Scientific Savvy?

The multitude of subjects this blog is supposed to offer has been rather single minded recently. Not that movie talk isn’t fantastic in itself, but some of my other passions have been neglected. Such as, Astronomy and Space.

I began searching for tidbits to share with readers; the subject fascinates me but it’s difficult to write about because I lack scientific savvy. How in the world are non-scientific people supposed to understand the terms that accompany astronomical discoveries without getting lost in the seeming mumbo-jumbo?

For instance, I find asteroids a strange phenomenon and want to learn more about them. Here are a few facts I’ve discovered:

1. The first asteroids were discovered only about 200 years ago.
2. It took 50 years to discover the first ten asteroids.
3. More than 150,000 asteroids have been cataloged.
4. Newly discovered asteroids first get a provisional name based on the discovery month and year.
5. If we could put all asteroids together and allow gravity to compress them into a sphere, they’d make an object smaller than our Moon.
6. Asteroid shapes depend on the strength of their gravity.

Interesting tidbits and easy to understand, don’t you think? When we dig deeper and zero in on particulars, the story changes.

Photo of Gaspra © NASA/JPL

As an example, let’s look at Gaspra. Apparently, it is an S-type asteroid. Those knowledgeable on the subject understand (I assume), but for me I’m left with more questions. What is an S-type asteroid?

According to NASA.gov, S-type asteroids are composed of metallic iron mixed with iron and magnesium-silicates. They are relatively bright with an albedo of 0.10-0.22. sigh what the heck is albedo?

Unfortunately, my brain doesn’t grasp scientific concepts with ease. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible for me to figure out basic concepts; they just need to be broken down to language I can comprehend. This is where Simple English Wikipedia comes in handy. I don’t consider any Wiki site to be an authority, but they are good starting points for research and often make it easier to figure out which concepts you need to investigate further and which are basic enough to easily grasp.

Simple English Wikipedia (SEW) says the “albedo of an object is the extent to which it reflects light, defined as the ratio of reflected to incident electromagnetic radiation. It is a unitless measure indicative of a surface’s or body’s diffuse reflectivity.” That breaks things down to a point I can understand, at least the gist of its meaning is understandable. SEW defines S-type asteroids as “an asteroid that is mainly silicaceous, or made of a lot of silicon. This is why it is called an S-type.” See, simple. For the scientific type, this definition may be inadequate, but for me (and those like me) this is all the information we need to understand the basics of an asteroid.

It’s obvious I’ll never become an expert in the field of astronomy; that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy discovering new things. Writing about it may not come easy, but endeavoring to do so will stretch my research and composition skills. I’ll document my Astronomy and Space learning experience here. It would be great if experts would share their knowledge by commenting and those like myself can learn along with me.

Sources:

• NASA
• Simple English Wikipedia
• Nine Planets
• The Cosmic Perspective

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