These are a Few of our Favorite Things

SATURN SEMINAR: At 10 a.m. we tuned in to a Ustream webcast to see a panel of Cassini scientists answered questions about Saturn and its rings and moons.

The program featured Dr. Ota Lutz, JPL Education Specialist, moderator, with Dr. Marcia Burton, fields and particles scientist, Dr. Amanda Hendrix, icy moon scientist, and Dr. Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist.
The NASA-JPL photo above is formally known as Image 12. It's more commonly known as Pac-Man! :) It's of the "Death Star" moon of Saturn, Mimas. (Tell me George Lucas hadn't seen that image on the left of Mimas before dreaming up the Death Star!)

The image on the right is a thermal map. Scientists were expecting the moon to be warmest in the middle of the map, as that's the region where the Sun was shining down when the image was made. They also expected the surface to get progressively cooler out away from that spot. But as it turned out, the part that "should" be warm was cool, and the expected cold spots were warm. And the boundaries between the parts were sharp, rather than smooth transitions. And that is why we explore! Computer models and assumptions are often wrong! (If you're interested, there's a very in-depth discussion about the temperatures on Mimas' surfaces on a blog post here: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2413.html)

Here's CJ's review of the hour long webcast: 

Cassini is an unmanned spacecraft sent to Saturn. Cassini has studied the planet and its many natural satellites since arriving there in 2004, also observing Jupiter, the heliosphere, and testing the theory of relativity. One woman who worked on Cassini's team was Linda Spilker, who worked on NASA projects as early as Voyager.

Titan's lakes are said to possibly have life in them, but we don't know for sure. If Saturn's moons were to disappear, so would Saturn's rings. Saturn casts a shadow on its rings. On one of Saturn's moons, Iapodos, there appears to be a walnut shape. Cassini is not just worked on by NASA, but many other space programs around the world.

That is my pack of some facts about Cassini-Huygens.

As usual, Annabelle took notes mostly in the form of drawings.

While one of the scientists (Dr. Spilker) spoke about her work decades ago on the Voyager program, Annabelle drew this. ...

I love that she included the asteroid belt. :)

And here's her take on the scientists talking about how they share what types of instruments they'd love to have on a spacecraft to the engineers, but then reality, including budget cuts, hit.

And some of the discussion involved the fact that both Cassini and Galileo use Saturn's moon Titan to build up velocity, in a slingshot effect.

POM-POM-POM: Project pom pom continues. Annabelle got in on the action today.

It takes 300 spins around the form. And then you gather it up into a wreath shape, tie it off, and cut the loops. 

Keep doing it, and after awhile, you have a passel of pom poms. Too bad they don't multiply as fast as Tribbles. 

We just might have a finished product to show you tomorrow.

FOR CROWN OR COLONY?:  This afternoon, out of seemingly nowhere, CJ remembered a game he'd played online long ago, "For Crown or Colony?" It's on the Mission US Web site,  "a multimedia project that immerses players in U.S. history content through free interactive games. It's funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

"For Crown or Colony?" puts players in the shoes of Nat Wheeler, a fictional printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston. Nat encounters Patriots and Loyalists, and tensions escalate and culminate in the Boston Massacre, when "Nat" is forced to choose sides. It's a pretty long 'game,' which is really more of an interactive story. It's a great way to learn more about early American history. 
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE: This evening we gathered around the (electric) fire and watched "The Sound of Music" 'live' on NBC (delayed for we left coasters). 

My hook getting CJ interested was telling him it was a war story, set at the beginning of WWII. It worked. :)

The kids had never seen "These are a Few of My Favorite Things" or "Do-Re-Mi" in context before. 

Gosh, it was fun watching it. Now, of course, I have to show them the classic version starring Julie Andrews. 

Not everyone was a fan of the remake, though. ... 
                                             
Of course, Grumpy Cat doesn't like ANYthing.