Megan Roberts
Physics 1040
Elem. Astronomy
Astronomy Conversation Paper
I am taking Astronomy for one of my general education courses. I decided to take astronomy to learn more about space and how the planets, stars and galaxies were formed. The only previous knowledge and learning material I had received was back in Junior High. So this class has been a nice refresher and learning curve for me.
My professor asked us to conduct a conversation with a group of people and to discuss astronomy topics. I emailed a few family members and asked if they would be willing to participate in the conversation. The individuals that I emailed agreed to and we decided on a date, time and location. My husband, sister, brother in law, and myself participated in the conversation. We gathered at my sister Heather and her husband Steven (my brother in law) s house. We had our astronomy conversation over dinner and it lasted about 1 ½- 2 hours. We ordered takeout Sushi from Tepanyaki. While my husband Sean and Steven went to pick up the food I explained the process of how the conversation should flow to my sister and what I was looking for in writing my paper. In the meantime I played with my two year old nephew Jameson.
As we sat down at the table Sean jokingly broke the awkward silence about the astronomy forced topic… “So how about them stars?” We all laughed and started discussing the article Steven saw on KSL regarding the images of the dark side of the moon. I demonstrated the pen experiment we did in class about the moon rotating, and just like the pen when we rotate we can only see on side. We then led into the topic about the blood moon that appeared in September. Heather pulled out her laptop and pulled up some images and videos on KSL so we could watch it again. (5) We talked about where we were when we witnessed it. Sean and I were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on vacation. Heather and Steve went out in their backyard with Jameson to view it.
Next we started taking about our sushi rolls and how mine was extremely spicy but delicious. Sean mentioned that I invited him to the Clark planetarium (2) a few weeks ago to help participate in an assignment. Sean mentioned that he had not been since he was twelve years old and enjoyed his experience there. I also noticed when I was there that it had changed a lot since I went there with the kids I nannyed for back in 2009. Sean’s favorite thing was the game he played where he set the planets up around the asteroid belt so they orbit the sun without clashing into each other. He found it hard but amusing to see the asteroids hit. He said he wasn’t knowledgeable enough to figure out what to do to not make them collide.
Heather asked if we saw the movie, The Martian yet. We told them yes we did and enjoyed it even though it was pretty long. I mentioned that I had anxiety going to see the movie because of the two previous space movies, Gravity and Interstellar. I have an issue when I am watching movies I put myself into that situation and have anxiety attacks. But luckily this move was a little bit less intense than those two. Sean mention how The Martian movie talked about Mars’s days as in SOL days, and how he thought the line about Mars is an international territory, that the actor was a technically a space pirate when he was moving around on the rover. We all laughed about how ironic it was.
There was a lull in the conversation and we ended up taking about Jameson and his loud toy trucks. Jameson was getting annoyed that we were not paying attention to him. Steven got up from the table to attend to Jameson and we continued talking about Astronomy.
Heather laughed and said is this a dumb question? Where do you go when things go in the black hole? Sean said that dark matter is not proven. He was reading about math equations that can predict it. It is a force that is driving the universe apart. He said he heard about this information from, (3) Science Friday.
Since the conversation seemed hard to keep on track, I decided to individually ask all three of them, how do you think the black hole was formed? I pulled out my book (1) and read them the definition. The black in the name black hole comes from the fact that nothing not even light can escape from a black hole. It is a place where gravity is so strong that nothing not even light can escape from within it. Heather said the big bang theory or possibly that two stars collided. Sean thought he was being clever by saying the Men in Black movie and referring to the locker scene where the black hole was being held. And then he decided to be somewhat realistic and he believes that the Milky Way was a giant sun that went into a super nova, it exploded and contributed mass that became the center of the black hole and the rest became the galaxy. Steve jokes about Heathers obsession with NPR and says it was particles colliding. Heather then asked why the black hole doesn’t suck us in. Sean responded by saying it is spinning faster than we are falling, so we are going away from it technically.
Heather mentioned that she recently heard on NPR that a large group of scientists that had taken Pluto off were still waiting till the man that found Pluto was dead because he had named it. We all thought that was a weird reason. Steven interrupted and said I think you have enough material for your paper Meg, I have to get Jameson down for bed. I told both of them thank you for helping me with my astronomy conversation and that I enjoyed spending time with them.
I had minimal planning process for the conversation. I emailed my group of and asked them if they would be able to participate in talking about random astronomy topics. They agreed and we let the conversation flow freely. I choose my immediate family members because I am most comfortable talking with them or forcing them to have awkward conversations with. I believe the participants learned something about astronomy or possibly how the others view astronomy was interesting for them. I believe the participants thought the discussion was a bit forced and drawn out when our topics dwindled to nothing. It was sometimes hard for us to think of a topic to discuss that we actually were somewhat knowledgeable about. I was mostly surprised how knowledgeable my husband was about random astronomy topics, or that my family is actually finding articles about space and wanting to read them. The things I would do differently about this assignment are having more topics or statements prepared to talk about and not let the conversation down by having nothing to talk about.
References
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Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, and Voit. Masteringastronomy With Pearson Etext The Essential Cosmic Perspective. Seventh ed. N.p.: Addison-Wesley, 2014. Print.
2) "Clark Planetarium." Clark Planetarium. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. <http://clarkplanetarium.org/>.
3) "How 'Dark' Is Dark Matter? - Science Friday." Science Friday. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. <http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/how-dark-is-dark-matter/>.
4) KSL. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://www.ksl.com/?sid=36655499&nid=148>.
