Stars & Space Exploration

1. Stars & Space Exploration Two Pathfinder Honors

2. Answer the Following Questions What is the earth's nearest celestial neighbor? What is its distance from the earth? The Earth's nearest celestial neighbor is the Moon, which has an average distance from the Earth of about 240,000 miles (386,000 kilometers).

3. Answer the Following Questions • What governs the tides? The tides are governed by the Moon, and to a lesser extent, by the Sun.

4. Answer the Following Questions • What causes an eclipse? An eclipse is caused when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in a direct line with one another. When the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, we see a lunar eclipse, which is the Earth's shadow falling on the moon. When the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth, we see a solar eclipse, which is when the Moon's shadow falls on the Earth (blocking the Sun).

5. Answer the Following Questions What is a shooting star? A shooting star is not a star at all, but rather a meteor. A meteor is any celestial body (usually quite small) that falls to the Earth. Most burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the surface, leaving a bright, short-lived streak in the sky.

6. Draw a diagram of our solar system and be able to name the planets in order.

7. How fast does light travel? How far does light travel in a year? Light travels at 186,000 miles per second (not miles per hour), which is 300,000 kilometers per second. In one year, light will travel 5.88 trillion miles (9.4 quadrillion km). This distance is also called a light-year.

8. What is the difference between planets and fixed stars? Identify in the sky eight fixed stars. • The word planet means wanderer because the planets appear to wander about the sky relative to the stars. The stars do not move in relation to one another (although they all appear to move together because of the Earth's rotation on its axis).

9. Polaris

10. Capella

11. Acturus

12. Mintaka

13. Alshain

14. Bellatrix

15. Betelgeuse pronounced “Beatlejuice”

16. Coxa

17. What is a constellation? Name and point out six. Name two constellations visible throughout the year. • A constellation is any one of the 88 areas into which the sky - or the celestial sphere - is divided. The term is also often used less formally to denote a group of stars visibly related to each other in a particular configuration or pattern.

18. Ursa Major - better known as the Big Dipper.

19. Ursa Minor-better known as the Little Dipper

20. Cassiopeia It is on the opposite side of Polaris from the Big Dipper. VISIBLE ALL YEAR

21. Boötes

22. Cygnus, Altair, and LyraThese are summer constellations. The brightest stars make up the Summer Triangle.

23. Northern Hemisphere: (VISIBLE ALL YEAR) Ursa Minor Ursa Major Draco Cepheus Southern Hemisphere: Octans Mensa Hydrus Chameleon Volans Pavo Musca

24. Draw the following constellations:

25. Big Dipper, North Star, & Cassiopeia

26. Scorpio Southern Cross Orion

27. What is the Milky Way? A large gathering of stars and bodies making up one of many galaxies. The portion visible in the night sky of Earth is only a single dimensional or flat view of the galaxy as our solar system is part of the same galaxy we have lack for a broader perspective.

28. The Milky Way Galaxy

29. What is the morning star and evening star? Why does it carry both names? This is not a star at all but the Planet Venus and draws in part its modern status as the Morning Star and Evening Star from mythology. Venus never appears on the opposite horizon from the sun due to its relative location to the sun and Earth. Mercury too fits this profile but is rarely actually visible.

30. The Morning & Evening Star

31. Explain zenith and nadir. Zenith is the point in space directly overhead. If you extend a line from the zenith to the point on Earth upon which you are standing, and continue that line through the Earth and out the other side, it would point to the nadir. In other words, the line connecting the zenith and nadir passes through the point on Earth where you're standing and also passes through the center of the Earth and out the other side.

32. What is the aurora borealis? What causes it? An Aurora is a beautiful natural phenomenon that often occurs in the polar regions of Earth. The immediate causes of aurora are precipitating energetic particles. These particles are electrons and protons that are energized in the near geospace environment. This energization process draws its energy from the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the solar wind.

33. Aurora Borealis

34. Discuss the statement made by Ellen G. White in Early Writings, page 41, concerning the opening in Orion. “December 16, 1848, the Lord gave me a view of the shaking of the powers of the heavens. I saw that when the Lord said "heaven," in giving the signs recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, He meant heaven, and when He said "earth" He meant earth. The powers of heaven are the sun, moon, and stars. They rule in the heavens. The powers of earth are those that rule on the earth. The powers of heaven will be shaken at the voice of God. Then the sun, moon, and stars will be moved out of their places. They will not pass away, but be shaken by the voice of God.Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed against each other. The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God. The Holy City will come down through that open space. I saw that the powers of earth are now being shaken and that events come in order. War, and rumors of war, sword, famine, and pestilence are first to shake the powers of earth, then the voice of God will shake the sun, moon, and stars, and this earth also. I saw that the shaking of the powers in Europe is not, as some teach, the shaking of the powers of heaven, but it is the shaking of the angry nations.” – Passages from Ellen G. White Early writings, page 41

35. Know and discuss who each of these people were and their contribution to space exploration:

36. was an Americanprofessor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueledrocket,[1][2] which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926. Goddard and his team launched 34 rockets[3] between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.62 miles) and speeds as high as 885 km/h (550 mph).[3][4] Goddard received little public support for his research during his lifetime. Though his work in the field was revolutionary, he was sometimes ridiculed in the press for his theories concerning spaceflight. As a result, he became protective of his privacy and his work..[ • Robert H. Goddard Years after his death, as manned spaceflight became popular, he came to be recognized as the father of modern rocketry

37. John Herschel Glenn, Jr. (born July 18, 1921) is a retired United States Marine Corps pilot, a former astronaut and United States senator who was the first American and third person to orbit the Earth. • John Glenn

38. born in Transylvania, Austria-Hungary, was a Romanian[2][3] and German physicist and engineer of Saxon ancestry, who along with the RussianKonstantin Tsiolkovsky and the AmericanRobert H. Goddard, was one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics. • Hermann Oberth

39. Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Sovietcosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. He received medals from around the world for his pioneering tour in space. • Yuri Gagarin

40. was a German-American rocket scientist, astronautics engineer and space architect, becoming one of the leading figures in the creation of rocket technology in Germany and the United States. He was a member of the Nazi party and a commissioned SS officer. Wernher von Braun was said to be the preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th century. • Wernher Von Braun

41. was an Italianphysicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy,"[6] the "father of modern physics,"[7] the "father of science,"[7] and "the Father of Modern Science."[8]Stephen Hawking says, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science."[ • Galileo Galilei

42. is an Americanaviator and a former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, universityprofessor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to set foot on theMoon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot, becoming one of the first U.S. civilians to fly in space • Neil Armstrong

43. is the first woman in space, now a retired Sovietcosmonaut. Out of more than four hundred applicants and then out of five finalists, she was selected to pilot Vostok 6 on 16th June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in space. This also made her the first civilian in space • Valentina Tereshkova

44. from Los Angeles, California, is an Americanphysicist and a former NASAastronaut. She studied at Portola Middle School, Westlake School for Girls, Swarthmore College and Stanford University, and earned a master's degree and PhD. Ride joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983, became the first American woman, and then-youngest American, to enter space. Sally K. Ride

45. was an American naval aviator and astronaut who became second person, and the first American, in space. Ten years later, he commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the moon. Alan Shepard

46. Explain what these acronyms stand for: NASA – National Aeronautical and Space Administration STS – Space Transportation SystemVAB – Vehicle Assembly BuildingEMU – Extravehicular Mobility UnitEVA – Extravehicular ActivityMMU – Manned Maneuvering Unit

47. Describe each of these space programs: • Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth. • Skylab was the United States' first space station, and the second space station visited by a human crew. • Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA. It had 10 manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966. Its objective was to develop techniques for advanced space travel and to land humans on the Moon. • Space Shuttle is the United States government's current mannedlaunch vehicle, carrying five to seven astronauts • Apollo program was an Americanspaceflight endeavor that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. • Apollo-Soyuz was the last Apollomission.

48. What was Sputnik? Sputnik was the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program. Sputnik helped to identify the upper atmospheric layer's density, through measuring the satellite's orbital changes. It also provided data on radio-signals.

49. The Apollo 8 astronauts were in lunar orbit on Christmas day, 1968. They each read from abook, and their readings were broadcasted back to Earth. What was the name of the book?

50. Quiz time To complete this honor, you must successfully take and pass this quiz.