Discovering Astronomy Workshop 2014 May

May 20 2014 | Hanh Tran amp David Cerri

bull Knowledge about the universe amp our place within it

bull Fundamental importance to human cultures since earliest recorded history

bull Many legends amp myths may have been based off of this very curiosity about our existence

bull Since ancient times humans learned to look up to the skies in search of the truth

bull Sought answers to questions as

bull Where did we come from

bull How did we get here

bull Are there others like us

bull What does our future hold

bull We are not the center of the universe

bull We are not special

bull We are here by chance

bull Consider ourselves lucky to be right here right now

bull Our home is a ldquopale blue dotrdquo in a ldquovast cosmic arenardquo

bull If everyone had a basic knowledge of the universe or an accurate cosmic perspective then perhaps

bull We would live more peacefully together

bull We would overcome provincial differences

bull The world would be a better place

ldquoWersquore living through the greatest age of discovery our civilization has knownrdquo ndashBrian Cox

Video Clip Carl Saganrsquos ldquoPale Blue Dotrdquo

1893 Boohellip

bull Grave turning point in history of Astronomy education

bull Astronomy dropped from US education curriculum

bull Committee of Ten Report cause of decline in Astronomy courses in secondary schools from 1894-1957

bull Before this Astronomy was considered a core subject

bull Everyone was expected to know the basics of the universe just as the basics of cell structure

bull Russian Sputnik in Nov 1957

bull 1st artificial satellite launched

bull Triggered the Space Age Space Race

bull Pushed the US to improve science amp math education

bull Efforts by NASA amp planetariums helped re-introduce Astronomy back into schools in 1960rsquos amp 1970rsquos but still not enough

ldquoIt would be nice if more astronomy and physics were taught in school Astronomy of today is even more exciting than it was in 1893rdquo

String Theory

M Theory

SUPER

Director of Hayden Planetarium Host of new Cosmos TV series on Fox

ldquoHappy to have you aboard hellip ps I am on a federal committee right now to help call for astro being a fundamental part of a schools curriculum So the struggle continuesrdquo

Dr Tyson Pluto

ldquoBeing an astronomer Id be happy if astronomy played a larger role in our school curriculardquo ndashDr Kevin Marvel CEO

ldquoI agree with your thesis as Im sure most astronomers would hellip Having taught astronomy at the high-school and college levels hellip I can

tell you that I think the US education system is in a shamblesrdquo ndash Dr Rick Fienberg

ldquoFurther back in time Astronomy was often considered part of basic learning at least for academicsrdquo ndash Dr Steve Maran

Video Clip Earthrise amp Earthset

bull American Astronaut

bull First person to walk on the moon

bull July 20 1969

bull Apollo 11 Mission

Neil Armstrong 08051930 ndash 08252012 Armstrong Michael Collins amp Buzz Aldrin

Video Clip Evolution of the Moon

Video Clip rdquoWe are Star Stuffrdquo

by Carl Sagan

X-ray

Infrared

Ultraviolet

Extreme Ultraviolet

Interactive Animation from National Geographic httpsciencenationalgeographiccomsciencespacesolar-systemsun-articlehtml

bull Natural light display on the sky in high latitudes bull Arctic amp Antarctic regions

bull Caused by collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the atmosphere

bull Charged particles from solar wind amp magnetosphere

bull Directed by Earthrsquos magnetic field at polar regions

bull Aurora Borealis bull Northern Lights

bull Aurora Australis bull Southern lights

bull Occur in magnetic poles of other planets too

Video Clip Earth Time Lapse View from SpaceFly Over -Nasa ISS

demoted Something to tell your kids

ldquoWhen I was your age Pluto was a planetrdquo

Video Clip Birth of the Solar System

bull Universe sprang into existence 137 billion years ago

bull Started as singularity extremely hot amp dense state bull Then expanded and cooled down

bull Allowed energy to be converted into protons neutrons amp electrons

bull Produced giant clouds of primordial elements bull Hydrogen amp traces of HeliumLithium

bull Coalesced through gravity forming stars amp galaxies

bull Heavier elements later produced by stars amp supernovae

bull No explosion just expansion

bull Universe continues to expand rapidly today

Video Clip The Big Bang

bull ldquoWe are star stuffrdquo ndash ldquoWe are star dustrdquo

bull Hydrogen in our bodies made shortly after the Big Bang

bull All other elements synthesized by stars amp during supernovae

Video Clips Star Stuff | The Most Astounding Fact | We are Star Dust

Mercury My

Venus Very

Earth Educated

Mars Mother

Jupiter Just

Saturn Served

Uranus Us

Neptune Noodles

(Pluto)

Interactive Animation from National Geographic httpsciencenationalgeographiccomsciencespacesolar-system

Mercury Venus Earth Mars

Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

Video Clip How to Get to Mars

Jupiter has at least 67 moons

bull Size of our moon

bull 100 km-deep ocean

bull Salty liquid water underneath the frozen surface

bull Possibility of harboring microbial life

bull NASA planning on sending a planetary orbiter to Europa

bull Jupiter-orbiting Europa Clipper mission

bull Pluto demoted in 2006

bull Highly Controversial

bull Part of sea of other objects occupying same region of space

bull International Astronomical Union (IAU) meeting

bull Established 3 main categories of objects in Solar System

bull Planets

bull Dwarf Planets

bull Small Solar System Bodies

ldquoNew category of trans-Neptunian objectsrdquo

Computer-generated image of Plutonian surface with atmospheric haze moon Charon and Sun

Interactive Animation from National Geographic httpsciencenationalgeographiccomsciencespacesolar-systemasteroids-comets-articlehtml

Video Clip Asteroid Collision

Video Clip Rendezvous with a Comet

Video Clip You are Literally a Star Child (from How the Universe Works)

The Milky Way

Video Clip Hubble eXtreme Deep Field - Farthest Ever View of the Universe

Many Clusters

Many Super Clusters

Video Clip The Known Universe by

AMNH

Video Clip Millennium

Run Simulation

Animation Scale of the Universe 2

Video Clip Cosmic Voyage

Super String Theory M-Theory Dr Edward Witten

bull Space Simulators

bull Space Engine

bull Celestia

bull Universe Sandbox

bull Orbiter

bull The Solar System - Explore Your Backyard

bull Planetarium Software

bull Stellarium

bull Cartes du Ciel (SkyChart)

bull Computer Aided Astronomy (C2A)

bull WorldWide Telescope

bull Home Planet

bull Viewers

bull Aladin

bull Sky-Map

bull Google Sky amp Google Earth

Demos of Celestia Space Engine Universe Sandbox The Solar Systemhellip

bull DVDBlu-ray Collections

bull Cosmos by Carl Sagan

bull How the Universe Works

bull Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking

bull Nova Fabric of the Cosmos

bull The Universe (6 Seasons)

bull Youtube

bull ldquoThe Sagan Seriesrdquo

bull ldquoDeep Astronomyrdquo by Tony Darnell

bull NASAexplorer SpaceRip Best0fScience etc

bull ldquoCosmosrdquo Sequel (2014)

bull Airing on National Geographic amp Fox

We are all on this little rock together for only a short period of timehellip ndash Peace - Compassion - Unity ndash

The Most Astounding Fact