Scale the Universe Exploring your Universe from Inner to Outer Space Presented by: Fill in your name here

The NASA Educator Ambassador Program at SSU You should modify this slide to fit you Swift GLAST XMM-Newton

What is GLAST? GLAST: Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope Planned for launch in 2007 GLAST has two instruments: –Large Area Telescope (LAT) –GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM) GLAST will look at many different objects within the energy range of 10keV to 300GeV. LAT GBM

What is GLAST? 1 st ever collaboration between the BIG (Astrophysics) and the small (Particle Physicists) –NASA & DOE By studying the largest most energetic things in the Universe (GRB’s), answers to the smallest subatomic particle/energy relationships are hoped for. LAT GBM

What is GLAST? 1 st ever pair conversion telescope –Gamma rays are produced in the annihilation of electron- positron pairs as dictated by relativity. –The GBM operated on a backwards principle; Turns gamma rays into electron- positron pairs that CAN be traced. LAT GBM

EM Spectrum Seven volunteers –Place the EM Spectrum stickers in order from smallest to largest wavelength –Review order and include specific sizes.

Smallest to Largest Name the smallest things that you can think of… What are some of the largest things you can think of? What about the most distant object?

Distance Tabs On your desk there should be one or more pieces of paper with masking tape on them. In groups - place these in order on the using left to right as small to large –Small on left, large on right

Distance Tabs As with the EM Spectrum stickers... –One group places their list on the wall by the EM stickers. –Report and record –Each group reviews and edits –Another group edits the 1 st group’s order –Discussion & review

Well Known Objects… What was the most interesting thing that you found while lining up the distance tabs? Going back to our original list of small and large objects… –Is there anything on this list that wasn’t mentioned in the tabs?

Well Known Objects… Now, volunteer combines the EM stickers with the Ordering Distance stickers by placing each EM in the appropriate place. Any surprises?

Ordering Distance Objects “Average Virus” 7.5x10 -8 m

Ordering Distance Objects Width of DNA Helix 2x10 -9 m

Ordering Distance Objects Height of “Average” Human 1.7x10 0 m

Ordering Distance Objects Mount Everest ( 8.85x10 3 m

Ordering Distance Objects Moon Radius ( images/d4/moon.jpg) 1.74x10 6 m

Ordering Distance Objects Moon’s Orbital Radius & Sun 3.84x10 8 m

Ordering Distance Objects Earth Orbital Radius 1.5x10 11 m

Ordering Distance Objects Pluto Orbital Radius 5.9x10 12 m

Ordering Distance Objects HD70642 (APOD 07/09/03) 9.4x10 17 m

Ordering Distance Objects Crab Pulsar 7x10 19 m

Ordering Distance Objects Radius Milky Way (APOD 09/08/95) 5x10 20 m

Ordering Distance Objects LCM – Large Magellanic Cloud (APOD 02/22/00) 1.8x10 21 m

Ordering Distance Objects Andromeda (APOD 03/14/04) 2.9x10 22 m

Ordering Distance Objects AGN 3C 273 7x10 25 m

Ordering Distance Objects GRB (APOD 01/29/99) 1x10 26 m

Earth and Moon System At your desk there should be precut moon rulers. Assemble them with the tape located on the tables. Using the moon rulers answer the questions on the two activity sheets. NOTE: For the second activity substitute the moon ball (golf ball) for the paper plate.

The Universe is a VERY Big Place At least 13 billion light-years (or about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers) It is full of VERY big numbers! And small!

Scientific Notation and tens = 1x = 1x = 1x = 1x = 1x = 1x = 1x = 1x = 1x 10 -4

How this works:

The Booklet This book is organized into 3-stand-alone sections: –A: A1: Orders of Magnitude A2: Unit Analysis –B: B1: Ordering Distance – Sticky (what we just did!) and Cutout B2: Using a Log Scale –C: C1: Scale the Universe (1) C2: Scale the Universe (2) C3: Scale the Universe (3) C4: Proportional Thinking C5: Ordering Time (Next, time permitting!)

The Booklet Repeat the steps of the “Ordering Distance” activity –Place in order from short to long duration –One group reports –Discuss and review

Brainstorm Time How can we use this in our science classroom? –Biology Lessons –Astronomy Lessons –Physics Lessons –Introductions and applications of scientific notation –….

Resources GLAST Education and Public Mission Website – Downloadable materials for this book (AND MORE): – More Great materials from TOPS: –