hours later, put his suitcase down and read the paper. An hour later they made there way into the dinning room, sat around the table and had dinner.
“I can imagine everyone at your school is hyped up for the military being in town this weekend, right before the talent show” his dad said while reaching for the carrots.
“You can bet on that.” Sam said “The General will be coming into our school tomorrow and telling us all about the military life. It should be really cool. I had a chance to see him earlier today when he spoke at the podium. I think everyone in town was shocked by how big he was. He was the size of a mountain.”
His mother laughed, “I guess if you’re a big person you end up joining the military. Either that or the military makes you huge” she said as she poured some milk in a glass.
His dad turned to him “Is everything set for your variety show on Saturday? You and your gang of friends have been practicing for a long time”
Sam nodded “We sure have. It’s going to be a tough show this year. Everyone wants to win. Winning this year will mean more then any other year, but I think we have this one.”
“Good to hear” his dad said. “Can’t wait to see it. Which one in your group came up with the idea?”
“We all did” Sam said as he ate his potatoes “We threw around a few ideas, and together we managed to come up with the idea of an alien kidnapping two world leaders, well at least trying to kidnap two leaders. There’s a whole bunch of silly, wacky things that happen throughout the skit”
His dad laughed a bit “You guys come up with some of the wildest ideas I’ve ever heard”
His mom agreed as she ate her dinner.
“Still performing for the seniors?” his dad asked.
Sam nodded “Yes, we had a show today in fact”
“Really” his dad said. “I hope that went well?”
“Yes, it was the longest show we ever written. It was over twenty minutes long. We were nervous at first, hoping we won’t mess up our timing or forget our lines, but none of us did. It worked out”
“Good to hear” he’s dad said. “Hopefully I will be able to catch one of your shows these days. I should leave work early to see you on stage. I work so much I never get to see you on stage”
“I understand” Sam said “Hopefully we will be able to take our shows to the big stage. That’s the long-term goal anyway. Something to look towards after the weekend is done”
After dinner was finished and the plates were cleaned he made his way to his bedroom. He thought about the lights Warren mentioned in the forest and it got him thinking about what could be out in the universe. He sat at his computer, went on the web and typed in “the universe”. A million websites came up as he suspected it would. He looked at all the different options and clicked on a website about the solar system. He started some interesting tips about the moon, how it was moving away from the earth at a rate of 3.8 cm a year. It didn’t sound like much, but he figured over the course of a million years it would add up. He was amazed to read how it affected the tides on earth. High tide is caused when the water is facing the moon and the moon pulls the water towards it. He imagined what the tides would look like if we had two or more moons. Scientists still debate how the moon was created. Some say it was an object the size of Mars striking the earth causing a huge chunk to break away. He read how the moon estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. It has no wind or atmosphere and we only see it because the sun reflects light off of it, it does not have its own light source.
On another web page he started reading about Pluto and how it was now downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet and the uproar that it caused when the vote took place. Sam thought it was funny when looking at photos of people standing outside buildings with signs in their hands protesting the down grading of Pluto. They demanded it remain a planet. People can sure be passionate about there planets. There are now eight planets and over forty dwarf planets. He was surprised to read that nine moons are larger then Pluto.
What he wanted to know was what is the true definition of a planet? He typed it in and was amazed by the answer. It wasn’t so straightforward. There are many different definitions. There are terrestrial planets and gas planets. The terrestrial planets are made up of Mercury Venus, Earth and Mars. The gas planets are made up of Jupiter, Saturn. Uranus and Neptune.
Sam was surprised to learn of planets outside the solar system that move without a sun. How strange. How was it formed in the first place? He always believed a star was needed to help form a planet. He read about the huge gap between Mars and Jupiter. Strange for there to be such a massive distance. There’s even an asteroid belt between the two planets. How did that get there? Not all planets are the same size or distance apart.
He was shocked when he read how over one thousand three hundreds Earths can fit inside of Jupiter. He could only imagine how long it would take to fly around Jupiter in an airplane. Jupiter was cool to read about. Because it was a gas planet no one would ever be able to land on it, a human would pass right thought it. However, the gravitational force would crush a human before they knew what was happening. He was even amazed to read that Jupiter has rings, however the rings are too small too be seen. Only the strongest telescopes could barley see them. The other gas planets have rings around them as well.
He read another paragraph about you can fit seven hundred and sixty three earths inside of Saturn. However you can fit over a million earths in the sun. The numbers are crazy to think about.
Another article talked about how astronomers for a while thought there were planets in-between Mars and Jupiter. The first one discovered was called Ceres. They then found another one and called it Pallas and then quickly found another planet they called Juno. Another one was discovered soon afterwards and called Vesta. For a while people believed there were eleven planets, until astronomers kept finding more and more objects floating around between Mars and Jupiter. They realized there were thousands of objects in between. They decided to stop naming them planets and call them what they are, asteroids. So Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta were no longer called planets. It was now known as an asteroid belt. A few years ago Pluto fell into the same problem. For the longest time astronomers thought Pluto was alone on its belt, until astronomers kept finding more and more objects just like Pluto rotating on the same belt. Breaking the third rule of what it means to be a planet. That is must be large enough dominate its own orbit. That its mass must be much larger then anything else that crosses its orbit. It did match the first rule however; it did orbit the sun. It also matched the second rule, it had enough mass that’s its gravity pulled it into an spheroidal shape. It would’ve been fine for Pluto to remain a planet until the discovery of Eris, an object larger then Pluto itself within Pluto’s belt. So should Eris be called a planet? But two planets cannot be on the same belt. Pluto is twenty five times smaller then the planet Mercury and only nine times larger then Ceres, an asteroid. Because it was so far away when it was first spotted nothing else was seen with it at the time, but as telescopes became more powerful we now know Pluto is just one of thousands of objects within a belt called Kuiper. If Pluto had been seen along with the countless other floating objects within the Kuiper belt it would never have been called a planet to start with. Pluto turned out to be just like Ceres. One object within a belt of many, but it does comply with two of the three rules. The International Astronomical Union had a tuff time deciding what to do with Pluto. They met for days and actually argued and fought on what to do. Who knew a planet would lead to grown men fighting with each other. The outcome of the vote still is contested to this day. Sam was shocked to read there are hundreds of thousands of objects in the Kuiper belt, mostly made up of ice rotating around the sun. For the longest time, like most people he thought there were only nine planets, a sun and the asteroids belt between Mars and Jupiter. Now Pluto is called a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt along with four other objects called dwarf planets and the solar system still has countless other smaller objects
as well. Some objects within the Kuiper belt called Quaoar, Varna, and Orcus might be given the title of dwarf planet some day as well.
How many planets are there in the universe and how long it would take to travel from one planet to the next? Could space travel be possible? So many questions and no one can truly say, so much is speculation. He could only imagine how many planets there were and what they look like. He thought about how wonderful it would be to see each planet. So much time and focus was spent on silly things like money and greed. If only the human race could act as one so much could be accomplished and traveling the stars could be done.
He thought about what Warren had said about lights in the forest. What if it where real? What if aliens are abducting people from small towns like they do in the movies? Everything he had ever read in his science books told him it couldn’t possible be real, but he wanted to know what others where saying. He typed in “alien abduction” and came across countless websites. With so many websites, maybe it was real? He clicked in the first webpage and starting reading some of the stories and watched some of the videos.
A few minutes in he had to give his head a shake; he couldn’t believe the
Alien Invasion: and the origins of mankind Page 11