Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book, “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry” is an exciting and easy to read guide to the universe and how it works. While reading this book, I found many interesting topics that made me want to read more. Some of these topics include dark energy, the difference between planets, and how we explore the earth and space. In this project, I will explain why I chose these topics, what I discovered about them, and how learning about them helps me understand the book better. I chose to learn about dark energy because I had heard about it before and thought it sounded really interesting. I wanted to understand what dark energy actually is and why scientists talk about it so much.Dark energy is a force that makes the universe expand …show more content…
I wanted to find out more about what makes each planet special and different: The planets in our solar system are very different from each other. For example, Earth is the only planet with liquid water and has an atmosphere that can support life. Mars is a Red Planet. It has the biggest volcano in the solar system called Olympus Mons and it might have had water in the past. Jupiter is the largest planet and has a giant storm called the Great Red Spot. Tyson said "Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a storm twice the size of Earth that has been raging for at least 150 years" (Tyson, p. 42).Each planet has different things based on how far it is from the Sun, how big it is and what it is made of. For example, Venus is the hottest planet because it has a thick atmosphere made mostly of carbon dioxide, not even though it’s not the closest to the Sun. Tyson said, "Mars has polar ice caps that contain both water and dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide), and the planet’s surface shows signs of ancient river valleys" (Tyson, p. 46). Learning about the differences between planets helps me understand how unique Earth is. It also shows how interesting our solar system is, with each planet having its own special thing and