Have you ever heard of Goalball? I sure hadn’t heard of it before! The event I attended last week at my internship was a Goalball tournament. Goalball is a team sport, designed specifically for athletes with a vision impairment. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has jingle bells inside it into the opponents’ goal. The ball is thrown by hand and never kicked. Using ear and hand coordination, I watched and kept score at the tournament as school age children wearing blindfolds made this incredible sport look easy. At the end of the tournament, I got to try it out for myself! Needless to say, it was difficult for me to play, but I had such a fun time!
I also went on a tour of the Sydney Observatory with my study abroad program, CAPA and it was incredible! I have always been fascinated by our solar system and the galaxy, but there is just so much to learn and new information is always being discovered so I was thrilled to have a peak into this extraordinary exhibit.
Did you know the center of our galaxy is a supermassive spiraled black hole?! Facts like these kept my eyes bulging out of my head with astonishment and I couldn’t stop asking questions to our guide! We had the opportunity to look through a telescope over 150 years old, and see the planet Jupiter through it!
But, one of my favorite things I learned at the observatory was about exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system. They are special because some of them are potentially habitable and could sustain life! I am excited to see what new discoveries could come about from all the research NASA is doing. Below is a photo of Jupiter very similar to how it looked through the telescope.
~Jacee