Astronomers Lab Report

The experiment can also be done to compare the burn rate of different colored candles.

It is easy to flip to the index of an astronomy textbook to discover that, say, the Sun lies 150 million kilometers away from Earth. It is far more difficult (if not impossible), however, to picture this distance in our mind. In this exercise, we will learn to access the often unpalatable distances encountered in astronomy by simply scaling the huge distances to more recognizable, familiar numbers. So long as every distance within the system of interest is scaled by the same

Saturday,  19  April  2014,  4:38  PM Finished Saturday,  19  April  2014,  5:30  PM 51  mins  31  secs 100.00  out  of  a  maximum  of  100.00

The lab report this week required us to research the New Horizons mission that is still going on today. We were asked to list some information about the mission, what it hopes to learn and what we’ve learned from Pluto and its surroundings thus far. Personally, I was able to watch the live briefing and seen the first photos released of the dwarf planet in July and I am anticipating the next year of information we we’ll receive. Since the closest passing we have learned numerous insights about Pluto and its moons that were previously unknown. As the world waits patiently to discover more and more as the year of data comes in, we know that this is a giant leap in planetary exploration.

Space was so mysterious and frightening for thousands who dared to look up at the heavens. Many dared to wonder about what actually lurked and waited for mankind. Eventually man took the steps necessary to take the final leap into the unknown. Throughout history NASA has contributed to several extraordinary feats of science and space exploration from the moon landing to the Curiosity rover NASA has been vital to finding cosmic knowledge for mankind.

Light is made up of different wavelengths (visible light is made up of the rainbow). If a substance could absorb specific wavelengths of light, then each substance will have a unique ‘fingerprint’. This could be proven by forcing light through a substance and seeing the different wavelengths of light that were displayed on the other side. If there are dark lines, that means that wavelength was missing and was absorbed. A second way to prove this would be to test if that same substance would release the wavelength it absorbed. In the candle experiment, the salt should give off a wavelength because of the intensity of the flame. If it is the same as the sodium street lamp, then that proves sodium will absorb and emit a specific wavelength consistently.

Our night sky, always seems to be sparkling at night, due to stars. Stars are luminous ball of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, held together by its own gravity. Our night sky is filled with groupings of stars creating a galaxy, or also known as The Milky Way. The Milky Way, is one of many galaxies in a Local Group, containing between 100- 400 billion stars. Observing these stars with the naked eye is sometimes difficult, however technology today has made it much easier. In the experiment “Number the Stars”, we used two different types of telescopes, and a paper towel roll to record different counts of stars in different brightness’s in the sky. Between my partner and I we hypothesized that the larger focal point on the telescope, would

In physics I found Native Astronomy the most interesting. What I found the most interesting was that “Numerous indigenous tribes have inhabited America before the European colonists arrived and they each had their own way of interpreting what they saw in the sky” (DawLez) Natives perceptions and legends are what were outstanding compared to our thoughts of it in general. In the article “10 Ancient Cultures and Their Contributions to Astronomy” it mentions how they traditionally believed that the way to let others know knowledge was by using the stars to tell stories and legends. Not only was it the Native American that believed that having stars for guidance was important, it was many more as well that agreed to that idea. For example Pawnee

The James Webb space telescope is a large, infrared space telescope with a 6.5 meter primary mirror. It is the size of a tennis court and orbits far beyond Earth’s moon.The James Webb Telescope is scheduled to launch in 2018. It will orbit about 1.5 million km away from earth. Due to the distance and the cold JWST will be able to observe the red-shifted light from the early universe with accuracy. Due to its infrared light Webb will be able to see the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe. The James Webb Telescope folds inside a rocket for launching and then it unfolds opening its wings once it becomes near its orbit place. THE JWT will be able to assist in exposing possible places that can harbour life and it will assist in

William Herschel discovered a new slowly moving object in 1781. He thought it was a comet. Other astronomers calculated its orbit and realized the new object was circular, making it a planet. Questions were asked throughout the discovery about if there really was more out there to discover. Many thought it was all discovered and that was the end of it. Finding another planet was extraordinary, but this also opened up many minds to the fact that there is probably more out there past the orbit of Saturn to discover. The possibility of additional planets was not taken seriously, so having that disbelief fueled the scientists even more. This discovery was so surprising due to the fact that space is not somewhere that every individual has access

“The Hubble, has given us nothing less than an ontological awakening, a forceful reckoning with what is the telescope compels the mind to contemplate space and time on a scale just shy of the infinite.” implied Ross Anderson, an engineer. With this one telescope, created by a normal astronomer, scientists and astronomers are able to see space as never seen before. They are able to make mind boggling observations that contemplate space to an infinite scale. Thousands of discoveries about space have been observed through this lense and without the magnitude of high level instruments compiled into this large instrument most of these observations would never have been discovered. As proposed by Floyd E. Bloom a researcher, on izquotes.com, “As

EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER than the surface of its pages. The characters and their world come alive, and the characters and its world still live on. Conversation Starters is peppered with questions designed to bring us beneath the surface of the page and invite us into the world that lives on.

NASA has recently announced that it has a team of scientists and researchers working on a new telescope that will be launched into space sometime around 2030. This proposed telescope will be more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope (http://hubblesite.org/), and its main goal will be to search for alien life. At least, planets that are the most likely to harbor alien life any way.

As the 25th birthday of the Hubble space telescope (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope) is being celebrated by space enthusiasts, others at the Goddard Space Flight Center (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home), located in Greenbelt, Maryland, are working diligently to get the new space telescope James Webb Space Telescope all put together and ready for its travel into space in October 2018.

In the year 1609, the first proper space advancement was made; a telescope created by Galileo. Over four hundred years later, space exploration has been continuously evolving, changing and advancing at an increased rate per year. Every year, the knowledge of space data almost doubles; new planets and moons are being discovered each year, the known universe expanding beyond what we previously knew. It is estimated that within the next two decades, we may reach the point where we have discovered most galaxies in the universe. With the rapid influx of information, astronomers are asking themselves: what is the next stage for astronomy?