Journey Through the Cosmos

Programação

• An overview of our cosmos!

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• Introduction

  Contributors:

  Sofya Fadeeva, Univ of Chicago Intern

  Bhumika Kalia, Univ of Chicago Intern

  Frances Dellutri, NSS Director of Education

  Summary: This lesson encourages teachers and students to come along on a perspective journey through the cosmos to consider our place in the universe.

  Goals of the Lesson:

  • Understand perspectives regarding the universe and locations within it.
    
  • Learn about greater “neighborhoods” in the universe.
    
  • Realize how small Earth is compared to the universe.
    
  • Learn about the evolution of the universe. 
    
    

  Age Level: Middle School, ages 11-14.
  
  

  NGSS: 
  Disciplinary Core Ideas
  
  

  • ESS1.A: The Universe and its Stars.
  • ESS1.B: Earth and the Solar System.
  • Cross-Cutting Concepts Scale, Proportion, and Quantity.
  • MS-ESS1-3

  
  

  CCSS - Common Core State ELA -Science and Technical Subjects: 

  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.2
  

  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.4; 8.5
  

  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.10
  

  
  

  
  

• Earth

          Our journey through the universe initially begins on Earth, which is our home planet. Earth is the third planet away from the Sun and the only one known to support life. It is affected by systems such as water, air, and land, all of which are constantly working together. Our planet has a diverse environment shaped by geological activity, atmospheric processes, and the presence of water. Its biosphere, or its ecosystem that is made up of living and nonliving organisms, interacts with the geosphere, otherwise known as the solid portions of Earth, as well as the hydrosphere ("hydro" as in water). These interactions are able to sustain complex ecosystems within the planet. Earth's rotation and revolution define the cycle of day and night.

         Because Earth is tilted and not just vertical, different parts of Earth receive different amounts of sunlight at different times of the year. This is what gives Earth its four seasons: Fall, winter, spring, and summer. For example, the Australian winter usually begins on the first of June, while the North American winter begins in the middle of December due to the continents being opposite to each other. 

  
  

  
  
  

   

         Another important factor that shapes life on Earth is gravity. Gravity is a force that helps us keep our feet on the ground and holds the atmosphere close to our planet. It is also the reason as to why Earth orbits around the Sun and why the Moon stays in orbit around Earth!

         

         Aside from shaping the planet, gravity plays a critical role in how objects interact across the entire universe. It keeps the planets in our solar system revolving around the Sun, causing objects in space to follow curved paths. Microgravity in space generally explains why astronauts feel "weightless" when they are visiting space!

  
  

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    Earth Fórum

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    Have you ever seen a photo of Earth from space? What did it make you think about? Do you think it appeared bigger or smaller than what you expected? (Short reflection).

    
    

    Please keep all entries respectful. Any response that does not have to do with the prompt will be deleted!

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    Gravity Sim. Cybrary link

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    Tutorial on Gravity Simulator

    Dive into using "The Solar System" preset:

    1. Browse the scenario list and select The Solar System on gravitysimulator.org.

    2. Open the GSim 101 instructions and select the instructions under “Using the Sim” https://testtubegames.com/gsim101/?p=controls

    3. Optionally, customize simulation elements: tweak masses, initial velocities, or add/remove planets.

    
    Example Controls

    • Change mass: Note that more mass = stronger pull (like a bigger magnet).
      

    • Set the velocity for the planet; Give your planet a little push so it can orbit instead of diving/crashing straight in.
      

    • Play/Pause: Start or stop time and observe what happens after each interval. 

    • Zoom & Drag: Move around the space and zoom in or out to observe the objects better.

    How does gravity play an important role in this simulator?

    Notice that every object pulls on every other one, therefore we have introduced gravity’s pull. Larger objects, such as stars, have a stronger gravitational pull. This pull gets weaker with distance, so the farther apart two objects are, the weaker their pull will be. This simulator also helps to set orbits in which pushing a planet to the right will make it go around the star. 

    Gravity is difficult to visualize because it is not a visible concept, but this simulator shows how objects move because of the force of gravity. Create your own system with your own Sun and planets!

    
    

    Discuss

• Earth, Zoomed Out

         As we zoom out into space, Earth becomes smaller and even looks like a small, fragile “blue marble" once we are out of our solar system. We notice that it orbits the Sun with the Moon nearby, giving the perspective of just one planet in our solar system. The goal of this exercise is to practice expressing large distances using powers of ten by visualizing and drawing spatial scales from Earth. Learn how to represent large distances in space while exploring the size of the universe.

  Instructions: 

  1. Draw boxes on your paper (comic-strip style possibly).     
     

  2. In each frame, zoom out from Earth by a factor of 10. You may start and continue at any power, as long as there is a significant difference between the distances (subsequential).
     

  3. Label each frame with the distance in meters and its scientific notation (powers of ten).
     

  4. Draw what would be visible at each scale (such as a person, a city, Earth, the solar system, etc.).
     

  5. Under each drawing, write a short label describing what can be seen at that scale.

  Refer to this well- know "Powers of Ten" Video (Full Screen is Available):                               

  
  

  Frame	Distance (m)	Powers of 10	What is seen from this perspective?
  1	1	10⁰	Human scale; A man lying on a picnic blanket in a park.
  2	10	10¹	Close-up view; The man, woman, and picnic setup are shown in a full view.
  3	100	10²	Small field; Surrounding park area, as well as more people.
  4	1,000	10³	Neighborhood/City blocks.
  6	100,000	10⁵	Region; Surrounding states and Lakes.
  8	10,000,000	10⁷	Earth itself
  11	10,000,000,000	10^10	Inner solar system (Orbit paths of Mercury, Venus, Earth)
  13	1,000,000,000,000	10^12	Outer solar system (Jupiter’s orbit and different planets).
  14	10,000,000,000,000	10^13	Solar neighborhood (Entire solar system is a dot).

   Students will provide a sketch of the visible objects/earth.

         As we continue to explore space beyond Earth, the numbers start to increase immensely. Instead of asking how many miles away something is, scientists and astronomers think about how far light (which travels incredibly fast) can move in a year. Distances between the many stars and galaxies are so enormous that using miles or kilometers becomes messy or difficult to understand. This introduces us to a new unit of measurement, similar to switching from inches to feet when the numbers get large: the light-year.
  

  What is a light-year? 

  https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/what-is-a-light-year/

  Key Ideas:

  • A light-year is a unit of distance, not time, in which it measures how far light travels in one year.

  • Light travels extremely fast (about 186,000 miles per second or 300,000 km/sec).

  • Light travels about 5.88 trillion miles (or 9.46 trillion kilometers) in one year. (A trillion is a million million, or 10^12.)

  • Astronomers use light-years in order to describe distances in space because regular units (like miles or kilometers) are too small for such huge scales.

  Example: If a galaxy is 2 million light-years away, we are seeing it as it was 2 million years ago.
  Light years help scientists study the history of the universe by observing distant objects.

  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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    Zooming out Activity for Grades 3-5 URL

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           Use the following link for a separate activity designed for younger students as a way to introduce perspective, scale, and scientific notation! Lesson: Take a Look From the Universe

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    Teacher's Key Arquivo

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    Example Comic Strip for Students Arquivo

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• The Solar System

  Now, we observe the Sun’s full neighborhood of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and dwarf planets like Pluto. Everything is held together by the Sun’s gravity. 

  An example of a possible PHeT simulator: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/my-solar-system       

  This simulator helps students add up to four bodies such as a star and planets to adjust their masses, positions, and speeds. It can help them visualize how these planets and stars move throughout space and the differences between them. Ask yourself questions like, “Why does a planet orbit in a circle?” and “What will happen if some planets have more mass than others?” Try to see what happens!

  • How does the distance from the star affect a planet’s speed or orbit shape?

  • What happens to smaller planets when they are close to a massive object?

         Further out from the solar system, we reach the Kuiper Belt, which is a large area filled with icy objects, dwarf planets such as Pluto, and frozen comets. This image is a top-down view of the solar system where the center illustrates the sun, which is surrounded by circular objects. The colored dots are spread out in a wide ring, specifically beyond Neptune, and these are known as the Kuiper Belt objects. 

  Legend: Lime green (Kuiper Belt Objects), Teal (planets such as Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn), Red (Sun), Orange (scattered disk objects), Magenta (Jupiter trojans), Yellow (Neptune trojans).

  Note: The numbers on the axes represent distances in astronomical units (AU). 1 AU is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun (approximately 149.6 million km). The axes are projections onto the plane of Earth's orbit, with ecliptic longitude zero pointing to the right along the positive x-axis. Image data compiled using the Minor Planet Center and Solar System Dynamics by Murray & Dermott.

  • What do you think the role of Neptune’s gravity is in shaping the structure of the Kuiper Belt and scattered disc?

  • How might the gravitational pull of the gas giants influence the orbits of smaller objects?

  • Why do some objects (like Pluto) have different orbits compared to planets even though they are in the same region?

  
  
  
                                                                                     

  
  
  

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    Kuiper Belt Quiz Questionário

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    What do you know about the Kuiper Belt? (Knowledge Check).

• Solar Interstellar Neighborhood

         Stars near the solar system, such as the Alpha Centauri, float in a region called the Local Bubble, where there are brown dwarfs and rogue planets around it. You can imagine this area like a bubble of gum or a soap bubble in space. Similar to how you blow a bubble and there is empty space inside, the Local Bubble is a large area in space consisting of less dense gas. This "bubble" refers to its origin long ago when supernovae (exploding stars) blasted away the gas around them in which they created a sort of hollow shell, or rather the shape of the cavity in the interstellar gas. Upon researching this bubble, scientists found not only stars, but also brown dwarfs (smaller and failed stars). The Local Bubble is not just local to us, but it is shaped like a fun bubble in space!

  
  

  
  
  
  

• James Webb Space Telescope (JWST):

         Webb launched this telescope on Dec. 25th 2021. Although it does not orbit around the Earth like the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST orbits the Sun approximately one million miles away from the Earth at something called the second Lagrange point (L2).
  
  
  
   The JWST full-scale model in Munich, Germany. Credit: EADS Astrium
  
  Images taken by JWST.
  

• Milky Way Galaxy

         Our galaxy is huge, spiral-shaped, and full of stars (around hundreds of billions). We live in a small section called the Orion Arm. The Milky Way has a central bar-shaped region with arms spiraling outward, which happens because of its:

  • Rotation: The galaxy spins and stars orbit the center (similar to how water spirals down a drain).   Galaxy Spiraling & Article - Short clip that simulates galaxy rotation and spiral arms to watch before the activity. This video describes the gravitational interaction between our Sun and the planets. This is important because it defines our unique solar system. Our solar system is a part of a galaxy, called the "Milky Way Galaxy." 

    
    

  • Gravity and Density Waves: Areas of higher gravity called spiral density waves move through the galaxy, which bunch up gas and stars into arms. 

    
    

  • Star Formation: New stars form in these spiral arms because of the high gas density there, making the arms appear brighter.

  
  
  "Spin the Spiral" (Paper & Motion Demo)   
  

    Materials:

  • Flat round paper plate or card-stock circle

  • Pencil and colored markers

  • Scissors

  • Pushpin

  Steps:

  1. Draw a Spiral: Have students draw a simple spiral galaxy pattern on the plate (central bar + arms). Use different colors for different star types or ages.
     

  2. Add Stars: Use stickers or dots to show star clusters in the arms.
     

  3. Spin & Observe: Pin the center of the plate to the pencil's eraser and gently spin the galaxy. Watch how the arms maintain their shape even as the whole system rotates.
     

  4. Discuss: 
     

  • Do stars stay in one place or move around?
    

  • What would happen if the arms weren’t there?
    

  • Why do you think stars are born more often in the arms?

  Distinct simulation visual: The evolution of a Milky Way-like galaxy's evolution over time: A younger galaxy that is forming early in its history, with emerging spiral structures beginning to take shape.

   

  video:

  - Visualizing galaxy evolution over time by showing and tracking dark matter filaments and the emerging spiral structure. 

  
  
  Note: In this video, the planets are rotating/orbiting using the left-hand rule, with the thumb pointing to the south, rather than using the right-hand rule. 
  
  Behavior of the Milky Way Galaxy:
  
  

  
  
  

• The Local Group

         As we zoom out from the solar system again, we would notice small clusters of galaxies such as the Local Group, which includes the Milky Way, Andromeda, and some tiny galaxies.

         The Local Group is like a neighborhood in space made up of over 50 galaxies that stay in close proximity because of gravity, similar to how magnets can pull things together. The two largest galaxies in this group are the Milky Way (our galaxy) and the Andromeda Galaxy, and scientists think they will slowly move toward each other and merge together in a few billion years! Smaller galaxies such as the Triangulum Galaxy and other dwarf galaxies, including the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, also make up the Local Group.

  
  

         The whole Local Group is about 10 million light-years wide and it is part of a larger collection of galaxies called the Virgo Supercluster.

• Virgo Supercluster & Laniakea Supercluster

        

  
  

        The Virgo Supercluster is similar to a giant city in space made up of many smaller galaxies, which includes the Local Group. At the center of this “city” is the Virgo Cluster, consisting of thousands of galaxies! The whole Virgo Supercluster is quite large, stretching over 100 million light-years. For a long time, scientists thought it was the greatest thing around Earth in space. It turns out, however, that not all of the galaxies in the supercluster are stuck together by gravity. Some of them are able to slowly move farther apart because the universe itself is expanding rapidly. 

         The Laniakea Supercluster, meaning “immense heaven” in Hawaiian, is a vast region of the universe that redefined our understanding of local large-scale structure. The Virgo Supercluster is just one part of the Laniakea Supercluster, a massive “cosmic region” pulling galaxies toward something called the Great Attractor. 

  
  
  

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    Local Group Article: URL

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• The Observable Universe: The Big Bang

        

       At this point, we have finally reached the biggest scale where all visible light is seen. It is 93 billion light-years wide, full of galaxies, dark matter, and the heart of the Big Bang. 

         About 13.8 billion years ago, the universe was compacted into a tiny, hot, and dense point. Suddenly, it began to expand exponentially, also known as the moment that we call the "Big Bang." Although it was not an explosion, like a sort of bomb, it can be explained as space stretching out and playing a critical role in expanding the universe. From the location of the "Big Bang" to the edge of the universe was 13.8 billion light years.

         Fermilab, located in Batavia, IL is America's particle physics and accelerator laboratory. Fermi look to answer the questions, "What are we made of?", "How did the universe begin?", "What secrets do the smallest, most elemental particles of matter hold, and how can they help us understand the intricacies of space and time?". Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln describes the scientific view on this topic. He covers what we know, what we think, and what we may forever never know. In this video, Dr. Lincoln explains the age and size of the universe. 

  
  

  
  

  In this video, Dr. Lincoln discusses what happened before the Big Bang. Take a look below:

   

          As the universe got larger, it also began to cool down and over the next millions of years,  particles came together to form atoms, stars, galaxies, planets, and even humans. Even in present time, the universe is constantly growing and expanding, which helps us understand that the Big Bang was ultimately the start of time and space in the universe, as we know today, and the universe continues to expand.

   

  
  

• The Cosmic Web

         As we continue our look into the universe, we notice that it is "woven" into something called the "cosmic web", otherwise known as a giant network of long, thread-like structures called filaments. This can be metaphorically compared to a spider web!

         These filaments are made of galaxies and dark matter stretched across space like strands of a web. When certain filaments intersect and cross each other, we find clusters of galaxies (there are huge and empty voids in between them). This structure did not form overnight, however. After the Big Bang, gravity slowly pulled matter together into these web-shaped patterns. Even though space might seem empty, the universe is actually organized into a massive “web” of these galaxies and filaments stretching for billions of light-years.

  Unraveling the Cosmic Web:
  

  
  
  
  

• Send a Postcard to Space!

  Send a Postcard to Space through NSS Supported Blue Origin Club For The Future initiative!

  Visit: SpacEdge Academy Postcards in Space Course