Limperts Lab and Limpertsteins Lyrics

Astronomy Unit

 

GPS:

 

S6E1: Students will explore current scientific views of the universe and how those views evolved.

 

S6E1.a:  Relate the Nature of Science to the progression of basic historical scientific theories (geocentric and heliocentric) as they describe our solar system, and the Big Bang as it describes the formation of the universe.

 

S6E1.b:  Describe the position of the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy and the universe.

 

S6E1.c:  Compare and contrast the planets in terms of size relative to the Earth, surface, and atmospheric features, relative distance from the sun, and ability to support life.

 

S6E1.d:  Explain the motion of objects in the day/night sky in terms of relative position.

 

S6E1.f.  Describe the characteristics of comets, asteroids, and meteors.

 

S6E2:  Students will understand the effects of the relative positions of the Earth, moon, and sun.

 

GPS:

 

S6E5.1:  Describe methods for conserving natural resources such as water, soil, and air.

 

S6E6:  Students will describe various sources of energy with their uses and conservation.

 

            S6E6.a:  Explain the role of the sun as the major source of energy and the sun’s relationship to wind and water energy.

Seasons: happen because the Earth is tilted on its axis at a 23.5 degree angle.  This tilt affects how much solar energy an area receives as Earth moves around the sun. The seasons are not a result of changes in the distance between Earth and the sun. 

a)solstice-On two days each year, the noon sun is overhead at either 23.5 south or 23.5 degrees north.  These days are the solstices.  Northern Hemisphere= winter solstice=December 21st=shortest day of the year/summer solstice=June 21st=longest day of the year. 

b)equinox-when noon sun is directly overhead at the equator/Halfway between the solstices, neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the sun.  This occurs on two days of the year.  Equinox means equal night.  During an equinox, the lengths of nighttime and daytime are about the same.  Vernal or spring equinox=March 21st(spring for northern hemisphere)  Autumnal equinox or fall equinox=around September 23rd (fall for northern hemisphere)

Unequal Heating of Earth: Angle of Incidence:If Earth’s axis were straight up and down relative to the sun, temps would remain constant year round.  There would be no seasons.  At the equator, sunlight hits Earth’s surface more directly.  Closer to the poles, sunlight hits Earth’s surface at an angle.  Near the poles, energy from the sun is spread out over a greater area.  That is why it is warmer near the equator than near the poles.

Circulation of Warm air and Cold air/Convection Currents: When warm air cools, it loses the ability to hold water vapor.  This results in precipitation.  As cold air sinks, it warms.  When cold air warms, it gains the ability to hold water vapor.  As warm air rises, it cools…

Climate Changes/Climate Zones:three major climate zones-tropical, temperate, and polar.. Different Biomes in each zone due to different climates found there.  A biome is  a large region characterized by a specific type of climate and certain types of plant and animal communities. 

Early Astronomy Universe Theories: Astronomy is the study of the universe. Year=time required for Earth to orbit once around the sun…Month=amount of time for moon to orbit once around Earth…Day=time required for Earth to rotate once on its axis

a)Heliocentric=sun at the center/Copernicus/Earth and other planets revolve around the sun/6 planets=Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn

b)Geocentric=Earth at the center/Ptolemy/Greeks/Earth is at the center of the revolving planets.  Ptolemy thought that the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn revolved around the Earth

The Greeks=thought they were inside a rotating dome they called a celestial sphere.

Early Astronomers:

a)Ptolemy=Geocentric theory/Greek astronomer

b)Copernicus=Heliocentric theory/Polish astronomer

c)Brahe=Danish astronomer/made accurate and more detailed observations/observed positions of planets for 20 years/favored Earth-centered theory/sun and moon revolved around Earth and other planets revolved around sun

d)Kepler=German mathematician/discovered that the orbit of each planet is an ellipse(elongated circle, or oval shaped)/all planets revolved around the sun in elliptical orbits and sun is not in the exact center of the orbits

e)Galileo=1st to use a telescope.Italian astronomer/made discoveries to support Hekiocentric theory/saw 4 moons revolving around Jupiter/Venus goes through phases similar to those of Earth’s moon/craters and mountains on Earth’s moon/sunspots on the sun

f)Newton=the laws of gravity/two factors, inertia and gravity combine to keep the planets in orbit/all objects in the universe attract each other through gravitational force

g)Hubble=proved other galaxies existed beyond the edge of the Milky Way/universe is much larger than our galaxy

Refracting vs Reflecting Telescopes: Refracting=uses lenses  Reflecting=uses mirrors

Star Formation/Classifying Stars: galaxy=clusters of stars/billions of stars./milky way….universe=space and everything in it/ The main characteristics to classify stars are size, temp, and brightness..how long a star lives depends on how much mass it has..stars with less mass use their fuel slowly and live longer..stars with more mass havs shorter lifetimes and burn their fuel quicker.

a)red giant=expands and cools once it uses all of its hydrogen

b)supergiants=100 times bigger than the sun

c)white dwarf=small hot star that is the leftover center of an older star

d)black hole=most massive stars become these when they die..light can not escape its gravity..white dwarfs can become these

e)supernova=gigantic explosion in which a massive star collapses and throws its outer layers into space

f)neutron star=even smaller and denser than white dwarfs

g)pulsar= if a neutron star is spinning

Types of Galaxies: Large groups of stars, dust, and gas

a)spiral=Milky way is this/have a bulge at the center and spiral arms made of gas, dust, and new stars

b)elliptical=M87/ no arms/can look like spheres, others may be more stretched out/have bright centers and very little dust and gas/contain old stars

c)irregular=don’t fit into any other class/shape is irregular/Large Magnellanic Cloud

d)The Milky Way=spiral galaxy

Formation of the Universe: The Big Bang Theory: 13.7 billion years ago/the universe began with a tremendous explosion

Expanding Universe:most galaxies are moving apart/universe is expanding, as it expands galaxies move farther apart

Solar System is Born: Pages 614-617-Every object in the universe is part of a larger system/Nebulas=large clouds of gas and dust in space/a region in space where stars are born or where stars explode at the end of their lives

The Sun: page 618-623=corona=forms sun’s outer atmosphere/chromosphere=thin region below the corona(30,000 km thick) photosphere=visible part of the sun that we can see from Earth/convective zone=region about 200,000 km thick where gases circulate/radiative zone=very dense, 300,000 km thick/core=center of the sun/sun’s energy produced here/sunspots=cooler, dark spots of the photosphere of the sun

Planetary Motion:

a)rotation-the spin of a body on its axis/Earth’s rotation on its axis causes day and night

b)orbit-Earth’s path as it revolves around the sun

c)revolution=movement of one object around another object/one complete revolution around the sun is a year

Law of Universal Gravitation:states that the force of gravity depends on the product of the masses of the objects divided by the square of the distance between the objects/an object falls toward Earth because Earth and the object are attracted to each other by gravity. The larger the masses of two objects and the close together the objects are, the greater the force of gravity between the objects/Both Earth and the moon are attracted to each other.  Earth and the moon actually orbit each other.

Gravity/Orbits falling down and around: page 632-633-Gravity causes the moon to fall toward the Earth and changes a straight-line path into a curved path. Gravity keeps the moon from flying off in a straight path

Solar System/Planets:

Inner Planets/Terrestrial Planets: dense and rocky/small

a)mercury=planet of extremes/thin atmosphere/closest to sun/slow rotation

b)venus-retrograde rotation/Earth’s twin/greenhouse effect/cloudy/carbon dioxide/thick atmosphere

c)earth-prograde rotation/water/life

d)mars-water???red planet/thin atmosphere/mostly carbon dioxide/seasons/volcanoes

Outer Planets/Gas Giants:deep, massive atmospheres rather than hard and rocky surfaces

a)jupiter-great red spot/made of hydrogen and helium/thick atmosphere/colorful bands of clouds/largest planet

b)saturn-rings of ice and rock/2nd largest planet/mostly hydrogen and helium

c)uranus-tilted/clear/hydrogen and methane/blue-green

d)neptune-belts of clouds/discovered as a result of mathematical prediction.similar composition of atmosphere as Uranus’s.

Dwarf Planet: does not fit all of the conditions necessary for it to be considered as a planet/any object that orbits the sun, is round because of its own gravity, but has not cleared its orbital path

a)Pluto=made if ice and rock/less than 1/2 size of Mercury/covered by frozen nitrogen and a thin atmosphere of Methane/Charon is its moon

b)Eris=larger than pluto/not clearedits orbit of debris

c)Ceres=was once an asteroid

Moon Phases:different appearances of the moon due to its changing position

a)full moon-all moon we see

b)waning gibbous-most of moon, but getting smaller

c)last quarter-half of moon

d)waning crescent-almost all moon is gone

e)new moon-no moon visible

f)waxing crescent-more of moon is seen/just a little

g)1st quarter-half of moon is seen

h)waxing gibbous-almost all of moon is visible/getting more and more each day until full moon

Eclipses: when the shadow of one celestial body falls on another

a)lunar-when Earth comes between the sun and the moon and the shadow of Earth falls on the moon

b)solar-when the moon comes between Earth and the sun and the shadow of the moon falls on part of Earth

Tilt of Earth: 23.5 degrees/ we don’t see a solar and lunar eclipse every month because the moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted by about 5 degrees relative to the orbit of Earth around the sun/this tilt is enough to place the moon out of Earth’s shadow for most full moons and Earth out of the moon’s shadow for most new moons

Small Bodies in the Solar System:

a)comets=small body of ice, rock, and cosmis dust loosely packed together/dirty snowball/formed in cold outer solar system/left over from time when planets formed/orbit is an ellipse

b)Oort cloud/Kuiper Belt=where comets come from and exist

c)Ellipses=circles that are stretched out of shape

d)Asteroids=small, rocky bodies that revolve around the sun/left over from formation of solar system

e)Asteroid Belt=between the orbits of mars and jupiter

f)Meteoroids-smaller than asteroids/small rocky body that revolves around the sun/pieces of asteroids/chunk of rock and dust in space

g)Meteors=bright streak of light caused by a meteoroid or comet dust burning up in the atmosphere

h)Meteorites=a meteoroid that enters Earth’s atmosphre and strikes the ground

 

Energy/Human Impact:

a)Renewable Resource=a natural resource that can be replaced at the same rate at which the resource is used/trees, fresh water, sun, wind/constantly be supplied

b)Non-Renewable Resource-resource that forms at a rate that is much slower than the rate at which it is consumed/can run out of these/coal, oil, natural gas

c)natural resource-any natural material that is used by humans/water/petroleum, minerals, forests, animals

Energy Conservation:reduce, reuse, recycle

Fossil Fuels:non-renewable energy resource formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived long ago/oil/coal/natural gas

Alternative Resources:

a)chemical energy=fuel cells power cars by converting chemical energy into electrical energy by reacting hydrogen and oxygen into water

b)solar energy=energy received by the Earth from the sun in form of radiation

c)wind power=use of a windmill to drive an electric generator/renewable

d)hydroelectric energy=electrical energy produced by falling water/renewable

e)burning biomass=organic matter that can be a source of energy/renewable

f)gasohol=a mixture of gas and alcohol that is used as a fuel

g)geothermal energy=energy produced by the heat within Earth/renewable