LittleClickers » Astronomy

Inventing the Future

buckleit — Tue, 02 May 2017 20:33:55 +0000

Computer scientist Alan Kay once said the best way to predict the future is to invent it. If this is true, what are inventors currently working on? Fasten your seat belts, because we’ve found some amazing examples, like flying cars and electric jets — powered by solar roads. There’s even a group working on a Mars colony. Here are some sites and videos worth exploring.

1. We’ll live on another planet. Mars makes three things hard — breathing, eating and not freezing. Engineers at Mars One have a solution. Visit http://www.mars-one.com to see what it might look like to live on Mars someday.

2. We’ll “fly” a car. This New York Times article http://nyti.ms/2p48kQR describes a company that has created flying car/boat vehicle, and the people who are investing in the idea. Currently they can only fly over water, but soon you might take one to school.

3. We’ll ride in an electric powered airplane. Electric cars are an old idea. But airplanes? Learn about the E-Fan from Airbus at bitly.com/2prxMlU that has already been able to fly across the English channel.

4. We’ll swallow a robot. We found a pill-sized robot that you swallow. It then unfolds inside your stomach and fixes things. After it finishes, it simply dissolves. Learn more at bitly.com/2p1Mzjv

5. We’ll see the beauty of math. Computers are helping mathematical artists like John Edmark create hypnotic patterns using geometry and something called the “golden angle.” See some examples, at bitly.com/2prUrhO

APPLICATION: DESIGN YOUR OWN TESLA

How far can you drive an electric car before the battery dies? How long does it take to charge? The answers depend on many things, like if you are using the air conditioner or if you are going up hills. Visit Tesla’s site where you can design a car and or try out different simulators. In case you were wondering, most Teslas can go 265 miles on an overnight charge, and it costs about $10 to “fill up the tank.” That’s about 4 cents per mile. Learn more at https://www.tesla.com/models

Try this month’s YouTube playlist! You’ll find a set of hand-picked videos that show these ideas in action. Here’s the link.

———————————————————————————————————————————————— LittleClickers.com (this page and the associated web site) is sponsored by Computer Explorers. Neither Children’s Technology Review (publisher of LittleClickers) or Computer Explorers has any vested interest in any of the sites listed on this page. Librarians and teachers are permitted to copy this page for non-profit use. To report a bad link, use this form, or contact us. Copyright 2018, Children's Technology Review.

Distant Worlds

buckleit — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 17:33:02 +0000

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The discovery of seven Earth-sized planets has sparked a lot of questions How long would it take to visit them? Could we live there? Could there be other forms of life? Let’s answer some of these questions.

1. How far away are these seven planets? According to the New York Times http://nyti.ms/2m0GuGJ these planets are 235 trillion miles from us, orbiting around a star called Trappist-1. If you could travel at the speed of light, it would take you 40 years to get there.

2. What kind of telescope do you need to find planets? These seven planets were spotted with the Hubble. Next year the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched with ten times the power of the Hubble. That means we’ll be able to spot many more Earth-like planets. Learn more at https://jwst.nasa.gov/

3. What type of spacecraft would we need to travel to another planet? NASA has an answer: Orion. Currently Orion is designed to take a crew to Mars. Learn more about Orion’s design at http://go.nasa.gov/2mtpY2P

4. What’s it like to stand on another planet? Erik Wernquist is a digital artist who has put a lot of thought into this question. Watch his film at https://vimeo.com/132183032 or visit his art gallery at http://www.erikwernquist.com.

5. Can we tell if a remote planet has life? Yes. Planets with life look different than other planets, at least to a space telescope. By looking at the way light reflects off the planet, astronomers can tell if the planet’s atmosphere contains gasses associated with living things, including oxygen, ozone, or methane. Visit the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory to learn more http://go.nasa.gov/2mdRXCN.

APPLICATION Download these Three Apps

Space by Tinybop. Create a rocket and blast off to visit each planet where you can explore. Learn more at http://bit.ly/2mLaJ0Y
Star Walk Kids by Vito Technology. Point your device at the sky to identify a star, constellation or planet, in real time. Learn more at http://bit.ly/2mdStRw
Solar System for iPad by Touch Press. Tap a planet, moon or comet in a working model of the solar system. Full Review: http://bit.ly/2mFjz1d

Select Videos About Distant Worlds Here’s a set of hand-picked videos that go along with this column. http://bit.ly/2mtG2l9

The Moon

Megan Billitti — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 16:46:53 +0000

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Forty seven years ago in the month of July (July 20, 1969 to be exact) the Apollo 11 space mission landed a man on the moon. Let’s explore this amazing place.

1. Can you live on the moon? Not without a really good space suit. The temperature goes from HOT (287 degrees F) to COLD (-243 degrees F). There are some other problems, like a lack of air, food and plants. Learn about the moon surface at http://bit.ly/1JpGQfg.

2. Where on the moon did the Apollo astronauts land? Google Moon https://www.google.com/moon/ has cool maps of the landing sites, including links to the pictures that were taken there.

3. How big is the moon? This photo lets you see the answer http://bit.ly/292E8iT .

4. What US President decided we should visit the moon? The history of mission to the moon is explained at the JFK museum site http://bit.ly/1KgK0jM.

5. Can you name 10 inventions that came from the moon mission? Here’s a site that lists 15 http://bitly.com/29aBXtV

• When is the next full moon? Check out the moon’s schedule for this year- http://bit.ly/1TZOHBs

• If you weigh 100 pounds on earth, how much would you weigh on the moon? Use this Wonderopolis calcuator http://bitly.com/29hKBrF and find out• !

The Planets

Megan Billitti — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 01:01:32 +0000

Many people don’t know that on an clear winter night, you can see five planets with no telescope. But where are they? How can you tell if you’re looking at a star, a jet or a planet? Let’s learn more.

TEACHERS OR LIBRARIANS: Download this column as a one page PDF.

Click on this image to download a one page PDF. Permission to copy is permitted.

1. Which planets can you seen without a telescope? At EarthSky.org http://bitly.com/1RUARDO you will learn that you can see the planets that are closest to the earth: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. To find them, you can use an app like Star Walk (see the review in CTREX).

2. The smallest planet is ________. The biggest planet is ________. You’ll find the answer at Space-Facts http://bit.ly/1ZQb981 you can learn about the sizes, order and names.

3. Which planet fluctuates more than 1,100 degrees in one day? At Space.com http://bit.ly/1QoLiOx you’ll learn that you could melt lead in Venus, but it’s Mercury that starts out the day scorching but ends way, way below freezing.

4. Is Pluto a planet? The answer is F, for false. According to NASA http://go.nasa.gov/1gX0ROG, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. It’s not even as big as the Earth’s moon.

5. You are heaviest on which planet? The bigger a planet is, the more you weigh. A 100 pound kid on Earth would weigh 236 pounds on Jupiter, but just 8 pounds on Pluto. If you could stand on the Sun, you’d way over 2,700 pounds! You can type in your exact weight and find out how much you weigh at http://bitly.com/1Kkr4nR.

APPLICATIONS

1. Play these NASA Space Games http://go.nasa.gov/1Ufdqmf

2. Play an astronomy word search puzzle http://bit.ly/1hjtQJt or design your own planet http://bit.ly/1PrON1i

FIND ME SOME APPS!

Here are 85 planet or astronomy related apps from CTREX: http://bitly.com/ctrastronomy

Orion- The Spacecraft of the Future

Megan Billitti — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 19:03:51 +0000

Want to go to Mars? You’d ride in Orion, NASA’s newest spacecraft. The capsule took it’s first flight on Dec 5, 2014, so we thought we’d learn more …

1. How many astronauts can Orion carry? The NASA site has your answers http://1.usa.gov/1BftElB and is the best place to start exploring Orion. It can carry a crew of six — about the same as a mini-van.

2. How are Orion and Apollo the same? This Business Week article http://buswk.co/1xXK2cOgives a side-by-side comparison of the two space capsules. They’re very similar, due in part to the heat shield. At Space.com http://bit.ly/1rrCIUv you can learn how Orion was nearly cancelled because it was too expensive.

3. Which has more computing power, Orion or an iPhone? Orion might be a next-gen spacecraft, but it uses computers that are 12 years old, according to Computer World http://bit.ly/1G3Enmm . The winner? iPhone.

4. What does SLS stand for? At http://1.usa.gov/13Ib1LS you’ll find the answer: Space Launch System. It’s the most powerful rocket ever built, and it will be used to take some lucky astronauts all the way to Mars.

5. When’s the next launch? Not until 2018, according to http://1.usa.gov/13LS6jB when Orion will circles the moon. Plan a family vacation to see a space launch!

Applications:

1. Who’s up there — right now? At http://bit.ly/1brJMBK you can see that there are 6 people in space, right now (as of January 1, 2015). See where they’re from, and how many days they’ve been in space.

2. Can you spot the space station? Visit http://1.usa.gov/1n3V4nS to spot the space station from wherever you happen to be.

3. Color?! NASA uses low tech coloring sheets to help children explore the high tech Orion. http://1.usa.gov/1tkc3EX

Want to see more? Click on this months You Tube playlist

Meteors

buckleit — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:32:44 +0000

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Last month, a rock the size of a school bus struck the earth’s atmosphere. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but a sonic boom and crater stirred up our curiosity Here are some links and videos about meteors and meteorites:

1. What’s the difference between a meteor and a meteorite? At Live Science you can learn that a meteor is an asteroid (or any other object) that starts burning when it hits the Earth’s atmosphere. Meteors are often called “shooting stars,” and they are common. It is much less common for one to survive the plunge through the atmosphere to hit the ground. But if it does it’s called a meteorite.

2. What are Meteorites made of? At http://www.meteorites.com.au/meteorite.html you can see a collection of meteorites that have landed in Australia. You’ll learn they are made up of very dense iron and rock, and are often magnetic. Watch the video at http://bit.ly/YdghOG to learn more.

3. How big was the meteor that streaked over Russia? According to NASA, http://1.usa.gov/Z6hREq the meteor that crashed into the Ural Mountains in February 2013 was about 55 feet in diameter and weighed 10,000 tons. That’s about the size of a bus and weighs as much as 1,660 elephants. But it was no match for the Earth’s atmosphere, which smashed it to bits, with a huge explosion. Read more at Yahoo News: http://yhoo.it/Yt3iL8

4. Are there any craters on Earth? At http://geology.com/meteor-impact-craters.shtml you can see a satellite view of some of the best-known craters. One of the most famous is Meteor Crater, near Winslow, Arizona. The crater was created instantly when a 50-meter meteorite slammed into the desert about 50,000 years ago.

5. Should I worry about getting hit? You can relax. The chances of your house being hit by a meteor are about 1 in 2,745,337,045,030 according to a real estate blog, at http://bit.ly/10MhtuO You’d have a better chance of winning the lottery twice!

5. Has anyone ever been hit by a Meteorite? At the Encyclopedia of Alabama http://bit.ly/WLaEa4 you can read about a woman who was sleeping on her couch when a grapefruit sized meteor crashed through her roof and hit her on the hip. She wasn’t hurt. In Germany, a 14 yr old boy was hit in the hand by a pea-sized in meteor, according to the Telegraph http://bit.ly/YdvPlD. He was cut on his hand, but other than that wasn’t hurt.

APPLICATION:

How do you tell if a rock fell from outer space? Meteorites are more rare than gold or diamonds At Geology.com you can see what they look like. Here’s a starter list:

Magnetic. A metal detector helps to find them.
Look molten on the surface.
Heavy. They’re made of a lot of iron an/or nickel. A softball-sized iron meteorite will weigh up to five pounds

Curious About Mars?

buckleit — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:26:12 +0000

Is Mars really red? (Not really). Is it larger or smaller than the Earth? (Smaller). Is it warmer or colder than the Earth? (Much colder). How many moons does Mars have? (Two). How long does it take a radio signal to get from the Earth to the Curiosity rover? (Between 5 to 20 minutes). Could you breathe Martian air? (No way). Still curious about Mars? Here are some links and videos to help you follow what we are learning about this amazing planet.

Download, print and share this column as a one page PDF.

1. Is Mars really red?
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Insitute of Technology, the red color associated with Mars comes from iron oxide (or rust). On the surface, however, Mars has more of a butter scotch color.

2. Is the climate on Mars more like a hot summer or a cold winter? The New York Times reports the Curiosity Rover has measured swings in temperature from minus 103 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a very very cold winter. Brrr!

3. If you were to step onto Mars without a space suit, would you survive? According to Science Clarified.com, you’d be dead in 15 seconds. First the low pressure would make your body fluids boil. Next, you’d freeze, even on the warmest day which won’t get above freezing (see quest.NASA.gov). If you were still alive, you’d suffocate because there is no oxygen. If you could survive that, you’d eventually starve, because there would be no way to grow food.

4. How long does it take a radio signal to get to Mars? The distance between Earth and Gale Crater can be as far as 150 million miles. That’s 32 years for a 747 jet, or about 20 minutes for a radio wave,. That’s why you can’t“drive” the rover in real time. Say you saw a cliff ahead. You’d hit the brakes, but that braking radio signal could take 20 minutes to activate the brakes. You’d already be over the cliff. See www.distance-calculator.co.uk.


5. T/F After two years, the Curiosity rover will be dead. TRUE. Unlike previous rovers, this one has it’s own generator. It is powered by a chunk of very hot, poisen radioactive metal called plutonium. The heat is used to warm the instruments and generate electricity for 10 instruments, plus motors, lasers and cameras… for about 2 years. After that, it will stop working. Learn more about Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html.



.

6. If the Earth is a basketball, how big is Mars? The Lunar and Planetary Institute says that if Earth were a basketball, Mars would be a softball.
.

STUFF TO TRY (APPLICATION)

Make a true scale model solar system.

Want to really know how big the solar system is? Visit http://www.noao.edu/education/peppercorn/pcmain.html for instructions on making a 1000 yard solar system to scale. The sun will be a bowling ball, and the earth is a peppercorn, 26 paces away. Go another 14 paces to get to Mars, which is the size of a pinhead.

See NASA’s movies. To see NASA’s movies, visit http://1.usa.gov/Njjyw4

Where is Mars, right now? We found this real-time solar system calculator at SolarSystemScope.com that tells you.

Play some games. Visit the NASA Kids’s Club, where you can practice driving a rover. You’ll need a regular browser that can run Flash-based games.

20 Select Videos on Mars, from YouTube

———————————————————————————————————————————————— LittleClickers.com (this page and the associated web site) is sponsored by Computer Explorers. Neither Children’s Technology Review (publisher of LittleClickers) or Computer Explorers has any vested interest in any of the sites listed on this page. Librarians and teachers are permitted to copy this page for non-profit use. To report a bad link, use this form, or contact us. Copyright 2018, Children's Technology Review.

The Northern Lights

buckleit — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:09:50 +0000

The
Northern
Lights

It’s a dark night, full of bright stars, and you’re driving with your parents along a dark country road in Northern Maine. Suddenly, out of nowhere, you see a bright, yellow-green curtain of light wavering above the trees. You’ve just witnessed the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis — a ghost-like phenomenon seen in the polar (northern or southern) regions of the world. These free fireworks are caused when the Solar Wind is pulled into the Earth’s magnetic fields near the North or South Poles. These lights are as old as the atmosphere — even the dinosaurs marveled at the Northern Lights! Ready to learn more? Scroll down!

This might sound like a dumb question, but are the Northern lights ever visible in the South?

Visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2004525.stm The answer is yes. If you visit the BBC news site you can see some pictures of the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights, taken at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

What causes them?

Visit: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/aurora.php. According to the National Geophysical Data Center, the lights are caused when the solar wind particles collide with the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The particles from the Sun are electrically charged and are drawn towards the Earth’s magnetic poles. The beautiful illustration at the right, from the NOAA site, shows how the Earth acts like a giant magnet, shaping the tiny particles that shoot out from the Sun.

What colors can you see?

See http://asahi-classroom.gi.alaska.edu/aurfaq.htm. You’ll learn many facts here, including that the most common color is a brilliant yellow-green. It is produced by oxygen atoms that are about 60 miles high. High-altitude oxygen atoms (about 200 miles) produce rare, all-red aurora, and ionized nitrogen molecules produce blue light. Also visit: http://www.alaskascience.com/aurorafacts.htm. This link takes you to scientist Neil Brown’s webpage, where you can also find information.

I don’t live in the North. Can I see the Northern Lights?

Visit: http://www.schursastrophotography.com/auroramain.html, and you’ll learn that once in a while, a big solar storm can send a burst of particles toward the Earth. When that happens, it may be possible to see the Northern Lights as far south as Arizona. But, this is very rare

Do Auroras happen on the other planets?

Yes. Visit: http://odin.gi.alaska.edu/FAZ/#planets. Just like the Northern and Southern Lights on Earth, auroras also occur on other planets that have an atmosphere and a magnetic field, such as Jupiter and Saturn.

Show me more!

Visit: http://dhutchinson.mystarband.net/digital.html. Learn how to take photos of the Northern Lights (if you ever get a chance to see them) by photographer Dick Hutchinson. Better yet, just visit YouTube and type Aurora or Northern Lights as keywords, and you’ll see some amazing video. More photos are at http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery.html.

Learn About Satellites

buckleit — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:39:04 +0000

Learn about
SATELLITES

You can’t see them, but they’re there. Floating over your head — hundreds of machines that are taking your picture. They also help you find your way home, make phone calls and search the Internet. Here are some amazing facts about these silent servants, called Satellites.

What is a satellite?

A satellite is defined as any object that orbits another object. For example, the Earth’s Moon is a satellite, and the Earth itself is a satellite of the Sun. Artificial satellites are machines that we place in orbit around the Earth, the Sun, or another world. Learn
more at http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=5955.

How many satellites currently orbit Earth?
a) 1,892
b) 5,024
c) 13,587

According to http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/, there are 13,587 satellites orbiting the earth. You can browse a list by category of satellites currently in orbit, as well as view a map of the earth documenting their position in orbit here http://www.n2yo.com/?k=0&a=30), or by visiting http://science. nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3d.html.

How many types of satellites are there, and what do they do?
a) 2
b) 9
c) 23
d) 367

Answer: 9 (a). At http://www.satellites.spacesim.org/english/engineer/copy/index.html, you find nine categories of satellites: atmospheric studies, communications, navigation, reconnaissance, remote sensing, search and rescue, space exploration and weather. There’s also a lot of junk up there, which you can see here http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0119_060119_space_junk.html.

What was the first artificial satellite launched into space?

The first man-made satellite was Sputnik 1, launched into Earth’s orbit on October 4th 1957, by the former Soviet Union. Visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_924.html and http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110163/sputnik_1.htm to learn more. You can also watch a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvPzUAeWZZY&feature=related) showing the actual launch of Sputnik 1, including animation of how it appeared circling Earth.

How do satellites get electricity?

These complex machines have to generate their own power. At
http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/satellite/5/5.html, you can see the key parts of
a satellite and see how they generate electricity with solar panels.

Want to see a bird’s-eye view of your house?

Observation satellites are equipped with powerful cameras that beam down a constant stream of images of the ground. One of the most powerful, called the GeoEye, was just launched. Soon, we’ll be able to see even better images of just about anyplace in the world, like Bill Gates’ house (lower right), or the burned out villages in Darfur (right). Visit http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/ for a list of popular destinations, or download Google Earth http://earth.google.com/ to explore on your own. Here’s an animated video of the launch and orbit of the GeoEye satellite: http://www.beet.tv/2008/09/breaking-satell.html.

Take A Trip To The Moon

buckleit — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:56:22 +0000

A Trip To The
MOON

40 YEARS AGO, the first humans made history by walking on another world.
How much do you know about their amazing mission?

1. Which President made landing on the moon a top priority?
a) Roosevelt b) Eisenhower c) Kennedy d) Nixon

At http://www.jfklibrary.org/jfkl/modules/diary/default.aspx, you can flip through archives of John F. Kennedy. You can also watch parts of one of his inspirational speeches — this one given at Rice University, September 12, 1962 — in the YouTube video below.

2. Which Apollo mission (what number) made it to the moon?

In case you missed it, don’t worry. Visit http://wechoosethemoon.org and turn up your speakers, as the site suggests. This is a recreation of Apollo 11, from start to finish. The best part is that you can listen to the real radio transmissions, and even watch the broadcasts as a Twitter stream: http://twitter.com/AP11_SPACECRAFT.

3. What kind of rocket do you need to get to the moon?

The New York Times (to whom we provide content) contains an interesting interactive dissection of the huge Saturn rocket that powered the launch. Newer rockets are also displayed.
http://www.nytimes.com//interactive/2009/07/13/science/space/20090713-apollo11.html.

4. What did the moon landing site look like?

Visit Google Moon, at http://www.google.com/moon, to find out. You can zoom in to Apollo 11 landing spot, and explore links to photos and videos.

5. Which sport did the astronauts play on the moon?
a) golf b) basketball c) soccer

According to http://www.pasturegolf.com/archive/shepard.htm, Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard hit three golf balls on the moon. Because the gravity is 1/6th that of the earth, the ball went about 400 yards, even though he was wearing a very bulky space suit.

6. How far is the moon from the earth?

It’s a really long way, which makes the moon landing even more impressive. Look at http://www.traipse.com/earth_and_moon/earth_and_moon_1280.jpg to get some perspective.

7. Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon. How many other people walked on the moon? BONUS — Who was the last?

At http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17.crew.html, you can learn that 12 people walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972. The last was Eugene Cernan.

8. Which country was the first to place a spacecraft on the moon?

According to the quiz at http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/space-exploration/moon-test-quiz.html, the Soviet Union was the first to put a manmade object on the moon, helping to spark the space race.

9. True or False: We will never return to the moon.

False. Several countries are planning to travel to the moon to build colonies for longer stays. New rockets and better space suites (right) will let humans stay for longer periods on the moon. Learn more at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/index.html.