THE SUN-EARTH CONNECTION

An Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Newsletter

for the Sun-Earth Connection Science Community - and beyond!

December 15, 2006 Volume VII, Issue 4

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See End for Sponsor Information, How to Contribute (please

do!), Contact Us, Unsubscribe, or Find Back Issues

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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=> 1. IHY/IPY Public Event: Worldwide “Open Doors Day”

=> 2. “Cosmic Collisions” – New Planetarium Show - Free DVD!

=> 3. Solar B, aka Hinode — Amazing Images

and the Latest Education and Outreach News and Resources

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1. IHY/IPY Public Event

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IHY/IPY Public Event: Worldwide "Open Doors Day" on June 10, 2007

We would like to promote events on June 10 2007 (Sunday) in the

United States to raise the awareness of the public on space and

Earth science and the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) and

International Polar Year (IPY) happening in 2007/2008

(http://ihy2007.org/outreach/epo_programs.shtml).

Your event could be in the form of different activities — an

exhibition, discussions, public talks, presentations, activities

for kids and/or adults, astronomical observations etc. It could

be in any public place, like a museum, science center, community

center, school, university, park, cafe, bar, etc. It could be an

open house organized by a laboratory, observatory or research

institute or a talk in the radio or TV show.

We would like to encourage you to participate and promote such

events on June 10th in your region.

For more information and ideas, please contact: Cherilynn Morrow

(IHY EPO National Coordinator for the United States –

cmorrow@seti.org) and M. Cristina Rabello-Soares (IHY EPO

International Coordinator - csoares@sun.stanford.edu).

-- M. Cristina Rabello-Soares

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2. “Cosmic Collisions” – New Planetarium Show - Free DVD!

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Cosmic Collisions, a new planetarium show developed by the American

Museum of Natural History and supported by NASA's Heliophysics

Division, was released in the Spring is showing at several locations

around the U.S and beyond. It is narrated by Robert Redford. In

the 23 minute program you witness the destructive and constructive

cycle of the spectacular collisions that shaped our planet, moon,

galaxy and beyond. It also features about two minutes of solar

activity (using SOHO footage) and spectacular magnetospheric

responses.

Here's the best news: we now have thousands of copies of this show

on DVD available at Goddard for EPO events. Contact Steele Hill

(301-286-6452) if you want to obtain some copies. They come 570 to a

box. The DVDs also will go in this year's Sun-Earth Day packets.

-- Steele Hill <steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov>

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3.SOLAR B (aka HINODE) – AMAZING IMAGES AND NEW E/PO RESOURCES

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The Solar-B satellite, now renamed Hinode, was successfully

launched on September 22. Following a series of in-orbit tests,

all of the instruments were found to be operating perfectly, and

on October 31, an official press release was jointly released

by Japan's National Astronomical Observatory, Institute of Space

and Astronautical Science, and NASA.

For the first time, the public was treated to “first light”

images and data from the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), the

Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS).

A subsequent “first results” press release can be found at

http://hinode.nao.ac.jp/news_e/20061127_press_e/ and features

dazzling movies of dynamic magnetic fields, flowing plasma and

correlated temperature and magnetic field studies of a prominent

sunspot AR0923.

Movies of solar granulation show details as small as 0.2 arc

seconds (about 150 km). The full-sun SXT images show a solar

surface at much higher resolution than the former Yohkoh images,

and reveal a speckled sun covered by small, compact knots of

magnetic field and high-temperature plasma. Yohkoh was not

sensitive enough to detect these numerous active regions, and

revealed only a dark featureless background.

The most dramatic images, however, are the spectral slices above

sunspot regions and the correlated Doppler magnetogram images. T

hese let solar scientists not only see what is happening on the

photospheric surface, but also in the tenuous, hot regions above

them, where sunspot magnetic fields become tangled and act in

very dynamic ways. The movies show the movement of plasma and

magnetic fiux near sunspots, and at resolutions that rival or

exceed ground-based solar vacuum telescope views. In the coming

months, we can expect to hear and see many major breakthroughs

from this international collaboration.

Meanwhile, the Hinode education and public outreach efforts are

beginning to solidify. Currently, the domestic education resources

are available at the NASA-Marshall site

(http://solarb.msfc.nasa.gov/) and at the Chabot Science Center

(http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/solar/solarb/default.asp).

The Chabot site will focus on K-12 science curriculum development,

and their 'Solar-B' website will soon be updated to feature more

teacher-related resources. The Marshall site features information

on space weather forecasting, solar flare science, and a growing

collection of math-related classroom activities in solar science

and space weather. We have also created a growing resource that

discusses the human impacts of space weather at

http://solarb.msfc.nasa.gov/science/space_weather/impacts/index.html

across all of NASA's many programs and directorates. In partner-

ship with the NASA-IMAGE Space Science Problem of the Week, we

will be featuring weekly one-page math problems related to solar

science and the human impacts story. The latest problems can be

found at

http://solarb.msfc.nasa.gov/for_educators/learn/activities.html

and are updated every Tuesday. A complete catalog and archive of

past problems is available at

http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/weekly/weekly.html.

The SXT education effort at the Smithsonian Center for

Astrophysics is focusing on the creation of a DVD that includes

career information in space science and solar physics. Interviews

with dozens of scientists, engineers and technicians provide

valuable student insight into why STEM careers are cool! The DVD

will be available in early 2007.

-- Sten Odenwald, GSFC, odenwald@astronomycafe.net

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Newsletter Sponsor Info: Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum

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How to Contact Us

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The Sun-Earth CONNECTION Education and Public Outreach

newsletter is issued approximately every 6-8 weeks. Back issues

can be found at

http://sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu/SECNews/

The Newsletter is sponsored by the Sun-Earth Connection

Education Forum (Goddard Space Flight Center and UC Berkeley;

Isabel Hawkins and Jim Thieman, Co-Directors) Sun-Earth

Connection Education Forum Web Site:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov and

http://sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu

Please direct all submissions to the newsletter to:

Karin Hauck (Editor) - E-mail: editor@sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu

Phone: (510) 642-2343 Fax: (510) 643-5660

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