Astronomy for Teachers, 2nd session: 13 November 2006
Announcements
Storm found on Saturn!
Today's APOD
talked about a newly discovered storm that covers the entire south pole of
Saturn! More
information about the storm as well as a
movie
of the storm's rotation. Also, the Cassini/Huygens mission may have
discovered
one of the processes that fills Saturn's rings with particles.
Pluto
Definitions can be important to help us classify understand groups of
objects. The definition does not change the object itself, just how we view
it.
The Earth Moon Sun system
A copy of the Earth Moon Sun exploration
lab is available as a PDF. Please let me know if you try it, or a
variation, with your kids.
- The Lunation
movie from the Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can see the size
change, the phases as well as the slight wobble (libration). Neat
stuff!
- Some images
of the moon from the Clementine spacecraft, including
albedo
(brightness), and
topographic (altitude)
information. Notice how different the "far-side" of the moon looks
from the "near-side" -- it has experienced many more recent impacts,
because it is not shielded by Earth!
