Light, Color and Starlight
Students learn what light is, how reflection, absorption, transmission, scattering and refraction create the colors they see, and how astronomers read star color and spectra to find a star's temperature, size and composition.
Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops7 stops
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What students will see and do
Students start at the Sun and then fly to six stars of different colors: blue-white Rigel, white Sirius and Vega, orange Arcturus, and red Betelgeuse and Antares. Aetherion pauses for discussion at the Sun (why objects have color), Vega (reading a star's composition) and Betelgeuse (how a cool star can be very bright).
Learning objectives
- Describe how light is reflected, absorbed, transmitted and refracted, and use these to explain the color of an everyday object.
- Explain why the daytime sky is blue and sunsets are red using scattering of different wavelengths.
- Relate a star's color to its surface temperature, ordering stars from hottest (blue) to coolest (red).
- Explain how dark lines in a spectrum reveal the elements in a star, using the discovery of helium as an example.
NGSS connections
| MS-PS4-2 | Students develop and use models of light being reflected, absorbed, transmitted and refracted, from apple colors and blue skies to twinkling stars and dust dimming Betelgeuse. |
|---|---|
| MS-PS4-1 | Students describe light as a wave whose wavelength determines its color. |
| MS-ESS1-3 | Students use star color, brightness and distance to compare the properties of stars such as Rigel, Sirius and Betelgeuse. |
Stops on this journey
- What Light Is (discussion stop)
- Rigel, Hot and Blue
- Sirius and the Twinkle
- Vega's Fingerprints (discussion stop)
- Arcturus, the Orange Giant
- Betelgeuse, the Red Supergiant (discussion stop)
- Antares, Rival of Mars
Vocabulary
- wavelength
- spectrum
- reflection
- absorption
- transmission
- refraction
- scattering
- supergiant