http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/column-view.cfm?CLID=785
Want to see more?! Check out my latest post under the Solar System page!
Thanks!
Monday, March 17, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
An Update to the Celestial Sphere Page!
The World of Light and Color
A Learning Experience Made Easy for Everyone!
As always, I like to think that any person can learn about science and the world around us, and the internet is a great tool for finding creative and easy to understand methods. The Physics Classroom, a website dedicated to giving handy lessons for learning about, well physics! Their lesson goes over how light refracts and diffracts (basically how it moves) in the same way as waves- evidence to support that light moves not only in waves, but particles as well. This may seem easy for us to understand now, but several hundred years ago, someone would have called you crazy for having the same notion!
What I find most interesting about light behavior is how it behaves when it comes against something, or another medium. Not only do we have to realize what reaction light will have, but this is also dependent on what type of light it is. For example, ultraviolet light will tan your skin (or give you cancer if you don't take it easy), but gamma rays would literally kill you if you absorbed too much.
This is the link to the lesson plan on waves, the color spectrum, and the behaviors of light. What I want to go over is the section entitled Blue Skies and Red Sunsets (as it caught my eye). This lesson focuses on the colors we see based on the visible light of an object. That is not to say for example, that a leaf is actually green- rather the chemicals in the leaf (chlorophyll) absorb all other colors therefore our eyes interpret the leaf as green. In the same regard, during the fall and winter when there is less sunlight, therefore less chlorophyll, our eyes interpret the leaves as orange, yellow, and red. Personally, I think this is awesome! Another great example they had was the asphalt on the street; we see it as black because it absorbs all other light frequencies.
They go on to explain that we see sunsets as red due to light scattering as the sun travels over our horizon in the atmosphere, the longer distance causes it to fall into the yellow, orange, and red ends of the light spectrum. The light from a sunset has a longer wavelength than that of daytime sun, which is why the sky appears blue during the day. Shorter wavelengths of light have a higher frequency, which is explained to fall on the blue and violet ends of our color spectrum. A modern phenomena they point out is that due to our atmospheric pollution, there is more sulfur in the air, which is the reason behind some of the amazing multi-hued sunsets we see. As beautiful as they are, they are actually a sign that there is real damage to our Earth.
The following is a link to the lesson and its diagrams:
Monday, February 17, 2014
Ancient Astronomers of Greece!
An update to the Celestial Sphere Page
In the past, as in today's world, we often look at the sky, the weather, the world around us, and wonder why is this all happening? Some may explain these to other worldly phenomenon, but chances are there is an easier, albeit more complicated answer; astronomy. The ancient Greeks were the first to believe that the sun, or heliocentric model, was accurate, thousands of years before their early medieval counterparts. In addition, they also were the reason behind the calendar we know today, based on their astral observations. Thales discovered the solstice and equinox concepts in 585 BC and made important advances in geometry which would later be essential to astronomy with regard to how angles affected mathematical questions. A century later Pythagoras continued making advances with regard to orbits and movements of celestial bodies. Perhaps one of the most impressive of all ancient discoveries was that of Eratosthenes, who measured the circumference of the Earth, and quite accurately. I am including the entire timeline that I found, but my point is this: imagine if we still had the curiosity of the ancient inhabitants of Earth, where could we be today? Are we only limited because we know so much, or does it merely seem that way?
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Check out this website! The Guardian Magazine
So grateful for the allowed late arrival on this one! The entire website for this magazine has a ton of information on science in general, but they also have their own astronomy section which is broken down to subject such as the Moon, the Sun, and NASA. I loved watching Bill Nye as a kid, so I wanted to check out this one particular article they featured from a debate he recently participated in.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/astronomy
The following is a link to just one of the many heated reactions to the debate in which he argues the origin of the Earth with Ken Ham, who runs a museum on creationism. A re surging hot topic, creationism versus theories such as the Big Bang can be supported very easily through (ta-da) science. The Guardian reports this is one of the most popular debates on the subject since the Scopes Trials of 1925. I find the subject personally very interesting, and astronomy truly is based in how our Earth was created.
The entire video debate can be seen on The Guardian's website.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/astronomy
The following is a link to just one of the many heated reactions to the debate in which he argues the origin of the Earth with Ken Ham, who runs a museum on creationism. A re surging hot topic, creationism versus theories such as the Big Bang can be supported very easily through (ta-da) science. The Guardian reports this is one of the most popular debates on the subject since the Scopes Trials of 1925. I find the subject personally very interesting, and astronomy truly is based in how our Earth was created.
The entire video debate can be seen on The Guardian's website.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
A little hopefully non too offensive astronomy humor!
Let me preface this picture by saying I am a big supporter of Neil deGrasse Tyson, for anyone who looks at this and plans on going off the deep end.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Zooniverse.org
Logged into Zooniverse as spattershall, seems to be a very cool website, for those interested in science in general. I am currently in a project to track stars and planets crossing through them nightly, very cool stuff.
So far, here are some links to the pages, more to come!
http://talk.planethunters.org/users/52e731b055c9e01190000253
http://www.planethunters.org/classify
So far, here are some links to the pages, more to come!
http://talk.planethunters.org/users/52e731b055c9e01190000253
http://www.planethunters.org/classify
Friday, January 17, 2014
Vocabulary One!
Blog Vocabulary
1. Astronomical Unit- average distance between Earth to Sun
2. Astronomy- study of all matter and energy
3. Big Bang- theoretical beginning of evolution for universe
4. Black Hole- escape velocity exceeds speed of light
5. Ecliptic- path of sun by Earth's orbit
6. Electromagnetic Spectrum- traveling energy in a vacuum
7. Galaxy- how matter organizes in a universe
8. Gravity- force of attraction between two bodies
9. Hydrogen- most abundant element in the universe
10. Light Year- distance light travels in one year
11. Mass- amount of matter in an object
12. Meridian- imaginary circle dividing direction and zenith
13. Oscillating Universe- universe regenerating constantly by Big Bang
14. Planet- large enough object to clear debris
15. Precession- Earth's axis conical wobbling
16. Quantum Mechanics- physics of smallest parts of atoms
17. Revolution- orbit of one body around another
18. Rotation- body's motion spinning around its axis
19. Solar System- family of bodies orbiting around sun
20. Speed of Light- distance of electromagnetic radiation versus time
21. Stellar System- star surrounded by other bodies in orbit
22. Star- body converts matter into energy luminously
23. String Theory- theory where universe is energy strands
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)