Titus drew such a cool asteroid last week that I asked him to illustrate a rhyme we made up to help us remember the difference between the other different kinds of space rocks we’ve been learning about: Comets, Meteoroids, Meteors, and Meteorites.
Comet:
Meteoroid:
Meteor:
Meteorite:
This Week’s Memory Verse: N is for…
“Night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” -Revelation 22:5
While we were studying relatively small and unassuming space rocks this week Astronomers were being wowed by the discovery of the largest known structure in the universe now dubbed the “Huge Large Quasar Group.” It’s so big that scientists say according to the Cosmological Principle it shouldn’t even exist. This particular cluster of 73 Quasars is some 4 billion light years across. Compare that to the distance from our galaxy, The Milky Way, to our nearest neighbor, The Andromeda Galaxy, which is a mere 2.5 million light years away. Gives us even more reason to sing the following hymn with gusto!
Hymn of the Week: “O Worship the King” (Robert Grant)
O Worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.
His chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.
Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender! how firm to the end!
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.
We are learning about space rocks. NASA had a contest to name a big asteroid that some people are afraid will hit the earth in a 170 years. Mom said they should name it Angst because it makes people scared but I thought they should name it Petros which means rock since that is all it is. Here is a picture of my asteroid (Titus, 9).
There is a new comet that we might get to see this year. It needs a name too but there isn’t a contest. I think it should be named Pit because when comets hit planets they leave a big pit. This comet will be the brightest comet ever. I drew a picture of it (Nathan, 5).
Teacher’s Two-Cents (by Mom)
In our study of asteroids this week, we came across a term that I had not heard before: “albedo,” which refers to an object’s surface reflectivity. The particular asteroid we were looking at (the one with no name) reflected only about 3% of the light hitting it as compared to our moon’s albedo of 12%, the Earth’s 37%, or Venus’s 65%. I got to thinking about some of the people in my life who just really seem to reflect Jesus more than others. It’s the same light shining on all of us but what is it that gives some people a more luminous “albedo” than others? What about my own surface needs to be polished in order to reflect more of Christ’s light? “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6
Question of the day: What’s your albedo?
godmadeknown 