The H.R. McMillan Space Centre! by Sophia and Eleanor

Astronaut Sophia!

Sophia here. Last week we went on a field trip to the planetarium.  We watched a science show about extreme environments, because space is an extreme environment. I thought it was really interesting that scientists are studying extreme environments here on earth, because some extreme environments on earth are very like environments you can find in space. If scientists can find living creatures in extreme environments here on earth, they may be able to find similar living creatures in space as well. We learned about scientists testing buggies on deserts here on earth before the buggies are taken on missions to Mars. I thought this was very clever.  I know that sometimes astronauts are trained to use space suits and space ships in great big pools, because the feeling of being underwater is much like the feeling of having less gravity in space.

Even before I went to the planetarium, I had read about sub-glacial lakes in Antarctica. When we watched the Extreme Environments show, they mentioned a lake called Lake Vostok. I remembered reading about frozen lakes in a science magazine that I like. The reason why sub-glacial lakes were in a planetarium science show about space, was that scientists have found similar looking sheets of ice on Jupiter and it's moons, specifically an ice moon, called Europa, which we also learned about in the Solar System show we saw.

Tomorrowland over the moon and out!

This me, Eleanor, making myself an alien encounter. Choosing my planet, and the size and temperature of my planet, and also if it has more water or land. All those things make a huge difference as to what the creature would look like on the planet. I usually like to have a medium or large planet with more water and hot temperature.

Now this is what I would look like if I had an alien encounter! It is a picture of my face changed to look like a creature on the planet I created. My planet was hot, with mostly water an a large planet.

(Eleanor) We went to see a space science show called "Surfing the Solar System" and it was super duper fun. It was in a big black dome with a whole bunch of seats in it. We would lay back in the seats and we would go all around space. We went to one of Saturn's moons, called "Pan", and also we looked at the "shepherd moons" that keep Saturn's rings in place with their gravitational pull, and saw all around the solar system. We I am amazed how many solar systems there are in the universe. There was a map of how many there are, and it blew my mind crazily. Pluto is also still a planet, it is just a dwarf planet. 

We also got a special Grade 3 science bonus - we went to look at the Solar System and got a whole private show about Rockets (except for this one other guy wearing a red shirt with curly hair) and learned a whole bunch about gravitational pull and forces!

The show about Rockets was amazing. We learned about Newton's three laws of motion, and I got to shoot a cannon at Sophia! The reason we shot a cannon was to test the difference between how far a light ball and a heavy ball could go. Almost everyone guessed the light ball would go further than the heavy ball. And it did go further than the heavy ball!

Here I am in a NASA space suit! Tip to astronauts: never toot in your own suit!

This is a station where you can learn what it feels like to be in space. In space your sense of up and down gets all mixed up, so this was a simulator that showed you how it felt to get all mixed up!