War in Space

War in Space

By Sydney B.

The new source of almost everything humans rely on nowadays lies in space. Satellites orbit around Earth and allow for communication, entertainment, business, monitoring and much more. They are so important that the US has spent over 5 billion dollars enhancing the space programs to keep them strong and secure.

Imagine the world with no communication: no way of calling someone miles away, no way of watching online videos. To some, this seems apocalyptic.

This is what could happen if countries start attacking each other via satellites, possibly knocking out vital sources for government, potentially forcing the country into chaos.

This is a definite possibility and is predicted to be the next “World War 3”. But, not having Netflix is not the biggest concern.

Space junk, one big problem, is sometimes caused by parts of space machines broken off or failed missile launch that may have destroyed satellites. This type of floating debris can end up damaging satellites, which would have a significant impact on a country’s economy and community.

There are also now satellites that are being designed to sabotage and inspect other satellites. This would be a main aggravator that could lead to a war in space.

Although this is concerning, there are measures being taken to slow down or even prevent this type of thing. Besides giving the issue finances, there has also been efforts to make treaties that would ban space weapons, although they still need work. There have also been efforts to clean up space.

Overall, a war in space would not be a surprise with today’s advancements and technologies. If that issue does come about, humans will have to deal with it in the safest way possible.

More info-

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/war-in-space-may-be-closer-than-ever/

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html

https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question22.html

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What is Dark Matter?

By Sydney B.

Everyone has heard of the term dark matter at one point in their lives whether they knew what it meant or not. Although some people might just see it as a cool name for some stuff in space, it’s much more than that.

According to NASA, dark matter is a type of matter that makes up 27% of the universe, the rest being made of dark energy and normal matter. To actually define dark matter is a tough job because of what scientists know about it. They know more of what dark matter is not than what it is.

First of all, dark matter is not antimatter. Antimatter is a type of matter that does not exist in our universe. Scientists know this about dark matter because it does not have any of the distinct properties of dark matter, which includes gamma radiation being released when antimatter gets destroyed with normal matter. Scientists also know that dark matter isn’t anything that they can detect because of our lack of ability to detect it. One thing that they do know about dark matter, is that it’s dark.

Dark matter, however, should not be confused with dark energy. Dark energy makes up 68% of the universe and it is known as a property of space. The space that stretches outside of our galaxy and outside of all the galaxies surrounding it and even farther than this possesses dark energy. This theory was presented by Albert Einstein who said that as our universe expands and fills up space that contains the dark energy, that space will continue going out. Meaning our universe is never ending and will keep expanding.

Basically, dark matter and dark energy are mysterious and even scientists know hardly anything about it. Possibly getting closer to an explanation is exciting and worth the buzz of news.

More information- https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy

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What it Takes to be an Aspiring Author

By Sydney B.

With our population being past seven billion, the cold hard truth is one single person can have an extremely difficult time causing any sort of dent in our society. Many popular books that we know off the top of our heads such as The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling are the top goals of many young and adult authors. But, many people don’t know that many of these books that are “making it big” are ridiculously lucky.

Many times when publishing a book, authors have to submit and make revisions multiple times. Our beloved Harry Potter series had to go through many rejections before getting into print. J.K. Rowling got rejected by twelve companies before her book got excepted for publishing. To be an author, persistence, skill, and luck are needed more than anything.

Many publishing companies will turn someone down if they have any mistakes and/or “uninteresting” content. Even the process to get a book out to publishing companies can be rigorous and challenging. Most editing companies reject 99.5% of everything they see, which can seem scary to many aspiring authors.

If looking at more broad statistics, about 65,000 books are published every year. About two thirds of them are textbooks or professional books, leaving only about 12,000 left for other authors to publish. Only a few of these 12,000 can “make it big”. So, becoming an author requires knowledge, stubbornness, and pure luck. All authors should take this into consideration and make sure they are ready for the commitment.

Sources:

Dietrich, William. "The Writer's Odds Of Success". The Huffington Post, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-dietrich/the-writers-odds-of-succe_b_2806611.html.

Emmett, Rita. "Rita Emmett - What Are The Odds Of Getting Published?". Ritaemmett.Com, 2017, http://www.ritaemmett.com/articles/what-are-the-odds.htm.

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Quiz: What Book Character Are You?

By Rebecca F.

This book character quiz consists of a variety of questions, with a surplus of character outcomes. 

If you do not see the embedded quiz above, please click on the link below.

What Book Character Are You?

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