Hand out compasses, paper, tape, and pencils. We live inside a magnetic field bubble that Hold up bar magnet. What invisible force do surrounds Earth, called the “magnetosphere.” you think this object creates? Earth’s magnetosphere is important because it We can’t see its magnetic forces with our eyes. helps our atmosphere protect us from solar We need a tool to show us magnetic direction: wind. Solar winds carry high speed charged a compass. particles that would harm our bodies if we weren’t protected. Pass out bar magnets. How could you use a compass to help map this magnet’s field? Even with this protection, sometimes Earth Test your ideas. experiences solar storms. These can cause problems with high tech devices, navigation After testing, show a proven method: systems, and our power grid. Tape magnet on paper, make dot near magnet, place compass on dot, mark North with dot. There are also magnetospheres around all the Place compass on new dot, mark North. gas giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Repeat multiple times, then connect the dots. Neptune. The Sun’s magnetic field bubble is Start another line by making a new dot a bit called a “heliosphere.” further from the magnet. Repeat process. While inside, hand out UV beads Our Sun shines brightly in the daytime, warms and chenille stems or cord to make bracelets. our planet, and helps plants grow. Yet the sunlight we see with our eyes is only a very These are special detector beads. small part of the Sun’s light. Any guesses about what they may detect? Let’s take them outside and see what happens. Most sunlight cannot be seen with just our eyes. One type of this invisible light is called Go outside. Watch your beads. “ultraviolet light,” also known as UV. This is the What might be making the beads change? light that gives us suntans and sunburns. Bees see in UV, and it helps them to find flowers. We’re using these beads to detect something we can’t see: ultraviolet light, or UV light. UV light from the Sun is filtered out by our atmosphere. Luckily for our skin, most UV light What materials might protect our beads? never reaches the surface of Earth. Yet this Take answers. Gather materials. important filter, our atmosphere, makes it hard to How will we know if we successfully study UV light in space. So scientists use high protected our beads from UV light? altitude balloons, suborbital rockets, or spacecraft to get above the Run experiments to UV Protective Materials atmosphere. test your materials. Effective: sunscreen, sunglasses, opaque materials, ball cap Less effective: plastic wrap, loose-weave cloth, water Credit: NASA/European Space Agency: SOHO: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Borrow a remote control and a device with a Only some light can be seen with just our eyes. digital camera like a smartphone or tablet. Beyond the visible rainbow spectrum, there is invisible light called “infrared light.” Infrared (IR) What do you think happens when I press light from our Sun warms our planet, and helps this remote control button? plants grow. Listen and paraphrase answers. Special IR cameras show us the temperature This remote control sends an “infrared light” of things, like if a person has cold fingers or signal. Where is the IR light on the remote? warm breath. Infrared light can’t be seen with just our eyes, Information from IR light helps astronomers but we can see IR light with some cameras. understand planets, stars, and galaxies. In IR Let’s look for IR light. light we can see things that are warm, but not Start camera and point at remote. hot enough to shine like stars. Press a remote button and look for a light on your camera screen. Some cameras have an IR Light-Blocking Materials to Try IR filter. If available, try the self-facing camera. Paper, cellophane, plastic bags of various types, What materials might block the IR light? hard plastic, sunglasses, regular eyeglasses, and other glass. Test your ideas. have just gone back standing to on both. The flamingos seewe one with hot and one cold leg tuckedother up nextto their body to keep it warm. Flamingos often stand on one leg, with the Credits: NASA/SOFIA Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Visible light image: Akira Fujii Infrared image: Infrared Astronomical Satellite Before passing out spectroscopes: Isaac Newton first used the word “spectrum” to Please do not touch plastic film. describe these individual colors that could be Fingerprints will smudge a clear view. seen when passing light through a prism. These are the familiar colors Point the slot-end away from face. of rainbows. Look through the round opening. white light Spectroscopes spread out Look at a lamp or ceiling light through your visible light, making it easy spectroscope. What do you see? diffraction to see all the colors. grating Each kind of light has its own “fingerprint.” Visible light is composed of many colors or Try other light bulbs: filament, compact “wavelengths.” When light passes through a fluorescent (CFL), ceiling lamps, flashlights, spectroscope’s translucent plastic diffraction LED lights, neon signs, computer screens, grating, thousands of etched lines bend the bug lights, or moonlight. light relative to its color or wavelength. Do not look directly at the sun. Our eyes and brain work together to blend It is safe to view reflected sunlight by looking at these wavelengths into a single color. white paper or light walls when outside. Combining all visible colors makes white light. Credit: N. Sharp, NOAO/AURA/NSF Set the oven in direct sunlight. A solar oven is just one of the many ways we Place oven thermometer inside, in view. capture the Sun’s energy to help us. Close the clear oven lid tightly, and use a stick to prop up the flap to reflect sunlight into box. For more than 2000 years, people have converted sunlight into different or more Preheat oven for at least 30 minutes, until the concentrated forms to stay warm and to cook. thermometer reads at least 125° F. Many ancient cultures built their houses to have energy efficient Sun exposures, facing their Arrange graham crackers squares in a pan. buildings South to get the most Sun. Ancient Top each with a marshmallow (no chocolate, Egyptians lined pools with black tiles to absorb yet!) and place pan in preheated solar oven. the sun’s energy, then piped the warmed pool Close oven lid tightly. Heat 30-60 minutes, water into palaces as a heating source. until marshmallows soften. NASA uses solar energy to provide power for Open lid. Place a piece of chocolate on each spacecraft in the inner Solar System. Solar cells marshmallow. Place second graham cracker on deep space flyby missions, orbiters, and square on top. Press down gently. landers power spacecraft and their instruments. The most distant spacecraft to use solar cells is Close the solar oven lid and heat a few the JUNO mission, now orbiting Jupiter. minutes to melt the chocolate. ENJOY! Cut here, 1 inch from the edge of the box top Make sure the foil inside the flap is very smooth to make it like a mirror. Two layers of plastic wrap over the opening will help keep heat in, while still letting all the light shine through. Credit including illustrations : NASA Climate Kids http://climatekids.nasa.gov Let’s imagine we shrunk our universe until For a long time, people didn’t know the size of the Sun was the size of this 8 inch ball. the Earth and Sun, or their distance apart. How big would the Earth be? Eventually, scientists used geometry and Show me with your hands. careful observations to calculate the distance accurately. Here’s a hint: It takes more than 100 Earths to span the Sun’s diameter. Make a new guess. Today, we call the distance from the Sun to the Earth would be about the size of a Earth an “Astronomical Unit”, or AU. 2mm peppercorn. Astronomical Unit = 93 million miles How far would this Earth be from this Sun You can line up about 10,000 Earths side to in our tiny model Solar System? side before you reach the Sun. Stand where you think the Earth would be. The distance between Sun and Earth at this Diameter of Earth = about 8,000 miles scale would be 65 feet apart, or about 22 giant Diameter of Sun = about 863,000 miles 1-yard steps. 109 earths fit across the Sun’s diameter! Earth Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory https://sunearthday.nasa.gov Let’s imagine we shrunk our universe until The Sun is 800,000 miles in diameter. the Sun was the size of this 8 inch ball. The ball representing it is eight inches wide. How big would the first planet be? So, one inch equals 100,000 miles. Show me with your hands. Mercury would be a pin point, or 3/100 inch Earth, is almost 8,000 miles in diameter. That’s 1/100th the diameter of the Sun. How far would Mercury be from the Sun In our scale model, that means it’s the size of a in our tiny solar system? peppercorn that is 0.08 inches. If each giant step is about 3 feet (1 yard), Mercury would be 10 giant steps from the Sun. 1 yard (36 inches) represents 3,600,000 miles. Let’s take our 10 giant steps to Mercury. The Sun is 93,000,000 miles from Earth. That’s 26 yards. Repeat for inner, rocky planets through Mars.