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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Merced, CA

Why I love space

The International Space Station with its newly attached Destiny laboratory, photographed from space shuttle Atlantis above a cloud-covered Earth. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Space" page — read by families in Merced, CA.
The International Space Station with its newly attached Destiny laboratory, photographed from space shuttle Atlantis above a cloud-covered Earth. NASA · Public domain
  • It is really out there and it is really that big.
  • People built machines that went and looked.
  • There are places nobody has ever seen.

You can love space in Merced.

What it really is

Space is everything past the air, and we have sent real machines into it.

Three things to try today

  1. Find out what is above you right now.
  2. Look up tonight for five minutes.
  3. Draw what you saw.
Astronaut Suni Williams, wearing a virtual-reality headset and gloves, practices spacewalking in the Virtual Reality Lab at Johnson Space Center. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Space" page — read by families in Merced, CA.
Astronaut Suni Williams, wearing a virtual-reality headset and gloves, practices spacewalking in the Virtual Reality Lab at Johnson Space Center. NASA · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Merced, CA who loves space is not unusual. A child in Merced, CA who is told that loving space is unusual — that is the problem. The Merced, CA metro area has about 297,260 residents, ranking 174th in the country.

Scale is the hardest idea. Distance models with household objects do more than any number can.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Merced, CA →

Love something else too

A Hubble Space Telescope view of the faint blue spiral galaxy NGC 3274 surrounded by scattered stars on a black background. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Astronomy" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love starsA Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from its launch pad, trailing a bright orange exhaust plume. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rockets" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love rocketsNASA's long-nosed X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft flies over the California desert alongside an F/A-18 chase plane. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Planes" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love planesA FreeFly Alta X quadcopter drone hovers in the air during wildfire response flight tests near Redding, California. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Drones" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love dronesTwelve gold-coated hexagonal mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope installed side by side on the telescope's backplane at Goddard. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Telescopes" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love telescopesThe Cold Atom Laboratory, two white equipment containers packed with lasers and vacuum hardware, on a bench before flight. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Physics" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love physicsFive labeled water-quality sample bottles lined up in a bag, ready to be carried to the laboratory for analysis. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Chemistry" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love chemistryA Keyence optical microscope set up on a laboratory bench with its monitor and sample stage. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Microscopes" page — read by families in Merced, CA.Why I love microscopes

Near Merced

Why I love space, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Merced