Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Neptune - Voyager 2


We've learned about space exploration of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

Next up is Neptune.

Neptune is the last planet in our Solar System.
We used to consider Pluto a planet, but it is so far away we've never reached it with a spacecraft.

Voyager 2 is the only space craft to visit Neptune.
It took 9 years to get to Uranus, and 12 years to get to Neptune in 1989!

When Voyager 2 made it to Neptune, it studied the atmosphere, rings and moons.
It discovered something called the Great Dark Spot, and many geysers on one of the moons called Triton.

It found four rings and six moons.


(from: wikipedia - neptune)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Black Hole

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Uranus - Voyager 2


We've learned about space exploration of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Next up is Uranus.

It is so far away that only one spacecraft has ever come close to it: Voyager 2.
On September 5, 1977 the Voyager spacecraft was launched into space.
Voyager 2 took 2 years to get to Jupiter, 4 years to get to Saturn, and then 9 years to get to Uranus!

When Voyager 2 made it to Uranus, it found 10 moons that we didn't know existed, studied the air and space around it, found two new rings around the planet, and took pictures of the moons and Uranus.


(from: wikipedia - voyager 2)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Star System

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Saturn - Cassini-Huygens


We've learned about the first space exploration missions to Saturn, Pioneer 11 and Voyager 1 & 2.

On October 15 1997, we launched the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.
After seven years it reached Saturn, and orbited the planet to take pictures of Saturn and it's moons like Titan.

We have learned a lot about Saturn from these pictures, including an interesting picture that showed a hexagon shape at the top of the planet.


(from: wikipedia - saturn's hexagon)

In 2004, the Cassini part of the spacecraft launched the Huygens probe to land on the moon Titan.
It landed on Titan and sent back some information about the surface along with some great pictures of things we've never been able to see before.


(from: wikipedia - huygens (spacecraft))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Galaxy

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Saturn - Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 & 2

We've learned about space exploration of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter.

Next up is Saturn!

On April 6, 1973 the Pioneer 11 spacecraft was launched into space. It took 6 years to get to Saturn. When it got there it flew very close and took pictures of the planet, the rings and moons.

On September 5, 1977 the Voyager spacecraft was launched into space. It took 3 years to get to Saturn and sent back very good pictures of the planet, it's rings and moons.
One of Saturn's moons called Titan is very interesting because it has air and water like earth.
The Voyager got very close to Titan, but the sky around it was cloudy so we could not take pictures.

On August 20, 1977 the Voyager 2 spacecraft was launched into space. It took 4 years to get to Saturn and sent back very good pictures of the rings, moon and planet.

On both of the Voyager spacecrafts was something called the Golden Record.
On one side of the record were pictures and the other side were sounds.
They hoped that if anyone ever found our spacecraft they would know that intelligent life was out in space.



(from: wikipedia - voyager golden record)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Planetary System

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Jupiter - Pioneer, Voyager, Ulysses, Cassini-Huygens, New Horizons


We've learned about space exploration of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Next up is Jupiter!

We launched many spacecrafts to go fly by Jupiter and take close pictures.
Pioneer 10 in 1972, Pioneer 11 in 1973.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were both launched in 1977.
Ulysses was launched in 1990.
Cassini-Huygens was launced in 1997.
New Horizons was launched in 1006.

All of the spacecraft took about 2 years to get to Jupiter, and most of them continued flying on to look at other planets.

voyager 1
(from: wikipedia - voyager 1)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Interstellar Cloud

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Mars - Pathfinder, Opportunity, Spirit & Curiosity


We just learned about the exploration of Mars with the Viking missions.

We've learned about the spacecrafts that flew near the planet Mars, and the ones that landed on the planet to take measurements.

The latest and best spacecrafts to visit Mars have been rovers.
These are types of spacecrafts that travel to the planet, then a small thing like a car drives around the planet studying it and sending information back to scientists on Earth.

The US has had some really good luck sending rovers to Mars!

1997 - Mars Pathfinder
2003 - Two rovers: Opportunity and Spirit
2012 - Curiosity

These rovers have really helped us learn about the planet Mars, the dirt and air and send back lots of great pictures!
curiosity rover
(from: wikipedia - curiosity (rover))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Black Dwarf

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Mars 2 - 6, Viking 1 & 2


We've learned about the space exploration of Mars and the spacecrafts that got near the planet.
There have also been space crafts that have landed on Mars and studied the planet.

The Russian space program had their Mars program:

Mars 2 was launched May 19, 1971, and crash landed on the planet.
Mars 3 was launched May 28, 1971, landed on the planet and sent back information for 14.5 seconds before it stopped working.
Mars 6 was launched August 5, 1973, and crash landed on the planet.

The US NASA space program had their Viking program:

The Viking 1 was launched August 20, 1975
The Viking 2 was launched September 9, 1975
Both of these spacecrafts had orbiters and landers. The orbiters circled the planet taking pictures, and then launched landers to the ground.
The landers then did scientific experiments on the ground to test the dirt and the air.

viking program
(from: wikipedia - viking program)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: White Dwarf

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Mars - Mars 1, Mariner 4, 6, 7 & 9


We've learned about the space exploration of Mercury and Venus, next up is Mars!

The first missions to explore Mars were to take pictures and science measurements as the spacecraft flew by the planet.

Russia was first in 1962 with the Mars 1.

The US sent the Mariner 4 in 1964, the Mariner 6 and 7 in 1969, and the Mariner 9 in 1971.
The Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to take pictures of the Mars moon Phobos.
mariner 9 launch
(from: wikipedia - mariner 9)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Red Giant

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Mercury - Mariner 10, Messenger


We just learned about the space travel to Venus on the space crafts Venera 7-16, Mariner 10, Pioneer Venus

We have sent space crafts to study Mercury through the years, but it's difficult because it is closer to the sun.

The first space craft that was sent up was Mariner 10 on November 2nd, 1973.
It was sent mostly just to fly by Mercury and study the sky and look at the land.

The next space craft was called Messenger, launched August 3rd, 2004.
The letters in the name stand for: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, Ranging.

It took almost 7 years for it to get to Mercury, and it orbited the planet for 2 years taking pictures.
It took close to 100,000 pictures of the whole planet!
mercury messenger
(from: wikipedia - messenger)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Yellow Dwarf

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Venus - Venera 7-16, Mariner 10, Pioneer Venus


We've learned that Venus space exploration started in 1962 with the Mariner 2 space craft that flew by the planet, and then after that the exploration continued closer into the planet's atmosphere with the Venera 3-6 and Mariner 5 space crafts.

The exploration continued on, as scientists tried to land space crafts on the surface, or get the space craft close enough to take pictures of the surface from outer space.

For 13 years, the Russian space program sent 10 different space crafts to study Venus.
Venera 7 - 14 all were landers that studied the surface after landing on the planet, and 15 - 16 studied the planet from space.

For 5 years the US NASA space program sent 3 space crafts to study Venus. Mariner 10 and did a fly by on its way to Mercury. Pioneer Venus Orbiter orbited around the planet to study from space. Pioneer Venus Multiprobe studied the atmosphere and also had some probes land on the surface to study it.
pioneer venus multiprobe
(from: wikipedia - pioneer venus multiprobe)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Venus - Venera 3-6, Mariner 5


After the Mariner 2 space craft got close to the planet Venus, scientists kept trying to get closer.

Starting in 1967, the Russians sent some spacecrafts to study the air around Venus (called the atmosphere).
The Venera 3 was first but it crashed on the planet and never sent back any information.
They sent 3 more spacecrafts, the Venera 4, Venera 5 and Venera 6.

The USA also sent the spacecraft Mariner 5 to Venus to study the sky.

mariner 5
(from: wikipedia - Mariner 5)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Luminosity Class

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Venus - Mariner 2


We've learned about the Space Exploration of the moon, all the way up to the Apollo 11 moon landing.

We've also sent space crafts up to study other planets.
The first one was in 1962, called the Mariner 2.

It was launched on August 27, and on December 14 it got as close as 22,000 miles from Venus.
mariner 2
(from: wikipedia - mariner 2)

That might not seem very close, but the Earth is about 25,000,000 miles from Venus, so it got a lot closer than we are!

The last time the space craft sent data back to us was on January 3, 1963, then it stopped working and has just been floating in space, orbiting around Venus for over 50 years.

The Mariner 2 was used to try and measure the temperature and collect other information in the air near the planet.

mariner 2
(from: wikipedia - mariner 2)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Star Absolute Magnitude

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Solar Flares


We just learned about Sunspots.

Solar flares are super bright flashes from big explosions on the sun.

If the solar flares are big enough, they can cause problems with some types of computers that try to tell the weather, or send signals across the world.

solar flare
(from: wikipedia - solar flare)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Stellar Classification

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Sunspots


Sometimes if you look at the sun with the right kind of telescope, you can see dark spots on the sun.

This is caused by the magnetic field around the sun causing problems on the photosphere.

It creates some cold spots no the sun.
The normal temperature of the photosphere is over 10,000 degrees F, and the temperature of the sunspots can get below 5,000 degrees F.

That's still way hotter than Earth, but the difference in temperature makes a dark spot on the sun, and we call that a sunspot.
sunspot
(from: wikipedia - sunspot)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Canopus

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Solar - Magnetic Field


The magnetic field of the sun is the area outside of the corona in space,
and it is so large that it stretches beyond earth all the way beyond pluto in our solar system.

The magnetic field is like a big cloud with winds that have an effect on all of our planets, and can even cause changes in the weather on earth.

The field swirls around in a circle, and can't be seen but scientists have tried to draw what it might look like.
solar magnetic field
(from: wikipedia - sun)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Betelgeuse

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Solar - Corona


We've learned about the Sun's core, radiation zone, convection zone and photosphere.
The area outside the surface of the sun is called the corona which comes from the word crown.

Even though the corona is outside the surface of the sun, it is even hotter than the surface!
The photosphere surface is about 10,000 degrees F, and the corona is over 5,000,000 degrees F.
corona
(from: wikipedia - corona)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Canis Major

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Solar - Photosphere


After the Sun's core, radiation zone and convection Zone comes the last part of the sun on the outside.

The photosphere is the outside shell of the sun, the part that we see that gives light to our planet from space.

The photosphere is super hot, at over 10,000 degrees F.

It is mostly made up of things called granules which are huge bubbles of plasma over 600 miles wide!

The granules rise up from the convection zone, then after about 8 minutes they cool off and go back down to a smaller size.
solar granules
(from: wikipedia - granule (solar physics))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sirius

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Solar - Convection Zone


After the Sun's core and the radiation zone comes the Convection Zone.

The convection zone is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium gases and plasma

When the stuff in the convection zone gets heated up from the radiation zone, it moves toward the outside of the sun.

The way that the cooler gases and plasma get heated and move away from the heat is called convection.
convection
(from: wikipedia - convection)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Planet Alpha Centauri Bb

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Solar - Radiation Zone


We've just learned about the solar core's energy, and how it's the source for the sun's light and heat.

The next part of the sun going out from the core is the radiation zone.

In this part of the sun, the energy is passed between atoms in particles called photons, over and over and it takes around 170,000 years to leave this zone!

When the sun's energy enters the radiation zone it is about 27 million degrees,
and when it leaves the zone it is about 3 thousand degrees.
solar radiation zone
(from: wikipedia - radiation zone)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Alpha Centauri

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Solar Core - Energy


Let's keep learning about the sun's solar core. We've learned about it's size, heat and density.

The heat that is made at the solar core is because of the energy the core makes using something called fusion.

Remember we learned that atoms are very very tiny things, smaller than the tiniest grain of sand. So small that we can't see them without special super microscopes.
And hydrogen is a type of gas, kind of like the oxygen we breathe.

When hydrogen atoms are smashed together really really hard and fast, fusion can happen, and the hydrogen turns into helium.
When that happens it releases a HUGE amount of energy.

Compared to an explosion from a stick of dynamite, it is over a quintillion times bigger!
A quintillion is a 1 with 18 zeroes after it: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000

That much energy from fusion is created every single second of every day,
and it's what creates the heat and light that keep the sun going.

Just think of it as a whole bunch of tiny little things making huge explosions every second
so that we can stay warm and have sunshine every day.
solar core energy
(from: wikipedia - fusion power)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Proxima Centauri