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Exploring Martian Rocks and Spectra: An Interactive Learning Experience

Dive into Mars and its mysteries! Join Mars Through Time on Day 2 for impact cratering activities and online labs. Discover the significance of spectra in identifying minerals, rocks, and compositions. Engage in hands-on experiments using the ALTA to analyze Mars rocks. Learn about martian mineralogy and discuss the scientific process. Unravel the secrets of Mars through interactive education.

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Exploring Martian Rocks and Spectra: An Interactive Learning Experience

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  1. Mars Through Time - Day 2

  2. Impact Cratering Activities • Crater Boxes • Online Impact Cratering Lab

  3. Observation or Inference?

  4. Mars Through Time • Blue Marble Matches with Paige Valderrama Graff from NASA Johnson Space Center

  5. LUNCH!! • Please move items on the KWL chart if you feel we have learned something this morning!

  6. Mars Mystery Rocks Credit: Ward’s Scientific

  7. Using Reflectance Spectrometry to Identify Compositions Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech/LANL Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech

  8. How Do We See Mars? • Our eyes, cameras, and mission instruments use the sunlight reflected off its surface.

  9. Spectra Are “Fingerprints” • Fingerprints can be used to identify individual people Credit: http://www.moillusions.com Credit: http://math-blog.com Credit: http://www.vetmed.vt.edu

  10. Spectra Are “Fingerprints” • Spectra are unique to elements and minerals • Used to identify minerals; rocks Credit: ChemCam/LANL/IRAP/CNES Credit: Univ. of Toronto

  11. Types of Spectra Credit: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/spectra2.gif

  12. Using the ALTA to take a Spectrum • These rocks are “Mars” rocks that you—like a rover on a mission—are analyzing. Your task it to determine their possible compositions, by comparing the Mars rocks’ spectra to known Earth rocks’ spectra. Credit: Ward’s Scientific

  13. Using the ALTA to take a Spectrum • These rocks are “Mars” rocks that you—like a rover on a mission—are analyzing. Your task it to determine its possible composition, by comparing the Mars rocks’ spectra to known Earth rocks’ spectra. • Buttons on front, LEDs & detector on the back • Push each button on the front and see what happens on the back

  14. Using the ALTA to take a Spectrum • What is the ALTA doing? • Light from diode strikes the surface of the sample • Light reflected off the sample enters the detector • Read-out on the front indicates how much of the light has been reflected (voltage) • Because each ALTA has its own sensitivities, the read-out should be compared to the reflectance of white paper

  15. Taking the Dark Voltage • What happens if you place the ALTA down flat and don’t turn on any of the lights? • You still have a number - ALTA’s photodetector and electronics don’t go to zero. This is your “Dark Voltage”

  16. Using the ALTA to take a Spectrum • Need a large flat surface if possible. • Try not to let outside light into the detector. • Work in groups of 4; one can hold the sample and ALTA, one can press the buttons, one to record the data, etc. • Begin with taking the data for two stacked pieces of white paper.

  17. Terrestrial Spectrum #1

  18. Terrestrial Spectrum #2

  19. Terrestrial Spectrum #3

  20. Terrestrial Spectrum #4

  21. Terrestrial Spectrum #5

  22. Terrestrial Spectrum #6

  23. Mars Through Time • Let’s take a break! • Next: Learn more about martian mineralogy with Dr. Liz Rampe from NASA Johnson Space Center.

  24. Is it Science? • Three-minute clip from Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” • Think to yourself: How is it science? How is it not science? • Write your thoughts on the hand-out

  25. Lava Layering

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