Churchill Science

Here’s our first official question for 2009-10! To learn more about the Sun, why not visit our Sun page by clicking at the top of the screen?

Click on the picture to play the game!

Click here to learn more about NASA’s mission to the Hubble Space telescope. Includes step-by-step visuals about what the astronauts will do, information about how the telescope works, and video about the mission. Also, some of the best photos that Hubble has taken of our universe!

Brief video explaining the Hubble mission and introducing the astronauts…

Launch of the space shuttle to begin this mission…

Some of Hubble’s best work!

The Cluster B classes have been studying the planets in our own solar system and finding out why Earth is so unique and special. But could there be planets somewhere else in the universe that we could live on? Recently scientists announced that they have found some…

The red glowing object is Gliese 581, a red dwarf star. There are several rocky planets orbiting it, each named for the star – Gliese 581c, Gliese 581d, and Gliese 581e. Last week, scientists announced that “d” and “e” were the planets most like Earth that have ever been found.

Here’s a video showing the whole system:

This next video shows some planets that orbit around other stars, that could be like our own planet Earth. These stars are very far away and it is currently too hard to take a picture of them, much less go there. The video also talks about why Venus and Mars didn’t end up having life, the way Earth did.

Click here to try building your own star! You can decide how big to make it and how many metals to put in. Watch and see how long it takes to live and die. Also, can you make it form a black hole?

Create your own planet with Planet 10!
221 did, and look what happened… Click on the picture to play the game!

Update: 222 won on the very first try! How did they do it???

Once you’ve made your planet, give it a name and launch it into our solar system. Watch the left side of the screen to see what your planet’s fate is!

If you take a screenshot of your planet, we’ll post it here!

Good luck!

By popular request…

In this game, you get to be the Sun. You can “fire” small, medium, or large solar winds at the Earth and watch as the Earth’s magnetic field produces an aurora in response. Then click “Evaluate” to find out what your solar winds did to the Earth.

This video starts with Pluto, a dwarf planet, and then moves up in size order. Can you see why everything in the solar system orbits the Sun and not Earth or another planet?

Also, look at the size of the Sun compared to other stars. What would happen if our planet orbited a bigger star? We are going to be talking more about stars and why bigger is NOT better!