Chile's New Observatory

image source: Rubin Obs/NSF/AURA

While studying articles this week about various space topics, I quite happily learned about the Vera C. Rubin Observatory that has been built on Cerro Pachón in Chile. It is expected to become fully functional by 2022.

 
This revolutionary observatory is more than just a powerful telescope. The innovative technology includes a "camera (3200 megapixels, the world’s largest digital camera), telescope (simultaneous casting of the primary and tertiary mirrors; two aspherical optical surfaces on one substrate), and data management (20 terabytes of data nightly, nearly instant alerts issued for objects that change in position or brightness)."

This image was taken in Spain, just before the disassembly began in preparation for shipping it to Chile.
Image credit: Asturfeito

Rubin will be able to image the entire visible sky every few nights and the powerful telescope will be able to see farther than most currently on Earth. It is predicted that in its first year, it will see more of the universe than ALL previous telescopes COMBINED.

Cerro Pachón was chosen from 19 other sites (10 in each hemisphere) because of the conditions surrounding the site. The location had to be in a sparsely populated area (to avoid light pollution), at high altitude and in a dry climate (to avoid cloud cover).

Now the best part and the main reason I'm sharing news about Rubin Observatory is that there will be great opportunities for educators and students! They are in the process of developing education materials such as online, data-driven classroom investigations with complete teacher guides for middle schoolers through higher education. The investigations will focus on critical thinking and science literacy techniques. The investigations will be in English AND Spanish.

Educators will also have access to the site so students can explore and analyze data.

I also find it wonderful that this observatory is being named after a woman. Vera Florence Cooper Rubin was an American astronomer. Rubin was a pioneer who studied the galaxy rotation problem and her work became evidence of the existence of dark matter. Dark matter will be one of the focuses of the Rubin Observatory.

Women's History Month starts on Monday. What a fantastic way to kick it off! Help your students learn about a remarkable woman who changed modern science with her hard work and discoveries.

The Missing 9th Planet

NASA / JPL-Caltech, Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Earlier this week, I happened upon this article from the BBC that talks about a missing 9th planet. I paused when I saw the title - "If Planet Nine exists, why has no one seen it?"  

Because when I was growing up, I was taught that there were nine planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. 

I know that about 15 years ago, Pluto suddenly got the boot and was demoted to a dwarf planet. So did the article mean ANOTHER planet?

Dwarf Planets

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the official organization that promotes and safeguards the science of astronomy through international cooperation. They are also responsible for assigning official names and designations to celestial bodies. So that means they get to set the parameters or rules of what defines a planet... or any other celestial body.  

They determined that there are four things that classify a dwarf planet:

1. it orbits the sun, 
2. it has enough mass to assume a nearly round shape, 
3. it is not a moon, and 
4. it has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pay close attention to the last rule because that is what has kicked Pluto out of its planet status and into that of a dwarf planet. By this definition, five bodies have been labeled dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea.

Lexicon, CC BY-SA 3.0 / via Wikimedia Commons

The thing is, Pluto orbits in the Kuiper Belt which is an area beyond Neptune containing many comets, asteroids, and other small bodies made largely of ice. It's like an asteroid belt, but much, much bigger. And in fact, three of the dwarf planets that have been identified are found in the Kuiper Belt: Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake.

But there's still a lot of debate about Pluto's status because when the New Horizons spacecraft passed by Pluto in 2015, it sent back photos that revealed Pluto has remarkable geographic features, including towering mountains and unique "ice-ridged terrain." So Pluto's status remains a hotly debated topic.

Sedna, Bob3Studios, CC BY-SA 4.0 / via Wikimedia Commons

Another 9th Planet?

Recently, there's been a lot of speculation that there is another 9th planet that has yet to be discovered. This hypothesis is fueled by the unusual orbits of the minor planet Sedna and 18 other objects, all of which appear to be pulled in the same direction. All 19 are tilted on their axis also in the exact same direction. The chances of this happening randomly is pretty unlikely. So scientists continue to hypothesize that there is another planet (or a black hole!) that is affecting these celestial bodies.

Why haven't we seen it?

I couldn't help but wonder, as old as astronomy is, why on earth wouldn't we have discovered this other planet years (or even centuries) ago? It all boils down to distance. 

Sedna and the other objects in question are located in the Oort Cloud in the farthest reaches of our solar system. They are so far away, only one machine is capable of seeing so far into space: the Subaru Telescope found atop a dormant volcano in Hawaii. And the astronomers who are searching for the elusive 9th Planet only get access to it three nights each year, if they're lucky. 

 

Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada, CC BY 2.0 / via Wikimedia Commons

Extend the Learning!

Here are some additional resources to learn more about dwarf planets, Pluto, and more.

• Ceres and Pluto: Dwarf Planets as a New Way of Thinking about an Old Solar System (Lesson Plan / 5th - 8th) :: NASA
• Space Shorts: What Is A Dwarf Planet? (Video / K-12) :: JPL
• Sizing Up Pluto (Activity / 4 - 12) :: JPL
• Pixel Puzzler: A 'Pi in the Sky' Math Challenge (Activity / 4 - 6) :: JPL
• Is Pluto a Planet? (Lesson / 6 - 8) :: ScienceNetLinks
• Solar System Objects (comets, asteroids, dwarf planets, meteors) Foldable (interactive notebook / 5 - 8th) :: Sandy's Science

Mars Word Search

  

I was a little inspired by yesterday's post on Mars and so I threw together this little activity. If you need a quick, print-and-go activity to keep your young ones busy, this is a fun page for reviewing the vocabulary associated with Mars.

It is available in full color or black-and-white (for coloring in!), as well as English and Spanish. 

This is a special treat for my blog readers and will be available as a free download for a limited time. And my newsletter subscribers will also receive it in their inbox in the next newsletter. 

I'll go ahead and list it in my TpT shop for everyone else or if you missed it here.

Click here to download

Enjoy!

Mars Lesson Plans, Videos, Books, & More

 

Did you watch the Mars rover landing last week? What a phenomenal accomplishment! As a Texan who has been weathering the storm (pun intended), so many of us needed something positive to read about for a change.

So I'm dedicating this week on MommyMaestra to space. Today, I'm starting with Mars!

This post contains affiliate links.

The landing of Perseverance rover on Mars

For older students:

• Watch the rover landing here on the NASA Mars Mission website.
• Here's another NASA site dedicated to the rover.

For younger students:

• SpacePlace has the latest from NASA for young children.

Lesson Plans about Mars

• NASA (again) has the best lesson plans and curriculum supplements for Mars
• Arizona State University also has some great lesson plans for K - 12
• MENSA for Kids has these five lessons for upper elementary students (3rd - 5th)
• Teach Engineering has the following STEM lesson plans for middle schoolers (6th - 8th)
  - Lesson: The Amazing Red Planet
  - Unit: Mission to Mars
• PBS NEWSHOUR EXTRA has this for high school students (9th - 12th) :: Lesson plan: How inventions will land humans on Mars

For older students from TED-Ed:

• Could we actually live on Mars? - Mari Foroutan
• Sending a sundial to Mars - Bill Nye
• Why we need to go back to Mars - Joel Levine
• The Exploration and Colonization of Mars: Why Mars? Why Humans? - Dr. Joel Levine
• How Curiosity got us to Mars - Bobak Ferdowsi

Videos

• All About Mars: Astronomy and Space for Kids :: FreeSchool
• Mars 101 :: National Geographic (shown above)
• Science Trek - Mars :: PBS
• Marte, el planeta rojo - El Sistema Solar en 3D para niños

Printables

• Mission to Mars: Perseverance Rover Interactive Notebook - Distance Learning :: STEM Printables
• Learn About the 2020 Mars Mission for Kids :: Woo! Jr.
• Coloring page of inner core :: Enchanted Learning
• Mars Word Search :: MommyMaestra

Crafts 

• Watercolor & Oil Pastel: Planet Mars for Kids :: 3 Dinosaurs
• COFFEE FILTER PLANETS SPACE CRAFT FOR KIDS :: Fun-a-Day
• Summer Special: Edible Mars Rover :: Library Makers

Books

(The following are affiliate links.)

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Story Time from Space

I can't think of anything much more exciting for a young child who is crazy about reading, space, and astronauts than to be read to by an astronaut who is in space!

Did you know that's a thing? Because I didn't. So I'm pretty excited about the new website, Story Time from Space, from the Global Space Education Foundation. They send STEM-related children's books (most of them about space) to the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts film themselves reading the books. Those videos are then edited and uploaded to the Story Time from Space website for everyone to enjoy! So far, I've counted 20 books that have been read aloud and uploaded.


The astronauts on the ISS are also conducting experiments that reflect or reinforce the concepts in these books. You can find some of the ones that they've already completed under the Science Time Videos tab in the menu bar.

The Global Space Education Foundation is also working on curricula and activity guides to complement these books. The first one - Newton's Law of Motion - is available for sale on the website.


They've even posted their first video in Spanish with astonaut Joseph Acaba (the first Puerto Rican astronaut!) reading Max viaja a Marte from the Japanese laboratory in the International Space Station.


Another Hispanic reading in space is Serena Maria Auñón-Chancellor (a Cuban-American astronaut) reading Luciana, Braving the Deep. What I enjoyed most about this particular video was how she paused here and there to give commentary about something in the story and how it relates to the work that the astronauts do on the space station.

If you want to learn more, follow Story Time from Space on Facebook. I just did!

I mean, really, how is this not the most fantastic thing? It's perfect for families, educators, or both (homeschoolers).

José Hernández Lesson Plans, Books, Activities & More

Time for my next pick for MommyMaestra's Summer Reads list! (Last week, I shared the first title.)

I'm also pretty excited about today's book recommendation because it is an autobiography of someone whose story I've been following for several years.

This post contains affiliate links.  

A Children's Biography 

The Boy Who Touched the Stars, El niño que alcanzó las estrellas (aff) is the true story of José Moreno Hernández, an American engineer and former NASA astronaut. Read about his childhood when he worked alongside his parents as a migrant farmworker and his fascination with space. Your child/student will learn about the important role his 2nd-grade teacher played in his life, encouraging his parents to stay in one place so that José could focus on his education, and how she nurtured his love of astronomy, books, and learning. 

José eventually became an electrical engineer, and together with a colleague, developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system. He continued to pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut. Even though his NASA application was rejected 11 times, he kept applying until he was finally chosen to become an astronaut as a flight engineer on the Space Shuttle Discovery and flew to the International Space Station.

Read this inspirational book to learn what his parents' recipe was for helping him to achieve his dream!

This book is SO well written and presented in a very organized manner. And the fact that it is presented with full text in both English and Spanish is awesome!!

Oh, and the illustrations are excellent, too! Take a look...

Overall, this bilingual picture book should be getting an award. I'm so happy to have read it. I love it. Love it!  

The Boy Who Touched the Stars Activities & Crafts

I tried looking up activities created for this book and couldn't find any. So here are a few ideas for activities related to astronauts and space that would be great to do before or after reading this picture book. Or spread the activities out over 5-7 days and make it a space-themed week! I've tried to separate them by age. 

PreK through 3rd:

• Design your own constellation book with my easy tutorial.
  
  
• Mama Teaches also has these lovely printable constellation cards on her site. 
  
  
• Simple Everyday Mom has a free printable rocket puppet template. (Easy instructions plus a video tutorial!) She also has an astronaut paper bag puppet craft if you'd like to make more than one puppet.
  
  
• You know what's really fascinating? Looking at pictures of galaxies! You know what's even more fascinating? Making your own galaxy in a bottle! Beth Ann Averill has directions on her site for this very clever craft. And she also has this brilliant name rocket craft to help your children learn their own name in a fun spacey kind of way!
  
  
• Pocket Homeschool shared this cleverly assembled space traveler craft that your kids can put together with materials most families have in their home. 
  
  
• Learn about other astronauts! The Waldock Way has this excellent free unit study on Mae Jemison, the first black woman to travel into space. 
  
  
• Blessed Homeschool has this free printable solar system activity pack with some really fun developmental activities.
  
  
• And lastly, the Primary Parade has a remarkable collection of preschooler space activities.

Grades 4 through 6:

• For a deeper dive into space, I also made these constellation worksheets and wrote an in-depth lesson for kids over on WooJr. Or you might enjoy my mini-lesson on the solar system.
  
  
• José Hernández had a clear vision and goal to become an astronaut. Nurture this goal planning in your children/students with these printable space-themed Vision Board and Writing Prompts from That Homeschool Family.
  
  
• If your children are more into space exploration activities, check out these space exploration unit lessons from Adventures in a Messy Life that look at the crafts astronauts and the space program use.
• This solar system activity with free cootie catcher from Rock Your Homeschool is the coolest activity that your kids will absolutely love. (Psst! Her space unit study is on sale!)

Spanish Resources:

• El Sistema Solar: El espacio, la Tierra y planetas by Ms Herraiz on TpT


• El Espacio Unidad y Centros de Literatura by Bilingual Pre-K World on TpT
  
  
• Mateo el astronauta Outer Space Theme Pack Spanish Resources by Mundo de Pepita
  
  
• Morning Work in Spanish, Numbers 0-10, 27 activities! (space-themed!) by The Stress Free Spanish Teacher

Craft Kits and Toys

Extend the learning with these space-themed learning toys. 

Space Play Dough Kit from PlayAndGrowShop on Etsy

This looks like such a fun set for little hands to play with and a great way to develop fine motor skills!

Solar System Felt Planets from MyLittleFishCo on Etsy

What a great addition to any home school room! When my teens were little we decorated by hanging the planets from our school room ceiling. But I think being able to handle and manipulate them would be even better.

Space Sensory Kit from EllaRoosAcademy on Etsy

Oh my gosh! So much fun! Sensory kits provide hours of fun for little kids. There are so many great space=themed sensory kits, but this may be my favorite one.

Other Posts You May Enjoy

• Story Time from Space
  
  
• Chile's New Observatory
  
  
• The Missing 9th Planet
  
  
• Mars Lesson Plans, Videos, Books, & More

The Search for STEMnauts Contest

Calling all middle school and high school students!

If you are obsessed with space or enjoy coding, this is a great opportunity for you! NASA has partnered with Texas Instruments to create and host this super fun contest that features the skills astronauts use in space. And they are searching for young STEMnauts to complete their challenges.

To win great prizes, you and your team of up to 5 fellow students must decipher puzzles and brainteasers using the coding and STEM* problem-solving strategies NASA uses to make human life in space possible. You'll have to have an adult sponsor, but they canNOT help you with the challenges. ;)

Teams must be middle or high school students. Homeschoolers are eligible.



The team with the most points will win:

• A new Galaxy Gray TI-84 Plus CE graphing calculator for each team member
• A $500 Amazon gift card for your team
• Passes to choice of NASA visitor center
• An assortment of fun STEM and space-related objects, including:
  - ISS Drawstring Backpack
  - Squishy Astronaut
  - NASA Pins/Decals
  - Foam RocketsS
• A video chat with a NASA subject matter expert

In addition, each of the members of five teams chosen at random will win a Galaxy Gray TI-84 Plus CE graphing calculators.

I think there are only around 150 teams at the moment, so your chances are good! Get in there and start deciphering codes and riddles.

You can enter the contest any time before it ends on May 31st.

My daughter is totally geeked about participating and is lining up a teammate. :)

Good luck!!!