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Interact Rotary Club Bozeman High School. Loren W. Acton Montana State University January 20, 2011. We humans are motivated to dream, to explore, to discover, to learn. "Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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Interact Rotary Club Bozeman High School Loren W. Acton Montana State University January 20, 2011
We humans are motivated to dream, to explore, to discover, to learn. "Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” -- Robert H. Goddard
Dr. Robert H. Goddard 1882-1945
The beginning of space exploration First view of Earth from a camera on V-2 #13, launched October 24, 1946. White Sands Missile Range/Applied Physics Laboratory
Buzz Aldrin setting out scientific instruments on Apollo 11.
Did Galileoget it right?-Dave Scott, experimenter Apollo 15 Painting by Al Bean, Apollo 12
Apollo 16 Rover Grand Prix Apollo 17 Rock hounds Apollo 17 Oops! Apollo 17 “Dad gummit!”
* *July 29, 1985. Second launch attempt.
Wonders of Robotic Space Exploration • “Humans in space” have generated a grand public interest and excitement. Yet, it is robotic space explorations that have paid the biggest dividends of remarkable new knowledge and useful applications. E.g., • Solar physics and space weather. • Planetary exploration. • Astronomy and astrophysics. • Earth remote sensing, climate and weather. • Global Positioning System. • Communication and broadcasting. • Military intelligence. • Today we’ll touch on only a few exciting experiments.
The GOES-13 satellite captured a "full-disk image" of North and South America on December 30 at 09:45 EST, as the world awaited the new year. Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project
A Robot's Shadow on Asteroid ItokawaHayabusa, a mission of ISAS/JAXA, Japan Image of Itokawa taken by Hayabusa.
Sample return from Asteroid Itokawa. December 2010. ISAS/JAXA Hayabusa Mission. Hayabusa capsule in Woomera, Australia, desert.
Snowstorm Engulfs Comet Hartley 2 Comet Hartley 2, photographed on Oct. 13, 2010 by Nick Howes using the 2-meter Faulkes North Telescope in Hawaii. Observed by NASA Deep Impact (extended) mission on November 4, 2010.
Source of the Hartley 2 snow storm. 2 km CO2 jet
Solar Dynamics ObservatoryBlue: 0.8 MK, Green: 1.3 MK, Red: 2.0 MKJanuary 2011
Big (M5.4) x-ray flare.6 Nov. 2010 15:36 NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
A coronal mass ejection (CME) observed by STEREO on Dec. 12, 2008
NASA Stereo observations of the coronal mass ejection of 1 Aug 2010. Bottom: Sun and its immediate surroundings (north at the top). Top: Views past the Earth and beyond.
Cartoon of a Coronal Mass Ejection and its Impact on the Earth’s Magnetosphere http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/outreach/cmeposter/movies
Magnetic storm – 10 January 1997 Space Plasma Physics Group & Advanced Visualization Lab., Univ. of Maryland http://www.spp.astro.umd.edu/mhd/jan_cloud.htm
This image goes back about 13/14 ths of the time to the big bang.
Images taken from: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_tests_cmb.html Discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background, 1965Nobel Prize, 1978.
Image taken from: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_tests_cmb.html Variation from place to place on the sky is as much as about ± 0.004ºK.
Credit: The Internet Encyclopedia of Science Cosmic Background Explorer - 1992 Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe - 2001 CMB Temperature range = .0005K!
Diagram taken from: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_tests_cmb.html
The CMB bottom line. • Velocity of our solar system through the universe equals 368 km/sec. • Age of the universe is 13.75 billion years (since the big bang). • The universe is made up of: 4% ordinary matter 23% dark matter 73% dark energy Oh, the adventure and wonder of space exploration!