07.10.09

New Secondary School Shows beginning Spring 2010
 
Our shows are rooted in National Curriculum for Key Stages 3 and 4 (Science, History) and the Edexcel GCSE in Astronomy.   We view science as a spark that ignites pupils’ curiosity about observable phenomena in everyday life.  This curiosity will provide a lifelong sense of awe and wonder.
 
We encourage the safe exploration of science and encourage students to make positive contributions to their communities - perhaps by pursuing a career in science.
 
Our fully digital planetarium allows us to include scientific computer models (such as stellar formation, galaxy structure, planetary motion) that are not possible in a traditional “pin-hole” planetarium.  Although our shows contain the latest immersive visual effects, they are live, interactive and encourage questions from participants.
 
 
History of Science and Culture of Astronomy
 
Beginning with Ancient times we will explore how cultures throughout the world used stellar mythology to explain their observations of phenomena in the Universe and we will explore the scientific explanations behind these observations.
 
* Polynesian myth of “the anchor that pulls the sky” (observation of daily motion)
* Mayan myth of the “Jaguar god who takes souls to and from the underworld” (stellar navigation)
* Appearance and disappearance of Inkokua (Pleiades formation) help the Maasai predict the rain (using the stars as a seasonal calendar)
 
We will explore contributions that cultures have made to the scientific understanding of astronomy including the Egyptians, Arabs, Chinese, and Western culture including Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, and Herschel. 
 
Finally, we will explore the future of space exploration as a world-wide collaboration.   Students will understand that they are living in the most exciting time in the history of human understanding of the Universe and that they can play an important role in the understanding of the Universe for future generations.
 
 
ASTRO BIOLOGY- Life as we understand it, and as we don’t
 
Living things are interdependent with each other and their environments.  Environments on Earth are products of chemical and geological processes greatly influenced by our place in space.    Could life exist some place other than Earth?  Based on our understanding of life, what conditions would it need in order to survive?
 
We will compare various bodies within our solar system including Mars; Saturn’s hydro-carbon rich moon Titan; worlds with possible liquid oceans such as Enceladus; and Europa.    Students will begin to understand the scale of our solar system as we talk about how little we actually understand about our closest neighbours in space.   We will then explore the possibility of worlds around other stars, in our galaxy and in the Universe.  As part of our exploration, we will screen the immersive, full-dome Spitz film “Oasis in Space”.
 
Although we will discuss the possibility of other types of life in the universe, students will gain an understanding of the fragile and special nature of our little world and recognize the importance of sustainability in scientific and technological developments.
 
 
GRAVITY to the Max
 
The old concept of gravity is, “What goes up, must come down.”  However, in space, there is no “up.”  And, if an object gains enough velocity (on Earth’s surface this is 7 miles per second), it can escape the gravity of another object.  It doesn’t “come down”.
 
We explore gravity’s role in the formation of stars and solar systems.  Further, we explore how the crush of gravity within stars forms heavier elements out of lighter ones including Carbon, Iron and Oxygen - the actual atoms in our bodies - during supernova explosions. 
 
Then, we explore gravity to the max.  What happens when the mass and density of an object is so great that its escape velocity is more than the speed of light?  By viewing the immersive, full-dome Spitz film “Black Holes - The Other Side of Infinity” we will explore models of extreme gravity and how scientists are currently investigating this phenomena. 
 
 

01.09.09

Demonstrated Digitarium and a Digitalis Dome in September. We travelled to Poland to attend the 6th European Meeting of Small and Portable Planetaria between 1st and 4th September 2009 in M. Copernicus Planetarium and Observatory in Chorzow.

Solar Eclipse 01.08.08

In the UK a Partial Solar Eclipse was seen.

Click here for the video PartialSolarV

On 1st August the Moon past in front of the Sun as seen from Earth. If you were in parts of Russia, Mongolia and China at the right place and time, the passage completely blocked the Sun's light creating a Total Eclipse of the Sun.

The UK was limited to a Partial Eclipse where only a portion of the Sun's disc was obscured. See the video as it was also quite cloudy.

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The Science Dome has produced some real 3D images of the Phoenix Mars Lander. These are the first ever 3D pictures of the Mars terrain and are not available anywhere else. We completed them to celebrate the finding of water!

If you have 3D glasses please view these images from the Phoenix Mars Lander .     

Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."

The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.

"Mars is giving us some surprises," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil."

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2008 is the 50th year of operations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Nasa.

Nasa began operations on October 1 1958, launching the world’s first communications satellite in December of that year. President Eisenhower’s Christmas message was beamed from the satellite, named Project SCORE, making his the first voice ever sent from space to Earth.

However the first person in space was a Russian man, Colonel Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin (March 9,1934 - March 27, 1968). Gagarin piloted the Vostok 1 mission which launched April 12, 1961. His flight lasted 108 minutes and orbited the Earth once. The spacecraft was recovered later that day in the Saratov region of the Soviet Union.

Many nations have beeen involved in space projects in the intervening years, with Russia and USA at the forefront, and many parts of the solar system explored, for example faraway Jupiter and Saturn. Now attention is turning back to our Moon. In 2004, President Bush announced the new Vision for Space Exploration in a speech at Nasa headquarters. Among the goals outlined in the speech was a return trip to the Moon by 2020, in preparation for human exploration of Mars and other destinations.