2 April 2025:
Today, we learnt about eclipses and how they occur. Before this class, I thought there were only 3 types of eclipse. However, I did not know that there were 4 types. Then, we played a bit of Blooket to refresh what we had learnt today. Overall, I was satisfied with today's session. I would like to attend more such lessons in future.
9 April 2025
Today, we had a sharing about what we recalled from last week's session. it was very fun. Listening to everyone else recounting last week's session made it interesting. The fun of making our own presentations made it more fun. Before this lesson, I thought that declination was the star's position relative to the horizon, but it is relative to the celestial equator. Overall, I was satisfied. I would like to attend more such sessions in future.
16 April 2025
Today, we learnt about Kepler's three laws and how they work. We learnt more about eccentricity and how they affect an orbit's shape. We learnt about how an object speeds up and slows down throughout it's orbit. We then learnt about how astronomers study the universe. Before this, I did not know an object's speed was directly poportional to it's semi major axis. I think that scientists use light-years instead of kilometers in space as distances in space are very large and kilometers would be unsuitable for use. Then, we played some Blooket to refresh our memory.
23 April 2025
I think I should tell them that the stars are linked to the time of year, which would let them maximize crop growth time and plan ahead. I should also lie to them a bit by saying that their gods placed the stars there as a sign for them. I think that if radiation is detected in an area of space, there might be a star there as stars release radiation.
Today, I was very satisfied with the session. I learnt that protons decay when in a nucleus, and beta decay was not just electrons. After that, we had a quiz and a Blooket match. I think it would have been more fun if the Blooket gamemode was one with better gameplay and more questions for a challenge. Overall, I was satisfied with this session.
30 April 2025
Today, I was quite satisfied. We spent the session looking at telescopes and learning how they work. Today, I learnt that tripod telescopes needed something to stop the tripod legs from suddenly collapsing, that there were three kinds of conventional telescope, and that the telesfope was invented by Galileo Galilei. I can try to zoom in onto a planet using a telesope to identify it while stargazing, ensuring that I do not accidentally spread misinformation. We used some binoculars to look for questions written on tape on the walls and I found it an interesting activity. We then looked at how to disassemble a telescope and how to assemble a telescope. Sadly, we did not get any Blooket (Big sad), but it was still a fun session.
7 May 2025
I think that Galileo had the greater influence on astronomy. As he was the one who confirmed that Copernicus' heliocentric model was accurate. He also found evidence that the geocentric model was inaccurate by discovering moons around Jupiter. Even though he was forced to say that his findings were wrong, his discoveries are still known and used today.
Today, I was very satisfied with the session. We learnt a few things about astronomy, and even had a debate. The debate forced me and my teammates to research more about exoplanets and their properties. it was interesting to see the different opinions of other people on what planets should be colonized and why. It was interesting that even Venus was chosen as a potential candidate for exploration and colonization.
21 May 2025
I think that space bases on Mercury would be built with as little windows as possible to avoid the blinding sun. Solar panels can be placed on all buildings to maximize electricity production. Bases could be built in the high Magnesium region on Mercury to maximize profit by mining.
Today, I was very satisfied with the session. We had a presentation to recap what we had learnt. We then had a Kahoot quiz. After that, we could design a Mars base. After the bases were reviewed, we didn't really care about the marks we got.
2 July 2025
Today, we saw a demonstration of Kerbal Space Program. Even though we didn't interact with the simulation, it was still very interesting. The blooket was fun and competitive, and made for a very good ending and recap for the session. This session was very fun. I want to be able to interact more and suggest things during simulation demonstrations.
9 July 2025
I think there will be an extremely thin atmosphere due to the high gravity. There will also probably be a solid crust due to the degenerate matter being compressed enough for a solid surface to form. There would be wafer thin layers of fused nuclei. The core would probably be made of some fused nuclei and pure neutron, maybe even free flowing quarks and gluons if the conditions are very extreme.
Red dwarf anatomy would probably be similar to a generic main sequence star, just with a smaller core and radiative zone due to the slowed nuclear fusion. White dwarfs don't have radiative zones and might not have convection zones due to the lack of fusion and electron degeneracy pressure stopping further collapse, not fusion. The core of a white dwarf would be made of highly compressed degenerate matter containing electrons moving close to the speed of light in order to withstand the pressure.
Today, we learnt about the sun and it's layers. We had to fill in the blanks throughout the presentation. We also learnt about the fusion methods such as the proton proton chain and the CNO cycle. I learnt that Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen fuse in a cycle and not a chain.
23 July 2025
I think fox hunting works by the receivers having to tune to the transmitter's frequency. Then, they have to locate the transmitter's general location, before switching to directional mode to find it.
I think fox hunting can be used to locate galaxies invisible to the naked eye as they are either too far away, or the light has been stretched by the expansion of space. We can then find the redshift of the galaxy and use that to calculate the expansion rate of the universe.
Today, we did fox hunting, as in, we were supposed to find a transmitter by using a radio reciever. The first round was fun but hard, as we did not know the frequency of the transmitter box. Eventually, a group found it. The second last round, we kept finding the signal at different places. Eventually, we found out that the box was being carried around. Eventually, we managed to find the transmitter box in a cabinet. Someone tried to claim it, but as he was alone, his team was disqualified and my team won that round.
6 August 2025
We can apply sine and cosine in real life by trying to find the distance to a location if there is missing information about its location.
A way to measure the mass of a star is to find the 'wobble' of the star. If the star has a planet, and the mass of the planet is known, we can calculate the mass of the star from the gravitational influence of the planet. If the star has multiple planets with significant mass, the gravitational interactions between the planets can show how much influence the star's gravity has on its planetary system. These interactions can be measured by irregularities in the transits of the planets.
Today, we learnt tangent in trigonometry. We learnt how it was used by satellites to locate the sun's direction. We then learnt about star classification and star evolution. It got complicated when we learnt about cosine and sine. Overall, I was satisfied by this session.
13 August 2025
Spectroscopy can be applied in biotech to determine the conditions of an environment. An organism might emit a certain spectrum while in one environment. A substance might also emit a certain spectrum when detecting an organism.
Today, we learnt about how a star forms. We then had a Blooket to recap that part of the lesson. We then learnt about the doppler effect. After that, we learnt about star spectra and why there are no green or violet stars.
20 August 2025
Today, we learnt about stellar evolution. We learnt the definition of Main sequence, and learnt why old stars don't have a spectral class, as they are no longer in main sequence. We also learn that old star clusters contain less massive stars and can be used to test hypotheses about stellar evolution. We also then had a Blooket round, and it was very fun.
27 August 2025
Today, I was surprised to learn that the sun could have solar superstorms. I knew that solar storms could happen, but not that bad.
Today, we started with fox hunting. It was fun at first but quickly got boring. We eventually stopped and did a round of Wayground, which was very fun as I got first place. We learnt about the solar weather before watching footage of such weather. We then watched a video about solar weather types and the different types of solar storms.