Part Three 

By Elaine Gallagher 

This information is taken from Elaine Gallagher’s book, MY VERY FIRST ENGLISH ATLAS, published in 2009 by the Secretaria de Educación y Cultura de Coahuila, with copies donated to 300,000 primary school children in Coahuila, Mexico.

Our planet: The Earth

1. What is the circumference of the Earth?

(Circumference is the distance around the outside of the Earth, as if you were measuring a belt for the Earth to wear….It is the Equator of the Earth. The «equator» is an imaginary line that circles the middle of the Earth, from East to West.)

The Earth is not a perfect sphere. (Remember, a sphere is a solid, 3-dimensional circle. A circle is flat, but a sphere is not flat; it is three-dimensional.)

The Earth has an oval shape, a sphere slightly flattened at the North and South Poles, and slightly bulging at the equator.

The distance of the Earth at the equator is 24,902 miles (40,075 km).

The distance of the Earth through the poles is 24,860 miles (40,008 km).

(Did you notice that the Earth is slightly fatter at the middle than from top to bottom??? )

(TEACHER: Draw a picture showing a line where the circumference is.)

2. Who invented the telescope?

Hans Lippershey (1570 – 1619) a German-Dutch lens grinder and eyeglass maker is credited with the invention of the telescope in 1608 because he was the first scientist to apply for a patent.

3. Who is the «Hubble» for whom the space telescope named?

Edwin Powell Hubble (1889 – 1953) was an American (USA) astronomer known for his studies of the galaxies.

The Hubble Space Telescope was sent into space on April 25, 1990 and is designed to see deeper into             space than any telescope on land.

4. How probable is it that intelligent life exists on other planets?

The possibility of intelligent life on other planets depends on several factors. Just the Milky Way alone, the galaxy where Earth is located, is so large, that the possibility of life must be considered within the Milky Way.  There are hundreds of thousands of other galaxies, so intelligent life somewhere else in the universe is a very real possibility.

5. Is anyone looking for extraterrestrial life?

EXTRATERRESTRIAL refers to life on other planets.

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) actively began in 1960 by USA astronomer Frank Drake.

Radio signals are monitored to see if there are any intelligent signals.  Radio signals are also sent into outer space with the hope that they will be received and answered.

Although at first ridiculed, the scientists of SETI now are seeing much support of people who want to investigate the probability of intelligent life on other planets.

Currently, there are millions of radio channels and a lot of sky to be examined. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence will probably continue for some time.

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INTERESTED???

If you like the idea of extra-terrestrial life, read the book, CONTACT, written by Carl Sagan. It was made into a Hollywood movie, too, starring Jodie Foster. An interesting research project is to study the life of Carl Sagan, a science fiction writer of books and television series, such as The Twilight Zone.

THE END OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE COSMOS…BUT YOU CAN KEEP INVESTIGATING to find more SCIENCE information.