Seventh Years: Lesson Three

Professor Nakamura stared out the window as he waited for his students to arrive. It was a nice clear night, which meant it’d be ideal for what he had planned. Coming back to the class, as everyone took their seats, he came to the front and began to speak. “Welcome back,” Professor Nakamura greeted before going straight into it. “We’ll be going over gamma ray bursts this evening. Originally discovered by muggle scientists during the cold war, they are extremely powerful explosions that happen in the universe. They happen when large stars begin to die and become a supernova. They are also referred to as GRBs.” Professor Nakamura paused to make sure everyone was following along. “Does this make sense so far?” He saw a few nods and decided to continue.

“They are rare, but detectable using telescopes. So now for the fun part of the lesson. Let’s pack away our things for now and go use the telescopes upstairs.” Professor Nakamura waited for the class to tidy up their things and left the classroom, following behind the last student. They made their way up to the telescope area.

The air had a hint of autumnal chill, but Professor Nakamura found it refreshing as everyone got to their telescopes. “Now, I’ve set up a detector to help us locate GRBs. Give it a moment and it’ll find one for us.” Professor Nakamura waited for a couple of minutes, then instructed the students where to look in the sky to see the gamma ray burst. It was in a galaxy over 9.4 billion light years away, and was fading, but the intense light could still be seen through the telescopes. “And there you have it,” Professor Nakamura said, noting the somewhat awed silence. It truly was a magnificent sight to behold. “I’ll see you next lesson. Don’t forget to continue doing your readings,” he instructed as the students already began to leave.
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Roleplay the lesson.

 

[Elio Boneheart]

As far as classes went, Astronomy was one of those that you either liked or didn’t like. It wasn’t his favourite, but he liked it well enough. He took notes carefully as the professor talked about gamma ray bursts and how they effected magic and the world at large. It was always interesting to hear the magical perspective on things, but he didn’t know much about the muggle perspective on these things either, he didn’t know any muggles. He yawned when Nakamura mentioned that they would be heading to the telescopes, already getting tired. He would have thought this would be easier after two years, but no such luck, he was just glad he didn’t have to walk as far up as Mikael. Elio adjusted his telescope when they were told where to look and could see the faint but unmistakable death of a star. Millions of light years away - billions probably. They were lucky that thing wasn’t close, if he could see it like this it must be massive.​

 

[Savannah Walters]

Savannah walked into the astronomy classroom and took her spot in the room. She took out her books and notes and began writing down what the professor was saying about the GRBs. Making sure that she didn’t miss anything that th eprofessor was telling them about it. She was curious to see it, so was happy to put away the note sand books and go the telescope to be able to see it. She thought it was cool to see, and then they were dismissed after looking. It was good fun, complicated but good.