toppings, to enhance your viewing pleasure.
Here’s something to think about while you’re enjoying your special slice. What if the sun was a pizza, and SNACK
the Earth was one of the toppings? Which topping would be as wide across as our planet?
ATTACK:
If the sun were a 36-centimetre (14 in) pizza, the Earth MOVIE
would be a . . .
a) tomato slice
TIME
b) pepperoni slice
c) hot chili pepper seed
d) grain of salt
147
Solar Pizza
If the sun were a 36-centimetre (14 in) pizza, the Earth A
would be a . . .
a) tomato slice
b) pepperoni slice
SNACK
c) hot chili pepper seed
d) grain of salt
ATTACK:
MOVIE
CORRECT ANSWER:
c) hot chili pepper seed
TIME
If the sun is a pizza 36 centimetres (14 in) across, then our planet is a chili pepper seed in comparison.
The sun’s diameter is about 109 times that of the Earth. If you lined up 109 chili pepper seeds with a diameter of 3.3 millimetres (0.13 in), they’d form a row about 36 centimetres (14 in) long. If the tomato slice were the planet, the pizza would have to be about 5.5 metres (18 ft) across! The pepperoni slice is also too big. If it represented the earth, the sun pizza would be more than 3 metres (11 ft) in diameter. A regular grain of salt is way too small to be the Earth, but if we’re talking about a grain of coarse salt, about 1 millimetre (0.04 in) across, it could stand in for the moon.
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:31 AM Page 148
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:31 AM Page 149
THE MEN ON THE MOON
Footprints in the Moondust
Apollo 11 was about half a minute away from poten-Q
tial disaster during the first moon landing. On July 20, 1969, the lunar module, Eagle, came close to running out of fuel while the astronauts searched for a safe place to land. They touched down in the Sea of Tranquility in the nick of time. About six and a half hours later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon. In 1972, Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt were the last. Twenty-nine astronauts flew in Apollo spacecraft, and of those, twenty-four flew around the moon, but not all of them landed. Have you ever wondered how many sets of footprints there are on the moon?
How many men have left their footprints on the moon?
a) 7
b) 11
c) 12
d) 14
149
Footprints in the Moondust
How many men have left their footprints on the moon?
A
a) 7
b) 11
c) 12
THE
d) 14
MEN
ON
THE
CORRECT ANSWER:
c) 12
MOON
A dozen men have left their footprints on the moon.
Of that lucky 12, six also got to ride in lunar rovers.
Their footprints and moon buggy tracks should still be there now, and could remain intact for millions of years to come, barring unforeseen cosmic or lunar events, or moon tourists. The men who left tracks on the moon were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Dave Scott, Jim Irwin, John W. Young, Charlie Duke, Gene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt, who was the
only scientist of the 12. If all goes according to plan, humans should be back on the moon by 2020, about 50 years after the last astronauts left their footprints behind.
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SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:31 AM Page 151
Moon Buggies
Can you imagine being the first to drive a car where Q
no man had driven before — on the surface of the moon? What a rush! It wasn’t exactly a car though. It was a lunar rover, called, somewhat unimaginatively, THE
Rover-1. Two happy astronauts were the first to drive MEN
a moon buggy to work. They could zip along at top speeds of 10 to 11 km/h (5.5 to 6 mph) on flat areas, ON
but had to slow down to half that speed on turns and THE
while driving over craters.
MOON
Who was the first astronaut to drive on the moon?
a) Buzz Aldrin
b) Neil Armstrong
c) Dave Scott
d) John Young
151
Moon Buggies
Who was the first astronaut to drive on the moon?
A
a) Buzz Aldrin
b) Neil Armstrong
c) Dave Scott
THE
d) John
Karl F. Stifter
Kristen Painter
Mary Daheim
Annie Haynes
Monica Doke
Leslie Charteris
Alexandra Horowitz
Unknown
George G. Gilman
Theresa L. Henry