Greetings and welcome to the study of astronomy! This first lesson is simply to get you excited and interested in astronomy so you can decide what it is that you want to learn about astronomy later on.
We’re going to cover a lot in this presentation, including: the Sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system and is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium.
The solar system includes the Earth, Moon, Sun, seven other planets and their satellites (moons) and smaller objects such as asteroids and comets. The structure and composition of the universe can be learned from the study of stars and galaxies. Galaxies are clusters of billions of stars, and may have different shapes. The Sun is one of many stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. Stars may differ in size, temperature, and color.
Materials
- Popcorn
- Pencil
You are correct that sound doesn’t travel through space. Even if they did, the sun’s vibrations are usually at a frequency that is much to low to be heard by human ears. Scientists measure the waves, translate them into motion (aka sound) waves, then speed them to a frequency where we can hear them.
You can learn more about this here: https://www.sciencelearningspace2.com/2013/09/song-of-the-sun/
How do we hear the song of the stars (sun) with our human ears when sound cannot be heard in space?
OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
There’s not much light for the picture, so you have to leave the shutter open longer to allow in more light.
why do they have to leave the shutter open so long to take a picture of stars?
It depends on the geometry of the star when the core collapses. If it’s off-center, which most are, you’ll get two jets.
when or how does a star make two jets?
Do you have the latest version of Chrome? I have it playing here right now on my desktop in Chrome, but I want to find out what’s going on for you. What type of device are you using, and what is your version of the web browser? And what does it specifically do when you are on the page – does it not show anything at all, is the player blank/white/black, do you see an image for the player, or something else? Thanks for helping me understand what’s going on for you! If you can email me a screenshot that would also be helpful: [email protected] .
works on IE hear not on chrome.
Try again – it might have been an internet connection. It works on both Chrome and IE and Firefox over here…
Looks like the video works in IE but not in Chrome
The video isn’t working – starts jumping ahead and being very glitchy around 4 minutes in.
The quick answer is the colors you see are determined by what chemicals are making up the nebula cloud, and also what the frequency of the light is that lighting up the nebula in the first place.
Why are nebulae different sizes and colors?
Hmm… what type of browser are you using to view this video?
There’s something wrong with the video. It skips around and glitches way too much for me to understand what’s going on…
Oops! Looks like you weren’t logged in. If you log in and try again and it still doesn’t work, let me know what kind of device and browser you’re viewing it from?
There is no video showing for the planetary and star show? What can I do to view this?
Thanks!
Good question! Here’s a resource you might find useful:
http://www.universetoday.com/39280/what-causes-tides/
http://www.universetoday.com/113964/how-do-the-tides-work/
Hi Aurora, You mentioned in this video that the earth rises and falls 30 cm with the tides. I’d like to learn more about that but can’t find any resources online discussing it. Could you point me in the right direction? thanks!
It’s basically a big cloud of gas in space.
what is a nebula?
Hi Mia! I am not sure I understand your question. We can and do stand on the surface of the earth! We can stand on the moon with space suits, because there’s no oxygen for us to breathe, so we have to bring our own. Does that help?
Hi, I have always wondered this however I have never known what to look at for the answer as there is so much to look at! How come we can stand on the surface of the moon, however we can’t stand on the surface of the earth? Is this to do with atmosphere?
Which image? The video has a lot of them, and in the video it says the one picture that isn’t real of the black hole and blue giant. Everything else is real!
is that a real picture
Thanks for your eagle eye! I’ve updated the website. 🙂
I found another editing issue: The third paragraph, “Astronomers study celestial objects…..”, under “What’s going on?” duplicates the first paragraph, beginning at the second sentence.
Even though we had to watch in sections, the video is very interesting.
Haha… gosh you are right! I will take care of that. 🙂
Also, in the “Song of the Sun” the second sentence needs help: It’s be like studying earthquakes…
Hey, Aurora, your introduction needs tweaking: “The solar system includes the Earth, Moon, Sun, eight other planets and their satellites…” I think you want to say SEVEN other planets. Earth + 7 = 8, which is what we have now, as you know.
Galaxies are thin because they rotate. Have you ever gone on one of those merry go rounds at the playground? Did you notice how the faster you spin, the more outward force you experience? And also that it matters where you sit on the thing as it spins around?
Pizza makers use this idea when they spin the dough up in the air to flatten it out evenly, and ice skaters fling their arms out to slow down their spinning and pull their arms in when they want to spin faster. The arms when out experience a larger pull than when the arms are closer to the body (also called the axis of rotation). The centers are full of stars held together gravitationally, and the outer edges are thinned out due to the force it feels as the galaxy rotates.
why is a galaxy so thin but is so big inside?
Haha… by now you should know I can go on and on about science. This recording was originally TWO hours long, but we trimmed it down so people wouldn’t get scared off.
Yes just for munching. Sorry I should have mentioned what it was for! 🙂
Why is it 1 hour long?
Is the popcorn for munching or for an experiment during the teleclass? We ran to the store to get some popcorn before this just in case!