The Astronomical Alphabet Book

During our astronomy expedition this year, the Centaur class decided to create a new version of an Alphabet of Astronomy book that was written nine years ago in the Stargazer Class. While creating this updated version, we learned that there have been some amazing new discoveries and explorations in astronomy over the past decade. Every student played a vital role in creating the Astronomical Alphabet Book.

Students spent many hours researching their topics to ensure that their pages were accurate and up to date. We traveled to our local planetarium several times to get some “hands-on� experience and talk to local astronomy and astrophysics experts.

In addition to writing the book, students also focused on our solar system as they built actual models of every planet and our sun with their art teacher, Megan Goldberg. These planets will be displayed on campus to demonstrate the relative size of our solar system.

Please enjoy reading this book. Hopefully you will have as much fun learning about astronomy as we did.

Astronauts Grace Sandoval

Astronauts are people who go up to space and explore space. They also do lots of research on space. They launch rockets and telescopes into space and send rovers to Mars. Astronauts have taken a trip to the moon and launched a monkey in a space ship. The monkey’s name was Ham.

Vocabulary Cool Facts 1.

The first thing launched in space was a fruit fly.

2.

The first animal in orbit was a dog from Russia; his name was Laika.

3.

Astronauts can grow taller in space, up to 2 inches.

4.

Sometimes when astronauts are eating, their food will float around as there is no gravity.

History • In 1942, the German V2 was the first rocket to reach 100 km from the Earth’s surface.

• In 1947, the first animal in space was a fruit fly.

• In 1949, Albert the 2nd was the first monkey in space.

• In November 1957, the Russian space dog, Laika, became the first animal to orbit earth.

• The first woman in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Teresh Kovia

astronaut: A person trained to serve as a member of the crew of a spacecraft. gravity: The force that pulls things down toward the earth’s surface. space shuttle: A space vehicle designed to carry astronauts back and forth between earth and an orbiting space station. cosmonaut: A Russian or Soviet astronaut. lunar module: The spacecraft used in Apollo missions that landed on the surface of the moon. spacesuit: A protective suit that allows an astronaut to move about freely in outer space. space station: A large satellite that can hold a crew.

Black Holes

Christopher Plauth

Black holes are a place in space with such a strong gravitational pull that they suck in anything that comes too close – it is like a whirlpool. Also, nothing can escape not even light. When black holes are part of a binary star system they can be detected indirectly, otherwise they cannot be seen in the darkness of space. Black holes are far away from our solar system. A black hole is formed when a large star starts running out of fuel and begins to collapse under its own gravity. It is now thought that most galaxies are held together by super massive black holes at their centers.

Cool Facts

Vocabulary

1. If a person was able to survive long enough to describe falling into a black hole, he would at first experience weightlessness as he goes into a free fall, but then feel intense “tidal” gravitational forces as he got closer to the center of the black hole. If a person’s feet were closer to the center of a black hole than his head, then he would feel a stronger pull until he is eventually stretched and then ripped apart.

binary star: contains two stars that orbit around their common center of mass.

2. A black hole’s gravitational field is the same as that of any other object in space of the same mass.

3. There is a binary star that is called Cygnus X-1. It was the first object to be considered a black hole.

quasar: super massive black holes. They are the brightest objects in our universe. galaxy: a group of a vast number of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity. nebula: a large cloud of dust and gas in space. star: huge spinning very hot and luminous gas spheres that generate energy by nuclear reactions. universe: everything that exists: all the galaxies, stars and planets, and the space in between and all things on Earth.

History • In 1916 German physicist Karl Schwarzschild worked out theories that led to the idea of black holes.

• John Michel (1783) and Pierre Simon Laplace (1796) were the first people to propose the concept of dark stars.

• An important scientist who learned about black holes is named Charles W. ThomasBolton.

supernova: A massive star that has exploded and which is briefly up to a million times brighter than usual. solar system: The sun and all the bodies that orbit around it. luminosity: the total amount of energy emitted in one second by a star.

Constellations Deedee Jansen

Constellations are like pictures. You can find many different constellations in the night sky. Constellations are made of stars. Constellations come from stories. These stories come from Greek myths like Ursa Major, the bear who got chased into the sky. There are many stars in our night sky, but not all help make constellations.

Cool Facts

Vocabulary myth: A traditional or legendary story. minor: Lesser, as in size, extent, or importance, or being or noting the lesser of two. major: One of superior rank.

1.

There are Chinese, Greek, and Egyptian constellations.

48 constellations were discovered by Ptolemy in 100 A.D.

2.

There are 88 constellations named by the International Astronomical Union since 1922.

3.

Constellations are patterns in the sky. There is no actual link between stars.

4.

Constellations are named after Greek myths but are from Latin names.

5.

The brightest star in a constellation is called alpha and the next brightest is beta, and so on.

6.

Southern hemisphere constellations are different than the northern ones.

degree: A 360th part of the circumference of a circle.

History

constellation: Any of 88 named groups of stars forming patterns.

• In 400 B.C the first recorded constellations were made by Cnidus.

After Cnidus, Ptolemy recorded more constellations.

sun: A heavenly body in our solar system whose light makes our day and around which the planets revolve.

• 30 constellations are thousands of years old.

pattern: The form or figure used in decoration.

• The oldest list of stars and constellations has a longer history that goes into the Gold and the Bronze Ages. These were made by old Babylonian astronomers.

• In 1922, International Astronomical Union recognized 88 constellations. These were based on the 48 listed by Ptolemy in 100 AD.

Dwarf Planets Devi Holdsworth

A dwarf planet is a celestial body that orbits the Sun. A dwarf planet is made of ice and rock. They have lots of craters because many asteroids hit them. Although a dwarf planet orbits the Sun and it is round, it’s not a planet. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines a dwarf planet as a celestial body orbiting a star that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetismals, and is not a satellite.

Cool Facts 1. Pioneer 10 was the first satellite to see Pluto and its moon, Charon.

2. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

3. Haumea is the shape of a cigar.

4. Pluto’s average temperature is a mere 44 Kelvin degrees, which is -380.47 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. Eris is the largest of the dwarf planets.

6. Pluto revolves around the Sun in an orbit that is not exactly like the rest of the planets.

7. Pluto is named after the Roman god of the Underworld. Ceres is the Roman goddess of crops. Eris is the Greek goddess of Chaos. Haumea is the goddess of Hawaii. Makemake is a god of the Rapunui people of Easter Island.

History • In 1930 Pluto was discovered.

• From 1930 to 2006 Pluto was a planet in our solar system.

In 2006, it was called a dwarf planet.

• As of 2008 there are 5 recognized dwarf planets: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea.

• Haumea was discovered in 2004 and named a dwarf in 2008.

• Makemake was discovered in 2005.

• Ceres was called an asteroid until 2006.

Vocabulary

dwarf planet: A celestial body orbiting a star that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetismals, and is not a satellite. celestial: Positioned in, or relating to the sky, or outer space as observed in astronomy. Belonging or relating to heaven. gravity: The natural force that causes smaller objects to move toward the center of our earth. planetisimal: Any of numerous small celestial bodies that may have existed at an early stage of the development of the solar system. satellite: A heavenly body that travels in an orbit around a larger heavenly body. An object launched by a rocket in to an orbit to study Earth or another heavenly body.

Equinox and Eclipse Megan Sarkissian

An equinox is when there is an equal amount of day and night. There is an equinox every season. The autumnal (fall) equinox is September 22nd. The spring equinox is March 21st.

An eclipse is when either the moon is in between the earth and the sun or the earth is in between the moon and the sun. During the Lunar Eclipse, the earth is in between the moon and the sun. During the Solar Eclipse, the moon is in between the sun and the earth.

Vocabulary moon: The earth’s natural satellite, orbiting the earth. earth: The planet that’s third in order from the sun.

History • 280 BC is when the equinox was discovered by Aristarchus of Samos.

• 190 BC is when the eclipse was discovered by Hipparchus of Rhodes.

sun:The star that is the central body of our solar system. equal: Evenly proportioned or balanced. day: The time between sunrise and sunset. night: The period of darkness between sunset and sunrise. lunar: Of or related to the moon.

Cool Facts 1.

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The Solar Eclipse is a huge event!

Equinox stands for “equal night.”

In the Lunar Eclipse, the sun looks red!

March 21st is the spring equinox.

September 22nd is the fall equinox.

season: The four equal divisions of the year. solar: Of or relating to the sun. moon: The earth’s natural satellite, orbiting the earth.

Fireworks: Rockets Deedee Jansen and Alexandra Benitez

Fireworks are the “pre-rockets.” They started the invention of rockets. Rockets launch satellites and shuttles. Some rockets even hold people. A rocket is a metal container run by fuel. Rockets can fly and leave Earth’s atmosphere.

Vocabulary launch: to throw or to propel into the air. satellites: a body that is in orbit of a planet.

History • In 1232, B.C. Chinese first used gun powder for rockets.

• Rockets were discovered by the ancient Chinese 2,000 yrs. ago.

• The first recorded fireworks were at the wedding of King Henry 7th in 1486.

orbit: the path of a celestial body or artificial satellites as it travels around another body. spark: a glowing throwing off or leftover of a fire. charcoal: wood, and sometimes other organic materials, that have been cooked thoroughly, but not reduced to ash or the point of disintegration.

• The first space shuttle, Columbia, was sent into orbit by the United States in April, 1981.

Cool Facts 1. The largest fireworks rocket is 13kg.

2. The word for firework in Japanese is “hanabi,” which actually means “fire flower.”

3. A string of firecrackers went on lasting for 22 hours on New Year’s in 1996.

4. Rockets work by burning fuel. As fuel burns and swells out behind, the swelling pushes the rocket forward.

5. Solid-fuel rockets are the oldest of all engines, used by the Chinese a thousand years ago.

6. One of the first rocket devices was a wooden bird.

Galaxies Tom Pete Clark

A galaxy is a group of stars and dust held together by gravity. At the center is a super massive black hole that got clogged up billions of years ago. It still has enough gravity to hold in billions of stars and is constantly getting lighter. A black hole has so much energy that it can shoot out nuclear radiation. Our solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy.

Cool Facts

1. The word galaxy derives from Greek term, galaxias, which means “milky one.”

2. The universe contains billions of galaxies.

3. There is a monstrous black hole that is so big that it can suck in ten stars at once in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

History • In 450-370 BC the Greek philosopher Democritus said that the bright band on the night sky known as the Milky Way might consist of distant stars.

• In the 10th century, Persian astronomer Al-Sufi made the earliest recorded observation of the Andromeda Galaxy. He described it as a “small cloud.”

• In 1610 Galileo Galilei discovered a ring around us.

He figured out it was dust from our galaxy the Milky Way. Galileo used a telescope to study the Milky Way and discovered that it was actually a huge number of faint stars.

4. Galaxies can “eat” other galaxies. They can pull in other galaxies and become one galaxy.

5. Some galaxies stick together like glue.

Vocabulary black hole: A region of space and time where intense gravity stops anything from escaping. star: A massive luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. gravity: A force which tries to pull two objects together. light year: The distance that light travels in one year. spiral galaxy: The stars, gas, and dust are gathered in spiral arms that spread from the center. elliptical galaxy: Galaxies shaped like ellipses. irregular galaxy: Galaxies that have no particular shape.

Hubble Space Telescope Blaze Morgan

The Hubble telescope is a telescope that takes pictures of Nebulae, the Earth, planets and galaxies. It’s also a satellite. The Hubble Space Telescope is a special telescope that orbits the earth. The Hubble Space Telescope is not only a powerful telescope, but it also carries cameras which allows scientists on earth to see objects billions of light years away.

Cool Facts

1. The Hubble telescope has taken thousands of photos of things in space.

2. The Hubble telescope was launched in 1990.

3. Hubble telescope has found a galaxy 13.2 billion light years away.

4. Hubble telescope can transmit pictures of distant objects never seen before.

5. They might send other telescopes like the Hubble into space in the future.

History • In 1946, Lyman Spitzer got the idea of building the Hubble Space Telescope.

• In 1969, they started to build the Hubble Space Telescope.

• They launched the Hubble Space Telescope at the Kennedy space Center in Florida on April 24th, 1990.

Vocabulary telescope: A device that uses an arrangement of lenses. photovoltaic: A field of semiconductor technology involving the direct conversion of electromagnetic radiation, as sunlight, into electricity. mirrors: A surface that is able to reflect light. antenna: A pair of thin movable organs on the head of bugs and machines. observatory: A place or structure that provides an extensive view. optical telescope: Astronomical telescopes designed to collect and record light from cosmic sources.

International Space Station and Io Alia Carr, Blaze Morgan, and Ilora Degreff

The International Space Station was built in 1998.The ISS is orbiting in space about 220 miles from earth. They finished building the ISS in 2012. The International Space Station can be shortened to the ISS. Io is covered in craters, it is orange and yellow. Io is Jupiter’s 4th moon. Io is made of silicate rock surrounding a molten iron or iron sulfide core. Most of Io’s surface is characterized by extensive plains coated with sulfur dioxide frost.

Cool Facts

1. Io is the 3rd largest moon of Jupiter.

2. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

3. Io is made of silicate rock surrounding a molten iron sulfide core.

4. Io is 390,400,000 miles from earth.

5. The ISS is, by far, the largest space craft to be ever built and assembled in space.

6. Astronauts working at the ISS have taken more than 200,000 photographs of the earth.

7. The ISS is made of capsules that were launched in space by rockets.

History

• In 1610, Galileo discovered Io. • In 1998, they started to build the ISS and in 2012, they finished the ISS. • The ISS is 220 miles (354 km) from Earth.

• ISS was built by Russia, USA, Japan, Europe, Canada and Brazil.

Vocabulary laboratory: A room or a building that contains special equipment for doing semiconductor scientific experiments. photovoltaic: A field involving the direct conversion into electromagnetic radiation, as sunlight, into electricity. radiators: A device for heating air, as in an automobile engine. crater: A hollow area shaped like a bowl at the mouth of a volcano or geyser also caused by meteors. iron sulfide: A compound formed by iron and sulphur. sulfur: A nonmetallic element or a flammable yellow solid.

Jewel Box and Janus Skylar Bixby

The Jewel Box is a very rare open stellar cluster that has 100 stars and there are actually five Blue Supergiant stars. Supergiant stars are huge stars surrounded by many blue dwarfs. There is one Red Supergiant named Kappa Crucis that stands out from the rest.

Janus is one of the 31 moons of Saturn and gives off light due to the reflection from the sun off of the ice on the surface of the moon. Janus has very deep craters.

Cool Facts

1. Janus shares an orbit with Epimethus, another moon of Saturn.

Every four years they approach each other and switch orbits.

2. Kappa Crucis is the only Red Supergiant in the Jewel Box star cluster.

3. The Jewel Box is the youngest known star cluster in the Milky Way with an age of 14 million years old. That is younger than our solar system!

History • The Jewel Box stellar cluster was discovered by Nicholas Lois in 1751.

• Janus was discovered and named in 1966 by Aduoin Dolfus.

• In 1834 an astronomer named Herschel recorded 100 stars in the Jewel Box star cluster.

Vocabulary crater: A hollow area shaped like a bowl and created by a meteor. meteor: A chunk of matter from outer space pulled in by a planet’s gravity. moon: A heavenly body that revolves around a planet. star cluster: A number of stars held together as a group by gravitational attraction. gravity: The force that makes all the objects in the universe move toward one another. star: A heavenly body that shines by its own light.

Johannes Kepler Cyrus Curtis, Kira Zerkel, Sharif Amini

Johannes Kepler was the first person to discover planetary motion. He had three laws about it. His first two laws came out in the same year, 1609.

His first law was the orbit of every planet is an ellipse around the sun.

Kepler’s second law said a brief object speeds up when it gets closer to the sun and slows down when it gets farther away from the sun. Then his third law came out nine years later in 1618. It basically said that if a planet was twice as far away as the earth is, it will take twice as long as an earth year.

Vocabulary

History

• Johannes Kepler was born December 27th, 1571. ellipse: A closed curve shaped like an • His first and second laws came out in 1609. His third egg or oval with both ends alike. came out in 1618.

• In 1577, Johannes Kepler was taken by his mother to planet: A heavenly body that’s in an view a great comet. orbit around a star such as the sun.

• In 1578, Johannes Kepler started Latin school in Spain.

• Johannes Kepler played a key role in a scientific star: A heavenly body that shines by revolution that occurred in the 17th century. its own light.

• Johannes Kepler witnessed both a comet in 1577, as well a lunar eclipse in 1580. He died November 15th, orbit: The path of a heavenly body or 1613. man-made satellite as it circles around another body. focus: A point at which rays of light come together from which they appear to be spread apart. perihelion: The point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is closest to the sun. aphelion: The point farthest from the sun in the orbit of a planet, comet or artificial satellite.

Cool facts

Johannes Kepler had three laws.

He was the first to discover planetary motion.

Johannes Kepler was also a mathematician.

Kepler and Galileo often disagreed on their ideas about astronomy.

5. NASA honored Kepler by naming a mission after him which was launched on March 6, 2009. The Kepler Mission uses a high-tech space telescope to search for other Earth-like planets.

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Light Years

Alexandra Benitez

A light year is very fast. Light travels at about 5,878,625,000,000 miles a year! WOW! Isn’t that fast? A light year was discovered a very long time ago, in the 1600’s by Olaus Roemer.

Cool Facts

Vocabulary light: A form of radiant energy that can be perceived by the human eye. It is made up of electromagnetic waves that travel at a speed of about 186,282 miles per second. year: The time it takes Earth to make one complete revolution around the sun consisting of 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds. In the Gregorian calendar, a year begins on January 1, ends on December 31, and is divided into 52 weeks and 12 months. star: A celestial body that produces its own light consisting of mass of gas held together by its fusion in its core. sky: The atmosphere as seen from a given point on Earth’s surface.

1. Radio telescopes on Earth have helped astronomers to detect very distant objects. The most distant galaxy seen by astronomers is at least 6 billion light years away.

2. Did you know that light is the fastest thing in the Universe? It travels at the speed of 186,282 miles per second!

3. A light year is the distance light travels in one year (9.46 trillion km.) Light years are used to measure distance in astronomy because distances in space are so big.

History

• In the year 1676 a light year was discovered by Olaus Roemer.

• James Bradley said in 1729 that light traveled 100,210 times faster than the Earth in its orbit.

• In 1769, a transit of Venus revealed the distance of Earth from the sun.

• Together with Bradley’s figure, the speed of light was finally calculated.

• The first successful measurement of the distance to a star other than our sun was made by Friedish Bessel in 1838.

The star was 61 Cygni.

Meteorites Meteoroids and Meteors Manouk Paglayan

Cool Facts

1. Ten tons of meteors hit Earth every day. Most of them are the size of a grain of sand.

2. Most meteors are the size of dimes.

3. Lots of small meteors hit Earth every year but most aren’t found because they hit oceans or unpopulated areas.

4. Over 2,000 meteorite finds have been made around the world.

5. Most meteors disintegrate when entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Vocabulary

meteor: A piece of burning rock in an atmosphere. meteoroid: A rock captured by a planet’s gravity. meteorite: The remains of a meteor that fell to Earth. meteor shower: When a bunch of space junk comes and burns up in Earth’s atmosphere it forms a meteor shower. crater: A dent in Earth from a meteor hit. disintegrate: To burn up into dust. atmosphere: The protection a planet uses to burn meteors.

Have you ever seen a shooting star? It’s not actually a star, it’s a meteor. Meteors are little burning rocks in a planet’s atmosphere trying to hit the planet’s surface.

When one actually hits Earth, it leaves a dent in the planet’s surface called a crater. When a meteor hits the surface it is then called a meteorite.

A big crater in Arizona was created by a meteor the size of a refrigerator, and the crater is almost a mile wide. Craters are everywhere on the moon because it doesn’t have an atmosphere to burn meteoroids up.

History • On April 6, 2011, a NASA scientist discovered sugar and other related organic material in two meteorites.

• January 19, 2005, NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity found an iron meteorite on Mars, the first meteorite of any type identified.

Nebula

Cyrus Curtis

A nebula is a colorful ball of compressed gasses such as helium, hydrogen, and plasma. It is a star nursery. There are millions of nebulae in our universe. They are around 2,000 light years in diameter. A star is a very important part, because without a star there wouldn’t be a nebula.

So let me tell you how a nebula works. A star implodes or it goes supernova, but let’s stick with our subject. Now the star turns into a nebula, then after a while (millions of years) it turns into a star again, then keeps on going.

Vocabulary awesome: To be remarkable or outstanding. universe: All matter and energy and the content considered as a whole including earth, the galaxies and the content of endless space between the galaxies and the cosmos.

History

• The Orion Nebula was discovered on November 26th, 1610.

• In 1715, Edmund Halley published a list of six nebulae.

• The Lagoon Nebula was discovered in 1747, give or take a month.

• The well-known Crab Nebula was discovered in 1758.

• Charles Messier listed the Dumbbell Nebula as the first planetary nebula recorded in 1764.

star: A ball of flaming gasses in space. pulsar: A rotating neutron star that emits radiation, usually radio waves, in very short and regular pulses. nebula: A thinly spread cloud of interstellar gas or dust or both, appearing as a bright or dark patch in the night sky depending on the way the light that strikes it is reflected, absorbed, or reemitted. supernova: A massive star that explodes because its core has collapsed, brightening suddenly and releasing an enormous burst of energy. helium: A very light weight, colorless, odorless gaseous element. It has the lowest boiling point of any substance and is the second most abundant element in the universe.

Cool Facts

1. You might see a nebula as a star, but they’re not.

2. The word nebula is Latin for “cloud.” The plural of nebula is nebulae.

3. You might think nebulae are close but they’re not. They are thousands of light years away.

4. Edwin B. Hubble was the first one to discover a nebula.

5. The first nebula discovered was the crab nebula.

Ozone Layer and Oort Cloud Christopher Plauth and John Ronel

The ozone layer is in our atmosphere. You would never think this, but the ozone layer protects us from the ultraviolet rays (UV for short), which come from the sun. The ozone layer is like a bubble. The UV rays shoot from the sun and bounce off this layer. If we did not have the ozone layer, then a lot of people would get harmed from the UV rays. It is icy cold inside the ozone layer.

An Oort cloud is a ton of icy bodies that orbit the sun at a Cool Facts distance of 2 trillion to 19 trillion miles away. It is the source 1. The ozone molecule, O3 is of many comets. The comet’s orbits are so long they’ve been made of three oxygen atoms. seen only inside the inner solar system once in human history.

2. The ozone molecule and ozone layer prevent most ultraviolet and other high History energy radiation from • In 1937, Jan H. Oort looked through his telescope and penetrating to earth’s surface. thought he saw a cloud. However, it was not just a cloud, so he spent thirteen years trying to find out what the cloud 3. Astronomers believe that the elliptical orbit for an Oort was. cloud takes 10,500 years to • In 1950, Jan H. Oort named the cloud the Oort cloud. complete its orbit.

• In 1989, the ozone molecule was discovered by Joseph 4. The Oort cloud can get down Farman, Brian Gardiner, and Jonathan Shanklin. to –347 degrees Fahrenheit.

• In 1987, the leading industrial countries agreed to phase That is almost colder than out chemicals that are making holes in the ozone layer.

Neptune. Wow, right?

• Every year we are losing more and more of the ozone layer, 5.

The spherical Oort cloud is a especially near the poles. disc shape like a CD. 6. There are small holes in the ozone near the Arctic and Vocabulary Antarctic Oceans. cule: A poisonous, unstable form of oxygen that’s made hypothesis: A statement that of three atoms. appears to explain a set of facts and that can become the basis cloud: A visible for a scientific experiment. mass of particles considered vapor (as ice) suspended atom: One of the minute in the atmosphere invisible particles of which, of a planet (as the according to ancient materialism, the universe is composed. earth or moon).

Pluto and Polaris Leo Stewart and Skylar Bixby

Pluto is a dwarf planet beyond Neptune and was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. In 1905, an astronomer noticed something disturbing Neptune’s orbit. He believed the gravity of a ninth planet – Planet X – was causing it. On February 18, 1930 Tombaugh found it in two pictures of the same patch of the night sky he was comparing, and saw an object not moving with the stars. He was the discoverer of the present day Pluto and also discovered a number of other heavenly bodies. In 2006, Pluto became another dwarf planet with the 4 others.

Polaris is known as the North Star. If you’re outside at night, look up and look for the constellation Little Dipper, then look at the handle and look at the end of it. That’s the North Star. So, if you walk in that direction you would be walking north. Polaris stands almost motionless but all the other stars go around it. Polaris has always been very important to sailors because when they see it they know which way to go.

Vocabulary

Cool Facts

planet: A body in space revolving around a star. dwarf planet: A dwarf planet is an object that orbits the sun, is large enough for gravity to force it into a sphere, and is not a moon.

Kuiper Belt: A disk-shaped region on the edge of the solar system that contains masses of ice and icy rock, believed to be the source of comets.

Little Dipper: The Little Dipper is a constellation also known as the Ursa Minor. celestial sphere: An imaginary sphere of infinite radius against which the celestial bodies appear to be projected and of which the apparent dome of the visible sky forms half. light pollution: Artificial skylight (as from a city) that interferes especially with astronomical observation.

Big dipper: The group of seven stars in Ursa Major resembling a dipper outline.

1. On Pluto, the sun rises one day and sets the next week.

One month on Pluto would last 8 weeks!

2. Many astronomers believe if Pluto was closer to the sun it would be a comet!

3. On Pluto the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

Pluto spins backwards!

4. Polaris is the brightest star in the little dipper.

5. Polaris is 430 light years away.

Historical Dates •

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6. In Egypt they still worship Polaris.

7. William Herschel also discovered Uranus.

8. Ancient Greek navigators called Polaris, Kynosoura, which means “dog tail”.

• •

1905; Pluto was believed to be a planet far beyond Neptune and was named Planet X by Percival Lowell.

1930; Pluto was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh and was later named Pluto by an 11 year old girl named Venetia Burney Phair.

2006; Pluto was renamed another of the many KBO’s (Kuiper belt objects) because it was proved to be smaller than Mercury and has a odd elliptical orbit.

Polaris was named in 1780 by William Herschel.

Anglo-Saxons of the 10th century said that Polaris was the Scip-steorra, the “Ship-star.”

Quasar

Sharif Amini

A quasar is a super massive black hole. It pulls in so much gravity that even light can’t escape.

Quasars are extremely bright masses of energy and light. They emit radio waves, x-rays, and light waves. Quasars appear as faint red stars to us here on earth. A quasar is believed to be a super massive black hole surrounded by an accretion disk. An accretion disk is a flat disk of gas that quickly spirals around a larger object, like a black hole, a new star, or a white dwarf. A quasar gradually attracts gas and sometimes other stars or even small galaxies with its super strong gravity.

Vocabulary quasar: A super massive black hole. black hole: A place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. galaxy: A very large group of stars. radio: a way of using energy waves to carry signals between points without using wires. source: The person, place or point from which something comes. light year: A measure of distance equal to distance that light travels through empty space in a year.

History

Cool Facts

• The first quasars were discovered with radio telescopes in the late 1950s. However, many were recorded only as radio sources with no visible object.

• Cyril Hazard discovered the first quasars on August 5th 1962.

• Hong Yee Chiu made up the word quasar in 1964.

• In the 1980s, unidentified models were developed in which quasars were classified as a particular kind of active galaxy.

1. Quasars are the most intense source of light in the universe. They are smaller than a solar system, but they glow with the brightness of 100 galaxies.

2. Quasars are the most distant known objects in our universe. Even the nearest is billions of light years away.

3. Quasar is short for quasi-stellar [star-like] object.

Sally Ride and Rovers

Devi Holdsworth and Grace Sandoval

Sally Ride was the first American woman to go to space.

In 1983, she was on board the shuttle called Challenger and launched into space for 6 days. She went to space again in 1984. Sally Ride got interested to go to space because she was an American scientist and was always interested in astronomy.

Rovers are robots that explore planets because we haven’t been on Mars yet. We have only gone to the moon. The Mars rover Curiosity landed on Mars. It’s looking for signs of life.

Rovers are vehicles that have a head, wheels, and a body. It’s a robot! A space robot! That’s really cool!

Cool Facts about Rovers Cool Facts about Sally Ride 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

She was the first American lady to go to space.

She was born and died in California.

She was the youngest astronaut ever.

She spent 343 hours in space.

In 1985, she was training to go on a third shuttle when the Challenger disaster occurred.

1. Curiosity is only expected to travel up to 3 to 12 miles on the surface of Mars.

2. Curiosity computers are less powerful then an iPhone 4s.

3. Curiosity was named by a 6th grader.

4. Curiosity has really powerful eyes.

History of Sally Ride

• She was born in 1951.

• In 1978, she was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate.

• On June 18, 1983, she became the first woman to fly in a space shuttle.

• In 1988, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

• From 2003-2007 she was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center, the California Hall of Fame, and the Aviation Hall of Fame.

• In 2012, she died of cancer.

History of Rovers

• Curiosity was launched in Florida on November 26, 2011.

• Curiosity landed on Mars on August 5, 2012.

• Curiosity won’t come back to earth.

Vocabulary brave: One who is daring. adventure: A bold, dangerous or risky undertaking . space: The expanse without limits in which the solar system, stars and galaxies exist. moon: An object that orbits a planet. rover: A robot that studies a planet. solar panel: Devices that convert light into electricity. terrain: A tract of land. microbial life: A microscopic organism that is either single cell (unicellular) or cell clusters.

Stars

Aila Carr

Stars are more than 13 billion years old. They are formed initially from gas and dust. They are composed mainly of hydrogen gas and are very hot and give off huge amounts of energy in the form of heat and light. Our Sun is a medium sized star. Other stars are very far away from Earth. The closest Star is about 23.5 trillion miles away from earth. Stars go through many stages in their lifetime. Some of these stages are Red Giant, Planetary Nebulae, White Dwarf, Neutron and even Black Holes.

Our sun is a type G2 star and it is a yellow star. These medium-sized stars are yellow because they have a medium temperature. Super giant stars are the same thing as a giant star only much bigger. Blue Stars are very hot. These stars often run out of fuel in only 10,000-100,000 years.

Cool Facts

1. The closest star (besides our sun) is Proxima Centauri which is 4.2 light years away.

2. A star is a heavenly body that shines by its own light.

3. Stars are first formed as dust and gas.

4. Most stars are between 1 billon and 10 billon years old.

5. The oldest star that has been discovered is He 15230901, which is an estimated 13.2 billon years old.

6. The surface temperature of a white dwarf in degrees Celsius is 500-4200. Giant Dwarfs are 6000-5000 and blue giants are 4000-3000.

History

• 13.5 billion years ago, the first stars formed.

• In 400 B.C., the Greek philosopher Democritus said the band in the night sky (The Milky Way) was distant stars.

• In 1610, Galileo Gallilei used a telescope and saw distant stars in the Milky Way. • In 1785, William Herschel wrote down more than 90,000 stars.

Vocabulary star: A heavenly body that shines by its own light. starlight: Light coming from stars. dwarf: Any of the ordinary main sequence stars, spectral types O,B,A,F,G,K, and M. telescope: A device that uses an arrangement of lenses or mirrors in a long tube to make distant objects appear closer. plasma: By far the most common form of matter. Plasma in the stars and in the space between them makes up over 99% of the visible universe and perhaps most of that which is not visible.

Triton and Telescopes John Ronel

Triton is a moon of Neptune and it’s the biggest of Neptune’s thirteen moons. Triton has ice volcanoes all around the equator of Triton. The north and south poles are all rock and craters.

A space telescope is made of electricity, glass, metal, mirrors and other material. The Hubble Space Telescope can see over two hundred light years into space. Other space telescopes can see at least one hundred fifty light years. Scientists use computers to navigate the telescopes and to zoom in or zoom out and see other angles through the space telescope. That’s pretty cool!

Cool Facts on Triton 1. Triton is more than half the size of Mercury, that’s a really big moon!

2. Triton has ice volcanoes. When they erupt, nitrogen and black dust come out and can rise up to five miles high.

3. Triton has ice volcanoes and craters. Scientists believe that when the meteoroids hit Triton they carried some volcanic material. Scientists are still trying to figure out how that formed the ice volcanoes.

4. Triton is -391 degrees Fahrenheit.

History Cool Facts on Telescopes 1. The Hubble Space Telescope can see over two hundred light years.

2. Sir William Herchel’s forty foot reflector telescope was completed in 1789.

3. The Hubble Telescope was the first telescope to be launched into space.

• In 1608, Hans Lippershey, a German-Dutch lens maker was • In 2010, the Gran Telescopio Canarias was built in the the first person to ever think Canary Islands of Spain. It’s of the telescope. the largest telescope of our • In 1609, Italian physicist time.

Galileo built the first telescope.

He discovered the fourth largest moon of Jupiter.

• On October 10, 1846 Triton was discovered by William Lassell.

• In 1937, American Grote Reber created the radio telescope.

• Until the discovery of the second moon Neried in 1949, Triton was commonly known as simply “the satellite of Neptune.”

• In 1989, Voyager 2 took pictures of Neptune and Triton.

Umbra and Ulysses

Megan Sarkissian and Iza Rae Konings

An umbra is the completely dark portion of the shadow cast by the earth, the moon or another body during an eclipse. An umbra on the sun is the depth of a sunspot or the darkest part of a shadow. Umbrae were discovered in 1612 by Galileo Galilei. The umbrae have a special picture taker… the Ulysses Spacecraft!

The Ulysses Spacecraft was sent by NASA to take pictures of the sun. It was launched in October 6th, 1990. It still orbits around the sun today. They sent the Ulysses Spacecraft to fly by Jupiter then go into orbit around the sun. The Ulysses Spacecraft goes in a different orbit than we do. It starts from the top of the sun and goes around the bottom.

Cool Facts

1. The Ulysses Spacecraft was only made to take pictures of the sun.

2. An umbra is 7,200° F. WOW! That’s hot!

3. The umbra is actually the cool region of a sunspot.

4. Ulysses’ encounter with Jupiter happened on February 18th, 1992.

5. After more than 12 years in flight, the Ulysses Spacecraft has returned a wealth of data that has led to a much bigger understanding of the sun.

Vocabulary

History

• Umbrae were discovered in 1612

by Galileo Galilei.

• The Ulysses Spacecraft was launched on October 6th, 1990.

• On June 30th, 2009 the Ulysses Spacecraft became the longest-running ESA-operated spacecraft. COOL!

spacecraft: A vehicle designed for space travel. probe: An exploratory action, expedition or device, especially one designed to research or investigate a remote or unknown region.

NASA: An abbreviation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration. sun: A star that is at the center of a system of planets. sunspot: Any of the dark spots that appear on the surface of the sun and that are associated with strong magnetic fields. solar flare: A sudden eruption of hydrogen gas on the surface of the sun, usually associated with sunspots. orbit: The path of a celestial body or artificial satellite as it travels around another body.

ESA: The abbreviation for the European Space Agency.

Voyager

Kira Zerkel

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are space probes. They were built by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. Voyager 2 was launched in August 1977 and Voyager 1 was launched in September. They passed by the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and are now crossing the outer edges of our solar system. Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles away from earth and Voyager 2 is about 9 billion miles away.

Cool Facts History

• September 5th, 1977: Voyager 1 sent back the first photo of Earth and the moon • 1979: Voyager 1 flies by Jupiter • 1980: Voyager 1 begins its trip out of the solar system • 1981: Voyager 2 flies by Saturn • 1986: Voyager 2 has first ever encounter with Uranus • 1988: Voyager 1 returns first color images of Neptune • 1989: Voyager 2 begins its trip out of the solar system • 1990: Last Voyager images sent to earth. They were portraits of the Solar System • Present: Voyagers 1 and 2 will soon be entering interstellar space

Vocabulary Jupiter: The largest planet in the solar system and the fifth distant from the sun.

Saturn: The planet that is 6th in distance from the sun.

Saturn has many rings around it and is the 2nd largest planet.

Uranus: The 7th planet in order of distance from the sun.

Neptune: The 8th planet in order of distance from the sun. It is the 4th largest planet in the solar system. voyage: A long journey to a foreign or distant place. solar system: The sun together with the planets and all other bodies that orbit the sun, including asteroids, comets and moons. probe: A tool or device used to examine something.

1. In 1998, Voyager 1 passed Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object in space. As of March, 2012, it was 11 billion miles from earth.

2. Both Voyager spacecrafts carry a greeting to any form of life. The message is carried by a phonograph record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk.

3. Voyager 1 and 2 explored all the giant planets of our outer solar system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and 48 of their moons.

Wormholes

Manouk Paglayan and Tom Pete Clark

A wormhole is a light-speed tunnel through space. It has a lot of gravity so you won’t fall out of it. Even though it goes light-speed it won’t tear you apart. Light speed travel would usually kill a human, but wormholes don’t. Another name for a wormhole is an Einstein-Rosen bridge, which is a hypothetical feature of space and space time. Wormholes are just a theory. No one knows if they really exist or not.

What do you think?

Cool Facts

Vocabulary

1. Wormholes are light-speed tunnels through space.

wormhole: A tunnel through space and time.

2. Wormholes are portals through space.

3. If wormholes exist we don’t have the technology to find or use them.

4. Wormholes can be tiny, about the size of a quarter.

5. Our entire universe could be a wormhole.

History • In 1921, the German mathematician Hermann Weyl proposed the wormhole theory.

• In 1935, Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen published their paper on wormholes.

• In 1957, the American physicist John Archibald Wheeler coined the term wormhole.

gravity: The natural force of holding things around a central point. energy: The capacity of work or vigorous activity. light-speed: Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. matter: Something that occupies space, has mass, and can exist as a solid, liquid or gas.

X-RAYS

Iza Rae Konings

X-rays are kind of like radio waves. They help scientists look out into outer space and see black holes, stars, nearby galaxies, supernovas, star explosions and dark matter. X-rays keep us in contact with the outer world!

Cool Facts

1. X-rays can go through solid objects.

2. Dangerous x-rays and gamma rays are blocked by the earth’s atmosphere so they have to be studied from space.

3. When a neutron star explodes, all the violence sends off x-rays.

History

Vocabulary radio waves: An electromagnetic wave having a frequency in the range used for radio and radar. radio astronomy: The branch of astronomy that deals with the origin and nature of radio waves that reaches the earth from celestial sources. nebula: A giant cloud of dust and gas in space mostly composed of hydrogen. x-ray binary stars: A special type of binary star in which one of the stars is a collapsed object such as a neutron star or a black hole. x-ray astronomy: X-ray astronomy studies celestial objects by looking at the x-rays that they give off. ultraviolet light: Light that cannot be seen by the human eye. It is given off by the sun and can cause the skin to get darker. gamma-ray: Electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength of 10-9 centimeters or less: may be produced by the reactions of nuclei or elementary particles. radiology: The science dealing with x-rays and other forms of radiant energy. As used in medicine treating for bones, organs etc.

• X-rays were discovered on November 8th, 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad.

• In 1971 the Uhuru X-ray satellite discovered Centaurus X-3. This was the first x-ray pulsar to be discovered.

• On December, 1995, the Rossi explorer was launched (The Rossi explorer is an x-ray satellite named after Bruno Rossi).

• The Chandra satellite was launched on December 1999 (Chandra is an x-ray satellite like the Rossi Explorer).

Halley’s Comet Ilora DeGreff

Halley’s Comet has been seen as early as 240 BC. A comet is a piece of ice and rock. A comet’s tail is created when it gets too close to the sun and the ice melts. Halley’s Comet was officially discovered in 1705 by Sir Edward Halley. In 12 BC, Halley’s Comet was seen and some theologians have argued that this explains the story of the star of Bethlehem in the Bible. At the moment, Halley’s Comet is 3.4 light hours away and its orbit is in the shape of a big potato.

History Cool Facts 1. Halley’s Comet is also referred to as 1p. The p stands for periodic, the 1 stands for the first comet identified.

2. Halley’s Comet is named after Sir Edmond Halley.

3. Halley’s Comet length is 9.5 miles long!

4. Halley’s Comet’s orbit takes 76 years.

Vocabulary

comet: A small, frozen mass of dust and gas revolving around the sun in an elliptical orbit, which starts to melt and form a tail as it nears the sun. If it has an orbit, it reforms out in space and orbits again. orbit: The gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space. ice: A frozen state of water. vaporize: To cause to change into vapor. coma: The nebulous enveloped around the nucleus of a comet.

• Records show that Chinese astronomers saw the comet appear from as early as 467 BC. • After 240 BC, records were made by the Chinese, Babylonian, Persian, and other astronomers from Mesopotamia.

• V.G. Gurzadyan and R. Vardanyan said that “the symbol on Tigranes the Great’s crown, which features a star with a curved tail, may represent the passage of Halley’s Comet in 87 BC.” • Halley’s Comet passed in 1758. Edmond Halley died in the 1742 so he never got to see it. The comet appeared on Christmas night 1758 and proved that Edmund Halley was right.

Zodiacal Light and Zenith

Leo Stewart

Cool Facts 1. It’s best to see Zodiacal Light just after sunset and just before sunrise.

2. It’s best seen in autumn when the Zodiacal Light is at a steep angle to the horizon.

3. Near the equator the Zodiacal Light sometimes seems to stretch completely across the sky.

4. Zenith is the point directly overhead.

5. The angular distance from the zenith to celestial body is called the Zenith distance.

6. The Nadir is directly opposite the zenith. It has a zenith distance of 180 degrees.

The Zodiacal Light is a glow in the sky just before dawn.

It has a triangular weightless glow. It’s caused by sunlight bouncing off of space dust (comets make the space dust) and makes a light that creates the Zodiacal Light.

A zenith is the point directly overhead. It is helpful to astronomers because they can say, “The asteroid is in a zenith direction,” and the other person would know where it is.

Vocabulary

ecliptic: The path of the sun on the celestial sphere as seen from the History earth center.

• The name False Dawn Sun: The star at the (also known as Zodiacal center of our solar Light) originated from the 12th century Persian sytem. light pollution: astronomer, mathematician, and poet Excessive or obtrusive artificial light.

Omar Khayyam.

• The word zenith derives space dust: Can be taken to be all dust in from the inaccurate reading of the Arabic the cosmos. expression meaning nadir: The direction direction of the head or pointing directly below a path above the head. particular location.

Zenith first appeared in zenith angle: The angle the 17th century through between a direction of the old French word interest and the local “cenith.” zenith. gravitational force: The natural phenomenon of attraction between massive bodies. subsolar point: The point on a planet’s surface where the sun is directly overhead at any particular point in time.

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