Today Jack told us that astronauts are interested in exploring Mars, the Red Planet.  Before they can go there though it's necessary do a lot of practice runs. NASA is getting ready and thinks they will be able to have a manned spaceship on Mars in five to seven years.  In the mean time they are experimenting in some pretty funny ways.  Most recently, the spaceship Orion orbited the Earth twice and then launched a capsule.  The capsule didn't contain humans, but rather some other familiar faces from Sesame Street: Ernie's Rubber Duckie, Oscar's pet worm Slimey, and and one of Cookie Monster's cookies! The capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Baja Peninsula.  Due to the success NASA administrators call it "Day One of the Mars Era." Thanks for the detailed summary Jack!  Maybe one day one of us will visit Mars!
Check out the launch video!

Finally, Jack shared his super cool experiment.  It tied in well with the density columns we made with Julie Wille.  First Jack combined water and oil.  We learned that water and oil definitely don't get along and the oil sits on top because it is lighter.  Next Jack helped us hypothesize what would happen if we added salt to the mixture.  

Here's what we thought:
1. The salt will be suspended in between.
2. They will mix together.
3. The salt will dissolve.
4. The mixture will become clear.
5. The salt will make bubbles.

Looks like a lava lamp!  The oil gets trapped in the spaces in the salt and slowly wiggles it's way to the top where it belongs as the lightest liquid.