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Stars and Science Austin, LLC runs science education outreach programs throughout the community, including a Mobile Planetarium. We bring the Stars and awesome Science Activities to you, at your location anywhere in Central Texas! 

Stars and Science Austin has expanded to New Hampshire! For our patrons there, we will be

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Most of the same programs will be available throughout the Lakes Region of New Hampshire: our large Mobile Planetarium, Science Activities, and our 8" Newtonian telescope. See more information about our program in New Hampshire here .  

Solar Eclipses 2023-2024

We hope most of you had a chance to enjoy the Annular Eclipse on October 14, 2023 . Even if you were not within the path to see the complete "Ring of Fire," I am sure you will agree it was an impressive sight! Watching the Sun slowly disappear behind the black Moon (with appropriate eye protection of course!) is an unusual experience. It is not hard to understand why ancient people thought that a dragon or other horrific creature was eating the Sun. 

And this was just the "warm up." The real event is coming up in just a few months. Everyone along a path from Texas to Maine will be able to see a  Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024!

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Newly found star 30 times the size of the sun has an unexpected chemical composition

"J0524-0336 contains 100,000 times more lithium than the sun does at its current age. This amount challenges the prevailing models of how stars evolve."

Astronomers have discovered a new star that is 30 times larger than the sun and could force a major rethink of stellar evolution theories. The star, designated J0524-0336 and located around 30,000 light-years from Earth, has a shockingly high concentration of the element lithium when compared to the sun at its current age or other stars of similarly advanced ages. This is an issue for our understanding of how stars forge heavier elements via nuclear fusion because lithium is a light element; current models suggest light elements are lost through this process in favor of heavier elements like carbon and oxygen .

Not only is J0524-0336 rich in lithium, but it also has a corresponding lack of heavy elements.

Astronomers discovered J0524-0336 while hunting for older stars in the Milky Way . The star is in the latter stages of its life, meaning it is classed as an "evolved star," and is swelling up, with the increase in size also making it brighter.

Related: 10 new dead star 'monsters' discovered at the heart of the Milky Way

Following the discovery of this star, researchers set about revealing its chemical composition using a method called spectroscopy . Because different elements emit and absorb light at characteristic wavelengths, looking at a star's light output, or "spectra," can reveal its composition and the ratio of elements it contains.

"We found that J0524-0336 contains 100,000 times more lithium than the sun does at its current age," team leader and University of Florida researcher Rana Ezzeddine said in a statement . "This amount challenges the prevailing models of how stars evolve and may suggest a previously unknown mechanism for lithium production or retention in stars."

An unknown stage in stellar evolution — or something else?

The team isn't completely in the dark about this star's usual chemical composition. 

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They have a few potential hypotheses to explain why J0524-0336 is so unusual. One possibility is that the star may be in a stage of stellar evolution that has never been observed before. Alternatively, when the star swelled up, it may have enveloped an orbiting planet or even a nearby star. If that celestial body was rich in lithium, it may have infused J0524-0336 with the  element. And, if such absorption happened relatively recently, J0524-0336 may not had the time needed to fuse that lithium to heavier elements.

Ezzeddine suggested that the lithium content of J0524-0336 is so great that both mechanisms may have been at play.

The team will need to continue to observe the star to determine which mechanism is behind this unusual result, or whether it is indeed both — or if the culprit is something else entirely.

— Stellar oddball: Nearby star rotates unlike any other

— Scientists reveal never-before-seen map of the Milky Way's central engine (image)

— The faintest star system orbiting our Milky Way may be dominated by dark matter

Ezzeddine and colleagues now intend to continue studying J0524-0336, hoping to conduct a continuous monitoring program to see if and how its composition changes.

"If we find a build-up of dust in the star’s circumstellar disk , or the ring of debris and materials being ejected from the star, this would clearly indicate a mass loss event, such as a stellar interaction," Ezzeddine concluded. "If we don’t observe such a disk, we could conclude that the lithium enrichment is happening due to a process, still to be discovered, taking place inside the star instead."

The team's research is published on the research repository arXiv and is set to be featured in The Astrophysical Journal.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.

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has a shockingly high concentration of the element lithium

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• Published: 02 July 2018

Science education in the 21st century

• Sun Kwok 1   nAff2  

Nature Astronomy volume  2 ,  pages 530–533 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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The traditional university science curriculum was designed to train specialists in specific disciplines. However, in universities all over the world, science students are going into increasingly diverse careers and the current model does not fit their needs. Advances in technology also make certain modes of learning obsolete. In the past ten years, the Faculty of Science of the University of Hong Kong has undertaken major curriculum reforms. A sequence of science foundation courses required of all incoming science students are designed to teach science in an integrated manner, and to emphasize the concepts and utilities, not computational techniques, of mathematics. A number of non-discipline-specific common core courses have been developed to broaden students’ awareness of the relevance of science to society and the interdisciplinary nature of science. By putting the emphasis on the scientific process rather than the outcome, students are taught how to identify, formulate, and solve diverse problems.

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Subject integration and theme evolution of STEM education in K-12 and higher education research

Enhancing senior high school student engagement and academic performance using an inclusive and scalable inquiry-based program

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Acknowledgements

I thank my HKU colleagues who helped me implement the curriculum reform at HKU, in particular N. K. Tsing and E. K. F. Lam, who were instrumental in the design of the science foundation courses. I am grateful to H. C. von Bergmann and C. Pennypacker of the Global Science Education Network for their advice on the reform.

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Present address: Department of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver British, Columbia, Canada

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Dean of Science from 2006 to 2016, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

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Kwok, S. Science education in the 21st century. Nat Astron 2 , 530–533 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0510-4

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Under the umbrella of the IAP, more than 140 national, regional and global member academies work together to support the vital role of science in seeking evidence-based solutions to the world’s most challenging problems.

IAP empowers academies and regional academy networks to provide independent, authoritative advice on global, regional and national issues.

IAP communicates the importance of science, engineering and medicine.

IAP engages with its member academies in a number of ways to carry out projects and programmes.

Read the latest news from the IAP and its international network.

Science education: purpose, methods, ideas and teaching resources

What is the purpose of science education, what is the best method of teaching science, what is inquiry-based science education, what is an example of inquiry-based learning, free online resources for science teachers, science education ideas.

To prosper in this modern age of innovation requires the capacity to grasp the essentials of diverse problems, to recognise meaningful patterns, to retrieve and apply relevant knowledge.

Science education has the potential for helping the development of the required abilities and understanding by focusing on developing powerful ideas of science and ideas about the nature of scientific activity and its applications .

Scientific literacy refers to an individual’s scientific knowledge and its use . It allows an understanding of the scientific process and makes it possible to apply evidence-based knowledge across a broad range of issues that require individual and collective action (such as responding to COVID-19 and climate change , or understanding AI, machine learning and other new technologies).

Science Education is a key area for the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) , whose Science Education Programme (SEP) is led by a Global Council of experts that defines and implements its annual activities on global and regional scales.

Science education should enhance learners’ curiosity , wonder and questioning , building on their natural inclination to seek meaning and understanding of the world around. Scientific inquiry should be introduced and encountered by school students as an activity that can be carried out by everyone including themselves.

They should have personal experiences of finding out about and of making connections between new and previous experiences that not only bring excitement and satisfaction but also the realisation that they can add to their knowledge through active inquiry . Both the process and product of scientific activity can evoke a positive emotional response which motivates further learning.

Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) adopts an investigative approach to teaching and learning where students are provided with opportunities to investigate a problem, search for possible solutions, make observations, ask questions, test out ideas, and think creatively and use their intuition. In this sense, inquiry-based science involves students doing science where they have opportunities to explore possible solutions, develop explanations for the phenomena under investigation, elaborate on concepts and processes, and evaluate or assess their understandings in the light of available evidence.

This approach to teaching relies on teachers recognizing the importance of presenting problems to students that will challenge their current conceptual understandings so they are forced to reconcile anomalous thinking and construct new understandings.

IAP seeks to reform and develop science education on a global scale, especially in primary and secondary schools, with a pedagogy based on IBSE because it provides opportunities for students to see how well their ideas work in authentic situations rather than in abstract discussions. Students build knowledge through testing ideas, discussing their understanding with teachers and their peers, and through interacting with scientific phenomena.

An example of inquiry-based learning is ' COVID-19! How can I protect myself and others? ' ( free download here ), a new rapid-response guide for youth aged 8–17 developed as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the Smithsonian Science Education Center , in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and IAP .

The guide, which is based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) , aims to help young people understand the science and social science of COVID-19 as well as help them take actions to keep themselves, their families and communities safe .

Through a set of seven cohesive student-led tasks , participants engage in the activities to answer questions previously defined by their peers . The questions explore the impact of COVID-19 on the world, how to practice hand and respiratory hygiene and physical distancing, and how to research more information about COVID-19. The final task teaches youth how they can take action on the new scientific knowledge they learn to improve their health and the health of others. Each task is designed to be completed at home.

Food! Community Research Guide

Food! is a freely available community research guide that uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to focus on sustainable actions that are defined and implemented by students ( download it here ).

Mosquito! Community Research Guide

This module effectively promotes excellence within science education while fostering pioneering approaches to empower and unite educators around the world. Mosquito! addresses the problem of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes from an educational point of view ( download it here ). 

Other teaching resources and guides

You can download more teaching resources and guides here .

The IAP publication “ Working with Big Ideas of Science Education ” (available for free here ) includes this list of ideas that all students should have had opportunity to learn by the end of compulsory education:

All matter in the Universe is made of very small particles

Atoms are the building blocks of all matter, living and non-living. The behaviour and arrangement of the atoms explains the properties of different materials. In chemical reactions atoms are rearranged to form new substances. Each atom has a nucleus containing neutrons and protons, surrounded by electrons. The opposite electric charges of protons and electrons attract each other, keeping atoms together and accounting for the formation of some compounds.

Objects can affect other objects at a distance

All objects have an effect on other objects without being in contact with them. In some cases the effect travels out from the source to the receiver in the form of radiation (e.g. visible light). In other cases action at a distance is explained in terms of the existence of a field of influence between objects, such as a magnetic, electric or gravitational field. Gravity is a universal force of attraction between all objects however large or small, keeping the planets in orbit round the Sun and causing terrestrial objects to fall towards the centre of the Earth.

Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it

A force acting on an object is not seen directly but is detected by its effect on the object’s motion or shape. If an object is not moving the forces acting on it are equal in size and opposite in direction, balancing each other. Since gravity affects all objects on Earth there is always another force opposing gravity when an object is at rest. Unbalanced forces cause change in movement in the direction of the net force. When opposing forces acting on an object are not in the same line they cause the object to turn or twist. This effect is used in some simple machines.

The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but can be transferred from one energy store to another during an event

Many processes or events involve changes and require an energy source to make them happen. Energy can be transferred from one body or group of bodies to another in various ways. In these processes some energy becomes less easy to use. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Once energy has been released by burning a fossil fuel with oxygen, some of it is no longer available in a form that is as convenient to use.

The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate

Radiation from the Sun heats the Earth’s surface and causes convection currents in the air and oceans, creating climates. Below the surface heat from the Earth’s interior causes movement in the molten rock. This in turn leads to movement of the plates which form the Earth’s crust, creating volcanoes and earthquakes. The solid surface is constantly changing through the formation and weathering of rock.

Our solar system is a very small part of one of billions of galaxies in the Universe

Our Sun and eight planets and other smaller objects orbiting it comprise the solar system. Day and night and the seasons are explained by the orientation and rotation of the Earth as it moves round the Sun. The solar system is part of a galaxy of stars, gas and dust, one of many billions in the Universe, enormous distances apart. Many stars appear to have planets.

Organisms are organised on a cellular basis and have a finite life span

All organisms are constituted of one or more cells. Multi-cellular organisms have cells that are differentiated according to their function. All the basic functions of life are the result of what happens inside the cells which make up an organism. Growth is the result of multiple cell divisions.

Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they often depend on, or compete with, other organisms

Food provides materials and energy for organisms to carry out the basic functions of life and to grow. Green plants and some bacteria are able to use energy from the Sun to generate complex food molecules. Animals obtain energy by breaking down complex food molecules and are ultimately dependent on green plants as their source of energy. In any ecosystem there is competition among species for the energy resources and materials they need to live and reproduce.

Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another

Genetic information in a cell is held in the chemical DNA. Genes determine the development and structure of organisms. In asexual reproduction all the genes in the offspring come from one parent. In sexual reproduction half of the genes come from each parent.

The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution

All life today is directly descended from a universal common ancestor that was a simple one-celled organism. Over countless generations changes resulting from natural diversity within a species lead to the selection of those individuals best suited to survive under certain conditions. Species not able to respond sufficiently to changes in their environment become extinct.

Science is about finding the cause or causes of phenomena in the natural world

Science is a search to explain and understand phenomena in the natural world. There is no single scientific method for doing this; the diversity of natural phenomena requires a diversity of methods and instruments to generate and test scientific explanations. Often an explanation is in terms of the factors that have to be present for an event to take place as shown by evidence from observations and experiments. In other cases supporting evidence is based on correlations revealed by patterns in systematic observation.

Scientific explanations, theories and models are those that best fit the evidence available at a particular time

A scientific theory or model representing relationships between variables of a natural phenomenon must fit the observations available at the time and lead to predictions that can be tested. Any theory or model is provisional and subject to revision in the light of new data even though it may have led to predictions in accord with data in the past.

The knowledge produced by science is used in engineering and technologies to create products to serve human ends

The use of scientific ideas in engineering and technologies has made considerable changes in many aspects of human activity. Advances in technologies enable further scientific activity; in turn this increases understanding of the natural world. In some areas of human activity technology is ahead of scientific ideas, but in others scientific ideas precede technology.

Applications of science often have ethical, social, economic and political implications

The use of scientific knowledge in technologies makes many innovations possible. Whether or not particular applications of science are desirable is a matter that cannot be addressed using scientific knowledge alone. Ethical and moral judgments may be needed, based on such considerations as justice or equity, human safety, and impacts on people and the environment.

Do not miss news and updates on the activities, opportunities and events of The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), its regional networks, member academies and other partner organisations: subscribe to our quarterly newsletter , and follow us on Twitter , LinkedIn , and Youtube .

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NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will capture the unseen cosmos: Dark matter, dark energy and millions of exploding stars

Coming online in 2025, the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory's enormous, unrelenting eye on the sky will create the biggest, most data-rich movie ever made — a 10-year, high-precision chronicle of trillions of cosmic events and objects across the vastness of space and time.

About 95% of the so-called known universe is a total mystery. We have no clue what it is except that it's weirdly different from any sort of matter or energy humans actually know anything about.

The stuff we do know about makes up a scant 5% of the universe and includes everything and everyone on Earth along with every planet, star and galaxy in the universe. The rest is literally invisible, although scientists have managed to detect its immense influence on the otherwise inexplicable motion and structure of galaxies. Revealing the undiscovered properties of the mystery 95% — collectively comprised of what's referred to as dark matter and dark energy — will require a universe-spanning project far more comprehensive than anything done before.

In 2025, the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will begin a 10-year mission to do exactly that. Jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, the observatory is uniquely different from others. From its home atop a remote desert mountaintop in Chile, Rubin Observatory aims to capture the entire visible southern sky over and over again with unparalleled completeness, detail and speed. Every change in the visible sky will be precisely recorded, measured, catalogued and analyzed.

"We're making a digital color motion picture of the universe," says Rubin Observatory Chief Scientist Tony Tyson. "It will contain information that we can get in no other way."

Rubin Observatory's sentinel-like mission is expected to yield a staggering number of new discoveries: over 17 billion Milky Way stars, about 20 billion galaxies and around 10 million supernovas (over a thousand per night), plus a slew of comparatively nearby objects in our own solar system, including millions of asteroids and untold numbers of comets and interstellar objects just passing through.

Besides the inestimable value of this trove of science-grade data, the spectacle of millions of exploding stars should also be pretty cool to watch.

It's dark. It's like matter. That's about all we know. 

Every schoolkid learns about atoms, the building blocks of matter comprised of protons, neutrons and electrons described in various configurations on periodic tables hanging on countless classroom walls.

But nowhere on the periodic table will you find dark matter.

Coined by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s, who first discovered evidence of enormous quantities of unknown matter in distant galaxies, the name succinctly describes just about all that is known about dark matter to this day: It doesn't interact with light, yet it exerts gravitational force like anything else with mass. Zwicky's findings were largely ignored for decades.

In the 1970s, astronomers Vera C. Rubin and Kent Ford were studying the motion of stars in spiral galaxies by measuring the spectrum of light emitted by the stars. The apparent spectral change of the starlight, which shifted either bluer or redder, revealed the respective speed of the stars as they orbited the center of their galaxy. Rubin and Ford observed that, contrary to expectations, stars far from their galactic centers were orbiting just as fast as stars closer in. At such speeds, stars on galactic edges should escape the gravitational pull of their galaxy and speed off into space. The gravitational force from something invisible yet massive must be retaining them.

Rubin realized they had found the most conclusive evidence yet for Zwicky's mostly forgotten dark matter. She calculated that dark matter must outnumber visible matter 10:1 in spiral galaxies in order to exert sufficient gravitational influence to keep those speedy outlying stars in their orbits. Rubin's work —  and later others — confirmed that dark matter can only be indirectly observed through the gravitational effects caused by its proportionately overwhelming mass.

That's because, other than gravitational attraction, dark matter does not interact with light or any known type of matter — both pass through it seemingly undisturbed. No other physical properties have been discovered.

"Dark matter is outside the standard model of physics," says Tyson. "We have no idea what it is. With Rubin Observatory, we now have a really good chance of looking at its properties," he explains. "And once you understand the properties of something, then you can reverse engineer what it probably is."

In honor of Rubin's pioneering work, Congress officially renamed what had initially been called the Dark Matter Telescope, and later the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in 2019. Rubin has been an inspiration to many, not only through her scientific excellence but also through her legendary grit in the face of bias she contended with throughout her career as a female scientist.

She also inspired her four children, who saw their mother's passion for galaxies and stars firsthand. Her youngest, Allan Rubin, remembers his mother and father (a mathematician at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, then the National Bureau of Standards) working on their research at home most evenings and discussing it at dinner with the family.

"We had a small dining room table where we ate and a large dining room table for company, but the large table was mostly spread out with their papers and their work," he recalls. "After dinner, they'd sit at that table working."

Like all the Rubin children, Allan Rubin became a scientist. He studies fault lines as a geophysicist. "I went into science because of my parents and seeing them work around that dining room table," he says.

Because of Vera Rubin's findings and others who followed in her footsteps, scientists have calculated that known matter makes up only about 5% of the universe, while dark matter makes up about 27%.

So what's the remaining 68% made of?

Plot twist: Energy from the void

In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble observed that stars in distant galaxies appeared to be speeding away from Earth, revealing that entire galaxies are moving away from one another in space and thus the whole universe is expanding. The discovery has allowed researchers to more accurately calculate the age and size of the universe and provided key evidence supporting the Big Bang theory of the universe's origin. 

Decades later in the late 1990s, two groups of researchers independently found that the light emitted by certain types of exploding stars in other galaxies was unexpectedly faint. The surprising reason is that, contrary to the thinking at the time, the speed at which all galaxies in the universe are zooming away from each other is not constant: The universe's expansion must be accelerating.

Saul Perlmutter, one of the researchers who made the discovery and later shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for it, called it a "plot twist." To comprehend its fantastic implications, imagine throwing a baseball. But rather than slowing and eventually hitting the ground, the ball suddenly starts accelerating faster and faster until it shoots off into space, where it continues accelerating. The researchers' findings showed this is basically what every galaxy in the universe has been doing for about the past 5 billion years. 

The amount of energy required to continuously accelerate all the stuff in the universe — hundreds of billions of galaxies made of known and dark matter alike — is incomprehensible and exponentially greater than any known type of energy. The combined nuclear furnaces of every star in every galaxy are puny by comparison.

Enter "dark energy."

Another mysterious aspect of dark energy is that its potency is apparently undiluted by the volume of space it occupies. For example, the force of gravity weakens as the distance between objects increases. Not so with dark energy, which exerts the same amount of force even though the space between galaxies is rapidly increasing as the universe's expansion accelerates.

"Our supposition is that it is the energy from the void — an energy that is everywhere in the universe," says Agnès Ferté, who studies dark energy as a member of Rubin Observatory's scientific team and a cosmologist at DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. 

It might not be energy at all but a misunderstanding of how gravity works at a universe-sized scale.

"Is gravity really what we think it is?" asks Ferté. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity accurately explains observations of gravity's effects at the scale of planets, stars and even entire galaxies, she says. 

But does general relatively still hold up at the scale of billions of light-years spanning billions of galaxies? "If not, then maybe the acceleration of the expansion comes from that misunderstanding of gravity," says Ferté. "It would be a huge breakthrough if we show that we need a different or more complete theory of gravity. I can't even imagine what sort of applications we might have for that."

The turning point

As Rubin Observatory carefully measures the far reaches in search of data revealing the substance of the universe, it will also provide an unparalleled catalogue of objects much closer to home: millions of previously unseen asteroids within our own solar system, along with interstellar objects that originated in other systems and traveled to ours.

"This is how we're going to understand the origins of life," predicts Ajhar.

The conditions under which the Earth formed and eventually developed an environment that allowed life to evolve are mostly unknown. Large numbers of rocky and icy asteroids from those early days are still present in our solar system, but we have not previously had the ability to observe more than a few. The millions of asteroids that Rubin Observatory will spot are expected to provide key evidence about the early history of Earth. They may also be useful in identifying the factors that other solar systems would likely need to have Earth-like planets. 

"Knowing how common such solar systems are and all the details on how it works for life to evolve long enough to give rise to people — we don't yet know any of those things," explains Ajhar. "You don't know what you don't know. For example, is a big planet like Jupiter needed to draw asteroids away? 

"You need something on the scale of Rubin Observatory just to figure out where all the asteroids are, and we can only see one solar system well enough to do that: ours."

Rubin Observatory's mission — the aptly named Legacy Survey of Space and Time — will last until at least 2035. The high school students of today will be the early-career astronomers and physicists of tomorrow, examining and exploring all that rich data.

"I think Vera would want those students to understand that most of what there is to know about the universe is still not known," says Allan Rubin. "Vera believed there is always more to be discovered."

While Rubin, Zwicky, Perlmutter and many other researchers have been exceptionally successful in discovering mysteries that show just how little we understand about the universe, Tyson is optimistic that we are approaching a transition in human understanding of the cosmos, from uncovering more mysteries to actually solving them.

"It is a turning point because we're going to be able to do something totally new with very high precision," says Tyson. 

"I think we're going to discover something that blows our minds."

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WASHINGTON, D.C . – Four of the nation’s top scientists have each been awarded $1 million in direct funding via the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Fellows program.  

The program was established to develop, sustain, and promote scientific and academic excellence in Office of Science (SC) research through collaborations between universities and national laboratories. 

The awards, authorized by the America COMPETES act, are bestowed on senior national laboratory scientists. The United States has 17 stellar national laboratories which are powerhouses of science and technology, tackling the world’s greatest scientific challenges. 

“It is an honor to recognize the outstanding research of these awardees,” said Harriet Kung, Acting Director of the DOE Office of Science. “They are advancing science solutions for the nation and taking on some of our biggest challenges in bioenergy, materials science, physics, and computing. I look forward to their continued success and impactful results especially as they continue to move forward in their careers, inspiring a new generation of scientists ready to tackle the big questions and challenges of the future.”  

The 2024 DOE  Office of Science Distinguished Fellows are: 

 Mary Raafat Mikhail Bishai, Brookhaven National Laboratory, honored for enduring contributions at the intensity frontier of high energy physics in unraveling fundamental properties of neutrinos; extraordinary leadership and service to the particle physics community; and deep commitment to broadening participation through mentoring next generation scientists. 

Lois Curfman McInnes, Argonne National Laboratory, honored for exceptional accomplishments in innovative algorithms and software; leadership in major projects, including Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) and the Exascale Computing Project; promotion of scientific productivity and software sustainability; and for outstanding efforts to broaden participation in high-performance computing and related science and engineering. 

Kristin Persson, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, honored for pioneering advancements in data-driven materials design and discovery through first-principles based computations and analysis algorithms that yield materials with optimal properties for engineers and scientists worldwide to accelerate innovation, and for her management and outreach skills that promote the DOE missions. 

Gerald A. Tuskan, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,   honored for foundational scientific advances in the development of resilient bioenergy feedstock crops; for excellence in leading large, multi-institutional science teams toward a robust, sustainable bioeconomy; and for supporting the next generation of diverse scientists. 

The Fellows were selected based on their outstanding scientific leadership and engagement with research communities. They were also recognized because of sustained scientific excellence and achievement; relevance to programmatic goals of the DOE Office of Science; service to the research community; mentoring of early career scientists and/or engineers; and commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Each of the scientists will give an online public lecture in the coming months. Here are dates and information for the public online lectures from each Distinguished Scientist Fellow:  

DOE SC Distinguished Scientist Fellow Lecture: Mary Raafat Mikhail Bishai, Ph.D. 

Jan 14, 2025, 1:30-3:00 pm ET    

Register to attend virtually.  

DOE SC Distinguished Scientist Fellow Lecture: Lois Curfman McInnes, Ph.D. 

Feb 10, 2025, 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET  

Register to attend virtually.

DOE SC Distinguished Scientist Fellow Lecture: Kristin Persson, Ph.D.  

Oct 17, 2024, 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET  

Register to attend virtually .  

DOE SC Distinguished Scientist Fellow Lecture: Gerald A. Tuskan, Ph.D. 

Nov 19, 2024, 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET  

Register to attend virtually.    

For more information about the Distinguished Scientist Fellows Program, please visit the  Distinguished Scientist Fellows website . The Department of Energy is committed to supporting a diverse cadre of investigators and fostering safe, diverse, equitable, and inclusive work, research, and funding environments; read the Office of Science’s  Statement of Commitment for more information. 

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Astronomy for Kids: Teaching Space Science to Young Stargazers (Free Booklet)

Written by Kevin Published on December 22, 2021 . (Last updated on March 19, 2022 .)

Teaching astronomy to children feeds their natural curiosity and creativity. It can make them better thinkers and explorers, and help them develop a lifelong passion for the stars. Parents and educators can make astronomy lessons for kids as young as pre-K and scale the volume and complexity of content to fit the educational needs of any specific age group. With this guide, we aim to give some inspiration and practical tips that may help spark the interest of your child in astronomy.

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This free booklet is available in 2 formats (both are available on the page you’re already on).  First, as an interactive flip-booklet (immediately below, click to view full-screen).  Second, if you would rather read a “plain text” version, keep scrolling below the interactive flip-booklet… the rest of this page is for you!

Click Here to Download or Share

Astronomy for Kids: Teaching the Science of Space to Young Stargazers (With Pro Tips and Activity Ideas)

The journey begins.

Every child has sat under a moonless night sky, gazing up at the stars and wondering what’s out there. Space-oriented sci-fi favorites, from Lost in Space to Star Wars and Star Trek , have tapped into the vast mysteries of the universe to entertain us for generations. The infinite possibilities spark our imaginations and leave us in humble wonder.

Image Credit: Licensed from iStock / demaerre

What is Astronomy?

The word astronomy comes from the original Greek and means “the science that studies the laws of the stars.” It’s hard to imagine a more literal or more appropriate meaning, as astronomy not only involves the study of the stars, but also the laws that govern their very existence.

For example, although we understand the lives of stars fairly well, it’s not 100% certain as to how planets form, or even how many planets may be in the galaxy. Current thinking is that there could be as many as 100 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone, but only 300 million of them could have just the right conditions to support life. Scientists have validated 4,569 planets as orbiting distant stars, and these estimates change regularly. In November 2021, scientists announced the application of ExoMiner machine learning to Kepler telescope data to identify another 301 planets!

Those numbers will change as our understanding of the universe changes. A lot of astronomy, like all sciences, is theoretical, but we know some things for sure. For example:

• The planet Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system. It has high altitude winds that can reach 1,100 mph, or about 1.5x the speed of sound! We know this because the Voyager 2 space probe passed the planet in 1989 and measured the wind speeds there.
• The Earth is tiny! The mass of Jupiter is over 300x bigger than Earth, and you could fit over 1,000,000 Earths inside the Sun!
• The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter (yes, the one 300x bigger than Earth), spins faster on its axis than any other planet. In fact, it only takes 10 hours for the massive planet to complete one rotation, i.e . , one Jupiter day!

Astronomy, then, is more than just the study of the stars we can see in our night sky. It can also be the study of everything that lies beyond the Earth, including the celestial bodies of the solar system and the universe as a whole. Whether they be nebulae, star clusters, galaxies or the entire universe itself, if it exists beyond our atmosphere, it exists within the purview of astronomy!

Image Credit: NASA

Isn’t Astronomy Too Difficult for Kids?

No! Parents and educators can effectively teach astronomy to kids and students of all grade-levels with an age-appropriate curriculum.

We want to inspire our children and students, to teach them to develop solutions for the problems they find, and to train them to ask questions and find answers. This will lay the foundation for deeper and more technical knowledge at a more advanced age.

Studying astronomy doesn’t have to mean using complex mathematical formulae or understanding advanced physics, but it can incorporate real science at a deep enough, age-appropriate level.

Astronomy, as a science, offers a fantastically broad range of facets and areas of study. Physics, chemistry, math, cartography, reading/writing, visual & spatial arts… all areas that invite innovation and discovery… it’s all there.

As a quick overview, here are some topics you can introduce at various education stages:

• Pre-K: The basics, such as the planets of the solar system. Which is largest? The nearest/furthest from the Sun? Which planets can you see with just your eyes in the night sky?
• K-2 nd Grade : The differences between stars and planets, the Earth, the movement of the Sun across the sky (sunrise, sunset, east and west), orbits and what causes the seasons.
• 3 rd -5 th Grade : Each of the planets in greater detail, the phases of the Moon, the stars and constellations.
• Middle School : Astronomical history, the Sun and Moon, eclipses, asteroids, comets and meteors, galaxies, and the chemistry and life spans of the stars.
• High School and Beyond : The structure and origins of the universe, celestial coordinates, orbital laws and the different types of telescopes .

Astronomy can be as simple or complex as you make it, and with a powerful imagination as infinite as the universe itself, you could explore the cosmos for a lifetime. By provoking this natural desire for discovery—utilizing well-rounded skills and their limitless, lifelong potential—astronomy offers a truly awesome adventure for kids of all ages.

Early Experiences Can Spark a Lifelong Passion

Neil de grasse tyson.

Famed scientist Neil de Grasse Tyson strongly advocates teaching astronomy as early as possible. He certainly got hooked early. In his NBC Nightly News interview in 2017, Tyson recalls visiting the planetarium at age nine and knowing he wanted to become an astrophysicist by age 11.

Tyson also recalls a funny story about the first time he visited a planetarium. After going into the facility’s “star dome” (a big room that worked like a telescope, allowing the kids to see an unfiltered view of outer space), he thought they’d faked the whole thing. Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, Tyson was used to seeing a polluted sky with cloudier views and fewer stars. In his mind, such an abundance of celestial objects could never fill the skies – therefore, it had to be a hoax! Resolving that conflict was a key factor in starting his journey.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Tyson cites this experience as a crucial turning point in his life. He was struck by wonder on his first trip to the planetarium and that he had to learn more about the universe. He has, of course, gone on to become one of the most prominent scientists in the field, and it’s all thanks to a trip to the planetarium as a 9-year old boy.

Ana Humphrey

Lesser known, but no less impressive, Ana Humphrey won the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search and is currently an astrophysics student at Harvard. Ana mentions in this wonderful interview that her love for science started at age 10, when she became aware of the environmental issues and community impact of mountaintop coal mining. She also attended a number of science fairs and, after speaking to the winner of one such contest, was inspired in 6 th grade to challenge herself through those same science fair projects.

Seeing others solve real world problems fed her passion for the environment, for asking hard questions and eventually for using mathematics, research and community efforts to solve related issues. She learned key lessons in her efforts, including:

• To identify issues in our community and create concrete action plans to address them;
• To not be afraid to ask questions, but also to not be afraid to find the answers; and
• That, while being smart is good, being kind and respectful to others is more important.

In high school, Ana achieved extreme success at multiple science fairs with projects related to the environment and astronomy. One project that used mathematical models to discover potential locations for exoplanets won her the top prize at the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

Two very different backgrounds, but both inspired by exposure to science and astronomy at a young age. Not everyone can be on the same level as Neil de Grasse Tyson and Ana Humphrey, but we hope the tips and projects in this leaflet help you to find inspiration and inspire others as well.

Choosing A Curriculum

Unfortunately, not all astronomy-related materials are created equal. Some materials retread common pitfalls that you can keep an eye out for. We’ve detailed some common issues that we’ve come across below.

Breadth vs. Depth

We commonly hear this question: Should children focus for a longer time on one specific area of study, or cover the basics across broader curriculum? The more general approach might seem to make sense, particularly when framed as aiding the child in “searching for one’s passion.” Exposing children to a wide variety of topics, and allowing them to gravitate towards the ones that spark their interest, seems like a wise course of action – or so the thinking goes.

However, a groundbreaking study published by researchers at the University of Virginia showed that young people learn better when they’re taught a subject in depth , rather than being exposed to a range of subjects all at once. Not only did students exposed to the same subject for a longer period of time better retain the information, but they also went on to perform significantly better at the university level, even after controlling for external variables.

One explanation for this might be that kids learn best when they’re passionate. When they get excited about the material and experience a burning curiosity to learn the answers, they can learn and retain information much better. Passion takes time to develop. Most kids aren’t taught about the cycles of a star and immediately fall head over heels in love with astronomy. Instead, they need time for the concepts of astronomy to sink in and for a passion to take root.

Another reason may be that too much information can overwhelm and lead to poor levels of retention. Kids trying to learn about too many diverse concepts in too short of a time leads to uninspired students more focused on memorizing facts than developing genuine interests.

Teachers and parents may therefore want to consider:

• teaching astronomy on its own as a focused program;
• giving kids weeks or even months to explore wherever their curious minds take them; and
• finding materials that provide more depth.

Image Credit: pexels.com / Kindel Media

Crafts and History, vs. Science

When choosing the best materials for teaching astronomy to your kids, another pitfall to keep in mind is whether the materials truly focus on the science or whether they are really more arts & crafts or history focused.

For example, solar system models can certainly get younger children interested in space and teach the names and order of the planets from the Sun. They are, of course, also extremely rudimentary models, woefully inaccurate as to the scale of the planets relative to each other, the relative distances between the planets, and the general location of the planets in respect of each other. We view other projects, such as glitter-covered Styrofoam ball comets, as even less impactful, and really more like fun arts and crafts than science.

NASA has a simple video (see below) demonstrating the challenges presented by solar system models:

Similarly, many astronomy-focused books and materials for kids actually spend much more time on the history than the science. These books might describe important people and their discoveries, but do not get into any of the demonstrative lessons, principles, experiments and processes that young people need to truly grasp the science behind it all.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the materials have no value; they may help to show how an astronomer identified a problem or had a question, and then went about solving it – the type of thing kids may find inspirational. However, you may want to ask yourself if you’re teaching science or simply the memorization of historical / narrative details.

Time-Specific vs. Generally Applicable Materials

A quick note on time-specific versus generally-applicable materials. When purchasing materials for kids related to astronomy, keep in mind that the sky changes throughout the night / year and differs over various parts of the earth.

As such, you’ll need to be careful when purchasing static materials, i.e., ones that purport to show you celestial objects without accounting for your latitude, time of year, etc. You may therefore find a sky-gazer’s almanac or a smartphone app more useful than a static map of the entire night sky or an image from a book.

Age Appropriateness

Parents and educators should also consider whether the material is too simple or advanced for their child / student. For kids aged five and younger, education should often focus on more general exposure and fun. Children can be shown astronomy through videos and pictures, learn vocabulary (very basic astronomical terminology, like the names of the planets, and terms such as stars, galaxies, and black holes) and play games with the subject matter.

As students transition into elementary school, understanding should be expanded. Children can begin to understand what makes up a star, what are the cycles of a star, and how stars come to exist. They can also begin to appreciate how concepts relate and fit into a large cosmic framework. Learning should be driven by questions, and the learning environment should become a forum for understanding questions that they’re actually curious about.

In middle school and high school, kids can grasp the more complex aspects of astronomy. The “why” becomes very important in what’s being taught, and the kids need to understand both the practical applications of the subject as well as their role in solving the problems and questions that they encounter.  Project-based, self-directed learning and experimentation can really take off at this age, and the kids should be allowed to take responsibility not only for asking questions but in finding the answers to them.

Sample Curriculum Materials

Some curriculum material options that we found useful and/or referred to in preparing this leaflet include the following:

• NASA’s Universe of Learning, an integrated astrophysics STEM learning and literacy program: https://www.universe-of-learning.org/
• Sky Lights, blog covering astronomy, meteorology, climatology, chemistry, physics, optics, earth & space science, and others, that aims to help students and homeschoolers: https://sky-lights.org/
• Sky & Telescope’s Homeschool Astronomy Resources for K-12 Students: https://skyandtelescope.org/homeschool-resources/
• Starry Night Education: research proven software solutions for grades 9-12 astronomy education: https://www.starrynighteducation.com/products-astronomy-education-high-school.html
• Home School Mom’s list of astronomy related resources: https://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/homeschool-lesson-plans/astronomy/
• Forest Trail Academy’s online high school astronomy class: https://www.foresttrailacademy.com/astronomy-course-curriculum.html
• Rainbow Resource Center’s middle school astronomy teaching materials: https://www.rainbowresource.com/category/10577/Middle-School-Astronomy.html
• Education.com’s solar system lesson plan for young kids: https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/second-grade/earth-science/

How to Get Kids Into Astronomy and Under the Stars

While it’s important to learn and understand the fundamentals of astronomy, nothing beats going outside on a clear night and looking up at the Moon, planets and stars. That said, it can be difficult to know where to begin. We’ve compiled a few ideas on how to get started:

• Learn to identify the phases of the Moon . (See below for a fun activity to demonstrate the phases of the Moon and why the same side always faces toward us.) Watch the Moon change phase and track its movement across the sky. Trying to guess where the Moon will be the following night, and which phase the Moon will be in one-, two- or three-weeks’ time, can provide a fun way to explore these concepts.
• Learn to identify the planets and track their movements . Each planet has a different color and brightness – which shines brightest? Are there any that appear to be getting brighter or fainter? Keep an eye on the planets and their positions in relation to nearby bright stars. Which planets move the quickest? Which are slowest? If a planet approaches a bright star, how long do you think it will be before it appears next to the star?
• Understand why and how the view of the night sky changes during the course of the night and through the changing seasons. Go outside at about an hour after sunset and note where the brightest stars and planets are in the sky. Which ones are setting in the west? Which stars are rising in the east or appear to be overhead? Then return a few hours later (if the children have yet to go to bed) and see how the view has changed. Which stars have set? Which stars now appear overhead? On a more long-term scale, come back a month later at the same time and compare the view again.
• Learn to identify the Big Dipper (from winter to summer) and Orion (from winter to early spring) and how to use them to find other stars and constellations. How do you find Polaris, the north pole star? Where is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky? How can you find the constellations Leo and Gemini?
• Learn to locate and identify various deep sky objects . Start with naked eye targets, such as the Pleiades and Hyades, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Beehive Cluster or Mizar & Alcor, and then move on to binocular objects, such as M41 or M35. How do the naked eye objects appear when observed through binoculars ?

How to Make Astronomy Fun

Once an educator or parent has made the decision that they’re ready to teach astronomy to their children, what material should be taught? Which activities will the learners find most interesting?

Pro-Tip: To Start, Keep It Simple & Social

Initially, getting your bearings and teaching children about astronomy basics doesn’t need to be that challenging. The following tips can get you off on the right foot:

1. Learn the Basics

Getting a handle on the planets and constellations, your primary objects in the night sky , is easier than it sounds for all but the youngest among us. We’ve already mentioned solar system models as a way to help younger kids conceptualize the planets. Planetariums are great resources if you have one near you, but you can also easily find a number of other star maps and informative visuals online to help visualize the night sky, or download apps, such as Sky Safari (which allows you to find night sky objects by simply pointing your phone in their direction!).

For constellations in particular, we recommend the book:

Signposts to the Stars: An Absolute Beginners Guide to Learning the Night Sky and Exploring the Constellations, by Richard J. Bartlett

(Note: Richard is a regular contributor to TelescopeGuide.org and helped with writing/editing on this article.)

2. Join a Local Club or Society

For parents/kids and teachers/students who truly take an interest in astronomy, local clubs of other hobbyists offer a great chance to meet peers sharing the same passion. Seeing peers learn and challenge themselves can help students find inspiration and learn what it takes to develop into a more serious astronomer.

3. Get Out There & Stargaze!

Stargazing provides a great activity for families to enjoy together. Kids and parents together, outside, under a beautiful night sky allows the kids to take the more formal information they’re learning in class into more casual conversations with their parents and siblings. Actually stargazing, versus working through projects and books, helps cement the real-world applicability and sense of wonder that kids need to really become passionate about a subject.

Stargazing Tips

Our website, www.telescopeguide.org, has other resources to help you get started, but we’ve provided a few tips for stargazing beginners:

• When stargazing, avoid light “pollution.” By that, we mean light from cities / streetlights, a full moon, and other sources that cause starts and night sky objects to appear faint. You’ll want to go on a night, and at the time during that night, when the sky is as dark as possible and preferably get away from cities and towns.  Or even better, you can visit a dark sky location for the best possible stargazing experience .
• You don’t need a lot of equipment to begin. Unlike other disciplines that require expensive equipment, amateurs and professionals alike can enjoy the heavens with nothing more than their eyes and a clear night sky. In fact, the best place to start might be without any equipment at all.  Starting with your eyes, a map of the night sky and a journal of what you see provides a great way for beginners to form a general understanding of what they’re seeing. Identifying constellations and specific stars and planets creates the mental map that all young stargazers need.
• If you do want to amp up the experience with some binoculars or a telescope , beginners have a lot of great options . These days, you and your kid can take some pretty cool photos of the moon with a basic, low end telescope, your smart phone and an adapter. Seeing your first lunar snapshot or the Milky Way for the first time offers just the type of experience to spark lasting passion in kids.

There are plenty of great options for a first telescope for kids.  Here’s an example of an inexpensive starter option – the Celestron FirstScope (our review here) .

Astronomy-Related Activities for Kids

Experiments and projects can also help make learning astronomy fun for kids. We’ve set out some examples of astronomy activities for kids to consider below!

Moon Base Design Challenge

Surviving on the moon, another planet or even traveling through space presents many challenges, and scientists from around the world have studied these issues for generations.

For this exercise, students pretend they’re one of these scientists, in charge of establishing a moon, space or planetary base. They must design the base to meet basic needs – for example, how will you eat, breathe, generate electricity, exercise and live? What will the conditions on the surface be like? Gravity? Weather? What challenges will you face?

Designing a moon base (or a space or planetary version) offers a fun way to stimulate kids’ imaginations, teach them about interstellar objects, and have them research and design solutions for real challenges. It also pushes them to condense and articulate what they know about space and the necessities of life. Parents and educators can guide the scope of the project from simple scenarios for younger kids to more complex and detailed requirements for older ones.

Students love this project as it puts them in control. They’ll need to figure out what challenges could arise and think creatively to realize their solutions. It requires multi-level thinking and the  application of facts they’ve learned beforehand about the moon, space or planet in question.

Kids can create the “moon base” from a cardboard box and simple household items. it’s important to have a design map with explanations of the model, and to have the children articulate their design and the challenges they faced. Here’s a real-life example:

Image Credit (Above and Below): TelescopeGuide.org

Gravity & Orbit Demonstrations

Why do objects orbit other objects in space, seemingly forever? We’ve designed a simple demonstration with a marble, a tennis ball and a kitchen bowl to help to help younger kids visualize how gravity affects the trajectory of an object as it flies through space.

Before demonstrating this, it helps to explain the delicate “tug of war” between the velocity (speed) of an object vs. the gravitational pull of the larger object that it’s orbiting.

Image Credit: TelescopeGuide.org

  To conduct the demonstration, try to throw the marble so that it “orbits” the tennis ball for as long as possible. (To make this even more fun, have a little competition and see who can get the marble to stay in orbit the longest.) While doing this simple experiment, you can explain some basic concepts about how gravity and velocity combine to keep objects in orbit:

• If the marble goes too slow, it falls towards the center.  If it goes too fast, it flies out of the bowl. The speed has to be “just right” to keep it in orbit.
• Why doesn’t the marble keep going around forever?  (Answer: Friction! In the bowl, friction occurs between the marble and the bowl itself, which causes the marble to slow down (i.e., lose velocity. The object would not slow down in space as there’s no friction.)
• Try making the orbit elliptical (oval-shaped.) Planets, moons, asteroids and comets don’t have simple, perfectly circular orbits; they’re almost all elliptical to some extent or another, with the object (the marble) being closest to their parent body (the tennis ball) at one point and furthest from its parent body at another. This is especially true of comets, which tend to have highly elliptical orbits. (We call the closest point to the Sun in a body’s orbit the perihelion , and the furthest point the Similarly, when a body is closest to the Earth, we call that point the perigee, and we call the point when it’s furthest the apogee .)

While this simple demonstration works best for younger kids, you might be surprised to see teenagers getting interested as well. In fact, teachers and parents can take this demonstration to the next level, and actually demonstrate the bend of objects on the fabric of space-time.

To do that, you can repeat this same concept but replace (1) the bowl with a bed sheet spread out and either fastened to supports around the edges (e.g., comparable to a trampoline) or held by the children at the corners, (2) the tennis ball with a heavier weight or object (e.g., a basketball) placed in the middle of the bed sheet, and (3) the single marble with multiple marbles.

The object in the middle of the bed sheet will warp the sheet, much like a planet warps space-time. This warping will draw other, smaller objects rolled on the sheet, like the marbles, toward and into the orbit of the heavier object, just as the warping of space-time results in gravity.

This “advanced” version of the gravity and orbit demonstration results in some really amazing orbital patterns and nuances. We learned this version of the experiment from Ben Finio, PhD, of Science Buddies. You can find more information, and see it in action, here:

Finio, Ben. “A Model of Gravity in Our Solar System.”  Science Buddies , 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Astro_p043/astronomy/model-gravity-solar-system . Accessed 16 Nov. 2021.

Moon Phases Demonstration

One thing that’s often a source of confusion is why the Moon always keeps the same side facing toward us, and how the phases of the Moon occur. You can demonstrate in a fun way by having a basketball to represent the Earth, a tennis ball to represent the Moon and a bright flashlight or lamp to represent the Sun.

Using a black marker, draw a line encircling the tennis ball so that it passes through what would be the Moon’s north and south poles. Then have a student draw their representation of the Moon on one side of the tennis ball. We’d see this side from the Earth, whereas we’d never see the unmarked side.

(Although we call this side the “dark side of the Moon,” in reality – as students will see – it gets as much sunlight as the rest of the lunar surface.)

We only see one side of the Moon from Earth because the Moon’s rotation period (its “day”) is the same as its orbital period about the Earth. This concept is a bit difficult to explain, which is why this activity provides a great, practical demonstration.

The activity works best at night or in a room that’s been darkened. Place the basketball (the Earth) in the center of the room and the flashlight (the Sun) near a wall. Lastly, place the tennis ball (the Moon) about midway between the Earth and the Sun – but make sure the marked side of the Moon faces the Earth. (Note that this is not to scale!)

Turn on the flashlight and turn out the lights or close the blinds so that the room is dark. The flashlight should half illuminate the basketball (Earth) and tennis ball (Moon). (The tennis ball might cast a shadow on the basketball but ignore this for now.)

The illuminated half of the basketball represents the daylight side of the Earth, whereas the darkened half represents the night side of the Earth. The divide between the lit and unlit sides of the Earth is twilight; as seen from above, the left side of the Earth represents the afternoon and evening, whereas the right side represents the hours after midnight and morning.

When the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, it’s a new Moon and can’t be seen from the Earth as it appears too close to the Sun in the daytime sky.

(Students might also notice that the unmarked side of the Moon – the “dark side” – is actually fully illuminated by sunlight at this time but, because it’s turned away from the Earth, we can’t see it.)

Now move the Moon a counter-clockwise through a quarter of its orbit so that it’s to the left of the Earth (as seen from above.) At the same time, rotate the Moon clockwise a quarter of a turn so that the line through its poles faces the Sun, perpendicular to the divide between the day and night side of the Earth.

This represents the Moon at first quarter (so-called because the Moon has moved a quarter of the way through its orbit), and it appears as a half Moon in our sky. From the Earth’s perspective, it’s visible in the afternoon and evening and is south at sunset.

Now move the Moon counter-clockwise another quarter again so that it’s on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. At the same time, rotate the Moon clockwise again by a quarter turn, so that the entire marked side faces the Earth.

This represents the full Moon, when we see the entire sunlit half of the Moon’s surface from the Earth. The Moon is visible throughout the evening through to the early hours of the morning. It rises at sunset, is south at midnight, and then sets at sunrise.

Now move the Moon again counter-clockwise another quarter and rotate it clockwise by a quarter. The Moon is now on the right side of the Earth (as seen from above) and, once again, the flashlight illuminates half the Moon’s surface. This time, it’s the opposite half of the Moon compared to the Moon at first quarter.

We call this phase of the Moon the last quarter (or sometimes third quarter) as it’s now moving into the last quarter of its orbit. It’s visible from the early hours of the morning and throughout the morning itself. It rises around midnight, is south at dawn and then sets around midday.

Lastly, move and rotate the Moon back to its starting position and we’re back to new Moon again.

Additional Activity Resources

While researching this leaflet, we came across some other interesting astronomy related resources, and hands-on activities to introduce kids to space:

• NASA at Home:  https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-at-home-for-kids-and-families
• NASA’s Night Sky Network, Supernova Demonstration: https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=339
• Science Buddies Astronomy Projects: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/astronomy
• Homeschool space activities for kids: https://www.homeschool-activities.com/space-for-kids.html

Additional Kids-Related Resources at TelescopeGuide.org

• 5 Simple Space Activities for Kids
• Space Gift Ideas for Astronomy-Loving Kids
• Our Top Telescope Recommendations for Kids
• Review of KiwiCo’s Astronaut Starter Kit & Solar System Model
• Our Guide to the Best Star Projectors for Kids

The Take-Away: Kids of Every Age Can Learn Astronomy

Every science educator or parent who values a STEM-centric education should consider incorporating astronomy for kids into their curriculum.

Astronomy is a practical, multi-disciplinary science that helps inspire the imaginations and scientific curiosity of children. The mystery of the night sky still draws us in, and studying astronomy can offer an exciting adventure.

By gaining exposure to astronomy from an early age, young learners lay the foundation for lifelong enrichment and may just catch that same spark as Neil de Grasse Tyson or Ana Humphrey.

We’ve provided you with several key tips and project ideas to help you down this path. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us using our contact page (link at bottom of page), as well as more informative articles and recommendations on getting started with astronomy.

(Also, if you liked this article, please share it using the social media buttons below!)

*** Special thanks to Richard Bartlett & Laboni Hasan ***

Feature Image Credit: pexels.com / Kindel Media

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The Anatomy in 3D class at UNF melds biology and technology to replicate human anatomy

Stellar Astronomy

Humans have studied the stars for thousands of years. To many cultures, stars were the metaphor for constancy, while everything else moved and changed. Modern stellar astronomy showed that stars do change on many time scales, ranging from days to longer periods of time than human history. Stars are born, they change over their lifetimes, and they die. Along the way, they influence the chemistry and structure of their environment, and provide a home for any planets in orbit. Stellar astronomy is dedicated to studying each step of that process, treating stars both as individuals and as members of a population.

Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian stellar astronomers study all aspects of star birth, life, and death:

Identifying and studying protostars inside the clouds that gave them birth. These nebulas are opaque to visible light, so astronomers use submillimeter light observatories like the CfA’s Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to see through the gas and dust. Astronomers identified a sudden outburst from a protostar, caused by a lot of mass clumping onto it at once. Protostar Blazes Bright, Reshaping Its Stellar Nursery

Finding new stars within clusters by their intense radiation. Astronomers use NASA’s Spitzer Infrared Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory to see young stars, which emit a lot more high-energy radiation than their older versions. Chandra observations of a nebula called W51 revealed 600 young stars through their X-ray emission. W51: Chandra Peers into a Nurturing Cloud

And studying the magnetic field of the Sun to learn about other stars. Using data from the Sun, researchers create three-dimensional models of magnetic field generation, which can be tested against observational data from other stars. The end goal is understanding exactly how stellar magnetic fields are created, and how they influence planets in their systems. The Secret of Magnetic Cycles in Stars

Monitoring starquakes to understand the interiors of Sun-like stars. The Sun and stars like it vibrate, passing sound waves through their interiors. Just as earthquakes let geologists map Earth’s interior, these starquakes allow astronomers to measure what’s going on inside stars. Using NASA’s Kepler Observatory and other instruments designed to watch stars for long periods of time, researchers measure the fluctuations of light caused by these vibrations. Solar-Like Oscillations in Other Stars

Observing aging stars as they shed huge amounts of material into surrounding space. Old giant stars are simply too big to keep a stable grasp of their outer layers, so their surfaces pulsate and eject particles in the form of powerful winds. Using ALMA and other observatories, astronomers can identify the composition and structure of these winds. Pulsation-Driven Winds in Giant Stars

Studying the supernovas of high-mass stars to understand how they explode. Some  supernovas may gain some power in environments rich in the heavier elements astronomers call “metals” . The mechanisms for explosions are complex and not well understood yet, challenging astronomers to study them in new ways. Astronomers Discover ‘Heavy Metal’ Supernova Rocking Out

Measuring the fluctuations in a variable star. Many old stars pulsate , but the details of the processes involved are difficult to measure in individual stars. CfA astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to characterize pulsations in the giant red star Betelgeuse, familiar as the “shoulder” of the constellation Orion. By measuring the speed of material in different parts of Betelgeuse’s atmosphere, they found the fluctuations are asymmetrical, much like the contractions of a human heart as it beats. Betelgeuse’s Chromosphere Beats Asymmetrically

Providing the first images of individual stars. Even with powerful telescopes, most stars are visible only as points of light. However, CfA astronomers captured an image of Betelgeuse using the Hubble, demonstrating that aging giant stars are dramatically non-spherical in shape. This study also provided the first map of the star’s surface, which showed that Betelgeuse has much larger fluctuations in temperature than our Sun. Astronomers Capture First Direct Image of A Star

The Life and Death of Stars

Stars produce nearly all the light in the sky. Stars also create the carbon, oxygen, iron, and most of the other elements planets — and life — are built from. The nuclear fusion that makes heavier elements from lighter ones is what defines a star, and the details of that fusion indicates where the star is in its life cycle.

Two things determine the unique life of a star: its mass, which is set during formation , and whether it lives its life alone or with companions. If a star is in a binary or larger association, its companions can affect its evolution through the exchange of mass or tidal forces pulling each other out of shape. Meanwhile, solitary stars like the Sun follow a set path determined by their mass.

Low-mass stars fuse hydrogen into helium at a slow rate, and live phenomenally long lives, most of them longer than the current age of the universe. Moderate-mass stars like the Sun consume the available hydrogen and helium over the course of a few billion years, then die peacefully, leaving behind a white dwarf . High-mass stars speed through their life cycle, exploding as supernovas and leaving a neutron star , black hole, or nothing at all. These explosions enrich their surroundings with new atoms and molecules, providing the materials for the next generation of stars.

Stellar astronomy studies the life cycle and structure of stars, both as individuals and as populations. By tracking the commonalities and differences that make stars what they are, we understand the appearance and contents of the visible universe.

Stars are born out of cold dense clouds of gas and dust. The process begins when a nearby disturbance compresses the gas, such as a supernova explosion or a shock wave from a black hole. The compression allows gravity to work, drawing more matter in to make a protostar and a disk of spinning matter. Planets are born from that disk, while the protostar gathers enough mass to begin nuclear fusion. Astronomers hunt for these infant stars and their protostellar disks, to identify the processes and particular types of atoms involved.

Oftentimes, many stars are born from the same nebula, and remain close together in a star cluster . For that reason, many of the stars in a cluster have similar chemistry and were born at roughly the same time. Some clusters contain very old stars, while others are far younger, providing astronomers with a laboratory for understanding stellar evolution.

Stars spend most of their lives on the main sequence, where they fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores. When the available fuel is used up, they swell into giants and go through another cycle of evolution . Astronomers track the way this works by studying the structure of the stars. The internal workings become visible through vibrations — starquakes — and magnetic cycles that produce fluctuations in the star’s light, as well as chemical changes on the surface. In addition, aging stars can pulsate, changing their brightness in various ways. Some of these stars, known as Cepheid variables, fluctuate predictably enough to be used for measuring distances to nearby galaxies.

Many stars have one or more companions, and those can affect a star’s life profoundly. Close binary stars can pull each other out of shape, strip matter from each other, or even merge into one star. If the companion is a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, interactions can be even more dire for the star. These can shorten the star’s life and sometimes produce small explosions on the its surface.

When a star in the same mass range as the Sun dies, it sheds its outer layers, forming a planetary nebula . The elements from those outer layers enrich the surrounding environment, while the shape of the planetary nebula itself provides clues to the final days of the original star. Meanwhile, the remnant of the star’s core becomes a white dwarf.

High-mass stars explode as supernovas , which are energetic enough to fuse more elements and spread them through space. The remnant of the star’s core shrinks into a neutron star for moderately high-mass stars, or a black hole for very high-mass stars. Astronomers study supernovas and their remnants to understand the way these stars die and spread materials through the galaxy. The neutron stars and black holes they leave behind also shape their environments in profound ways.

Artist's impressions of three types of supernovas from the explosion of extremely massive stars. Such models help us understand why some observed supernovas produce powerful jets, while others do not.

• What conditions are necessary for life?
• Does life exist outside of the solar system?
• How do stars and planets form and evolve?
• What do black holes look like?
• What is the universe made of?
• Astro Combs
• Solar-Stellar Connections
• Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs
• Planet Formation
• Planetary Nebulas
• Solar and Stellar Atmospheres
• Spectroscopy
• Star Clusters
• Star Formation
• Stellar Structure and Evolution
• Supernovas & Remnants
• Time Domain Astronomy
• Variable Stars and Binaries
• Machine Learning
• Extragalactic Distance Scale
• Astrostatistics
• Atomic & Molecular Data
• Black Holes
• Detector Technology
• Elemental Abundances
• Gravitational Dynamics
• Gravitational Lensing
• Gravitational Waves
• Interstellar Medium and Molecular Clouds
• Jets, Outflows and Shocks
• High Energy Astrophysics
• Optical and Infrared Astronomy
• Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Sciences

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Astronomy 1144 - Stars, Galaxies, & the Universe

How long do stars shine? What is the Milky Way? What is the origin and fate of our universe?

Astronomy 1144, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe , is a one-semester overview of the universe beyond our solar system.  The course is divided into three interlinking parts that review what astronomers have learned about the stars, the galaxies, and the universe as a whole. It is a General Education (GE) Physical Science course in the Natural Science category. The goals of courses in this category are for students to understand the principles, theories, and methods of modern science, the relationship between science and technology, the implications of scientific discoveries, and the potential of science and technology to address problems of the contemporary world.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, students should successfully be able to:

• Understand the basic facts, principles, theories, and methods of modern science.
• Understand key events in the development of science and recognize that science is an evolving body of knowledge.
• Describe the interdependence of scientific and technological developments.
• Recognize the social and philosophical implications of scientific discoveries and understand the potential of science and technology to address problems of the contemporary world. 

Astronomy 1144 will meet these expected outcomes by combining an examination of the facts astronomers and astrophysicists have learned about stars, galaxies, and the universe, with an exploration of the outstanding scientific problems that are the focus of current research.  Together these illustrate the ways in which physical principles are used to understand the universe and to show how scientific theories are developed and tested against observations.

Among the questions that you should be able to answer by the end of the course are the following:

• What are stars?
• Where do stars get their energy?
• What is the fate of the Sun and other stars?
• What are galaxies?
• What is the Big Bang model of the universe?
• What are Dark Matter and Dark Energy?
• What is the ultimate fate of the universe?

Course Organization

This is a 3 credit hour course; each week, there will be 3 hours of lecture with occasional take-home assignments designed to explore some of the course topics in greater depth. For Arts and Sciences students in a Bachelor of Arts program, this course meets the Arts and Sciences GE requirement of a natural sciences course without a laboratory component.

Course Catalog Description

Structure, motions, and evolution of stars, interstellar material, galaxies, and the universe as a whole. Not recommended for students who plan to continue in astronomy or physics.

Prerequisites : 

ACT Math Subscore of 22 or higher, or Math Placement Level R or better, or Math 1050 (075), 102, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 2292 (292), 1162 (162), 1162H (162H), or 172.

This course is available for EM credit. GEL Natural Science: Physical Science course. NS Admis Cond course.

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Wassmer’s debut novel succeeds in being the opposite of its title. He might become a new favorite for fans of John Scalzi and David Wong (a.k.a. Jason Pargin).

DEBUT Wassmer rockets onto the scene with a life-or-death action-packed debut. As Dan and Mara vacation at a resort in the Bahamas, the sun warms them until that sun explodes. Launched into darkness and confusion, resort guests are left to fend for themselves, quickly forming alliances and hoarding resources. It’s no laughing matter, but Wassmer will make readers laugh out loud anyway, especially when an influencer and pyramid-schemer takes her position as the resort’s overlord, complete with an intense security detail. Protagonist Dan has a quick wit, and the other characters are so well-developed that the realism in their interactions is smile-inducing. The novel is a romp and a page-turner, but it also has a great deal of pathos. Wassmer explores different kinds of masculinity and the nature of romantic relationships, while Dan struggles to find his purpose and inner strength and contends with what “success” means in a person’s life.  VERDICT Wassmer’s debut novel succeeds in being the opposite of its title. He might become a new favorite for fans of John Scalzi and David Wong (a.k.a. Jason Pargin).

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