The end of the world (as we know it)

… is not happening anytime soon.

In other news, this asteroid will be passing pretty close to Earth, between the Moon and us, tonight.

Sometime tonight, Asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass with 324 000 km of Earth. Luna is about 385 000 km from us. So this is a very very close call. The closest such passage in 35 years.

From the Time Science Website:

Astronomers have known for several years that Nov. 8, 2011, would end one of two ways: either uneventfully or with a massive global cataclysm that would leave a 4-mile (6.5 km) crater somewhere on the planet, unleash 70-ft. (21 m) tsunami waves and potentially claim tens of thousands of victims. The messiness, they knew, would begin at 6:28 p.m. E.T.

 

Thanks to Cliff Stoll

Hey Cliff, remember me?  Ted Buracas.  You sent me a Klein Bottle this year. Well, I went and showed it to my grade 6 classes (along with your TEDTalk video).  They sorta liked it.  A. Lot.  So much so, that they wanted to send you a little video greeting.

Hello from David Thompson School, Calgary!

6D Science

6C Science

… a mass of incandescent gas …

Repeat after me: the Sun is not burning, the Sun is not burning, the Sun is not burning.

(It is a ball of glowing gases, heated by nuclear reactions.)

To help my grade 6 students (64% got this question wrong on a recent quiz), I present the band, They Might Be Giants.

Nothing to see here…

Nothing, that is, but the turn of Earth and phases of Luna.

Talking about the phases of Luna (Selene, or – merely – the Moon to the rest of youse), someone pointed out that my handball was presenting as a waxing crescent. So dropped everything (as we often do in my class),  gathered around my desk, and took a look at how things look in real sunlight.

One of those “teachable moments” that teachers are in constant search of.

Not only that, but with some careful observation, we were also able to observe Terra actually… SPINNING.  There, before our very eyes, we saw the shadow one the ball moving.

I ask my students to consider this: this is nothing new, nothing that they haven’t seen or know about.  Earth spins, shadows move, this is nothing special. Nothing special, that is, until they look at this with a scientist’s eye.

And now it all makes sense…