LPI Earth and Space Science Newsletter
August - September 2008
October 12-18– Earth Science Week
October 19 – NASA launches the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft
October 20 - 24– Solar Week
November 6 - 8 – Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST), Ft. Worth
Afterschool Universe – Training Sessions
Afterschool Universe is a hands-on astronomy program targeted at middle school children out-of-school-time settings. It explores basic astronomy concepts through hands-on activities and focuses on the Universe outside the solar system.
Information sessions and training workshops are being held at various locations across the country.
Pre-Service Earth and Space Science Institutes for College Faculty
The Faculty Institutes in NASA Earth and Space Science Education (FINESSE) are for community college and university faculty instructing future teachers. In this free two-day participant-driven workshop, NASA Earth and space scientists and educators will share Earth and space science activities, data, and resources related to key science topics from the national science standards. Participants will receive a $300 stipend, lunches, and more. The Institutes will be delivered in 2009 at the American Astronomical Society, the Association for Science Teacher Education, and the National Association for Community College Teacher Education Preparation conferences.
NCAR Climate Discovery Online Courses for Educators
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is offering high quality online courses for high school and middle school teachers on the subject of climate science and global change. Climate Discovery is a series of six- and seven-week courses for middle and high school educators. The course offerings include: Introduction to Earth's Climate, Earth System Science: A Climate Change Perspective, and Understanding Climate Change Today .
NASA IYA Symposium at NSTA
Join NASA scientists and educators in a hands-on symposium that will provide middle and high school educators, grades 5-12, with strategies and resources to empower students to discover the universe for themselves during the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
On Dec. 5, the Cincinnati regional NSTA features “Discover the Universe – From Galileo to Today” which also includes two follow-on Webinars in December and January.
The Journey to Palomar – Documentary and Webcast
This 90 minute documentary about George Ellery Hale and the building of the giant telescope at the Yerkes, Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, will air nationwide on PBS Nov. 10.
These 90-minute, live professional development experiences use online learning technologies to allow participants to interact with nationally acclaimed experts, and scientists, engineers, and education specialists from NSTA partner organizations, such as NASA and NSDL. Upcoming seminars include Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears Series, From Galileo To Today, and more.
Sally Ride Science Festival in Houston, Baton Rouge, and San Diego
Sally Ride Science Festivals bring together hundreds of girls and their parents and teachers for a festive day of science and socializing.
They include a street fair, a keynote address, and hands-on workshops presented by women scientists or engineers.
National Education Association Foundation Grants
Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded to teachers, education support professionals, and higher education faculty and staff working to improve student learning in public schools, colleges, and universities. Deadlines: February 1, 2009; and June 1, 2009
Send Your Name into Space
The Kepler Mission offers an opportunity to send your name into space on board the spacecraft, which launches in the spring of 2009. The mission will search for Earth-like planets around distant stars and is the first NASA mission capable of finding habitable worlds. Participants are invited to contribute their opinions about the significance of searching for other worlds.
New Resource Guide on Women in Astronomy
An updated, expanded resource guide to the role women have played and are playing in the development of astronomy is now available by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The guide includes both printed and web-based materials, and has general references on the topic plus specific references to the work and lives of 32 women astronomers of the past and present. All the materials are at the non-technical level and thus appropriate for student papers, curriculum development, or personal enrichment.
EPO’S Chronicles – New Weekly Web Comic
This new educational Web comic is produced in conjunction with the GLAST launch. This weekly Web comic follows the adventures of Epo, a sentient spaceship/observatory, in the distant future. Alkina, a humanoid alien, joins Epo as they quest to regain their memories and learn science along the way. The first series of 'eposodes' focuses on galaxies and is available in English, French and Spanish.
International Polar Year
The International Polar Year (IPY) is a two-year event (March 1, 2007, to March 1, 2009) that focuses science and education on Earth's remote polar regions. Scientists from over 60 nations are participating, including researchers from NASA and many other U.S. agencies. New resources include: International Polar Year at Earth & Sky, which includes thousands of science reports from the field; Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is an online polar science and literacy magazine for elementary teachers; and Explore! Ice Worlds!, provides multiple hands-on activities on ice’s properties, ice in the Solar System, and ice on our own Earth. Other sites to explore include International IPY site , NASA’s IPY site, Polar Trec, NSF’s Office of Polar Programs, Ice in the Solar System, and Polar Palooza.
A new game at The Space Place
The Spitzer Space Telescope has given us many spectacular images of the infrared universe, and the mission team wants to display these beautiful images, so they have given the NASA factory a big order for signs to label their pictures. Your job is to paint the signs by typing the words as they pass by on conveyor belts.
Monthly NASA Hot Topics and Featured Objects for IYA 2009
The vision of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 is to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the daytime and nighttime sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery. During each month of the IYA, NASA will highlight some of its key space science missions, space science discoveries, and night-sky wonders that you can discover with your own observations and explorations, and we'll connect you to related NASA resources and events.
Educator Resources Now Online at NASA:
Getting Dirty on Mars – Grades 5-12 : Students will measure the soil moisture content, compare soil colors, look for biomarkers and measure pH to make their comparisons. They will then present a “Soil Properties Report.”
Wall-E Learns About Proportion Video – Grades K-8 :
Students calculate the diameter of the moon with the help of Wall-E the mischievous robot.
NASA SCIence Files™: The Case of the Technical Knockout DVD – Grades K-8:In today's world of high-tech devices, the Tree House Detectives discover that technology has its flaws when everything electronic stops working. Eager to solve the problem of this electronic blackout, the detectives follow the wind to the nearest star…the sun.
NASA SCIence Files™: The Case of the Phenomenal Weather DVD – Grades K-8:
Follow the Tree House Detectives as they plan a trip to the Caribbean and encounter problems trying to predict the weather. In this case, the Tree House Detectives will learn about violent storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes, weather fronts, global wind patterns, and climates. While solving the case, they will discover that predicting the weather is not predictable at all!
Climate Time Machine
This series of visualizations shows how some of the key indicators of climate change, such as temperature, sea ice extent and carbon dioxide concentrations, have changed in Earth’s recent history.
 |
| The Surface Stereo Imager onboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander observed clouds drifting across the horizon in the early morning. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University Arizona/Texas A&M University |
Snowing on Mars
Modified from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080929.html
There's snow falling from Martian clouds. A laser instrument on the Mars Phoenix Lander has detected snow falling from clouds and vaporizing before reaching the ground. In recent weeks, as the temperatures fall in onset of winter on Mars' northern plains, frost, ground fog and clouds have been seen.
The spacecraft soil experiments also have found evidence of water. Since landing at its far-northern site on May 25, Phoenix already confirmed that a hard subsurface layer contains water-ice. Determining whether that ice ever thaws would help answer whether the environment there has been favorable for life.
Phoenix soil experiments have suggested that at least 3-6 percent of the soil is calcium carbonate, and about 1 percent is clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water.
The pH of the soil has been determined to be 8.3, which is lower than initially thought, but is almost exactly the pH of ocean water on Earth. The calcium carbonate may be responsible for this level of pH.
When Planets Collide
Modified from http://www.universetoday.com/2008/09/24/dusty-disk-evidence-of-planetary-collision/
A team of astronomers studying a large disk of dust surrounding a star has detemined that it is probably the resulting debris of two planets colliding. Usually, a disk of dusk is evidence of planetary formation around younger stars. Disks like this aren't generally found around older stars, though, and the star has now been calculated to be several billion years old.
The curiously large amount of dust in the disk is 1 million times the amount of dust that is found in our own solar system, and orbits at a distance from the star that is similar to the orbits of Earth and Venus around our own Sun. The collision between the planets took place within the past few hundred thousand years, though it is possible that it happened even more recently.
 |
| Galaxy clusters like 1E 0657-56 (inset) seem to be drifting toward a 20-degree-wide patch of sky (ellipse) between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela. Credit: NASA/WMAP/A. Kashlinsky et al. |
Dark Flow Matter From Beyond the Universe
Modified from http://www.universetoday.com/2008/09/23/scientists-detect-dark-flow-matter-from-beyond-the-visible-universe/
Just as unseen dark energy is increasing the rate of expansion of the universe, there's something else causing an unexpected motion in distant galaxy clusters. Scientists believe the cause is the gravitational attraction of matter that lies beyond the observable universe, and they are calling it "Dark Flow." The distribution of matter in the observed universe cannot account for this motion.
Using NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe's (WMAP) three-year view of the microwave background and a catalog of clusters, the astronomers detected hundreds of galaxy clusters that appear to be carried along by a mysterious cosmic flow. The bulk cluster motions are traveling at nearly 2 million miles per hour. The clusters are heading toward a 20-degree patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela. The astronomers found this motion is constant out to at least a billion light-years, and possibly across the visible universe. The finding flies in the face of predictions from standard cosmological models, which describe such motions as decreasing at ever greater distances.
