Averi Wasser

Conversation Paper
Astronomy-1040
To complete this assignment I met with my friends Carlie, Amanda and my
boyfriend James. I let them know ahead of time to think of astronomy experiences
that they could share with the group. We met at a local Starbucks so it would not be
too loud when we were conversing. Before the meeting, I came up with a list of
topics to talk about which I shared with group so they could get an idea of where
the conversation was going to go and to start thinking of anything to share. I made
it very clear that we did not have to stick to my list and were more than welcome to
talk about whatever they wanted regarding astronomy. My list to get the
conversation started was the following:

Your astronomy experience, if any.

Your thoughts on astronomy.
What do you think will happen to our Universe in the future?
Thoughts of other existing Universes.
Do you think there is other life out there?
Stars!
Global Warming and how it involves us and the solar system.

To start us off I asked the group if anybody has ever had an astronomy
experience. James told us about the many shooting stars that he has seen. All of us
at one point have also witnessed a shooting star and found them very interesting
but not everyone in the group knew what a shooting star actually was. We talked
about what a shooting star and that it shines bright light due to the heat it creates
when moving at a such a fast pace. These are also known as meteors. I also
explained that there are other stars that our bigger than our Sun which a star itself
and the reason why its as bright as it is, is due to Nuclear Fussion. I showed them

the picture of the sun converting mass into energy on page 289 from our book. They
were looking on the page that I showed them about Nuclear Fussion and Amanda
seemed interested in the suns atmosphere and the suns interior. I drew them a
picture of the Sun with its entire layers and informed them that the deeper you go
into the suns core the more heat and dense it is. By the surprised looks I got, I
dont think any of them knew that the Sun had layers. To be honest when I first
started this class I just thought the Sun was a big solid ball shaped planet that
somehow shined but quickly learned that I was very wrong. Since we were already
kind of on the topic of stars I decided to stick to it and talk about a Stars life from
beginning to end. Amanda knew that stars could die off but was not sure how it
happens. This was something new to both James and Carlie. We talked about how
stars are formed, how they live, different types of stars and eventually how they will
die. This topic went over very well and there was a nice discussion back and forth
on the lives of stars.
Amanda showed us a picture on her phone that she took through her
husbands telescope that he just got a couple months ago. She said that they are
not 100% sure how to use to yet and what they are looking at half of the time but
she said that it is very cool. The picture on her phone was a picture they took of the
moon. It was actually very similar to the picture of the Waxing Gibbous on page 41
of the book. One part of the moon was shadowed out on one side and the picture
was close enough that you could actually see craters. I informed them that craters
were a result of erosion and you could tell how young a planet or moon is by how
many and how deep of craters they have. We then talked about the different
weather that planets have including the storms and how this effected what is on the
surfaces of the planets. I figured it would something to help Amanda know what she

is looking at in the telescope when she starts branching out into our solar system.
We took a quick look in the book on pages 222 and 223 and volcanoes and water on
planets. After our discussion she did tell me that our meeting made her really want
to learn more about our solar system and that she was determined to figure out how
to use the telescopes meaning more pictures to come!
My next topic to discuss was if people thought that there was other life out
there. Everyone in the group agreed that we think there is life out there living on
another planet. Amanda mentioned that she read an article from NASA stating that
we will find life on other planets in 20 years. Everyone in the group agreed that they
think this will happen as well but hope that it ends better the movie Independence
Day. Another article says that they project that by 2039 humans can land on Mars.
Right now they have robots and other machines that are doing it right now. I guess
there was a project called Mars One Mission which selected people to go live on
Mars but it turns out that the whole thing was a scam. James asked all of us if we
would be willing to go live on Mars when available. Amanda, Carlie and I all said no.
James said he thinks he would do it because it would be a whole new experience
that he like to do. He brought up a good point saying that you know what you are
bringing to another planet but you dont know what you bringing back such as more
diseases that could infect people on Earth.
We then went back and forth talking about our thoughts on astronomy as
whole. We all agreed that it is so interesting to know how much we have learned in
the last 20 years about our solar system and to think how much more we will learn
in the next 20 years. It is also amazing how big our solar system actually is and that
there are more solar systems out there. Even though I have read almost a whole
book about it there is still so much mystery out there waiting to be discovered. It is

also cool how everything works like clockwork and that it is continuing cycle up in
our solar system. Carlie asked the group what would happen if our sun went away.
Everyone of course had their own theories. James and Amanda both thought that
without the Sun we would all freeze and die. Carlie thoughts were that if the sun
were to go away that we would still exist but in the dark. When I first started the
class that I would have said exactly what Carlie said and also added that it would be
very cold. Since we just learned about the sun in the last 4 chapters we read I was
able to teach the group about what would really happen if the Sun went away. With
help from the book on page 340, I explained to everyone that when it comes time
for the Sun to die it will actually make Earth very hot and boil away all oceans. The
process will take time but it will gradually make Earth too hot to survive. Once the
sun ejects the outer layers as a planetary nebula and if the Earth is not completely
destroyed then it will get cold and dark. This seemed to freak everyone out so I
luckily was able to say that we will most likely not see this in our lifetime.
I directed the conversation to my final topic which is happening in our lifetime
right now. Global Warming. Everyone said that it had to do with our atmosphere and
that if it got to be too thin then it could be catastrophic for life on earth. Carlie said
she always remembers the commercials about the polar bears and the ice that is
melting which means that they will have nowhere to live. I added in that human
activity is one of the reasons of global warming and that it has to do with the
burning of the fossil fuels that is creating lots of greenhouse gases which is causing
the global average temperatures to rise. We talked about Global Warming for a
while longer such as what it is doing to the solar system and how it will affect us on
Earth and things we can do to help slow it down. It was very interesting listening to
everyones opinions and ideas.

We came to the end in our conversation and everyone seemed like they
wanted to learn more about astronomy because there was so much that people
didnt know before attending my meeting. Our astronomy experiences were not
super exciting either so I think we are all determined to get some more. I told them
that I came into this class not knowing anything about astronomy and was very
surprised how much I learned so much in a short amount of time. We followed my
schedule pretty well for the most part and only got off topic a couple of times but I
quickly directed them back to the conversation. I chose my friends to participate in
this assignment because I have never had a conversation like this with any of them
and was interested in seeing if they had hidden interests that I didnt know about. I
did however know that Amanda had just gotten the telescope but thought they
would have known how to use it by now. I was kind of disappointed in their
astronomy experiences because they were nothing out of the ordinary. I didnt really
have a cool experience to add to the conversation either but I think if I was to do
this paper again I would maybe talk to older people because they could have had
something more interesting to add to the conversation. I also could have asked
around at work to see if anyone has interest in astronomy that could have brought
more to the table. The only thing that surprised me was the little knowledge people
have of space. It is something that it very available for anyone to look at whenever
they would like but it doesnt seem that anyone takes the time to partake in this
amazing piece of life.