Week 8 Blog Post

What did you do in lab? 

- This week in lab we presented our slideshow over the space topic we chose. My groups topic was black holes. Here is the link to our presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1U_mbKomuz5pA6SSsrsdxWTUVqeJUFXOUEg0IDS85E54/edit?usp=sharing

- While researching black holes, some big ideas I learned is that black holes are created at the end of a stars life and they grow bigger as they take in more matter. I also learned that the gravity compressed in a black hole prevents any kind of light from escaping, so this is why black holes can not be visibly seen. There are four different types of black holes: stellar, supermassive, intermediate, and miniature. We also got to listen to other presentations. These were origin of the universe, lifecycles of stars, origin of the earth, galaxies, past, present, and future of space travel, and black holes. 

What did you learn in Thursday's lecture?

- This week in lecture we began by talking about the origin of the universe. From this conversation, something I learned is that the universe was created by the expansion of a subatomic particle that grew to a very large size and created time and space, known as the big bang. Before this expansion occurred 13.7 billion years ago, there was not time and space. We also learned more about stars during lecture. I learned that both stars and galaxies began to appear 12.7 billion years ago, and specifically, our star was created because of a stellar nebula. Lastly, I learned about the origin of the Earth. I learned that while the Universe was created by the big bang, the Earth was not. The Earth was instead created by the dust and debris that was the result of the explosion of a star. 

Textbook questions:

1. What did you learn?

    - Something that I learned from the textbook is that us and all of the matter in the universe is made of stardust. This is because of the dust and debris in a star the is scattered around and blown away as a result of a supernova or a planetary nebula. 

2. What was most helpful?

- The part of this textbook chapter that was most helpful was the section that described a few of the characteristics of the moon. I felt that this was helpful because there is so much information to know about the moon, so it was nice to see some main pieces of information condensed down into one section and it was a bit easier to study and make the correlation of these characteristics to the moon. 

3. What do you need more information on?

- Something I would like more information on is the different galaxies, including the Milky Way. I feel that there is so much to know about the galaxy that our planet is in and I would like to learn some more in depth information about it. I would also like to learn more about the many other galaxies that exist in the universe as there is not too much that I know about those. 

What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?

- Black holes was something that I didn't know much about, so I enjoyed taking the time to do research and gain more of an understanding of black holes. I also enjoyed listening to the other groups' presentations and hearing about their findings during their research.