Breann Thueson

Conversation Paper
November 30, 2015
Conversation Paper
For my hour of conversation about astronomy I decided to talk about it with my parents. I
originally looked up, and printed three different articles that we could read over and talk about.
My family isnt very space-oriented so I assumed that we would need three articles to get us
through the entire hour. Also, because my family isnt very space-oriented I tried to pick articles
that werent too long. I wanted them long enough to spur a conversation. However, I didnt want
them so long that they lost interest, or attention. I also tried picking articles which didnt use too
much astronomy terminology. I knew that would make it more likely for my parents to get bored
or lost. We are all pretty busy throughout the day so the only time that worked for us to talk was
one night after my mom finished teaching a health class. We were super casual and just sat in the
office. I handed out the three articles I had previously chosen and we discussed astronomy,
granted, the conversation didnt quite go how I thought it would. However, it turned out alright.
First off, as I mentioned previously we just gathered together in my moms office to talk.
It seems odd, but thats where we talk a lot. We dont even have chairs or anything. We all just sit
or lay on the ground. It was around nine at night, on a Tuesday. I had previously told them what

we would be doing and why. I also had the articles printed out for each of them so they would be
able to read along when the time came. Planning this was all fairly easy. I chose my parents to
talk with because my dad is real easy to talk to, about mostly anything, and my mom is the
master at asking questions. We often call her 20 questions because she is always questioning
everything we do. I figured it would make for a good conversation. My parents are pretty easy
going, and put school on the top of the priority list, so they were glad to participate.
There we were, just sitting in the office. Like I said previously, we didnt have chairs. As
expected, our conversation lasted about an hour. It was pretty hard to keep the conversation
going for that long, but we made it work. We read the first article, Traces of enormous solar
storms in the ice of Greenland and Antarctica (Lund University, Sweden). We read some and
then my dad, went online and found a video which correlated with the article. It discussed solar
storms, satellites, and debris in earths atmosphere. There are 500,000 pieces of debris in the
earths atmosphere (Cain, Frazer). I never realized that there was that much. I was blown away.
The video continued to say that future space missions will have to be cautious of this debris,
because there is so much that it is likely for them to run into the debris, which could be very
damaging. This article also mentioned that these solar storms are, or could potentially be very
dangerous, because these ice particles could have come from a radioactive planet.

Next we read an article titled, See Venus and Mars together in a telescope (Astronomy
Magazine). I guess I picked a really extra boring article because after reading this one we
seriously could not think of anything to discuss. Overall, this article just talks about how Venus,
mars, and Jupiter will stay fairly close to each other over the next few days. This article was
published November 2, 2015 so I am not so sure if these planets are still close together.
However, one could look through their telescope and find out.
The last article which I had printed out was, This solar system isnt big enough for the
both of us. Jupiter (University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Reading this article started out as
a bit of a struggle, considering it took us all about five minutes figuring out how to pronounce
astrophysicists, but once we got past that point it was alright. In this article they were debating
as to whether Jupiter bumped into Saturn or Saturn bumped into Jupiter. Throughout the article
they discuss this, and still come up with no conclusion at the end. Meaning, it is still a tossup as
to which planet hit the other.
After reading these articles we still had extra time. We spent the remainder of the time
talking about satellites. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to our decision of talking about
satellites, but thats where the conversation ended up. My mom thinks that they are good. She
believes that they help us out a lot today, and that there is no reason for us not to have them. My
dad felt the same way. However he was a little more explicit. He said, I like satellites because

they keep us safe so that the Russians cant shoot us down and they allow me to use my GPS. I
agreed with them both, more or less.
Thinking back on the conversation we had throughout this hour it didnt go quite as well
as I expected. My mom didnt ask near as many questions as I thought she would and my dad
didnt elaborate as much as usual either. I think it might have just been because neither of my
parents are into astronomy at all. Therefore it was more difficult than usual to think of questions
or comments. Other than that though, it seemed like they enjoyed the talk. If I were to do this
assignment over again I would, try and talk to people who are actually pretty interested in
astronomy. That would help the conversation to go by so much faster. I would also be much more
interested in the conversation.
Overall, talking for an hour about astronomy was manageable. I could handle it. We
talked about three separate articles as well as a little few random comments on satellites. These
articles really helped our conversation to keep going. It was good to hear different perspectives
as well as opinions on certain subjects.

Works Cited
"How Many Satellites Are in Space?" Universe Today. N.p., 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 13
Nov. 2015.
"See Venus and Mars Together in a Telescope." Astronomy Magazine. N.p., 22 Nov.
2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
"This Solar System Isn't Big Enough for the Both of Us. - Jupiter." Astronomy.com. N.p., 30 Oct. 2015.
Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
"Traces of Enormous Solar Storms in the Ice of Greenland and Antarctica."
Astronomy.com. N.p., 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.