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 From the
Hubble Space Telescope
Teacher's Guide
Activity 1B: Painting Planets
Objective 
 
Students will research and construct accurately-scaled models of the
planets, reflecting each planet's currently-known physical characteristics
and appearance.
Ask your students to close their eyes. Have several students describe
the planets of our solar system. Challenge them to recall as much detail
as possible. Ask other students to describe the sizes of the various planets
relative to each other.
 /
Explain that you are going to explore our solar system by creating visually-accurate
scale models of all the planets, depicting currently known features. Materials
- appropriately-sized spheres or balls, obtained from craft stores,
art supply houses or other sources (hint: with the Coach's permission,
search the gym for punctured sports equipment of the right relative
dimensions: see chart)
- paints (and brushes) or other coloring tools (one teacher suggests
covering the balls with masking tape, then using colored markers rather
than paint)
- sheets of clear plastic, paper plates or sheets of stiff cardboard
(to serve as planetary rings for the 4 planets that have rings)
- ruler or measuring tape, paper, marking pens
Procedure Divide the class into teams of 2-3 students, and have
each team choose a planet to create. Copy and distribute Table 1B-1 as
a reference for the actual sizes of the planets and to corresponding sizes
(in inches or cm). Help students determine the relative size of their
planet so that everyone is working on the same scale. If they are going
to show the ring systems, supply Table 1B-2. Once students agree on the
planets' sizes, assign each team the task of acquiring an object of the
right dimension.
Have students research the appearance of each of the planets using books,
magazines, CD-ROMs, Internet pages or other sources (see Resources for
suggestions.) Challenge students to identify the most important surface
or atmospheric characteristics of each planet, and to think about ways
in which these features can be represented on their models. As they research
their planet, have them list its special characteristics, as an Artist's
Think Pad, recording its color or colors, surface or atmospheric features,
whether it has rings and, if so, whether they are light or dark? Have
students use this as a guide to decide what coloring or painting techniques
they'll need to use to create their model. How will they construct and
assemble the giant planets' ring systems? (Remember Neptune's strange
ring arcs: for more, see LHST Program 1.) If you're not sure about colors
and textures, consult with an art teacher or art supply store.
Consider whether larger planets need more student artists and let the
painting begin. When all the models have been painted, discuss where they
can be displayed: the ceiling of the classroom, a school hallway or the
auditorium. A special assembly, with students reporting on the completed
Live from the Hubble Space Telescope project could be scheduled.
Have students make a sign for each planet listing its name, size and other
key data (see Activity 1C).
If you want to add the Sun to your solar system model, how big a ball
would you use? (The Sun is 865,000 miles [1,392,000 kilometers] in diameter,
about 109 times the diameter of Earth.) Have students research whether
there's a ball or sphere around your school that's large enough. Could
they paint a picture of the Sun this large to go with their planets? How
big would it be? Where would you place it?
As a math activity, using ratios and proportions, have older students
calculate the planets' relative sizes, defining Jupiter (instead of Earth,
as in the table below) as 1 inch, and all other planets scaled accordingly.
If resources permit, (and the drama department or tech crew has some
stage lighting to loan!) students may wish to light their planet models
dramatically in a darkened room and video tape "close encounters" with
their planet, as if their video camera were a spacecraft like the twin
Voyagers, or Galileo, slowly flying past. (See LHST Program 1, "The Great
Planet Debate" for JPL's great computer graphics representations of the
Voyagers' encounters with Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. Remember Galileo
will be orbiting Jupiter and its moons for the next 2 years.) Students
may later wish to edit these sequences into a multimedia presentation
as described in Activity 4B, p. 39.
As another math expansion, challenge students to calculate how far apart
the planets would have to be from each other given the size scale of the
planets that they adopted. Use the table of distances provided in Activity
1C, p. 16 Whether you use that Activity or not, they'll soon see that
our solar system is a very large and empty place!
At the conclusion of Live from the Hubble Space Telescope, have students
revisit their models of the planets we'll be studying (Neptune, Pluto
and Jupiter) and see what "new" information they now have. As a writing
activity, how would they update the textbooks or other sources they consulted?
Perhaps you might even submit their reports to your text publisher as
input for their next revision! (see also Activites 4B and 4C pp. 39-40)
Have students keep a journal as they create their model. What did they
do, and discover, each day? What were the easiest, most fun parts of the
project? What parts were more difficult or challenging? If another class
were going to do this same project next year, what pointers would they
give them? Consider keeping a photo-journal or video diary of their progress.
Taking a picture of their model each day would provide a timelapse record
of how it gradually changed into a planet. Paste such pictures into their
journal entries for each day: think how in years to come, you'll also
be able to paste video into your students' Web pages!
Dr. Marc Buie on Pluto
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ,
In 1988, Pluto passed perihelion, which is the point at which it's closest
to the Sun, and it's going to begin its 125 year voyage to its most distant
place in its orbit. And over this time Pluto is going to receive less
and less sunlight, and cool off, so we now have an opportunity to study
Pluto when it is at its warmest. If we don't take the opportunity now
to make these observations we'll have to wait another 240 years to repeat
the experiment. Pluto is sort of the last "astronomers' planet." We haven't
yet had a close-up view with a spacecraft. We have an opportunity here
to see the development of a science and a knowledge-base about Pluto in
our lifetimes. And certainly the past ten years have been exciting, watching
what we learned about Pluto. I am certain we are going to learn a great
deal more, but this is sort of the special epoch in human history where
we are learning for the first time what this planet is all about.
Prof Heidi Hammel, on Neptune
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
What I like best about the planet Neptune is that every time you look
at it, it's different. So Neptune can be your planetÉNo one else will
have seen the clouds that you see and they'll probably never be seen again.
And so that means that the pictures of Neptune your students take will
be absolutely unique...
One of the biggest surprises when the Voyager spacecraft flew by Neptune
was a huge dark spot on the planet. We called it the "Great Dark Spot."
We weren't able to see it from Earth because Neptune is the most distant
planet from us right now. When we looked with the Hubble Space Telescope
last year that Great Dark Spot was gone! It had simply disappeared, it
wasn't there anymore, which was a big surprise but when we looked very,
very carefully, we saw a different big, dark spot on the planet, in the
northern part of the planet- the other one was in the South-so that means
Neptune's atmosphere just turned upside down!
When we look at Neptune this time we don't know what we are going to
see. There might be a whole, new dark spot and that dark spot would belong
to this (PTK) group. They would have discovered it!
Activity 1C: The Great Student Solar System Model
Objective
Students will demonstrate the ability to convert distance data into
a large-scale model of the solar system (using the "Astronomical Unit" as
a yardstick) with students representing the planets.
Ask students to describe how the previous activity helped them understand
the relative sizes of the planets. Tell them they haven't seen anything
yet. Now they are going to calculate and show just how far apart they
are.
Materials
- 10 white poster boards (Approximately 2 x 3 feet in size)
- thick black marking pen
- piece of brightly colored yarn, rope (corresponding to the length
of your "A.U." (see below).
/
Tell students that they are going to measure distances to the various planets,
and that some of them will "become" the planets, in an accurately-scaled
representation of their correct distance from the Sun. Pass out copies of
Table 1C, but cover the numbers in the last column before making copies.
Point out the distances in miles or kilometers: ask them if they have their
walking shoes ready!
Procedure Explain that to build this model, the class will have
to scale down the distances involved, to numbers that can be dealt with
easily. Look at Table 1C with them. Point out that if we try to deal with
distances to planets in either miles and kilometers, we have to work with
huge numbers. (Ask them if we could talk about distances to major cities
around the world in inches? Ask them why we don't.) With this in mind,
introduce them to a useful new unit of distance, the Astronomical Unit,
which is the distance of the Earth from the Sun, just under 93 million
miles or 150 million kilometers. This will become our new "yardstick."
As a math exercise, have them calculate the distances from the Sun to
all the planets in A.U.s, and then confirm their answers with the right-hand
column of numbers in the table. Next, have them calculate the distance
in A.U.s of each planet from its neighbor. Point out that now, when representing
the solar system, instead of dealing with numbers in the hundreds of millions,
we only have to worry about numbers up to about 40, at most.
Brainstorm where the class will create its Great Student Solar System.
(Hint: Pick a space long enough to be impressive, and fun like a playground
or athletic field.) Next, choose a reasonable length for the A.U. in your
model. (Hint: Pre-measure the total length of the area likely to be selected
for the model and divide this length by 40. This will mean that if the
Sun is at one end of the space, Pluto will just neatly fit at the other,
with all the other planets spaced out [sic] in between.)
Let students choose to be the different planets and the Sun. If you
are preparing this Activity one day and making the model the next, suggest
that they wear clothing appropriately-colored for their celestial object.
(Mars is a nice, fashionable, rust-color, but Jupiter might require something
tie-dyed.)
Discuss having more than one student be each planet, with the number
of students indicating the relative size of the planet (see Activity 1B)
Have students make posters with the names of their celestial object in
large letters, with a picture, created by them, or found in a magazine
(being sure only to use ones that are ok to cannibalize!)
To construct your model, go to the designated place with students, posters,
and the piece of brightly-colored yarn cut to the length of A.U. chosen
for your model. Start at the Sun and place that student in position. Select
two or three students as Official Solar System Measurers (OSSMs). With
A.U. yarn in hand, have them measure off the correct distance to each
planet, using the numbers they have calculated. As the OSSMs reach the
right position for each planet, have the student who will represent that
planet take their place until the whole solar system is complete. Then,
take a few pictures of your Great Human Solar System Model and return
to class for discussion. (Live from the Stratosphere, Program 5, contains
a similar Activity, presented by HST Guide author Bill Gutsch, done live
on-camera at NASA Ames in an aircraft hangar: it might help to review
that tape if you have it.)
See also Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot for a discussion of how when
Voyager left our solar system, beyond the orbit of Neptune, it turned
to take a farewell snapshot which emphasized just how small our Earth
was against the huge dimensions of our solar system: think about doing
something rather similar, looking out from the Sun to distant Pluto, and
vice versa.
When the students reassemble, discuss what they discovered about how
the planets were spaced. Most will probably be surprised to see how relatively
close together the first four planets are, crowded around the Sun. Beyond
Mars, however, the planets are vastly spread out.
Ask the students who represented each planet to work with a small team
of other students to figure out how large each of their planets would
be, if the actual solar system were really as small as the model you just
created. Use Table 1B-1, and help them make scale cross-references as
necessary. As follow-up to Activity 1B, ask them to figure out the distance
their planet would be from the Sun if you used planets of that size in
your model. As a math and social studies activity, using local maps, have
them figure out where in your community their models would need to be,
if they used this larger scale, and the planets were properly distanced
from your school, which would represent the Sun. See if, as a "Science
Expo," project wrap-up, or year-end activity, you could distribute planet
models made by the students around your town, at the right distances in
public buildings for everyone to see. Invite the press, district administration,
and parents to see math, astronomy, science and art in cooperative action!
"Moving Targets"
The position of any object on Earth can be plotted on a map using that object's
unique longitude and latitude. In the same way, celestial objects can be
plotted on maps of the sky using a similar set of coordinates. Declination
(Dec.) takes the place of latitude and is measured in degrees and minutes
of arc north (+) or south (-) of a line in the sky called the "celestial
equator," which lies directly above the equator on Earth. Astronomers use
Right Ascension (R.A.) in place of longitude. Just as longitude is measured
from a line on Earth called the prime meridian, so Right Ascension is measured
from a line that passes through a point in the sky called the "vernal equinox."
Right Ascension keeps track of how the sky overhead rotates over time during
the day and night, and so Right Ascension is measured in units of time (hours
and minutes). The Right Ascension and Declination of stars don't change
significantly on the time scales we need to worry about for contemporary
astronomy. But the planets are all moving around the Sun at different speeds
in different orbits so their Right Ascensions and Declinations are always
changing along with that of the Sun (since the Earth, too, is moving). It's
important for HST mission planners to keep track of the ever-changing positions
of the Sun and planets in planning observing times for astronomers because
for safety reasons, the HST is usually not pointed within about 45 degrees
of the Sun (although sometimes with the Earth acting as a kind of shield,
it can - with great care - be pointed closer). In Activity 2C, students
will act as Mission Planners for the HST. They'll be asked to plot the position
of the planets and the Sun, for a series of dates, and to determine which
planets are safe to view on those dates, and which will appear too close
to the Sun to observe safely.
The Gallery of the Sky
What is this gallery of the sky?
Images placed there by the gods,
like a pattern,
A pattern of diamonds spread
on a table,
A pattern of pins stuck in black cloth,
Memories,
Memories of forgotten heroes,
Memories of forgotten times,
An art book of love,
that soothes the soul,
An art book of hope,
to help us through it all.
A gallery,
A gallery of everything and
nothing at all
Emily Bernstein, Summit Middle School
"Un"-Formated version of the Tables in this section.
"Netscape Formated" versions of the Tables in this section.
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