Week of February 11th

The picture above is an image of an asteroid  (space rocks baseball-sized or larger),  streaking past the Earth -  taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998.  Many tons of space dust,(meteoroids), hit the Earth's atmosphere each day; baseball-sized space rocks burn up in the atmosphere each day - they look like the blue-streak pictured above - we call them meteors.  Every 1,000 years a space rock, about 100 km across, hits the Earth causing huge global consequences - we call these meteorites.  Every 1 million years or so, a space rock hits the Earth that seems to change everything!

 

 Our Week

Monday:  1.  Check/discuss Telescope Project reviews 2.  Finish Orion Act. together 3.  Video: "Stopping Armageddon" - video notes' sheet due Tuesday

Tuesday:  1.  Finish video - if needed  2.  "Tennis-Ball Derby" - data sheet checked Wed.

Have a look at some of the craters left behind by large meteorites that have hit the Earth! 

Terrestrial Meteorite Craters Database 

Wednesday:  1.  Finish Tennis Ball Derby - discuss findings  

2. Read/go over    p. 13-14 and p. 18-20 in PBIS Astro.  3.  Work on Crater Lab Design - due Friday (tentatively)

Thursday:  Crater Lab

Friday:  Crater Lab 

Questions of the Week

Pictured above is a picture of a meteor shower from 100 years ago!  Hasn't technology come a long way!  What constellation do you see in the top left???  

Saturn's small moon Mimas with a huge crater! 

Asteroid Vesta - one of the largest space rocks - located in the Asteroid Belt - between the planets of Mars and Jupiter.  What has happened to Vesta as it as been floating around the Sun?

Pictured above is technology called a Gravitational Tractor - this is a proposed idea for redirecting an asteroid that may be heading for the Earth to shake us up a little too much.  How do you think this would work?

 Where is the best place to look for meteorites?