HAPPY HALLOWEEN

METEOR HITS RUSSIA

CITATION MAKER

citation maker

STAR PROJECT WEB SITES     http://fur.ly/5zlc

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/const.html

http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm

http://www.slivoski.com/astronomy/

http://www.kidscosmos.org/kid-stuff/star-maps.html

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/cm.html

http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/constellations/

http://www.seasky.org/constellations/constellations-intro.html

http://www2.potsdam.edu/islamma/phys335constellations.htm

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html#constellations

http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellation_list.html

http://www.igreekmythology.com/greek-zodiac.html

http://www.space.com/15722-constellations.html

http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/aries-constellation/

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/starfinder3/
http://www.allthesky.com/constellations/zodiacposter.html
http://www.thecelestialsolarsystem.com/cancer_constellation.html
http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations
http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/leo
http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations

http://www.astroviewer.com/current-night-sky.php?lon=-73.94&lat=40.67&city=New+York+City&tz=EST


http://www.nightskyatlas.com/index.jsp?rightAscension=21.9&declination=-5.5


http://www.space.com/21759-ophiuchus.html


http://www.davidmalin.com/fujii/source/UMa.html

ASTRONOMLY - STAR PROJECT

STAR PROJECT

WEBSITES

ASTRONOMY - IS THE WORLD FLAT?

ASTRONOMY - STARS QUESTIONS

Use these sites  & any class notes to research your question.  You will teach your question to your classmates.
Your classmates will take notes as you share your information.  
Due:  Wednesday, 10/16

STARS
http://goo.gl/3mkw2g

1.      What is a star? 
2.      What are stars made of? 
3.      How many stars can you see at night? 
4.      How many stars are there? 
5.      What is the closest star to Earth? 
6.      Is the sun the largest star? 
7.      Why do stars twinkle? 
8.      What are constellations? 
9.      Why do stars only come out at night? 
10.  Why are some stars bright and others dim? 
11.  Will we ever travel to the stars? 
12.  How far away are the stars? 

      http://goo.gl/3mkw2g

    13.  What is a black hole?
              http://goo.gl/jr3dn9

     14.  What is luminosity of a star & its causes?

      http://goo.gl/jr3dn9   

      15.  What are the 3 main classifications of stars?

SCIENCE NEWS - JELLY BEANS #23

How Are Jelly Beans Made?

#1071 WONDER OF THE DAY

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Wonder Contributors

Today at Wonderopolis, we are celebrating our 3rd birthday! After reading today’s sweet Wonder, click here to see some cool ways we are celebrating.  

Listen

Do you like beans? You’re probably saying, “That depends upon what kind of beans you’re talking about!” Green beans? Black beans? Pinto beans? Lima beans? There are many kinds of beans out there.

We bet there’s one kind of bean that almost all of you like, though. It’s hard on the outside and soft on the inside. And they’re usually really sweet and tasty. What are we talking about? Jelly beans, of course!

Jelly beans are a popular type of candy. They’re shaped like a bean with a solid outer shell and a soft interior. They also come in a rainbow of colors and a wide variety of flavors. Their main ingredient is sugar, but there are other ingredients that give them their unique shape and texture.

To make jelly beans, manufacturers heat liquid sugar to about 350 °F. They then mix in starch and glucose. The combined mixture is then poured into starch molds shaped like beans. They let the mixture dry in the molds for a day to give them their unique chewy texture.

After they’re removed from the molds, the jelly beans are steamed and coated with more liquid sugar and then placed into a spinning machine. As the jelly beans are spun constantly, artificial colors and flavors are added to give them their final coloring and taste.

Toward the end of the process, grains of sugar are added to the spinning machine about four times. It is this granular sugar that gives the jelly beans their hard outer shell. Finally, hot syrup and wax are added to the spinning machine at the very end to give the jelly beans their final polished, glossy look.

Once they’re finished, the jelly beans are dried and packaged. Sometimes jelly beans are packaged and sold in individual flavors. Much of the time, though, they are sold in packages of mixed flavors to give jelly bean fans a wide variety of flavors.

The history of jelly beans is a bit unclear. Some people believe their chewy insides were inspired by Turkish Delight, a Middle Eastern treat made of jelly and covered in powdered sugar. Jelly beans may have made their first appearance in the United States in 1861, when Boston confectioner William Schrafft encouraged customers to send his jelly beans to soldiers during the Civil War. Historians believe jelly beans first became linked with the Christian holiday of Easter in the 1930s.

Some of the most common jelly bean flavors include cherry, orange, lemon, lime, grape, licorice, lemonade and strawberry. Many gourmet flavors are available from specialty manufacturers, too. Examples of gourmet flavors include raspberry, coconut and popcorn.

Did You Get It?

SCIENCE NEWS - BULLETPROOF VEST #22

How Do Bulletproof Vests Work?

#1069 WONDER OF THE DAY

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Wonder Contributors

Today’s Wonder of the Day was submitted to us by our Wonder Friend Tyler of Monroe, Ohio.  As of today, Tyler’s Wonder has received 272 votes! Way to go, Tyler! Keep WONDERing with us! 

Listen

If you’re thinking of a future career in the military or as a police officer, there’s an article of clothing you will probably have to get used to wearing. No, we’re not talking about a uniform. Yes, there are certainly uniforms to be worn, but we’re talking about something that protects you from danger: the bulletproof vest!

If you’ve seen a television show about police, a war movie, or even the nightly news in the recent past, you’ve probably seen bulletproof vests. Worn for safety and protection, these often life-saving articles of clothing are meant to prevent death or serious injury from a wide variety of dangers, including bullets.

Those same movies and television shows have probably made it clear to you just how dangerous bullets can be. They’re meant to be deadly and they often are. For the people who protect our country and communities, though, they don’t have to be. Thanks to modern technology, even the mighty bullet can be stopped!

You’re probably WONDERing exactly HOW bulletproof vests stop bullets. After all, they have to be worn by people who often have to move around quickly. It’s not like they can wear a brick wall around themselves! No, they need “soft” body armor that is lightweight and flexible enough to allow easy movement.

To understand how these types of bulletproof vests work, it might help if you’re a soccer player. What? It’s true! Like the net on a soccer goal catches and stops a soccer ball — even one kicked by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi — bulletproof vests contain web-like nets of special fabrics that stop bullets (or shrapnel or blades).

Like a soccer goal’s net absorbs the ball’s energy and spreads it out across all the fibers in the net, effectively slowing and then stopping the ball’s forward movement, the tightly-woven, flexible synthetic fibers in a bulletproof vest do the same thing. The fibers in the vest “catch” the bullet and bring it to a stop before it can penetrate the body and cause serious injury or even death.

If you’ve ever seen a soccer ball kicked into a goal, you know that the net gives way and allows the ball to travel a little ways before it stops it and brings it to the ground. Bulletproof vests cannot give that much, however.

That’s why the fibers in a bulletproof vest must be packed together much more tightly. They’re so densely packed that you could think of them as multiple soccer goal nets overlapped and piled on top of each other — thousands and thousands of times over in a tiny space.

That’s where the modern technology of synthetic fibers comes into play. As early as 1965, chemical company DuPont manufactured a synthetic fiber known for its high strength, low weight, and resistance to chemicals, cuts, and fire. This fiber — called Kevlar — was soon used to make the first generation of flexible, concealable body armor.

Since that time, DuPont and other companies have created a wide variety of such synthetic fibers. But guess what might be the fiber of the future? Would you believe genetically-modified spider silk? Maybe!

Today’s bulletproof vests will protect against most common low-caliber handguns, but high-powered weapons, especially rifles, can still penetrate bulletproof vests. The only protection from these types of weapons is usually “hard” bulletproof armor made of rigid ceramics and metals. Unfortunately, these types of body armor are usually too bulky and heavy to wear for everyday use.

Did You Get It?

- See more at: http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-bulletproof-vests-work/#sthash.kBK3q0yR.dpuf

ASTRONOMY - ANCIENT OBSERVATORIES

PART I
 PART 2
 PART 3
 PART 4

SCIENCE NEWS - HAVERST MOON #21

SCIENCE NEWS - WINGSUIT DAREDEVIL #20

Wingsuit Daredevil Jeb Corliss Completes Another Heart-Stopping 'Flight'

By Meera Dolasia on September 30, 2013

Over his short illustrious career, base jumper Jeb Corliss has completed over 2,000 stunts including leaping off France's Eiffel Tower, zooming through a waterfall in the Swiss Alps and even, flying across the Tianmen Cave, a 100ft-wide water eroded slit, in China's Tianmen Mountain. However, the stunt he pulled recently was so dangerous that it scared the daredevil himself.

This time around the 'flying dagger' as he is now being called, decided to take on a tiny fissure between the two peaks of the 2,677 feet tall Mount Jianglang in China. Measuring about 900 feet long or the size of three football fields, the peaks twist and curve in such a way that at about the halfway point, there is just a 25 feet wide gap between the two. While this may not be a big deal in a jet-propelled flight, given that Jeb propels on his own might using just the wingsuit, even a slight windturbulence could easily derail his path and result in a crash landing.

But while that may deter most, it was not enough to scare Jeb. On Saturday, September 26th, following several delays caused by high winds, the daredevil launched off from a helicopter in his signature custom-built wingman suit and zoomed through the space at 100mph. While he made it look easy, he later admitted that it was one of the 'gnarliest' jumps he had ever done and that he had never been so scared in his life! As expected, his biggest challenge came at the narrowest point when he was forced to side slip to combat the wind turbulence. If that wasn't bad enough, he had to change his stance as soon as he emerged, so that he could propel himself with full force to make it to the predetermined landing spot.

37-year old Corliss began his career as a base-jumper. Then a few years ago, he adopted the wingsuit - a special jumpsuit that shapes the human body into anairfoil, which can create lift. Also known as birdman suits or squirrel suits, the jumpsuits have been used in some form or shape since the 1930's. But it was not until Jeff began performing these daredevil stunts that wingsuit jumping caught on as an extreme sport. It has become so popular that in 2012, energy drink manufacturer Red Bull decided to host the first world championships. Held at Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, China it was considered so dangerous that only the world's top eight wingsuit divers were allowed to enter and battle it out for theprestigious title.

While Jeb is one of the best, he too has had his share of mishaps in thisunpredictable extreme sport. In 1999, a collision with a waterfall in South Africaresulted in his chute collapsing, leaving him with a broken back. A decade later, he broke a leg after hitting a building in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and at the 2012 world championships he was forced to sit out the finals after injuring both ankles and tearing a knee during the qualifying rounds. However all these injuries do not seem to deter this 37-year old who has become for famous pushing the boundaries of the sport by performing all kinds of acrobatic maneuvers whilst free falling!

Critical Thinking Challenge: While wind turbulence is an important factor to consider during all of Jeb's 'flights' why was it of paramount importance during this one?

Resources: Discovery.com,today.com