Goddard Glossary: Wanderers

Narration: Katy Mersmann

Transcript:

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When you hear that it's

time to study wanderers,

do you grab your telescope

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or your microscope?

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Here at NASA, the answer

could be both.

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The names of two things

we study -- planets and

plankton --

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come from the same

Greek root word planetes,

which means wanderer.

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They're both named for

their tendency to move,

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although at vastly

different scales.

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We can watch other planets

in our solar system move

across our night

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sky because they orbit

the Sun at different

speeds than Earth.

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Plankton, on the other hand,

are tiny ocean organisms

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that move through the water

to feed or photosynthesize.

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Plankton are responsible

for the largest migration

on Earth,

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sinking deeper into

the ocean at night

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and then rising back closer to

the surface where there's more

sunlight by day.

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At NASA, we have whole

missions dedicated to

studying other planets

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in our solar system

and even those around

other stars.

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We're also gearing

up to launch PACE,

a satellite

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that will study plankton

to better monitor

the health of our ocean

and our planet.