Hot and Cold in Space
Students learn that temperature measures particle motion, that heat moves across empty space by radiation, and why places in the solar system range from Venus's 870 degrees F to the deep chill near Sedna.
Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops
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What students will see and do
Students fly to the Sun, the International Space Station, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope and the distant dwarf planet Sedna. Aetherion pauses for discussion at the ISS (how heat arrives and leaves in a vacuum), Venus (why it is hotter than Mercury) and Webb (why an infrared telescope must be cold).
Learning objectives
- Explain that temperature is a measure of how fast particles move, and why near-empty space cannot easily warm or cool an object by touch.
- Describe how heat travels by conduction and by radiation, and why radiation is the main way heat moves in space.
- Compare surface temperatures on the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Earth and identify the role of an atmosphere.
- Identify engineering solutions, such as radiators and Webb's sunshield, that control temperature in space.
NGSS connections
| MS-PS3-3 | Students examine engineering designs (ISS radiators, spacesuits, Webb's sunshield) that minimize or maximize thermal energy transfer. |
|---|---|
| MS-PS3-4 | Students connect temperature to the average motion of particles, and how the amount of matter affects energy transfer. |
| MS-ESS1-3 | Students compare properties of solar system objects, including distance from the Sun, atmosphere and surface temperature. |
Stops on this journey
- What Temperature Really Means
- Baking and Freezing in Orbit (discussion stop)
- Two Weeks of Day, Two Weeks of Night
- Mercury's Extremes
- The Hottest Planet (discussion stop)
- A Just-Right Blanket
- A Telescope in the Shade (discussion stop)
- The Cold Far Reaches
Vocabulary
- temperature
- conduction
- radiation
- infrared
- vacuum
- greenhouse effect
- insulation
- sunshield