Year 9

Space;

the final frontier.

Today; 4th June

• Lesson 1; The Solar System.

Postbox

1. What are the names of the planets in our solar system?

2. What is a gas giant?

3. What is a comet?

4. What is an asteroid?

5. What is our nearest star?

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6. What is an eclipse?

7. Why does the moon change shape?8. What is the solstice?

9. Why do the seasons change?

10. What is a telescope?

The solar system

• There are 8 planets and one dwarf planet in our solar system.

• Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

• Each planet orbits the Sun, which doesn’t move.

Remember.

• My • Very• Energetic• Mother• Jumps• Swiftly • Up• Netball• Poles

The Sun

The sun is a star that lives at the center of the Solar System. Its huge gravity holds the planets in place. It is made of plasma (the 4th state of matter) which gives out photons as nuclear fission occurs.Hydrogen becomes helium, which becomes lithium etc. With each fission energy is released.

• The energy that is given out is heat and light energies.

• Our sun is both a medium sized and medium temperature star.

• Our star still enough hydrogen to keep under going fission for millions of years before it becomes a supernova.

The SunThe sun is a star that lives at the centre of the Solar System. Its huge gravity holds the planets in place.

The planetsThe planets all revolve around the Sun. There are nine in total - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

MoonsMoons rotate around their parent planet. Earth has one moon, but some planets have over 30. Only Mercury and Venus do not have any moons.

MercurySurface Type Rocky

Temp. oC 300

Type of Atmosphere None

Moons 0

Rings No

Venus

Surface TypeRocky surface covered

by thick clouds of sulfuric acid

Temp. oC 400

Type of Atmosphere Mainly Carbon dioxide

Moons 0

Rings No

Earth

Mars

Surface Type Rocks and water

Temp. oC 20

Type of Atmosphere Air, containing oxygen, nitrogen etc.

Moons 1

Rings No

Surface Type Red rocks

Temp. oC -20

Type of Atmosphere Thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide

Moons 2  Phobos & Deimos

Rings No

Surface Type No solid surface

Temp. oC -150

Type of Atmosphere Hydrogen & Helium

Moons 62

Rings 9 (made of ice and rock)

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Surface Type No solid surface

Temp. oC -100

Type of Atmosphere Hydrogen & Helium

Moons 16

Rings 3

Surface Type No solid surface

Temp. oC -150

Type of Atmosphere Hydrogen & Helium

Moons 27

Rings 13

Neptune

Pluto

Surface Type No solid surface

Temp. oC -170

Type of Atmosphere Hydrogen & Helium

Moons 13

Rings 3

Surface Type Rocky, covered in ice

Temp. oC -180

Type of Atmosphere Very thin atmosphere of methane

Moons 1

Rings No

AsteroidsAsteroids are rocky bits of debris up to 1,000km (620 miles) across. Most live in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They are the remnants from early planets that collided and were torn apart.

CometsComets are dirty snowballs of ice and

dust that revolve around the Sun in long orbits. When they approach the Sun their dark surface absorbs sunlight and they heat up, causing the ice beneath it to evaporate. The gas and dust escape

leaving a trail of gas behind them, which looks like a tail.

Recent comets to fly-by the Sun include Halley, Hale-Bopp and Ikeya-Zhang.

Meteor showersMeteor showers are caused by debris from a comet burning up in our atmosphereThis produces spectacular shooting stars which blaze across the night sky

The Planets

Use the table below to answer questions 1 and 2.

PlanetStatistic Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

Average distance from

Sun

(Million km)

57 110 150 220 770 1400 2800 4500 5900

Length of year (Earth days) 88 225 365 687 4380 10585 30660 60225 90520

Diameter

(Thousand km)5 12 13 7 140 120 47 45 6

Length of day

(Earth time)59

days243 days

1 day1

day10

hours10

hours11

hours16

hours6 days

Surface temperature

(oC)300 400 20 -20 -100 -150 -150 -170 -180

Gravitational force on

surface (Nkg-1)4 9 10 4 26 12 10 14 ?

Questions:

1. Name the following:

a) The hottest planet?

b) The smallest planet?

c) The largest planet?

d) The planet that it would be hardest to jump on?

2. It takes 1 year (365 days) for the Earth to make a complete journey around the sun. How many Earth years does Jupiter take to make a complete journey around the sun?

3. Mercury is much closer to the sun than Venus, but Venus is hotter than Mercury. Why?

4. Write two differences between a planet and a star.

Venus

Mercury

Jupiter

Jupiter

(4380 / 365 = 12 Earth Years)

Venus’s atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide. This traps the Sun’s heat (by the Greenhouse effect) making it hotter than Mercury.

1. Planets orbit the sun

2. Planets don’t have their own light source

Galaxies

Our sun is just one of 100,000 million stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy. If it was possible to look at the Milky Way from above, you would see that our Sun is located on an arm of this spiral galaxy.

There are at least 20 galaxies relatively closely grouped with the Milky Way, the nearest of which is the Andromeda galaxy. Even so it is still an enormous distance away – over 2 million light years! Beyond this group of galaxies there are billions more, each containing millions more stars.

The Milky Way

Messier 81

NGC 3256

• http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/our_solar_system/moons_table.html

Diamond core!?!• The universe's biggest showoff

actually used to be a star, and sometimes the debris that's left over after the star dies starts a second career as a planet. In this case, Blingworld started off life as one of two parts of a binary star. The larger twin supernova-ed. What was left behind was a pulsar, and a white dwarf. The dwarf stabilized just far enough away from its former brother to lose matter to the bully but to keep its carbon core.

Today; 9th June

• Lesson 3; The atmosphere & global warming.

Life on Earth? Thanks atmosphere!

Today;

• Lesson 5; Celestial rotations.

The Earth’s rotation.

• The Earth makes a rotation around its axis every 24 hours.

• The Earth takes 364.25 days to make one rotation around the sun.

• The moon takes 28 days to orbit the Earth.

• But what does this all mean??• http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es0408/es0408page01.cfm?chapter_n

o=04

24 hours: 1 day

• The time it takes for the Earth to do one rotations about its axis is a day.

• Which ever side is facing the Sun- day.

• The other side- night.

364.25 days: 1 year

• The time it takes for the Earth to complete one orbit of the Sun, is one year.

Seasons

• As the Earth is on a 23.5o tilt different parts of the Earth are closer to the Sun at different points in the orbit.

• Glue in handout.

Horizon

The Sun stays lower in Winter, so the day’s are shorter.

Rise

Summer

Winter

Summer

Summer

Winter

Winter Set

Solstice

• The solstice is when the point on the Earth where you are, is furthest or closet to the Sun, during the orbit.

• This happens in summer and winter.

Equinox

• Halfway in between the solstices, the Earth is neither tilted directly towards nor directly away from the Sun.

• This happens in spring and autumn.

Phases of the moon

Phases of the Moon.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lunar_libration_with_phase_Oct_2007.gif

• Moon match up activity.

Tides and the Moon.

• The gravitational force of the Moon and Sun pulls at the whole earth. This attraction causes the water in the oceans and lakes to move slowly up and down causing tides.

• Even though the Earth is being pulled on one side, the water of the oceans bulge out on both sides because of the difference in the Moon’s gravity on the surface of the Earth. Tides also vary during a month.

Spring and Neap tides.

• Spring Tides: 2-3 days after a new or full moon. Caused by the sun pulling in the same direction as the Moon, High tides are higher and low tides are lower.

• Neap Tides: just after the quarter moons. Caused by the sun pulling at right angles to the moon. The tides are less high and less low than spring tides.

Summary

• Day and night- how it happens & how long.

• Seasons- how do they happen?

• Equinox & solstice- what are they?

• Moon & tides- how does that work?

Today

• Lesson 6; The Sun, other stars and their constellations.

The Sun is a star like the others that we see at night. The Sun is not burning like a fire – it is a huge controlled hydrogen bomb.

The core is at a temperature of 14 million oC, and a very high pressure. The hydrogen atoms are broken into pieces, which smash into each other at high speed. This can make the pieces of hydrogen atoms join together to become helium. This also produces gamma radiation, which travels outward and heat and light is radiated into space in all directions.

In the fusion process, some of the hydrogen’s mass is turned into energy. At least 4 million tonnes of hydrogen are used up every second on the Sun. (It has such a large mass that it will last for about another 5 billion years).

Life cycle of stars

Stars come in a variety of sizes. The brightest are 100 000 times brighter than our sun and the dimmest 100 000 times less bright.

To measure the distances between stars it is useful to use a unit which is very large. We use the distance travelled by light in a certain time. This is known as a light year.

The closest star to us is 4.2 light years away and the furthest discovered stars are 10 billion light years away.

Stars are actually very faint lights because they are far away. During the day we can not see them as the Sun is so powerful.

Even at night, the lights from cities and towns make it difficult to see them.

Constellations

• A constellation is a group of stars that are connected together to form a figure or picture. The term is also traditionally and less formally used to mean any group of stars visibly related to each other, if they are considered as a fixed configuration or pattern in a particular culture.

Orion: the hunter

Pledies: the 7 sisters

Crux: the southern cross

Scorpio: the scorpion

Taurus: the bull

Sagittarius: the archer

Constellations- Summary

navigate fixed light years Move light

constellations sources Sun sailors Southern Cross

Stars like the ___________ are _______________ of light. This means that they

create their own ______________ energy. The distance between stars is

measured in __________________.

Stars have ____________________ positions in the sky. People imagine stars

create patterns in the sky, which are called _____________________. From Earth,

stars appear to _____________________ in circles at night. This is because the

Earth is turning.

The stars always seen above us make up the ______________________. You can

use this to find the South Celestial Pole. It can be used by __________________

to ________________ their journeys.

Sun sources

light

Light years

fixed

constellations

move

Southern Cross

sailors

navigate

Activity

• Create a star map to use at night.

Finding the South Celestial Pole (SCP)

Look to the south to find the Southern Cross and the bright Pointer stars. Use the diagram below to find the SCP.

Another method used to find the SCP is to extend the long axis of the Southern Cross by 4½ cross lengths.

Distant Stars.

The brightest star in the Southern Constellation of Centaurus is called Alpha Centauri. Apart from the Sun, it is the nearest bright star to us. It is 40 million million km away (4 light years). Other stars are thousands of times further away.

The constellations we see are not near each other in space. We see them together because they lie in the same direction in space from our viewpoint.

e.g. Orion

Parallax Shift

Astronomers use this principle to measure the distance to nearby stars. They note how a star shifts position against the background of distant stars when viewed from opposite ends of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

Today;

• Lesson 7; Matakriki.

Matariki.

• The Maori New Year.

• Watch the DVD, to explore what Matariki means to Maori.

• 27 mins.

Legends

• Matariki literally means the ‘eyes of god’ (mata ariki) or ‘little eyes’ (mata riki). Some say that when Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother were separated by their offspring, the god of the winds, Tāwhirimātea, became angry, tearing out his eyes and hurling them into the heavens. Others say Matariki is the mother surrounded by her six daughters, Tupu-ā-nuku, Tupu-ā-rangi, Waitī, Waitā, Waipuna-ā-rangi and Ururangi. One account explains that Matariki and her daughters appear to assist the sun, Te Rā, whose winter journey from the north has left him weakened.

Why is Matariki important?

• Traditionally, depending on the visibility of Matariki, the coming season's crop was thought to be determined. The brighter the stars indicated the warmer the season would be and thus a more productive crop. It was also seen as an important time for family to gather and reflect on the past and the future.

Today;

• Lesson 8; Eclipses & NASA.

Solar eclipses.

• Solar eclipses occur when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up, so the Sun is blocked out by the Moon.

Lunar eclipse.

• Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow.

Since prehistoric times, people have looked at the starts in the sky. For thousands of years people have been able to see the bright points of light in the sky they called stars.

William and Caroline Herschel.

William Herschel (1738 – 1822) and his sister Caroline( 1750 – 1848) were originally from Germany but spent much of their time living in Bath, in England. William was a professional musician, but began making his own telescopes as his interest in astronomy grew. He discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. His work on the nature of nebulae (enormous clouds of stars like our own galaxy) and the structure of the universe made him the first man to give a reasonably correct picture of the shape of our star-system which he called the galaxy. Caroline was his devoted assistant and herself discovered eight comets and published many important findings.

History of Telescopes

Astronomy is the study of planets and stars, their movements within the Universe and what they are made up of. Some of the planets and stars can be seen on a clear night using the naked eye; indeed the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars Jupiter and Saturn have been observed since ancient times.Today, more detailed images are available thanks to the invention of telescopes. People could see the craters on the moon and other planets in our Solar System. Modern telescopes provide close-up images of stars and galaxies billions of kilometers away in space. Most modern telescopes use a series of huge mirrors to reflect the light from the stars. These telescopes are known as refractor telescopes.One of the first telescopes was built by Galileo in 1609 and he used it in 1610 to explore the mysteries of the Solar System. For the first time, the telescope enabled him to see the moons around Jupiter.In 1672, Isaac Newton developed the first reflecting telescope which used curved mirrors rather than lenses to focus light from the stars. William Herschel (1738-1822) was interested in astronomy and although he originally trained to be an organist, he built a giant telescope at his home in Bath, England. In 1781, he discovered an unknown planet, which he wanted to name after King George III of England, but it was later known as Uranus.Today there is the unmanned Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits Earth and sends detailed images of planets and stars back to Earth. This telescope allows us to look at other solar systems which are too far away to be seen from the surface of Earth. We also have large radio telescopes, the largest of which is the VLA (very large array) in Arizona, USA. Radio telescopes look at the Universe using radio waves which give us information about things like the formation of the universe and deep space objects that cannot be seen using other telescopes.

1. What is astronomy the study of?

2. Which planets in our Solar System been observed without the use of telescopes

since ancient times?

3. What is the name of the type of telescope which uses mirrors to reflect light

from the stars?

4. How did the invention of the telescope change ideas about the solar system and

the Universe?

Astronomy is the study of planets and stars, their movements within the Universe and what they are made up of.

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have all been observed since ancient times.

The type of telescope that uses mirrors to reflect light from the starts is known as a reflecting telescopes.

The telescope provided access to undiscovered areas of the Solar System and Universe, enabling new starts and planets to be identified.

5. Name one of the first scientists to use a telescope to observe the stars and

planets. When did this scientist live?William Herschel (1738 – 1822)

6. What did William Herschel discover about the Solar System?

William Herschel discovered Uranus

7. What is the Hubble Telescope? Explain how it is different to the telescopes

used by Galileo and Herschel.

An unmanned telescope in space orbiting the Earth, obtaining detailed pictures of other planets, asteroids and stars in the Solar System.

8. Name the other modern type of telescope we use today and explain how is it

useful.

Because people were unable to see beyond our Solar System using the technology available at the time.

9. Explain why Galileo’s time people thought only our own Solar System existed.

The other modern telescope is the radio telescope, which looks at the Universe using radio waves which give us information about things like the formation of the universe and deep space objects.

Telescopes The astronomical refracting telescope

A simple refracting telescope contains 2 lenses:

1. An objective lens which has a long focal length

2. An eye lens which has a short focal length

The final image is inverted (but astronomers are used to this). To see very faint stars the first lens must be as wide as possible, to collect as much light as possible.

Hubble telescope; 1990 ?

Mars

Saturn

Cat’s eye nebula

Crab nebula

Supernova

• v

Nebula

Galaxy

Supernova

Reflecting telescopesThe reflecting telescope (invented by Sir Isaac Newton) has a large concave mirror to collect the light and to converge it towards a small plane mirror. The plane mirror reflects the light sideways to an eye lens. This acts as a magnifying glass.

Radio Telescopes.Radio telescopes look at the Universe using radio waves. They give us information about things like the formation of the universe and deep space objects that cannot be seen using other telescopes. Most radio telescopes take the form of a huge dish that reflects and focuses incoming radio signals onto an aerial mounted above it. The signals are fed to a receiver, where they are amplified and processed.

The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico has a dish 305m across and the Very Large Array at Socorro, New Mexico, uses 27 dishes working together to produce an effective dish 27km across.

Diagram of a telescopeLight rays from the stars

Tube

Projected image

First mirror

Second curved mirror

Third flat mirror

You can make a telescope by using two lenses as shown in the diagram.

Look through the lenses, and move the thin lens along the ruler until you see a sharp image.

Today;

• Lesson 9; Rockets.

Rockets are blasted into space due to the action of the gas rushing out of the rocket, which causes the rocket to react in the other direction. The rocket goes in the opposite direction to the gas, and the faster the gas leaves the rocket, the faster the rocket gets pushed the other way.

If the rocket is blasted at a speed of more than 8km/s (25 times the speed of light), it would still try to fall towards the Earth, but because of the curving of the Earth, the rocket would stay at the same height above the ground and orbit the Earth.

Making a rocket.

• Use the kit provided and a large soft drink bottle to create and launch your rocket!

• Rocket which travels the biggest distance down the wire wins!

Today;

• Lesson 10; Meteors and Asteroids.

Mete-what?

• A meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System.

• The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor, or commonly a shooting star or falling star. If a meteoroid reaches the ground, it is then called a meteorite.

• Many meteors are part of a meteor shower.

Asteroids

• Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, especially in the inner Solar System; they are smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids.

Words!

• A meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System.

• A meteor is a debris travelling through Earth's atmosphere.

• If a meteoroid reaches the ground, it is then called a meteorite.

• Asteroids, are small bodies in orbit around the Sun, within the Solar system.

Impact craters.

K-T boundary

What happened?

• 65.5mya a massive meteorite hit Earth off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula, and wiped out most of life on Earth!

There are over 1 million known asteroids. Most are very small, but some rocks a kilometre in size do pass close to Earth. One hits us roughly every 100,000 years.You are going to investigate how big the effects of an asteroid impact could be. You can estimate how far the debris from the impact might travel and how big the impact crater could be.

Key factors:

Asteroid speed – dropping the object from different heights gives it a different speed on impact.

Asteroid mass - We could change the mass of the balls dropped.Dependant variables:

Debris range – this is the furthest distance any sand from the ‘planet surface’ travels.

Crater size - This is the diameter of the crater that the dropped object makes.

Method:

1. Use the sand pit in the junior school.

2. Smooth over the surface so that the sand is even.

3. Drop the ‘asteroid’ into the sand.

4. Measure the size of the crater and the range of the debris

5. Record all your results in a table.

Results:

Height (m) Speed (ms-1)Crater size

(cm)Debris range

(cm)

0.2 2.0

0.4 2.83

0.6 3.46

0.8 4.00

1.0 4.47

1.2 4.90

1.4 5.29

1.6 5.66

Height (m) Speed (ms-1)Crater width

(cm)Crater depth

(cm)

0.2 2.0 9 2

0.4 2.83 10 4

0.6 3.46 10 6

0.8 4.00 12 7

1.0 4.47 12 7.5

1.2 4.90 12 7.5

1.4 5.29 13 10

1.6 5.66 13 10

Graph:

Plot a graph of:

1. speed against crater size

2. speed against debris range

Conclusion:

Note down any patterns you can see in your results.

Extension:

1. Write down the debris range in metres for an ‘asteroid’ of 1cm diameter, dropped from 0.8m (speed = 4 ms-1)

2. A real asteroid could be: 1km diameter (100,000 times bigger) travelling at 4kms-1 (1000 times faster)

Assume debris range is proportional to asteroid diameter and speed, so:

Debris = ‘our value’ x 100,000,000

Calculate, using the formula above, the debris range of a real asteroid

i) in metres (m) and ii) in kilometres (km)

3. Write down parts of the world or countries that are within the debris range.