Paul Sutton

Space

James Webb Telescope Update from NASA 12/8/2021

The James Webb Space Telescope: Unfolding the Universe

I came across this while looking for potential STEM group resources, so am sharing.

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#NASA,#Space,'#JWST,#JamesWebb,#Telescope.#Briefing,#News, #Education,#UniverseOfLearning

PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY, AND SPACE: TEACHING SECONDARY SCIENCE

Just completed the above course with Future Learn. Hoping this will help me as a Teaching Assistant or Lab technician in a school.

Certificate physics and space course

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#Physics,#Astronomy,#Space,#Secondary,#Science,#Learning, #FutureLearn

The Importance of Small Objects: Exocomets

This is the August public lecture from the Space Telescope Science Institute

#Science,#Space,#stsci,#Telescope,#Astronomy

How to Hunt for Distant Worlds

Since the discovery of the first planet orbiting a Sun-like star in 1995, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been found. These widespread planetary systems confirm that our solar system is just one of many in our Milky Way galaxy. The discovery of such systems provided intriguing insights, challenging our perspectives about how planetary systems form and evolve. But how do astronomers search for these exoplanets and what can we find out about them? Join Dr. Rickman as she describes the scientific hunt for these distant worlds.

The lecture starts at about 13:30 minutes in after all the news updates.

Host: Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute Recorded live on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 More information: www.stsci.edu/public-lectures

Very interesting lecture, some of this has been talked about before however it is always good to listen to different explanations of the same topics. The upcoming JWST is hopefully going to open up a lot more discoveries.

The lecture makes reference to the discovery of the moons around Jupiter with the first telescope. Which really puts in to context how quickly things have moved on. First exoplanet was found in 1992, but only recently has the number found increased.

Links at the end to the zooniverse project, two of these projects are to do with searching for exo-planets so this gives citizens a chance to take part (and get cited) in real research.

#Space,#Science,#Telescope,#TheHuntForDistanceWorlds,#STSCI,#stsci

FutureLearn course

I am just starting “Astronomy and Space Physics: Teaching Secondary Science”. This is to help me gain more familiarity on what is taught in secondary school science. Hopefully I can find employment to support the curriculum in some capacity.

It is important to be 'pro-active' in this, gain new skills and show you are willing to learn, develop and research content.

I feel that I have a lot to offer, so hopefully I will be able to make a positive contribution one day.

REFERENCES

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#School,#Education,#UnitedKingdom,#Science,#Physics,#Space

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Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond : Writeup

6th April

Speaker: Christopher Wanjek Description: More than 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, why is there so little human presence in space? Will we ever reach Mars? What will it take to become a multi-planet species, colonizing the Solar System and travelling to other stars?

With details here

Write up.

This was another really interesting, thought provoking lecture presented by Christopher Wanjek

The lecture started at about 15:30 in to the video after Frank has given his introduction, details of upcoming lectures and also an update on space news.

So some of the items covered were the cost and difficulty of getting off Earth in to space, then on to the Moon, very expensive. However once there, we are not out of the woods, the lunar surface is bombarded with radiation, the moon dust itself is toxic, growing food would need to be undertaken under artificial light, due to the radiation.

As the temperature on the moon can fluctuate between -200 and +200 F then one course of action for establishing some sort of presence on the moon would be the poles, where the temperature is a “cold, but workable” -50c.

We can harvest ice to produce Water, which can also be converted in to Hydrogen and Oxygen,

Christopher also then looked at how we can develop science on the Moon, Geology, Biology.

A look at gravity and how much humans rely on Gravity and how this can perhaps be created artificially.

The European Space Agency are looking at sending pods to the moon, build something before we go, I think it was also suggested we need to cover any buildings with moon dust, in order to provide full shielding from radiation. This apparently needs to be about 1 meter thick layer. Bare in mind that the dust is like Asbestos. Getting around and some transportation systems were suggested.

We may need to live in caves as these would be a constant temperature and a shield against radiation.

Space tourism could potentially be a huge industry As We are unable to have children on the Moon (something to do with gravity) then building cities may not be practical.

So on to Mars

Firstly getting there is dangerous, we are potentially exposed to radiation over a long period of time, once there the surface is still bombarded with radiation and there are dust storms to contend with, However it was suggested we could live in caves

One way of protecting us from radiation is to use Boron Nitriade, as boron can absorb secondary particles .

Mars surface has toxic components, so we may have to grow food under LED lights.

So lots to think about, lots of challenges a head so a great time to discuss more, study science and help work on the solutions needed.

A lot more was discussed including design of space suits,

Thank you for reading, worth checking out the video and the book Spacefarers by Christopher.

You can find more upcoming (monthly) lectures below.

Updates:

#video,#astronomy,#space,#science,#stsci

Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond

6th April

Speaker: Christopher Wanjek Description: More than 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, why is there so little human presence in space? Will we ever reach Mars? What will it take to become a multi-planet species, colonizing the Solar System and traveling to other stars?

With details here

You can find more upcoming (monthly) lectures below.

http://www.stsci.edu/public-lectures

#video,#astronomy,#space,#science,#stsci

Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond

6th April

Speaker: Christopher Wanjek Description: More than 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, why is there so little human presence in space? Will we ever reach Mars? What will it take to become a multi-planet species, colonizing the Solar System and traveling to other stars?

With details here

You can find more upcoming (monthly) lectures below.

http://www.stsci.edu/public-lectures

#video,#astronomy,#space,#science,#stsci

The Hubble Space Telescope: From Cosmological Conflict to Alien Atmospheres

Write up : 7th March 2021

This is a really interesting talk and overview of what the HST has undertaken since launch in 1990.

Some highlights

  • Gravitational lensing, found galaxies magnified 50x and detection of galaxies 10x fainter.
  • Precision cosmology & Hubble Constant calculations via several methods
  • Exoplanet Atmospheres
  • Exoplanets e.g 57 Pegasi
  • Exoplanets found from transiting host star
  • Planetary Atmospheres plus detection of organic molecules
  • Earth size Exoplanets (Trappist 1b and 1c)

The talk also makes reference to academic papers, which can be easily searched for, so for example

With the last point in the list above, this paper was De Wit, et al 2016 Nature 537,69 – if you search for this you find arxiv 1006.01103 which is publication in the above journal 2016Natur 537

The 537 refers to the volume, and 69 is the first page of the article, in this case the article is on pages 69 to 72.

So using the references from the talk you can do further reading.

Well worth watching

Space Telescope Science Institute Public lectures The Hubble Space Telescope: From Cosmological Conflict to Alien Atmospheres Tue 2nd March 2021

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#space,#telescope,#astronomy,#lecture,#public,#online, #talk,#science

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