1. How do the motions of Earth affect our lives?

The rotation of the Earth affects life in different ways. It causes day and night, which
makes organisms to have to adjust when to have their activities. Second, the axis of
rotation of the Earth is tilted about 22-24 degrees. The tilt of the axis of rotation causes
the seasons. When the axis is tilted towards the Sun, the northern hemisphere has
summer (and the southern winter); when the axis is tilted away from the Sun, then you
have winter in the northern hemisphere (summer in the southern). The tilt of the axis is
not fixed and varies a little bit every 41,000 years. The axis of rotation also wobbles (it
rotates) every 26,000 years. The rotation of the Earth around the Sun is elliptical and a
also changes how elliptical it is with a cycle of 100,000 years. The rotation of the Earth,
and changes in the way it rotates on its own axis and around the Sun affect climate on
Earth and how organisms must adjust in their daily activities.
2. Where am I in the universe?
The universe is expanding from wherever you are. Put another way, every point in
the physical universe is expanding away from every other point. In this regard, you are
the center of the universe, and so am I. Of course, it may be more accurate to state that
the universe has no ‘center’ and that makes our universe even cooler and more
mysterious. For most practical purposes, and polite conversation, you can simply assume
“yes” you (the observer) are the center of the universe - defining “the universe” as “the
observable universe” which is an observational bubble… a spherical volume, centered on
a given observer and extending out to the distance to which light can have traveled since
the beginning of cosmological expansion.
The caveat being that no matter where you are in the universe, you are at the
center. Every point in the universe has it’s own observable universe. If you are standing
on a rooftop in Los Angeles, you are the center of the universe - if you were to
hypothetically teleport instantaneously to a planet a million light years distant from Los
Angeles, you are again at the center of the universe, even though your perspective has
radically changed. The implication of this statement is of course that the universe has no
center and thus any discrete point in it, is indistinguishable from any other point … but for
the purposes of explanation you can assert that since there is no center, any point CAN
be A center, and therefore you, the observer - are the center of the universe. There are
points of light and matter outside the observable universe - but the light emitted by these
things will never reach Earth - it is literally impossible to ever interact with, influence or
observe them - though we know they exist- they are forever causally disconnected from
us. Therefore most non-cosmologists are perfectly comfortable defining “The Universe”
as “the observable universe” … and under this definition you are the center … but then
again, so is the person asking you.
3. How was the changing technology increased our understanding of the universe?
We have all seen pictures of the lovely globe of Earth as seen from space. Some of the
first of these pictures were taken by the astronauts of the Apollo Moon program. They
described how it felt to see the entire Earth at once, our sparkling colorful planet with its
delicate blanket of air and clouds, out there all alone, floating in the blackness of space.
The images of Earth that have been sent back by far-away spacecraft such as Voyager
and Galileo on their way to other planets in our solar system have suggested to us even
more powerfully how small, fragile, and beautiful is our home. It is very important to the
future of life on our planet to understand how what we do affects the delicate balance of
the environment. Using information from satellites, we are beginning to understand how
pollution from our cars, factories, and even household products affects our atmosphere.
For example, we know that certain kinds of air pollution destroy some of the ozone high
up in the atmosphere. That ozone protects us and other living things from the Sun's
harmful ultraviolet rays. Satellites have shown that the ozone is disappearing over some
parts of Earth. So, we know that we must find and use chemicals that are less damaging
to our atmosphere. We use satellites to predict the weather. We may not be able to
change the weather, but having an idea ahead of time what it's likely to do gives us the
chance to prepare. The two GOES satellites, stationed high over the east and west coasts
of the United States, let us track hurricanes and other storms as they develop. Having
this view from space gives people enough warning of dangerous weather to prepare and
even evacuate vulnerable areas where a hurricane might hit. Two other satellites,
TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1, have been studying the oceans. They have helped us to
understand the complex movement of ocean water and to make long-term weather
predictions. Because the oceans store a lot of heat, they have a great effect on the
weather. These satellites have observed the event known as El Niño, in which unusually
warm water collects in the Pacific Ocean near South America causing very heavy rain in
some parts of the world and drought in others. Some remote parts of our planet are almost
impossible to keep an eye on except from space. Frequent satellite images of a rainforest
can show how fast this precious habitat is shrinking. Views from space of the North and
South Poles allow us to monitor the shrinking of ice sheets-important indicators of global
warming and possible flooding of coastal regions.
Satellites that study Earth are not just fancy cameras in space. Many of them have special
instruments that measure light that our eyes cannot see and can reveal important
information such as the height of the oceans all over Earth, or the wind speed inside
clouds. An instrument on a spacecraft called Earth Observing 1 is so sensitive to color
that it can distinguish between different types of trees in the forest and show where trees
might be diseased. Other instruments can measure the height and thickness of clouds
and how much water they contain.
Space technology has helped us understand how Earth works and how we can help keep
it healthy.