Churchill Science

Everybody’s favorite ringed planet is in the news again!

Pretty amazing. It seems that everywhere we look in the solar system, there are things to surprise us. The speaker in this video is a little hard to understand, but he said something very interesting – that the salt in the water, plus other discoveries they made, mean that there are the right chemicals for possibly creating life. Forget life on other planets – we should be looking for life on other moons!

Happy 40th Anniversary to Apollo 11. Forty years ago today, we landed humans on the Moon for the very first time.

It’s the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. Click on the picture to visit wechoosethemoon.org, an interactive website that is tracking the mission as though it were happening right now. It features audio, photos, and videos.

After June 20th, the site will stay up and you will be able to click through the entire mission from start to finish.

During yesterday’s launch, the space shuttle suffered some damage. Some foam tiles, which protect the shuttle from burning up when it enters Earth’s atmosphere, have fallen off or were scuffed. So far, as this news report says, NASA doesn’t know how much damage there is. There are also different options for fixing the damage if it turns out to be a big problem.

Try rubbing your hands together very fast – you can feel the heat building up. This is what happens when a flying object like a spaceship lands on a planet or moon with an atmosphere. The ship rubs against the air in the atmosphere and a LOT of heat is built up. This is because of a force called friction. It’s super-important to have a heat shield so that the ship won’t burn up. A few years ago, the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed because of damage to its heat shield.

After a month of delays, the space shuttle is on its way to the International Space Station. First there were technical problems, then weather delays, including lightning strikes on the launch pad. The shuttle is delivering a module for the station.

Ever wondered what a volcano erupting would look like if you could fly over the top of it? This short video was taken from the International Space Station as it passed over the Sarychev Volcano on an island that is part of Russia:

It’s cloudy all around the volcano, but the gas was so hot that it cleared a hole. That is how astronauts aboard the space station were able to get a clear view.

Here’s our first official question for 2009-10! To learn more about the Sun, why not visit our Sun page by clicking at the top of the screen?

Breaking news: yet another place in the solar system that might have liquid water… Click on the picture to learn more!

Enceladus is a moon around Saturn. We thought it was so weird that it had volcanoes that spewed ice instead of lava. Now scientists think that there might be a liquid ocean underneath that ice layer, like Europa.

Yet another place to look for aliens!

I love the description of Venus as “Earth’s evil twin”…

This video will make a LOT of sense if you’ve played Alien Safari! (see previous post)

How long would it take to take a car to Mars? What about an airplane to the moon? Click the picture to find out!

Find “alien life” here on Earth and learn about where we might find similar life on planets and moons out in our solar system!

One of the Mars rovers, Spirit, has been stuck in some loose sand for a while. This video shows how scientists on Earth are trying to help get it out.