Astronomy 2:4

Professor Zumwalt smiled as she finished setting up the projector for the second year's lesson. She heard a few voices waiting outside, forgetting that she had locked the door, and quickly waved her wand to let the students in. Once everyone was sat, she moved to the front of the room, giving them a welcoming smile.. “Kia ora Katoa*, hello all, how are you all doing this week?” Professor Zumwalt asked getting a mix of responses back, nothing a particular Ravenclaw who looked almost in tears, likely from the end of the semester looming upon them. However, some just stared at her without answering, which was something she was getting more used to teaching budding teenagers. Continuing to give them a pleasant look, the former Ravenclaw started into the class material. “Well, this week we'll be studying the outer planets. That includes the gas giants and tiny, tiny Pluto!” She knew the muggle world had demoted Pluto, but it was wild to her one could do such a thing to a planet. Either way, the magical world still valued the celestial body. Adorah tapped the projector just before notes about Jupiter appeared at the front, similar to last week. She started to read out the information at a nice pace so the students had time to take notes. ​

Spoiler: Lesson Material

Jupiter
This is the largest planet in our solar system. It is visible in our night sky with the naked eye, appearing to shine like a star in our Sun’s light. It is the fifth planet from the sun and about 318 times larger than Earth. It is two times larger than ALL the other planets combined. It has an equator that is 11 times wider than the Earth. Jupiter has the most circular orbit out of all the planets. However, because it is so far away, it takes 12 years to complete one rotation around the sun.
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Saturn
Saturn is the 6th planet from the sun. It is smaller than Jupiter but its rings are a vision to witness. It is the second-largest in our solar system and another gas giant. The rings are a mix of rocks and ice debris left over from the formation of the planet and its moons.
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Uranus:
The seventh planet from the sun is a lovely blue color. It is the 3rd largest planet in our solar system. It takes 84 years to orbit our sun. The planet itself orbits on a tilt far greater than any of the other planets, in comparison to us. It rotates as if it might have been knocked over. The rings around the planet reflect this rotation as you can see in the picture. The rings are much fewer and less brilliant than Saturn’s rings.
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Neptune
Named after the God of the Sea, one can see why it has a wonderful deep blue coloring. Neptune has a fairly fast rotation, and days are much shorter there - only about 18 hours, as Neptune is just made of gaseous material. Very faintly, you can see bands in the atmosphere similar to how Jupiter has bands. For Neptune however, the bands are all a similar blue coloring. Neptune does have a very faint collection of rings as well.
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Pluto
Pluto was discovered by accident in 1930 by Clyde William Tombaugh. Pluto is named after the Greek god of the underworld. The name was suggested by an 11-year-old witch from Oxfordshire, England. Pluto has five known moons. Pluto is one-third water, all frozen of course. The orbit of Pluto is different from the other planets as it is on an angle differing from the flat plane the other planets follow.​

Professor Zumwalt finished the lecture with a sigh of relief. Hopefully, the following week wouldn’t be so long. She waited as the students finished their notes before continuing for the week. “Alright, that is going to conclude our discussion of planets, if you ever have any questions feel free to come to my office during hours and ask. Homework is on the board. Please complete and turn it in by the next lesson, have a good night!” She said dismissing the class.

*Kia ora Katoa means Hello All in the Native New Zealand Language, Maori.
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For full credit, RP the lesson.
For extra credit, write a short essay (up to 6 sentences; you'll receive a point for each sentence up to 6) about any planet with information not provided in class. (Please make sure to have your source listed once again and by this, I mean the website you(ooc) are using for your character!)​

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

The end of the year was rapidly approaching and all Eli could really think was how glad he was that it was coming up to the holidays, because there were somethings he wanted to talk to his parents about and honestly the idea of going back to sharing a room with Jonah wasn’t a bad one. He hadn’t been ready to admit it out loud yet, but he really did wish that he and Jonah were in the same house. He missed being with Jonah and he was sure half of their issues was because they hadn’t spent enough time together. They didn’t have classes together much either, which didn’t help their situation, but they were slowly getting there. He leaned back in his seat, writing out the notes he thought the most important for the class. Neptune’s orbit and speed was interesting, but Pluto was better in his opinion, he also wasn’t sure how wizards could just decide something was a planet when the muggles didn’t agree. And wasn’t science kind of their thing anyway? He shrugged, he didn’t care enough about Pluto to think too much about it. The lesson soon wrapped up and he headed out.​

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan hated that he had to spend as much time as he did with those he'd rather not have to come up against. Unfortunately there was no escaping some people, and while the second year still chose to sit as far away as possible from everyone else in the room, opening his textbook and burying his head in his notes as quickly as he could. He didn't even glance up unless it was to check Professor Zumwalts comments that she'd put up at the front, and even Lilith wasn't getting any attention from the blond that just wanted to hide away for the rest of the semester. Honestly this term had been even harder than the ones previously and if it was any indication of what else was still to come, well Eoghan was going to find some new ways of dealing with the stress. Once the lesson was over he slipped out the room without a word to anyone and hoped no one would notice when he didn't go immediately back to his common room.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Much like last week, Lilith found it difficult to get excited for Astronomy and she could tell that her other friends and boyfriend were also bothered by the fact that one of their friends would be leaving for a semester. Nevertheless Lilith arrived in class and got ready to take notes, planets were interesting enough so she did take notes and draw a few planets and stars and the moon and the sun and so on and so forth. Her notes ended up looking more like a page full of doodles produced by a toddler or very distracted twelve-year-old, which she was obviously the latter. Feeling like she wasn't too productive this lesson Lilith made sure to do her homework, just to lessen her load come exam time.

Saturn

Saturn takes approximately 10.7 hours to rotate around its axis once. Saturn itself isn't viable for life like ours, but some of its moons possess conditions that might support life. Saturn's atmosphere consists mostly hydrogen (H2) and helium (He). Only a few missions have ever visited Saturn, making it somewhat of a rare destination. In 2017 the Cassini spacecraft was intentionally vaporized in Saturn's atmosphere, making about two tons of its mass earthly.


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[Winnie Calida]

Winnie walked into the astronomy classroom and took her usual spot in the room. She glanced at the professor as the woman got started, nodding idly to the question posed, figuring that they weren’t really meant to answer. She took her quill and parchment and began writing down what they were being told about the outer planets. The lecture itself wasn’t too long, and she was pretty glad about it. She didn’t have any questions so just took a note of the homework and tidied her notes until the professor wrapped up the lesson and she was able to leave.

 

[Vikram Bakshi]

And on, and on, and on the semester went. Vikram was content with it, but it did seem to drag on from time to time. After what felt like an age from his last classes, he was gathering his things to finally head back to class again. Perhaps he was just bored. He found his seat by Winnie, giving her a soft smile before he turned his attention up front. The lesson that day was simple- just a lecture on the planets. He kept a few notes, relieved just a bit when they were dismissed. Maybe a bit of sleep would set his head right again.