Piner High School STEAM Certificate

Level 1 Response

Angel Arreguin

Presentation topic/film: Volcanoes in the Solar System

Presenter: Kurt Kruger

Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024

Location: SPARQ planetarium

Presentation Summary:

On February 22, 2024, I attended a STEM cafe at Piner High School's planetarium. Mr
Kruger, our presenter and a science instructor, briefly described volcanoes, and
whether they exist in our solar system. Mr. Kruger spoke on the planets Mercury,
Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and a couple of their moons. The traditional
volcano that most people think about is a mountain with a caldera on top expelling
either ash or lava. But a volcano may also be a fissure on a planet shooting liquid core.
Identifying volcanoes in the solar system is difficult based on the pictures we have from
space crafts especially when using a 2dementinal picture. Yet with these pictures, we
can identify some real volcanoes. Shadows are used to identify whether holes, bumps,
or other attractive features on the plants are volcanoes, craters, or calderas. Mr. Kruger
used shadows and information already known from each planet to determine if there
could be any possible kind of volcanoes. As an example, Venus. Venus is the hottest
planet in our atmosphere, with a runaway greenhouse effect leading the planet to have
a thick atmosphere with a thick cloud deck so we are not able to see its surface. All of
these factors could be a possibility of existing volcanoes on Venus since volcanoes
release lots of types of gasses into the atmosphere. It is 100% sure that there are
volcanoes on Mars, the Moon, Venus, Mercury, and the moons of Jupiter, Io, and
Europa. I gained lots of new knowledge from this talk, I learned about volcanoes and
that the thickness of the lava dictates what the future will look like. For instance, if it is
thick you normally get a high volcano, and if it is thin it will be runny and it has a super
wide base. Something very new and interesting that I also learned is that we humans
are only able to see one side of the moon due to the orbital rotation of the moon being
exactly the same as the orbit around the earth, so we only and will forever see just one
side. On the date of the STEM cafe, a lander landed on the moon. The information
currently known was that the lander held six experiments from NASA, as well as a
bunch of other private experiments. I found this very cool and intriguing since the
experiments are for things to help us take future missions to the moon since the goal is
to get humans back to the moon before humans can go to Mars.

Reflection:

Returning to my second STEM cafe I felt very comfortable and safe. The people there
were very friendly and professional. They really enhanced my experience in the sense
that they were very engaging and polite while learning and listening to Mr. Kruger. I
specifically waited for this STEM cafe topic for the reason that I am extremely
interested in volcanoes because I know that Hawaii was formed by them and is now a
beautiful place to travel to and is a US state. I find volcanoes very interesting because
they have lots of power, which could be for good or bad. They created life from what
was nothing but water. But they can also destroy life permanently. I learned so much
which brought up new career options. This talk encouraged me to think critically about
the possible career options that could be possible. Becoming an engineer or part of
NASA would be a really fun and different experience. Chipping in to create landers,
robots, and equipment for NASA would be really incredible. Creating these machines
would bring great advancement in technology and would allow astronauts and
someday even people to explore different planets. This technology would be very
useful by allowing scientists to examine more of the plants to determine what qualities
exist in that plant. It would help identify life, volcanoes, craters… From my perspective,
I feel like this career path would be a perfect match for me. I am an explorer and
adventurer. I like exploring different things, trying new things, and creating new things.
Building or designing robots for NASA will put all of my liking into a fun and
professional job. Another career option would be a futurist or historian. These people
work to find how different things will determine how the future will look like, how it
impacted the past, and how it impacts the present and will impact the future. As Mr.
Kruger stated the lava of volcanoes will determine the shape of the volcano. This is
important because knowing these types of small information will help in the future
when knowing the risks that are possible so knowing these factors will help prepare for
what is yet to come since we can not interfere with nature. Although I learned a lot
about volcanoes and other related subjects this talk left me with some curiosity. I
wonder how NASA can make robots and control them from Earth while the robot is in
space? I also wonder: In what ways are the volcanoes in the solar system different from
the volcanoes here on Earth, and what significant effect have they caused to the plants
and possible life?

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