FUSE Exhibit at the Maryland Science Center We'll bring the stars down to you!!
Starting this winter, you will be able to see the FUSE exhibit at the Maryland Science Center (downtown Baltimore). It will be part of a whole new Space exhibit bringing continuous updates about discoveries from space! You will learn about FUSE as well as HST, two missions within NASA's "Astronomical Search for Origins" program, that will both contribute - with different measurements - significant pieces of the puzzle, to ultimately unlock the mystery of the Origins of the Universe. Here are some components of the exhibit developed by the FUSE Public Outreach personnel in partnership with the MSC:
At MSC, you will find a 1/3 scale FUSE model, a description
of the instrument and the misssion, and a link to the
FUSE Satellite Control
Center. With a total cost of $110 million, FUSE is the largest NASA
project to date managed and operated entirely by a University. A
"live link" to the JHU Satellite Control Center (located in the Bloomberg
Center for Physics and Astronomy on Hopkins' Homewood Campus), will
probably spark your curiosity for space science. You can see at any
moment where FUSE is above the Earth in its orbit, what star or galaxy
is currently being observed with FUSE, what other observations are
planned, and you can get an idea of how astronomical observations are
done using a telescope in space.
FUSE will focus exclusively on the far ultraviolet range
-- a realm of invisible light! Thus, the challenge before the
FUSE scientist and the Science Center is to make the unseen comprehensible,
and even informative. How can something we cannot see reveal the Universe
to us? To explain this, hands-on interactive exhibitry exploring the
electromagnetic spectrum and relating abstract scientific concepts to
everyday experiences is being created. These exhibits will help visitors
understand the electromagnetic spectrum (visible and invisible light),
and discover what we can learn from light in different parts of the
spectrum, including such things as the chemical make-up of stars and galaxies.
The exhibit will address what FUSE will tell us about the evolution and
origin of our Universe, our planet and ourselves.
Astronomers identify the presence of elements millions of light years
distant by their spectra. Each element creates a unique spectrum similar
to how each individual person has a unique fingerprint. Aboard FUSE, a
spectrograph will divide incoming light into its component wavelengths,
creating a spectral portrait of the astronomical object emitting or
absorbing that light. Because each element has a unique spectral
"fingerprint", astronomers are able to determine the exact chemical
composition of an object from this portrait, as well as its velocity,
temperature and other physical conditions.
We are helping the MSC to design activities which will allow visitors
to understand spectroscopy, superficially read spectra, and learn how
spectra can tell scientists the chemical make-up, physical conditions,
and speed of an object in the distant Universe.
One of FUSE's major science goals is to shed light on
the Origins of the Universe. FUSE will measure the abundance of the isotope
deuterium (the "heavy hydrogen") in a variety of astrophysical
environments, from local gas clouds to distant clouds along the lines of
sight toward quasars and active galactic nuclei. FUSE will be used to
determine the extent to which stellar processing has modified the primordial
(or "original" abundance of deuterium, thereby providing a better
understanding of the amount of deuterium produced in the Big Bang. The
primordial abundance of deuterium, a light isotope created only in the
first few minutes after the Big Bang, is one of the three major tests of
the Big Bang theory (the nucleosynthesis model: the primordial ratio of
deuterium to hydrogen is very sensitive to the density of matter just after
the explosion), and yields an independent measurement of the baryonic
mass of the Universe. HST is providing major progress on another
parameter of the Big Bang: the rate of expansion of the Universe, while
COBE provided information on the microwave background radiation, the
"echo" of the primordial explosion.
FUSE and HST exhibits at the MSC will tell you the up-to-date story about
NASA's "Astronomical search for Origins", and how we are trying to
better understand the origin of matter, energy, and even ourselves! All the matter was created in the Big Bang, but only in
the form of a few light elements and isotopes (hydrogen and deuterium,
helium, lithium). Where did all the other chemical elements come from?
The oxygen that we breathe; the metals we make our tools from; iron that
colors red rocks in our Planet and the whole of planet Mars; gold,
silver.... the carbon - important constituent of all organic molecules, and
silicon, that makes up the sand in our beaches and the microchips in our
computers. They are ALL created in the nucleosynthesic processes that
occur deep in stellar interiors, powerful nuclear furnaces fusing the
light hydrogen nuclei and the subsequent products into heavier elements
to create the variety of chemical species. In other words, the "stuff"
we are made of, and we breathe, and we wear, and we eat... is all
stellar-made.
How did stars transform part of the primordial gases (over billion of
years) into the elements so familiar to us, and that make life possible?
We want to help visitors understand the (indeed rather complex) process of
stellar nucleosynthesis, and the circle of life and death of stars (in which the
familiar elements are produced) by designing an easy, entertaining,
hands-on activity.
In an electronic "Stellar power plant", you can create a star by
pumping in solar-size "scoops" of interstellar gases, you can
"turn on" your star and watch it evolve through its entire life, and
then compare the elements it produces to what is found in the chemical
periodic table. What will you find out? Here is a hint: stars of different
masses have very different lifetimes, very different fates (some will end
with a big supernova explosion, some will create the delicate, beautiful
Planetary Nebulas, some will just fade silently away). Most importantly,
stars of different masses produce different chemical elements in various
quantities. So try to make different stars and see what happens!
An illuminated display will show you the chemical elements produced by
your stars: can you compare them with spectroscopy of planets in the solar
system including Earth? Stay tuned!! You will find most of the FUSE exhibitry (as well as the
new and improved Hubble Space Telescope displays) in the permanent display
area at MSC, with more fun things about astronomy and space science. But
we'll also update you in the future, through the interactive part of the
museum, about FUSE launch, and subsequent observations and discoveries
as they happen!
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