A Changing Cosmos

See also: Solar System Science.

Contents

Chapter Titles	Investigations	Stay Current
1. Cosmic Cataclysms	1.1 Down2Earth Crater Impact Calculator	Chapter 1
2. Astronomers’ Tools	2.1 Using Star Maps 2.2 CCD Image Color Coding 2.3 Browsing the Universe* 2.4 Remote Telescopes 2.5 Planetariums	Chapter 2
3. Cosmic Engines	3.1 Size and Scale of the Sun* 3.2 Plate Scale of a Smartphone* 3.3 Sun Movement 3.4 Window to the Stars	Chapter 3
4. Fathoming Huge Distances	4.1 Parallax 4.2 Distance to the Moon Using Parallax 4.2 A Law of Brightness 4.3 Star Magnitudes 4.4 A Cepheid Variable Star*	Chapter 4
5. Color, Temperature &        Age of Stars	5.1 Temperature 5.2 Filters 5.3 Measure Color* 5.4 HR Diagrams of Star Clusters 5.5 Annie Jump Cannon and the Harvard Computers	Chapter 5
6. Dramatic Change in Stars	6.1 Find Supernovae* 6.1b. Discovery of Pulsars 6.2 Eclipsing Binaries 6.3 Discovery of Gravitational Waves	Chapter 6
7. Planet-Star Systems	7.0 Moon Activities 7.1 Jupiter’s Moons* 7.2 Asteroid Search	Chapter 7
8. Search for Habitable Planets	8.1 Exoplanet Transits*	Chapter 8
9. Cosmos Begins… and Ends?	9.1 Hearing the Doppler Effect 9.2 Model Waves 9.3 Hubble’s Law 9.4 Count Galaxies*	Chapter 9

• These investigations use image processing software and all images needed for them are contained in the jpg image set for A Changing Cosmos.

Solar System Science

Originally titled Hands-On Solar System (HOSS), Solar System Science was designed as a middle school curriculum in the Hands-On Universe project. Students use images from professional telescopes along with image processing software developed for use in the classroom to learn key concepts in astronomy, mathematics, and technology. The components are:

• Solar System Science Student Book (3 Mb PDF), 
• Teacher Guide (1.4 Mb PDF), 
• One of these image processing apps 
  • JS9 (online app) – https://js9.si.edu
  • JS9-HOU (online app)  
    https://hou-js9plugins.educontinuum.org
  • SalsaJ available from Global Hands-On Universe (GHOU) 
• Images (.zip download)

Activity: What is it? How far is it?

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A good reference openstax textbook to accompany this course is Astronomy (textbook online) by Andrew Fraknoi, David Morrison, and Sidney Wolff – https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy-2e. See also group resources for openstax Astronomy – https://oercommons.org/groups/openstax-astronomy/1283/?__hub_id=27.

* The seven books of the original TERC high school Hands-On Universe curriculum:

• Introduction to Image Processing—how to use the HOU Image Processing Software
• Finding Features—including a Browser’s Guide to the Universe.
• Measuring Size—Use the pixel plate scale to measure a lunar crater; track Jupiter’s moons; calculate mass of Jupiter.
• Measuring Color—colors of stars, the HR diagram, and how stars evolve according to their mass.
• Measuring Distance—Learn how the cosmological distance ladder is used to determine the distance to far away objects.
• Measuring Brightness—Learn about photometry — measurement of light from a celestial object.
• Searching for Supernovae—See how astronomers find supernovae — exploding stars.

Poem by Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer…

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged
in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams
to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he
lectured with much applause in the
lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off
by myself,
In the mystical moist air, and from
time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.