SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Astronomy Conversation
Physical Sciences 1040
Gerrit Gerritsen 4/30/2014

As part of PHY. 1040 each student is required to hold a conversation between themselves and three other individuals. The conversation is to be preplanned and last at least one hour. The following paper outlines the conversation held between Gerrit Gerritsen and three other members of his family.

The Conversation
My astronomy conversation was held on March 21st, and lasted one hour. The conversation was between me, my sister, and both my parents. I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss what I have learned throughout the year, and see how much my family knows about astronomy. We covered the following topics: First, The difference between Astrology and Astronomy; Keplers and Newtons laws; where planets get their names; the different types of planets; moons; gas giants rings; gas giant storms; and finally stars. I originally planned on covering all of the planets in one section, but as the conversation progressed I found it necessary to cover certain planets more than others. Those who participated in the conversation enjoyed discussing different topics and what they understood. Ultimately I believe that every party came away from the conversation with a better grasp and understanding of our universe.

Information
This section will discuss the topics and include information about each topic respectively. First we shall discuss the difference between astrology and astronomy. For obvious reasons many people confuse astronomy and astrology. As best put by my sister, Britta Gerritsen: Well whats the difference, they both have to do with the stars and stuff like that. That being said, what is the difference between these two fields? The simple answer is science. While both fields do study stars, astronomy studies them for science, while astrology attempts to predict your future based off of stars. This topic was not originally planned, but I could tell my sister and mom both thought these two fields were the same. The second topic covered was Keplers and Newtons laws. While these two topics can be picked apart and discussed, I decided to cover the basics for the sake of time. First we discussed keplers laws. Keplers first law, the law of elliptical rotation, states that all planets rotate around the sun in an elliptical state with the sun as one focus. Keplers second law, the law of equilibrium, states that an

imaginary line drawn from the center of the sun to the center of a planet will sweep equally in equal time periods. Keplers third and final law, the law of harmonies, says that planets speeds are relative to their distance from the sun(University of Oregon). The closer they are, the faster they travel. After discussing Keplers laws we moved on to Newtons three laws of motion. Newtons first law of motion states that every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. Newtons second law applies to mass, acceleration, and force stating: The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration, and the applied force F is F = ma (Weber). Acceleration and force are vectors; in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector. Finally, we discussed Newtons third law which states: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The third topic we discussed was where celestial objects get their names. Everyone knew the basic eight planets and Pluto all got their names from Roman Gods; however, they were surprised to learn where moons and stars get their names. The main point was that not all celestial bodies are named after Roman Gods. We talked about how the Shakespearian moons orbit Uranus, and include all 27 moons which are named after Shakespearian characters; such moons include Miranda, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco, and Ferdinand to name a few (NASA). While I had planned to discuss where a lot of the moons got their names, my family got side tracked after the Shakespearian moons, and we had to change topics. The fourth topic we covered was the classification of planets. Not only did we discuss the differences between gas giants, hot Jupiters, terrestrial planets, and dwarf planets. In order for my family to better understand what gas giants are, I decided to allow them to describe gas giants to each other. What I found the most interesting was that everyone just described how big they are or how they are not made of rocks. While this is what I should expect, I was astonished to see that they didnt exactly

know how to define a gas giant, or even a planet at all. That being said, I immediately began discussing how we classify planets. We talked about how planets must pass the following three tests: First, has enough gravity that it forms into a sphere; second, it must orbit a star; and lastly, it must clear its own orbit (Cornell University). Once we understood how planets are classified, we were able to have a more in-depth conversation about terrestrial planets. While talking about the four main terrestrial planets, my dad brought up an interesting point: What if Pluto could clear its orbit, would we have to redefine what a terrestrial planet is? That obviously sparked a short discussion about the meaning of terrestrial planet. We finally came to the conclusion that terrestrial does mean that the planets exist between our sun and the asteroid belt, and we would need to come up with a new term for external planets. Next, we discussed moons, but we didnt manage to talk about all of the moons, just the cool ones. First, we talked about how earths moon could have possible formed. I was surprised to see that my sister knew the theory that a Mars sized planetesimal crashed into the earth pulling a chunk into our orbit (Arizona State University). Along with our moon, we discussed other moons in our solar system that we found cool or interesting. My favorite moon we discussed was Enceladus, the ice moon! My family had never heard of Enceladus before and was amazed when we discussed the attributes of this moon, and the attributes of other similar ones. The second to last topic we covered was gas giant storms and gas giant rings. I had not originally planned on talking about these aspects of gas giants, but my sister was wondering how they formed. Mainly, we discussed the differences between storms on Saturn and storms on earth. Obviously we discussed the size difference, but also the fact that storms on gas giants are flat like pancakes compared to that on earth which are fat and tall. Also, we touched on the tidal forces of planets and how they create the rings around gas giants.

The final topic we discussed was stars. To my delight, my family actually knew a lot about stars. My Dad talked about the HR diagram and how stars begin to move from main sequence. We also discussed how low and high mas stars dies, and what they leave in their wakes. However, we did not manage to cover stars as in as much depth as I had planned because we ran out of time. I enjoyed this assignment and was surprised to find out how much my family knows about astronomy. I assumed that they wouldnt understand what I was talking about and the conversation would become more of a lecture, but I was pleased to find that my family did understand a lot about Astronomy. I personally enjoyed this opportunity to discuss what we know and dont know about astronomy, and I know my family did as well.

Bibliography
Arizona State University. (n.d.). How Our Moon Formed. Retrieved from Arizona State University: asu.edu Cornell University. (n.d.). Cornell Astronomy. Retrieved from Cornell University: cornell.edu NASA. (n.d.). The Solar System. Retrieved from NASA: solarsystem.nasa.gov University of Oregon. (n.d.). Kepler's Law of Planetary Rotation. Retrieved from University of Oregon: uoregon.edu Weber. (n.d.). Weber Physics. Retrieved from Weber: Weber.edu