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Begin your celebration of the International Year of Astronomy by checking out our resources on astronomy and scientists in the field! |
Did You Know?
The year, 2009, is the International Year of Astronomy and the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations of space using his telescope!
(from the International Year of Astronomy website) |
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More Astronomical Facts! |
- Despite Jupiter’s enormous size, it spins faster than any other planet. A day on Jupiter is about ten hours long.
- Venus’s clouds aren’t made of water vapor, like Earth’s. Instead they’re made of poisonous sulfuric acid.
- Like Mercury, Venus’s day is longer than its year. The unique thing about Venus is that it rotates backward compared to the other planets. On Venus, the Sun rises in the west. No one knows why this is so.
- Unlike the solid layers of Earth, the layers of the Sun are made of swirling gases. Its surface looks like boiling tomato soup.
- The light of a full moon has long been associated with evil and disaster. The word lunatic comes from the Latin name for the Moon, luna, because people believed that the rays of the Moon when full caused insanity.
- Astronauts’ footprints will stay in the Moon’s fine dust for millions of years, since the Moon has no wind or rain to erase them.
(Quoted facts from Kenneth C. Davis' book, Don't Know Much About Space) |
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Go Observe, Learn, and Stargaze! |
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The Crab Nebula
"The Crab Nebula is a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans.
This composite image was assembled from 24 individual exposures taken with the NASA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000. It is one of the largest images taken by Hubble and is the highest resolution image ever made of the entire Crab Nebula."* |
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Into Cyberspace at Warp Speed! |
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Are you an astronomical brainiac?
Get beyond the Milky Way and test your knowledge of space trivia by playing the Way Out Trivia Game on the Hubble Site!
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Launching Wisdom |
But it does move.
(Quote of Galileo, when he learned that the earth does move around the sun (1632),
from The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations of Oxford Reference Online) |
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It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
(Quote of Robert Goddard (1882-1945),
US physicist & pioneer rocket engineer, from Quotationspage.com) |
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Being a successful scientist takes a lot more than intelligence. It takes courage, hard work, dedication, the ability to be inspired and a passion for what you are doing. If you have these qualities, don't let anyone tell you no. Trust yourself and others will learn to trust you. And finally, consider seriously all of the advice you receive, but in the end you must follow your heart to be happy.
(Quote of Kim Weaver, NASA Astrophysicist, from the Women of NASA Web site) |
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The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
(Quote of Albert Einstein (1879-1955),
US Physicist, from Quotationspage.com) |
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* Credits:
International Year of Astronomy logo used with permission by the United States Chair of the International Year of Astronomy organization and the International Astronomical Union. For more info: http://astronomy2009.us/home/ and www.astronomy2009.org
Martian Soil Magnified and facts, courtesy of NASA, JPL, and USGS. For more info:
http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=1243
Crab Nebula and facts, courtesy of NASA, ESA, and J. Hester and A. Loll of Arizona State University. For more info:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/star/pulsar/2005/37/
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Santa Clara County Library
Children's Services
July, 2009 |
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