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 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 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 Remmi,
Mars is about 140 million miles from our cozy planet. A human mission to that cold, rocky neighbor would mean being away from Earth for about 3 years. But the things those explorers would see and learn would be mind-blowing.
I asked my friend Katie Cooper about that. She’s a scientist at Washington State University. She studies how geology and physics work on Earth and other places in space.
She told me the weirdest thing on Mars is a ginormous volcano.
“Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system,” Cooper said. “It dwarfs Earth’s volcanoes! Its massive size helps … » 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 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 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 Morven, Judith, and Mara:
No matter how still we stand, or if we’re in Scotland, Malaysia, or the United States, we are always spinning. Our Earth spins at a constant, very fast speed as we make a trip around the sun.
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 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 ...