Remedy?

One thing is certain. When it comes to protecting our children, there are no easy answers. Sure, we could do a better job of flagging those that are correctly or incorrectly perceived as a danger to themselves and others. Although the powers that be would likely do so with the kind of coercive labeling that … Read more

How do geologists date rocks? Radiometric dating!

Radioactive elements were incorporated into the Earth when the Solar System formed. All rocks and minerals contain tiny amounts of these radioactive elements. Radioactive elements are unstable; they breakdown spontaneously into more stable atoms over time, a process known as radioactive decay. Radioactive decay occurs at a constant rate, specific to each radioactive isotope. (Different forms … Read more

Interesting Things That Happen In The Sky

Auroras appear when solar electrons excite oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The ionosphere (which includes the upper part of the mesosphere, and most of the thermosphere) is approximately 250 miles up. That’s 1,320,000 feet over our heads. The aurora (both north and south poles experience this action) mostly happens near the … Read more

Gravitational Force

Here’s something to think about. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of what astronomers call the local group. It consists of the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, the Large Magellan Cloud, the Small Magellan Cloud, and other smaller galaxies. The number is more than 54. Somehow these galaxies stay in a group as they … Read more

How Many Stars Are There In The Universe?

Astronomers estimate that there are approximately 100 billion stars in the Milky Way (the galaxy we live in). They also estimate that there are 200 billion galaxies in the universe. That’s around 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s 200 Sextillion stars. Just for the fun of it, after billion, there’s trillion, then quadrillion, then quintillion, then comes sextillion. Paul … Read more