Professor Dione
April 29, 2005 11:39 PM
The truth about terrestrial planets (pt 1) by Professor Dione
After posting the answers on the board by the questions, she turned back to face her class. The last thing she wanted was another bit of mischief, not because she was against any sort of amusement, but simply because she would have hated to set up two detentions in one day.“As I looked around, I noticed that nearly everyone was able to get at least the first two correct. The third one happens to be elliptical, not round, though some planets’ orbits are so close to circular, it is a common mistake. The fourth answer is not Mercury, but Venus. Venus has a great amount of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, trapping the heat. So even though Mercury is closer to the sun, Venus is hotter. The rest you either knew or not. Make corrections on those pretests as those questions might pop up again. Now to discuss those terrestrial planets…”
With a swish of her wand, the four glittering planets that orbited closest to the Sun floated down and started to orbit Dione herself, the glow of the crystalline planets illuminating the professor with the colored light. Slowly, the planets halted their orbit with a small gray planet looking similar to Earth’s moon.
“Starting with the one closest to the Sun, Mercury. The planet is .38 AU from the Sun, or 57,910,000 kilometers. The distance is really of no importance. The temperatures on Mercury, though not the hottest, are the most extreme in the solar system. They can range from 90 K to 700 K. In ways, it is very similar to our Moon; it is very cratered and very old. However, it is much denser, the second densest major body in the solar system. Mercury has a very thin atmosphere that consists of particles blown off by solar winds. Because it is so hot, the atoms quickly escape, so Mercury’s atmosphere is constantly being replenished.”
The planets rotate, and a new planet sits in front of Dione; this one is a tannish color covered by clouds.
“On to the hottest planet in our solar system and the second planet from the Sun, Venus. Other than the Sun and the Moon, it is the brightest object in the sky. From the perspective of Earth, Venus shows phases when viewed with a telescope; Galileo’s discovery of this proved Copernicus’ heliocentric theory-the model where Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun. Its rotation is both slow and retrograde; a Venus day is actually somewhat longer than a Venus year. Venus is considered to be Earth’s sister planet due to its similarities in size, lack of craters, density, and chemical composition. However, Venus has a thick cloudy atmosphere that consists of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. This greenhouse effect is what keeps Venus at a high and steady temperature.”
After briefly describing the first two planets, she paused in her lesson to allow the students time to take any needed notes as well as a brief break so the class would not be too strained by a constant flow of information.\n\n
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Professor Dione
The truth about terrestrial planets (pt 1)
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Professor Dione
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