Day 29: Stellar Life cycle

Stellar Life Cycle

Questions to Consider
*what is the life cycle of our star?
*what is the HR diagram?
*what are characteristics of each of the stellar stages?
*how do gravity and pressure affect one another through the life cycle of a star? How does the balance change through each stage?
* What is the main sequence?
* How does the brightness of our star change over its lifetime?
* How does the temperature of our star change over its lifetime?


How is the work of Annie Cannon connected to this system?

Day 28: Unit 4, and the Nature of Star Life Cycles

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Day 23-25 Learning About Telescopes/Assessment

This is due on 5/1/2012.   The paper (or digital artifact) must be shared individually.   Because of the number of people gone to, well....everything, I have made today a workday.


The James Webb Telescope is slated to be deployed in 2018, but......budget cuts may get in the way.

Your ASSESSMENT for this unit is to find out this telescope, compare it to one specific telescope located in space, a specific reflecting or refracting telescope and a specific radio telescope. Your goal is to decide if we need this telescope or not, based on what we already have in the way of telescopes.

Job 1:  

1. Find 3 or 4 resources to learn about the James Webb telescope.  These must be included on the poster instead of a  Works Cited sheet.
2. Compare the projected use of the James Webb telescope to a specific space telescope that is already deployed.  Decide if the Webb telescope is looking for the same wavelengths or objects. What tools do the telescopes share?
3. Compare the projected use of the James Webb telescope to the Mount Wilson, or a backyard reflector/refractor.  Can a ground-based telescope get the same results?  What tools do the telescopes share?
4. Compare the projected use of the James Webb telescope to a radio or microwave telescope (COBE, Horn, VLA).  What are the similarities to the design or purpose of the data collected?  What tools do the telescopes share?
5. Compare the projected use of the James Webb telescope to COBE, or one of the neutrino labs on earth (Homestake, Super-K, Kamiokande).  What do we still need to know about neturinos?  What tools do the telescopes share?
6. Think about costs for all of these things, and the scientific and economic benefits or drawbacks they represent. 

Create a chart similar to this one, adding table columns as needed.  This may be a poster or a powerpoint slide.  The chart itself is worth 20 points.

Job 2:

Develop an opinion paper or powerpoint that is 5-10 slides or paragraphs and supported with details, including whether or not the James Webb telescope should be built, how this will affect Sun research, how this affect our knowledge of neutrinos, and what we can potentially discover. This essay will be worth 20 points

Things to be included on Job 2
Thesis/opinion statement: 3 points
Evidence supporting whether other telescopes can do this job: up to 6 points
Evidence on tools/comparison: 4 points
Evidence supporting your view of the economic and scientific pros/cons : 4 points
Grammar and mechanics:  3 points

Day 23: Photoelectric Effect

Understanding spherical aberration, chromic aberration, and why stars twinkle.

Click to Run

Stars have a stellar fingerprint that is composed of the elements which makei it up. Stars generally have a unique spectra that defines them into a family.   Changing these wavelengths into a digital fingerprint requires the use of the photoelectric effect.

Today we will look at a simulation to investigate what happens. You will need to print it off and hand it in for grading at the end of the period.

Our goal, by the end of the period, is to see how CCDs have replaced traditional photographic films.

Day 21-22: Types of Telescopes

In simplest terms, a telescope is a light bucket. That means it collects some sort of electromagnetic data to share. Today, we are going to look at some of the important telescopes that have been used in astronomy. In each, I would like you to describe the wave range of the telescope, where it is located, and famous people and discoveries spawned by the telescope. After you are done, try to rank the value from 1 (low) TO 12 (highest).

• Mount Wilson
• Very Large Array
• SOHO
• Hubble
• Spitzer
• Chandra   
• COBE
• Galileo's telescope
• Newton's telescope
• GOES-West
• Horn Antenna (Bell Labs)
• __________  your choice

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HELIOPHYSICS


SPITZER


HUBBLE


CHANDRA

Day 19-20: Spectrometry, Part 2

Reading 1
Stellar Spectra Lab 1
The VIREO LAB on Stellar Spectra


 When you get done with these, you will need to complete a one to two page summary (do not just answer the questions).  It may be handwritten.

Starlight
1. Contrast Emission and Absorption Spectra
2.  What element do all stars contain?
3.  Why do we talk about 'stellar fingerprints'?

Star Collection
1. What did you notice about using the telescope regarding speed, ability to slew, ability to get a signal-noise ratio that was 100 or more, and the fine vs. gross adjustments?
2.  Why is RA/DEC important, and what is UTC?
3.  How is technology helpful and difficult as we look at the world of starlight?


Star Analysis
1.  The stellar classification system we use today was developed by Annie Cannon was actually based on her work sorting thousands and thousands of spectra into categories, which then became the stellar atlas.  What do the classification OBAFGKML letters tell us about temperature or brightness of a star?

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Part 2:  Neutrino Reading

Read pp 3, Desperate Remedies 6, 7, Skim 16-22, 27-29

Be ready to discuss neutrinos on Friday, based upon your notes from this reading.


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Part 3 These are your materials for study for the first 45 minutes. Take notes as you proceed, using an outline, mind map, or poster/whiteboard. You will hand these in.





What's a Neutrino?
Neutrino detectors
How Long Would We Have if the sun went out?

Day 17-18: Understanding Types of Spectra/Our Sun

Savage Sun--Day 1
We watched Savage Sun movie exerpts
We took notes regarding:
The Sunspot Cycle
Maunder Diagram
Space Weather




Day 2
Go to the link below. Try looking at a spectra that is 350 degrees, 1000 degrees, and 6000 degrees. What amount of visible radiation is shown in each of those? Why do we have blackbody spectra for stars?

Link:   Black Body Radiation






Complete the sun lab using the sheets provided, and the link shown below

Link:  Sun Lab



Line Spectra Lab

Click to Run

 Investigate screen and experiment with the situations.  Predict what will happen under the following situations:

What will happen when the voltage is increased?
 With the voltage at a given amount, what will happen when the heater percentage is reduced?
If conditions are set so that light is being produced in multiple molecule mode, what will happen in single atom mode? Check your predictions.

 Questions: 1. What condition(s) must be met in order for light to be produced by a discharge lamp?

 2. What event(s) occurs to actually produce the light we see?

 3. Does the spectrophotometer indicate unique spectrums for each gas?

 4. What types of electromagnetic radiation are produced?

 5. How could this phenomenon be used by astronomers?

Day 16: Unit 3

Group Whiteboard questions:

1. Scan through the first 12 slides.   Then, discuss the statement  "Why is sunlight responsible for life on earth?"   List what evidence you have that supports the statement.
2. Focus on the radius and mass of the Sun and compare it to our Earth and Jupiter.   
3. Finally, look at the differences in temperature between the core and the convection zone, and try to explain it to me using a meaningful analogy.  (Example:  the difference between a tornado and a breeze is like a semi of rice grains compared to a dozen).

Day 15: Take Home test

Take Home Test
Make comic strips that comment on 3 of the following.  Rage comics or stick people are just fine. You may use an online comic generator, or draw your own
http://ragemaker.net/index35.php
http://www.chogger.com
http://www.toondoo.com
http://www.pixton.com or others


1.  Why is it so hard to get in or out of the solar system enroute to a ‘new Earth?’
2.  Why don’t we use the phases of the Moon as our planetary clock any longer?  Pick a specific phase of the moon and its location (East, West, or Zenith) to make your point.
3.  Why do we spend money to look at features of other planets besides our own?
4.  What special features do rocky planets have to protect life?
5.  Why is our moon special?
6.  Should we travel in space?
7.  Why is there an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?
8.  Why do we worry about meteorites and asteroids?
9.  Why do we care about our solar system?
10. How do comets differ from other planetary bodies?

Day 14: Asteroids and Moons

Watch out for asteroids


Take a look at the reading behind Sagan's Tunguska video


Death By Giant Meteor?

Apophis reality

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Galileo became a heliocentrist largely due to his observations about Jupiter's 4 biggest moons:  Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.  Using his telescope, he observed these moons and their patterns around the planet.  He marked the motion of the moons in terms of Jupiter Diameters as viewed through his telescope.

Set up a Open Office Calc table with the names of the 4 moons at the top and the dates on the left side.

Gather data for at least 30 days using the Jupiter moon position applet a

Create a x-y scatter graph for each moon.

Hand in with you and your partners' names by the end of the period

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Diameter of the Moon

Day 13: Oort Cloud, Asteroids, and Renegades

Asteroids:  http://www.pibburns.com/catastro/asteroid.htm 

The Oort Cloud:  http://www.solarviews.com/eng/oort.htm  and structure

Obnoxious Rhett/Link Space Junk video:   http://youtu.be/6Fy7psIuJjc

Space Debris, the NASA version: http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/

Orbital velocity is 2300 mph or greater.  What happens when a teeny particle slams into a vehicle at a speed of 2300 mph?


The problem with Pluto....scroll through this video and see what information you can get.

Day 13: What is special about the Gas Giants

You have 45 minutes.   Tell me how the gas giants and comets differ from the rocky planets in terms of

• winds
• atmosphere composition
• rings vs. magnetosphere
• distance from the earth
• density
• number of moons
• orbital path.

Then, explain WHY you think these conditions happened, based on the fact that the solar system all formed at the same time.

Links of Note:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_giant

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys301/lectures/gas_planets/gas_planets.html

http://www.universetoday.com/33506/gas-giants/

Day 12: Mars/Moon or Bust

You and your partner have a choice to make.   Should the first off-Earth settlement be built on the Moon or on Mars?  There are pros and cons to each.

To start, go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Mars
http://marshome.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon
http://www.nss.org/settlement/


Now look at some of the missions:

http://planetary.org/explore/topics/the_moon/missions.html
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/programmissions/

Use your Unit 2 readings to help you see if there are:

a) plate tectonics
b) a magnetosphere
c) an atmosphere
d) water
e) gravitational forces
f) minerals
g) temperature extremes

Use the solar system orrery to determine the distance between the Earth and the Moon and the Earth and Mars.

Finally, take a look at the life and health risks involved in being an astronaut

http://sciencenetlinks.com/science-news/science-updates/astronaut-health-risks/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/bathroom-in-space.htm
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/23/147294191/why-astronauts-crave-tabasco-sauce
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2011/09/astronaut-issues-point-to-problems-for-future-space-exploration/

Make your decision, and be prepared to support it with at least 5 reasonable arguments/evidence.  Create a powerpoint and upload to Google Docs (share it with me) or email it to me.