The Questions Behind the Exhibit

Are we alone?

Where do stars and planets come from?

What would life elsewhere be like?

 The Big Ideas

We are developing extraordinary

new tools, techniques, and insights
for exploring the age-old question
of whether there is life beyond
Earth.

Our search for habitable worlds

and signs of life in our galaxy is
guided by our study of how stars
and planets form & our
understanding of life on Earth.
 Welcome to the Exhibit

The science background is organized by EXHIBIT AREA:

Our Place in Space (Powers of 10 display) straight back
Search for Life to the left
Star & Planet Formation to the right
Planet Quest Dome straight back
 A. Our Place in Space

KEY QUESTIONS:
What and where are we in the cosmos?
Could there be other planets like Earth out there?
3. Stars and star systems orbit 1. Moons
the centers of galaxies orbit planets

4. Galaxies orbit each

other in clusters.

2. Planets orbit stars

Can You Fill in the Blanks?
Click for Answers

Exploring the Structure of the Universe

Before entering the exhibit, fill in the blanks using the following key words.
galaxy orbit solar system moon star
Universe Earth Jupiter planets Sun
100 billion
star located at the center of our __________________.
The Sun is a _________ solar system Our
Earth is one of 9 planets that orbit around the _________.
home, called __________, Sun
moon that orbits around it each month, showing different
Earth has one _________
phases. Some planets have many moons that ___________orbit around them.
Jupiter
________________ is the largest planet in the Solar System and has 64 moons!
100 billion stars contained in the spiral
Our sun is one of about _______________
galaxy
_____________ we call the Milky Way. Astronomers are now discovering
planets that orbit around some of those distant stars. Outer
Jupiter-sized ____________
space is even bigger yet because the Milky Way is only one of an estimated 100
Universe
billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies in the ______________!
Astronomy Games: Fill-in-the-Blank Copyright 2000 Cherilynn Morrow – Used with permission artscienceducation@yahoo.com
Our Place in the Solar System
Earth is one of 9 PLANETS* in our SOLAR SYSTEM.
The planets orbit a central STAR we call the SUN.

Jupiter Saturn
Mercury
Mars
Venus
Earth Neptune
Uranus

Can you name the other planets?

Hit <RETURN> for answers
Rocky terrestrial planets Gas & ice giant planets
of the inner solar system. of the outer solar system.

Influenced by the gravity of Jupiter & Neptune, icy

comets from the outer solar system likely delivered
important ingredients for life to the young Earth
environment (e.g. water and carbon compounds).

*The exact number depends on whether we call objects like Pluto “planets”.
 Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.

• Jupiter is a gaseous world without a solid surface.

• Jupiter has twice the mass of all the other planets combined.
• Jupiter is 10 times the diameter of Earth.
• A thousand Earths would fit inside Jupiter.
 Artist’s concept of 3 “extra-solar planets”

In the past decade, we have begun to detect the presence of Jupiter-sized

worlds in orbit around other stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
 The Goldilocks Effect
Venus
“Too Hot”

Earth
“Just Right!”

Mars
“Too Cold”

Earth is in our solar system’s “habitable zone”

where liquid water can exist on the surface.
Earth-sun distance
not to scale
• A hundred Earths
would fit across the
diameter of the Sun.

• A million Earths
would fit inside the
volume of the Sun.
 The Sun is the ONLY star in the SOLAR SYSTEM.

Earth is the ONLY

planet in our solar
system where we
know for sure that
life has evolved.
 Our Place in the Galaxy
• The Sun is the only star in the
SOLAR SYSTEM, but it is one of
over 100 billion stars in the
GALAXY we call the Milky Way.

• Our solar system is located

about 2/3 of the way out from
the galaxy’s center.

• Astronomers think that most of

the stars in the Milky Way galaxy
could also have planets orbiting
around them. These are called
Artist’s Concept of our Milky Way Galaxy “extra-solar planets”.
 The term “Milky Way” is used in two ways.
For purposes of this presentation, we mean the whole galaxy.

1. “Milky Way” = our entire galaxy of 100 2. “Milky Way” = the band of light and
billion stars.* Our whole solar system dust that stretches across a dark night
orbits once around the galaxy’s center sky.* This is just a portion of one of the
every 225 million years or so. spiral arms that we can see from Earth.

* The image above is of another spiral galaxy that * The image above is a long exposure photograph,
may be a lot like our own Milky Way. It would not be showing much more contrast than we would see with
possible to make such an image of our own galaxy our naked eye. To the eye, the “Milky Way” looks
from within it. This galaxy is called NGC 4414. like a faint, whitish band with a few dark patches.
 “Milky Stars” There’d be about a 100
billion crystals. That’s
Mirrored Room: how many stars in the
part of the whole Milky Way galaxy!
Alien Earths
exhibit
What if we filled
this whole room
with crystals of
salt?

“What if we filled this whole room with crystals of salt?”

That’s how many stars in the whole Milky Way galaxy! ~ 100 billion!
 Assume the Sun is the size of a large grapefruit:
Q1. About how big would
planet Earth be on this scale?
[Show size with your hands or an
object. <RETURN> for answer.]
A1: About the size of a pencil tip

Q2: On this scale, how far away Of course, the Sun

is really 10 billion
would pencil-tip “Earth” be times bigger than
from the grapefruit “Sun”? a grapefruit with a
14 cm diameter.
A2: About 15 meters (50 ft) away.
Pluto would be about ½ mile away.

Q3: On this scale, how far

away would the nearest star
in the Milky Way galaxy be?
A3: About 5000 km (3000 miles).
The East-West distance across the US!
So in this scale model, the space between the Sun and the
NEAREST STAR in the Milky Way galaxy is like having one
grapefruit on the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, and
another grapefruit on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

Images of spiral galaxies make it seem like stars

are crammed closely together, but in reality
there are vast distances between them.
So Many Stars, So Little Time
At the present time, our technologies enable us to search
around the nearest stars in the Milky Way galaxy (the pink
sphere) for extra-solar planets or signs of intelligent life.
We are searching in a tiny portion of the Milky Way
galaxy, and yet our galaxy is only one of more than
100 billion galaxies in the Universe!
All but 4 specks in this “Hubble Deep Field” image are
entire galaxies, each of them with 100 billion stars.
 A. Our Place in Space
SUMMARY
Earth is one of 9 PLANETS that orbit a STAR we call the
SUN [“3rd rock from the Sun”]

The Sun is at the center of the SOLAR SYSTEM and is the

ONLY star in the Solar System.

Our SUN is one of over 100 billion STARS in the GALAXY

we call the Milky Way

We are detecting the presence of Jupiter-sized worlds

in orbit around other stars in our Milky Way Galaxy.

Our GALAXY is one of over 100 billion galaxies in the

UNIVERSE!
 Test yourself on
“Earth’s Place in
Space”
by taking a few
minutes to play
TWO ASTRONOMY
GAMES
OR
Skip ahead to
PART B: Star & Planet
Formation
Two Astronomy Games
 On a sheet of paper, make two columns like the ones below:

“Small and Large” “Near and Far”

Smallest 1. 1. Closest

2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5.
6. 6.
7. 7.
8. 8.
Largest 9. 9. Farthest
Game # 1:

✲ The next slide will show 9 images

✲ Order the objects in these images from the smallest

object (number 1) to largest object (number 9). Use the
first column in the table you created.

✲ Write the letter as well as the name of the object in the

column. This way, you will have a list that you can
consult later.

Are you ready?

 A. THE SUN B. EARTH C. SPACE SHUTTLE

D. THE MOON E. THE SOLAR SYSTEM F. BEARS

G. MARS H. A GALAXY I. JUPITER

Press ENTER for a HINT

Mars has no oceans and the same

LAND area as Earth
The Solution
 1F. BEARS 2C. SPACE SHUTTLE 3D. THE MOON

4G. MARS 5B. EARTH 6I. JUPITER

8E. THE SOLAR SYSTEM 9H. A GALAXY

7A. THE SUN
Game # 2:

✲ The next slide will show 9 images.

✲ Order the objects in these images from the object

that is nearest to the surface of Earth (number 1) to
the object that is farthest from the surface of Earth
(number 9). Use the second column in the table you
created.

✲ It would be best to write the letter as well as the

name of the object in the column. This way, you will
have a list that you can consult later.

Are you ready?

A. THE SUN B. A GALAXY C. AURORAS
Press ENTER for HINTS

If we see a whole spiral, Auroras occur in Earth’s

it can’t be our own galaxy. uppermost atmosphere
D. THE MOON E. JET AIRPLANE F. HUBBLE TELESCOPE

The Space Shuttle can visit

Hubble, but not the Moon
G. AN EAGLE H. STARS OF THE BIG DIPPER I. SATURN

Stars we see are within

the Milky Way galaxy Saturn is 10 times farther
from the Sun than Earth
The Solution
G. AN EAGLE E. JET AIRPLANE C. AURORAS

D. THE MOON
F. HUBBLE TELESCOPE A. THE SUN

I. SATURN H. STARS OF THE BIG DIPPER B. A GALAXY