NASA
Exploring Exoplanets with Kepler
Calculate the movement and properties of planets like professional astronomers! Scholars use Kepler's third law to find Mercury and Venus's distance from the sun. Using changes in brightness of distant stars and Kepler's third law,...
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Kepler And His Laws
High schoolers engage in an overview of the story of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, and of Kepler's laws. Each of Kepler's laws be studied separately in more detail in later lessons. They examine Kepler's 3rd law.
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Mathematics at the Frontier of Astronomy
Students explore the different types of measurements used in astronomy. In this space science activity, students explain the relationship between planets' orbits and distance from the sun using Kepler's Laws. They discuss how math aides...
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Ellipses and Kepler's First Law
The class examines graphs in the form r = F(¿¿) in polar coordinates (r, ¿¿), in particular with the circle, ellipse and other conic sections. They determine the nature of an ellipse by studying the role of the semimajor axis and...
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Black Holes...V
In this black hole worksheet, students read about the black hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy called Sagittarius A and observe a Chandra image of the area where the black hole exists. Students solve two problems which include...
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Meet the Neighbors: Planets Around Nearby Stars
Students explain why a transiting planet causes a periodic dimming in the light from its parent star. They determine the radius of a planet, and its orbital distance, by analyzing data and manipulating equations. Students compare the...
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Kepler's Third Law
Students use Kepler's third law to derive the velocity in a circular orbit of any radius, and identify the Earth escape velocity.
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Kepler's Second Law
Students gain an understanding of Kepler's 2nd law--that planets (and satellites) move fastest at their closest approach to the center of attraction, and slow down when far away. They explore the concepts of "potential energy" and...
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Ellipses And Kepler's First Law
Students explain that planets actually orbit the center of gravity of the solar system, and that distant planets may be detected by motions of their central star around the centers of gravity of their planetary systems.
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Worksheet 19: Ship Positions
In this math worksheet, students read informational paragraphs and then answer 18 questions using data from their readings. Questions are about vectors, positions, distance and orbits.
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Discovering a Law of Space Physics
Students use data collected by an astronomer to determine the relationship between the time it takes the planet to orbit the sun and the average radius of the planet's orbit around the sun. Students use trial and error to find the...
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Application of Ellipses
In this algebra worksheet, 11th graders apply ellipses to real life scenarios such as football, satellite and planet orbits. They discuss a variety of way sto apply ellipses.
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Worksheet 12
In this math worksheet, students explain the vector parametric equation for a line, scalar parametric equations, symmetric equations, and the implicit equation for a line.