Transcript eye_to_the_universe

The Eye of Our Universe
The Whirlpool Galaxy, starburst type. NASA
and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
2005. unitedstreaming. 2 November 2005
<http://www.unitedstreaming.com/>
Marianne Scott
Calloway County Middle School
Video Clip
Key Terms
• Astronomy- the study of all physical objects
beyond Earth
• Galaxy- a large grouping of stars in space
• Constellation- a section of the sky that contains
a recognizable star pattern
• Nebula- a large cloud of dust and gas in
interstellar space; the location of star formation
More Key Terms….
• Telescope- an instrument that collects electromagnetic
radiation from the sky and concentrates it for better
observation.
• Astronomical Unit- the average distance between the
Earth and the sun.
• Light year- a unit of length equal to the distance light
travels in space in 1 year
• Satellite- a natural or artificial body that revolves around
a planet
Hubble Telescope Facts
• The Hubble Space Telescope was named after Edwin
Hubble (1889-1953), an astronomer whose contributions
to astronomy include a classification system for galaxies.
• The Hubble Telescope orbits the Earth 370 miles above
the Earth’s rippling atmosphere at 5 miles a second. It
orbits the globe every 97 minutes.
• Hubble is roughly the size of a large school bus.
• It was launched into orbit on the space shuttle,
Discovery, on April 1990
More Hubble Facts
• Scientists decided to put the Hubble in
space to eliminate distortions to images
caused by turbulence in the Earth’s
atmosphere.
• Hubble pictures require no film. The
telescope takes digital images, which are
transmitted to scientists on Earth.
Hubble finds many bright clouds on
Uranus
• A Hubble telescope infrared
view of Uranus reveals that the
planet is surrounded by its four
major rings and by 10 of its 17
known satellites.
• Hubble recently found about
20 clouds — nearly as many
clouds on Uranus as the
previous total in the history of
modern observations. The
orange-colored clouds near
the prominent bright band
circle the planet at more than
300 mph (500 km/h). One of
the clouds on the right-hand
side is brighter than any other
cloud ever seen on Uranus.
• Credit: Erich Karkoschka
(University of Arizona) and
NASA
Saturn
• Object Description:Planet
• Distance:The semi-major axis
of Saturn's orbit about the sun
is 9.5 Astronomical Units
(A.U.) or roughly 1.4 billion km.
• Dimensions:The planet
(without rings) has a diameter
of roughly 75,000 miles
(120,000 km) at the equator.
• Exposure Dates:Oct 1996,
Oct 1997, Oct 1998, Nov 1999,
Nov 2000
Cat’s Eye Nebula
• As if the Cat's Eye itself isn't
spectacular enough, this new
image taken with Hubble's
Advanced Camera for Surveys
(ACS) reveals the full beauty of
a bull's eye pattern of eleven
or even more concentric rings,
or shells, around the Cat's
Eye. Each 'ring' is actually the
edge of a spherical bubble
seen projected onto the sky -that's why it appears bright
along its outer edge
• http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/
gallery.html
Edge-On Galaxy
• Object Name:NGC 4013
• Object Description:Edge-on
Spiral Galaxy
• Constellation:Ursa Major
• Distance:About 17 Mpc (55
million light-years)
• Dimensions:The visible
portion of the galaxy is 10.7
kpc (35,000 light-years) along
its length.
• http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/
gallery.html
What do you think?
• Scientists used to think that our Milky Way
galaxy was the entire universe. Hubble
made a significant jump in our
understanding the solar system and
beyond.
• Defend this position. Describe what
impact Hubble’s discoveries have made
for modern astronomy.
The End