War of the Worlds

It was Galaxy verse Galaxy. A crew of space and ground telescopes caught an image of a black hole in a "death star galaxy" (what) blasting another galaxy with a powerful stream of radiation and energy. No one has ever seen this action before. NASA was the team that released it for all of us to see on Monday (when). However, the person who discovered this amazing sight was Daniel Evans (who) of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (where). This galaxy was bullying a neighboring galaxy that was one-tenth its size. These Galaxies are both about 8 billion trillion miles from here but they are 24,000 light years away from each other. This bullying galaxy was called "death star galaxy" because of the way it treating the smaller galaxy. The good news it that Earth was not in the way of all of this. If it was, the deadly jet would have stripped away bits and pieces of the ozone layer. This would be terrible because then we would have nothing to protect us from the suns rays. I found this article very interesting because I also have never seen anything like it before. This reminds me that The Milky Way Galaxy isn't the only galaxy in all of outer space. Scientists wonder what was in this powerful stream of radiation and energy and how does it work. I also wonder this same question. I would definitely read this article because you learn a lot about our universe.

I got my information from:

www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/12/18/death.star.ap/index.html

6 questions

I’ve tagged students for the Omega Meme!

The rules are as follows:Each player answers the six questions posted on this blog. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those answers are listed.At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their blog names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Then follow the instructions about adding a page element at omegascience.blogspot.com.

1. My favorite TV show is Beauty and the Geek because it is fun to watch how two completley different classes of people get along.

2. My favorite meal is a cheeseburger because I love foods that are cooked on the BBQ and a cheeseburger is so yummy!

3. My favorite nonschool activity is Tennis because I get to have fun and be active

4. Someone I look up to is my parents and grandparents because they always know the right things to do and always look on the positive side.

5. My goal for the future is to become and artist or a designer because those are two things i love doing in my free time.

6. In the first hour after school I usually watch TV and relax or hang out with my friends

The Wattieza Tree

Off the top of my head the most common trees I can name are Pine, Oak, Evergreen, Spruce, Palm tree, and Maple. However there was one tree that was never discovered, until now. This tree is called the Wattieza tree. This tree was standing millions of years ago until one day, as suspected, a gigantic storm hit and the tree came crashing down and was buried under muddy water. A few years later the muddy water turned into sedimentary rock. It wasn't until so may years later that Frank Mannolini came by with a hammer ready to search for fossils in Albany, New York. Surprisingly he stumbled across the fossils of the Wattieza tree. He uncovered all parts of the tree, and its branches as well. This tree is the oldest tree known! Mannolini took the trees pieces to museums where they tried to glue all the pieces back together. From looking at the pieces of this tree it was like a huge jigsaw puzzle! Also, Mannolini discovered that this tree was not only the oldest tree but it came from the oldest forest too. From reading this article, I learned that even though you might find one fossil you can still find out a lot more about the world from it. This tree can tells us more about nature. If you would like to read more about this article visit...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/04/ancient.tree.ap/index.html

Newton's Laws

You may not realize it but when you skateboard to school, push a shopping cart, throw a football, and maybe even drive places you are using Newtons Laws. As one can see, Newton's Laws are used in everyday life. Newton's Law #1 states that an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon an unbalanced force. Lets take a football for example, if a football is lying on the ground it will remain in that spot, it won't suddenly jump up without a force acting upon it. Now, if an earthquake occurred near the football the football would then move because the earthquakes force is making it move. Another example is if I am riding on my bicycle and I fall off. The bicycle won't fall down right away; The object in motion will stay in motion. Newton's Law #2 or "law of inertia" states that force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. For instance, if I'm in the grocery store pushing a shopping cart full with groceries it will be hard to push. However, if I push twice as hard to make it go it will then accelerate twice as much. Then, if i push a shopping cart that's empty it will accelerate in the direction that I pushed it. Next, if it gets twice the mass it will accelerate twice as much. Newton's Law #3 says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In easier words, when one object gives off force on another object, the second object gives an equal strength in the opposite direction. For instance, when a space rocket is launched into the air in order for the rocket to go up it has to have force. Therefore the fire, which is going in the opposite direction than the rocket, gives off as much force as the rocket is as its heading up. This is a perfect example of how there is an equal (both giving equal force) and opposite (one object going up and the other going down) force. These are the first three out of all of Newton's Laws.
From learning about Newton's Laws I now know that I use Newton's Laws every single day! Yes, we may not realize when we are using them, but they are a huge part of our life. Without Newton's Laws we wouldn't understand the concept of forces and gravity.

More about Newton's Laws can be found at these sites...

http://www.sciencemaster.com/jump/physical/newton_law.php

http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/newtlaws/u2l1a.html

3-D glasses aren't only for the movies!

When you see the sun in pictures you usually are looking at a 2-D yellow circle. Actually, the sun has way more depth then you might think. A group of journalists and scientists were seen wearing 3-D glasses in a room. You might think that 3-D glasses are only for the movies, however, they're used for the sun as well! The space craft STEREO took 3-D pictures of the sun. NASA says it will now be easier to see eruptions on the suns surface. These two space crafts were launched in October. One was in front of the other making the 3-D image possible. As I previously mentioned, this helps out scientists a lot. Now, they can learn more about solar flares, a type of solar eruption called coronal mass ejection, overloading power lines and disrupting satellite communications. Also, scientists have been researching solar storms on other planets and the sun. Solar flares are one of the main types of eruption on the sun. Solar flares blow a billion tons of the sun's atmosphere into space at a speed of 1 million miles per hour. Scientist are also now worried that the eruptions can endanger astronauts on spacewalks. This means that the solar flares heat can greatly effect the temperature in space. When I first saw this article I was intrigued by the 3-D picture so I wanted to read more about how they managed to get the picture taken. After reading I've learned that new discoveries are occurring almost everyday and these discoveries could maybe help us and our future.

My information....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/23/solar.eruptions.ap/index.html

The Red Planet

From Earth using just our eyes we usually can't see Mars, but Mars is right next to us, we might ask ourselves. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, and there are so many unanswered questions about it. Earth's mysterious neighbor has been being watched throughout so many years by many scientists. One specific detail that the scientist's have discovered was that Mars southern ice cap is slowly deteriorating, this may be because of Global Warming. Without a doubt, almost everyone knows that Mars has an outer layer that contains mostly dust. Scientist noticed that the dust on Mars has seemed to move in various places. Also, Mars had changes in brightness as well. It is said that Mars has developed many dust storm's that trap heat, therefore as a result, the planet's temperature is rising.
A group of scientist, called Fenton's team, compared thermal maps from 1970 with maps gathered more than two decades later by the Global Surveyor. They recognized that large pieces of the surface have darkened or brightened in the past three decades. The changes they saw were that the winds have definitely strengthened and that is the main reason why the planet's heat is rising. Scientists believe that the recent changes on Mars should be an important part of our future studies on atmosphere and climate change. I, myself, have always wondered about the planet Mars. From reading this article I have learned that Mars is experiencing Global Warming just like Earth is. Maybe another two decades from now Mars southern polar ice caps will be slowly melting away until its all gone.

To learn more about Mars visit...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/04/mars.climate.reut/index.html

Waves!

When most people hear the word waves their first thought would probably be an ocean wave. An ocean wave is a type of wave however there are other types of waves as well. The two most known waves are Transverse Wave and Longitudinal Wave. A Transverse Wave are waves that move the medium at right angles to the direction in which the wave is traveling. If you have ever seen a Transverse Wave you might motice that it is moving sideways. This is so, because the word transverse means "across." A Transverse Wave has many important parts but there are two parts to this wave that describes its motion, the crest and trough. The crest is considered the highest point of the Transverse Wave. The trough is known as the lowest point. Next, a Lonitudinal Wave moves the medium parallel to the direction in which the wave is moving. (A medium is the material through which a wave travels.) Also, like the Transverse Wave the Longitudinal Wave has to parts to describe its motion, compression and rarefraction. Lets say a spring is our Longitudinal Wave, when the coils are close together this shows compression. When the coils are spread apart it is called rarefraction. Speaking about springs there are many ways you can see waves in your everyday life. Here are some interesting facts about waves!

Fact 1:

The most basic properties of all waves include wavelength, amplitude, and frequency. All these properties are related to each other is a mathematical formula. The formula is...

Speed= Wavelength x Frequency

In addition if you know about two of these properties and you want to find out about the third one you can also use math...

Frequency= Speed over wavelength

Wavelength= Speed over Frequency

See Science and Math go hand in hand!

Fact 2:

As I said before waves are seen everywhere. For example, waves can be seen in the sport gymnastics. In gymnastics some people use ribbons. ( ribbon dancers) These ribbons are attached to a stick and when the dancer twirls the stick the ribbon makes waves. However, it's not the ribbon thats creating the wave it's the dancer. The dancer is giving their energy to the ribbon, the ribbon is not able to stay still so therefore it is able to form a wave. This wave would be called a Transverse Wave.

Fact 3:

Most waves have mediums, however, some waves don't need them. Waves that require a medium are Mechanical Waves. Waves that can travel without a medium are known as Electromagnetic Waves.


From learning about the many types of waves I have experienced a lot. I know that waves form from energy. Energy from us, nature, and other items. In addition, we can see, hear, and touch waves. Now I know that there are more types of waves then just the ocean waves!

To learn more about waves visit these two sites...

http://id.mind.net/~zona/mstm/physics/waves/waves.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/10796/ch8/ch8.htm