UNIT ONE: EARTH’S PLACE IN SPACE

Earth’s Place in Space Unit Objectives

►HS-ESS1-2: Construct an explanation of the Big

Bang theory based on astronomical evidence of
light spectra, motion of distant galaxies, and
composition of matter in the universe.
What is Science?? (12:19)
Scientific Method
Ask a question:
A. Who, what, where, how?
B. Is it testable?
Form a hypothesis:
A. Try to answer a question.
B. Use an if…then statement.
Design and run an experiment:
A. Write a procedure
B. Identify variables.
C. Procedures must be clear and reproducible.
Record Data:
A. Analyze data; use graphs, tables, charts etc.

Write a conclusion:
A. Does it support the hypothesis?
B. Identify any problems.
C. Summarize results.
Laboratory instruments
 Collecting and Interpreting Data Lab

► Collecting and Interpreting Data

► Looking at a problem scientifically means you take a close look at the facts
involved in a problem. Like many areas of science, environmental science
answers questions by beginning with facts such as observations and recorded
data. Interpreting the facts often involves plotting the data on a graph. In this
lab activity, you will use standard laboratory equipment to collect facts or data.
You will then graph and analyze that data. Finally, you will use that analysis
to compare and contrast graphs while you search for answers to problems.
►Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to
collect data using laboratory equipment to
graph and interpret data.
►Materials:
►Funnel
►50 or 100 mL graduated cylinder
►Stopper test tube clamp
►Clamp washable marker
►Ring stand metric ruler
►500 mL beaker graph paper
►Procedure:
►1. Use a stopper to seal the small end of a funnel. Be sure the
stopper is firmly in place.

►2. Attach the funnel to a ring stand by using a test tube clamp.
The funnel should be wide side up.

►3. Fill a 500 mL beaker with water. Using a dropper, place just
enough water in the bottom of the funnel to reach the joint
where the funnel starts to expand. With a marking pen, place a
mark on the outside of the funnel at this location.
►4. Carefully measure 50 mL of water from the beaker
into the graduated cylinder. Pour the 50 mL into the
funnel. Mark the new water level on the outside of the
funnel.

►5. Repeat step 4 nine more times. Remember to mark

the water level on the outside of the funnel in each case.
You should have a total of 11 marks on the funnel when
you are done.
► 6. Without smearing the marks, remove the funnel from the
ring stand and pour out the water.

► 7. With a metric ruler, measure to the nearest tenth of a

centimeter, the distance from the first mark (at the bend of the
funnel) to each of the other marks. Record your distances in the
Data Table.

► 8. Draw a graph on a piece of graph paper. Place the pour

number from the first column of the Data Table along the x-axis
and distance in centimeters along the y-axis. Plot the data from
the Data Table on the graph.
 DATA TABLE
Pour number Distance (cm)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Analysis and Conclusions

►1. How did the spacing between the lines on the

funnel change as more water was added to the
funnel? Why did the change occur in this way?
►2. If the funnel was sealed at the wide end,
inverted (turned upside down) and filled 50 mL at
a time from the narrow end, what would you
expect to happen to the spaces between the lines as
the funnel was filled?
►3. If you lived on a lake with a funnel-shaped
bottom, would you be more concerned about a
heavy rain causing the lake to flood its banks if the
funnel was wide side down or wide side up
(assuming it could occur either way)? EXPLAIN
your answer.
Of the three graphs below, which is shaped
most like your graph?
►Identify one way in which each of the other graphs
is shaped differently from your graph.
Types of Stars: What is a Star? (4:11)

► Variable stars

► Red giants

► White dwarfs

► Supergiants

► Neutron stars
 Variable stars
►Variable stars are stars that vary in
brightness over time. These changes
usually occur very slowly, over a
period of months or years, but
sometimes it can take just hours.
►Some types of variable stars are red
giants, and eclipsing binaries.
Red Giants!
►The most common of the variable stars, red
giants are stars of average size, similar to our
sun, in the final stages of life.
►In the last several million years of its life,
the star will become alternately brighter and
dimmer, spending about a year in each phase
until it eventually runs out of fuel.
White dwarfs
About 1,600 light-years away,
two dense white dwarfs in the
J0806 binary star system orbit
each other once every 321 seconds.
When they reach the end of their
long evolutions, smaller stars
typically become white dwarfs.
► White Dwarfs are the cores of Red
Giants that have lost their outer layers.
White Dwarfs are no longer capable of
fusion, but they are incredibly hot,
which means that they will shine
brightly for a very long time.
► White dwarfs are formed from stars
about the size of our sun when their
hydrogen is used up.
► In the absence of fusion, gravity takes
over and causes the star to collapse upon
itself.
► The bigger the original star, the smaller
the white dwarf it becomes. Due to the
strong gravitational field, the larger stars
collapse more completely than smaller
stars.
 Supergiants
►Supergiants represent the final Death of a Star (5:05)

stages of life of only the most

massive stars and hence are quite
rare.
►It’s believed that at the end of a
supergiant’s life, there is a
supernova which then creates a
neutron star or a black hole.
 Blue Supergiants

►Blue supergiants are rare but

burn bright and hot at surface
temperatures of 20,000-50,000o
C
►Blue supergiants represent a
slower burning phase in the death
of a star.
►Rigel, the brightest star in the
Orion constellation, is a blue
supergiant
 Red Supergiants
► The red supergiant is a star that is bigger
and more massive than the red giant. Red
supergiants usually have a diameter which
would be several hundred times that of the
Sun and they would weigh 10 times more
than the Sun.

The red supergiant phase is very short

lived, they only last for a hundred to a
million years before exploding into a
supernova. Although red supergiants are
very rare, clusters of them do exist in
space.
More than two dozen stars, appearing yellow near the
center of this Spitzer Space Telescope image of the
cluster RSGC2 are red supergiants. Warm dust in the
region glows red. The blue oval with a pink outline at
top left may be the result of an ancient supernova and
the larger blue patch below center is a region of current
star formation.
Image credit: B. Davies/RIT/NASA
 Neutron stars
► A Neutron Star is the core of a star that has gone
supernova. The pull of gravity has crushed the
matter together so tightly that individual atoms are
forced together, losing their electrons. The resulting
matter is made up of tightly compressed nucleons,
mostly neutrons. Even though it might have more
mass than the sun, it is compressed to a tiny ball
only about 24 kilometers (15 miles) apart.

► In Chandra's image (right), the colors of red,

green, and blue are mapped to low, medium, and
high-energy X-rays. At the center, the bright blue Space.com (3:49)
dot is likely the neutron star that astronomers
believe formed when the star exploded.
Supernovas
(2:00)

This is the aftermath of supernova 1987A – a shock wave of material unleashed in the blast
slammed into a ring of debris likely shed by the star 20,000 years previously.
Image: NASA, ESA, P. Challis and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
STAR DAY! THE LIFE CYCLE OF
STARS

4:58 min
Timelapse of the Future (29:00)
 How to categorize stars
►Stars are categorized by their
temperature and their luminosity
(brightness). Hubble telescope and H-R diagram (1:13)

► A star’s brightness as seen by an observer

on Earth is called its magnitude. The
brighter the star, the lower the magnitude.
► Thebrightest stars have the most negative
numbers.
► The sun has a magnitude of -26.7 and is
93 million miles from Earth while other
stars that are light years away like Vega
(26 lya) has a magnitude of +0.04.
Hertzsprung Russell Diagram (9:53)
 Density! What is it? ( Eureka! 4:50)

► Density is a measure of mass per volume.

► The average density of an object equals its total mass divided by its
total volume.
► An object made from a comparatively dense material (such as iron)
will have less volume than an object of equal mass made from some
less dense substance (such as water).
► Perhaps the highest density known is reached in neutron star matter.
► The singularity at the center of a black hole, according to general
relativity, does not have any volume, so its density is undefined.
How to calculate density
►Density is measured in g/mL or g/cm 3
►Mass is measured in grams (g).
►Volume is measured in mL or cm3

►Density is equal to mass ÷ volume

►Mass is equal to density x volume
►Volume is equal to mass ÷ density
Density explained (6:02)
 Buoyancy (Bill Nye 7:00)

►Buoyancy is an upward force exerted by a fluid on an

immersed object in a gravity field. ... Thus, if the object
is less dense than the fluid, the buoyancy force will be
higher than its weight and the object will float; on the
contrary, if the object is denser than the fluid, it will sink.
 Specific Heat
►Specific heat is the amount of heat energy it takes to
raise the temperature of one gram of a substance 1.0 oC.
►The specific heat of water is 4.184 J/goC.
 Values used to determine heat energy,
grams, change in temperature and specific
heat:
►J is Joules (heat energy)
► g is grams
►ΔT is change in temperature
►S.H. is Specific Heat
Formulas used for heat energy, mass,
change in temperature and specific heat:

►J = g x ΔT x S.H. or Q = m • c • ∆T

►g = J ÷ (ΔT x S.H.) or g = Q ÷ ( c • ∆T)

►ΔT = J ÷ (g x S.H.) or ∆T = Q ÷ ( g • c )

►S.H. = J ÷ (g x ΔT ) or c = Q ÷ ( g x ΔT )
 Heat vs. Temperature (Eureka! 4:10)

►Temperature is the average

kinetic energy of a substance.

►Heat is the total kinetic

energy of a substance.
Exothermic and Endothermic Processes

►An exothermic process occurs when heat is lost to

the surroundings. An example could be a
campfire.

►An endothermic process occurs when heat is

absorbed into a system. An example could be a
melting ice cube.
 Practice
► How much energy will be produced when a 10 gram aluminum can is
heated from 25oC to 75oC? The specific heat for aluminum is .89 J/g o C.

► Ifyou have a 400 gram sample of water that started out at 65 oC and was
heated to 90oC producing 41,840 Joules of energy, what is the specific
heat of the water?

► How much energy will 200 grams of water release when cooled down
from 95oC to 40oC?
Wavelengths and Frequencies (10:23 Crash Course)

►Waves have both lengths

and frequencies.
►When the wavelength is
short, the frequency
increases.
►When the wavelength is
longer, the frequency
decreases.
►All electromagnetic
radiation comes from stars.
Electromagnetic Radiation (Nova 2:50)
 ROYGBIV (Eureka! 4:50)

►All electromagnetic radiation travels at the speed of light—

3.00 x 108 m/s or 6.71 x 108 mph
►Radio waves have the longest wavelength and lowest
frequency.
►Gamma waves have the smallest wavelength and highest
frequency.
►Red light has less energy than violet light.
►ROYGBIV: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet
Song
Spectroscopy ►Spectroscopy is the study of the
interaction between matter and
electromagnetic radiation.
►It lets us identify properties of stars
such as temperature, mass,
luminosity and composition.
►Every element emits a distinct
spectra that enables us to identify
it’s presence.

Astronomy and Spectroscopy (4:16)

►Continuous spectrum is all of the
wavelengths present at any given
time.

►Emission lines are created by atoms

of an element emitting a photon of
light.

►Absorption lines are created by

electromagnetic radiation passing
through a spectroscope.
The Doppler EffectRed Shift, Blue Shift
sound!

(2:47)
 Composition of the Universe
► Dark energy: A mysterious (and as yet hypothetical) form of energy which is spread out
uniformly throughout space (and time) and which has anti-gravitational properties: it is one of
the possible explanations for the current accelerating rate of expansion of the universe.
► Dark matter: Matter not visible to us because it emits no radiation that we can observe, but it
is detectable gravitationally.
► Hydrogen & helium gas: Hydrogen and Helium are the most abundant element in the
universe. This element is found in great abundance in stars and gas giant planets.
► Star: A ball of mostly hydrogen and helium gas that shines extremely brightly. Our Sun is a
star.
► Neutrino: A small particle that has no charge and is thought to have very little mass. Neutrinos
are created in energetic collisions between nuclear particles. The universe is filled with them
but they rarely collide with anything.
► Heavy elements: Planets like ours.
 The BIG BANG theory
► The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation about how the universe began.
► At its simplest, it says the universe started with a small singularity and expanded over the next 13.8 billion
years to form the universe we know today.
► We can’t look back to the original event but astronomers can see the “echo” of the expansion through cosmic
background radiation. This radiation is heat thought to be left over from the Big Bang.
► You can’t see this radiation because its so cold (just above absolute zero) but its everywhere in the universe.

► Plank’s images

Cosmic microwave
background radiation (3:42)
The Big Bang!! (5:54)
EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORTS THE BIG
BANG THEORY
►1. The most abundant elements in the universe are the
lightest ones, hydrogen (75%) and helium (25%).
►2. There is electromagnetic radiation and cosmic
background radiation in space (leftover heat from the Big
Bang).
►3. Stars and galaxies are moving away from each other as
the universe expands. RED SHIFT!