END OF YEAR TEST!!!!!!!!!!!

CLOSES 18TH AUGUST 2006
This end of year test will cover only the classes in which have been completed this first HE year. The total possible housepoints is 60 and these will be marked slightly harder than normal, so be detailed and bring in those extra last minute housepoints for your house!

Part 1: The Solar System

1. Give a brief tour of the 9 planets, discussing why they bare the names they do and to what meaning it may have.
2. Select three constellations and determine the stars within them, noting a piece of history related to that constellation.
3. Discuss the three moons of Pluto and uncover the history of each of them
4. Discuss the importance of both the sun and the moon, and explain how these two work together in our solar system.
5. What is an asteroid? Present a short account as if telling a young child.

Part 2: Other Phenomenon’s

1. Research into an account in where aliens have said to be sighted. Present the account and then give your view on whether you believe the sighting to be true or false. What evidence is there that gives you that impression?

Part 3: Astronomers

1. Select one astronomer in history and briefly document what they have brought to modern society and your views of their workings.


remember to cite all your sources and no copying/pasting!

Part 1: The Solar System

1. Give a brief tour of the 9 planets, discussing why they bare the names they do and to what meaning it may have.

Mercury-The closest planet to the sun and is the eight largst. It was called Mercury after a Roman god who was the good of travel and of being a thief. It has a thin atmospheric layer and crust.

Venus-was named after the Roman Goddess of beauty and is the brightest planet of them all. It's the second plantet and has a very brightly colored atmosphere. It was said to of had large bodies of water on it like earth but now it is all dried up and unable to support life.

Mars-is the name of the God of War and the planet is red like that of a bloody battle and war. It's a lot smaller than the earth but it has a similar mass structure to that of earth. It is the 4th planet from the sun.

Earth-this is the third planet from the sun and it is the only planet not named after greek or roman gods and goddesses. Earth is an old English and Germanic name and is the third planet from the sun and the fifth largest. It is covered with life of all sorts and has oceans and mountains.

Jupiter- Jupiter is by far the largest planet out of the nine and gets its name from greek as Zeus or Jove where it became Jupiter. It means king of the gods and this planet is king of the planets. It is no where near inhabitable though. And it's constant gass and toxic storms never stop. The red dot is where the most storms occur at and this planet has 10 times the mass size of any other planet. It is the 4th brightest object in space.

Saturn-This planet is the sixth from the sun and it is the second largest too. Its name comes from Roman mythology. Named after the God of Agriculture. It has rings around it that are made up of metals and rocks and debris from space. This planet is the least dense out of all the planets.

Uranus-This is the seventh planet from the sun and third largest. It was named after the Greak Deity of the Heavens and known as the earliest supreme god. It has eleven rings and rotates on its side rather than its axis.

Neptune-This is the 4th biggest planet and the eigth planet from the sun. It was named after the God of the sea in Roman mythology.Neptune is blue colored and it is the result of absorption of red light by methane. This planet has strong winds and has 4 rings circling its mass. It's a possibility it once had water on or beneath its surface.

Pluto-this is the smallest planet and the farthest away from the sun. It's named after Pluto in Roman mythology meaning the god of the underworld. Pluto is very desolate and dreary and dark. The name fits it appropriately.



2. Select three constellations and determine the stars within them, noting a piece of history related to that constellation.

pegasus-the stars found in pegasus are delta pegasi, enif, markab,Alpheratz,mares of dimodes, twleve labors of herkales. this was a winged horse that bellarpone rode and then later on when he turned to defy the gods, pegasus was turned into a constellation.

orion-stars are Meissa, betelaguse, rigel, delta orinus and hatsya. Orion fell in love with the moon goddess and apollo her brother didn't approve and tricked Artemis to killing orion thinking he was something in the water. Artemis turned him into a bright constellation.

draco-stars are draconis, Eltanin, and kuma. the myth is this represented the hundred headed dragon Ladon that guarded the golden apples of Hesperides.

3. Discuss the three moons of Pluto and uncover the history of each of them

Charon- Charon got its name from the mythological person who carried the dead across the river into hades. Recent discovery say it to be more like a planet and less like a moon.

Nix and Hydra are tiny only about 60-200 wide and very hard to see except with a powerful telescope.

4. Discuss the importance of both the sun and the moon, and explain how these two work together in our solar system.

The sun provides warmth and a birght day and the moon give us a cooling balance letting us have darkness to rest and rejuvinate us. The moon controls the pull of the tides therefore also our seasons. It affects everything around us.

5. What is an asteroid? Present a short account as if telling a young child.

An asteroid is a big rock in space and other rocks sometimes fly into it and breaks it apart. So then the rock pieces float around in space.

Part 2: Other Phenomenon’s

1. Research into an account in where aliens have said to be sighted. Present the account and then give your view on whether you believe the sighting to be true or false. What evidence is there that gives you that impression?

Roswell was one of the best documented cases though much still remains a mystery. It's said area 51 holds the necessary things needed to deem this true but the military keeps a tight lid on it and therefore won't admit anyone to find out. Aliens also have left crop circles in fields and particularly in New Mexico is where much of this activity is found. I do think the report was true but so hard to actually know all the facts.


Part 3: Astronomers

1. Select one astronomer in history and briefly document what they have brought to modern society and your views of their workings.

Neil Armstrong. He was the first to set foot onto the moon and actually expand our thirst for space explorations. Without him, not many would have remembered or been encouraged by this discovery. The moon was a solid mass as he proved. We can explore more about it. We've learn a lot such as the phases of the moon, satellite images, more in depth on the workings of the eclipses. He was a great astronaunt and we've all benefitted. In his words "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Which rings true. More and more discoveries about the moon and space are made now and we're slowly venturing further and further to uncover the unknown areas of space.


Galelio brought to us a newer more accurate telescope. His teachings, writing, books and theories helped us to expand our world and to see what was beyond our normal viewing range. With the much better,accurate telescope he was able to document stars, and even the moon phases along with the tides they controlled.He was a brilliant man and his theories are still around today making a big impact on our scientic research.



http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=372
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/asteroids.html
http://www.nineplanets.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_%28constellation%29
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/armstrong.html

Part 1: The Solar System

1. Give a brief tour of the 9 planets, discussing why they bare the names they do and to what meaning it may have.

Mercury: is the most close planet to the sun. It was named after the messenger god Mercury, perhaps for it’s fast appearant motion in the twilight sky. It’s similar to the moon in appearance (heavily cratered). It has no natural satellites and no real atmosphere.

Venus: the second-closest planet the sun. Named after the Roman goddess of love Venus, most of its surface features are named after famous and mythological women. It’s very similar to Earth in size and bulk composition. It’s covered with an opaque layer of clouds. It has one densest atmosphere.

Earth: the third planet from the sun and where we live. It’s not named after a god because ancients didn’t saw it as a planet. It has a natural satellite and atmosphere conditions that supports life conditions.

Mars: the fourth planet from the sun and named after the Roman god fo war. Due to it’s reddish night time appearance is also known as the “Red Planet”. It’s the most likely to have water and perhaps life. It has two moons.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest one of the solar system. It’s named after the roman God Jupiter (considered the father of all gods). It has the fastest rotation of any planet and is perpetualy covered with a layer of clouds. It has 63 natural satellites and is a gas giant.

Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun. It’s the second-largest planet and a gas giant. It’s named after the roman god, Saturn. It has a proeminent system of rings consisting mostly of ice particles.

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun and named after the greek God Uranos, god of the sky, is also a gas giant. It has 27 satellites and was the first planet to be discovered in the modern times (1781)

Neptune: eighth planet from the sun and the most far gas giant. Named after the roman god of the see. Its atmosphere composition gives it a blue appearence. It has 13 satellites. It has the strongest winds of any other planet.

Pluto: the ninth and smallest of the planets. It’s named was hard to find but eventually hot up named after the roman god of the underwoorld. The colour of Pluto is light brown with a very slight tint of yellow.

2. Select three constellations and determine the stars within them, noting a piece of history related to that constellation.

Andromeda

Is named for the princess Andromeda. It’s name means in greek “ruler over men”. In the naked eye the constellation takes the form of a stickfigure woman, with a proeminent belt, with something in her arm that looks like a sword.
Andromeda’s stars are alpha, delta, pi, beta, upsilon, gamma, mu, nu, phi, 51, epsilon, zeta,rho, theta, iota, sigma, lambda, kappa and omicron Andromedae.

Quote :

According to myth, Andromeda was bound by this chain to a rock by the sea by order of her father, Cepheus, the king of Aethiopia, who wanted to appease the god Poseidon who had been angered by Cassiopeia's boasting about her own beauty, and consequently Poseidon sent one of his underlings: Cetus, the whale, to ravage the coast of Aethiopia. Cepheus, Cassiopeia's husband, had Andromeda bound by chain to a rock by the sea so that Cetus would devour Andromeda, appeasing Poseidon, thereby preventing any further ravaging of the coast of Aethiopia by Cetus. But the hero Perseus took Andromeda out of her chains and then flew with her on his winged horse, Pegasus, away from the scene of her sacrificial imprisonment. He subsequently married her.

Aquarius
One of the oldest recognizd constellations, in Latin meand water-bearer or cup-bearer.
Its stars are: alpha, beta, gama, delta, zeta, lambda, epsilon, eta, theta, iota, psi1, phi, pi, nu, mu, tau, 98, 99, 101, 88, 89, 86 Aquarii.

Quote :

The best-known myth identifies Aquarius with Ganymede, a beautiful youth with whom Zeus fell in love, and whom he (in the guise of an eagle, represented as the constellation Aquila) carried off to Olympus to be cupbearer to the gods. Crater is sometimes identified as his cup.

Leo

One of the constellations of the zodiac, it contains many bright stars.
Its stars are: delta, gamma, eta, theta, zeta, mu, epsilon, kappa, lambda, beta, iota, sigma, rho, alpha, omicron Leonis.

Quote :

In Greek mythology, it was identified as the Nemean Lion (and may have been a source of the tale) which was killed by Heracles during one of his twelve labours, and subsequently put into the sky.

3. Discuss the three moons of Pluto and uncover the history of each of them

Charon

The biggest of pluto’s moons, discovered, discovered in 1978 by astronomer James Christy, temporary named S/1978 P1, subsenquently was named Charon who in grek mythology is the ferryman of the dead, a figure with close ties to the god hades (adopted by the romans as Pluto).

Nix and Hydra
Both were discovered in 2005 by the Hubbler Space telescope. Nix was initially nocknamed “Boulder” but the formal name end up to be Nix, from the greek goddess of darkness and night, and mother of Charon. Hydra first nicknamed “Baltimore”, after got the name Hydra, the monster who guarded Pluto’s underworld hates in greek Mythology.

4. Discuss the importance of both the sun and the moon, and explain how these two work together in our solar system.
The Sun affects the Earth by its gravity which keeps the Earth in its orbit
The Sun is not in direct physical contact with the Earth, however, it does send our way streams of charges particles either as part of the general solar wind, or as high energy particles produced during solar flares. The solar wind affects the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts and the shape of the Earth's magnetic field, giving it a comet-like shape pointed directly away from the Sun. The charged particles affect the Earth by causing Aurora Borealis and upsetting the structure of the ionosphere which interferes with radio communication at low frequencies.

The Moon affects the Earth by its gravitational field, raising the very large water and earth tides, which are about twice as high as the solar tides. The Moon's small mass compared to the Sun is offset by the fact that the Moon is much closer to the Earth than the Sun

5. What is an asteroid? Present a short account as if telling a young child.

An asteroid is a small or large rock that flows in the space around the sun. Most asteroids are located between Mars and Jupiter.

Part 2: Other Phenomenon’s

1. Research into an account in where aliens have said to be sighted. Present the account and then give your view on whether you believe the sighting to be true or false. What evidence is there that gives you that impression?

Quote :

I live in Sharpstown, a residential community located in the southwestern side of Houston, Texas. On Thursday, June 23rd 2005 at approximately 6:45 pm I noticed a very bright object in the southern sky traveling north/northwest at a very high rate of speed. I normally do not look up at the sky, but I happen to be watching a cardinal perched on a telephone wire in my backyard. I was wading in my swimming pool at the time and as I watched this bird, I noticed a very tiny, round, ball shaped object that looked like a typical star in illumination, but not as distinct because it was still daylight. The object was very tiny to the naked eye, no larger than the head of a shirt pin. Owing to its size, I presumed the object to be flying at a very high altitude, much higher than typical passenger jets that fly at 35,000 feet. The speed of the object I judged to be three to four times faster than passenger jets flying at this altitude. Usually when a passenger jet flies overhead at 35,000 feet or more you can watch them for a couple of minutes before they move out of your visual range. In the first twenty seconds I watched this object I presumed it would move out of my visual range in less than one minute. At thirty seconds it changed to a westerly directions, still maintaining its velocity and illumination. I lost sight of the object after 50 seconds as it faded into the brightness of the sun in the western sky. I experienced a similar event in 1965 when I saw a similar object while living in the City of Orange, near Santa Ana in Southern California. This event was reported in "The Register" newspaper. At thetime, my father, a West Point graduate, was a lead aerospace engineer at North American working on Gemini space vehicle projects for NASA.

Well i must say i really don’t believe this to be true. The amount of details demonstrate and obssessed person. I’d find it a more reliable story if there were gaps the telling, becouse UFO’s are something we don’t fully inderstand and can’t be simplified to that. Ooh and the “I was watching a bird”! Come on! Besides if a person’s see an UFO it’s be surprised and looking at it not watching the clock to see how many seconds it took to dissapear!
If aliens do exist? Well i believe so! It’s a bit arrogant to think that in such a wide universe there’s not one other single planet with conditions to support life.


Part 3: Astronomers

1. Select one astronomer in history and briefly document what they have brought to modern society and your views of their workings.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus, born in 1473 in Russia, was the one who formulated the heliocentric theory in which, the sunb is the center of the solar system and not the Earth. This theory caused great controversia because it was against the Church geocentric theory.

That’s why it marked a starting point for modern society astronomy but most important he encouraged not only astronomers but also scientists and schoolars to start doubting the dogmas that the Church established.

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constellations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
http://ufo.whipnet.org/xdocs/sharpstown.texas/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus

Well done to all that completed this test.

Your marks are as follows:

Slytherin:
Fated4HP: 55 points
Raistlin the Wizard: 57 points