How do planets form? An interview with a planetary scientist - skyatnightmagazine. Dr Farzana Meru is an assistant professor and Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow at the University of Warwick. Her research is on the formation of planets, and she uses a variety of techniques to investigate how they grow. BBC Sky at Night Magazine spoke to Dr Meru to find out more about planet formation. Where do planets form? Planets form in discs made of gas and dust — called protoplanetary discs — that swirl around their central star. 4.6 billion years ago our own Sun would have had one of these discs, which went on to form the planets. How does the formation process work? There are two ways we think planets form.
As this core becomes more massive, its gravity pulls more dust and gas onto it, forming a terrestrial planet. Another way in which planets can form is through gravitational instability. In the early stages of a protoplanetary disc’s life, it is so massive that its own gravity causes spirals to form — similar to the spiral features in a galaxy. We are just beginning to do this. Alien Earths Online - www.alienearths.org. Sky. Look up your star in the Online Star Register! Apollo 17 in Real-time. USGS Astrogeology: Map-a-Planet. 10 Things That Happen To An Exposed Human In Space. Space We’ve all seen it in sci-fi movies: Someone gets sucked out of a spaceship and thrown into the emptiness of space. Not surprisingly, many movies get it wrong. But the reality of a human exposed to the vacuum of space may be weirder and more bizarre than you ever imagined. 10 The Vacuum Of Space First things first—if the exterior of your spaceship is compromised (punctured by a whizzing asteroid perhaps) the interior will rapidly depressurize, and you will be sucked out into the vacuum of space.
The ship would initially be pressurized in order to mimic earth’s atmosphere and maintain a proper, livable environment. But once the ship is damaged, the air inside will rapidly expand outward, creating a vacuum and violently pulling everything out with it—including you. 9 Extreme Swelling Remember Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory who puffed up like a giant blueberry?
8 Exposure To Sunlight 7 Suffocation By Hypoxia 6 Rapid Cooling 5 Decompression Sickness 4 No Blood Pressure. David Reneke | Space and Astronomy News | Space News, Astronomy News, Telescopes, Astrophotography, UFOs. Find planets and constellations in the night sky - AstroViewer. The Big Bang Theory in Plain English! Aboriginal Astronomy. The Emu in the Sky The photograph above shows the aboriginal "emu-in-the-sky" constellation in the sky.
It won its creator, Barnaby Norris, third prize in the prestigious 2007 "Eureka" awards. To see the "constellation", look at the dark dust-clouds, not the stars! Below it is the emu engraving at the Elvina engraving site, in Kuring-Gai Chase National Park, near Sydney The constellation is positioned above the engraving as it appears in real life in Autumn. Many Aboriginal groups have stories about the “Coalsack” – the famous dark cloud next to the Southern Cross. Some see it as the head of a lawman, or a possum in a tree, but many groups tell stories of a great emu whose head is the Coalsack, and whose neck, body, and legs are formed from dust lanes stretching across the Milky Way. The Aboriginal Astronomy project aims to study stories like this in a systematic way, and to explore the importance of astronomy in Aboriginal cultures.
However, photographing them is tricky. Dreaming of the sky. Just as ecologists are increasing their understanding of the Australian environment through studying Aboriginal stories and talking to tribal Elders, so astronomers are beginning to appreciate Indigenous knowledge of the sky. When Macquarie University PhD student Duane Hamacher encountered Aboriginal Dreamtime myths involving fiery stars falling to Earth, he decided to see if he could track where these objects had landed. Following several leads, Duane surveyed remote areas of Australia using Google Earth—and discovered a meteor impact site at Palm Valley, about 130 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs.
What Duane and colleagues from Macquarie’s Department of Earth and Planetary Science found when they visited Palm Valley was a bowl-shaped geological structure that could not have been formed either by erosion or volcanic activity. Rock samples at the site revealed shocked quartz, a direct indicator of meteorite impact. Understanding eclipses. Aboriginal astronomers: world's oldest? THERE’S GROWING EVIDENCE THAT Australia’s indigenous people could be the world’s oldest astronomers, according to astrophysicist Ray Norris, who is based at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility in Sydney.
He has researched Aboriginal stories about the night sky for five years and says one of the earliest European records of indigenous astronomy was made by William Stanbridge, an Englishman who emigrated to Australia in 1841 and ran sheep at Lake Tyrrell, in northern Victoria. Stanbridge befriended members of the local Boorong people. They showed him how they viewed the constellations and Stanbridge published their stories in his 1857 essay On the Astronomy and Mythology of the Aborigines of Victoria. Stanbridge’s writings recorded the Boorong’s holistic use of astronomy and explained how they integrated their understanding of the stars with knowledge of the land and seasons, Ray says.
Perspectives of the southern cross Source: Australian Geographic Issue 97 (Jan - Mar 2010) Spacehack. Space - Digital Education Resources | Living on the International Space Station. Space - Digital Education Resources | Space retrospective. Space - Digital Education Resources | Where Does The Sun Get Its Energy? Space - Digital Education Resources | Weightlessness of astronauts. Space - Digital Education Resources | Gravity - Do heavier things fall faster? Space - Digital Education Resources | Motion, gravity, orbits and asteroids. Space - Digital Education Resources | Behind the News - 30/03/2010: Space Suits. Space - Digital Education Resources | Birth of Radio Astronomy - Catalyst: ABC TV Science.
Space - Digital Education Resources | Deep-space exploration using radio telescopes. Space - Digital Education Resources | Hubble Deep Field. Space - Digital Education Resources | Voyage To The Planets: Guidebook: Interactive Space Tour. Virtual Field Trip-What's the Difference-Moon Math. Space - Digital Education Resources | Andy Thomas talks with Richard Smith Part 1 - Talking Science - ABC Science. Tips and Tools » Beginner's Guide to the Night Sky (ABC Science) Catalyst: Discovery of Other Earths - ABC TV Science. Catalyst: Biggest Bang - ABC TV Science. Living on the International Space Station - Science (5,10) - ABC Splash - Overview What would it be like to live on a space station? In this clip you'll see footage of astronauts on the International Space Station and discover what their daily life is like.
You'll also find out about how the space station was built and about some important research being done there. 3 mins 48 secs Source: Behind the News | Learning area: Science | Primary: Year 5 | Secondary: Year 10 Transcript 00:00:00:00NATHAN BAZLEY:OK, have you ever wondered what it's like to live out of this world - on a space station? ...Read more > 00:00:23:17CATHERINE ELLIS, REPORTER:Space exploration.
About this resource Acknowledgements Source: Behind the News Date first broadcast: 23 September 2008 Cite this resource You can use this information to reference this item. Bibliographic details for 'Living on the International Space Station': Behind the News, ' Living on the International Space Station', ABC Splash abcspla.sh/m/103968 19 April 2014 Copyright information. International Space Station 360 Virtual Tour - Destiny Lab. Gallery. Space and NASA News – Universe and Deep Space Information.
NASA. Teach Astronomy. Teaching astronomy and space videos. The resources are built around a series of Teachers TV programmes, aim to support the teaching of astronomy and space to 11-16 year olds. Produced with generous funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Teachers TV, they are now available to watch through a number of websites, including www.schoolsworld.tv/series/teaching-astronomy-and-space. Within the programmes there are sections to use with students, where astronomers talk about their work in an inspiring and engaging way, as well as guidance and advice on setting up and managing practical activities with students. The activities are supported by full teaching notes.
The different sections of the programmes are available to download separately below. Astronomy and space videos Classroom demonstrations These videos and their teaching notes, as well as additional teaching resources and web links, are all available on a DVD from the education department. Astronomy Online. Education. Nightskyonline.info. Exploring Planets in the Classroom: Hands-on science activities. Exploring Planets in the Classroom was a long-running summer workshop in Planetary Geosciences offered at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa for the state's K-12 educators and librarians under the direction of Dr. G. Jeffrey Taylor. Hands-on activities in this course were developed and/or tested by the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium in cooperation with educators statewide. In 1996 the workshop transformed into this website to assist educators and resource specialists around the globe to find hands-on activities that match science standards in elementary, middle, high school, and college classrooms.
These on-line activity pages are formatted for printing and direct classroom use. Free Use Policy This is a public domain web site. How to Cite Internet Resources in a Bibliography 1. Example: Hawaii Space Grant Consortium (1996) Gelatin Volcanoes. LINKS TO STANDARDS (Links open in new windows.) A-Z List of NASA Educational Publications.
A - Z List of NASA Websites for Educators.