Rolling in the Grass

I had a great day today! Mom and I walked with our pack.

Abbey, Molly, and our old friend Sara were in the gang. Another one of my friends joined our play. Her name is Greta. She is a German Shepherd.

Sara feels a little stiff some days and has a little trouble getting up now and then. But that doesn't stop her from her favorite past time. She loves to roll in the grass! In fact, Sara made it look so fun that we had a "rolling in the grass" party!

Don't you just love spending a beautiful spring day with friends?

What's Next?

The Hubble telescope changed the way we look at our universe. So what's next?

NASA is working on an even more powerful telescope. The James Webb telescope will launch in 2014. The Webb will be able to see the fartherest and earliest galaxies in our universe.

The new telescope weighs six tons. It is the size of a tennis court. Scientists from 18 countries are working together to build the Webb. After years of design, they began building parts for the telescope in 2002.

NASA will launch the Webb telescope on an Ariane 5 rocket. The Ariane 5 rocket is about the size of the space shuttle. The Webb will fold up inside the rocket's cargo area.

Once the Webb reaches into space, it will separate from the rocket. The telescope will travel a month before it reaches its new home. As it travels, it will open up like a butterfly when it nears its orbit.

For more information about the Webb telescope, visit http://webbtelescope.org/webb_telescope/

To build a model of the James Webb Telescope, go to http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/model/assembly_parts_pages_final.pdf

Model instructions can be found at http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/model/jwst_model_instructions_final.pdf

Photo of Webb telescope model courtesy NASA.

Hubble, the Time Machine

In many ways, the Hubble telescope is a time machine. Amazingly, because light travels at a constant speed, Hubble has bee able to look back in time.

Because of the Hubble telescope, scientists have learned that special stars die at a certain rate of speed. Scientists programmed Hubble to take photos of these special stars in 18 different galaxies. Using the information, scientists now believe that our universe began 13.7 billion years ago.

The Hubble has helped us to see how the universe looked millions of years ago. Hubble's discoveries have allowed us to see how stars are born. We have also learned how stars die.

To learn more about Hubble's deep space images, go to http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/print/lithos/hudf_litho.pdf

See Hubble images here http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/
This photo of a star being born is courtesy NASA.

Congratulations, NASA!

Photo of God's Eye Helix Nebula courtesy NASA.

Twenty years ago, NASA launched the Hubble telescope into orbit. It rode aboard space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. This space observatory has given us some fabulous images. In the process, the Hubble telescope has changed how we understand our universe.

Astronauts have serviced the Hubble five times. In dramatic space walks, astronauts replaced lenses and upgraded systems. After the last servicing space walk in May 2009, Hubbel is 100 times more powerful than when it was originally launched.

In 20 years of discovery, Hubble has taken images of 30,000 objects in space. Hubble has snapped over 570,000 photos. It has reached over 12 billion light years into our enormous universe. Congratulations, NASA!

For Hubble's top scientific findings, go to http://hubblesite.org/hubble_20/downloads/hubble_topscience_lo-res.pdf

To build a paper model of the Hubble telescope, go to http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hand-held_hubble/pdf/pattern-intermediate.pdf. Directions to build the model are at http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hand-held_hubble/pdf/directions-intermediate.pdf

For more interesting facts about the Hubble telescope, visit http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/hubble_20

You can visit Hubble's award-winning website at http://hubblesite.org/

You can also check out this great book from the library:  Space, Stars, and the Beginning of Time:  What the Hubble Telescope Saw, by Elaine Scott

Playing Possum

One of the most wacky wild creatures in the United States is the possum. The possum is related to the kangaroo. Like the kangaroo, a mother possum raises her babies in a pouch on her tummy. The possum is the only marsupial (pouched) mammal in the United States.

Possums are not the most beautiful animals. Their ears and tail are hairless. They have coarse grey over the rest of their body. They have pink noses. Their head looks a little like a fox. Their body is shaped more like a raccoon. They are about the size of a house cat.

Possum babies are no bigger than a dime when they are born. As soon as they are born, the babies crawl into their mother's pouch and live there for seven to ten weeks.

Possums like the night. They eat almost anything, including rats, frogs, pet food, fruit, grass, and nuts.

Possums are really very harmless creatures. The most interesting thing about possums is what happens when they are afraid. When a possum is afraid, he first hisses and bares his teeth. If that doesn't scare his predator away, the possum goes limp and pretends to be dead. A possum plays dead so that his predator will leave him alone. As soon as the threat is gone, the possum makes its escape.

When I was young, I retrieved a baby possum that I found in our yard. I took him to Mom. I thought that he was dead. Mom put the possum under some bushes. We watched him from inside the house. In about 15 minutes, the baby possum got up and walked away.

Another interesting fact about possums is that they do not get rabies. Their body temperature is too low to become infected with the disease.

The possum in this photo was found injured. Some wildlife rehabilitator friends of ours helped the possum to get healthy again. Mom took this picture the day that the possum was released back into the wild.

For more information about possums, go to http://www.volunteersforwildlife.org/downloads/fact_sheets/opos.pdf

Wonderful Earth

Today is earth day. Earth is our home in our universe. Earth must be the most wonderful home of all.

Earth is an exceptional planet. It has just the right atmosphere and temperature to support life. It has water. It has a moon that stabalizes earth's rotation. Earth has many special features. All of these things together make earth the only place we know where people, plants, and animals can live and grow.

All of these things make earth the most wild, wacky, and wonderful planet of all! We must work to protect earth to keep it clean and vibrant.

For information about earth, go to http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/62209main_Earth_Lithograph.pdf

For a great earth day activity, go to http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftp_docs/2009Earth_Day_Booklet.pdf

Photo courtesy NASA.

Wild about Wildflowers!

Every spring, Texas wildflowers blanket our state. Fields, meadows, and highway medians sport a rainbow of colors. My favorite wildflower is the Texas bluebonnet. (See photo.)

About 40 years ago, wildflowers began to disappear. One of America's first ladies helped to bring wildflowers back. She started a project in Texas to plant wildflower seeds along the highways. Her name was Lady Bird Johnson.

People asked Mrs. Johnson why she wanted to bring more wildflowers to Texas.

She said, "Some may wonder why I chose wildflowers when there are hunger and unemployment and the big bomb in the world. Well, I, for one, think we will survive, and I hope that along the way we can keep alive our experience with the flowering earth. For the bounty of nature is also one of the deep needs of man."

Wildflowers aren't just beautiful. They also help our environment. They help to conserve water and protect the soil. They offer birds, butterflies, and wildlife habitat and food. If you would like to learn more about wildflowers and Lady Bird Johnson, go to http://www.wildflower.org/

Now many other states have begun their own wildflower projects.

I'm wild about wildflowers! Are you?

Go here for wildflower coloring pages: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/kids/coloring/colorwildflowers.shtml

You can find another great wildflower coloring page at http://www.nps.gov/plants/color/txhill/index.htm

Here's a fun activity! Make your own wildflower bookmark. For instructions, go to http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/kids/activities/bookmark.shtml