KEVICC Courier Winter 2021 Lockdown

Inspiring Science The Solar System by Jaigh Stone Y7 Landing on.... what was it called? Oh yes! Neptune , I really need to start using the human language and my way of remembering: My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets (look at the beginning of the letters!) Neptune was cold! After all, it was an ice planet. Furthest away from the sun. It was light blue and was smooth. I couldn’t stop thinking of being warm near the sun and the weird ugly bumpy one with blue lines and green smudges, they call it Earth. Horrible place if you ask me! I clamber back into my spacecraft. I read on my list, next stop Uranus. After traveling 1010.4 million miles I check my photos on my Aliemobile to check. Weird ring around it? Check! Weird color? Check! Weird, weird, weird? Definitely! Uranus was made of water, methane gas and ammonia fluids. Uranus was the 3rd biggest planet and nearly 4 times as big urrr, I can't even say it, Earth! This was the first planet ever discovered by scientists. Not sure who though. Albert Einstein? No, he discovered photoelectric affect. Charles Darwin? No, he discovered evolution. Isaac Newton? No, he discovered gravity. It was THE one and ONLY William Herschel . Well, I had to move on I only had 120 alieminutes. Saturn here we come! Saturn was a gas planet or as they call it outer planets because it’s the sixth planet away from the sun and it was giant. Nearly zambles bigger than Earth, wait I did it, again didn’t I? Let me translate that for you. Saturn was nearly 95 times bigger than Earth. Much better for the Earth hooligans! Now, not many people knew this but I must break it up... We all know Saturn for its ring that is just comets, and this is it... the big sentence, gigantic sentence. Every so often Saturn’s famous ring disappears. But Saturn is not the only planet with a ring. 100 alieminutes left. In English language that’s about 50 minutes. Now, it is time to go to the biggest planet in the solar system... Jupiter discovered in 1610 by famous Italian Galileo Galilei. .. he is dead now but I am older than him. I am 782,300 years old and that is the same as 7 dog years! Ha! The composition of Jupiter is similar to that of the Sun—mostly hydrogen and helium. Deep in the atmosphere, pressure and temperature increase, compressing the hydrogen gas into a liquid. This gives Jupiter the largest ocean in the solar system—an ocean made of hydrogen instead of water. We do have alien schools y’know?! Page 13 Our Year 7 students were asked to write a story about a journey through our solar system. When I set this task, I never expected to get an entry like this one from Jaigh Stone . Read his incredible, sobering story below... Mrs Sheffield, Science Teacher Jupiter spins in around 9.5 hours a day. Jupiter was cold, REALLY cold. Approximately -234 degrees Fahrenheit but those who use Celsius that’s around -145 degrees. Jupiter is 761.9 million km away from the sun. It has currently 79 known satellites (moons)! After finishing with that cold planet, it's time to warm up a little bit! Mars ... There is not much air on Mars — the atmospheric pressure there is less than one one- hundredth of what we breathe on Earth — but what little is there has baffled planetary scientists. Oxygen, which makes up about 0.13 percent of the Martian atmosphere, is the latest puzzler. It is also where my brother, Adrian, is from! Mars is half the size of Earth, which is 3389.5 km and has the same amount of dry land as on Earth. Mars is the 2nd smallest planet. It was once warm and like Earth, but that was a long time ago, now it's all dusty and is a desert planet. It is also said that Mars’ soil is great for growing asparagus! Ha! Earth next on my list. Did you know you can fit 1300 Earths in Jupiter?! Large carbon footprints deplete resources large and small scales, from a country's deforestation activities to one home's increased use of air conditioning. The more those with large carbon footprints use resources, the more greenhouse gases increase and spur further climate change. Therefore, I hate Earth, with a BIG, HOT, RED and SIZZLING hatred HOTTER than a BIG and RED SIZZLING hatred there ever is!! I was truly terrified. By Jaigh Stone Year 7