APOD 4.1

This is a picture of Mars. The huge canyon in the center is Valles Marineris. It is 3,000 kilometers long, and up to 600 kilometers wide. It gets up to 8 kilometers deep. We're not sure what caused the canyon to form, but some people think that it formed from a huge crack in the planet's cooling surface.

Observation

I looked up and was able to see Leo, with the stars Regulus and Denebola. I can't wait for Spring, because a lot of cool constellations are in Spring. I'm particularly excited for Virgo and Libra, since I love the names of Libra's stars, and Spica is a cool name too. I was also able to see Hydra and Corvus. I also saw the Winter stars; Sirius, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Capella, Castor, Procyon, Pollux.

Observation

I went outside and looked up. I saw all my favorite constellations; Orion, Canis Major, Auriga, Taurus, Gemini. And I tried to see the Crab Nebula, but I couldn't. I guess I need a telescope. And perhaps to get farther away from the city.

APOD 3.8

This picture shows the planet Saturn. The northern hemisphere is ringed with a hazy green band that is, in fact, a storm. Affectionately known as the Serpent Storm, it originated in late 2010, and now goes around the entire planet. Gas giants are plagued by storms, spawned from the hundreds of miles of volatile gasses and huge amounts of pressure.

APOD 3.7

This picture shows two arcs of light across the sky. They are the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Discovery. The ISS is in low Earth orbit, and it reflects sunlight back. The Shuttle had just undocked from the ISS. Both objects can be seen from Earth without much trouble. The image shows the aths that the objects traced out across the sky.

APOD 3.6

This is a picture of the full moon over Alberta, Canada. The moon appears red because the blue light is preferentially scattered. The steam is caused by oil refineries, and it causes the moon to look squished.

Observation

The other night I went observing in my yard. I saw Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Leo, and Hydra. I waited until Sirius was high in the sky, then looked directly south and saw Canopus. I went out last night, but it was cloudy.

Biography: Quarter 3

My biography is about James Hopwood Jeans. He was very cool, so sit back, fasten your seat belts and get ready for one wild ride!

James Jeans was born in Ormskirk, England, a small town in Lancashire near Liverpool. He was very well educated, because he went to  Merchant Taylor's School, Wilson's Crammer School, and Cambridge University. He was a professor at Cambridge and Princeton. He lectured at Oxford and worked at the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Jeans came up with a theory about all the planets forming from solar debris that was knocked off the sun during a collision. This theory is not believed by anyone anymore, though. Jeans and another scientist, Arthur Eddington, founded British cosmology. Their theory is also not believed anymore, since the Big Bang has become accepted. Jeans was also a mathematician, and he wrote many math related books. During the first decade of the twentieth century, Jeans established his reputation as a scientist in the field of relativity. In 1907, Jeans married Charlotte Mitchell, an American poet. Jeans' theory about the creation of the solar system is called the Tidal Theory. After the discovery of quantum mechanics in 1925, Jeans began to see the universe as a mental construct. Jean's most critical development in astronomy, however, was the Jeans Length.  It was used, in combination with the size and density, to determine whether an interstellar cloud would be able to condense into a star or not. In 1945, he married an Australian musician, Suzanne Hock. He died on the 16th of September, 1946, at the age of 69.