Ms.

Smedley – Science 10 – The Universe NAME___________________

The Universe – From vast nothingness to a universe of stars and galaxies and
our own Earth
VOCABULARY TO KNOW

Doppler Effect Photons Wavelength

Supernova/e Galaxy Dense/Density
Goldilocks Conditions Spectrum Plasma
Singularity Wave Compression Nuclear Fusion
Parallax Light-Year Triangulation
Satellite Rover Orbit
CMB Redshift Force
Solar System Star Dark Energy and Dark Matter

THE UNIVERSE

Where did everything come from? Where are we heading? This unit tells the story of the universe
starting from the Big Bang, the formation of the components of the universe over time (such as energy
and matter), evidence to support these events, ways we measure and understand the universe and
where we fit in it all.

NOT TOO HOT, NOT TOO COLD

The universe is a simple place. Vast stretches of space filled with nothingness. Yet as it developed over
billions of years, it grew increasingly complex. Another central theme in understanding the universe is
the concept of "Goldilocks Conditions." This concept describes when the right conditions occur at
precisely the right time to trigger a form of fundamental change.

ORIGIN STORIES
WHERE DID EVERYTHING COME FROM?
Every culture has its own origin story. They may be very short anecdotes. Or they might be elaborate
narratives that help explain the mysteries of our existence. In this course we will focus on the Modern
Scientific theory to explain the origins of the universe but here are a few other origin stories to consider.

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THE BIG BANG

IN AN INSTANT, EVERYTHING HAPPENS
Try to imagine something unimaginably tiny, unimaginably dense, and unimaginably hot. Then
instantaneously, bang! — space, time, and all molecular material explode in a manner far beyond what
words can describe. What is known is that, within a few millionths of a second, the universe expanded at
an inconceivable speed. Suddenly, from a single point, all the energy in the universe burst forth. Before
the Big Bang, there was no universe, no time and no laws of Physics.

Since that moment 13.8 billion years ago, the universe has been expanding — and cooling down as it
gets bigger. From that expansion, some recognizable subatomic particles and fundamental forces
formed. Then the universe cooled dramatically — to about 1 billion degrees Celsius, allowing energy,
and then matter, to appear. Gradually energy cooled enough to become matter. Much later, after
dropping to a cool 1,650 degrees, the first hydrogen and helium atoms formed. One electron could stay
in orbit around one proton to become an atom of hydrogen. This is thought to have occurred about
377,000 years after the Big Bang.

A cosmic "Dark Ages" set in for the next 200 million years. This quiet expansion spread more complex
atoms and other materials throughout the universe. The tiny particles drifted apart like a dense puff of
smoke, but not uniformly. Those little inconsistencies of distance set the stage for gravity, creating
something very complex out of something very simple.

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Great clouds of hydrogen swirled around space until gravity pulled some atoms so close together that
they began to burn as stars. Stars swirled together in giant clusters called galaxies; now there are
galaxies numbering in the billions. After each star burned up all its matter, it died in a huge explosion.
The explosion generated so much heat that some atoms fused and got more and more complex, forming
many different elements, including gold and silver. One giant star, our mother star, exploded and
scattered clouds of gas containing all the elements needed to form living beings.

About 5 billion years ago gravity pulled these atoms into a new star, creating the Sun. The leftover
pieces of matter stuck to each other and formed eight planets, which revolve around the sun. The third
planet out, Earth, became our home. It was the perfect size — not too big, not too small — and the
perfect distance from the Sun, not too far or too close – Recall the concept of "Goldilocks Conditions"
from the beginning of this unit. A thin crust formed over Earth’s hot interior, and the temperature was
just right for water to form on parts of the surface. Gradually the chemicals in the water formed inside
of membranes and got more complex until single-cell living organisms appeared, able to maintain
themselves and reproduce. For 3 billion years these one-celled creatures reproduced almost exactly, but
not quite. They gradually changed over time in response to selective pressures in their environment.

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A MYSTERIOUS HISS FROM THE HEAVENS

HOW DO WE KNOW THE BIG BANG HAPPENED?

Holmdel Horn Antenna © NASA

It took decades from the time a few scientists proposed that the universe was expanding until the point
where the Big Bang hypothesis was generally accepted. More proof was needed. The Big Bang theory is
the result of two different approaches to studying the universe: astronomy and cosmology. Astronomers
use instruments to observe stars and other celestial bodies. Cosmologists study the astrophysical
properties of the universe.

When the theory of an expanding universe was first proposed by Georges Lemaître in the 1920s even
the great physicist Einstein did not believe it. By mathematically running the expansion backward,
Lemaître theorized that everything in the universe once must have been compacted into a small, dense
object, which he called "the primeval atom." In 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble made observations
from a powerful telescope showing that galaxies sped away from each other at an ever-increasing
velocity – the universe was expanding. Still, many scientists refuted the idea.

In 1964, two scientists in New Jersey, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, aimed a new, extra-sensitive
radio antenna at outer space (see photo above) to discover what they could hear. They were surprised
to hear the same low, static hiss wherever they aimed it. They were baffled.

Finally, a colleague at Princeton suggested the hiss might have something to do with the start of the
universe. He pointed them to mathematical calculations by astrophysicists that showed if the universe
did, in fact, begin with a Big Bang, it would have released a huge amount of energy in just the same
frequency as this low, static hiss. In this way, scientists discovered evidence and these observations
helped solidify the Big Bang theory as the predominant model for the evolution of the universe.

Let’s look more closely at evidence used to support the Big Bang hypothesis.

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)

If the universe was initially very hot and has been expanding, it should have cooled (expanding objects
cool down since particles move away from each other and cause less collisions).

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The CMB was created at a time in cosmic history called the Recombination Era (see diagram below). The
universe had cooled to a temperature of about 2,700 degrees Celsius, cool enough for electrons and
protons to “recombine” into hydrogen atoms. Photons were released, and today this radiation is called
the CMB.

This was the mysterious hissing sound discovered by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson while they were
studying faint microwave signals from the Milky Way galaxy. They found a mysterious noise of unknown
origin. At first the noise was thought to be interference caused by pigeon droppings on the antenna
equipment. Pigeons were trapped, and dung was cleaned from the antenna. Ultimately Penzias and
Wilson realized that the noise was an actual signal.

This signal was called the Cosmic Microwave Background, and is in effect, the temperature of the
universe. The temperature (3 Kelvin) matches the temperature of the universe, as predicted by the Big
Bang Theory.

The CMB is radiation that fills the universe and can be detected in every direction. Microwaves are
invisible to the naked eye, so they cannot be detected without instruments. Created shortly after the

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universe came into being in the Big Bang, the CMB represents the earliest radiation that can be
detected. Astronomers have likened the CMB to seeing sunlight penetrating an overcast sky.

Looking out into deep space, and therefore back into deep time, astronomers see the CMB radiation
saturating space beginning at about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Before the creation of the CMB,
the universe was a hot, dense and opaque plasma containing both matter and energy. Photons could
not travel freely, so no light escaped from those earlier times. It was at this time, 380,000 years after
the initial event, when the universe became transparent. Light could shine throughout the universe.

The CMB also provides insight into the composition of the universe as a whole. Most of the universe is
made up of dark energy, the mysterious force that drives the accelerating expansion of the universe.
The next largest ingredient is dark matter, which only interacts with the rest of the universe through its
gravity.

Normal matter, including all the visible stars, planets and galaxies, makes up less than 5 percent of the
total mass of the universe.

NASA has launched two missions to study the cosmic microwave radiation, taking "baby pictures" of the
universe only 400,000 years after it was born. The first of these was the Cosmic Background Explorer
(COBE). In 1992, the COBE team announced that they had mapped the primordial hot and cold spots in
cosmic background radiation. These spots are related to the gravitational field in the early universe and
form the seeds of the giant clusters of galaxies that stretch hundreds of millions of light years across the
universe. This work earned NASA's Dr. John C. Mather and George F. Smoot of the University of
California the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Redshift of Galaxies - Doppler effect and the universe

In the 1800s, astronomers began to experiment with tools called spectroscopes (also known as
spectrographs). A spectroscope is a device that divides light into a spectrum of its component
wavelengths. Spectroscopes showed that the light from a specific material, such as a glowing tube of
hydrogen, always produced the same distribution of wavelengths unique to that material. It became
clear that by looking at the wavelength distribution from a spectrograph, you could figure out what kind
of elements were in a light source. (Refer to diagram below).

Meanwhile, Austrian physicist Christian Doppler discovered that the frequency (the frequency, f, of a
wave is the number of waves passing a point in a certain time) of a sound wave depended upon the
relative position of the source of the sound. As a noisy object approaches you, the sound waves it

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generates compress. This changes the frequency of the sound, and so you perceive the sound as a
different pitch. When the object moves away from you, the sound waves stretch, and the pitch goes
down. It's called the Doppler effect.

The Doppler effect for light waves on Earth is so small that we do not notice it, but when we study
starlight the Doppler effect is quite noticeable.

Stars emit light. Using a prism, this light can be spread into a spectrum. If we look at the spectrum of sun
light or any other star, we will see the colour spectrum from red through to violet. If a star is moving
towards us, the whole pattern of the spectrum is shifted to shorter wavelengths, or towards the blue
end of the spectrum. This shift is called blueshift or sometimes violet shift. If the star is receding, the
pattern moves to longer, redder wavelengths. This is called redshift. Most galaxies appear to be moving
away from us. This means that the light from them is "stretched" slightly and appears a bit redder that it
would otherwise do.

This is similar to what happens to sound. Imagine that a fire engine is driving past you with its siren on.
When it is moving towards you, the siren it quite high pitched. When it is moving away from you, the
pitch drops and it sounds lower. With light, "lower" means more red and "higher" means more blue.

Just as the Doppler Effect causes sound from moving vehicles to change pitch, redshift causes light from
moving stars to change color as its wavelength gets stretched by expanding space. The farther an object
is from Earth, the more the intervening space has expanded, and the more the object's light will have
been shifted toward red.

Edwin Hubble used the Doppler effect to determine that the universe is expanding. After years of
scientific research and observation of different celestial bodies through a telescope, Hubble found that
the light from distant galaxies was shifted towards the red end of the spectrum. This redshift indicates
that stars are moving away from us and from each other. The redshift of distant galaxies means that the
universe is probably expanding. If we go back far enough in time, everything must have been squashed
together into a tiny dot. The rapid eruption from this tiny dot was the Big Bang.

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Dark Energy

During the years following Hubble and COBE, the picture of the Big Bang gradually became clearer. But
in 1996, observations of very distant supernovae required a dramatic change in the picture. It had
always been assumed that the matter of the universe would slow its rate of expansion. Mass creates
gravity, gravity creates pull, the pulling must slow the expansion. But supernovae observations showed
that the expansion of the universe, rather than slowing, is accelerating. Something, not like matter and
not like ordinary energy, is pushing the galaxies apart. This "stuff" has been dubbed dark energy, but to
give it a name is not to understand it. Whether dark energy is a type of dynamical fluid, heretofore
unknown to physics, or whether it is a property of the vacuum of empty space, or whether it is some
modification to general relativity is not yet known.

Dark matter and dark energy are the yin and yang of the cosmos. Dark matter produces an attractive
force (gravity), while dark energy produces a repulsive force (antigravity). Together, they make up 96
percent of the universe—and we can’t see either. Astronomers know dark matter exists because visible
matter doesn’t have enough gravitational muster to hold galaxies together. What is it made of? There
are two adorably acronymed leading candidates: super-dense astronomical bodies called massive
astrophysical compact halo objects (MACHOs) and weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Dark
energy, on the other hand, is why our universe is expanding. In fact, in 1998, astronomers studying
distant supernovae were shocked to learn that, around 7.5 billion years after the Big Bang, the universe
began expanding faster. That indicates some unknown force is fighting gravity’s pull, causing galaxies to
speed apart from one another. Think of the universe as an elastic gym band and dark energy as the
Incredible (and unseen) Hulk who keeps tugging at it.

Activity – On a piece of paper, list and explain at least three sources of evidence that support the Big
Bang hypothesis. Can be in table format.

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GRAVITY AND THE STARS

FORCES THAT EMERGED FROM THE BIG BANG
Today, when we look at the night sky, we see galaxies separated by what appears to be huge expanses
of empty space. At the earliest moments of the Big Bang, all the matter, energy and space we could
observe was compressed to an area of zero volume and infinite density. Cosmologists call this
a singularity.

What was the universe like at the beginning of the Big Bang? According to the theory, it was extremely
dense and extremely hot. There was so much energy in the universe during those first few moments
that matter as we know it couldn't form. But the universe expanded rapidly, which means it became less
dense and cooled down. As it expanded, matter began to form, and radiation began to lose energy. In
only a few seconds, the universe formed out of a singularity that stretched across space.

One result of the big bang was the formation of the four basic forces in the universe. These forces are:

FORCE DEFINITION DIAGRAM

Electromagnetic Force
Strong nuclear force
Acts between charged
particles and is the
combination of all electrical
and magnetic forces.
The electromagnetic
force can be attractive or
repulsive.
Holds a nucleus together
against the enormous forces
of repulsion of the protons.

Weak nuclear force Is stronger than gravity, but

it is only effective at very
short distances. It acts on
the subatomic level and
plays a crucial role in
powering stars and creating
elements. It is also
responsible for much of the
natural radiation present in
the universe and leads to
nuclear decay (more on that
in next unit!)
Gravity The force of attracts any
objects with mass in the
universe. It has an infinite
range, although its effects
become increasingly weaker
on farther objects.

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At the beginning of the big bang, these forces were all part of a unified force. It was only shortly after
the big bang began that the forces separated into what they are today. How these forces were once part
of a unified whole is a mystery to scientists. Many physicists and cosmologists are still working on
forming the Grand Unified Theory, which would explain how the four forces were once united and how
they relate to one another.

MATTER AND STAR STUFF

THE BIRTH OF MATTER AND ELEMENTS
"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies
were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff."—Carl Sagan

Fill in the following while watching the video clip ‘What Did the Stars Give Us?’

INGREDIENTS + GOLDILOCKS CONDITIONS = NEW COMPLEXITY

Very high temperatures. Stars running out of fuel. Chemistry is born!

Aging and dying stars. Giant stars collapsing. Most elements on periodic
table formed.

All liquids, gases, and solids found on our planet are made from one or more of 92 naturally occurring
elements. From what they have observed, scientists have determined that these same 92 elements are
found throughout our universe. This suggests that a common process leads to their creation. But how
are these elements created? How did they get they so widely disseminated?

Currently, the most popular theory states that the nuclei of hydrogen and helium, the lightest and most
abundant elements in the visible universe, were created in the moments following the Big Bang. All
other naturally occurring elements were — and continue to be — generated in the high temperature
and pressure conditions present in stars. Elements are composed of tiny particles called atoms that are
indivisible under normal conditions. However, when exposed to high heat and pressure, atoms can
either break apart or fuse together. Under these conditions, the nucleus of one element can fuse with
the nucleus of a different element, creating the nucleus of a heavier element. When elements lighter
than iron form, the mass of the new nucleus is less than the combined mass of the two original nuclei.
The difference in mass between the two is released as energy. In stars, this kind of reaction is referred to
as stellar nucleosynthesis, but it is more commonly known as nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is used
today on Earth in the nuclear explosives called hydrogen bombs. Many people hope that one day
nuclear fusion will be used for peaceful energy production.

Stars are fueled by nuclear fusion reactions, which take place in their deep interiors, or cores. Hydrogen
nuclei fuse, forming helium nuclei. The energy produced by these fusion reactions prevents the star
from collapsing under its own gravity. Mature stars contain enough hydrogen nuclei to last billions of
years. Stars are very hungry. Burning at incredible levels, cranked to the extreme, a star will eventually
consume all the hydrogen that powers its nuclear fusion. Then the star changes dramatically. When a
star's hydrogen fuel supply is spent, its core begins to contract. The contraction is so intense that it

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creates conditions under which helium nuclei fuse. In this way, helium becomes the star's next fuel
source. This intense heat and pressure creates other nuclear reactions, producing new, heavier
elements — carbon, silicon, oxygen, and others, until it creates iron. Iron is heavy, highly stable, and
cannot be fused further.

Since the heaviest element created in a star by nuclear fusion reactions is iron, a large iron core
eventually forms at the center of everything. At this point, gravity becomes overwhelming and a
catastrophic event begins. Lacking the outpouring of energy from its core, the star collapses. Its many
outer layers fall inwards, in an enormous unbelievable avalanche of matter crumbling due to the pull of
gravity from the dense core. They slam with unimaginable force into the star's iron center, creating new
elements. These new elements bounce off the iron core, hurtling outwards into space.

This massive explosion and death of a star, called a supernova, occurs about once a century in our
galaxy. The energy created by supernovas produces nuclei heavier than iron and the birth of new
elements out into the cosmos.

YOU AND THE UNIVERSE AND AN ATOM

MEASURING DISTANCES IN SPACE
It is not easy for us to imagine the truly immense scale of the universe. Distances between most objects
in space are unfathomably large. “Scale” refers to the size of an object compared with its surroundings
or another object. Think of a flea trying to understand the size of a sports arena. Now imagine that the
flea is surrounded by 100 sports arenas. If someone told the flea how vast the space was around it in all
directions, the flea would find it extremely difficult to envision. For humans, trying to understand the
size of the universe is just as difficult.

If asked to give the distance from home to school, a student would likely answer by stating the number
of blocks or even kilometres. These units are appropriate, since millimetres and centimetres would be

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meaningless for distances greater than a few metres. The unit that is commonly used to describe
distances in space if the light-year. To understand this unit, think first about light. Scientists believe that
light moves faster than anything else in the universe. Light moves at a speed of nearly 300,000 km/s.
How fast is that? In the time it takes to snap your fingers, light can travel around the entire Earth more
than seven times!

Travelling at 300,000km/s, light from the Sun takes about 8 min to reach Earth. Light from the Sun takes
about 5h to reach Neptune, the most distant planet in our solar system. But to reach the star that is
nearest to us, called Proxima Centauri, light must travel 4.2 years! A light-year represents the distance
that light travels in one year. So the distance to Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years. Most of the stars in
the universe are hundreds, thousands and even millions of light-years away from us. Can you imagine
that? Can anyone? The universe is huge!

Long ago, people invented a technique for calculating distances on the ground indirectly: triangulation.
This technique involves creating an imaginary triangle between the observer and the object. To use
triangulation, you need to know the length of one side of the triangle, called the baseline. You also need
to know the size of the two angles created when imaginary lines are drawn from each end of the
baseline to the same point on the distant object.

For thousands of years people measured the distances to stars using triangulation and an effect called
parallax. Try this: extend your arm and hold up your thumb. As you look at it with your left eye only, line
your thumb up against an object on the far wall, such as a light switch of corner of a window. Without
moving your thumb, now look with your right eye only. The apparent shift of your thumb against the
stationary (unmoving) background is called parallax. It is caused by the change in position of
observation.

To measure distances from Earth to the stars it is most accurate to have the longest baseline possible
because a triangle with a long baseline will have more noticeable angles. From Earth, the longest
baseline to use is the diameter of Earth’s orbit. Since it takes Earth a year to fully orbit the Sun,
measurements from each end of the baseline must be taken six months apart, when Earth reaches its
farthest points on opposite sides of the Sun. If a star is close enough (up to 1000 light-years), it will
appear to move in relation to more distant stars. Then its distance can be determined using
triangulation.

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IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

THE DRAKE EQUATION (STARTED FROM THE BIG BANG, NOW WE’RE HERE)
At the moment, life on Earth is the only known life in the universe, but there are compelling arguments
to suggest we are not alone. Indeed, most astrophysicists accept a high probability of there being life
elsewhere in the universe, if not on other planets or on moons within our own solar system. The
numbers are, well, astronomical: If the count of planets in our solar system is not unusual, then there
are more planets in the universe than the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human
who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet in the cosmos with life would be
inexcusably egocentric of us.

History tells us that it's prudent to be guided by the notion that we are not special, which is generally
known as the Copernican principle, named for the Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus who, in the
mid-1500s, put the Sun back in the middle of our solar system where it belongs. While there is no
guarantee that the Copernican principle will guide us correctly for all scientific discoveries to come, it
has humbled our egos with the realization that not only is Earth not in the center of the solar system,
but the solar system is not in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and the Milky Way galaxy is not in the
center of the universe. And in case you are one of those people who thinks that the edge may be a
special place, then we are not at the edge of anything either.

Is life chemically special? The Copernican principle suggests that it probably isn't. Consider that the four
most common elements in the universe are hydrogen, helium, carbon, and oxygen. Helium is inert. So
the three most abundant, chemically active ingredients in the cosmos are also the top three ingredients
in life on Earth. For this reason, you can bet that if life is found on another planet, it will be made of a
similar mix of elements. Conversely, if life on Earth were composed primarily of, for example,
molybdenum, bismuth, and plutonium, then we would have excellent reason to suspect that we were
something special in the universe. (Source - Reflections on the Scientific and Cultural Implications of
Finding Life in the Cosmos by Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2003).

The Drake Equation is used to estimate the number of communicating civilizations in the cosmos, or
more simply put, the odds of finding intelligent life in the universe. First proposed by radio astronomer
Frank Drake in 1961, the equation calculates the number of communicating civilizations by multiplying
several variables. The challenge (at least for now) is that astronomers don't have firm numbers on any of
those variables, so any calculation of the Drake Equation remains a rough estimate for now. There have
been, however, discoveries in some of these fields that give astronomers a better chance of finding the
answer.

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N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L
 N = The number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are
detectable.

 R* =The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.

 fp = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.

 ne = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.

 fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.

 fi = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.

 fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their
existence into space.

 L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

EXPLORING SPACE – TECHNOLOGIES AND ETHICS
Our success in learning about the sky and beyond has long depended on the tools available to extend
our vision. Before space travel was possible, space exploration was performed by studying the sky with
the naked eye. Ancient scholars developed an understanding of the stars, the planets and their
movements based on what they could see with their naked eyes. Observation improved greatly after the
invention of the first optical telescope in the 17th century. Suddenly, peoples were able to see details
they could never have imagined were there before. This is how they came to realize that the Moon has
craters, stars exist in the millions rather than the thousands, and Earth is not the centre of the universe.

Constant improvement of a range of tools and technologies has helped astronomers continue to make
new discoveries, both from Earth and by venturing into space. However, as we learned, the universe is
so huge and distances are so vast that it will be many years – if ever – before we can view much of it
directly.

Activity - The Scale of Progress

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Wishful Practical
Speculation Science Technology
Thinking Application

Much of the science fiction of space travel is just fiction. Warp drive, force fields, and antimatter
propulsion do not get beyond the wishful thinking or speculation stages on the scale of progress (see
above). In the space below, give at least 2 examples from your everyday experiences of things that
progresses from wishful thinking to practical application over the past 50 years. Be prepared to share
your ideas.

Even here, in our own solar system, the only object beyond Earth that humans have ever set foot on is
the Moon. Physically exploring outside Earth’s atmosphere (even the International Space Station,
orbiting at 400km above Earth’s surface is still within Earth’s atmosphere, which extends to about 690
km.) is more than just an activity to answer scientific curiosity. Humans are now pushing the limits of
technology to travel into space for fun and profit.

As mentioned, most of what we know about the solar system and the rest of the universe depends on
indirect observation using a variety of technologies such as the following:

TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION DIAGRAM

Optical Devices that collect and focus
Telescope visible light from distant
objects using a series of
mirrors and/or lenses.

Radio Devices that collect and focus

Telescopes radio waves generated from
distant objects and converts
these waves into forms that
can be visualized.

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Satellites Electronic devices put into

orbit around the Earth to
collect and send data back to
Earth. Besides sending info
about black holes and other
interplanetary bodies, also
used for weather reports, cell
phone communication, and
tracking large scale events
such as ocean currents.

Probes Unmanned space vehicles

that are sent to celestial
bodies to fly past, orbit or
land on them. Are designed
to travel very long distances
and carry instruments to
collect and relay large
amounts of data back to
Earth. New Horizons flew
past Pluto in 2015 and
continues flying beyond.
Cassini's 19-year mission to
explore Saturn ended on
Sept. 15, 2017 with a
deliberate plunge into
Saturn's atmosphere.
Rovers Robotic devices that are
designed to move around on
the surface of a planet or
moon, collecting visual,
geological and other types of
data. Due to the length of
time it can take for radio
signals to travel between
Earth and a remote location,
rovers are programmed to
diagnose and solve many
problems on their own.

Space travel is made possible by rockets – devices that transport materials, equipment and sometimes
humans into space. Some of the rewards related to space travel and its associated technologies include
freeze-dried foods, cold-weather clothing and global-positioning systems (GPS). Risks include the
possibility of equipment failure (leading to possible injury or death), hazards of pollution in orbit around
Earth (‘space junk’) and hazards associated with this pollution when/if it falls back to Earth.

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Should we be travelling into space? Should we be using energy and resources to travel into space before
we deal with and solve problems on our home planet? This is an ethical question. Ethics considers
questions about whether something is right or wrong. Another ethical question to consider is “Should
we be terraforming other planets and moons – making them suitable for supporting human life?” There
are many types of questions that must be considered about space travel. Read the points/questions
already written and add at least two other points/questions for each category.

Ethical  How can we ensure that space resources will be used to help all humankind
rather than just to provide an advantage to one country?
 Do humans have the right to invade other unique environments in the solar
system?


Environmental  What are the effects of space travel on Earth’s natural systems?
 What effect does resource removal (mining) have on asteroids, moons and
planets?


Political  Who owns space resources?

 Who should decide how space resources will be used?

These concerns are not for some future generation but are ones that you will likely confront in the next
several years.

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