Hi there! I’m Esther, and today we’re going to explore some really hot places, both in space and on Earth. Let’s start with Venus, the second planet from the sun. Venus is super hot because it’s close to the sun, and its thick clouds trap heat, making it even hotter—almost 900 degrees Fahrenheit! That’s so hot that even metals like lead would melt there.
Now, let’s talk about Earth. While it’s not as hot as Venus, there are still some very warm places here. For example, in Yellowstone National Park, there are colorful geothermal pools where the water can reach almost 200 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s nearly as hot as boiling water! And did you know that water from undersea vents can get as hot as 700 degrees? That’s almost like Venus! In Hawaii, lava from volcanoes can be over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
But what about the air temperature, like the heat you feel on a sunny day? Depending on where you live, it can get pretty warm. I grew up in Chicago, where summer temperatures can rise past 90 degrees. That’s hot enough to make you sweat just by standing outside!
We use thermometers to measure how hot it is outside. Scientists have weather stations all over the world to measure things like air temperature and rainfall. For a long time, scientists thought the hottest place on Earth was El Azizia in Libya, where it once reached 136 degrees. But they later found out that the thermometer wasn’t placed correctly, so the measurement might not have been accurate.
Now, the record for the hottest temperature is held by Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, where it once reached 134 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though some scientists think the thermometer might not have been in the right place, Furnace Creek still gets very hot. Just two years ago, it recorded a temperature of 130 degrees!
Even though Furnace Creek holds the record, it might not be the hottest place on Earth. There are many places, like parts of the Sahara and Gobi deserts, where we haven’t measured the temperature yet because they’re hard to reach. Satellites can help, but they’re not as accurate as thermometers on the ground.
So, as of 2023, Furnace Creek is the hottest place we’ve measured, but there could be even hotter spots out there waiting to be discovered!
Thanks for joining me on this hot adventure! Remember, there are always new things to learn and discover. Stay curious, and I’ll see you next time!
Temperature Detective: Become a temperature detective in your own home! Use a simple thermometer to measure the temperature in different rooms or outside at different times of the day. Record your findings in a notebook. Which place is the hottest? Why do you think that is? Discuss with a family member or friend how the temperature changes throughout the day and what factors might affect it.
Hot Spot Art: Create a colorful drawing or painting of one of the hot places mentioned in the article, like Venus, Yellowstone’s geothermal pools, or a volcano in Hawaii. Use bright colors to show the heat and energy of these places. Share your artwork with your class and explain why you chose that particular hot spot and what makes it interesting to you.
Sunshine Experiment: On a sunny day, place different objects like a metal spoon, a plastic toy, and a piece of paper outside in the sun. After an hour, carefully touch each object (with adult supervision) to see which one feels the hottest. Why do you think some objects get hotter than others? Discuss how this experiment relates to how different materials on Earth and other planets absorb heat.
Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, it’s Esther! Want to see something cool? Check it out! This is Venus, the second planet from the sun. Actually, it’s not cool at all. Since it’s so close to the sun, it’s really hot. See all those clouds? Those clouds trap the heat in, making it even hotter—almost 900 degrees Fahrenheit! In heat like that, even some metals like lead would melt.
Someone named Miguel has a question about hot places, but on a different planet. Let’s give Miguel a call now.
Hi, Esther! Hi, Miguel! I have a question for you: What is the hottest place on Earth?
That’s a great question! The air temperature on Earth doesn’t get as hot as Venus. There are places on our planet that can get pretty warm, like these colorful geothermal pools I visited in Yellowstone National Park. The water in these pools can get to almost 200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is almost as hot as the boiling water you cook pasta in. And see the water shooting out of these undersea vents? That water can reach 700 degrees—almost as hot as the temperature on Venus! Oh, and check out the lava in this volcano in Hawaii; that lava is over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now, all those places are super hot, but there’s another way to tell how hot a place is by measuring the temperature of the air outside, like the heat you feel when you go out to play on a sunny day. Depending on where you live, that air temperature can get pretty warm.
Before I go on, I’m curious: What’s the hottest place you’ve ever been? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? I don’t know how you answered, but I bet some of you have been to some pretty warm places. I grew up in Chicago, and in the summer, the temperature would rise past 90 degrees. Sometimes 90 degrees feels pretty hot! We’d start to sweat when we were outside, even when we weren’t exercising. Some people would even hang out in shopping centers or buildings with air conditioning just to stay cool.
Yeah, Chicago can get pretty hot, but there are a lot of places in the world that can get a lot hotter. That’s when things can really start to get uncomfortable. You can burn your feet if you’re walking barefoot on the sidewalk, and some things can even start to melt, like crayons and gummy bears.
We can tell what the temperature is outside at home by using a thermometer like this one. There are also special thermometers and weather stations all over the world. Weather stations have special tools that help scientists measure things like rainfall and air temperature. With stations like these, scientists can measure the temperature of the air in faraway places.
For almost a hundred years, scientists thought El Azizia in the deserts of Libya was the hottest place on Earth when a thermometer there reached a scorching 136 degrees. But here’s the thing: scientists now think that it might not have actually been quite that hot in El Azizia that day. They just don’t think the temperature there was measured in the right way.
To figure out who has the record for the hottest place on Earth, we can’t just wave any thermometer in the air and get it right. We need to be careful to measure the temperature the same way everywhere so it’s fair. One way to do that is to make sure to put the thermometer in the right place. It’s kind of like if you and your friend were having a contest to see who lived in the hottest city. You wouldn’t want to put your thermometer in a car that’s been sitting in the sun all day to measure the air temperature; it would be a lot warmer in the car than outside, making your city seem a lot hotter than it really is. That wouldn’t be fair to your friend.
In the same way, you wouldn’t want to put your thermometer under a tree either, because it would be cooler there than places with no shade, and that wouldn’t be fair to you. That’s one of the reasons scientists think the record-breaking temperature at El Azizia was wrong. The thermometer used to measure the record temperature wasn’t put in the right place; it was put on top of concrete that got really hot in the sun, kind of like the inside of a car.
So a few years ago, scientists realized that because the temperature wasn’t measured correctly, the actual hottest place might be somewhere else, called Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California—a place that once reached a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit, one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded.
Now, it’s important to know that the 134-degree temperature in Furnace Creek was also measured a long time ago, and just like the thermometer in El Azizia, some scientists think the Furnace Creek thermometer wasn’t in the right place either. Some even think the person measuring the temperature may have measured it wrong. But even after they moved the thermometer to a better place, Furnace Creek continues to reach some of the highest temperatures on Earth. About two years ago, the weather station thermometer at Furnace Creek recorded a temperature of 130 degrees. That’s so hot that people who were there that day said it felt like they were standing under a giant hair dryer!
Today, Furnace Creek holds the record for the hottest temperature ever measured, but that doesn’t mean it’s the hottest place on Earth. Here’s why: the Earth is huge—so huge that there aren’t enough weather stations in the world to measure the temperature everywhere. Some of the hottest places on Earth, like parts of the Sahara and Gobi deserts, are really hard to get to. There are no roads and no places to get water, so scientists haven’t set up weather stations there yet. Satellites from space can measure temperature, but they aren’t as accurate as actually having thermometers on Earth. So without a thermometer on the ground, we really don’t know how hot a place is. It might be that there are hotter places than Furnace Creek; we just haven’t measured the temperature there yet.
So in summary, as of 2023, Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded at 130 degrees, but even so, it may not be the hottest place on Earth. There are lots of places without weather stations that might be even hotter; we just haven’t measured the temperature there yet. And who knows? By the time you see this episode, there might be a new record for the hottest place!
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Miguel, for asking! Now for the next episode, we reached into our question jar and picked out three questions sent in to us that we’re thinking about answering next. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? When were watches invented? Or how does a lighthouse work? So submit your vote when the video is over. We want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week!
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