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For Grades 3–6
To arrange a visit for your school group, please call (585) 697-1942.
Updated with the latest discoveries!
See timeline graphs (mathematical representations) of the history of solar system exploration. Discover how to explore on your own by making wise use of the internet and libraries (gathering and organizing data). Compare and contrast the rocky inner planets, gas giant outer planets, and icy moons. Classify puzzling objects such as Pluto and Eris. Follow the thought process of engineers as they make decisions about the design of space probes. See how to estimate the width of a crater, using NASA pictures as a scientist would. Observe planets visible in the real night sky and see how their future positions can be predicted.
NYS Learning Standards: ELA1; MST1(1,2,3); 2(1); 3(4,5); 4PE(1,5); 5(2,4,5,7); 6(1,2,3,6); 7(2); SS1; CDOS1,3a(5),6
Download the script for the recorded segments of a typical presentation (108k PDF) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Outline of the Program Introduction
As soon as the students and chaperones are seated, the program presenter greets the audience and briefly introduces the features of the Star Theater, including the Zeiss star projector in the center of the room.
Part 1: The exciting time we live in
A giant timeline is projected onto the Star Theater dome. We review a few highlights in the history of solar system exploration, from the realization that the Earth revolves around the sun all the way to space missions of today and the near future.
Part 2: How and what we are learning about our solar system
Now we specifically mention and show pictures of the tools of solar system exploration: telescopes (on Earth and in orbit) and space probes. A brief sequence shows how a space probe is designed, built and launched into space. Another sequence shows how we get pictures from space probes. The space probe and mission control work together as an information system.
We review how students can learn about the solar system, using books, encyclopedias, and magazines. The Internet can be useful, too, as long as you stay with trustworthy web sites.
We discover how students can look at planetary pictures like scientists. An image of a moon of Saturn called Mimas shows one large crater about one-third the diameter of Mimas itself. Suppose we know only that Mimas is about 240 miles in diameter. How big is the crater? We show the process of calculating the crater's size by estimating how many similar craters could span the diameter of Mimas. Answer: the diameter of the crater is about 80 miles
An actual video taken by a camera on a rocket shows that we really do live on a round planet blanketed by an atmosphere.
A moving model of the solar system allows us to review the orbits of the planets. We see that planets close to the sun revolve around it faster than those farther away. Planets also move in another way: they rotate, or spin. Earth rotates once every 24 hours.
Next, a very fast-paced segment, using still images and video, reviews key features of the sun, planets and selected moons, asteroids and comets in our solar system:
- The Sun
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth and its moon
- Mars and its moons
- Asteroid Eros and Comet Tempel 1, both of which were visited and photographed by space probes
- Ceres, formerly called an asteroid, now classified as a dwarf planet
- Jupiter and its moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
- Saturn and its large moon Titan
- Uranus and one of its most interesting moons, Miranda
- Neptune and its largest moon, Triton
- Pluto and its moon Charon
- Eris (formerly known as 2003 UB313 or "Xena") and other objects beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt
Part 3: Unsolved Mysteries and Current News
We revisit Mars to emphasize the planet's greatest mystery: once it had liquid water, but not any more. In fact, even cold water would quickly boil away under the low atmospheric pressure of Mars today. We don't know when the liquid water was present or how long it lasted. We do not know for sure if Mars ever supported life, even microorganisms.
Next: Jupiter's moon Europa. Is there an ocean of liquid water under the icy surface? We're not sure yet. However, using the Planetarium's all-sky projection system, we create a conjectured underwater scene in which a probe from Earth penetrates the ice and releases an ROV to explore the ocean -- if there is one.
Then: Pluto. Using a panorama and special effects, we create a possible scene on this distant world. The sun is hardly more than an extra-bright star in Pluto's sky, while the large moon Charon looks much larger than our moon because it is so close to Pluto
Finally: Do other stars have planets of their own? Indirect evidence strongly indicates that many do. So far, astronomers have discovered over 100 "wobbly" stars that move back and forth as if being tugged on by the gravity of one or more planets.
Part 4: Your night sky
Using the Planetarium's star projector we tour currently visible stars, constellations and planets as they appear in the real sky.------------------------------------------------------------------------ Links to further information outside the RMSC web siteGeneral information about the solar system
NASA's Solar System Exploration home page is a good place to check facts such as the size of a particular planet or moon. For information on recent discussions about the definition of a planet, check the "dwarf planets" section of this site: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a wonderful resource. Links and searching capabilities make it possible to learn a little or a lot about almost any topic in astronomy or space exploration: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod
To see a moving scale model of the solar system, go to the "Orbit Diagrams" section of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Near Earth Objects web page at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits. In the blue box labeled "Object designation, Number or Name," type "Pluto" or "Eris" or "Ceres" and click "Submit Query." In the next screen, a Java applet will give you a picture of the solar system. Experiment with the scroll bars, check boxes, motion control buttons and drop-down menus to see accurate representations of planetary motion and orbits in our solar system. Manipulate the model in virtual 3-D space to see, for example, that the orbits of Neptune and Pluto do not intersect.
Some current space flight missions
Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan: see the NASA web site at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, and the excellent European Space Agency site at http://saturn.esa.int
Mars exploration missions: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov
Messenger mission to Mercury: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu
New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
Observing the sky
A good site for late-breaking info on meteor showers, eclipses, sunspots, and auroras (northern lights): http://www.spaceweather.com
Do you need to track the phases of the moon? If the sky is cloudy, or if you're in a hurry, you can get an accurate picture of the moon's phase for any date from January 1, 1800 through December 31, 2199 from the U.S. Naval Observatory's Virtual Reality Moon Phase web page. Here's the link:
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html
Pluto, the Kuiper Belt, the "tenth planet" and related matters:
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