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Space Science Academy: Universe Basics

The document summarizes key topics from a 4-day space science academy, including: 1) The big bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, forming the universe from a single point which expanded and cooled, allowing stars and galaxies to form. 2) Constellations are groups of stars that form patterns in the sky, and they vary based on location and time of year, but remain useful for celestial navigation. 3) Comets are icy rocks that develop tails as they warm upon approaching the sun, and it's possible they delivered water to early Earth through impacts. 4) The universe continues expanding rapidly since the big bang, and space exploration helps understand threats to humanity while advancing technology.

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166 views2 pages

Space Science Academy: Universe Basics

The document summarizes key topics from a 4-day space science academy, including: 1) The big bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, forming the universe from a single point which expanded and cooled, allowing stars and galaxies to form. 2) Constellations are groups of stars that form patterns in the sky, and they vary based on location and time of year, but remain useful for celestial navigation. 3) Comets are icy rocks that develop tails as they warm upon approaching the sun, and it's possible they delivered water to early Earth through impacts. 4) The universe continues expanding rapidly since the big bang, and space exploration helps understand threats to humanity while advancing technology.

Uploaded by

loislau
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Space Science Academy

Day 1

The big bang


- It happened about 13.8 billion years ago. From a single point, the universe was
formed.
- In the beginning, the universe was a very hot place. As it expanded further and
further, it got cooler and cooler. All the simple tiny molecules started to group
together, forming stars and galaxies which were crashing and grouping together,
then we had asteroids, comets, planets and black holes.

Constellations
- Constellations are groups of stars who have been given names because they look like
something. It can be an object, animal or even person.
- What you see in the sky depends on the time of year, as the earth orbits the sun, the
night sky changes every day.
- The stars you see also depend on your location on Earth. And also how high they are
in the sky.
- Our earth is a moving planet, but stars remain in the same spot for a long time. So
astronauts and even sailors use constellations to navigate their position on earth or
in outer space. This is called celestial navigation.
- Robotic spacecrafts also use maps of the stars to find their way.
- So we see, constellations or maps of stars are still useful to this day. Even though we
started naming and using them a long time ago.
Comets
- In their orbits (Oort cloud or Kuiper belt in our solar system), comets are just dull,
dark chunks of ice, dust, and rock. As they get closer and closer to the sun, they start
to warm up which starts to boil their ice, this causes gas to form as a cloud around
the comet. This can be hundreds or thousands of miles long. Inside the cloud, there
is a nucleus which is 6-25 miles long usually. Comet tails appear as the comet
approaches the sun. these tails can grow to be millions of miles long. The comet now
has 2 tails, the dust tail and the gas tail.
- Its possible that as comets and asteroids crashed into the early earth, didn’t just kill
the dinosaurs but may have also led to the formation of the ocean, since these
chunks of rock contain water, and in the early solar system, there was much chaos.
With comets and asteroids often crashing into the earth.

Day 2

Expanding universe
- The universe has been stretching and expanding rapidly since the big bang, 13.8
billion years ago. Even today we can see galaxies moving farther and farther away.
- Nobody knows the size of the universe, we can’t see an edge, if there even is one.
We only know our visible universe is at least 93 billion light years across.
Day 3
Moon cycles
- The moon relies on the sun to illuminate or brighten it. So the way we see the moon
in the night sky depends on the position of the earth, moon and sun.
Solar Eclipse
- This happens when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth. When the
moon is passing between the two, the light from the sun is blocked by the moon,
except for the corona (the ring around the sun). Even though the moon is 400 times
smaller than the sun, the sun is 400 times further away from the Earth than the
moon is. This is why the moon can cover the sun completely during an eclipse.
- The whole process lasts only a few minutes.

Day 4

Space Exploration
- Exploring space can help us in many ways on Earth. The technological advancements,
and our understanding of our place in the universe are some of the main benefits.
Space exploration has led to scientists from all over sharing information from their
research to learn more about outer space and its relation to our life here. One of the
major reasons we explore space is to be prepared from deadly threats that can wipe
out humanity. Some of these threats are hostile extraterrestrial life, comets and
asteroids coming our way, or even the loss of all our fossil fuels.

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