Explore Outdoors ~ I thought this was a Desert Plant!

 Last fall I discovered some yucca plants growing in one of the yards down in the village. It surprised me because I think of yucca as a desert plant, not one found in northeast gardens! But they have a wide distribution across the US and even up into the southern Atlantic states.

 The cool thing about yucca plants is that their leaves have lots of fibers curling off - I wrote about them in a previous post.

 

 

Those fibers look fragile, but if you spin them together they can make a pretty sturdy string.

 

As fascinated as I am about yucca fibers (and I am, because I enjoy twining and spinning anything from milkweed to grasses), I found their seedpods even more interesting.

The seeds themselves are flat, round-ended triangles, and thinner than I expected. I planted a bunch this spring and managed to get half-a-dozen seedlings (about 50% germination). The seeds took a long time to germinate, and the seedlings are slow-growing. On the plus-side, they seem to tolerate benign neglect. 

Though I may have to bring them inside for winter ...

Mission to Mars!

Mission to Mars
by Mary Kay Carson
32 pages; ages 6 & up
Sterling Children's Books, 2018

themes: space, technology, exploration

Mars. What image just popped into your head?

Science fiction movie? Roman god of war? Night sky-watching on a warm summer's night? How about space exploration? Because in your lifetime people could be headed to Mars.

In this book, author Mary Kay Carson begins by comparing Mars to Earth. Both planets are tilted, so Mars has seasons just like Earth does. And both have days that are similar in length - Mars days are 37 minutes longer than Earth days. But a Mars year lasts 687 days, and it's a lot colder. Think Antarctica. Now think even colder!

What I like about this book: Carson shares history of Mars exploration, from telescope to landers, orbiters, and the more recent rovers that roll across the desert-like landscape. The rovers send images back to earth, as well as data from their onboard labs that can detect bacteria and other signs of life. Carson goes into detail about what sort of evidence for life one might hope to find on the dry, cold planet.

Scientists continue discovering new information from the red planet. Just a couple years ago an orbiting satellite found evidence of water on Mars. And sometime in the next weeks, NASA plans to launch a new mission to Mars - perhaps as early as tomorrow (May 5) called InSight.  InSight will land on Mars and then drill into the crust to record geological data.

"NASA scientists want to know if Mars has a hot, liquid center like Earth, and how thick its outer crust layer is," writes Carson. As for future manned missions to Mars, humans will go there someday, she says. "We already have a lot of the technology and know-how." And should you think you might want to be one of the astronauts heading to Mars, there's a checklist at the end so you can determine if you're "mission ready".

Curiosity: the Story of a Mars Rover
by Markus Motum
56 pages; ages 8-12
Candlewick Press, 2018

Wherever you are in the world right now, I'm a very long way away. I'm not even on the same planet as you.

On August 6, 2012, the rover Curiosity touched down on the surface of Mars. This book is the story about her mission: to discover more about Mars and search for evidence of life.

What I like about this book: Curiosity tells her story in first person. How often do you get to read a story told by a Mars rover? First she tells why she was sent to Mars. It's a hostile environment for humans, so she and her rover sisters and orbiter buddies can send lots of good information back home to help humans get ready for a voyage. Curiosity takes us on a field trip to the lab where she was built and gives us the inside scoop on the tools she carries and her power source (plutonium).Then - her trip to Mars, and the tension-filled deployment from orbit to the surface. Of course she took a selfie!

The illustrations give this book a Martian ambiance. Motum uses the deep blues of space to highlight the warm, rusty hues of the Martian surface. Plus there's a timeline of Mars Missions at the back.

Beyond the Books:
Check out these Postcards from Mars - favorite images sent back by Curiosity.

People who go to Mars will need protective space suits that will also allow them to do work. Read about space suits here, and check out the latest in Martian fashion here. Then head over to NASA to design a spacesuit for Mars.

Watch InSight mission launch for Mars. You can watch it on the website here. 

Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup - and we're also joining others over at Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books. Review copies from publishers

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ Mars-watching

credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This is going to be a great year for watching Mars. Over the next few months the red planet will get brighter in the sky - and by July it could outshine Jupiter. It will, says Deborah Byrd of Earth and Sky, look like a "red dot of brilliant flame" in the night sky. Check the sky maps at Earth and Sky over the next few months to follow Mars.

Mission to Pluto

Last week I reviewed a couple books for junior space-cadets.

Today we're headed to outer space with scientists in the field. 


 This addition to the Scientists in the Field series goes boldly where no person - or spacecraft - has gone before! (click here for appropriate music)


Mission to Pluto: the first visit to an ice dwarf and the Kuiper belt (Scientists in the Field)
by Mary Kay Carson; photos by Tom Uhlman
80 pages; ages 10-12
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017

It takes a lot of work to get to Pluto: teams of scientists and engineers, mission control specialists who keep your vehicle on track, and time. Nearly ten years of time - even if your spacecraft is tiny. That's why the folks at NASA had to build a craft that was durable, and could take care of itself.

In 2005, when they were building the New Horizons spacecraft, engineers knew it would need a power source. Solar panels make electricity for most satellites and space probes, "but a sunny day on Pluto is about as bright as twilight on Earth," writes Mary Kay Carson. So New Horizons carried its own power source: plutonium.

The whole craft is about the size and weight of a grand piano (1054 pounds) to allow it relatively "speedy" travel. Even so, scientists knew it would take more than nine years to reach Pluto, so they programmed in a hibernation mode to save on power.

New Horizons reached Pluto in July of 2015 - when it took samples of atmosphere as well as lots of photos and sent them back to Earth. But the mission was not finished. Right now, the New Horizons spacecraft is on its way to the Kuiper belt - a band of rocky and icy objects out past Neptune. Scientists believe the Kuiper belt has more than 100,000 miniature worlds with diameters larger than 62 miles. Some of these "dwarf planets" are nearly the size of Pluto.

Once it reaches the Kuiper belt, New Horizons will fly by KBO ( Kuiper Belt Object) MU69. Scientists want to know what sorts of rocks and ice a Kuiper belt object are made of, and whether they have moons. The projected arrival date is sometime in 2019. But New Horizon's journey won't stop there - it will keep on going (like a certain bunny), and sending information and signals to Earth until its plutonium runs out.

Author Mary Kay Carson captures the excitement of space discovery in her stories about the scientists and the spacecraft. She includes plenty of graphs and illustrations, as well as 2-page "Mission Briefs" that detail specific aspects of the Mission to Pluto. Back matter includes a glossary and resources for learning more about New Horizons, Pluto, and KBOs.

Today is STEM Friday! Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copy provided by the author.

Super Moon, Eclipse, and Space Books

Sunday night will be special - not only is it the night of the full harvest moon (a "super moon" no less) but it's also a chance to see a complete lunar eclipse. The moon orbits around the earth in an imperfect circle, so sometimes it is far away from the earth and sometimes it is closer. This fall, the moon is closest to the earth, and so the full moons look bigger that usual. People call them "super moons".

Something else cool is happening, too: this coming Sunday night is a lunar eclipse. An eclipse happens when the moon passes through the earth's shadow. If you're in the eastern part of the US, head outside around 9 pm and watch the moon. Here's more about the lunar eclipse - or you can click on the poster.

Earth isn't the only planet in our solar system that has a moon - Saturn has more than 50 moons, and Jupiter has at least 67. Makes you wonder what a "super moon" or eclipse would look like from one of those planets.

Speaking of Saturn and Jupiter... Capstone has just published a new series called "Smithsonian Planets". Got questions about where the fastest winds in the solar system are? Whether people are going to Mars? What Saturn's rings are made of? Then you'll want to read about "The Secrets of Jupiter" and all the other planets: Earth, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, and Venus.

(What about Pluto, you ask? As you might recall, Pluto was determined to be "too small" for regular planet-hood, so is now considered a dwarf planet or Kuiper Belt object - even though it has plenty of moons of its own.)

The Secrets of Saturn
by Kassandra Radomski
32 pages; ages 7-10
Capstone Press, 2015

What I like about the books in this series is that they begin with some basic info about the planet: distance from the sun (886 billion miles for Saturn), number of moons, day-length. On Saturn a day is 10 and a half hours, but it takes 29 Earth years to make one complete orbit around the sun. So winters would be really long.... great for skiers, though how one would ski on a gas giant is anyone's guess.

Then there's the wind: at Saturn's equator, wind speeds reach up to 1100 miles per hour. Compare that to the fastest wind on Earth, 246 mph, and that was during a hurricane. Kids will learn a lot about the planet, moons, and history of ancient astronomers in this photo-rich book. The text explains concepts well in kid-friendly language, and there's lots of fun stuff: a timeline of Cassini mission, a scientist spotlight, speculation on what scientists will find next.Here's the latest news from Saturn.

Future space cadets might be interested in Enslow's new "Launch into Space" series. These books explore the earth, moon, stars, solar system and the sun. Here's one I like:
Astronauts Explore the Galaxy
by Carmen Bredeson
32 pages; ages 7-10
Enslow Publishing, 2015

The book opens with some introductory information about astronauts, with each page focusing on one aspect: free fall, what jobs they do, space walking. What do they eat in space? Apparently the same stuff I eat for lunch, only packaged differently - and there's a great photo of some of their food. You learn how astronauts brush their teeth, use the toilet, and keep their muscles in shape. There's even some tips for astronauts to be.

Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copies from publishers.