Michelle Norton

PHYS 1040: Intro to Astronomy

Astronomy Conversation paper

For my Astronomy class, it is a requirement to have a conversation

with my peers and to write a paper about that conversation. For this reason,
my sister, Nicole, and roommate, Riana, had a very interesting conversation
about astronomy.
We were on our way home from work, Nicole and I started off; she
began by reading off some facts from Google:
o One day on Venus is 243 Earth Days.
o One Million Earths can fit inside the Sun
o You become taller in space (she proceeded to make short jokes
as I am only 5ft 1in tall)
o There is no breathable air in space.
o There is no sound in space.
o The Apollo astronauts' footprints on the moon will probably stay
there for at least 100 million years
o Nobody knows how many stars are in space.
Riana interrupted Nicoles prattling by bringing up Pluto. She was quite upset
that Pluto was knocked down from Planet to Dwarf Planet. I remember when
the news came out that they reclassified Pluto to a dwarf planet and how
upset I was, Id always grown up learning that it was a planet, even though it
was small. But taking this class made me realize why it was categorized as a
dwarf planet instead of a regular planet because it is so small it cannot clear
other objects out of its path.
I explained this to her and she proceeded to tell me that she felt like Pluto
was family and to have its planet status taken away, felt like a personal
offence to her. She was of course joking and we all laughed.
I then brought up black holes. I have always found them interesting and was
always curious as to what happened to the things that entered it. Is
everything actually destroyed or is it taken to a different outlet? Gravity does
stop time as one gets closer to the black hole. So Nicole googled black holes
and this is what she found, she read everything aloud and sent me the link
afterwards:

Fact
Fact
Fact
Fact

Fact 5: Weird time stuff happens around black holes.

Fact 6: The first black hole wasnt discovered until X-ray astronomy was

1:
2:
3:
4:

You cant directly see a black hole.

Look out! Our Milky Way likely has a black hole.
Dying stars create stellar black holes.
Black holes come in a range of sizes.

used.

Fact 7: The nearest black hole is likely not 1,600 light-years away.

Fact 8: We arent sure if wormholes exist.

Fact 9: Black holes are only dangerous if you get too close.
Fact 10: Black holes are used all the time in science fiction.

Nicole and I talked about the last one quite a bit.. We are huge Doctor Who
fans, it annoyed Riana since she did not like science fiction shows or science
fiction in general. We talked about some of the things that happened on the
show and if they could really happen. Nicole said that she wishes that
space/time/dimension travel was so easy like that, hopping in a Tardis and
pressing random buttons, knowing exactly where/when you were going. But,
she said, unfortunately, since we are just taking our first babyish steps to
space travel, it will probably take hundreds if not thousands of years to
perfect time travel. Personally, I dont think that it will take thousands of
years to perfect space travel, since there are new discoveries and ambitious
people out in the world.
On the topic of Doctor Who, Riana brought up the possibility of life out in the
universe. Nicole strongly believed that there is some kind of life out there;
we cant possibly be the only things here! She began talking about what they
might look like, not green little mean from Mars, more like the imaginary
things from Doctor Who or any other science fiction show. Riana doubted it
because there has to be just the right conditions for life to flourish like it has
here on Earth. She believes that we are the only life in the entire universe. I
began thinking on what each person was saying and I remember a quote

that I often turn over in my head as we learn new things in our astronomy
class:
Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are
not. Both are equally terrifying Arthur C. Clarke
I mentioned this quote to them and they both fell silent. It is truly a terrifying
thought, if we are alone in the universe, why are we alive and what are the
chances that came to be that I became a living being and not a star or a
molecule or nothing? If we are not alone, then what is out there? This is one
of the reasons that I love this subject because there are so many
possibilities: there is so many chances to discover something new and
everything is just waiting to be found.
We were almost to our destination so I tried to lighten the mood after that, I
told them one of my favorite quotes instead:
Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and
metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our
teeth, and the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago
in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff. Carl Sagan
I find this quote inspiring. It makes me think of the Bible verse that says man
is made from the dust from the ground, but I secretly hope it means the star
dust. Who knows?
We dropped Nicole off at home and Riana and I briefly discussed other
things. I was glad to have this talk with them. It was very insightful of their
innermost thoughts and how what they knew compared to what I learned in
class.

Sources:
http://www.universetoday.com/46687/black-hole-facts/
http://www.universetoday.com/46687/black-hole-facts/
Bible
Text book
http://mashable.com/2014/03/05/sun-stars-spacefacts/#p4UO3N8WtZqz

Doctor Who