Chapters Eleven and Twelve

Chapter Eleven:
Chapter 11 begins with the mystery of Venus. Long before we knew that Venus was a planet, people referred to it as the evening and morning star. When telescopes were invented, it was discovered to be a planet. Venus is a tough planet to look at because it is covered in a thick cloud of sulfuric acid. In fact, there are no breaks in this acid atmosphere to even see Venus's surface. All light that is shown on Venus just gets scattered. A technique that did prove to be effective was the use of radar to map Venus's landscape. The radar waves bounced off the surface and were returned and thus interpreted by the amount of time it took for the wave to return. The start of this exploration of Venus was due to Mariner 2 spacecraft. It gave us some of the first radio data as well as observing the clouds in the infrared spectrum. You could say that it is the tool of astronomy that brought about the exploration of planets. Today, it orbits the sun and will continue to do so.
Chapter Twelve:
Twelve beings with a topic that has always fascinated me: Volcanos. These enormous pits of lava resemble mountains and can be lush environments for many animals and plants. However, they can also cause mass amounts of destruction at any time. The crater of the volcano is called the caldera. One of the most famous eruptions was Mt. Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii. Another reference to the ancient gods, volcanos were named after Vulcan, a Roman god. Underneath volcanos are pits of volcanic rock, melted into the lava that is spewed out at about 1000 degrees Celsius. Volcanos tend to form in areas were to plates come together. But why is the Earth's core so hot? There are two parts. Radioactive elements produce heat as they decay and Earth still holds some of the "original heat" from when it was formed. This is what cases the lava to heat up so much. Volcanos are formed from countless lava spews until the lava can no longer reach to top of the volcano.