Dear Darwin and Rubal,
Before I read your question, I had never heard of a white hole.
So, I scampered over to my friend Vivienne Baldassare to find out more. She’s an astrophysicist at Washington State University.
She told me that, so far, white holes are just an idea. It’s what happens if you take math about black holes and work it backwards.
“White holes are really the mathematical inverse of a black hole,” Baldassare said. “But we have no reason to think they exist right now.”
A black hole is an area in space that has gobs of gravity.
We’re familiar … » More …
Read More ...Dear Lucy,
When I go to the veterinarian, they measure how big I am. They use a scale to check my weight. They find my length and height with a measuring tape.
But nobody can put a planet on a scale. Or wrap a measuring tape around it.
I asked my friend Katie Cooper about it. She’s a geologist at Washington State University. She studies our planet and other planets, too.
She told me we send satellites to orbit our solar system. When a satellite swoops around a planet, it snaps pics and takes measurements. Those images and measurements help scientists estimate the … » More …
Read More ...Dear Maya,
I mostly keep all four paws on the ground. It’s hard to imagine living out in space.
I asked my friend Erica Crespi about it. She’s a biologist at Washington State University. She studies how animals tolerate stressors faced in the environment—including how humans can live and thrive in space.
Crespi told me that Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov lived on the Mir Space Station for 437 days and 18 hours in the 1990s. So far, that’s the record for living in space.
Polyakov’s job was to test the effects of a long space flight—like maybe a trip to Mars. He handled … » More …
Read More ...Dear Eli,
I love to go for a walk with my dog roommate. Sometimes we see the moon in the sky—even though it’s daytime.
I asked my friend Michael Allen why that happens. He’s an astronomer at Washington State University.
He told me that we have to ask “what is a day” to answer your question.
“The sun lights up the earth,” Allen said. “Since the earth is a round ball, only half of the ball can ever be lit up at any one time.”
The side of the earth that the sun shines on experiences day. The side that faces away from … » More …
Read More ...Dear MacKenzie,
A neutron star is what’s left after a massive star runs out of fuel and explodes as a supernova.
I asked my friend Matthew Duez about it. He’s an astrophysicist at Washington State University.
He told me that a neutron star is the densest known object in the universe. Its mass is like the sun’s mass. But a neutron star is the size of a city.
When something is dense, it has lots of stuff—or mass—crammed into a small space.
Imagine if we took all the humans on the planet and squished them together. We mash and squash them until they fit … » More …
Read More ...Dear Grady,
I was exploding with excitement to ask my friend Guy Worthey about supernovas. He’s an astronomer at Washington State University.
He told me a supernova is a very energetic explosion in space.
There are different kinds of supernovas. One kind—called a type II supernova—happens when a really big star dies.
“Why would a star bother to blow up?” Worthey said. “It seems dramatic. Human beings don’t blow up when they die.”
But humans don’t have cores that do nuclear fusion. Deep inside a star, protons and neutrons bang together and make new chemical elements. That nuclear fusion is why stars shine.
… » More …
Read More ...Dear Sebastian,
For many people, seeing the northern lights is the ultimate bucket list item. Lately, experiencing them has gotten a whole lot easier.
I asked my friend Michael Allen about those dancing green and pink lights. He’s an astronomer at Washington State University.
He told me that, along with its light, the sun emits charged particles—mostly protons and electrons. Those particles freely stream into space. Then, some of them bump into Earth’s magnetic field.
Earth has a magnetic field because there’s molten iron in its core. As the liquid metal moves and flows, it makes a giant magnet. The magnet is strongest near Earth’s poles. It makes loops of magnetic energy around the planet that reach out into space.
Read More ...Dear Kingston,
When we think about orbits, we usually picture the Earth zooming around the sun. But does the sun just sit there? Or is it on its own journey?
I asked my friend Guy Worthey. He’s a space scientist at Washington State University.
He told me that an orbit happens because the gravity from something big pulls on a moving object. The sun has lots of gravity because it’s ginormous compared to Earth. So, that gravity pulls on the Earth and holds us in orbit.
But our sun isn’t the only star. It’s one of many, many stars in the Milky … » More …
Read More ...Dear Ziyonna,
What happens if you do a big jump? Your body goes up into the air. But then it comes back down again. The reason you don’t just keep going up, up, up is because the force of gravity pushes your body and the Earth together.
It turns out gravity is a big reason the sun is so hot. That’s what my friend Michael Allen told me. He’s an astronomer at Washington State University.
He said that, at first, the universe was like a thick soup of gas and dust. Then, gravity pushed some of the gas and dust together. That’s how stars … » More …
Read More ...Dear Samai ,
Right now, the sun is shining through my window. It feels warm on my muzzle.
I talked about the sun with Guy Worthey. He’s a professor of astronomy and physics at Washington State University.
He told me that our lives depend on the sun.
“The sun keeps you warm and powers everything,” Worthey said. “Without it, Earth would be a frozen nightmare.”
Read More ...Dear Braelyn,
If I drew a straight line through the Earth to the opposite side of the planet from me, I’d hit a place called Port-aux-Français. That’s an island near Antarctica. Mostly scientists live there.
Right now, it’s 12 PM, or noon, on Friday for me. But those scientists are probably snoozing in their beds. For them, it’s after 12 AM, or midnight, on Saturday. They’re already living in my tomorrow. Weird!
I talked about why that is with my friend David Luftig. He’s a science librarian at Washington State University. Science librarians are experts in two things: science and helping people find information for research and learning.
He told me it’s all because of Earth’s rotation. As the Earth rotates, or spins, the sun shines on one part of the Earth at a time.
Read More ...Dear Ia,
I looked through a high-power telescope for the first time in college. I couldn’t believe how many stars I saw. It’s hard to imagine all the planets orbiting all those stars.
I talked about how we know those planets are out there with my friend Jose Vazquez. He’s an astronomer at Washington State University.
He told me that scientists look for planets outside our solar system using a number of instruments—like a photometer. That's a tool that attaches to a telescope and measures light.
Read More ...Dear Amari,
I was fascinated by black holes as a kitten. I liked them because they were scary. But they’re also far away so I knew I was safe.
I talked about this with my friend Vivienne Baldassare. She’s an astronomer at Washington State University.
Baldassare told me a black hole is an area in space with lots of gravity. That’s the same force that pulls your body toward the Earth.
“If we want to send a spacecraft somewhere else in the solar system, it has to travel fast enough to escape the gravity of Earth—so the rocket doesn't just fall back down to Earth,” she said. “A black hole is a place where that escape speed is the speed of light. Nothing can move faster than the speed of light. So, nothing can escape from inside the black hole.”
Read More ...Dear Barbara,
Why do moon rocks taste better than Earth rocks? They’re a little meteor! In all seriousness, your question is something humans wondered about for a long time.
I talked to my friend Michael Allen, astronomy professor at WSU about how the moon formed. He told me we figured out the answer in 1972. That’s shortly after humans visited the moon for the first time.
Read More ...Dear Alex,
As winter gets underway here in North America, you may notice we don’t feel the sun’s rays for quite as many hours as we did in fall and summer.
To find out why this happens, I talked with my friend Vivienne Baldassare, an astronomer at Washington State University.
She said the reason we get fewer hours of daylight in the winter has to do with how Earth rotates. As our planet goes around the sun, it is always rotating. This rotation is also why we have day and night.
Read More ...Dear Bella,
It turns out seasons can be quite different depending on where you live. But no matter where you live, the reason for the seasons has to do with the way the Earth rotates.
To find out exactly why we have seasons, I talked to my friend Vivienne Baldassare, a physics and astronomy professor at Washington State University.
Read More ...Dear Oriah,
When you look up at the night sky, it can feel like the universe is a big blanket of stars above you. But unlike a blanket, the universe doesn’t have corners and edges. Far beyond what humans can see, the universe keeps going. As far as humans know, it never stops.
When I saw your question, I went straight to my friend Michael Allen to learn more. He is a Senior Instructor of Physics and Astronomy at Washington State University.
The universe is bigger than the biggest thing you’ve ever seen. It’s bigger than the biggest thing this cat can imagine. It’s so big that even your question has more than one very big answer.
Read More ...Dear Susan,
It just so happens the Great American Eclipse is coming up on Aug. 21, 2017. This solar eclipse will be the only one visible from across the lower 48 states in nearly a hundred years. When it happens, parts of the country will experience darkness for a couple minutes during the day.
Read More ...Dear Rhemi,
Astronauts eat all kinds of different foods up in space. The food is often similar to what we have here on Earth. But in space, there's very little gravity. There’s very limited refrigeration, too. On the International Space Station, the refrigerator is only about half the size of a microwave. That means scientists who prepare and package astronaut food have to do it in ways that take up very little room and don’t need to be kept cold.
Read More ...Dear Daiwik,
If you are anything like me, you like watching the night sky. The stars we see are a lot like our nearest star, the sun. They are just much farther away. That makes stars look like small twinkly things instead of a big, furious thing like our sun.
Read More ...Dear Zaara,
You might say the Kuiper Belt is the frozen frontier of our solar system. Out beyond Neptune’s chilly orbit, this saucer-shaped region is home to Pluto, billions of comets, and other icy worlds.
“The Kuiper Belt is really the edge of knowledge,” said my friend and astronomy professor Guy Worthey when we met up in the Washington State University planetarium.
“Out there it’s a little dim,” Worthey said. “We are pretty far from the Sun.”
In fact, it’s about 3 billion miles away. Even at the speed of a jet airplane, it would take more than 680 years to travel from Earth … » More …
Read More ...Dear Logan,
It’s usually later in life that we see the more dramatic signs of aging, like gray hair, wrinkles, and lots of birthday candles on our cake. But we really start growing older from the time we are born.
Read More ...Dear Lily and Heidi,
Well, we don’t know for certain. Looking up to the stars at night, I’ve often wondered if alien cats are out chasing alien mice or taking naps on other planets.
My imagination aside, your questions are like those scientists are asking, too. And it’s no wonder we are so curious.
With billions of planets in our galaxy, including small Earth-like worlds, the possibility of life out there is an exciting thought to many people. So, humans have set out to look for planets that might support life.
In fact, this month scientists announced the Kepler spacecraft’s discovery of … » More …
Read More ...Dear Heidi,
It’s a big week for Pluto as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gets a close-up look at the distant, icy world. But first, the answer to your question: Pluto is not a planet.
Read More ...Dear Xitan,
Look up to the twinkly stars and you’ll witness starlight traveling from deep space to your eyeballs. That twinkling you see is the light taking lots and lots of detours.
Read More ...