How do Astronomers know how much the planets weigh? Wonder no more! This lab explores this very question with the motions of Jupiter's most famous moons: Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede.
Watch and measure as the moons orbit around Jupiter. With the measurements of the size of the orbits, their timing, and knowledge of Kepler's Laws, we can ascertain the mass of Jupiter!
Have you ever wondered by visible light is visible? Why does the Sun appears yellow?
The answers lie in Spectroscopy and Blackbody radiation, the subjects of this lab. We predict what the temperature of the Sun is and what it is made of. This lab, a digital follow-up to the physical lab Astronomical Spectroscopy I, provides theoretical background through the example of the Sun.
Astronomers all agree, the Universe is expanding. How are we so certain? The answer actually takes us back to spectroscopy!
Looking at the Calcium H and K lines (at 3969 and 3934 Angstroms, respectively), we can generate spectra of the most distant galaxies. There's only one problem... the lines are not where we expect them to be! In fact, they move towards longer wavelengths the further away we look in our universe. Enter the Hubble-Lemaître law.
If you're doing the "Space Weather" online back-up you can access the required data bases using these links
We can't take a thermometer all the way to the Sun. How do we measure its temperature? The answer lies in the total amount of light we received at every wavelength.
In this lab, we study the "blackbody" and how it relates to the temperature of an object. In the end, we'll determine the temperature of the Sun!
Welcome to Astronomy Laboratory Exercises and eXperiments (ALEX)! These experiments were originally designed for the use of University of Florida Astronomy 1022L course.
More generally, these labs are inspired by (and in some cases functionally very similar to) the Contemporary Lab Experiences in Astronomy (CLEA) Labs created by Gettysburg College. Those labs had been in use by the Florida Astronomy department for well over a decade before these labs came along. CLEA labs ceased operations around 2016. In the years following, some of the software became inoperable on UF's Windows 10 machines.
Seeing the writing on the wall, as well as an opportunity to improve upon the formula these original labs had, I took it upon myself to reprogram some of these labs. The intent was to make them "future-proof". To that end, I programmed these labs in HTML/Javascript (as you can see). I make no claims of being an expert at either of these languages, but these labs are in a more stable place than when I started my TA position for this course.
The labs that I have programmed are You Can Weigh Jupiter (based on the CLEA lab of the same name), Astronomical Spectroscopy II (based on "The Flow Of Energy Out Of The Sun" by CLEA), and Measuring the Hubble Constant (based on the CLEA lab of the same name).
Additionally, there are useful links to Space Weather and How Hot Is The Sun?.
Note that these labs are intended to be used on a desktop
(i.e. the Windows 10 computers in Bryant Space Science Center Room 7). I've made some adjustments to make it more universally friendly (pun intended), but there's only so much I can do with some labs.
Note that these labs are intended to be used on a desktop (i.e. the Windows 10 computers in Bryant Space Science Center Room 7). I've made some adjustments to make it more universally friendly (pun intended), but there's only so much I can do with some labs.
This is a project that I find very exciting and rewarding to work on. It is still a work in progress, and I may add more CLEA labs as I have time, but this is functional for the Astronomy course at UF.
All ALEX lab software is publicly available via Github and is free to use. I only ask that if you do use these labs in any capacity that you cite it appropriately and email me at alexgarcia@ufl.edu (I would love to hear that my work is helping your program)!