Download Science Olympiad - UNC Physics and Astronomy

Science Olympiad
Solar System Div B 2007
Joshua Haislip
Event Parameters
Time Limit: around 50 minutes
Team: two students
Materials allowed:
Four-function calculator
Hand-written, typed, computer generated resources (including
books)
All resources must fit within area of 12’ X 12’ X 3’
Materials NOT allowed:
PDA, Cell Phone, any Electronic Devices
Format
Students will have a series of activities to work on at a single station
or may move from station to station.
Questions should be formatted to utilize science process skills:
inferences, predictions, problem solving, observations, formulating
and evaluating hypotheses, interpreting data, and graphing.
request this poster http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/request.html
Stellar Nurseries
Shockwaves from distant supernovae or
gravity from nearby stars can trigger
collapse.
Consists of dense regions of molecular
hydrogen
around 3.5 light years
Pillars are left after ‘erosion’ from the
intense ultraviolet radiation of nearby,
bright stars
Evaporating Gaseous Globules
Protostars and
Protoplanetary Disks
As gas collapses it heats up
15 times
Neptune’s orbit
Before nuclear fusion and
hydrostatic equilibrium is
achieved, this ball of gas is
known as a protostar
The disk of swirling dust and
gas orbiting this protostar/star
is called the protoplanetary
disk
T Tauri Star
Forming
System
NICMOS Peers Through Dust to
Reveal Young Stellar Disks. A
View of IRAS 04302+2247
Sun-like Star
Currently 70% hydrogen, 28%
helium, and 2% other metals
Fusion of hydrogen into helium is
taking place in core
700 million tons of hydrogen are
converted to helium each second
Red Giant
When solar-type stars run out of
hydrogen in the core, they cool and
begin to collapse
Collapsing causes temperature to
rise, igniting a shell of hydrogen
around the core
Star expands over 100 times its
original size, core collapses further
igniting helium fusion
The surface of our sun might
swallow the Earth when it becomes
a red giant
Planetary Nebula
After helium is depleted in core,
star blows off outer layers leaving
behind hotter star
High speed stellar winds from the
new hot star slam into previously
ejected material creating the nebula
White Dwarf
The core will eventually collapse to
a white dwarf
Equations
Kepler’s Laws:
1: The orbit of a planet/comet about the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun's
center of mass at one focus
2: A line joining a planet/comet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in
equal intervals of time
3. The square of the periods of a planet is proportional to the cube of its
semimajor axes.
2
4

Newton determined the constant of proportionality: T 
r3
GM total
where:
2
T = planet's sidereal period
r = radius of the planet's circular orbit
G = the gravitational constant = 6.67 *10
M = mass of the sun
11
Weight Equation (remember that 1 lb = 4.45 N):
m3
kg * s 2
F G
m1m2
d2
Suggestions:
Make organized notebook of objects in the solar system and their
properties (ie. mass, average distance from the sun, composition,
etc.)
Teach scientific notation and approximation! Many students waist a
lot of times typing in the number 28389490302843848392933848.
In astronomy, this can be approximated as 2.84 * 10^25.
Visit Morehead Planetarium and let me know when you are planning
on coming
Schedule a solar system walk
this will teach scales, review planet properties, as well
as give the students a sense of the size of our solar
system
Do not plan on learning everything! This will only serve to
overwhelm you
Most Importantly: Get the students excited about astronomy!
Wikipedia
Use Wikipedia to obtain organized tables of information about planets and
other objects in the solar system
www.wikipedia.org
Stellarium
Free virtual planetarium! See the sky as it looks at any time in the future or
past from any place on Earth. Also zoom in on planets and Messier objects
to see them as they would look through a telescope.
http://www.stellarium.org/
Test your students’ Stellarium skills with my “Stellarium Challenge”
Test your students’ understanding of Kepler’s third law, as well as the weight
equation with my lab “Measuring the Mass of Jupiter”: