Tomatosphere™

Order your🍅Tomatosphere seeds today! This is An Out-Of-This-World Learning Program with curriculum aligned resources to support K-12. You can also request your seeds for Spring 2023, which will start shipping in Feb. 🍅🚀@Tomatosphere tomatosphere.letstalkscience.ca

#TomatoTuesday Scientists have genetically modified a common house plant called the “golden pothos” or “Devil’s ivy” to clean the air. The modified plant breaks down 10 times as many pollutants than the regular variety! 🌱 Learn about green walls today: ow.ly/FBTk50KIw9N

#TomatoTuesday The planets farthest from the sun are also known as the gas giants! Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are made up of a mixture of gases and do not have solid cores. For more out-of-this-world info, check out this resource: ow.ly/e1m750KBCe9 🚀

#TomatoTuesday As of 2019, the most powerful rocket ever made was NASA’s Saturn V! In the 1960s and 1970s, this rocket was used to get astronauts to the moon🚀🌕 Learn about escape velocity with this out-of-this-world resource: ow.ly/P6yN50KrL75

Happy #TomatoTuesday! Did you know red algae have chloroplasts that contain the pigment phycobilin rather than chlorophyll? This gives them a reddish colour. 🔴 For more on chloroplasts, other plant cell structures and their functions: ow.ly/cRFA50Kqybx

#TomatoTuesday Some people think soil is sterile, but it’s not! #DYK that a teaspoon of soil can actually contain more microorganisms than there are people on Earth? DIG into this backgrounder for more on soil!🪴 ow.ly/h65N50KlobO

Project Hack Alert! 🍅Need planting containers for your @Tomatosphere seeds? Use yogurt cups or other plastic containers. Just make sure to clean them properly! #LTSEduInnovation ow.ly/v4Zu50KcBI6

#TomatoTuesday A single Earth ‘day’ actually only lasts 23 hours and 56 minutes! Mars spins a bit slower around its axis, making Martian days 24 hours and 27 minutes. For more on Earth and Mars’ differences and similarities, check out this resource! ow.ly/PAo150KftZZ

#TomatoTuesday Did you know that as of 2019, a total of 562 people have reached outer space? Only 24 of them have left Earth's orbit! 🌎 Don’t stray too far, check out this resource on Spaceflight and bone loss→ ow.ly/oXXk50K7I0y

#TomatoTuesday🍅 Mars technically does not have any soil! Although often referred to as such, Mars' regolith (loose material covering the planet's surface) does not have any organic matter, officially excluding it from soil classification. Learn more→ ow.ly/W7sM50K3SCm

#TomatoTuesday The record for most consecutive days in space is held by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov. His flight aboard the Mir Space Station from 1994 to 1995 lasted 438 days - about 15 months! ow.ly/mkHJ50JW822

#DYK Due to poor farming methods, fertile soil (soil where plants and organisms can grow) is being lost at 24 billion tonnes per year. This is one-third of the Earth’s total soil! This #TomatoTuesday, read up on soil conservation: ow.ly/Zaqa50JSLmb

#TomatoTuesday ! When blue supergiant stars die, they collapse in huge explosions called supernovas. A supernova can outshine an entire galaxy of a hundred billion stars!🤯 Brighten up YOUR day with this resource on the life and death of stars: ow.ly/TENZ50JO3Hx

Special thanks to @SucSeedCanada for providing the Grand Prize: a Hydroponic Garden! 🌱

It's time to Ketchup on our Tomatosphere results! Big congrats to all of the winners, you will be receiving your prizes shortly! 🏆 Reminder: if you haven't submitted your results yet, please do to find out which seeds you received were sent to space 🪐

#DYK The freeze-dried astronaut ice cream you can purchase NEVER actually made it onto any space missions! From 1973, astronauts occasionally enjoyed regular ice cream on space stations. 🍨 For more COOL space facts, check out this resource 👉 ow.ly/tpEg50JIlZl

It’s once again #TomatoTuesday! Plants use energy from light to combine water and carbon dioxide. The products of this reaction are oxygen and simple carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are often called “sugars”! For more sweet photosynthesis facts: ow.ly/WPSB50JCLfp

#TomatoTuesday Plants can photosynthesize in both warm and cold places!🥵🥶 Photosynthesis uses the sun’s light energy, not its heat energy. Different plants grow in different climates all over the world. For more on the needs of plants: ow.ly/iV1R50Jx8Im

I wonder if there will be a sudden growth spurt later? 🔎 Interesting initial findings... 👀

#DYK Chlorophyll, a molecule that traps energy from the sun, reflects green light! Chlorophyll is one of several pigments that give plants their colour. This is why so many parts of plants appear green to us. 🟢 More on specialized leaf system cells: bit.ly/38YJz4E