Life Off Earth

For one reason or another, I don't think that there is life on Asteroid Hermes. There is no water on Hermes, which would probably be important for life. Also it has no atmosphere, oxygen or otherwise. We certainly wouldn't be able to breath on an asteroid. Plus the fact that it would be next to impossible to land a space shuttle on an asteroid of .9 km in diameter. Asteroid Hermes may have a magnetic field, although it also may not. As I said, I doubt that there is life on Asteroid Hermes. However I do think that there is life on other planets. If only we could get there.

Mars is between 36 and 250 million miles from earth and is the forth planet from our sun. Many scientists think that there could be life on Mars. Scientists are trying to find the essentials of life, such as water. The Mars rovers are looking for such evidence. As far as we can tell there is no intelligent life on Mars. However there may be microscopic worm things. Personally, I think it would be fun to know that there is life on a different planet. Plus, to them we would be the aliens, not them. It'd be like discovering a new place.

Distance in space

There are three units of measure in space, km, AU, and Ly. That's kilometers, Astronomical Units, and light years. My personal favorite is light years because its such a very long distance. I mean it only takes eight minutes to travel from earth to the sun at light speed, but that's beside the point. Kilometers is generally used to measure short distances like earth's radius. AU is used for more challenging tasks, such as the distance between planets. Light Year literally means the distance light travels in a year. As light can travel great distances in practically no time at all, thsi is used for such things as the distance between galaxies or universes.

At its nearest point, asteroid Hermes is only 300,000 miles from earth. That's just 482803 km. It's only a little farther than the moon. Unfortunately, it would not be possible to land on Hermes as it is to small and is moving to fast.

Asteroid Hermes Formation

Asteroid Hermes, like most space bodies, started with a super nova. That's a really big explosion. The super nova left a big cloud of gas and dust. This cloud slowly collected and fused together to form small objects. These objects did not accrete (collide with each other) because of Mars' and Jupiter's gravity.

Planet?

When I was in kindergarden, they tought us a song about the order of the planets. I don't remember it at all but I am fairly sure that Pluto was a big part of it. Being the last planet, it probably had its own verse. What do you think happened top that song when they found out that Pluto was actually not a planet? Well I have no idea, but Pluto is not a planet because it doesn't clear its neighborhood. There are three requirements for being a planet. 1. orbits the sun, check 2. spherical, check. 3. gets rid of everything in its neighborhood. Nope. Pluto has stuff in its neighborhood. Therefore, it is not a planet.

Asteroid Hermes is not a planet. It is, in actuality, an asteroid. Hermes is not a planet because it doesn't control everything in its area and it's not a sphere. Also it doesn't orbit the sun.

How Big is Asteroid Hermes?

Asteroid Hermes is very small. It is only .9 km in diameter.

The Museum

Recently, my school took a trip to The Natural History Museum. We saw two movies, one about the big bang and one about the solar system in general. The big bang one was pretty boring but I liked the other one. I don't even remember what they said in the Big Bang one. something about how space was really cool and you should be fascinated by it. In the one about the solar system, it was like an observatory with the dome roof and all. We had to look up but it showed us, as far as science could see, how the universe worked. It was 3D and everything. Then we went and looked at some meteorites. There were three in particular that we saw. they were called Ahnighito, The Women, and The Dog. They used to be one big rock but they got split up. Rocks are not as entertaining as movies but they were not as bad as you would think.

I learned that as far as I can see, there is no exhibit on Asteroid Hermes in the museum. I also learned that the world is a very small part of the universe. Even our galaxy is a small part of everything. I learned that eventually the sun is going to become a red nova and explode and destroy us all. Isn't that a happy thought? They also said that we will have moved to a different planet by then. That might just be one of those flying car things, though.

Asteroid Hermes Discovered

Asteroid Hermes was discovered by Karl Reinmuth in Germany in 1937, just before World War II. Reinmuth saw an odd bit of light rather like a star in a picture he took. The light happened to be an asteroid later named Hermes for its incredible speed. Reinmuth tracked it for five days but sadly, he lost it.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/scitech/display.cfm?ST_ID=169