Middle School Student Newsletter 2/7/20

Science: Astronomy

In science, Middle School has been working on the larger topic of astronomy. As seen in the previous newsletter by Annabel, we visited the Roger Williams Natural Museum of History and Observatory. More recently we visited the Frosty Drew Observatory at Ninigret Park. Since it was the middle of the day, we looked at the sun through two different telescopes with two different light filters. In the first telescope, we were able to see the photosphere, the layer of the sun normally visible to the naked eye. Through that telescope, the sun was a light tangerine color, and surprisingly we were able to see a sunspot, however, the sunspot was actually quite larger than the earth even though it seemed like a speck of dust through the telescope. Through the second telescope, we saw the chromosphere of the sun. We could still see the sunspot on the chromosphere, but we could also see the waves of radiation emitted by the sun. The reason that seeing a sunspot was quite surprising is because of the fact that we are currently in solar minimum. About every eleven years the sun’s magnetic poles flip, and every time they flip we enter either solar minimum or solar maximum. During solar minimum, seeing a sunspot is relatively rare, and scarcely happens. During solar maximum, sunspots are abundant and easy to spot. 

We then looked through the giant observatory telescope to see the planet Venus. While we were looking at Venus, Scott MacNeill, the observatory director, talked to us about the first humans on Mars. He mentioned that 10 people who are currently between the ages of 5-21 will be the first humans on Mars. We discussed the jobs needed for the first mission to Mars such as a doctor, engineer, pilot, chemist, botanist and possibly others. The class left with significantly more knowledge of the sun and other things, as well as a motivated feeling to do something amazing.