Image of Trifid Nebula



Whether you have had previous experience with the "information superhighway" or not, this exercise will help you learn to use the resources of the World Wide Web (WWW) to find out interesting things about astronomy, and other things too. This page contains links to some very elaborate sites maintained by different astronomical societies and institutes. See where the links take you and don't be afraid to do some web-surfing for yourself.

  • If you have arrived at this site but are not enrolled in the ASTR110 labs have fun exploring (for no credit!).

  • If you are doing this exercise for extra-credit (or make-up) for your ASTR110 lab, be sure to fill out the questions at the end of each section and PRINT OUT THESE answers.

  • Because this is an exercise for extra-credit, you should expect to spend some time on it; depending on how busy the internet it, this exercise should take you about an hour. Most likely, the largest use of time will be downloading information and images from sites outside of the NMSU node.

  • The first site you visit will pop up a new window. Everytime you visit another site, it will be displayed in this new window. Do not close any windows until you are done-- you may lose all the answers you have already entered into the boxes!

  • Since we do not maintain these websites, we are unable to let you know ahead of time if the servers are down or if some other problem prevents access to the pages. If you have problems with some of the websites, do not worry. Simply let us know what error message you got when you attempted to access the page; we will do our best to check the problems and provide a different link in the future.

  • If you experience other problems, let your TA know immediately.

    1. Astronomy Picture of the Day



    Each and every day this site, maintained at the Goddard Space Flight Center, has a new astronomical image. Some pictures are from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), some from ground based observatories. Some are artists conceptions or pictures of ancient or modern astronomers, and sometimes the images are from computer simulations. Each picture is explained in a brief bit of text below the image. Within the text are further links to other WWW resources. Check some of them out.

  • Since this is the first website you are visiting, it should pop up a new window. Do not close that window since all other webpages will be displayed there.


    What was the Picture of the Day?


    Briefly describe in your own words the explanation given for the picture of the day.


    2. NSSDC Photo Gallery



    NSSDC stands for the National Space Science Data Center which is associated with the Goddard Space Flight Center. This organization is part of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Their homepage includes images of the planets, their rings and moons as well as some of the most beautiful extra-solar objects in our Galaxy and the rest of the Universe. Some of the pictures on this site are large so you may want to expand your window a bit. To do this simply bring the mouse down to the lower right corner of the window and while holding the left mouse button down, move the mouse to resize the window. Go to the What's New? page and check out some of the new images available on the internet.


    What was one of the new images you saw?


    Briefly describe in your own words the image you saw. Which telescope and instrument was used? What is the significance of the image?


    3. Latest HST Releases



    The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the best instruments for observing distant objects available to astronomers today. Since it is in orbit around the Earth, it does not have to look through the Earth's atmosphere which usually causes serious problems for astronomers viewing the sky from the ground. Since the US government funded the HST project, many people want to know what they have gotten back from it. Well here's your chance to see exactly what the HST has provided for astronomers and for the public. Here are some of the most recent images taken by this telescope in the sky.


    What was one of the latest HST releases?


    Briefly describe in your own words the significance of this find.


    4. HST Movies



    Not only can you get images on the WWW, but you can also get animated movies as well. Some of these are made with real images and some are created with numerical simulations. Either way, they are usually pretty cool. Check out this site and click on a few of the images to see rotating planets, galaxies forming, comets in motion and differential rotation of stars.

    Some of the movies take a few seconds to load, so be patient. If nothing has happened in two or three minutes, hit the Stop button and try another movie. Dont get too frustrated!


    What was one of the movies you saw?


    Briefly describe in your own words the importance of the animation or movie. How has making this movie or simulation helped astronomers understand the object they are studying?


    5. Comet Homepage



    Comets are usually the astronomical objects which receive the most attention from the public and the media. These ball of ice and rock make beautiful streaks across our sky as they approach the Sun and are vaporized by the Sun's heat and the solar wind. This site is dedicated to these little objects. Look at some of the images of recent comets and read the section on the Origin of comets.


    Name one of the comets you saw an image of.


    Describe briefly in your own words the origin of comets in our solar system.


    6. Cassini Mission to Saturn



    Currently, NASA has a space probe in orbit around Saturn--"Cassini". At this website you will find some amazing pictures of Saturn and its moons, as well as various movies. Spend some time here!


    What did you look at?.


    Describe briefly in your own words the the nature of the object/feature you examined.


    7. Astronomy in New Mexico



    New Mexico has some of the best sites for astronomical telescopes and has many planetariums and special centers for the public. NMSU partly owns a 3.5m reflector telescope in Cloudcroft which faculty and students at NMSU use. There are a couple of planetariums in the state as well as the space center in Alamogordo where the public can learn more about astronomy. Visit some of these New Mexican astronomy related homepages! Find out about the places you can visit yourself to learn more about how astronomers in New Mexico do their research. Check out the Alamogordo Space Center which has great educational programs for the public, including frequent showings of OMNIMAX movies.


    Which site did you visit?


    Briefly describe one of the places you visited? What sort of public outreach programs are available? Do you think you might plan to visit one of these places in the future?


    Congratulations! You have experienced the internet and learned about astronomy at the same time. Now you deserve some credit for your time and effort. To let your TA know that you have completed this project, make sure you have answered all the questions above. Also fill out the information below to assure that your TA gets all the information. Then print out these pages and turn them into your TA.


    Your Name:
    Professor:
    TA Name:
    Comments/Suggestions:


    Web Searches

    Now that you have some experience with the web, you can look around on your own. Several powerful tools for navigating the web are available. These allow you to search the WWW for any topic that interests you with a variety of programs called search engines.

    You can get to these search engines by pressing the "Net Search" button in the toolbar at the top of your netscape window or by clicking on the button below.



    More Astronomy Links
    NMSU's Astronomy Department
    Views of the Solar System
    NOAO Homepage
    Chandra X-Ray Observatory
    SIRTF/Spitzer
    Keck Observatory
    Sky & Telescope