rocky ones, have shorter periods around the Sun, it means that their velocity is probably higher if compared to the gassy planets. If the velocity is higher, the centripetal force is higher too, it means that the particles which compose the planet are constantly being forced to the centre of the planet, keeping them closer as a solid. And their gravity are not enough to deal with the high temperature of the Sun, so the gaseous elements which are more distant from the surface go away. It's why the air is thinner at high height.
The planets which are more distant from the Sun suffer less from its temperature, so they can hold bigger gaseous belt around their centre." She nodded, although she wasn't sure about the centripetal force stuff.

It was a stellar thing that he could not hear the Hufflepuff muttering because it would have been minus 900 points for comment. Instead, Airey appreciated the smile. Smiles had a way of warming the heart during and soul, didn't they?

Oh, and FINALLY someone was going to unwrap some coins for him. "If you wouldn't mind I would greatly appreciate it," he said with more puppy dog eyes. And WOW he had not been expecting such an in depth answer. Merlin what he would give to be able to jump on desks like he had in the old days of his youth. "Outstanding, Miss Glasswall. I hope all your classmates were paying close attention to your answer."

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

So exactly why were they that way? The Puffer was unsure but he raised his hand anyway. "Maybe it's because of the Sun, Professor. Heat and gasses may not be the most ideal match and that's why the inner planets are rocky.''

"In terms of planetary formation you are correct, high temperatures and gases do not bode well," he nodded towards the Hufflepuff. Now for making things go BOOM...that was a different story. Not one he was about to encourage in this classroom though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

Kace nodded and said, "I will be on the lookout.." He didn't think they were on the same page. He wasn't looking for candy canes but maybe he could find some. He smiled when the professor agreed with him. I mean Nutella was good stuff. If he could have everyday without getting fat he would. "Professor could we have a nutella day in the future and you can make foods in shapes of planets?" he suggested.

Now onto the third question. He heard that the little rocky planets are more towards the sun and the large and gassy....Heh gassy *chuckle* were far out away from the sun. Why was that? He thought about it and raised his hand to answer his question. "Professor may it has something to do with the change in heat and the atmosphere?"

This boy wanted HIM, the professor, to make food for them? To COOK for them? Did the boy have a death wish? Airey sort of just stared blankly at him for a few long moments. "Perhaps when we are all cured we can have a celebration in the kitchens," he replied calmly. Assuming that day would come and he was around to see it that is.

"Not so much the atmosphere," he replied with a small shake of the head. "In outer space where all this is taking place is the closest natural approximation to a perfect vacuum with effectively no friction. Heat, however, is right on track."

Quote:

Originally Posted by carpediem

"Well, maybe the rock planets are easier to see because they're actually made out of a tangible substance. Not that gas isn't tangible, but one is obviously bigger than the other and one probably reflects the sun better so we can actually.. ya know, see it." That was her -probably wrong- answer and she was sticking to it. Because, yes.

"Not exactly," he said with a small smile. Interesting thought process though, but far from the truth of science. "What limits us on Earth from being able to see terrestrial versus gaseous forms is based on distance. We can actually see all 8 of these planets with the naked eye, you just will not see the fantastic closeup views that a telescope or satellite can provide."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Laura hadn't ask for the Professor life story but anyway life went on. She raised her hands "A fly once landed on my mars bar and I told everyone the truth." Laura beamed. "There is life on Mars." Laura had loved it when that had happened though of course she had through the Mars bar in the bin and got a new one. "I think they are just hiding." Laura said she wasn't paying much attention anyone that thought Pluto wasn't a planet was crazy.

Entirely missing her Mars joke due to his right ear being turned away at the moment, but found her response to his question a rather perplexing one. Hiding? Who was hiding? Huh? "Are you hiding something from me, Miss Hyde?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Why rocky inners vs. gassy outers? Ella sat quietly and considered this for a while. "Doesn't it have to do with gravity?" Possibly, yeah? "I mean, the outer planets have more mass so they have more um...of a gravitational field thing? And if gas is attracted by the gravity, the outer planets would have more?"

... .... ...Yeah. Hopefully that made sense. She was just going to have more chocolate now.

"Gravity DOES come into play, Miss Ella," he nodded. Was it just him or did it seem as though her wand was unwinding just a little? Clearly this meant that she was accepting the whole Pluto thing. Good girl. Come towards the light. "It plays into a combination of things that have already been discussed by your classmates, but very good."

Quote:

Originally Posted by carpediem

Smiling to herself, she wrote down all of the responses and waited to cross them out. The Ravenclaw didn't just do this to pick the right answer however. She also did it to see the evoloution of people's responses. The kid DID have an explanatinon, so this wasn't toootaally creepy.

Nodding towards Miss Winters as she took notes, Airey's gaze moved on to the next raised hand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

"Is it like a gravity thing maybe? If they're super far out and small but terrestrial maybe their mass isn't enough for the pull of the sun? Like they're too heavy and far away and so wouldn't get caught in the orbit loop thingermajig, and the rock things that are way out there but are in orbit aren't planety enough to be called planets, because they aren't big enough to have their own gravity, like poor Pluto. And then the huuuuge gas planets probably can't live closer to the sun 'cause of heat and that, like it's better for 'em further back in the cold."

Worth a shot? Lots of terminology in his answer, too; Airey should be proud.

There were lots of good things being sad by Mr. Tempus. Lots. So it was unfortunate that the one thing grumpy old man Flamsteed latched on to was the boy's use of poor in correlation to Pluto. "Do not take pity on Pluto, Mr. Tempus," he said while rubbing his balding head. What else had the boy said? "But yes. Good. Good thinking."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

"M'not talking 'bout your mother. Talking 'bout evil witches, sir. You're talking 'bout your mother."

Hehehehehe. More stifled giggles. And points! What was this class about again?

Oh, right. Spacey stuff. Deep down, there was an Alice dying to burst out through the senility and give a proper, informative answer, but it didn't quite work out that way. "So there's space, right prof? Right? And in space, we have a Soooolaaaar System. Solar like the Sun 'cause stuff revolves AROUND it. It's the center of everything. Like West Odessa." Nods. Serious nods.

"And in that Soooolaaaar System, there's this line. S'called the... the cold... permafr... no! No, I got it, sir! Frost line. Mhm." Mhmmm. "S'this boundary. And beyond it, ices can condense. But within it, only metals and rocks. Hydrogen compounds can condense into ices away from the sun 'cause the temperatures are cooler, but NEAR it, the compounds stay gassy. That means they got vaporized, like Summers said. Go Summers!" Alec got a very enthusiastic thumbs UP.

This class was exhausting.

Right...just going to put this whole mother topic aside for now.

And yet another answer that his a nerve. "While I respect Mr. Odessa, Miss Fischer, he is not the center of everything and I hope you are not implying that your little universe of being revolves around him." A growing concern of his since taking up post here at Hogwarts. Was he about to go off on some sort of life lesson? Perhaps, which was ironic considering he knew very little about how relationships worked, but he sure knew a lot about how they did NOT work. Mostly thanks to years and years of rejection. "It is unhealthy to do so, not to mention you will find yourself distracted when you should be focusing and sometimes putting such emphasis on another causes your own self esteem to lower...or so I have read. I would hope that you, and your classmates, would put yourself in the center and do what is best for you."

Probably had missed the entire point, but that was just the way it was. He was the scientist in the room.

But the rest of her answer was very good. Even mentioned the frost line which earned her a thumbs up. "The rest of your answer is stellar." As usual.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

"I'll be agreeing with whoever you think made the most legit point Professor." Yup.

Airey chuckled LOUDLY and wiggled his bum in his seat at Miss Cambridge's reply.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

T
Did anyone else find this funny? It was hilarious really. Putting his hand up he tried to look all serious. "Professor gassy planets have to be the outer plants, because the inner planets couldn't stand the smell." Hehehe, you know because they are GASSY!!!

"I highly doubt they could smell anything over the astro wiff of burning odor of hydrocarbons." Deadpan.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meizzner

"Random question. Is is true that 2..3 earths can fit in the Great Red Spot on Jupiter?"

"It is indeed," he nodded towards the Prince of Puns. "They also say that one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, may contain water and its underground lakes contain life, so there might be Europeans there!"

HAR HAR HAR TOOOOOOOOOOT!

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

And he could have explained that better and in more detail in front of the entire class. But he wasn't gonna answer. Nope.

Airey gave Mr Not-Glittery-Grumpy-Pants a glance before moving on. Attentive listening was always appreciated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Hmph. Mo twitched irritably in his seat and rolled his shoulders until they popped. He was sort of bored with this planet talk, mostly because he wasn't able to keep up with his notes and ended up just drawing a blobby version of the solar system along the margin of his parchment.

And there the professor went asking questions with only one answer, and Mo here was too slow to answer in time. He raised his hand to answer anyway. "Too many beans in those outer planet burritos, Señor."

Senile? Had Mr. Branxton just called him senile to his face? STARE.

Hard to appreciate the humor when one was being called senile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnicornDragonPatronus

Tessa thought for a moment about the question the Professor had asked as she nibbled on another piece of chocolate. Finally, when she had thought of a logical sounding answer, she raised her hand.

"Professor, could it be because of the planets' closeness to the sun? If the gaseous planets were too close to the sun's heat, the gas may not last long. Or, depending on what makes up the gaseous atmosphere, the planet may not last long." BOOM, essentially. At least, that was her guess. "So, we are left with rockier planets closer to the sun because the gases that used to surround them- if they ever existed, were bruned off by the sun?" she ventured further.

He nodded. "Proximity to the Sun plays a very key role in all this, very good. However, while the inner planets were forming it is said that there wasn't even enough time for gas to be included having been pushed out by the Sun's solar winds."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

"Maybe the gas planets would explode if they were closer to the sun......?" Made sense to her, since the sun was basically a ginormous ball of fire. And fire caused gas to explode.

He really should do a lesson where things exploded, shouldn't he? Students liked the boom. BOOM!

"Explode, no, but not be able to exist yes." So, not entirely right but not entirely wrong either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deezerz

She raised her hand to give the question a shot. "'Probly the closer the planets are to the sun has something to do with it?" Like, the closer they were the rockier planets were? Meh, she wasn't an astronomer, 'kay.

He nodded towards the Slytherin, who seemed to look especially relieved that the chocolate misunderstanding was now resolved. "And you will see why in just a moment."

Which meant that they were now moving on.

"I hope you were all paying attention to your classmates answers because there was some great information in there," he said as he flicked his wand towards the blackboard to erase what was currently there. Going to need a lot of space for this. Space. Heh. Punny. "The short version of this answer is, as many of you said, terrestrial planets formed close to the Sun where temperatures were well suited for rock and metal to condense while jovian planets formed outside what is called the frost line - something Miss Fischer mentioned - where temperatures were low enough for ice condensation," he began, giving his wand another flick and displaying a diagram on the blackboard.


*click for larger view*

"I want you all to remind yourself about the formation of a star," he said as his eyes wandered from the board back to the classroom. Older students - ignoring that most of them LOOKED old now - would be more versed in this topic, but younger students should have read about it in their textbook by now. "Stars are formed from the the collapse of a big cloud of gas, the Sun being no different. So it is fascinating to see how objects that formed from the that very same cloud of gas have different compositions. I want you all to refer to this diagram as I speak, it can also be found on page 34 of your textbooks if you are having a hard time seeing. Now, after the solar nebula collapsed to form our Sun, a disk of material formed around the new star that would become the building blocks for planets. This disk is referred to as the protoplanetary disk, a term I would like you to remember, and its temperature varied across it. Since different materials condense at different temperatures, as many of you mentioned, our solar system formed different types of planets. The dividing line for the different planets in our solar system is called the frost line, as Miss Fischer pointed out." He paused to point his wand at the line on the chart. "As you can see, the heavier rocky and metallic materials are better suited to condense at higher temperatures, and therefore we see solid bits of rock orbiting around the Sun at the same speed. This is in the initial stages of formation mind you. We all know now that the planets have varying orbiting speeds. These bits would stick together more often than they destroy each other and, through a process called accretion, grew larger until gravity forced them into a spherical shape."

He paused and gave his wand yet another flick towards the board to make another diagram appear.

TERRESTIAL PLANETARY FORMATION


"This is the process that, in theory, you all did with your laboratory homework with creating your own solar systems." In THEORY since their planets all just sort of popped into existence thanks to magic. Cue another flick towards the board for one last diagram.

JOVIAN PLANETARY FORMATION


"While rock and metal are still present beyond the frost line they are outnumbered immensely by hydrogen compounds are able to condense into ices because of the cold temperatures. Therefore, the building blocks to create planets are dominated by formed hydrogen compounds. Their formation is quite similar to its stellar counterpart. Much like the collapse of the solar nebula, these balls of gas can grow large enough to induce gravitational collapse and it is possible that as protoplanets collapsed, they spilled their celestial guts across the solar system and smaller particles in the surrounding disk formed into some of the moons that now orbit the individual outer planets. The proof of this in in the rings that are around all of the outer planets and the fact that each of the outer planets has so many moons." Balls of burning gas versus balls of condensed gas. Interesting, no? He thought it was fascinating, but that may just be him.

"Once the Sun ignited, the formation of the Solar System quickly ended. The new star's intense radiation and solar winds blew away the remaining dust and gas in the cloud so that the Sun and its planets could not grow any larger." And that was that. The creation of the Solar System. TADA!

He was done lecturing now, for those who were wondering.

"Now, your own solar systems are almost complete. I say almost because you have your terrestrial planets created, but you are missing some Jovian ones. You will be repeating the same process you did before, but this time you will be using powdered hydrogen, helium and nitrogen along with a tiny bit of ground up rock," he said as he gave his wand a loud tap against his desk and suddenly students' lab coats - nicely folded, goggles, mortar and pestle, a container of small pebbles, and jars containing the three powdered elements appeared on each students' desk. "Once you have your lab coats and goggles on, please come and get your solar system and bring it back to your desk. You will need two scoops of each of the powdered elements, so add those to your mortar and then grind it all up with a small pebble. Perform Fingere Elementi and then keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't blow up entirely." Cue a small almost devilish grin from the man. "Given that you are working with relatively large quantities of powdered gases, know that your first attempt will most likely result in an explosion but fear not, no one will lose a limb and remember there is no dying in Astronomy. Once your Jovian planet has been formed, you can dropped it into your box and watch it find its own orbit."

Sound good? It did to him.

"Unless there are any questions, you may begin. You have approximately a half hour before we will move on to another activity using our telescopes. These planets should be more colorful and have rings around them if your spell is performed correctly." Small pause...he was forgetting something... think think think think... OH YES! "Make sure you put your chocolate away and do not eat anymore while you are working."

OOC:

You should have a minimum of 2 posts for this activity and complete the following steps:

• add two scoops of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen to the mortar
• add a small pebble to the mortar
• grind up the above items into a powder
• perform Fingere Elementi again
• TADA! PLANET! ............hopefully
• add your new planet to the box and close the lid

You will have at least 30 hours to complete this activity.

As always, any questions can be directed to me OOC via PM/VM or IC to Professor Flamsteed.

Sander listened as Professor Flamsteed explained...in his own way...the reason for the differences between the inner and outer planets. And then said the magical words. They were going to make another planet. This one fell into the Jovian planet category.

Creation time. Then in a blink of an eye, a lab coat and pair of goggles suddenly appeared on his desk together with a mortar and pestle, together with a container with pebbles inside and 3 jars containing the powdered elements, Hydrogen, Helium and Nitrogen, Professor Flamsteed had mentioned to them.

Sander donned the lab coat and pair of goggles before walking over to the row of glass containers. He searched for the one with his name written on the label and when he found it, he picked it up and carried it back to his desk.

"Hi guys. I'm back," Sander leaned down to whisper to the solar system he had created not so long ago. Before he could start creating, he needed to clean first. Taking out his wand, Sander pointed it inside the mortar, said, "Scourgify" and watched as the Scouring charm worked its magic. Then he did the same to the pestle and measuring spoon which he had retrieved from his bag, before ending the spell.

Now he was ready to start the Jovian Planetary Making Process.

Ian shook his head when the professor had mentioned potions that might stem the allergic reaction. Of course that did nothing to satisfy his desire to have something to eat now that the professor had said there was nutella. No sir. I wasn't aware. He did however realize that his 'joke' made the professor laugh, but it seems that wasn't the only reaction. Fortunately, Ian wasn't quite so close to the professor that his air bubble was befouled. There was some humor in the whole situation that they were talking about gaseous planets with a gaseous professor.



Ian listened as well he could to what the professor said, writing down things here and there. Eventually his mind began to wander and he began to doodle images of planets with escaping gasses like he might see in a comic book. He was drawn back to reality when lab equipment appeared and he took out his solar system box and opened it. He donned the lab stuff and glanced at his poor, pitiful solar system. It hadn't done at all what he'd hoped, but there were some tiny planets as well as the weakly glowing sun. He sighed and set to work with his mortar and pestle while he sang a song. Grind, grind, grind...all day long, grind the stuff till the shape is gone! While he did these things, he tried to ignore the rumblings of his tummy.

Eeep! So much info! Adi felt as if he were going to overload. Slow down, Mr. Astronomy man! Don't kill your students with all this info! Adi scribbled as fast as he could. Honestly,he was glad they were moving on to the activity. He didn't think his left hand would last any longer at writing.

The Puffer blinked when all the stuff they would be needing appeared on their desks. Phew! At least they wouldn't have to go walking around collecting anything except their solar systems.

Adi finally lugged it back to his desk and prepared to get started by putting on his goggles and lab coat. He Scourgified his mortar and pestle then added two scoops of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen. Next, he added the small pebble and began to crush them all.

Okaaaay. More planet making. Though this was a super intense planet. Marigold cracked her knuckles in preparation for the planet making and began gathering the materials. First was two scoops of hydrogen, then helium, and then nitrogen. Okay, three elements. She grabbed an oblong pebble and added it to the mortar.

Grinding part? THis was HEr faVORite PaRT!!! She smashed and ground everything for a couple minutes, humming a random song and dancing a little.

Okay, ready for the spell part.

ohhh Bay was right O_o he totally just guessed.. oh well go him right.. listening to the Professor he heard that they will be making "gassy" planets now.. "cool" he said while getting up from his seat to go grab his solar system… looking in everything seemed fine.. phew…

making it safely back to his desk he placed it down.. he had to make some notes now before anything got any further.

looking down at his ingredient list he need to go up and get his small stone.. for the everything else was in front of him.. spotting where the small pebble's were he went up to go grab it.. once in his hand and on his way back to his desk Bay was tossing the little stone in his hand..

now following the instructions Bay added two scoops of Hydrogen, Helium and Nitrogen into his clean mortar, then he put his small pebble in.. okay time to grind..

moving his arm to crush everything together he looking inside and everything looked great.. alright… fine powder it was…. Taking out his wand he performed the spell "Fingere Elelmenti" watching it turn into a cool looking planet.. putting it into his box with the rest of his planets he quickly closed the lid and started to watch his new planet.. "so cool" he said to himself..

now to make more…awesome.

After Ian had finished grinding the ingredients, he took out his wand, did a few magical twists and Fingere Elementi! As he did, he imagined a green planet with some sweet blueish-teal rings around it. POOF a greenish planet with awesome teal rings appeared. This was his best planet yet. It seemed to be more robust than the others and when he added it to the box, he watched with some concern as the planet entered it's solar orbit. he was afraid that by virtue of it being better than the others, it might have more gravitational pull. He held his breath, waiting to see what would happen.

So far, everything was holding up well in Caleb's solar system, which was astounding really since he had no real memory of actually doing some of those steps. Cause of his stupid aging thing and all. Sighing at the prospect of having to walk, AGAIN, he stood up and went to the supplies after he had retrieved his solar system.

Ok, two scoops of hydrogen. CHECK. Two scoops of helium? Another check! Finally, two scoops of nitrogen and that was that. Now a tiny pebble...Caleb picked a REALLY tiny one because he was not really in the mood to try and crush a larger stone today.

The old man hadn't listened to what she had talked about the hydrogenated fat or sugar. At least he hadn't listened to what she had told about his memory too.
Annabeth stood up and walked slowly towards the teacher's desk. She took her wand and conjured a crystal bowl. After looking proudly at it for two seconds, the girl opened with her own hands a great amount of chocolate coins, leaving them in the bowl she had just conjured to this purpose. "It looks nicer than tasty," she muttered to herself.

"Professor, your coins," she said, smiling at him, sincerely regretting for what she had said about the mnemonic techniques. Professor Flamsteed seemed to be a good person.

Had he said outstanding??? For Merlin's dirty pants! She grinned, "I'm glad you like my answer, Professor."

And then she went back to her place. She had to make a planet. It was fantastic! Her Solar System lab was becoming pretty nice, she took her box from the floor and opened it. The small sun and two tiny planets orbiting around. It would be great having more planets there.
Anna added the new instructions to her notebook, then took the mortar and the pestle from her bag.

"Scourgify!"

After cleaning the instruments, she added two scoops of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen to the mortar. Quickly she added a small pebble to the mortar, before the ingredients turning to gases again. She crushed the pebble forcefully, feeling that something strange was happening in the mortar. The same sensation when she had performed "her sun" and "her rocky planets". Probably a physic-chemical transformation letting out energy. Or was it just a sign of tiredness? She wiped sweat from her forehead and looked into the mortar. The elements were not ground up enough.

okay, they were making another planet. Caelen loved, loved, LOVED doing this. It felt like she was Frankenstein making the monster. Except he wasn't seven feet tall with a really ad speech problem. It was a small planet. Which one was gas and which one was rock again? She was going to have to look over that again later. Right now it seemed to be mostly irrelevant to the situation.

Also, not ANOTHER telescope activity. She had enough trauma dealing with them during the homework assignment. Also, the observatory would be a grreeeat place for a picnic. If anyone actually wanted to climb seven floor worth of stairs and step foot in the astronomy tower for it. Which meant that it was a no for the Ravenclaw. She didn't much like moving her body unless it was for homework, exploring, or something she was REALLY interested in.

Okay, she was going to have to do the activity now. She needed the mortar and pestal. And it was REALLY hard to not think of the word mortar without thinking of some fantasy realm. Annnnyyywaaaay....


The firstie gathered the materials and wrote down all of the steps. Okay, she HAD this.

Add two scoops of a lot of elements. Okay, easy. One annnnndddd... two. Easy as apple pie.

Add the pebble and crush. If you could see her face right now, it wasn't entirely happy.

Did anyone know how hard it was to crush things into a powder? Uggh, this was going to take a while, wasn't it? She had better get started.

Rising on her tip toes to get some leverage, she brought the pestal down on the mortar and started to crush everything. Such a shame all of her strength lie in her legs from running up and down from the stairs every day. Maybe she could become a runner over the summer. Eww, that required A LOT of movement.

Easier than she had thought! AWESOME! She had a small powder and could now do the next step. After breathing for a minute. Because crushing things were really hard for her. All of her strength lie in her legs, from running up and down the stairs every day. All day every day.When you were hyperactive like she was, you got exercise one way or another.

Yaay. They got to make another planet. Grace liked that a lot. The first year beamed as she looked at the instructions. She wanted to make sure that she did everything right. So that she could make her planet really cool. She liked her planets. And she really liked astronomy. Okaay. She was ready now. First of all she scooped in the two scoops of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen. They were pretty. She liked that. She hummed as she next added the small pebble. She liked pebbles. Those she liked them better as a planet.

Now it was time for her favourite bit. The grinding bit. Although it did hurt her arms after a while. But she hadn't done it since the last homework, so it was going to be good. Beaming she picked up her grinder crusher then began to grind. "Crushhh. Crushh. Crushhhh." She beamed, giggling to herself. It would be funnn.

Crush, crush, crush! And now Adi was done! His mixture was nothing more than a powder. Now it was time to cast the spell that had become quite familiar to him. He jabbed his wand at the mortar. "Fingere Elementi!''

BOOOOM!

Eeeep! Explosion! Adi jumped about a foot or two in the air. Sure Professor Flamsteed had mentioned something about blowing up but he still had expected it to form without any explosion. Oh well. It was a good thing that he was standing away form his mortar. But anyway, his attempt was a success for he now had a Jovian planet! And yes, it was more colourful and had some rings around it. So cool!

Adi dropped it into his box, shut the lid and stood back to observe it.

Sander opened up the bottle labelled Hydrogen, scooped up two scoops of the powdered substance and poured it into his mortar. Then he scooped up two scoops of powdered Helium and added it into his mortar before scooping up two scoops of powdered Nitrogen and added that too.

Next he opened up the container filled with pebbles and retrieved one before dropping it into his mortar. Picking up his pestle he first broke the pebble into little bits before proceeding to grind all the substances together.

Grind...grind...mix around...grind...grind...mix around...

Until all the items were properly mixed together. Now to cast the phase changing spell. This was Sander's favorite part because he liked seeing the planet form before his very eyes.

Unholstering his wand, Sander jabbed it at the contents inside his mortar and said the words to the incantation,"Fingere Elementi" and waited for the substances to coalesce to form a solid ball.

....WAIT!! What was happening?

Sander was expecting to see a ball being formed but instead he saw the mixed substances swirl around, first slowly and then picking up speed. Was it supposed to do that?

Sander looked around to see whether anyone was having the same effect as he was. But it looked like no one had...yet!

'Maybe it's because we're using different substances,' Sander thought to himself and continued to watch hoping that he was right.

All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of light which made Sander step back shading his eyes from the glare. It was a good thing he did, because what happened next totally surprised him.

KAAABOOOM!!

The contents in his mortar combusted causing a micro explosion!!

Sander instinctively ducked down and waited for a few seconds before slowly standing up. He waved his hands to clear away the smoke before looking inside the mortar. All that remained inside it was charred. No sign of a planet.

Disappointed, Sander began cleaning up the mess. He pointed his wand inside his mortar and said,"Evanesco" and watched as the charred contents inside the mortar disappeared. Then he cast the Scouring charm to further clean his mortar before ending the spell. Sander inspected the mortar for any cracks and was relieved to see that there weren't any.

"Alright, let's try this again," Sander softly said to himself as he picked up his measuring spoon again.

Grinddd.

Grinddddddd.

Grinddddd.

Grace was liking all of this grinding. Though it was making her arm ache. That was bad. Because she had only just started. Hopefully she wouldn't need to make lots of planets because her arms would really be hurting. And she didn't want that.

Okaay. Everything was all ground together into a nice powder now. She peeped into the mortar and smiled. All nice together. Okaay. Now she just needed to make it into a planet. She placed her grinder thingy down, and picked up her wand. She was excited. She wanted to see what her planet looked like. Smiling, she jabbed at her mortar whilst murmuring the words "Fingere Elementi."

andd boooom. She had a planet. It was so pretty. She beamed, placing it carefully into her glass box. Okaay. She was done now.

Yes Airey, her wand was unwinding a little. Mostly because a) she had already forgotten what she'd been upset about and b) talk of planets was enough to distract her from wildly unjust point loss. So we forgive you for the moment, Flamsteed. You can totally thank old-lady brain for that.

And gosh, so many notes to take. Her hands weren't exactly loving all the writing and she had to stop several times to clench and unclench her fist but eventually she got everything down. ...Eventually. And she'd even managed to scribble an 'I Love Pluto' in the corner of her notes so yeah, she was making good time.

Jovian planet time! This was exciting, yeah? Ella waited until Airey-face was finished talking and then carefully slipped into her lab coat. Then her goggles were pulled on and she frowned slightly because you know what? The next step involved moving and the eighteen year old wasn't too enthused about that. Just saying.

SIGH.

Up she went, slowly making her way over to her Solar System and noting it was still in good shape. She glanced over towards Toby and smiled a little, recalling their time in the lab working together. His planets were doing good too, right? She hoped so. Maybe she'd ask later but for right now, she made her way back to her seat.

Once there, Ella placed her box down carefully and then eyed her ingredients. Everything she'd need was right there in front of her which was helpful. She'd also need to clean the mortar and pestle before using it. "Scourgify... Scourgify." Badaboom. Done. And now for the scooping. With a CLEAN scooper of course. Of course. First two scoops of hydrogen. "One..Two." Then two of helium. "One..two." And finally two of nitrogen. "One..two." Then in went a small pebble and she was ready to crush!

Wow, she had been right. Lux was stunned that her guess had been correct. Everything related to the sun. The sun was awesome!

As the lecture proceeded, she furiously scribbled down notes while trying to understand everything that the Professor was saying. Some was sinking in, fortunately. And it was time for them to make more planets, which was really awesome and what she was hoping they would be doing in the lesson.

Eagerly, she put on her lab coat and goggles before collecting her solar system and bringing it back to her station. "I missed you, baby solar system," she cooed. There was nothing like giving some TLC to her baby, and this was her baby because she had created it all by herself. Go her! And soon there would be more baby planets floating inside and they would be all pretty and colourful and stuff. They would also need names!

Looking at her notes, Lux reviewed what needed to go into making a gas planet. Seemed simple enough. After opening the three containers, she placed two scoops from each into the mortar. A small pebble from the container went in with the powder.

Grind... Grind... Grind...

Once Lux was satisfied with what she had done, she jabbed her wand at the powder and said, "Fingere Elementi."

KABOOM!

Eeeep, her powder had exploded, and she jumped a little. That had scared her!

Sighing, she cleaned up the small mess she had made with her wand before adding two scoops of each powdered element to the mortar with another small pebble. More crushing and then it was time for her to try again.

Jab. "Fingere Elementi."

This time it was a success, and Lux opened the lid to her container and flung the pretty planet inside before closing it up tight again.

Was he paying attention to what the others had been saying? ... Erm... yeah. Sure. Nodnod. Especially Alice's thumbs up to him. He gave her a BIG GRIN an a thumbs up in return. HEY!

... Right. Notes. Because there were a lot of things being said, you know?

Scribble... scribble... scribble... a pause in which he rubbed his wrist ... scribble... scribble... scribble...

This was a lot of notes. Alec blinked down at them, his eyebrows raised slightly. Was he meant to remember all of this for the NEWT or...? Considering what his memory was like recently, he... hoped not. At least there were diagrams. He tapped the end of his quill against that part of his notes, a small smile spreading across his face. Yeah, he liked those.

... Oh! Planets!

Which required moving. Making a face at that idea, the Head Boy slowly stood up, grabbing his lab coat as he did so. The lab coat was pulled on and his goggles were strapped to his eyes too. There. Now he had to do the hard part: walking. All the way to the front of the classroom. Deep breaths... deep breaths...

... and he started walking. Towards the front of the classroom. Slow walking was slow. Picking up his glass box, he headed all the way back to his seat again and set it down on his desk. That wasn't so hard, right? ... Shrug. After magically cleaning the mortar and pestle, he added two scoops of hydrogen, two scoops of helium and two scoops of nitrogen to the mortar. And then the a pebble went in too. And then...

... he stared. This was a lot of items, you know.

almost forgetting that he needed to create another gassy planet Bay tore his gaze from his solar system to make another one.

"oh i need another small pebble" he said to himself while getting up from his desk to go get another one..

after placing his pebble in the mortar he added his two scoops of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen. ughhh more grinding… twisting of the arm and then crunch.. twist..twist..crunch..crunch..

taking out his wand out he cast his spell "Fingere Elemanti" uggh he instantly knew that he had said it wrong.. he saw his planet come together and then a little spark happened and it fizzled away… "aww my poor little planet" sad face..

"time to make another one" he thought.. and all that grinding for nothing.. getting back up he grabbed another pebble and started the process all over again.. waving his wand he made sure to say it correctly "Fingere Elementi" and he saw his little gassy planet formed…

placing it in the box he shut the lid and watch his little solar system.

Time to grind up the ingredients!

Crush, crush, crush it up, crush it all to bits. My hands are starting to hurt so bad and old age is the pitsssss. Heh. She'd totally made up that song and it was gold. GOLD. In her younger years she could have been a song writer, y'know? Maybe she could run that little diddy by the dead kneazles, see what they thought? Couldn't hurt. She clearly knew how to make a hit. CLEARLY.

ANYWHOO...time for the spell.

"Fingere Elementi!" Jab.

*BANG*

Ella blinked, mouth hanging open as the contents of her mortar combined and caused a little mini explosion right before her eyes. The eighteen year old clutched her heart dramatically and nearly fell off her chair but caught herself at the last second. And of course, she'd forgotten ALL about Airey's warning that this might happen. HOW SAD. Her poor little planet and she'd been so sure it'd work and SIGH. Chin was a bit wobbly now but she wasn't giving up. Second time was going to be the charm. It WOULD work. Now to do some cleaning before she started over ...wibble!

One planet done, and more to make. Professor Flamsteed never specified how many they needed to have, so as long as there was room in her container, she could go nuts with it.

After cleaning her equipment, Lux added another two scoops of each element to the mortar then selected another pebble. After adding it in with the powder, she ground everything up into a fine powder. With a jab, she said, "Fingere Elementi." The forming planet was tossed into the container and the lid was shut tight.

Two planets done.

Second time's the charm. Sander got all his powdered substances ready before picking up his spoon and scooping up two scoops of each and placing it inside his mortar. Then he selected a pebble and added it in before picking up his pestle.

He began crushing up the pebble before proceeding to grind and mix up all the substances. Once he had them thoroughly mixed up, Sander held up his wand, jabbed it at the contents while saying,"Fingere Elementi,".

He cautiously took a step back just in case the contents inside his mortar combusted again and watched to see the spell take effect.

There was no flash, there was no swirling of powdered mixture. Just a small pop but this time no charred remains.

What happened instead was awesome to see. The ground up substances in his mortar had coalesced right before his very eyes and was now a orange swirly colored Jovian planet.

As Sander picked it up with his gloved hand, he gasped in wonder as he noticed a yellow misty ring surrounding his planet. His planet had a ring!!

Smiling to himself, Sander gingerly opened the lid of his glass just enough for him to pop his planet in, before quickly closing it tight.

He watched as his Jovian planet joined the others in orbiting around the Sun.

Sad days.

Ella was mourning the loss of her almost planet as she finished cleaning her work space and checking on her little solar system. They were well enough which was a relief since the same couldn't be said for her little Jovian planet. Poor thing. Its memory would live on, oh yes.

After cleaning the mortar and pestle again, the eighteen year old took a deep breath and started again. First she carefully scooped in two scoops of hydrogen, then two of helium, and finally two scoops of nitrogen to the mortar. So far, so good.

Next Ella looked through the pebbles and selected one she liked, thinking this was important and wanting her pebble to be representative of her current state. The little thing had faint wavy lines that reminded her of wrinkles and was rather fragile, something she could identify with. This pebble was added to the mortar as well.

Now it was crushing time and her poor hands were not happy. She'd keep calm and crush on, though. She had this. Crush...crush...crush... Breath. Crush...crush...crush. Okay, looking good. She was satisfied with the texture of the powder now. She needed a minute before the spell, though. Just to prepare herself in case it exploded again. SIGH. Poor little would-be Jovian planet. Wibble!

NO! No time for that. She needed to do the spell. The spell which was...a spell. Words. Something with an F... ... ...Um. F-...F--...OH!

Wand in hand, Ella jabbed it towards the mortar and said clearly, "Fingere Elementi!" She winced slightly, expecting some kind of explosion but the explosion didn't come. Instead she was pleased to find a lovely teal planet with flecks of purple and lilac-looking rings. Colorful indeed. Sophie would really like this. Mhm. "Hello there, little guy."

The Head Girl continued to smile as she carefully navigated the newest edition to her solar system into the box, carefully shutting the lid after it. She was pretty proud of this work, did Airey know? Cool project was cool.

Lux was having fun with this class. She did not want it to end, because it was so cool making planets and adding them to her solar system.

Cleaning her equipment again, she added another two scoops from each container before dropping in a small pebble. Grind. Grind. Grind. She ground everything up in a fine powder, and it was a good thing that she was not suffering from bad joints like some of her classmates; they were bound to be getting tired from all this hard work! But it was good exercise for her arm muscles, so she was not complaining. Exercise was always a good thing for an active person like Lux.

Jabbing her wand at the powder, she said, "Fingere Elementi." A pretty and colourful gas planet began to form. Opening the lid, she tossed it inside where it joined its brothers and sisters. After closing the container up tight again, she peered inside at it. Everything was so pretty, and she loved how her gas planets had little rings around them.

Could she squish them all please?