Introduction
Astronomers...We are about to take an adventure to see how the distance affects the brightness of stars from Earth. You have learned about each star and the sun that is a star. Now, we will look more into the distance of the stars and how the apparent and absolute magnitude changes based on different factors. We will look at the distances from Earth and the actual distances. How bright will each star be? How do scientist determine the brightness if they cannot reach the stars? Let's go explore more....
3, 2, 1........... Blastoff!
Watch this video to find out what stars are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrS3Ye8p61Y
After you are finished watching this video, click on the Task link to blast you off to your task.
TASK:
Task
On this mission you will work in teams of 3 people. The jobs that will be included in this mission are:
Star counter- The star counter will count the number of faint stars, dim stars, and bright stars within a sample given here.
Star data grapher- The star grapher will take the tally marks of the three types of stars and graph them into a bar graph. You will have a graph provided to you in your packet of items needed for this mission.
Data analyzer- The star data analyzer will write down what your group brainstorms based upon your observations and data gather to come up with an answer to what affects the brightness of the stars you see in the night sky.
As an astronomer, you will have to take a sample instead of counting every star in the night sky. It would be impossible for you to count EVERY star, so explore the sample provided to count and graph your data.