Astronomy ~ Thirdies

Valerie was glad she was back to school and was glad she was coming back to her favorite class. Valerie walked in and wasn't surprised Belinda wasn't here. She was glad her sister wasn't here on one sense. Valerie took a seat.

Bridget walked into Astronomy and saw Valerie already there. "Valerie! How was your summer" Bridget asked sitting next to her. Bridget missed her and Belinda. She was waiting for when she came back to school to see her dearest friends again.

Valerie heard Bridget's voice and smiled at her friend. "Bridget! My summer was good. Visited family, went to the mall, ran places" Valerie was usually more fun so it surprised her that she didn't really do a lot of things in the summer.

Colin walked into the classroom, giving both students a kind smile and a nod.

"Hello, Welcome back, I trust that you all had a good summer, now however it is time to get back to work."

"This year we begin on our exploration of the planets. As is logical, we'll begin with the planet closest to the sun. Does anyone know anything about Mercury?"

Valerie heard someone else come in and thought it was a student and turned to see the professor. Valerie paid attention. She thought about the question for a moment and raised her hand. "Well Mercury is closer to the sun but it is also said to be the smallest in the solar system. Mercury orbits the sun in 88 days" Valerie answered.

Colin nodded his head, "Thank you, Ms. McGuoirk, yes Mercury is the planet closest to the sun, however it is not the hotest planet. That is in fact Venus, which we will be talking about at a later date."

"As the smallest planet, Mercury does not have any moons, its pull not strong enough to hold any other space materal. That being said Mercury is a very rocky planet, its surface much like that of our own moon. Does anyone know the leading theories on why this is? Oh dear, but it looks like we're out of time, so that question will be yours to answer for homework. Please excuse yourselves."

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