June 20

Blog Post 7 Capstone Reflection

Now that Capstone is complete, I think it was a great experience overall.  However, there were definitely some parts of the process that I found boring.  For me, the best part of the project was selecting images for the slides and making the slide show presentation.  One other thing I enjoyed about Capstone was writing the script. It was fun writing the script because it was finally putting all my information together and it was fun writing it in a way that I could express it to other people.  I also really liked the interview. I got 70% of my information from my interview. I think it was cool to ask questions and record it and then listen back to it and put the information from that interview on paper. I also liked writing the questions.  I was able to ask a person the things I really wanted to know without having to look in a book or read an article. Don’t get me wrong, I liked reading up on my topic, but I found the idea of meeting someone live much more fun and informative.

The most challenging part of Capstone has been the process of memorizing the script.  I have read my script like 15 million times. Even the most interesting topic (such as how technology has effected our understanding of planetary science) can become boring after reading it so much.  In general, memorization is not my thing, so this was doubly challenging for me. It was actually the worst thing of the entire process. Although I really liked my topic and thought it was cool, I found the research part pretty boring too.  After researching one topic for so long it gets so boring going through the information that you already found to find new stuff to add to the pile. It may seem easy, taking information and writing it down, but putting it in your own words was the hard part for me.   

Overall, I really think that Capstone has been an amazing experience.  It had its good parts and it had its challenges. I hope I can take my knowledge from this experience forward into middle school.  Specifically, learning how to research a topic and putting my work into a speech.

 

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June 5

Blog Post 5 Answering my Main Inquire question

How does space technology affect our knowledge of planetary science?

 

So much in space. There are so many stars and planets. How can we see all this and learn so much. The answer is space technology. Telescopes have helped us see the wide variety in space. Rovers and probes helped explore our solar system. Rockets have let us experience being in space. I will tell you how all of this helped. I came up with a question, made other to help answer that question and then got the information I will share.

 

Sub question question #1: What is planetary science.

So Planetary science, which is also known as Planetology, is the study of planets, moons, and planetary systems (like the solar system) and how they are formed. It is widely accepted that Planetary science began as part of the study of astronomy. The original planetary astronomer was Galileo Galilei who lived from 1564-1642. Galileo discovered the 4 largest and most commonly known moons of Jupiter. He also discovered mountains on the moon and first observed the rings of Saturn. Today, the main purpose or goal of planetary science is to learn the “composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history” of objects in space. Planetary Scientists work by studying the atmosphere, understanding the origins of planets and using radar to detect the physical characteristics of asteroids. It is a huge field. The study of planetary science began as a study of astronomy and Earth science, but now has a big range of areas of study including planetary geology, cosmochemistry, geophysics, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology, theoretical planetary science, glaciology, exoplanetology, space physics and astrobiology. Within the study of planetary science there are two branches – observational Planetary Science – which involves space exploration (e.g. robotic spacecraft missions) and theoretical planetary science which involves computer simulations. So planetary science is an umbrella term for space study.

 

Sub question question #2: What is space technology.

We know about planetary science but we need something to learn about it. We use space technology. Space technology is technology developed for use in spaceflight, satellites, or space exploration. Space technology includes spacecraft, satellites, space stations, equipment (such as space suits). Space technology is used for most space exploration and satellites. Space is such a huge environment that trying to work in it takes tons of new tools and techniques. Basically there are three types of space technology: satellite technology, space exploration technology and space flight technology. Satellite technology is used for various things such as Earth observation, communication, weather forecasting, military planning, navigation and tracking data. This includes a space telescope or space observatory which is an instrument located in outer space to observe distant planets, galaxies and other astronomical objects. Space telescopes avoid many of the problems of ground-based observatories, such as light pollution and distortion of electromagnetic radiation. A second type of space technology is space exploration technology which is used for exploring planets and finding information, like our Mars rovers. Finally, there is Space flight technology, which is like rocketry and rockets to travel into space. Space technology is man made objects used to study space.

 

Subquestion 3 What is the history of telescopes.

 

The oldest space technology is telescopes. We can learn about telescopes through there history. Here is a TIMELINE about telescopes. In 1609 Galileo Galilei designed and built a telescope that could magnify up to 20 times.Gallello Galle was the first recorded person to use his telescope to look at the sky. With his telescope he was able to see the cratered surface of the moon, to study the moon phases in detail and to see the Milky Way. Galileo also was able to discover the rings of Saturn, see sunspots and Jupiter’s moons. Johannes Kepler in 1611 greatly improved the telescopes magnification, but the image in his telescope was upside or inverted. He was the first person to explain how a telescope actually works. Christian Huygens in 1655 built the most powerful telescope of his day. His telescope was 12 foot in size. He was able to observe Saturn in detail and he saw the bright moon that orbited Saturn which he named Saturni Luna. It was later renamed Titan in 1847. Huygens telescope allowed him to document the true shape of Saturn’s rings. Sir Isaac Newton created the Newton telescope in 1668 which uses a series of mirrors rather than lenses. Newton’s telescope had a lot of advantages over the existing models of telescopes. The telescope had no color distortion (also called Chromatic aberration), it was cheaper to build and the construction was a lot simpler. It has a wider field of range due to a short focal view and the design was much shorter and more compact than earlier telescopes making it easier to move. In 1789 the first giant reflector (Newtonian) telescope was built in the United Kingdom. It was 12 meters long. It was invented by William Herschel. This giant reflector telescope would be known as the Herschelian telescope. Herschel was able to discover moons around the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). He is credited with the discovery of the 6th and 7th moons of Saturn. Throughout the 1800s giant telescopes NASA (National Air and Space Administration) and ESA (European Space Agency) co-operated to build and launch the Hubble Space telescope in 1990. Although not the first telescope to be launched into space, it was one of the most flexible. Hubble was not affected by the Earth’s atmosphere, which distorted images from land telescopes, allowing it to provide very clear images of space.

The second largest telescope in the world is the W.M. Keck Observatory (WMKO). It is located near the summit of Mount Kea in Hawaii. It is 13,600 feet above sea level and offers some of the best views of space from Earth. It was built between 1990 and 1996.

The Herschel Space Observatory which was active between 2009 and 2013 was built by the ESA. It was the largest infrared telescope ever to be launched into space. It was specifically made to observe the coldest and dustiest objects in space. It also studied where stars are being formed and new galaxies were being created (stellar nebula).

The James Webb telescope was a joint effort by NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. It was created to replace the aging Hubble telescope and provide even better information by giving us unknown detail through higher resolution and sensitivity. The JWT is scheduled to launch into space May 2020 from French Guiana. The history of telescopes was long, and each generation of telescopes gotta step up from its predecessor.

 

Subquestion 4 How has the Hubble telescope helped develop the growth and knowledge of planetary science?

 

Now we have hubble one of the most helpful space technologies.  Hubble is a window that we can see the past and future since 1990 Hubble took a picture of Supernova 1987A In 1994 which showed an exploded star and two mysterious rings of gas. Supernova 1987 A gave off huge radiation which led to the rings lighting up and Hubble getting a clear view of it which helps us learn about space. Hubble has done some remarkable things in our own solar system like getting a view at the surface of Pluto It recorded a huge storm on Saturn even bigger than the Earth.  The Hubble has shown us a comet hitting Jupiter. The Fiery rock smashed into Jupiter leaving splotches on Jupiter’s atmosphere. Hubble took pictures of a nebula and it helped us learn the future of the solar system. Hubble also helped the rover Pathfinder™ with its mission, by helping scientists prepare it after Hubble’s weather report on mars. Hubble can look outside of the solar system and found the the first image of a planet outside the solar system.The Hubble is a very complex machine and has great potential. The Hubble space telescope is an amazing piece of technology and is one of the favorite telescopes.

 

Question #5 How have Space Probes helped develop the growth and knowledge of planetary science?

 

Hubble and telescopes aren’t  the only kind of space technology. A Space Probes is a spacecraft that travels through space to collect scientific information on the planets of our solar system and beyond. Space Probes do not carry astronauts. Scientists on Earth can collect and use that data sent back by the probe to to advance our knowledge. Probes study either the Earth itself or study properties of space. Some probes use telescopes to study other planets, stars and galaxies that are too far away to be seen from Earth.

Since the first probe, which was a simple machine that could study a few features of a planet, probes have advanced technology and become more sophisticated. Probes can now travel longer distances and study more about the farthest planets of our solar system. Today the more sophisticated probes are divided into three categories: (1) orbiters, (2) landers and (3) rovers.

The first space probe ever launched was Sputnik 1 launched by the former Soviet Union in October, 1957. A few months later, in early 1958, the US sent Explorer 1 into space. Both Sputnik and Explorer studied the Earth from space. They also helped scientists learn about what life would be like in space. These first probes began the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Once probes could reach space, both the US and the former Soviet Union decided to send probes past the moon to study other planets. In 1962, a probe called Mariner 2 was the first probe to study another planet. Mariner 2 flew past the planet Venus and confirmed that the temperature on the planet was extremely hot. In 1965, Mariner 4 passed Mars collecting data which showed that the surface of Mars was like a cold cratered moon. It was the first probe to ever take a picture of a planet and sent it back to Earth for study. In 1971, Mariner 9 was launched and it became the first probe to orbit a different planet, Mars. Mariner 9 also took pictures of Mars and discovered the largest volcano in the solar system located on the red planet. In 1977, NASA launched twin space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The probes were meant to study the outer solar system. As of May 20, 2019, Voyager 1 still sends information to the deep space network to get instructions and send information back to Earth. Today it is the farthest man made object from Earth. Voyager 2 was set to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Currently, it is the only man made spacecraft to ever visit these two planets. Voyager 2 also continues its mission today. In 2003, NASA launched twin rovers called Spirit and Opportunity to explore Mars. The probes landed on Mars in 2004. They were sent to Mars to look for traces of water on the planet. The rovers were guided by Earth scientists who told the rovers where to go and what to examine on the planet. They examined soil and rocks and that information was sent back to Earth for scientists to study. Spirit went silent on March 22, 2010. Opportunity continued to study mars until June, 2018 when it also went silent. Both rovers sent back to Earth lots of evidence that water was once present on Mars. The Cassini probe was launched in 1997. It was the biggest and most expensive probe ever. It was sent to Saturn to study the planet and its rings and its many moons. It operated for 13 years until it went silent in 2017. New Horizons was launched in 2006 and flew past Pluto in 2015 (it took 9 years to get there!). It continues to fly past Pluto today searching beyond the dwarf planet. In 2020 NASA will be launching a rover to Mars to further investigate past life on the planet. As great as telescopes are space probes are a huge help too in our “space age”

 

Main Inquiry question.

So It all comes down to this: How does our space technology affect our knowledge of space aka planetary science. The answer is actually simple: It helps us learn more. Every bit of space technology used is used again, to make newer space technology Its a cycle and latter: we make the telescope. Then we use the telescope. Then we take what we from that telescope and make a new one from it. It’s a cycle that is our future of space. So now when you look up at night, you will understand how we learn about all of space.

 

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May 30

Capstone Blogpost 4

That was cool, helpful and fun! I just finished the interview. I interviewed Andrew Bundas, an astrophysicist that works at the Jennifer Chalsty planetarium at the Liberty Science Center. Andrew graduated from Michigan State University with a major in astrophysics.  After college Andrew got his first job at a small Planetarium at Michigan State. Two years later, he got a job at the brand new Planetarium at the Liberty Science Center, which is the biggest Planetarium in the Western Hemisphere (and the 5th largest planetarium in the world).    

 

After my site visit to the planetarium and the science center, Andrew took us into a business conference room for our interview.  The interview went really well. That may be because I sent Andrew my interview questions before we met so that he could prepare. Before he even started to answer my questions he told me how great he thought my questions were and how it took him a while to prepare and think about answers.  

 

Of all the amazing and great information Andrew gave me, I was excited to find out that Andrew, a professional astrophysicist, agreed with me that the most vital technology to the study of planetary science is the telescope. I was a little surprised that a professional agreed with my point of view!  Andrew explained that although rovers and probes can be a really useful technology for exploring the details of a planet, the telescope can see across the solar system and universe and into the cosmos, giving us a wider view and much more information. That extended my view of the different space technologies and what they do.  Rovers and probes can’t go beyond the outer planets of our solar system. Telescopes have been helping scientists since the 1600s. In all of human history, the telescope has been the thing that has allowed mankind to see more beyond anything else for astronomy as a whole.

 

Andrew compared what we can see with our eyes versus what we can see with telescopes.  He explained to me, in perfect locations with no lights around you can see about 5,000 stars, you can see the milky way pretty well and you can see the Andromeda galaxy (the closest galaxy to us).  Until about 1920 we thought the milky way was the only galaxy that existed and we thought Andromeda was part of the milky way. So with our eyes alone, we are limited to 20,000 stars and maybe 3-4 galaxies. With telescopes, we can see millions of stars and millions of galaxies.  It is exponential what telescopes can allow us to see. I knew telescopes helped us see more than our eyes alone, but I couldn’t believe how much more we could see with telescopes! We have found 4,000 other planets using telescopes. That’s so much! We have only actually seen a bit of what is really out there in the universe. We have found less than 100,000,000 galaxies. Not even half (or even a quarter).  As we get newer and better telescopes we will see even more.

 

Also, Andrew gave me a lot of information on my focus, the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble was built by private engineering companies here in the US.  The companies worked together to build this big telescope. It was a huge engineering achievement. It was the most impressive feat of engineering in the 1980s and 1990s.  In 1990, they sent it up into space and took the first pictures and they realized something was wrong. The mirrors weren’t polished properly and it was off by a tiny bit. But a tiny bit can do a lot of harm.  They have had to send astronauts up to the telescope (250 miles above the Earth) to work on it five different times. The missions were to fix cameras, fix mirrors, and fix wheels that point and track. Even with all these fixes that were needed, it is still the most useful astronomy tool anyone has ever been built.  

 

Next, I spoke to Andrew about Hubble’s discoveries and how they have helped us understand the universe.  Andrew said, the reason why Hubble is so great, isn’t because its big. There are bigger telescopes on Earth. The reason it is so good is it’s in space.  I didn’t know that the Earth’s atmosphere messes with how we see things.  By putting the telescope up into space it allows us to see a lot further than we were ever able to see before.  Because it was outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, Hubble taught us a lot about different galaxies that we were not able to study from telescopes on Earth. Astrophysicists, like Andrew, could now better understand how the universe was built.  First, we didn’t know there were other galaxies, then we thought maybe there were 100,000 galaxies. Now we know there are 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. Hubble helped us understand that the universe is getting bigger and these galaxies are slowly expanding away from each other.  

 

Hubble is Andrew’s favorite thing that astronomers ever built.  Before Hubble everything was fuzzy. Hubble was able for the first time able to get clear and brilliant pictures.  These pictures inspire students to want to study astrophysics and astronomy. It makes people excited about astronomy because we can now see what is out there.

 

The next thing I asked Andrew about was Hubble’s retirement and the launch of the new telescope called the James Webb telescope.  Andrew said that the James Webb telescope is one of the most interesting things happening in astronomy today.  It is the most ambitious telescope we have ever tried to build. It is so big, it’s got like 50x the area of the telescope compared to Hubble.  It a bunch of gold plated octagons attached together to make a big mirror. It is a really hard engineering challenge. It was originally supposed to launch in 2016, which it didn’t.  Part of the sun shield, the part that shields or protects the telescope from the sun, ripped during testing.  They fixed the tear and now the James Webb is undergoing more testing.  Scientists are now planning on a March 2021 launch. They need everything to go perfectly with this launch. With Hubble, they were able to send 5 missions of astronauts up to service things when they went wrong.   James Webb will be about 1 million miles away, so we won’t be able to send astronauts to fix it if something goes wrong. It won’t even be orbiting the Earth like Hubble. It will be further away than the moon. It will be orbiting the sun. James Webb needs to be far away from the Earth because the Earth is hot and bright. The heat and light from the Earth would interfere with James Webb is trying to study. Since it is going to be so far away, once it is launched, it has to go perfectly.  Otherwise, “it is just an expensive chunk of metal floating in space.”

We also talked about other technology, like space probes and space rover technology and what we have learned from those technologies.  Andrew said that when comparing telescopes versus rovers or probes, he can’t say one is better than the other, he says they are different. Telescopes are great at studying things far away. They are useful for studying planets too, but they are better at studying things far away. Probes and rovers can’t get very far outside the solar system.  So probes and rovers are great at studying planets within our solar system. 

 

Finally, I asked Andrew about the future of planetary science and technology.  Will the technology we have today be useful to people in the future?  Andrew explained that the way astronomers have always worked is they have built off each other. The earliest telescopes were built in the 1600s.  We don’t use those telescopes today, but we use what they learned to build new telescopes and then built on those and so on. So will humans in 100-years use Hubble….probably not, but they will use what we learned by building it.  It is like a ladder. We go up one step at a time.

And there you have it….a detailed summary of my awesome interview with Andrew Bundas of the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium.  This will definitely help me answer my main inquiry question!  Until next blog…

 

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May 29

Capstone Blogpost 3

 

Capstone Blog post 3: Site Visit

It was great!!! I loved it. I just did my site visit to the Jennifer Chalsty planetarium at the Liberty Science Center.  It was super cool. First, I went to see a show on the stars and solar system. In that show, all of the information that they showed was collected by telescopes.  So I got to see first hand what we have learned from telescope technology. I also learned about how scientists learn more about space and our universe using telescopes. I got to see the computers and projectors that ran the planetarium. I learned about telescopes and rovers and all the planets.

When I first arrived at the Liberty Science center, I went straight to the planetarium.  We were treated like rock stars and got special seats. It was so cool. Then after the first show, I had my interview.  The person I interviewed then took me to see all the projectors and computers that ran the planetarium. Even though my visit to the planetarium was so much fun, I learned a lot too.  For example, I learned how the telescopes took all these amazing pictures and then showed our universe to us. I learned about stars and what we can see with our eyes compared to telescopes. I also learned how scientists can improvise if our technology is not advanced enough to see. One example of this is how scientists connected a bunch of telescopes around the world to get a glance of a black hole.  They did this because they couldn’t make a single telescope that was big enough to see that well.

 

In summary, I got some good information on telescopes. Visiting the planetarium was an information mine, even though I couldn’t take any pictures for reference (they don’t allow photography in the planetarium). I learned lots of people agree with my thinking about telescopes, they are the best of the best for a wide range view of the cosmos.

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May 28

Capstone Blogpost 2

The Journey continues! Capstone week 2! It is the biggest elementary school project. This will be exciting going further into the project! Next, we chose our main inquire questions. I chose mine, and it did take a long to figure it out. I had trouble choosing a question that would develop into the main inquiry question. Finally, I came up with, my main inquiry question: “What makes a planet habitable and what role do humans play in keeping a planet habitable.” I made my sub-questions (The questions that are helping solve my main inquiry question.) I thought that this would not keep me for 5-6 weeks. I chose a different main inquire and sub-questions. My new inquire question is “How does planetary science help our understanding of space and what impact does this have on space technology today?” I love it so much better. I also have a few sources to get information! Nasa’s website has proven very useful. I am excited to go in more depth with this project! I can’t wait to go into my Interview and site visit. My Interviewee is a employee at the Jennifer Chastely planetarium so I can’t wait to go in more! Now that my Main Inquire question finalized I am very confident about my Project

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May 2

Capstone Blog 1

We just started capstone and its already fun! We are about finished choosing our topics and mine is the planets. Next we will be choosing our main inquire questions. It was cool how we did a poster of all the category’s of questions that we could have. We did this to tell if we had a good topic or not for the project.

So mine was space and I think it is a pretty good topic because I came up with a lot of questions, but I can’t think of a good question to eventually become my main inquire question. I  think that I will get an idea soon! I hope I do!

Category: 5th Grade, Capstone, Science, Technology | 1 Comment on Capstone Blog 1