Chapter 9
This chapter brings reader from the macroscopic world to the microcosmic world. This chapter focuses on molecules and atoms. Here are four properties of molecules: matter is composed of exceedingly small particles called molecules; each different kind of matter is made up of its own particular kind of molecules; molecules are in rapid and ceaseless motion; molecules attract each other. Molecules are made of atoms linked together in definite combinations. A single atom is a kind of miniature solar system. In the center there is a structure called the nucleus. Some negative particles whirling around the nucleus are electrons. Protons and neutrons are found in the nucleus of atoms. The proton has positive charge. In a word, atoms are principally composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons. There are over 100 different kinds of atoms with different chemical properties. They are named elements. Some familiar elements include the following: hydrogen, helium, lithium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, argon, potassium, calcium, iron, nickel, copper, silver, tin, iodine, platinum, gold, mercury, lead, radium, and uranium. Alchemists dreamed of transmuting one element into another; however, none of them succeeded.
There are too many scattered things and properties to pick up. I just record as many as possible. In physical changes the composition of molecules is not changed, whereas in the chemical changes the composition of molecules is altered. Three factors essential for burning are a supply of oxygen, a supply of fuel, and enough heat to raise the fuel to its kindling point. Extinguish fire is based on the elimination of one or more of the three factors essential for burning.
The paragraphs are so randomly written; nevertheless, I don’t want to revise any more. I just leave them there.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Chapter 8
This chapter refers to three aspects which are ecology, energy, and the environment. As we all know the condition of the environment is getting worse and worse. Many scholars call on the urgent protection of environment. They point out that all things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. We should maintain the balance of the ecosphere, use energies in rational ways, and beautify our environment.
The purpose of studying ecology is to understand the interrelationships of living things with each other and with the environment. As introduced in the book, there are chains everywhere in the ecosphere, such as the evident chain of “ who eats whom”. In that chain, grass is the producer. Cattle, let’s say, is the first order consumer because it eats grass. Man eating cattle is the second order consumer. Many of the food chains make the food webs. The food webs are tangled because they consist lots of interconnected food chains. The same as food webs, water cycle is complex too. Water evaporates into the atmosphere and falls back to the surface of the earth. The whole process needs the shining of the sun, the transport by the wind, and the condensation of the water vapor, all of which are inseparable chains of the process. There are more perplex cycles, such as the carbon dioxide and oxygen cycle and the nitrogen cycle which cannot be explained in a few sentences. On the whole, all living things are dependent on these interwoven webs and cycles, The consequences of disturbing which are unforeseen and unfortunate.
The knowledge of energy is important to us. There are four categories of resources which are inexhaustible resources, renewable resources, nonrenewable resources, and new and to-be-developed resources. Nonrenewable fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, will eventually be used up one day. Therefore, men are seeking for new and to-be-developed resources, some of which are energy in the biosphere, solar energy, and energy from nuclear fission and fusion.
There are lots of hazards to our environment. The book presents these hazards in detail which are wastes, erosion, deforestation, water crisis, acid rain, ozone hole, and the green house effect. Specific measures are taken corresponding to these problems. Forest conservation measures include combating fire, harmful insects, and tree diseases; practicing careful lumbering methods, reforestation; and the recycling of paper. Water conservation involves the protection and extension of watershed areas, construction of dams and reservoirs, reuse of water, elimination of waste, and the use of water-conserving irrigation practices on farmlands. Improvement of the urban environment includes better housing, more neighborhood facilities, reduction of air and noise pollution, and better planning.
A new and beautified environment will emerge from the old and polluted one if we keep our desires and actions with respect to the use of our environment.
This chapter refers to three aspects which are ecology, energy, and the environment. As we all know the condition of the environment is getting worse and worse. Many scholars call on the urgent protection of environment. They point out that all things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. We should maintain the balance of the ecosphere, use energies in rational ways, and beautify our environment.
The purpose of studying ecology is to understand the interrelationships of living things with each other and with the environment. As introduced in the book, there are chains everywhere in the ecosphere, such as the evident chain of “ who eats whom”. In that chain, grass is the producer. Cattle, let’s say, is the first order consumer because it eats grass. Man eating cattle is the second order consumer. Many of the food chains make the food webs. The food webs are tangled because they consist lots of interconnected food chains. The same as food webs, water cycle is complex too. Water evaporates into the atmosphere and falls back to the surface of the earth. The whole process needs the shining of the sun, the transport by the wind, and the condensation of the water vapor, all of which are inseparable chains of the process. There are more perplex cycles, such as the carbon dioxide and oxygen cycle and the nitrogen cycle which cannot be explained in a few sentences. On the whole, all living things are dependent on these interwoven webs and cycles, The consequences of disturbing which are unforeseen and unfortunate.
The knowledge of energy is important to us. There are four categories of resources which are inexhaustible resources, renewable resources, nonrenewable resources, and new and to-be-developed resources. Nonrenewable fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, will eventually be used up one day. Therefore, men are seeking for new and to-be-developed resources, some of which are energy in the biosphere, solar energy, and energy from nuclear fission and fusion.
There are lots of hazards to our environment. The book presents these hazards in detail which are wastes, erosion, deforestation, water crisis, acid rain, ozone hole, and the green house effect. Specific measures are taken corresponding to these problems. Forest conservation measures include combating fire, harmful insects, and tree diseases; practicing careful lumbering methods, reforestation; and the recycling of paper. Water conservation involves the protection and extension of watershed areas, construction of dams and reservoirs, reuse of water, elimination of waste, and the use of water-conserving irrigation practices on farmlands. Improvement of the urban environment includes better housing, more neighborhood facilities, reduction of air and noise pollution, and better planning.
A new and beautified environment will emerge from the old and polluted one if we keep our desires and actions with respect to the use of our environment.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Chapter 7
The title of this chapter is the history of life. This is a chapter with the most gorgeous words I have ever read. Let me just copy some beautiful paragraphs down from the book. I know I cannot write so well as the book.
One of the most important achievements of science has been the discovery of change, the discovery that everything in the universe, from the scenery outside the window to the stars in the sky, has always been changing. Hills are worn down into plains; rocks crumble into soil. New mountains rise from the earth; sea bottoms become dry land; continents break up and drift apart. The face of the earth changes and with it the kinds of animals and plants that live on it. So slowly do these changes occur that our memory, even when aided by written records, can scarcely be expected to encompass them. The few thousand years of civilization are but a fleeting moment in the giant calendar of earth events. Indeed, only in the last century have we understood the meaning of the evidence that lies around us, the evidence that says: the earth is very old; the earth is ever-changing. Animals and plants of the past have recorded their own history in a number of different ways. Let us consider some of these.
One of the records left by ancient plants and animals is fossils. Here is what the book depicts. Ancient life has left us a monumental library inscribed in stone, in which the rocky books are stacked one on top of the other. The oldest volumes in this picture-book library are on the bottom of the pile and the most recent acquisitions are on top. The library of stacked volumes is made of the layers of sedimentary rocks that have accumulated down through the ages. These rocks and the fossils in them were formed underwater from soft mud and sand that later hardened into stone. Layer upon layer of rocks was built in this way. In a later period the whole mass might have been elevated by a great earth movement or the sea may have receded, making the rock a part of our visible landscape.
There is a chart in the book that illustrates the progress of lives through eras. According to the chart, some of the lives appearing in chronological order were bacteria, worms, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals. Humans are newcomers. If all earth time were compressed into one year, human beings would come on the scene on December 31 just a few hours before midnight. With the coming of humans to earth anew force has been added-intelligence. With this intelligence humans have the power to change the earth in many ways/ for the first time a species existing that can deliberately and consciously influence its own future evolution-or its own extinction.
From our knowledge of the past there is every reason to believe that change will go on. The geologic forces that have been shaping the earth for billions of years will continue to be active. New forms of life will emerge.
The title of this chapter is the history of life. This is a chapter with the most gorgeous words I have ever read. Let me just copy some beautiful paragraphs down from the book. I know I cannot write so well as the book.
One of the most important achievements of science has been the discovery of change, the discovery that everything in the universe, from the scenery outside the window to the stars in the sky, has always been changing. Hills are worn down into plains; rocks crumble into soil. New mountains rise from the earth; sea bottoms become dry land; continents break up and drift apart. The face of the earth changes and with it the kinds of animals and plants that live on it. So slowly do these changes occur that our memory, even when aided by written records, can scarcely be expected to encompass them. The few thousand years of civilization are but a fleeting moment in the giant calendar of earth events. Indeed, only in the last century have we understood the meaning of the evidence that lies around us, the evidence that says: the earth is very old; the earth is ever-changing. Animals and plants of the past have recorded their own history in a number of different ways. Let us consider some of these.
One of the records left by ancient plants and animals is fossils. Here is what the book depicts. Ancient life has left us a monumental library inscribed in stone, in which the rocky books are stacked one on top of the other. The oldest volumes in this picture-book library are on the bottom of the pile and the most recent acquisitions are on top. The library of stacked volumes is made of the layers of sedimentary rocks that have accumulated down through the ages. These rocks and the fossils in them were formed underwater from soft mud and sand that later hardened into stone. Layer upon layer of rocks was built in this way. In a later period the whole mass might have been elevated by a great earth movement or the sea may have receded, making the rock a part of our visible landscape.
There is a chart in the book that illustrates the progress of lives through eras. According to the chart, some of the lives appearing in chronological order were bacteria, worms, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals. Humans are newcomers. If all earth time were compressed into one year, human beings would come on the scene on December 31 just a few hours before midnight. With the coming of humans to earth anew force has been added-intelligence. With this intelligence humans have the power to change the earth in many ways/ for the first time a species existing that can deliberately and consciously influence its own future evolution-or its own extinction.
From our knowledge of the past there is every reason to believe that change will go on. The geologic forces that have been shaping the earth for billions of years will continue to be active. New forms of life will emerge.
Chapter 6
This chapter tells readers the human body and how it works. This book regards human as the first wonder of the universe. Even the most sophisticated man-made machines are primitive compared to the human body.
The human body is built of structural units called cells. Similar cells are organized into tissues for efficient performance of their job. Groups of different tissues cooperate in organs that perform the major work of the body. The body has a number of automatic mechanisms that maintain a constantly favorable internal environment. The digestive system prepares food for the use of the body. It is composed essentially of a long tube together with digestive glands that secrete chemicals that act on food in the tube. Some of the members belonging to digestive system are mouth, salivary glands, gullet, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. The respiratory system supplies oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide. When people inhale air, air passes through nostril and finally arrives air sacs. The air sacs have very thin walls richly supplied with capillaries. The oxygen passes through the thin walls of the air sacs and capillaries into the bloodstream and eventually is carried to every cell in the body. In the circulatory system, blood moves around body in a closed circuit of arteries, veins and capillaries, with the heart serving as a pump. Skin, kidneys, and the lungs play important roles in the excretory system. They rid body of both liquid and gaseous wastes. The headquarters of the nervous system is brain. The spinal cord connects directly with brain and transmits nerve purses to motor nerve cells; thus, make muscles react.
How the human body works is interesting and mysterious. Anthropologists have unraveled some of the mysteries such as the development from the fertilized eggs to the embryos to the babies; however, there is still a long way to go to understand every exact mechanism of the human body.
This chapter tells readers the human body and how it works. This book regards human as the first wonder of the universe. Even the most sophisticated man-made machines are primitive compared to the human body.
The human body is built of structural units called cells. Similar cells are organized into tissues for efficient performance of their job. Groups of different tissues cooperate in organs that perform the major work of the body. The body has a number of automatic mechanisms that maintain a constantly favorable internal environment. The digestive system prepares food for the use of the body. It is composed essentially of a long tube together with digestive glands that secrete chemicals that act on food in the tube. Some of the members belonging to digestive system are mouth, salivary glands, gullet, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. The respiratory system supplies oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide. When people inhale air, air passes through nostril and finally arrives air sacs. The air sacs have very thin walls richly supplied with capillaries. The oxygen passes through the thin walls of the air sacs and capillaries into the bloodstream and eventually is carried to every cell in the body. In the circulatory system, blood moves around body in a closed circuit of arteries, veins and capillaries, with the heart serving as a pump. Skin, kidneys, and the lungs play important roles in the excretory system. They rid body of both liquid and gaseous wastes. The headquarters of the nervous system is brain. The spinal cord connects directly with brain and transmits nerve purses to motor nerve cells; thus, make muscles react.
How the human body works is interesting and mysterious. Anthropologists have unraveled some of the mysteries such as the development from the fertilized eggs to the embryos to the babies; however, there is still a long way to go to understand every exact mechanism of the human body.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Chapter 5
This chapter starts to tell readers living things. Earth is the cradle of lives. I will plagiarize what the book says. “viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive”. Life is found almost everywhere on earth-on frozen tundra and on dry desert. Life exists on wave-battered shores, in sunless caves, on windswept mountain peaks, and high in the earth’s atmosphere.
The first question comes to the forefront is what it means to be alive. Living things usually have these characters: adaptation, sensitivity, growth, and reproduction. The basic quality for living things is being able to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. In order to survive the changing environment, living things evolve and get used to the environment. Living things are also sensitive. They can sense tiny changes happening around. This superiority enables them to exist too. Young living things can grow old; however, they give birth to youth. Thus, the young replace the old and generations last.
Biologists distinguish plants and animals into classes. I just write down what I know. Fungi, the mosses, the ferns, and the seed plants are some of the plants classifications. Some animal classifications are sponges, corals, worms, mollusks, the joint-legged invertebrates, animals with backbones. I don’t know the method of classifications. They are hard to understand. It takes two pages of the book to explain them.
The following session deals with real academic problems. There are lots of new and long words. For example, the book expounds photosynthesis which, in my opinion, is a kind of metabolism of plants. I am not going to study in biological science, so I don’t want to have a try of remembering these words. I know I can’t manage them. Let me just record some good metaphors. The leaf is food factory. The stem is transporter and supporter. The root is anchor and absorber. The flower is seed producer. The seed is plant producer.
Although biology is interesting, I am really scared by the words in that area.
This chapter starts to tell readers living things. Earth is the cradle of lives. I will plagiarize what the book says. “viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive”. Life is found almost everywhere on earth-on frozen tundra and on dry desert. Life exists on wave-battered shores, in sunless caves, on windswept mountain peaks, and high in the earth’s atmosphere.
The first question comes to the forefront is what it means to be alive. Living things usually have these characters: adaptation, sensitivity, growth, and reproduction. The basic quality for living things is being able to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. In order to survive the changing environment, living things evolve and get used to the environment. Living things are also sensitive. They can sense tiny changes happening around. This superiority enables them to exist too. Young living things can grow old; however, they give birth to youth. Thus, the young replace the old and generations last.
Biologists distinguish plants and animals into classes. I just write down what I know. Fungi, the mosses, the ferns, and the seed plants are some of the plants classifications. Some animal classifications are sponges, corals, worms, mollusks, the joint-legged invertebrates, animals with backbones. I don’t know the method of classifications. They are hard to understand. It takes two pages of the book to explain them.
The following session deals with real academic problems. There are lots of new and long words. For example, the book expounds photosynthesis which, in my opinion, is a kind of metabolism of plants. I am not going to study in biological science, so I don’t want to have a try of remembering these words. I know I can’t manage them. Let me just record some good metaphors. The leaf is food factory. The stem is transporter and supporter. The root is anchor and absorber. The flower is seed producer. The seed is plant producer.
Although biology is interesting, I am really scared by the words in that area.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Chapter four
I have learned the APA format; however, I don’t want to use it in my summery because the summery is just written for fun. Furthermore, A happy person should always release his load in order to make life easy.
Chapter two and three are written about the stars, the constellations, and the universe, all of which are beyond my thought, for I can only imagine how the universe is like by descriptions in books. I have never seen a galaxy by my own eyes other than the Milky Way. However, every problem of that kind doesn’t exist because this chapter deals with the air and weather which are very close to me, and I can sense them everywhere.
Firstly, this chapter brings a question that is what is the atmosphere. I will say atmosphere is the ocean of air because that is what I feel. The book scientifically gives definitions of two items which are the weather and the climate. Loosely speaking, the atmosphere is composed of these two items. The weather is the short-term fluctuations of the atmospheric system, whereas the climate is the long-term fluctuations of the average weather. The atmosphere is divided into five layers. I can’t bear in mind these long words, so I give up remembering them. Instead I pick up the character of each layer. The first layer is one nearest to us. All storm, all cloud formations, in fact, almost all weather phenomena appear to occur in this layer. The layer just above the first layer is the second layer of the atmosphere. People reach this layer in balloons and planes. This layer is free of storm and other visible violent weather phenomena. The other three are higher layers with relatively very thin air and low temperature. There are more x rays and ultraviolet rays in those layers radiated from the sun as well.
Sun, air, and water play an important role to form the drama of weather. If all parts of the earth were heated equally by the sun, there would not be much weather to talk about; nevertheless, the sun’s heat is not distribute equally, which thus provides the basic condition to form varied kinds of weather. Air is chilled at the poles and heated at the equator. The hot air rise into sky and the cold air falls to the ground; therefore, hot air rises over the equator and streams toward the poles while cold air from the poles slips down toward the equator. Consequently, a global air circulation is generated. Water is an essential factor influencing the weather. The heat provided by the sun and the fanning by the winds hasten the water evaporation from lakes and oceans. Aloft, meeting with chilly air water vapors condense into droplets which come together and form clouds. There are three kinds of clouds. However, I can only remember two names of them. The highest clouds are cirrus which are composed of ice crystal. The thickest and densest clouds are named cumulus. Clouds of this kind are huge heaps floating in the sky that can results in thunderstorms. Another kind of clouds is formed in a low altitude. Because of this, they usually obscure sunshine and make gray skies.
There are lots of phenomena of atmosphere resulting from complicated mechanisms. I don’t want to explain any more, for my recent knowledge is not enough to expound these complex things. “beats me; I give up; haven’t got a clue; haven’t the foggiest idea.” I learned to say I don’t know. Anyway, thank god to create such an interesting world. Let’s enjoy light, thunder, and tornadoes.
I have learned the APA format; however, I don’t want to use it in my summery because the summery is just written for fun. Furthermore, A happy person should always release his load in order to make life easy.
Chapter two and three are written about the stars, the constellations, and the universe, all of which are beyond my thought, for I can only imagine how the universe is like by descriptions in books. I have never seen a galaxy by my own eyes other than the Milky Way. However, every problem of that kind doesn’t exist because this chapter deals with the air and weather which are very close to me, and I can sense them everywhere.
Firstly, this chapter brings a question that is what is the atmosphere. I will say atmosphere is the ocean of air because that is what I feel. The book scientifically gives definitions of two items which are the weather and the climate. Loosely speaking, the atmosphere is composed of these two items. The weather is the short-term fluctuations of the atmospheric system, whereas the climate is the long-term fluctuations of the average weather. The atmosphere is divided into five layers. I can’t bear in mind these long words, so I give up remembering them. Instead I pick up the character of each layer. The first layer is one nearest to us. All storm, all cloud formations, in fact, almost all weather phenomena appear to occur in this layer. The layer just above the first layer is the second layer of the atmosphere. People reach this layer in balloons and planes. This layer is free of storm and other visible violent weather phenomena. The other three are higher layers with relatively very thin air and low temperature. There are more x rays and ultraviolet rays in those layers radiated from the sun as well.
Sun, air, and water play an important role to form the drama of weather. If all parts of the earth were heated equally by the sun, there would not be much weather to talk about; nevertheless, the sun’s heat is not distribute equally, which thus provides the basic condition to form varied kinds of weather. Air is chilled at the poles and heated at the equator. The hot air rise into sky and the cold air falls to the ground; therefore, hot air rises over the equator and streams toward the poles while cold air from the poles slips down toward the equator. Consequently, a global air circulation is generated. Water is an essential factor influencing the weather. The heat provided by the sun and the fanning by the winds hasten the water evaporation from lakes and oceans. Aloft, meeting with chilly air water vapors condense into droplets which come together and form clouds. There are three kinds of clouds. However, I can only remember two names of them. The highest clouds are cirrus which are composed of ice crystal. The thickest and densest clouds are named cumulus. Clouds of this kind are huge heaps floating in the sky that can results in thunderstorms. Another kind of clouds is formed in a low altitude. Because of this, they usually obscure sunshine and make gray skies.
There are lots of phenomena of atmosphere resulting from complicated mechanisms. I don’t want to explain any more, for my recent knowledge is not enough to expound these complex things. “beats me; I give up; haven’t got a clue; haven’t the foggiest idea.” I learned to say I don’t know. Anyway, thank god to create such an interesting world. Let’s enjoy light, thunder, and tornadoes.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Chapter two and three
Chapter and three deal with cosmos. Chapter two focuses on our solar system, whereas chapter three includes the whole cosmos. The solar system is a huge family with lots of members, some of which are the sun, nine planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. Every member has its obit and never runs into others’. This is because there exists the gravitational force between these members. The law of motion keeps all the members in their tracks. The sun is the head of the solar system. It is really gigantic. If I don’t remember wrongly, the sun can contain 130 earths in its stupendous volume. The sun has many spheres. Each sphere has its own character. The planet nearest to the sun is mercury whose obit is very eccentric. There is no life on mercury because of the great temperature differences between day and night. Venus is earth’s neighbor, and it is approximately the same size as the earth. However, the surface of Venus is very hot which results from the thick clouds surrounded the planet. The clouds are composed of almost pure carbon dioxide which prevent heat from going out of the planet. Earth is the cradle of creature and maybe it is the only planet on which there are lives. The favorable conditions on earth such as the regular day and night, the moderate temperate, the protective atmosphere, and the vast ocean make the existence of life possible. Mars is a red star. For many years novelists and scientists speculated about the possibility of life on the red planet because mars is similar to earth in many ways. For example, a day of mar is 24 hours plus several minutes. That is almost identical as earth’s day. Between the orbits of mars and Jupiter, there is a broad zone which has millions and millions of small bodies named asteroids. The size of these small bodies is usually less than 1000 kilometers in diameter. How the zone of asteroids is formed is still a mystery to people. One cannot tell Jupiter without the mention of its famous great red spot which is an area that can hold four earths. It is considered that there was a permanent tornado spiraling around the red spot. It would be better to say Jupiter is a failed star rather than a planet because it is a gaseous planet consisting mainly of hydrogen, helium, and other light substances. If someone describes a beautiful planet of the solar system with concentric rings in the plane of its equator, you can be sure to say it is the Saturn. In the outer part of the solar system there are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Unlike other planets spin on the axis that is nearly upright to the imaginary revolving plane, the axis of the Uranus almost lies in the revolving plane. A well-known comet circling around the sun and arriving the nearest point to the sun every 76 years is Halley’s comet. The brightest celestial object we see in the night is our satellite-the moon. Many phenomena on earth such as approaching and receding of tides has close connect with the moon.
On the first page of chapter three there is a sentence I like very much. “ The serenity of the night sky belies the universe’s violent nature.” Indeed living on the peaceful earth, we do not feel great changes taken place in the universe. There maybe a star thousands times of the sun exploring; however, what we could see is just a tiny bright spot. If we look into the remote sky in the night, we may feel the immensity and the vastness of the universe; thus, we may have a sense of being small and ask where are we. The exact address of our position is the earth in the solar system in the milk way in the local group of galaxies in the universe, so we are really alone. I do hope someday we could find extraterrestrial beings or they have a visit to us.
Chapter and three deal with cosmos. Chapter two focuses on our solar system, whereas chapter three includes the whole cosmos. The solar system is a huge family with lots of members, some of which are the sun, nine planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. Every member has its obit and never runs into others’. This is because there exists the gravitational force between these members. The law of motion keeps all the members in their tracks. The sun is the head of the solar system. It is really gigantic. If I don’t remember wrongly, the sun can contain 130 earths in its stupendous volume. The sun has many spheres. Each sphere has its own character. The planet nearest to the sun is mercury whose obit is very eccentric. There is no life on mercury because of the great temperature differences between day and night. Venus is earth’s neighbor, and it is approximately the same size as the earth. However, the surface of Venus is very hot which results from the thick clouds surrounded the planet. The clouds are composed of almost pure carbon dioxide which prevent heat from going out of the planet. Earth is the cradle of creature and maybe it is the only planet on which there are lives. The favorable conditions on earth such as the regular day and night, the moderate temperate, the protective atmosphere, and the vast ocean make the existence of life possible. Mars is a red star. For many years novelists and scientists speculated about the possibility of life on the red planet because mars is similar to earth in many ways. For example, a day of mar is 24 hours plus several minutes. That is almost identical as earth’s day. Between the orbits of mars and Jupiter, there is a broad zone which has millions and millions of small bodies named asteroids. The size of these small bodies is usually less than 1000 kilometers in diameter. How the zone of asteroids is formed is still a mystery to people. One cannot tell Jupiter without the mention of its famous great red spot which is an area that can hold four earths. It is considered that there was a permanent tornado spiraling around the red spot. It would be better to say Jupiter is a failed star rather than a planet because it is a gaseous planet consisting mainly of hydrogen, helium, and other light substances. If someone describes a beautiful planet of the solar system with concentric rings in the plane of its equator, you can be sure to say it is the Saturn. In the outer part of the solar system there are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Unlike other planets spin on the axis that is nearly upright to the imaginary revolving plane, the axis of the Uranus almost lies in the revolving plane. A well-known comet circling around the sun and arriving the nearest point to the sun every 76 years is Halley’s comet. The brightest celestial object we see in the night is our satellite-the moon. Many phenomena on earth such as approaching and receding of tides has close connect with the moon.
On the first page of chapter three there is a sentence I like very much. “ The serenity of the night sky belies the universe’s violent nature.” Indeed living on the peaceful earth, we do not feel great changes taken place in the universe. There maybe a star thousands times of the sun exploring; however, what we could see is just a tiny bright spot. If we look into the remote sky in the night, we may feel the immensity and the vastness of the universe; thus, we may have a sense of being small and ask where are we. The exact address of our position is the earth in the solar system in the milk way in the local group of galaxies in the universe, so we are really alone. I do hope someday we could find extraterrestrial beings or they have a visit to us.
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