Workshop Presentation

PowerPoint. Click to download the MS Powerpoint file (2.3 Mbytes). Includes videos embedded in file.

HTML Click to view the presentation in html format. Videos may be viewable depending on browser and operating system.

PDF. Click to view or download the presentation in PDF (1.9 Mbytes).

Online lecture Click here to view a streaming lecture discussing the rotaion and revolution of the Moon, the phases of the Moon and eclipses. (~12 minutes)

Classroom Activities

The Wobbling of Stars. This student activity demonstrates the concept of the center of mass or barycenter for celestial bodies and how the orbit of a planet can affect the position of a star. PDF Word file

Online Video and Media Resources

The Solar System Barycenter This YouTube video examines the center of mass for our solar system, known as the solar system barycenter, and how the position of the Sun wobbles due to the influence of the planets as they orbit. SkyMarvels.

The Earth-Moon Barycenter This YouTube video examines the Earth-Moon barycenter where the Earth and Moon orbit around the center of mass for the two body system. SkyMarvel.

One Way to Find a Planet This website discusses barycenters and how they are used to detect exoplanets. NASA.

The Radial Velocity Method for Finding Exoplanets This short animation demonstrates the radial velocity method for detecting the presence of an exoplane around a distant star by observing the periodic doppler shift of the star as it orbits the system's barycenter. European Southern Observatory.

 

This animation shows a simple 2-body system where both objects have the same mass. They oribt the barycenter indicated by the red cross. By User:Zhatt (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This animation shows a two-body system where the masses of the two objects are slightly different. The objects orbit the barycenter indicated by the red cross. This is comparable to the Pluto-Charon system. By User:Zhatt (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This animation shows a two-body system where the masses of the object are very different. They orbit the barycenter of the system, indicated by the red cross, that is located within the larger body. This is comparable to the Earth-Moon system. By User:Zhatt (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This animation shows a two-body system where there is a very large differences in mass between the two objects. They orbit the barycenter, indicated by the red cross, that is located near the center of the larger body. This is comparable to the Sun-Earth system (excluding the other planets). By User:Zhatt (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Doppler Shift Demonstrator This online simulation demonstrates how the relative movement of a source (such as a star) and an observer affects how the waves are perceived by the observer. Astronomy Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

 

Useful Websites

NASA (main website) www.nasa.gov This is the main entry point for NASA's extensive web resources. You can enter different areas such as NASA mission websites including data and news, educational resources and image/multimedia collections.

NASA Missions www.nasa.gov/missions/index.html This page lists past, current and future NASA missions and is a great starting point for investigating the wide variety of NASA missions and investigations.

NASA Education Resources Database search.nasa.gov/search/edFilterSearch.jsp?empty=true This NASA website is a searchable database on NASA-developed educational resources, activities, lesson plans, and webquests.

NASA Science nasascience.nasa.gov This is the website of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. It includes mission information, data and resources for current missions in the following areas: Earth, Heliophysics, Planets and Astrophysics.

MORE TO COME!

 

NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas

Coming soon.

 

Common Scientific Misconceptions

Coming soon.

 

☺ Like this page? Want something different? Tell me what you think jeff.seitz@csueastbay.edu