e & Science & Technology a Facilities CouncilHands on Universe has been designed for use with pupils studying science at Key Stage 2. ‘The resource pack consists of six colour information cards and six photocopiable, black: and-white activity cards. Each card investigates a specific area of astronomy and covers the programmes of study for the following statements under Physical Processes - The Earth and Beyond a thatthe Sun, Earth and Moon are approximately spherical; b thatthe position of the Sun appears te change during the day; € that the Earth spins around its own axis, and, how day and night are related to this spin: thatthe Earth arbits the Sun once each, year, and that the Moon takes approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth. The cards also support statement b under Forces and motion, and statements a to d under Light and sound. There are many opportunities for associated work in design and technology, English and mathematics, Some topics extend beyond the programmes of study at Key Stage 2 and will also require the use of internet and library resources, These extension activities are highlighted by Bron both the information cards the activity eards. The astronaut ‘twins’ who accompany these activities, Merak and Dubhe, are the names af the two stars known as the ‘pointers’ in the Plough. ‘The Hands on Universe Launch Pack does not require the teacher to have any specialist knowledge of astronomy, The glossary on the Inside back caver of the pack provides a simple guide to.a number of terms used in the cards. visit to a planetarium is an excellent introduction to, or summary of, the work. A residential visit is also a good opportunity to do some abservation of the night sky. ‘The following points will be of use in the preparation of lessons: + Consult a star chart for the month ahead before you launch the project. These are published in astronomy magazines such as ‘astronomy Now’ or ‘Sky at Night’. You may also consider buying a guide ta the night sky ora planisphere available from Publishers including Philips and Collins or astronomy software such as Redshift or Starry Night. Sky charts can also be sourced from the internet from sites such as Google Sky. = Establish with the pupils where north is relative to the school and a local landmark such as a railway line or main road. + {tis helpful if the teacher can recognize the Plough and also know if any bright planets are visible during the project work. Please note the following: Activity card 3c- Activity 3.1. The actual scale of the Solar System madel is | metre =§ million kilometres, Activity card 4c. To see all the phases of the Moon, pupils will need to try to find the Moon during the day - including early in the morning, if possible, Activity card Se. It will be helpful to have shaving ‘mirrors and lenses available. The lens used at the front of a telescope - the objective - should have a long focal length. Estimate this by focusing the window on the palm of your hand. A distance of ‘more than 50 cm is suitable, & magnifying glass ‘s sufficient for the eyepiece, but a lens with a very short focal length of a few centimetres is best. The image will nat be very bright and may be surrounded by coloured fringes. Activity card 6d - Activity 6.4. Water rocket kits are available from wwaw.rokit.com, from the Science Museum in London at wis. sciencemuseumstore.com or can easily be constructed from washing-up liquid bottles. Author: Tony Lacey, Council Member of the Association of Astronomy Education and formerly HMI responsible for astronomy education in schools. Educational adviser: Kate Liffen, Alleyns Junior School, Dulwich. Royal Observatory Greenwich:P. Andrews, NM. Parker and M.J. Penston ‘Copyright clearances given to all UK schools and ‘their teachers to make photocopies ofall items in this pack for educational use in their establishmen Permission for any other use must be obtained from the Sclence and Technology Facilities Council,‘The Science and Technology Facilities Council operates world-class, large-scale research facilities; ‘supports scientists and engineers world-wide; funds fesearchers in universities and provides strategic See et eke ea See a ed Grea eee nce Eee et tele ce ‘uhich includes astronomy, space Seo ee For schools ear eee er a Poem eee Pear ae ~ Funding schemes for projects and school visits. fener erar te a et ae Eo ro) ee ee ae eed fentncreers rar eas ere tas Schools and Education - Laan Scheme Ret aa ee ie Oxfordshire and Edinburgh plus CERN in Geneva, ee aed Neier sarchers in Residence. Teachers are placed Sea er me) ve ee ect ed eat eI es en cen ee ces ee ere erent ere Schools : Fellowships and Communications Trajging Cee LEE ELE Ceara * Tele eM aaureley a Facilities CouncilJa The Night Sky © you ever look at the night sky on the D way hame from school? In the winter, if tis not cloudy, it can look like the picture opposite. You may see stars and sometimes the Moon shining brightly against a dark sky. We cannot always see them clearly because of other sources of fight such as street lamps or twilight near the setting Sun. The stars are there in the day time to0, but we cannot see them because the Sun makes the sky so bright. We can sometimes see the Moan during the day. Almost all the objects that we see in the sky - such as the Sun, Moon, planets and stars ~ are round in shape like a ball. They are very nearly perfect spheres On the left is another picture of the night sky at the same time of day but one month after the first picture. Astronomers are scientists who study the objects in the sky to find out what the universe is like, You can start to be like an astronomer now by looking carefully at the two pictures and trying to spot the changes that have occurred over four weeks. The patterns of the night sky are very nearly the same in every year, but some objects such as the Moon and the planets will be different in position, brightness or shape.1b The Night Sky i © Themoon Ina clear night sky we can easily seas STENT atte aca many struct ® stars which travels around (orb Ce te ane aes ‘Very distant, very hot abjectsy our world. It does nat shingl made of gas which shine like by Itself, it reflects light Way the Sun. All the stars weseein the night sky from the Sun. if you liveaway from street lights and large towns you Se ena may be able to see a pale band of fight belong to our own galaxy, The Milky Way. © Meteors Eight altogether which orbit the Sun. Like SER ea earch teal ‘Small particles of rock travelling) the Moon they do not shine by Ey uala dikes iskeCLanaNy lll ear ce rapidly which heat up as they themselves; but relia distant stars thatarein the same galaxy as enter aur atmosphere. ifthey get light from the Sun. PUPS SRT LAIST Ta USry arde Couleur oRM na Tead hot enough to glow brightly, we can see them of billions of stars in the same part of space.) and call them shooting stars, © Aitificial satellites Atfirst these look just like stars but you will see them move across the sky in only a few minutes. Satellites areman-made devices which do many useful jobs such as relaying television pictures and telephone calls, and ‘monitoring crop growth, weather, volcanoes and armies from space. Astronomers also use certain types of satellite for research. Did you know Pluto was considered to be a planet but after another planet-like body which is actually bigger than Pluto was discovered in 2003, astranomers decided to demote Pluto toa Dwarf planet. The new object is called Eris. <2 Comets These are occasional visitors to our part of the Solar System. The most famous is Halley's Comet. They are made of ice and dust, They are rarely bright enough to be ‘seen with the naked eye. They usually have a head and tail When near the Sun.Ic The Night Sky tars are scattered throughout S*: but when we view them from the Earth we see them arranged in patterns. These are aalled constellations. Stars in the same HANDS ON Wy Look at the * constellation of the Plough at different Watchingthe times of night, Each time Motion ofthe Sky _Y°" !ook imagine that the ‘pointers’ of the Plough are the hour hand on an imaginary clock, Estimate constellation are not necessarily near each other in thntne on this Godt ror nerds rere space. accurate you could try estimating the number of degrees as in the diagram below. You could fill ina table like thi Constellations we aila Time of day | Position of p useful way of naming parts of 4.00pm — | Halfpasttwelve | 15 the sky and were used by sailors to help them navigate at night. Many of the patterns have legends attached to them. 6.00pm 8.00pm What do you notice about your observations? Why do you think this is? Remember - the Earth ‘turns once in a day which is 24 hours long. Which is turning the sky @-~~ 3 or the Earth? “The Poe Star Some examples of patterns of stars inthe constellations Gemini Orion Use books to find out and Tours what the patterns above represent. The stories depend on the culture they come from. The names Legends of the mostly come from ancient Greek legends but if you research carefully Constellations YOU will also find other stories about people and animals in the sky in Scandinavian, American, Indian, Chinese and Arabian myths.ee 1d The Night Sky You will need: = awire coat hanger = some clear plastic = white emulsion or Making a Stal cme acrylic paint Frame Pull the coat hanger into-a square and bend the hook into a little handie Using sticky tape put same clear plastic over the frame. Lay the plastic over the diagram of the Plough and carefully mark the positions of the stars using the white paint. On the next clear night look to the north and by moving the frame around in front of your eyes (be careful you don't poke yourself in the eye! line up the stars with the pattern. Now you will always be able to find the Plough in the sky. You can do the same for the constellation oF Orion, but you will only find it in the south in the winter months. from the library you could prepare other star frames for yourself. Mark only the brightest stars,LA The Sun ne Sun isa stat ieseems so much brighter I than other stars because itis very close to thy, us. All the other stars in space are very far away, much further away than even the most distant planet of aur Solar System, which is why they all look so small, Even the nearest star to our own Sun and Solar System (Proxima Centauri) is 40 million million km away = a distance so large that it would take tens of thousands of years to get there in our current spacecraft Our Sun is very important to us. itis the main source of energy for living things on the surface [A solar telescope which professional astronomers use for studying the Su: x cia lout feet a al yaa F of aur planet. Without it almost everything on the Earth would die. Plants use sunlight to grow, and animals feed on plants or on each other. Itis no wonder that in ancient times people worshipped the Sun as a god. Astronomers have studied the Sun from the earliest times, perhaps for religious reasons orto know when to plant crops. Many ancient structures such as Stonehenge England), Newgrange (Ireland) or the pyramids (Egypt and Central America) were lined up with the landscape. They point to important places en the horizon where the Sun, the Moon or a particular star rises on certain days of the year.2b The Sun — Astronomers study the ‘Sun to understand more about the source of its ‘energy and other sciontists try to predict the effect on the Earth's weather of changes in the Sun's activity. Sometimes the surface of the ‘Sun has small dark spots on it, ‘These are sunspots which come and go in a regular pattern over Sometimes they disappear altogether or there ‘are many more than usual. These changes affect an invisible wind of particles which ‘streams off the Sun and this can cause changes in the aurorae (Northern and Southern light: In the late 17th century there were no sunspots for many years and the weather in Europe was so cold that rivers like the ‘Thames froze aver every year, night The motion , ‘of the Earth ? The Earth travels round the Sun in a little over 365 days, we call this one year, As it moves around the Sun it also spins around itself like a spinning top, When you are on a roundabout in the park or at the fair, you see that all your friends who are standing watching seem to 90 by you as you go raund and round. On the Earth we are all going round as the world spins. This is why the Sun, Moon and stars seem to go across the sky. In the diagram you can see that the light from the Sun only shines on one side of the Earth. As the Earth turns we see the Sun for only part of the time. We call this, daylight and for the rest of the time it is dark: Every day the Sun appears to move across the sky. rising from the eastern horizon and setting in the western part of the sky. The altitude of the Sun changes during the year, It is largest in the summer, when we say the Sun is high in the sky and the days are long, and smallest in the winter when we say the Sun is low. and the days are short. Of course the days are just the ‘same length (24 hours). What we really mean is that the time for which daylight lasts is fong or short - 0 i 25 Q “The Sun is higher in summer than in winter2c The Sun (One way in which we can You can try this activity for yourself. You will To record the direction of your shadow you can see how the Sun seems to —_need to devise atable for your use either an imaginary clock face with the 12 moveacrass the sky isto results lke this: = pointing to the north or you can use a compass to look at our shadow during 3 measure the bearing of your shadow in degrees. a sunny day. a Look at your results after a day of measurements. In these pictures we When is your shadow longest and when shortest? can see children carrying out an investigation on When did the Sun appear to be highest inthe sky? how their shadows move. They are measuring the lengths and directions af their shadows at different times of day. You and Your Shadow Think about the pasition of the Sunin the sky inthe summer (around June) and where itis in the winter (around Christmas). Do you think you would get the same results if you did this activity again at other times of the year?2d The Sun Before mechanical-ciocks were invented, the apparent motion of the Sun was used Makinga —corellthe time using a ‘Sanda sundial. There are very many kinds of sundial. They are often found in public gardens or on the walls of old churches. Make a copy of this design and make a sundial for yourself. Glue the design onto thin card. Cut out the base and the slot. Cut out the pointer, fold it in half and insert the tabs through the slot in the base. Place it horizontally in a sunny spot with the 12 pointing north. WwW = The Equation online Sun around the dial. As the Earth's orbit is not exactly circular, the Sun is not always due south At midday. This is one reason why sundials can be wrong by upto 16 minutes when compared te modern clocks. There are ways of correcting for this effect. Use your library or the internet to find out about the ‘Equation of Time’.3aTheSolarSystem were a visitor from outer space visiting ur Solar System, what would you see? A yellow star (our Sun) in the middle, around which eight planets are circling. There are four planets close to the central star. They are all small, rocky and relatively warm as they are near the Sun. There are four larger planets further away, They are giants compared to the rocky planets and are ma, Astronomers frequently discover new moons around the big gas planets. Use the internet well as other abjects such as asteroids. to find out the current comets. Some of the planets have rock 4 number of known objects called moons orbiting around t 7 moons for each planet All the planets are different from each ath and fillin the details on and some have very exciting features. In the: your own copy of this past we learned about them using telescopes, More recently wwe have used spacecraft ta carry measuring instruments and cameras nearer to each planet giving us a lot more information, but none of them has been visited by humand— (except Earth of coursell, The facts in this table may change as more is discovered about each planet. From the Earth the other planets look just like stars in the sky except that some (Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) move around among the stars from night to night or year to year. (This explains thetr name - in Greek ‘planet’ means ‘wanderer’. — Fram another planet the Earth would look Just ike a small star itself,3b The Solar System Exploration of the Solar System Until this century astronomers studied the Solar System using their eves and telescopes. It was not possible to see much detail and some mistakes were made. For a long time some scientists thought that they could see canals full of water on Mars, but this is not true. When space rockets were invented scientists began to send computers measuring instruments, cameras and telescopes into space to investigate other planets. We call these machines, which are controlled by radio from the Earth, spaceprobes. One of the most successful was, Voyager 2. This spaceprobe was launched in 1977 and it is still travelling out through the Solar System, having passed the giant planets, taking pictures and sending them back to Earth, These show amazing new details of these planets and their maons about the Solar System are more certain than the facts in the table. These are: @® autine planets go round the Sun in the same direction. €D Planets nearer the Sun {G0 round Fastest (thay have short years). €D Altthe planets spin about their own axes (they have different lengths of day). such as volcanoes of sulphur on lo, the icy CD Thesolar system is flat Geeeemregnia 2) seas of Europa (both moons of Jupiter) and ilhee a pkatas ter Solarsystom,witithe the rings of Uranus. dceret rin ofthe rots When sclentists think about how the Sun Sere es |) and Solar System were made their ideas ‘hat the spaceprobe used have to explainall these facts. Most scientists See terete) think the Sun and all the planets were made next planet. atthe same time, probably from a huge spinning cloud of hydragen gas and dust. ®@ the bigger planers (the gas giants) generally have more moons than the small rocky planets.c The Solar System AAs the Solar System is nearly flat we can use ourselves standing on the ground as a madel of i Use a football for the Sun and seeds or small balls for the planets. Find some friends and choose which planet you wish to carry. The Solar System is so large and the planets so small that you will not have to carry very much. Using the scale below see how many planets will fit on to your school field. A Model of the Solar System Size Distance (mm) from “Sun” umatres) Mercury ' 2 Venus 25 2 Earth 3 30 Mars 1s 46 30 158 saturn 26 286 Uranus 10. S74 Neptune 10 200 Pluto (Dwarf Planey 0:5 1130 Can you imagine arbiting the Sun now? It is difficult to do this because if the pupil carrying Mercury walks around the Sun in one minute then Pluta would take 17 hours to go round the Sun once If you have a long corridor near your classroom you could try hanging model planets from the ceiling or wall at the right distanee fram the door, To fit everything In, try dividing the distances in the table by 10.3d The Solar System Using the school library and exciting moans? Or huge volcanoes? Or high other sources of pictures mountains? Or a colourful atmosphere? What could and data on planets, write you visit in your spacecraft? Is the planet hot or cold? Takea an entry for a holiday What the weather be like? Will your spacecraft Holiday brochure of the future, hhave to pass near the Sun or the asteroids inits encouraging tourists t0 journey from Earth? How lang will the journey take? come toa planet for a holiday. What are the special You can use your imagination to describe what your features of the planet? Has itgot rings? Or lots of space hotel will be ike in the year 2200. not difficult as seems but you 4 to tell you where to look for some planets First, Your teacher may be able to tell you where the bright planets such as Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn will he tonight, Some papers publish a star chart once a month or there may bea brecrainive le the 0 @* ‘Observing the Planets | compar whl help you find them. Once you have ider planet such as Venus or Mars you and Saturn which move more slowly. Using a star map you cauld plot how the planets move among. Triangalim the stars,4a The Moon Ihe Moon is a rocky ball which goes I around the Earth. Itis about one sixtit ‘The phases of the Moon. of the size of the Earth. This is. unusually large because most moons of other planets are far smaller than the planet they orbit The Moon takes about 28 days to orbit the Earth. We Aight call this a month. Although eas for practical reasons most me months no longer have 28 days in them, in some calendars kept by some religious faiths the month still has 28 days. There are problems in making these fit into the length of the year The Moon does not shine by itself but only reflects light from the Sun towards the Earth. As the Moon goes around the Earth we see different amounts of its surface and so Appasrance of tha Moan, ar saan from the Earth, teach of the a New First Ful Last ihe Crescent Gibbous Gibbous Crescent, vis very easy ta misunderstand this diagram. the Moon appears to change its wk ae eee eee There is only one Moon which goes around the shape during a month eae ea kectcom Earth. As it moves around we see different amounts Sometimes the Moon shines brightly ’ isis called Tycho The of its sunlit side. Sometimes we can see all of it and at night but we may also be able to see it . ee cbatiers | we call thisa full Moon fas in 5). Sometimes we can shining dimly in the daytime. is no water there, see none of the sunlit side and we call this anew Moon (as in 1),4b The Moon 2 ee ee rt evry sant, This above the line between the Carth and the Sun and sometimes it is « little below it. Only when the Moon ix on the fine and in front of ‘off the light for a short time. We call this an nee in Fine, as in 2. Eardh's shadow at in 4, i eclipsed, it is often rod leeceediet Ihe cant Hot filtering throw “The Moon has been visited by astronauts from Earth. The first were Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. All together, |2 astranauts have stood on the Moon, They have done many scientific experiments and even tried to play golft Asa result we know a-great deal about the Moon: (@D Kis rocky, The rocks are similar to some found on the Earth €D There is no atmosphere: © Kis a simitar age to the Garth €4,600,000,000 years! Qi & Most of the craters caused by large rocky bi time age. Only a few ware caused by wre sometimes mail ‘moonquakes’.4c The Moon The Phases of the Moon In this activity you are going to pretend that you are the Earth, Stand in the light af projector (the Sun), holding a ball (aur Moan at arm's length, Mark a ‘face’ on the ball Turn slowly on the Spot. This represents one month. As you turn look at the brightness of the Maon. What da you see? Is it the same all the time or does the pattern of light and dark change as you turn? ‘AS yOu go round, the ‘face’ on the Moon will always be pointing towards you. As the Moon goes around the Earth it also turns once itself, so it always has the same face towards us. This is why we anly ever see one side of the Moon. If you are not convinced that the Moon must turn, make a mark on the opposite side of the ball from the “face! you drew. Have this mark pointing towards the projector this may be tricky). As you turn with the mark always Facing the projector, yau eventually get to see all of the ball. Ifthe Moon did not turn one side af it would always face the Sun and as the Moan went around the Earth we would eventually see all of the moon. But we don't, we only ever see one side of the Moan to see the other side requires a spacecraft, As the Earth turns, the Moon appears to travel acrass the sky every day just as the Sun does, Sometimes we see it in the night sky and sometimes in the daytime sky, when itean be very pale and hard to see as the Sun Is so bright. Youcanalso observe he toon for : yoursell our Observing the retin sheet il ioe something tithe blow Soreines you willed ook for the oon nthe svenng sorties inthe morning, Drawn crate apctare ayo Dees the Hoon show apttern of ight am Tike the model nasi 417c oO Oo = w f= -— U TAncient civilisations began to keep records ~ the sky. 5a Telescopes lor mast of history peonle have ae looked at the night sky using just their own eyes. This is ‘naked eye’ observation. We can learn to spot the bright planets moving among the canstellations and to follow the mation of the Sun and Moan using just our eyes. For more “The British astronomer detailed observation we need optical Sorc Horton enol devices such as telescopes or binaculars to ike this one help us. Most telescopes use visible light to produce images of what we would see if ‘our eyes were very much bigger. It is as if the pupil (the dark part in the centre of your eve) were made as big as the main lens or mirror of the telescope. Imagine having eyes two metres. across, You would be able to see galaxies and faint nebulae for yourself. Such large eyes could take in much larger amounts of light and see very faint objects in the sky. Telescopes make things appear brighter and easier to see. Telescopes collect light using a large fens or mirror and focus it into a small picture which we call an image Another small lens can be used to look at the image and make it bigger (magnify). We call this the eyepiece. The Sun is dangerously bright to look at, so you must never look at it, especially with binoculars or a telescope. o ‘The tealian astronomer Galilaa Used this telescope. He discovered the moons of Jupter. By the 18th contury, astronomers could build large telescopes ta look at stars da5b Telescopes the detector and Image processor (the collector ye and brain) lle These three telescopes all look different: the first one uses lenses, the second one uses mirrors and the third one is a radio telescope, for collecting radio waves. Each has a part to collect the light or radio: waves, a part to magnify (or amplify) the image and a part to process or detect the image Refracting Telescope Collecting the light is only one part of the job of a telescope. To study the image further, or take various kinds of photograph, you can also use other optical devices. Computers are also used to process an tho detector and electronic image to bring out detail that is image processor (the Light Collector not easy to see. For example, photographs veane Erol mero oater: ‘taken of Halleys Comet in 1910 have been computer enhanced to bring out extra detail. t ange magnifier Reflecting Telescope (eyepiece) Because of the interference from clouds and water vapour im the sky, street lights and pollution, astranomers often fut telescopes high on ‘mountain tops or best of all in space ~ like the Hubble Space Telescope. collecting J detector Radio Telescopec Telescopes We use magnifying glasses to look at small objects, to magnify them ~ that is to The Magnifying 3X8 them look larger Glass Look at this picture with a magnifying glass. Does it make it look larger? plasticine Rest a piece of wood on two piles of books in front of a Making usec ea Telescope wood. Your teacher willl give you the right sort of lens. Make a paper screen Using greaseproof paper and card. Take an Ad sized piece of stiff card and draw four lines onto mean that you now have a rectangle drawn in the middle of the card which you can cut out to create greaseproof paper onto the frame ensuring the greaseproof paper is as smooth as possible Switch off the room lights. Move the screen along the wood until you sean \, image (like a tiny picture) of ¢ the view outside the windows, Are the edges of the image sharp? Which way up is the image? Look carefully at the image. Is everything you can see outside in the picture? Is it in colour? If you-do the experiment carefully you will see a small, clear, unside dawn picture. ifthe picture is not sharp (in focus) move the screen about until its as clearas possible. Now use a magnifying glass to look at the picture con the screen. tt will make this picture look bigger. This simple instrument may not be very good. The image will not be very bright and it may also have small rainbows araund the edges, but basically you have made a telescope,5d Telescopes You could improve your ple telescope from ABetter Telescope tivity 5.2 by mounting cour lense: ‘cardboard tubes which fit inside each ather and by using a sinall, fat lens as am eye ccardboand tubes ‘Telescopes change the angles that objects make in our eyes. The size you think something is -depends.on the angle it covers in our eye. A magnifying glass bends the rays of light so that itincreases the angle of the image in our eye and so the object appears larger. Think about the angle 4 tree takes up in your eye when you look ‘at it directly and compare this With the size it appears tobe when you look at it with your simple telescope. Space Telescope is sending back tres taken From above the Earth's ere. Ta look at someof these pietures visit swwewstsciedufoutrench Cee te) os 4 ERSE ‘The larga Hubble Space Telescope ls an tomatic instrument inorbit round the arth, Because itis above the atmosphere its pictures are very detailed and clear. ‘The development of telescopes is.a very exciting story. You cauld write about how excited people were whena discavery was made by astronomers patiently searching the sky with thelr telescopes. This really happened in history. Look up these names in your library or on the internet - Tombaugh, Herschel, Halley, Galileo and Jocelyn Ball Burnell. The History of Telescopespace “SL a, is big, huge, ————~ fenormous, bigger than [EAE you can possibly imagine, Our world, our Solar System, even our galaxy are all very, ‘very, small when compared to the size of the known universe, ‘This picture tries to show you how small our Earth is when compared to ‘the size of the universe,6b Space Space exploration began in 1957 when the first satellite was successfully launched. Since then men and women have lived in space for up to a year at atime doing work for other scientists such as astronomers, geologists and oceanographers. When countries have been at war with each other, spy satellites have been used to send information about the movements of an enemy force back to Earth, Sometimes this is enough to prevent war. All manned missions into space have been launched by Russia and the USA though peaple from other nations often fly with them. The Russians put the first man into space an 12 ‘Apel 961, He was Yuri Gagarin. In July 1959 the Americans successfully put two men on the Maon. Nowadays the Russians and Americans along with other nations cooperate on building and erewing the imernational Space Station, No people have ever gone to another planet but robotic spacecraft called “landers” have landed on the surfaces of Venus and Mars. The Russians sent ‘very strong spacecraft toland on Venus but they only fasted a very short time due to the acidic, hot, very dense atmosphere. Spacecraft from America have landed on and crawled over the surface of Mars, We know a lot about the planets because we have sent lots of robotic spacecraft to visit them. Every planet in the Solar System has had a spacecraft go past it or go into orbit around it at least once. Rabotic spacecraft that fly past argo into orbit around a planet are often called “probes”, Britain normally works with lots of ather nations within the European Space Agency (ESA) to build probes that help us to explore the Solar System in detail. Two of the most successful probes were American spacecraft called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977. They are now in the outer parts of the Salar System. They have taken wonderful pictures of the outer planets as they travelled past them. They carry a message from Earth for anyone who finds = them in the future piss You could think about what kind of picture yau would send. Remember, you cannot use words, aliens wauld not be able ta read them, What pictures, diagrams and sounds would you send? Although we have sent many rockets and machines into space, nome fas vet left the: system,Imagine that you have taken a very long journey in.a space rocket. You have arrived at another star with planets around it a planetary system), but you are running out of air, water and food and none of the planets has these things, You decide to send a message back to Earth to tell therm that you are in trouble. You will need to list everything that a space traveller wauld need. The journey will take many years $0 you must think hard to include everything, Do you think it will be possible for space travellers to produce their own food in space? A Journey in Space ——-_ Space Addresses It is fun to think about what your full address in space might be. Start with your name as usual but try to end with ‘The Universe’ as the last line. Cee) could colonise other planetary systems. We would need to build a starship ‘capable of travelling for more than $0 years to reach Space Mission ‘the nearest stars. Unless we can think of a way of ‘only their children would reach ‘the mew planets, Look up the experiment ‘Biosphere ‘Two! in your library or visit www:b2science.org, K war an experiment to see if just a few people with plants and animals could live in.a completly enclosed building which contained recreations of habitats on deep freezing peopl Earth. The American, Russian and European -space agencies are undertaking long-term ‘studies of volunteers in carth-bound ‘simulations of Mars missions to seo how they cope. They could find it really difficult as even going to Mars would be a round of up to three years. The astronauts would hhave to have everything with them, recycle with fiving with areally confined ‘space for months. it could be worse than being in the ig Brother housel ‘whatever they could and have to di ‘the same small bunch of peopl6d Space In space, rockets are the only means of transport developed so far. Pianes.do nt workin space as their engines need air to burn the fuel and there is no air in space. Rackets carry all their fuel and something ta burn it with, Sometimes these chemicals are solid, as in the fireworks we use on Bonfire Night, and sometimes they are liquids or Water Rockets lemonade battle \, bung and lastic pipe liquified gases. all these chemicals are very dangerous to use but we can make a simple rocket using water The ‘fuel for your water rocket is compressed air, the propeliant is the water that shoots out at the back. ttis best to do this activity outdoors. You can alter the amount of water you put in the rocket, and how much air you pump inta it. Da not get in the way of the rocket when you pump it up, ifit hits, it will hur. KS launch ramps two: blocks of wood or ‘some guttering stalin sruttranie, be Pate cycle = tube 5 1m orbie, the pull of gravity is balanced by the motion of the spaceship. This means that Animals. in Space the astronauts and al the contents of the spaceship are weightless. Plants and animals are used to gravity it tells ‘them which way is ‘down’. Living things on land need a skeleton or a plant stem to hold them up. Wede not Know how animals and plants will behavelf there Ia da gravity for boty tiie. For example, when astronauts return to Earth after a loag time In apace they are taller as thelr spines stretch, Because astronauts are welghtheas when, thay are In orbit thelr nauscles become weaker and their bones become more brittle as there is less need for muscles and bones in space. Astronauts spend a let of time doing exercises to prevent themselves becoming weaker while they are in space. Children have already designed ‘experiments which have been done in space. if you had the chance what would you like to investigate? For example do you think bean plants will still climb bean poles in space or will bees still be able to build aGlossary Altitude (of the Sun) - The angular height of the Sun above the horizon, Astronomer -A scientist who studies objects in the sky, beyond the Earth's atmosphere Atmosphere - The layer of gases which lies above the hard surface of a rocky planet. For the gaseous planets, such as Jupiter, the atmosphere refers to the outer layers of the planet, Aurora - Glowing clouds of gas high in the upper atmosphere above the magnetic poles of the Earth. These are due to charged particles from the Sun interacting with our magnetic field and the atmosphere, Comet - “Dirty snowballs" of dust and ice associated with the Solar System. When near the Sun, water and other substances boll off to produce the tails. Galaxy - A group of hundreds of billions af stars, ften in spiral of elliptical shapes. Galaxies a¢e usually millions of light years apart in space. Gravity - The fundamental force which causes all, bjects to attract each other, Gravity keeps the planets in their orbits round the Sun, yau on the Earth, and keeps the stars in a galaxy together Meteor - Small particles of rock which briefly shine brightly as they burn up in the upper atmosphere. Meteorite - The remains of ameteor which was large enough for bits of it to reach the ground, Moon - A natural satellite which orbits a planet, ‘The Moon - The Earth's natural satellite. Moonquake - Vibration af the Moon's surface, similar to an earthquake on Earth, Orbit - The path an object takes when travelling around a central star or planet. Orbits are strictly ellipses (not circles). Some of these ellipses are so elongated that the objects in them, such as some comets, only pass clase to the Sun once in ‘many thousands of years. Planet -A large body travelling around a parent star-A planer only shines as a result of reflected light from the star Satellite - Any body orbiting a larger one. This term is most often used for man-made satellites. Star -A ball ofvery hot gases which produces its own energy by nuclear reactions and so generates its own heat and light Solar System - The Sun and its associated family of planets, moons, asteroids and comets. Weight - The force due ta the Earths gravity on any abject. Weightlessness - condition where the pull of gravity is balanced by some other force, such as that due to acceleration in an orbit, Universe - Literally everything that exists. Further information on astronomy and space topics can be obtained from: Funding, laboratory visits and publications: Science and Technology Facilities Council www seitech.ac.uk Royal Observatory Greenwich. warw.nmm.ac.uk/astronomy Resources for school science: wavw.schoolscience.co.uk Resources and CPD: Science Learning Centres www sciencelearningcentres.org.uk Mission information and fesson plans: Gritish National Space Centre Learning Zone wavw.bnse.govuk Science information: Science Worlds www sciencenet.org.uk Visits ta science centres and museums: ww mecsite-uk.net Visits ta or by a planetarium: www planetarivm.orgDee RE gL ta een ea eed children to the exciting warld of astronomy. See oe eS oe eee ee ee ene ae a Seo ec Ue oe ea activity cards: covering the following topics: SR od eco ary 2. Taecspae a Cee SO ee ay Pee