Building a Permanent Human Presence in Space. Sunspots

Transcription

1 Building a Permanent Human Presence in Space Sunspots This lesson is taken from an education module developed for Challenger Center s Journey through the Universe program. Journey through the Universe takes entire communities to the space frontier. Start the Journey at Funded by grants from NASA s Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise and NASA s Office of Space Science Challenger Center, Challenger Center for Space Science Education, and the Challenger Center logotype are registered trademarks of Chal leng er Cen ter for Space Science Education. No portion of this module may be re pro duced with out written permission, except for use within a Journey com mu ni ty. 2001, Challenger Center for Space Science Education. January 2001

2 CHALLENGER CENTER S J O U R N E Y T H R O U G H T H E U N I V E R S E 83 Grade Level K-12 Family & Home Activity: Sunspots Overview Why do we watch the weather? Everyone knows what the weather is like right now. However, what the weather reports can tell us is what may happen later in the day, tomorrow, or even in three days. Predicting the weather is big business here on Earth. It can even help save lives. When forecasters see a hurricane forming in the Atlantic Ocean, they track its speed, size, and strength (how fast the surrounding winds are blowing) and warn threatened communities. As we saw with Hurricane Floyd, several states along the East Coast evacuated residents long before the hurricane made landfall. Luckily, Hurricane Floyd was not as powerful as predicted and relatively little property damage was done. However, the hurricane could have been devastating and many lives would have been saved by the early evacuation. Out in space, where there are no hurricanes, there are other dangers that astronauts living in space will need to be aware of. Solar storms can send out huge amounts of radiation across our Solar System. Although our atmosphere protects us here on Earth, astronauts living on the International Space Station will not have that protection. This large amount of solar radiation can harm people and damage equipment. ESSENTIAL QUESTION How can Sunspot observations help astronauts? OBJECTIVES Students will: Create a pinhole camera. Observe the number and size of Sunspots. Compare the size and shape of Sunspots. But how do we know when this extra solar radiation is coming. Much like we can predict the weather. The Sun shows spots that are an indicator for solar storms. Depending upon the size of the spots, we can anticipate solar storms and determine if the solar radiation is likely to be headed toward earth.

3 CHALLENGER CENTER S J O U R N E Y T H R O U G H T H E U N I V E R S E 84 Procedures 1. Give students directions to make their own pinhole camera in class and instruct them in its use. 2. Have students observe the Sun using the pinhole camera and draw the shape and size of the Sunspots. 3. Students will complete the Sunspot Observation Worksheet for their grade level. 4. Discuss with students their observations and what they have learned about Sunspots and how they can affect the astronauts living on the International Space Station. MATERIALS Mirror Piece of paper Sunspot Observation Worksheet Pinhole Camera How-To Guide Warning: Never look at the Sun directly. Only view the Sun when it is projected on the wall. We strongly recommend that K-8 students work under a parent s supervision when making observations at home Transfer and Extension 1. Talk about the conditions necessary to predict a tornado, hurricane, or other large storm. Discuss with students the conditions necessary to produce a solar flare. Based on these conditions, predict whether any of the Sunspots your students observed might result in a solar flare. For more information check out this website: or

4 Pinhole Camera How-To Guide First, we ll go over how to build a pinhole camera, so that you ll have experience with everything important to how it works. Then we ll talk about how it works and why it works. You can learn an amazing amount about light and vision and how the world works just from understanding pinhole cameras. How to Build a Pinhole Camera The basics are simple: we need an opaque shield (like a piece of aluminum foil) with a tiny hole in it, a screen in a darkened area on which to project an image, and something bright to look at. We are trying to make a pinhole camera to look at the Sun, which is just about the brightest thing we could possibly try to look at, so brightness is not a problem. In order to have a dark place to see the image, we will put a mirror outside a window and use it to beam the light from the Sun onto a spot on a wall. A light-colored wall definitely is better for this! If your walls are darkcolored, stick up a piece of white paper. Then we ll put our pinhole into the beam of light from the mirror, as close to the mirror as we can get, and go to look at the image of the Sun on the wall. Any flat mirror will do perfectly well mirrors that are not flat include funhouse mirrors or mirrors with curved surfaces. Concave mirrors are those that appear to magnify the reflected image; convex mirrors are those that they use in stores or on the passenger side of cars to show you a wide area, but they make the objects look smaller ( objects in mirrors are closer than they appear ). After you get the idea of the pinhole camera by using a flat mirror, have some fun and try curved mirrors, too, to see what happens. You will need to make holders for your pinhole shield and for your mirror. You will want to be able to adjust your mirror holder to get the Sun where you want it, but then you ll want to be able to have the mirror stay put. You ll need a holder for the pinhole shield that you can move around separately, since you probably will need to try more than one pinhole and it s easiest if you can get them all ready first and then just try them one after another. We ll suggest holders that you can build out of cardboard, but they really don t have to be much like ours we re just making a suggestion to give you the idea for what s needed. Pinhole Holder: The pinhole holder needs to stand pretty much straight up and down without anyone holding it.the second easiest way is to get a sheet of stiff cardboard and stick pieces of cardboard to its edges using tape, so that it can t fall over.the main sheet of cardboard should be bigger than your mirror so that all the sunlight reflected from the mirror will be caught by the pinhole holder. Cut a big sloppy hole in the center of the vertical piece of cardboard, and stick a piece of aluminum foil over the hole using tape. Poke a pinhole in the center of the foil.a pinhole directly in the cardboard would work, but it s hard to get as clean an edge on the hole and a clean edge will make a better image. A pinhole about one millimeter across is about right for the 23 foot long pinhole camera we re talking about here. The length required for your pinhole camera is proportional to the size of your pinhole. Since you may not get to choose the length you have to work with, it may be handy to make a bunch the second easiest pinhole holder of different size pinholes before you start, all the way from a true pinhole up to about 2 millimeters across, and have them ready to try out until you get one that you like. Smaller pinholes make somewhat sharper images, but the image will be much more dim.that is, a pinhole half the size will make an image twice as sharp, but only one-quarter as bright. Pinhole Camera How-To Guide K-12: page 1 of 3

5 The absolute easiest holder for the pinhole is to cut your big sloppy hole into either side of a cereal box and stick your pinhole over that hole. Drop something into the bottom of the cereal box to weigh it down and keep it from falling over. Mirror Holder: First, stick the back of a flat mirror onto a flat piece of cardboard using something like double-stick tape (not glue, unless you want to stick your mirror down forever!). Fold the edges of the cardboard like in the drawing, so you can stick the mirror piece onto the sides that you ll make. Make a yoke by folding up two sides from a long strip of stiff cardboard, like in the drawing. The middle part of the yoke needs to be about the same width as the piece of cardboard holding the mirror, and the sides need to be about as high as the piece of cardboard holding the mirror. Don t stick them together yet! Technically, we are making what is called an alt-az mount, named for motion in altitude (tilting our reflection up and down) and azimuth (swinging our reflection from side-to-side). Rest one edge of the mirror-holder on a table or on the ground, and rotate it side to side and tilt it up and down until you can reflect the sun s light through a window and onto the wall of a darkened room. For the pinhole camera that we are making, with a 1 mm pinhole, the wall should be about 23 feet from the mirror. (It won t matter if it s several feet more or less than this.) Once the Sun is reflected where you want it, use tape to stick the piece of cardboard with the mirror on it to the sides of the yoke so that the mirror won t fall down. stick it over the hole in the box sheet of aluminum foil with a pinhole in it the easiest pinhole holder cardboard sunlight sunlight mirror holder yoke mirror mirror holder Pinhole Camera How-To Guide K-12: page 2 of 3

6 Adjustments: Stand the pinhole in the beam of light reflected from the mirror, close to the mirror. The pinhole shield will block the light everywhere except where it goes through the pinhole. Check the quality of the image reflected onto the wall. With a 1 mm diameter pinhole and about 23 feet from the pinhole to the wall, there should be an image of the Sun about 6 cm (2.5 inches) across. The image is round because the Sun is round, not because the pinhole is round (once you get it all working, try square, rectangular, or triangular pinholes and you will see). To get an image twice as big, you ll need to double the distance from the pinhole to the wall to about 45 feet. However, the image will be four times dimmer. To get it bright again, you ll need to double the pinhole size. Since you are probably stuck with the distance from your pinhole to the wall, experiment with different size pinholes instead. Keep the smallest pinhole that gives you a bright enough image to see reasonably well, it will give the sharpest image. With the 1 mm pinhole and the 23 feet camera length, the Sun s image should be about 22 times brighter than the light of a full Moon. Since that s easy to see, you may be able to use a rather small pinhole. Altitude Adjustment sunlight mirror sunlight Try to get the beam of sunlight to come out horizontally. Azimuth Adjustment mirror-holder viewed from the side Use tape to hold the mirror panel at a right angle from the vertical by sticking it to the sides of the yoke. mirror-holder viewed from the top Looking at the Rest of the World: If it s a really bright day, and you have a really dark room to project your image into, you ll be able to see things dimmer than the Sun. Just take away the mirror and your pinhole camera will give you a sharp image of the world on the other side of the pinhole from where the screen is. You can use a bigger pinhole to get a less sharp image that s easier to see. Do you notice anything funny about the image that you see? Can you figure out why it works this way? There s really nothing wrong with your pinhole camera, they all work this way but can you figure out why? Pinhole Camera How-To Guide K-12: page 3 of 3

7 Sunspot Observation Student Worksheet (K-4) Name Directions 1. Using the instructions, create a pinhole camera. 2. On two or more different days (at least 5 days apart), use the camera to observe the Sun. Make observations approximately 5-7 days apart, but less than 9 days apart. 3. Each day, draw what you see in the image projected by the pinhole camera. 4. Answer the following questions and return the Worksheet to your teacher. Day 1 Day 2 Questions 1. How many spots (called Sunspots) did you see in your Sun image each day? 2. Were the Sunspots all the same size? 3. Do all of the Sunspots have the same shape? 4. Compare the Sunspots on Day 1 with Day 2. Were there any differences? Describe the differences. 5. Compare the Sunspots on Day 1 with Day 2. What stayed the same? Sun Spot Observation Student Worksheet K-4: page 1 of 1

8 Sunspot Observation Student Worksheet (5-8) Name Directions 1. Using the instructions, create a pinhole camera. 2. On two different days (at least 5 days apart), use the camera to observe the Sun. 3. Each day, draw what you see in the image projected by the pinhole camera. 4. Answer the following questions and return the Worksheet. Day 1 Day 2 Questions 1. How many spots (called Sunspots) did you see in your Sun image each day? 2. Were the Sunspots all the same size? 3. Do all of the Sunspots have the same shape? 4. Compare the Sunspots on Day 1 with Day 2.Were there any differences? Describe the differences. 5. Compare the Sunspots on Day 1 with Day 2. What stayed the same? 6. Measure the diameter of the largest and smallest Sunspot. Measure the size of the projected Sun image. The diameter of the Sun is. What are the real sizes of the largest and smallest Sunspots? Show your work. 7. The diameter of the Earth is. How much of the Earth would the largest Sunspots cover? The smallest? 8. Did you observe any clusters of Sunspots? How many Sunspots were in the cluster? Was this cluster facing the earth, or some other direction? Sun Spot Observation Student Worksheet 5-8: page 1 of 1

9 Sunspot Observation Student Worksheet (9-12) Name Directions 1. Using the instructions, create a pinhole camera. 2. On two different days (at least 5 days apart), use the camera to observe the Sun. 3. Each day, draw what you see in the image projected by the pinhole camera. 4. Answer the following questions and return the Worksheet. Day 1 Day 2 Questions 1. How many spots (called Sunspots) did you see in your Sun image each day? Were the Sunspots all the same size? 2. Do all of the Sunspots have the same shape? 3. Compare the Sunspots on Day 1 with Day 2. Were there any differences? Describe the differences. 4. Compare the Sunspots on Day 1 with Day 2. What stayed the same? 5. Measure the diameter of the largest and smallest Sunspots. Measure the size of the projected Sun image. The diameter of the Sun is. What are the relative sizes of the largest and smallest Sunspots? Show your work. 6. The diameter of the Earth is. What are the sizes of these Sunspots relative to the size of Earth? 7. What percentage of the Earth s surface would the largest Sunspots cover? The smallest? 8. Did you observe any clusters of Sunspots? How many Sunspots were in the cluster? Was this cluster facing the earth, or some other direction? Sun Spot Observation Student Worksheet 9-12: page 1 of 1

10 CHALLENGER CENTER S J O U R N E Y T H R O U G H T H E U N I V E R S E 91 Resources To provide you with even more information, we have listed several web sites for your information. These sites provide lots of information on the topics related to the Building a Permanent Human Presence in Space Module. We have broken them down into the three main content areas; however, many of the sites will overlap. What is the space environment like? Click on In zero-g for a great pictorial explanation of why astronauts experience microgravity during space flight. Microgravity Research Program Office. All sorts of information about microgravity, including research and development of new space products. Resource materials on microgravity, including a downloadable Teacher s Guide and Instructional Materials. What does your body feel like in space? Students can read short descriptions about what happens to your bones and muscles, your taste and smell, hearing, sight, sleep and balance. Learn more about the weather out in space... yes, space. This NASA site includes information on solar flares, Sunspots, and how these phenomena can affect the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, as well as us here on Earth. Quest. Lots of online opportunities and resources for the classroom. Space Telescope Science Institute. This is the home of the Hubble Space Telescope. Go here for lots of terrific images and links. An exciting and interactive web site about Earth and space sciences. Includes separate areas for kids and teachers.

11 CHALLENGER CENTER S J O U R N E Y T H R O U G H T H E U N I V E R S E 92 Lunar & Planetary Institute (LPI). Grab your 3-D glasses. and check out their 3-D tour of the Solar System (also available on CD-ROM). Also find an incredible library of resources. Views of the Solar System. A wonderful, easy to use site full of pictures and information. Also a CD-ROM available from NSTA < NASA Observatorium. Cool stuff and images... and the stories behind them. Get on their distribution (lots of new stuff all the time)! Why do we want to build a permanent human presence in space? NASA History Office. Save lots of time by using the search function. This Age of Exploration Timeline covers major events in exploration from 3200 BC to Information on space exploration and astronauts. Includes a timeline of NASA s space program. How do we build a permanent human presence in space? International Space Station. A WOW! site... be sure to check out the reference section for great resources! Look here for a diagram of the space station showing areas most likely to be hit by meteoroids and debris. Track the locations of orbiting spacecraft. Ask questions to people working with the Space Shuttles. Tour of a space shuttle. Spacecraft facts.

12 CHALLENGER CENTER S J O U R N E Y T H R O U G H T H E U N I V E R S E 93 General Resources NASA Spacelink. The primary NASA education web site offers educational materials, software, and images on aerospace topics. Special features for teachers who sign-up for accounts. Check for upcoming educator events. NASA Photo Gallery. Lots & lots of really cool images... and the rules for using them! NASA Fact Sheets. Just the facts! Make great handouts and reference documents. National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and its Photo Gallery. Cassini. Destination Saturn... fabulous artwork and great resources. Downloadable teachers guide. and Galileo and Galileo Europa Missions (GEM). Spectacular Jupiter images... and the final daring ice... water... fire finale. Lots of classroom resources. Lunar Prospector. Back to the Moon... and into the classroom (check out Moonlink < There is a lot on Pathfinder & Sojourner, but don t miss Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Surveyor 98, and Mars Surveyor New Millennium Program. Innovative technology and science... comets, asteroids, planets and more. ust.jpl.nasa.gov/ Comets are cool! Want a piece? STARDUST plans to bring a sample back to Earth! Look for the downloadable classroom activities.

13 The internationally acclaimed Challenger Learning Center Network currently consists of state-ofthe-art, innovative educational simulators located at 49 sites across 29 states, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Staffed by master teachers, the core of each Center is a two-room simulator consisting of a space station, complete with communications, medical, life, and computer science equipment, and a mission control room patterned after NASA s Johnson Space Center. See for information. A joint initiative of Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA, Voyage A Journey through our Solar System is a space science exhibition project that includes permanent placement of a scale model solar system on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and at locations all over the world. See for information. Space Day SM launches new Design Challenges created by Challenger Center each school year. The inquiry-based challenges are designed to inspire students in grades 4-8 to create innovative solutions that could aid future exploration of our solar system. See for information. Challenger Center s Journey through the Universe program provides under-served communities with diverse national resources, including K-12 curriculum materials, teacher workshops, classroom visits by scientists from all over the country, and Family Science Nights. See for information. The MESSENGER spacecraft (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) is to be launched in 2004 and go into Mercurian orbit in Challenger Center is one of the partner organizations charged with MESSENGER education and public outreach activities. See for information. Through the Challenger Center Speakers Bureau, Voyages Across the Universe, staff members speak to student audiences of 30-1,000, conduct workshops for educators, give keynote and featured presentations at conferences, as well as conduct Family Science Nights at the National Air and Space Museum, and other facilities across the nation, for audiences of 300-1,000 parents, students, and teachers. See for information. For information about other Challenger Center programs, or to purchase our classroom resources, visit