Book Tour: The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole
Michelle Cuevas’s novel, The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole, follows Stella Rodriguez on an emotional adventure. Learn more about the science phenomena and historical moments mentioned throughout the book with this Lit League Book Tour!
Chapter 1
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, is America’s civil space program. Stella visits a NASA Center in Chapter 1. Learn more about NASA’s innovative history and exciting new programs on their website. Sagan is known for his research involving extraterrestrial life and was involved in assembling the Voyager Golden Record.
Carl Sagan
When Stella goes to NASA, she is looking for Carl Sagan, the American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, and astrobiologist. He is best known for his research on extraterrestrial life and for helping to assemble the Voyager Golden Record.
Chaos Theory & The Butterfly Effect
Chaos Theory is a branch of mathematics and a science theory that looks at how complex systems behave unpredictably. The butterfly effect is a principle of chaos theory outlined by mathematician Edward Lorenz. The butterfly effect illustrates how complicated systems can be impacted by small changes, such as the flapping wings of a butterfly.
Voyager Spacecraft
The Voyager spacecraft have been exploring space for over 40 years. Voyager 2 blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 20th, 1977; Voyager 1 launched weeks later on September 5th. Though they had different missions, both are now in interstellar space and both carry a copy of the Voyager Golden Record.
Chapter 3
The Milky Way
The Milky Way is a disk galaxy that includes our solar system. Made of dust, gas and hundreds of billions of stars. Like our Sun, most of those stars have at least one planet that orbits them. The Milky Way is visible from Earth as a hazy band of white light, which is how it got its name.
Black Hole
A black hole is a spot in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape. Scientists believe that all galaxies have supermassive black holes at their center. Sagittarius A is the name of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Black holes are formed when large stars collapse at the end of their life cycles.
Voyager Golden Record
In 1977, two spacecrafts were launched on a long-term mission to explore our solar system and beyond. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are currently traveling in interstellar space and carry golden records that hold messages for those who might live beyond Earth. Each record contains images, sounds, music, and greetings in 55 languages.
Chapter 5
Singularity
A gravitational or spacetime singularity is the center of a black hole where the gravity is thought to be so intense that spacetime itself it breaks down. At this point, space, time, and the laws of physics would cease to exist.
Chapter 6
Constellations
Stella and her father create constellations on her ceiling with glow in the dark stars. A constellation is a cluster of stars that create an imaginary shape in the night sky.
Chapter 7
Proton
Atoms are the very small pieces of matter that are the building blocks for everything in the universe. Protons are one of the three basic parts of an atom.
Science Jokes
Stella and her dad love corny science jokes. Do you know any science jokes? Click the button below for a list of science-themed jokes.
Chapter 19
Event Horizon
The term “event horizon” is used to refer to the the boundary on the edge of a black hole. Once an object passes the event horizon, it cannot escape. Even light shown within the event horizon cannot be seen by an observer outside of the black hole. In every day use, the “event horizon” means “past the point of no return.”