The Last Two Projects

The last projects are from SDSS and require a fair amount of time.



Image Processing (the way the scientists see it all)--this may take up to 5 class periods.

Download IRIS and install.  If you have problems, take a look here

Download the files found here and UNZIP.  They are .fits files, so IRIS can read them.  Combine the images to make a color picture.  If you need help, refer to the tutorial   Email the completed image to marciarpowellATgmailDOTcom


Then, download the files found here and UNZIP.  They are .fits files, so IRIS can read them.  Combine the images to make a galaxy mosaic.  If you need help, refer to the tutorial   Email the completed image to marciarpowellATgmailDOTcom


Sky Surveys (comparing different possibilities of data)--this may take up to 4 class periods

Follow the exercises  and hand in a completed report

Test 4

Please click HERE

Big Bang vs. Religion

Today, you will make a poster that contrasts 2 religious beliefs and a science belief about the beginning of the world.  As we have said all semester, science and religion mixing can make the questions we ask more and more unclear.    YOU WILL HAVE ALL DAY for this project, so they should be awesome!

Universe SCIENCE data:  http://www.universeadventure.org
http://www.universetoday.com

Universe RELIGION data:
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSIndex.html


http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab83


http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=NIV

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2&version=NIV
 
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=NIV

Hubble and his Deep Field

Go to the Hubble Galaxy Hunt activity. Take the time you need to explore, but when you are done, I need you to write a 3-4 paragraph reflection on your impressions, including data, statistics, and size factors.

SDSS Scavenger Hunt

http://cas.sdss.org/dr5/en/proj/basic/scavenger/

using the form you print from here (1 per group)

Galaxy Zoo

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/how_to_take_part

Test 3

Click HERE

Take a look at a Main Sequence Life cycle

http://aspire.cosmic-ray.org/labs/star_life/starlife_main.html

Telescopes from the ground up

A look at telescopes

April 19

Magnitude.  GO to http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/starcount/science_int.html and find out about the science of magnitude.  Read the information found here to distinguish between apparent magnitude and absolute magnitude. Send me this comparison as a tweet.

Tonight, please go out and observe the number of stars you see in the asterism of the big dipper.  This includes the primary asterism, as well as any stars found in the bowl of the dipper.  Bring this information to class tomorrow.  Which is the brightest star in the dipper, anyway, as you look at it?

Read the information on stellar spectra found here

GO to  and run the simulation on stellar spectra.  It will be helpful to call on other student who have some basic chemistry experience, as this is covered in chem 1.  Try to answer the questions found here

Astro Quiz 2

Click here

Review for Unit 2 (will be posted by 2:30)

Assignment: Find out about the Lyrid meteors and look for information on the fireball from last night. What has been confirmed? We'll talk about this on Friday.

Review answers (to be posted at 2:30)

Test Review 2: Planets and Solar System—these are SAMPLE questions.

Covering: plate tectonics, greenhouse effect, solar system objects

1. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
2. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
3. Asteroid belt
4. Rock and ice, including Pluto and the rest of the plutoids
5. The solar system, to Pluto, is 39 AU, with another 30-35 AU for the Kuiper Belt. The Oort cloud takes about another 75 AU beyond that
6. Comets
7. The most popular is that Jupiter pulled a planet that formed there apart because Jupiter has a large gravitational field
8. Planets with an iron core and plate tectonics
9. Coma, tail.
10. A rock that is moving in space but hasn’t hit anything.
11. The tail forms when we get near the sun and the head begins to melt. The tail direction tells us the direction of the solar wind.
12. Asteroid: rock in space; Meteor: in the atmosphere; Meteorite: on the ground
13. All but Mercury (and sometimes Pluto)
14. Too much greenhouse gas (methane or carbon dioxide) can prevent light from radiating to space
15. Mars
16. Two blocks moving apart from each other,and new crust following in betwen
17. Apparent backwards motion of a superior planet.
18. Hurricane, big enough to swallow the earth
19. Never had a mission to it (New Horizons won’t be there for several years) Tombaugh spotted it by comparing photographs
20. Neptune (Pluto is not a plaet)
21. Mercury, so it won’t fall into the sun.
22. Led to heliocentric view of the solar system by Galileo; confirmed Kepler’s laws
23. Because the orbits are ellipses
24. All do, but Venus ROTATES CW,so the sun rises in the West
25. Gas planets
26. ALL the gas planets
27. We think a non-iron core
28. Jupiter, it is most massive
29. Terrestrials
30. 60+, mostly clustered around gas planets
31. Yes…Our moon, as well as Titan and Io
32. Venus
33. How does a rotation(on the planet axis) differ from a revolution (path around the sun)
34. Venus
35. Plate tectonics
36. See PPT….Guaranteed question on this!!!!
37. See first page of PPT
38. Why do we track near earth asteroids?
39. A crater disappearing over time, a rock smoothing in churning water, a hill changing appearance
40. Based on whether they have wind or weather.

TEST 1, April 8, 2010

Click here, please

Welcome to 4th Quarter Astronomy

Things to do this week:

Get a twitter account. Seriously, you need it. Expect 2-3 quizzes per week using twitter

Get a blog by going to www.blogger.com and following the directions. Your blog is your personal diary of what is happening in the class.

Put my contacts into your phone: follow mapowell (twitter) email: marciarpowellATgmailDOTcom phone 6081900


Our first links:

Skymaps
Astronomy aGOGO
Space Weather
Stellarium

Final Assessment

Thank you for taking my class. I have enjoyed working with you, and it is the hope that you leave this class with a sense of wonder.

Click Here

Watch the video segments found at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/program-3114.html as a class on the video projector.

As you do that, you need to answer the following Questions

After Segment 1:

What is the difference between the steady state theory and the big bang theory?
What did Robert Wilson and Arnio Penzias do?
How did Robert Wilson feel when compared to Einstein?
What do we call the radiation they discovered?

After Segment 2:

What is COBE and what does it study?

After Segment 3:

How is CBI different than WMAP?
What problems did the astronomers have with the equipment?
What successes did they have?

After Segment 4:

What will happen to the blotchy dense microwave parts shown in the videos?


After Segment 5:

Why can't you make an element higher than iron in a star?
How do we get the elements that are heavier than that one?
Why do we say humans are made of stardust?

After Segment 6:

How do light waves tell us about the properties of elements?
Is their life out there?


When you get done, you need to hand in the answers to your questions, and go to the Origins website to take a look at the Drake equation and the Alien arguments that are pro and con. You will be asked to defend your ideas on life in the universe later.

Dark Energy

Hubble Deep Field

Go to the Hubble Galaxy Hunt activity. Take the time you need to explore, but when you are done, I need you to write a 3-4 paragraph reflection on your impressions, including data, statistics, and size factors. Do this on your blog. I will know it is the right post because I want you to link the image that is found here as a picture on your blog.

What is out there?

Today you will be going to SDSS, the biggest astronomy database in the world!  Your goals:  learn about the technology, the project, and a scavenger hunt.

Start HERE

Doppler Effect, and it's importance for light

Interactive testing

NOVA applet

Black Holes

Black Holes 1

Black Holes 2

Black Holes 3

Special Announcement

This is one of those times when family and work collide. My niece was diagnosed with a severe skin infection which required a surgery and has a skin graft scheduled for tomorrow. As a result, much of my weekend has been spent in the hospital.

This means that I am making tomorrow's test OPTIONAL. Test is required on TUESDAY, due to the late nature of the review sheet being posted. Thanks for your understanding on this unavoidable lapse.

1. Almost massless particle that tells us the health of the sun
2. Knock out communication or electrical transformers, cause extreme sunburns, cause auroras
3. In the center of the sun.
4. Melting one atom into another. The proton-proton chain is one example. The CNO chain is another.
5. Helium
6. Ray Davis had 100000 gallons of dry cleaning fluid down a mile in a mine (the Homestake mine) and was trying to confirm the numbers of neutrinos coming from the sun.
7. There are three types of neutrinos. Davis' experiment only could detect one.
8. Because they can see different parts of the universe.
9. It had mirrors and you could see the images upright?
10. It's the million year trip that a photon formed in fusion takes to travel to the surface of the Sun.
11. 6000 degrees vs. 15000000 at the core.
12. H and He
13. A stellar fingerprint is made up of all the colors that are specific to each particular element.

14. OBAFGKML
15. It's surface temperature, and usually its classified by elements based on that.
16. Hipparchus did not realize that the sun and the moon also should be considered in the spectra. His scale doesn't account for negative magnitude, and we have extended the scale to a magnitude of 25. 6 is the lowest magnitude we can see with the naked eye.
17. Annie Cannon
18. More than 20 years of working to figure out how the neutrinos in the sun worked. Bahcall is the theorist.
19. What is the difference between a theorist (does the math) and an experimentalist (does the experiment and gets the Nobel)?
20. Can we create fusion here on earth (only for a few seconds)
21. Radioactivity is not good or bad. It's how we use it that is. Fusion from the sun is a type of radioactivity that keeps our planet warm. Radioactivity in the core of the earth is what helps keep our planet spinning, due to inertia.
22. After we fuse all the hydrogen, we start fusing helium.
23. hydrogen particles and photons and stray atoms.
24. Several times bigger than the diameter of the earth.
25. Sunspots cool the sun, have a magnetic effect on the sun, and cause solar flares.
26. Pressure blows out of the core, and gravity pulls the matter back in. If there is not a balance, the star grows bigger, or implodes
27.Travel at the speed of light.
28.22 year cycle where we got through solar maximums and minimums, caused by the convection inside the sun.
29. A diagram of the activity of the sun month-by-month or year-by-year versus distance from the equator.
30. Can cause the occasional solar flare.
31. Solar particles are directed past the earth, as the magnetic field is a force field that protects us. The auroras show up near the poles.
32. A place where a star has impoded.
33. Einstein says that E=mc^2 is a way to understand how matter can turn into pure energy in the core of the sun.
34. A gamma ray telescope detects black holes, dust is detected by infrared.
35. Gamma
36. UV, visible, and infrared
37. Charge coupling device used to detect photons and turn them into voltage.
38. Light turns voltage and the voltage is converted into bits, which the computer can store.
39. TONS of things, including solar cells, but most importantly all digital cameras.
40. Very large array in southern US or a cellular dish
41. 3 is brighter than a magnitude 5

Learning about the life cycle of stars

Using this class period, work to further your understanding of how stars evolve, using the link found here and the link on the post below.  As you work, make a concept map or outline that shows your understandings. I will ask for this on Monday; this work should take all hour to do well.

I will post the answers on the blog sometime later today, but I wanted you to focus on this assignment first.

Stellar Evolution diagram...notice how different masses produce different results

This picture shows an interactive map of stellar evolution found HERE

Quiz 2

CLICK HERE

Gone to Wrestling

• Note packet (get when you come back), especially focusing on the idea of the proton-proton chain (see http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/energy/ppchain.html )
• Blog post: Will the world end in 2012? See below
• Telescope worksheets (2). The first one has a website, the second one requires research on the web. Pay careful attention to Hubblesite.org and http://chandra.harvard.edu
• Neutrino website, with a 4 paragraph reflection on your blog. Answer the following questions:

a) what are neutrinos?
b) why are they so important to understanding the sun?
c) would YOU be able to persist for as long as Bahcall and Davis did when people doubted your experiment? Explain your viewpoint (seriously, I often wonder if I would have been able to do it....)
d) what is the importance of neutrinos having mass
e) where are neutrinos being researched around the world?

Neutrino site

Review 2

1. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
2.Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
3.Asteroid belt
4.What is the Kuiper belt is mostly unknown, rocky, icy, home to Pluto, Charon, Pluto's moon, and a multitude of Plutoids
5.Oort cloud makes up more than half of the solar systtem
6. Comets
7. in class, tweet me if you want to know
8. Rocky (terrestrial) planets
9.List the parts of a comet. Head, tail, coma
10.A rocky object in space
11.Forms from the melting of the solar wind
12.A meteor actually interacts with the earth's atmosphere. It's a semantic difference, which means they use a different word than asteroid to make it seem unique.
13.Gassy planets are mostly atmosphere, and all the rockies except for Mercury.Pluto is a maybe
14.Too much methane, carbon dioxide and water in an atmosphere can hold heat, and make the planet warm.Venus is an extreme example of that.
15.Mars
16.Explain seafloor spreading using a picture. See picture below
17. An optical illusion where a planet moves backwards in comparison with the background stars.
18.A hurricane that is 3 times the diameter of the Earth.
19.Pluto
20.Pluto, if you think it is a planet. Neptune, if you believe Pluto is not a planet
21.Which planet travels faster? Mercury, so it doesn't fall into the sun.
22.It convinced Galileo of geocentrism.
23.Because the planets are ellipses, not circles.
24.All REVOLVE CCW, Venus rotates CW on its axis.
25.Neptune
26.All the gas planets do.
27. Rock.
28.Find out at http://www.solarviews.com/eng/edu/weight.htm
29.Terrestrials and rockies are the same thing. They are denser than gas planets.
30.Over 60, and gas planets have more, because of their immense gravity
31.Of course. Our moon did at one time, and Io does.
32.Venus
33.Neptune
34.Mercury, but skip this one.
35.Venus
36.Plate tectonics
37.Increased heat is trapped on the planet surface by an excess of methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor.
38.See your notes, and compare the Earth to Mars, as you will have to do on the test tomorrow.
39.Pluto, and his method of finding that Plutoid is used to help determine asteroid locations today. Tombaugh used glass plates.
40.Rivers changing course, fence posts leaning, and craters disappearing.
41. Surfaces with no wind or water will have minimal weathering, which explains the moon.

Will the world end in 2012?

Create a 3-4 paragraph blog post detailing your observations on the following three sources, plus material gleaned in class

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Solar Flares and the Sun

SpaceWeather

Cometary Planet Adventure

Consider the ultimate dream vacation:  a trip to the planet of your choice.  You are charged with creating a brochure that tells me about these opportunities. 

Pick a planet.  Tell me the following:

a) rocky location that is nearby in which you can stay
b) sightseeing opportunities available in the night sky
c) hazards to human life and health
d) a comparison between this venue and the earth
e) details of how a comet might appear as it passed near your location.
f) other information of interest, including space missions
g) a resource list to support your evidence.

Links:  Comets

Links:  Planets

Scaling the Solar System

Build a Solar System

How Big is the Solar System?

Monday, February 1

You will take the quiz, and then work on your blog posts on the constellations.  At 9 am, you will return to the room, and do a group activity. On Tuesday, you will have an additional 45 minutes of work time in the computer lab.


Quiz

Constellation project

• Closest Stars to the Sun
• Constellations and their Stars
• Astro Viewer
  
  
  

Your mission is to study four constellations from the ten provided in Unit 1. For each, you must provide a separate blog entry. Include the following:

a) a picture
b) the names of five of the stars, with their positions indicated by the Greek alphabet notation above.
c) the history of the constellation, including its asterism, if any, and any mythology associated with it
d) if you can currently see this constellation in Chicago, San Diego, Rome, Jerusalem, or Sydney
e) when this constellation is best-viewed in Iowa (what months)
f) the Right Ascension and Declination of the major constellation.
g) other facts you deem important

Optical Illusions in Astronomy

Kepler

Parallax