01x13 - The Grandest Canyon/A Visit to the Planetarium

[bunniefuu]

[together] Ready! Jet! Go!

- ♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

♪ That's his name ♪

♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

♪ He'll rocket to fame ♪

♪ When he arrived, he created a buzz ♪

♪ 'Cause there was no house ♪

♪ And then there was, he said ♪

- ♪ People of Earth! You ain't seen nothing yet! ♪

♪ I'm from Bortron , and my name is Jet! ♪

- ♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

♪ That's his name ♪

♪ He looks like us ♪

♪ But he isn't the same ♪

- ♪ I'm a space tripper and a galaxy crosser ♪

♪ My parents brought me here in a flying saucer ♪

- ♪ And just to prove it was a fact ♪

♪ He flew them out to space and back ♪

♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

[spaceship whirring]

- ♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

[together] Ready! Jet! Go!

- ♪ He showed up, and now it's a blast ♪

♪ Looks like the future really got here fast ♪

- ♪ Nice to meet you, human race ♪

♪ Tell me all about the place ♪

- Jet Propulsion!

- Jet Propulsion!

- Jet Propulsion!

all: Ready! Jet! Go!

- Here, Dad! Over the shoulder!

Yah!

- Ooh! Ha ha!

Back at ya,

around the world,

and clockwise, huh!

- Hey, I see the Petersens pulling up.

- Wonder where they've been.

Hmm, they've been gone for a few days.

Let's go say hello. - Good idea, Dad.

Sunspot!

- Uh.

Do you ever get the feeling there's something

he's not telling us?

- All the time, Dad.

All the time.

- Hi, Petersens! Welcome back.

- Ah, thank you, Propulsion.

It's good to be back.

Put 'er there.

- This? Uh, oh, here you go.

- Eh?

- So, where'd you guys go last week?

- Only the best family vacation ever.

Oh, I tell you, Propulsion, you haven't been anywhere

until you've been to the Grand Canyon.

- Hmm, is that right?

- Absolutely.

You have been there, haven't you?

- Hmm. The Grand Canyon.

No, no, no. Can't say that I have.

- No kidding. Here.

Take a look at these pictures.

- Pictures? Ha ha!

I'm learning so much about vacations

from you, Mr. Petersen.

- Please, Propulsion. We're friends.

Call me "Petersen."

Oh, we had a great time.

Even did the whole "matching hat" thing.

- Brilliant!

I bet no one's ever thought of that before!

Ha ha!

- Jet, is is true that

you've never been to the Grand Canyon?

- Nope, I'm not even sure

what the Grand Canyon is.

- It's only the biggest canyon in the world,

carved by water over millions of years.

That's all.

- Oh, is that all?

- It's amazing.

If you haven't been to the Grand Canyon,

you haven't been anywhere.

Look at these.

- Wow, that is something.

And then, Mitchell said,

"Until you've been to the Grand Canyon,

you haven't been anywhere."

- That's exactly what Mr. Petersen said to me.

- Are you two thinking

what I'm thinking?

- Anywhere, here we come!

[laughing]

- Oh, where are you off to, neighbor?

- We're taking an "Earth-style" vacation.

- Well, I figured that out, Propulsion.

Need a hand with those suitcases?

- No, no thanks. They're empty.

Much easier to lift.

- Empty suitcases?

Huh, it's either wacky or genius.

- Thanks for inviting us along

to the Grand Canyon, Mrs. Propulsion.

- Oh, it's our pleasure, kids.

And with our wagon,

we'll be back in time for dinner.

- Sorry you can't go with us, Mindy.

- That's okay. I've got my own plans.

My friend Lillian's coming over,

and we're gonna dig our own Grand Canyon right here.

- That's a great idea, Mindy.

But the Grand Canyon is very deep.

- I know, but there's two of us digging.

See you later.

- That Mindy is one determined kid.

- Yup, she kind of reminds me

of a young me.

- Sean, you still are a young you.

- Ready, everyone? - Yeah!

- Sure! - You bet!

- You know, guys, after all the space travel,

it's kind of refreshing to be going somewhere local.

- Um, Sean?

- And lucky for us,

I know all about the Grand Canyon.

Did you know that you could literally fit

billions and billions of crayons in it?

- Sean?

- You see, my family went there last year,

so if you want, I could even be your tour guide.

- Uh, Sean?

- Yeah, Jet?

- We were thinking, since we're travel writers,

we wanted to find not just the Grand Canyon

but the grandest canyon for our vacation.

- I don't get it.

The Grand Canyon's over ten miles wide.

And it's over a mile deep.

What could be grander than the Grand Canyon?

- Valles Marineris.

- Valles Marineris?

That doesn't sound like an Earth name.

And that doesn't look like an Earth map.

- Valles Marineris is the grandest canyon

in the whole solar system.

- That's right, Valles Marineris

is the "Grand Canyon" of Mars!

- Mars?

But wait, I didn't pack my--

- ♪ Five, four, three, two, one ♪

♪ Doors are shut, engines on ♪

♪ Everybody in their place ♪

♪ Let's go into outer space ♪

[together] Ready! Jet! Go!

[jet engines revving]

[jet engines whooshing]

[jet engines whirring]

- Greetings, kids.

I see we're both taking vacations.

- We are? Where are you?

- Even faces need vacations.

I've been at Face Camp all week.

- Face Camp? - How does that work?

- The horseback riding was a challenge,

but now I'm learning ceramics.

See?

- Um, nice.

We wanted to learn about Valles Marineris on Mars.

- So, you want to know about

the grandest canyon in the solar system?

Well, I've got time before face painting starts.

Eh, actually, that sounds kind of messy.

- Uh, well, why don't you come along with us instead?

You could give us all the facts.

- I guess I could.

I'll tell my counselor.

[spaceship whooshing]

- Well, here we are: Mars.

- Whoo-hoo!

[laughter]

- Face, I was wondering.

How can Mars and Earth both have Grand Canyons?

- Excellent question, Sydney.

These Grand Canyons on Earth and on Mars

formed billions of years ago,

from movement in the top layer of the planet.

They started out as cracks, but over time,

got deeper and became the canyons we have now.

- So, where is this

Mars Grand Canyon we've heard about?

[computer dings]

- Face's navigational system

says right around the corner.

- I don't know.

How could it be right around the--

whoa!

[grandiose music]

♪ ♪

all: Ooh!

Ahh!

- Sean, is this just like the Grand Canyon?

- Whoa.

It looks a lot bigger.

- Let's put it this way:

if Valles Marineris were on Earth,

it would stretch all the way across the United States,

from California to New York.

- Wow, now that's what I call a Grand Canyon!

- Valles Marineris is so big,

it can actually be seen from Earth

with a telescope.

- Cool. Who knew?

- I did, actually.

- Are you sure we're going to be able

to dig a Grand Canyon, Mindy?

- Of course.

We're doing it, aren't we?

How does it look?

- It looks like we're just

digging a regular hole.

- Lillian, it's like my friend Sydney says:

if you use your imagination today,

you won't need it tomorrow.

- Huh? - Or something like that.

Look, we've got branches and tunnels.

Water could run through here.

- Is that what makes it a canyon?

- That, and these people dolls.

Maybe it's a regular hole to you and me,

but to Jenna and Josie here, it's a Grand Canyon.

- Oh, yeah. I see it now.

- It's a very hot summer day.

We've been hiking for hours.

- I'm super tired.

- Everyone's tired.

Everyone wants water.

There's a stream at the bottom.

- A stream?

I hope it's got lemonade in it.

[slurping]

- What do you know?

It's lemonade!

- Yum!

- We should take a picture.

- Yeah, for a souvenir. Good idea.

- Whoa, the picture makes it look

like a big canyon.

- Yep, the smaller the dolls are,

the bigger the canyon looks.

- You're right, Lillian.

That's called "perspective."

- "Re-spective"?

- "Per-spective."

Don't worry, it took me a while to learn that one, too.

- Well, this vacation has been great.

Just like an Earth vacation, I'm sure.

- Yep. One last thing.

A group vacation photo.

This is a really big part of vacations on Earth.

You should see how many pictures the Petersens have.

- Remember, Dear.

This is a vacation, not a contest.

- Of course.

Okay, Sunspot. Just more.

- Ready, Sunspot?

- Wait! I just remembered.

We forgot the funny hats.

Remember all of the Petersens' pictures?

[Sunspot barks]

- Hey, this is great.

Thanks, Sunspot.

- Okay.

Smile, everyone!

- Back so soon, Propulsion?

Did you get to the Grand Canyon?

- Not quite.

We got a bit detoured and went to another canyon.

- Eh, that's okay, Propulsion.

You'll get there one day.

- Yeah, maybe we will.

Hey, you want to come over and see our pictures?

- Eh...not really.

- See?

We went to our own Grand Canyon.

- Cool, that looks just like where we went.

- Hey, come in.

My mom and dad are about to show pictures to everyone.

- [yawns]

[laughter]

- Heh, have some carrot cake?

- I don't mind if I do.

This, uh--this tastes like chocolate.

Where's the carrot?

- Right here, of course.

Did you forget my name?

- [laughs] Well, uh, whatever this is,

it is delicious.

- Show's starting.

[computer beeping]

Here we are in front of the canyon.

- How come your Grand Canyon looks bigger

than the one we went to?

- Well, you must have gotten a good angle

on that photo, Propulsion.

- Heh heh, here we are in our silly hats.

- Whoa.

Dad, how come I didn't see those in the souvenir shop?

- I thought you said you didn't get

to the Grand Canyon, Propulsion.

That looks pretty grand to me.

- Yup... all: The grandest!

[laughter]

- Have you ever heard the rhyme,

"Eenie, meenie, miney, moe,

catch a tiger by its toe"?

Hi, I'm astronomer Amy Mainzer.

Instead of catching a tiger by its toe,

we actually caught a comet by its tail.

The Stardust mission, which was managed by NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, did just that.

It actually flew through the tail

of comet Wild ,

and it used a strange substance called aerogel

to pick up pieces of the comet's tail.

Aerogel is .% air.

It weighs practically nothing.

It's almost like solidified smoke.

I have a few pieces of it here, and you can see

there's just about nothing to it.

Aerogel's got a density sort of like cotton candy,

except it's cotton candy that you can't eat.

Aerogel looks blue for the same reason

the sky looks blue.

Blue light scatters more, and that's what gives it

this unusual bluish tint.

Scientists and engineers used a piece of aerogel

just like this one to capture pieces of the comet's tail.

Stardust collected more than a million

particles of dust from the comet's tail,

and after seven years, the pod containing the aerogel

and all those incredible samples

came back to the Earth,

and that allowed us to see what comets are made of.

So the next time you hear "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe,"

instead of catching a tiger, think about catching a comet.

- Well, here we are.

The DSA: The Deep Space Array.

See those radio dishes over there?

- Yeah. What are those for?

- Scientists here use them to listen

for signals from outer space.

- Neato!

both: Hi, Don!

- Hi, Sean. Hi, Sydney.

- And you remember our friend Jet,

and Sunspot, his pet.

- Sure, I do.

Welcome to the DSA, kids,

where our curiosity is as endless as the universe.

- Thanks, Don.

- So, uh, what are y'all up to today?

- We're gonna play catch with Beep.

Go long, Sunspot!

[funky music]

♪ ♪

- Beep beep!

♪ ♪

[Sunspot barks]

all: Hey, Beep!

[robot beeping]

- How's it going?

[robot beeping]

- What? No, I don't know.

What kind of music do planets sing?

[robot beeping]

- [laughing] Nep-tunes?

That's hilarious!

[robot beeping]

all: Bye, Beep!

- So, uh, where did you say

you're from, Jet?

Boxtop ?

- Oh, uh, Bortron .

I never go to .

You can't find a decent boogel on Bortron .

- [nervous laughter]

both: Thanks, Don. Bye!

- Bye. Have fun.

- Jet, remember:

this is the Deep Space Array,

where scientists are looking into space

for signs of alien life.

- So here, it's especially important

that you not tell people that you're from another planet.

- Right. If they find out,

they'll all want to talk to you,

and then you'd become a celebrity.

- Hmm. That sounds like fun.

- But then we'd never be able to hang out with you anymore.

- Ohh! That would be bad.

Okay, then. Secret identity.

Don't tell the Earthies. Got it.

Hi, I'm a normal Earth kid.

- One step at a time, Jet.

- [laughing]

Sunspot!

Wait, what is that big, round-roofed structure thingy?

- Oh, that's our planetarium.

- "Planetarium"?

Ha, what a great Earth word!

[chuckles] What happens in there?

Do they grow planets?

[laughter]

- No, Jet. There's a domed ceiling inside.

They project a kind of movie on it.

- A movie? About what?

- About our solar system.

- Neato. For who?

Visiting aliens?

- No. A tougher audience.

School kids. [bus brakes squeaking]

There's some right now.

[children chattering]

- Probably science camp kids on a field trip.

- Visiting science camp kids?

Perfect. I love science.

I'm a science kid.

I want to be on a field trip too.

- But--

- A show about your solar system?

This I got to see! Come on.

Let's watch your Earth-arium planet show.

[laughing]

- Jet, how do I put this?

When we take you out in public,

you kind of stick out in the crowd.

- Me?

- Yes, you tend to always

give away your secret alien identity.

- I do? How?

- By telling everyone that you're from

another planet called Bortron .

- Oh. That.

Yeah, I do tend to forget.

But I really want to see the Earth-arium planet show.

It sounds so educational.

Please? I'll be good.

- Hmm, I guess we could

if we just sit quietly in the back.

- Okay, as long as you promise to keep a low profile

and don't call attention to yourself.

Okay?

- [squeals] Okay!

- Okay, here we go. Shh, be quiet.

- This is so exciting!

Earth educational entertainment.

What happens now?

both: Shh! - Oh, right. Right.

Low profile.

- No. Indoor voice.

- [groans]

[shushing]

- Good morning, and welcome

to the Deep Space Array's planetarium.

- Oh, hey, it's Mr. Petersen.

Hi, Mr. Petersen!

both: Shh! - Remember, Jet.

We're just going to sit quietly.

- Ah, right.

Whispering!

- Actually, no talking at all.

- [slurping]

Today, you'll get a brief introduction

to our solar system

and see how it works.

Please enjoy.

[slurping]

- Oh, it's starting!

Is it starting? I can't wait!

both: Shh! - Right. Shh-ing.

[dramatic music]

- The Solar System: Our Home in Space.

Our Sun is merely one star

among hundreds of billions of other stars

in the vast Milky Way galaxy.

The Sun formed from a cloud of hot gas

some . billion years ago.

Soon, the planets formed as well.

The inner planets Mercury, Venus,

our own planet Earth, Mars;

a zone of rocks and planetoids known as the Asteroid Belt;

the four gas giants

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune,

and lastly, little frozen Pluto.

- Pluto?

That's not in my solar system song.

- Wow, this show's so old, it still has Pluto.

- What happened to Pluto?

Did it blow up or something?

- No, scientists stopped calling Pluto

a regular planet.

Now we call it a dwarf planet.

- Aww, poor Pluto.

Let's visit it someday and bring it candy or something.

- Today, as every day,

the nine planets travel around the Sun

in a stately, cosmic clockwork.

- What do you think so far?

You like it?

- Yeah, it's...cute.

For your Earthies who just started exploring space,

it's, uh, quite good.

- [yawning]

[snoring]

- Well, I know the show is kind of old,

and this technology is not really up to the minute.

It's been the same solar system show

for as long as I can remember.

- Huh. Yeah.

The way it shows your Sun, it makes people think

that the Sun doesn't move.

I don't think it's telling the whole story.

- You're right, Jet. It could be a better story.

Do you have shows like this on Bortron ?

- [chuckles] Do I?

- Wait, it was just a yes or no question.

[bouncy piano music]

- Don't put on a whole show!

- He's gonna put on a whole show.

Why did we let Jet come in here?

I knew it was a bad idea.

He's just so persuasive.

- Come on, let's grab him before this gets out of hand.

[grunting]

- ♪ Well hello people of Earth, what's shakin'? ♪

- Jet!

- ♪ Since we're talking 'bout planet makin' ♪

♪ Let me tell you so there's no mistakin' ♪

♪ About a trip that I've just taken ♪

♪ Good-bye, Bortron, hello, Sun ♪

♪ These local stars are tons of fun ♪

♪ There's Alpha Centauri and Beta Centaurus ♪

♪ There's Betelgeuse and Polaris ♪

♪ Here's where you find them ♪

♪ / I would say ♪

♪ Out a spiral arm of the Milky Way ♪

- What's a Milky Way? all: What's a Milky Way?

- ♪ The Milky Way's our galaxy ♪

♪ An enormous swirl of stars ♪

♪ There's hundreds of billions of stars ♪

♪ So far ♪ all: Ooh!

- ♪ It's a spiral galaxy, I'll tell you more ♪

♪ Spirals have arms wrapped around a core ♪

♪ What's a spiral? Well I'll explain ♪

♪ Think water swirling down a drain ♪

Ladies and gentlemen!

Sean will now demonstrate the galactic spin!

♪ ♪

Heh, well, something like that.

♪ Okay, let's review ♪

♪ Our galaxy ♪ all: What'd he say?

- ♪ The Milky Way ♪ all: The Milky Way?

- ♪ What's it called? ♪ all: The Milky Way!

- ♪ And it's spinnin' all the live-long day ♪

♪ So while we're orbiting around our Sun ♪

♪ It's just another star on a galactic run ♪

♪ Did you get all that? Well I'm impressed ♪

♪ Let's see if you know your space address ♪

♪ What's our planet? ♪ all: Planet Earth!

- ♪ And what's our star? ♪ all: It's called the Sun!

- ♪ What's our galaxy? ♪ all: The Milky Way!

- ♪ What'd you say? ♪ all: The Milky Way!

- ♪ Say it again! ♪ all: The Milky Way!

- ♪ Yes, your star and Bortron ♪

♪ Rigel and Sirius ♪

♪ All of 'em spiraling fast and furious ♪

♪ Dragging along all these planets and comets ♪

♪ And one special planet, the Earth ♪

♪ And we're on it ♪

♪ We're swirling, we're spinning ♪

♪ We're spiraling night and day ♪

all: ♪ In our galaxy the Milky Way ♪

- ♪ Good evening, friends ♪

all: Whoo!

- Yeah! - What a show!

What a show!

- The lights went out.

- Good. Let's grab him.

[all cheering]

all: The Milky Way! The Milky Way!

The Milky Way! The Milky Way!

- Wow, we don't usually get this kind of reaction.

- That was awesome! - Best show I've ever seen!

- Thank you! It was awesome! - Thank you so much!

- You're...welcome? Uh, come again.

- Awesome! - Thank you!

[Sunspot barks]

- But, you guys, they loved it!

And I didn't say I was from Bortron .

- You know, he's right.

He didn't.

- And I kept a pretty low profile too.

Uh, aside from the whole "Music Man" thing.

[chuckles]

[dramatic music]

- The Solar System: Our Home in Space.

Our Sun is merely one star

among hundreds of billions of other stars

in the vast Milky Way galaxy.

- Huh.

I wonder why the kids were so excited.

It's the same old solar system show.

Nothing's any different.

[slurping]

[upbeat big band music]

♪ ♪

- Hi, I'm astronomer Amy Mainzer.

What do lightning, static, and magnets all have in common?

They're all very closely related and they're part

of something that we call "electromagnetism."

But what does electricity have to do with magnets?

Well, to find out, we're going to make

our own electromagnet.

That means we're going to take electricity

and convert it into magnetism.

But first, I'm going to put on my safety glasses.

And, as always, don't try this without a grown-up.

We're going to start off with this ordinary

piece of metal here, and you can see

it doesn't have any unusual magnetic properties to it.

And then just some plain, old wire.

But the key thing that makes it all happen

is the energy stored in this battery.

And now, let's have some fun.

The first thing we're going to do is we're going to take

this wire and wrap it around this nail.

The wire is going to carry electric current, electricity.

And by going around and around and around,

that electricity is going to get converted into magnetism.

Okay, we've got lots of wire coiled around this nail,

but it's still not a magnet.

And now, by attaching this battery

for the moment of truth.

Wow! All right, look at that.

Pretty cool.

But watch what happens when

we take the wire off the battery.

With the wire off,

there's no more electricity flowing,

and no more magnet.

So the next time somebody tells you

you have a magnetic personality,

tell 'em you got a charge out of that compliment.

- ♪ Jet Propulsion ♪

[together] Ready! Jet! Go!

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- Jet Propulsion! - Jet Propulsion!

- Jet Propulsion!

[together] Ready! Jet! Go!