Download Welcome to the planetarium

Welcome back to the
planetarium 5th grade
Mr. Taylor
Hubble Space Telescope
• In 1990 the Hubble space
telescope was launched to
see objects in space more
clearly
•In the last 20+ years it has
made many discoveries
– age of the universe
– black holes in the center of
all galaxies
–How stars and planets form
–The most distant galaxies
It circles the Earth every 90 minutes
The Spitzer space telescope and the Chandra space telescope also study the universe
Hubble
Hubble
Hubble
Hubble’s greatest hits
Hubble’s greatest hits
• Hubble recently helped discover planets around other
stars and analyze the atmosphere of several
Kepler has found over 1200
planets around different stars
Where are we?
- 200 billion stars in the Milky Way
- contains a minimum of 100 billion planets
new planets being discovered
54 are Earth sized and in
habitable zone
Space Exploration
1957 – the launch of Sputnik by Russia
started the space race
April 12, 1961
• Russian cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin (left,
on the way to the
launch pad) became
the first human in
space, making a
108-minute orbital
flight in his Vostok 1
spacecraft.
Last year was the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight
Apollo missions
• There were 17 Apollo mission to the
moon, including 6 that landed on the moon
and performed many experiments
Earthrise from Apollo 16
Space Shuttle
• There were over 130 space shuttle missions
from 1981-2011
• Jobs for the space shuttle include launching
satellites, performing science experiments,
and bringing astronauts to the space station
Space shuttles
• Were retired after 30 years of space flights
including 135 separate launches
• Discovery flew its last mission in late February,
Endeavor on April 29th, and Atlantis was the
last shuttle to fly on July 8th, 2011
• Two space shuttles have been lost –
Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003
Discovery
Atlantis
Space Station
• The space station has been in orbit around
Earth since 1998 and is run by many
different nations including the US
• There are several astronauts there now
Space Station
Space Station – spacewalk 5/22/11
Soyuz launch 4/5/11
Constellation Mission
• Constellation will fly first to the space
station, then the Moon, and finally Mars
Mercury and Venus
• The Messenger spacecraft is orbiting around
Mercury and studying the smallest planet
• In 1990 Magellan used RADAR to map the
surface of Venus
MESSENGER mission
• In March became first spacecraft to orbit
the planet Mercury
First image from orbit
Mars Missions
• We have sent several unmanned missions to
Mars to study its past and present history, and
the possibility of humans visiting some day
Current Events – Spirit is “dead”
Mars rover “Curiosity”
“Face” of
Curiosity
• Curiosity is twice as long (about 2.8 meters, or
9 feet) and four times as heavy as Spirit and
Opportunity (size of a Mini-Cooper)
• Has a new way of landing
• 10 tools to examine rocks, soil and the
atmosphere
• 6 wheels
• Nuclear battery instead
of solar powered
Missions to the Outer Planets
• Voyager I and II missions launched in 1977 to
study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
• Both spacecraft have left the solar system, but
continue to send information back to us from
about 10 billion miles away
Missions to the Outer Planets
• The Galileo mission visited and studied
Jupiter and its moons in 1995
• Cassini-Huygens is currently studying
Saturn and its largest moon Titan
Missions to the Outer Planets
• The Galileo mission studied Jupiter’s
moons including the 4 largest moons: Io,
Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
Titan
• Saturn’s largest moon Titan is the second
biggest moon in the solar system, is bigger
than Mercury, and has an atmosphere and
weather – even ice volcanoes
Pluto
• The New Horizon mission was launched to
study Pluto in 2006, and will reach Pluto in
2015. It is the fastest spacecraft ever
launched and flies at 50,000 mph.
Other solar system objects studied
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Comets
Asteroids
The sun
Earth’s atmosphere
Winter constellations:
In the sky this week:
In the sky tonight:
• Sirius is not only the
brightest star after the
Sun, but at a distance of
8.6 light-years, it's also
the nearest star that's
visible to the naked eye
from mid-northern
latitudes.
• 8.6 light years =
50,000,000,000,000
miles
Canis Major: The Big Dog
In the night sky
• The 6 brightest objects in the night sky can
be seen from Earth right now:
– the Moon (seriously bright!)
Venus (magnitude -4.3)
Jupiter (magnitude -2.2)
Sirius (magnitude -1.4)
Mars (magnitude -1.2)
Mercury (magnitude -1.2 and fading)
In the sky this week:
In the sky this week:
In the sky this week:
• Jupiter, Venus, Mars
• Waning gibbous moon
• Pegasus, Andromeda, Taurus, Orion
• Cepheus, Cassiopeia, The “dippers”,
Draco
• Mars rover “Curiosity” – Lands 8/6/12