Eclipses, Planets, and Stars

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There is no doubt in my mind that Nature's most exciting spectacle is a total eclipse of the sun. Rather than being an event to be witnessed, a total solar eclipse is an exhilarating experience. Every fiber of a human being becomes involved. So too birds, animals, and even plants are affected by the onset of darkness at midday.

The apparent wanderings of planets through the background of stars is always intriguing. That they are capable of stopping their motion, turning around, stopping again, and then resuming their original direction has captivated human minds since antiquity. How? and indeed why? are queries needing answers.

Stars bright and faint, of every color of the rainbow, in an ever-changing parade of beauty night after night throughout the year seize imagination and evoke wonder. What is a star? Where do stars come from? Where do they go? And as we gaze at their patterns, what really do we behold?

Eclipses, planets, stars! Excitement, imagination, wonder!

It all adds up to ASTRONOMY!

Another Earth?
On April 21, a team of Swiss and French researchers working at the European Southern Observatory in Chile reported they had discovered the smallest and most Earthlike planets ever seen beyond our solar system.

Proof of Life?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) may have stumbled upon a best-selling novel. A photograph suggests that there may have been life on Mars after all.

LESSON PLAN	Lesson 4: Imagine You're an Astronaut In this lesson and worksheet, students learn about astronauts and compare properties of life in space with life on earth.
ONLINE ACTIVITY	The View from Hubble See what the Hubble Space Telescopes sees in this slide show.