Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Students have a weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com), where they answer questions based on reading their textbook, material covered in previous lectures, opinion questions, and/or asking (anonymous) questions or making (anonymous) comments. Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect. Selected results/questions/comments are addressed by the instructor at the start of the following lecture.
The following questions were asked on reading textbook chapters and previewing presentations on problems caused by the atmosphere for telescope observing, Earth, and the impacted worlds: the moon, and Mercury.
Selected/edited responses are given below.Describe something you found interesting from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.
"That light waves can be affected by our atmosphere. I just found it interesting because it was something that I never considered."
"How light pollution can affect so many things in our environment, such as animals."
"That light pollution interferes with the view of the stars/planets. People would then need go to hilltops far away away from the light pollution just to look at the clear stars and planets."
"I found light pollution very interesting and did not think it was a very big problem until I read into it some more."
"Something I found interesting was that if you were to go to a rural town with not very many lights you could see a faint Milky Way. I found that interesting because we do not get that many chances to see it if you do not leave your hometown."
"Comparing the atmosphere to rippling water was a good analogy. I found this part interesting because I knew that the atmosphere made it more difficult to view view things using a telescope, but this comparison made it easier to understand why."
"I found the comparison between sitting under a pool of water and looking up to sitting under a 'pool' of air really interesting. I never thought about how movement in the sky, such as turbulence, could create such a problem for astronomers or anyone interested in the views of the sky."
"I found learning about how atmospheric turbulence and opacity affect our ability to use telescopes and the ways we combat those effects interesting. I never understood why it was better to have telescopes at a higher altitude and now I do."
"I found the readings about different ways that astronomers have to go about collecting different types of electromagnetic radiation. I found this interesting because it forces them to find new and interesting ways to collect data, which leads to a deeper understanding of our known universe."
"I thought that it was very interesting that telescopes in space can be the size of a bus. This is crazy to me how they can be that and still be be able to function in space."
"Airborne and space telescopes (airplanes, balloons, rockets and satellites), because it is such an interesting perspective to think about."
"I liked reading about all the different atmospheres on the different planets and I liked how it got into global warming. I was also interested by the stages that earth has gone through to and how we'll basically always be in stage three because Earth's surface is constantly changing."
"The greenhouse effect of how an atmosphere traps heat and raises the temperature of a planetary surface. It's crazy how the atmosphere has such an effect on planets--without it, Earth would be a lot different."
"The large impact hypothesis, stating the bulk of two objects will combine to form Earth (and the moon), with most of their cores and the surrounding crust melting, then coalescing."
"I was interested particularly in the geology comparing the planet Mercury to our own moon. Both involved the formation of craters followed by partial filling of lava. I found it fascinating that both bodies were strikingly similar and figured that this could help us learn more about the formation of other planets."
"When learning about the history of Earth's moon, I really enjoyed reading about the magma ocean, it just sounds super awesome to picture."
"I thought the different sizes of the moon's core versus Mercury's core was interesting because you would expect them to remotely similar but are different and you can determine this by the gravitational pull."
"I really liked looking at the pictures of the moon's and Mercury's surfaces. It is cool looking at the ridges and craters shown in the pictures."
"I think it's increasingly interesting how much we think we know about other planets that is primarily based on extrapolation. All of this could change as soon as new evidence presents itself."
"Super-hectic weekend and wasn't able to get to the reading but I will before class!"
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"I do not understand the electromagnetic spectrum graph or how to use it."
"I did not quite get what the difference between radio astronomy and light astronomy was. I wanted to know, but was just lost by the name drop."
"I don't understand how atmospheric turbulence occurs."
"I'm still catching up on the history stuff, I'm really bad at remembering names and related numbers and just putting it all together in the right way."
"The greenhouse effect."
"How carbon dioxide enters and leaves the atmosphere and everything about it, mainly confusing because I thought I already had an idea and now I am jumbled up."
"I was confused about how an asteroid wouldn't be able to break the moon's structure or crack it, it would only leave a crater."
"Something I found confusing was trying to determine which craters were oldest to youngest. Personally because when I was reading the information I just could not retain it."
"That the four inner planets were composed of rock when the outer planets are not."
"The atmosphere on Venus. Why is it so cloudy and thicker than Earth's? It's confusing for me because I thought all the planets had the same amount of atmosphere."
A large modern optical telescope in outer space would have images with better __________ than a comparable ground-based telescope.
brightness. ******** [8] resolution. ************************ [24] magnification. * [1] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) *** [3]
Stars to appear to "twinkle" in the night sky because of...
"The stars twinkle in the night sky because of the effects of our atmosphere. When starlight enters our atmosphere it is affected by winds in the atmosphere and by areas with different temperatures and densities. This causes the light from the star to twinkle when seen from the ground."
"Movement within the atmosphere causing the images of the stars to move and blur."
"Stars appear to twinkle in the night sky because of the effects of our atmosphere. When the light from the stars enter our atmosphere, it experiences turbulence. This causes the stars to look like they 'twinkle.'"
"Living in at the bottom of an 'ocean of air,' turbulence disturbs the air in the atmosphere, making our view disrupted."
"The way our atmosphere moves and shakes."
"I'm not sure, I don't remember this part of the reading."
"Unsure."
Identify how carbon dioxide enters and how it is taken out of Earth's atmosphere.
(Only correct responses shown.)
Enters atmosphere from: volcanoes [44%]
Taken out of atmosphere by: oceans [57%]
(Only correct responses shown.)
Craters partially filled in with flat lava plains: oldest (formed longest ago) [31%]
Flat lava plains: middle [22%]
Craters on top of flat lava plains: youngest (formed most recently) [53%]
(Only correct responses shown.)
Large crater basins: oldest (formed longest ago) [39%]
Lava-filled lowlands: middle [61%]
Long curving ridges: youngest (formed most recently) [58%]
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"I was unsure about why the segmented mirrors might be beneficial. The textbook said that the thin mirrors weigh less and cool faster?" (Yes, saving weight is important when there are so many mirror segments in a large telescope, and having the mirrors be able to cool down (or warm up) quickly is good, because any temperature differences will make a "mirage" effect from thermal air currents around the mirror segments.)
"I found understanding the order that the features formed on the moon and mercury difficult to grasp, the moon a little more so than Mercury. To me, neither the textbook or online presentations presented a clear order and explanation of how we can tell which order they came in."
"I was confused about the order that things occurred on moon because I searched pretty hard and couldn't really find the definitive answer." (We'll be sure to cover this in class this week.)
"What is the significance of knowing the surface features of the moon? Those are just the way it formed, but I would want to know why it's so important to study the moon." (We brought back an abundance of samples from different parts of the moon for thorough laboratory analysis, so we have a very good idea of how the moon formed. Since we do not have samples from other planets (yet) that we can analyze back here on Earth, then the best way to understand those outer planets is to compare their similar/different features compared to the moon's features.)
"I thought the large impact theory in reference to the moon and Earth colliding would have ruined the round structure of both, but I assume over time the gravitational pull at the core would reshape the round sphere?" (Yes, the impact would melt/vaporize both, but as that material cooled gravity would bring everything back together similar to how they first formed by themselves, but now they'll form side-by-side, with the current moon made mostly of the vaporized outer layers of both.)
"I don't totally understand how the large impact theory for the moon's formation is supported when there's contradictory evidence." (Well, it is the best supported and also least contradicted theory given the evidence available.)
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