Why don't we feel the Earth moving?

Surprisingly, the Earth actually moves quite fast. It rotates on its axis at about 1.7 km/h and orbits around the Sun at a speed of about 107,000 km/h! So, why is it that we don't feel anything at all, as if the Earth is just a stationary object? 


We do not feel any motion because these speeds are constant. The rotation and orbital speeds of the Earth stay the same and so we do not feel any acceleration or deceleration. You will only feel motion if your speed changes. Have you ever been on an airplane? On my many hated rides on airplanes, when the airplane accelerates and takes off, I feel a lot of motion. However, I realise that once in the air, I feel as though the airplane is not moving at all, as if we were just hovering aimlessly in the sky.


I just decided to share this bit of information with all of you as after Miss J's lesson last week, this question just randomly popped into my head. I found it interesting and this was the result of my research!


Also, do you remember how the plates of the Earth's crusts form volcanoes? If you remember, you may have guessed that volcano eruptions are related to the Earth's second outermost layer, the mantle. 


When rock inside the Earth becomes hot enough it melts. The molten rock(magma) is less dense compared to the surrounding solid rock. The relatively low density of the magma causes it to rise to the surface of the Earth. If the magma contains water and dissolved gases, when the magma reaches the surface, the water and dissolved gases will suddenly expand into steam and gas, causing a violent eruption.


The link below has pictures that will help you understand!

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01550/eruptions.htm

Rocks...Are they what they seem?

Rocks are not just the little things you kick around when you are bored. They are actually very important to us as they form landforms on the Earth. 

  There is a big difference between minerals and rocks. Rocks are groups of different minerals pushed together and combined. The minerals that make up rocks are quartz, sand and etc. The formation of rocks is due to various effects on the Earth. There are THREE types of rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic.  The video below might help you remember them.

 

Now for the real thing! This next video gives you a deeper understanding of rocks and the rock cycle:D

Questions to ponder...

• What can we look out for when we want to tell if the volcano is about to erupt?
• How is magma made in the Earth's interior?
• If there were no such things as volcanos, causing magma and lava to stay inside the Earth, what would be the affect on Earth and us?

By: Matthea, Natalie and Mildred:)

Here Comes the Sun

Yesterday—Superbowl *Sun*day—NASA released the first global view of our sun, courtesy of a pair of space probes collectively called Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, or STEREO.
Launched in October 2006, the two probes left Earth together but then separated and headed for opposite sides of the solar orb.
On February 6, STEREO-A and STEREO-B finally reached opposition, when each spacecraft was aimed at a different hemisphere.
In this configuration, the two probes allowed scientists to simultaneously see both sides of the sun for the first time in human history.

Wonder Twin powers, activate!
—Image courtesy NASA
"This is a big moment in solar physics," STEREO team member Angelos Vourlidas, of the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., said in a NASA statement.
"STEREO has revealed the sun as it really is—a sphere of hot plasma and intricately woven magnetic fields."
The global view is a boon to scientists studying the sun's magnetic activity, such as coronal mass ejections and solar flares, which can fire huge blasts of charged particles toward Earth.
Until now we've had to rely on observatories that can see only the side of the sun facing Earth. It takes the sun about 27 days to complete a full rotation on its axis, so when storms were forming on the far side, they'd have plenty of time to build up and take us by surprise.
"With this nice global model, we can now track solar storms heading toward other planets, too," added STEREO program scientist Lika Guhathakurta. "This is important for NASA missions to Mercury, Mars, asteroids ... you name it."
In addition to the released images, NASA put together a nifty video that illustrates how the STEREO probes work, what they can teach us about the Earth-sun interaction, and what STEREO will get up to as the pair of probes continues to circle back around the sun over the next few years:

By: Mildred, Matthea, Natalie XD

source-http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/breakingorbit/2011/02/nasa-stereo-entire-sun-video.html