Monthly Archives: May 2018

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CNYO Observing Event – Chittenango Falls, Friday, 15 June 2018, 8:30 – 10:30 PM

Posted on May 28, 2018 9:51 am - - Leave a Comment

Greetings, fellow astrophiles!

Bob Piekiel and fellow CNYO members are pleased to announce a session at Chittenango Falls (Bob notes that an event here hasn’t happened in quite some time!). It is always best to check-in with Chittenango Falls (because then they know how many in the public are interested), but feel free to also sign up for the event on our Facebook and Meetup event pages.

The weather-alternate for this event is Saturday, June 16. Check back here or on the Facebook/Meetup pages for any updates.

Facebook Event Page | Meetup.com Event Page

Chittenango Falls State Park
2300 Rathbun Rd.
Cazenovia, NY 13035
(315) 637-6111

Event Details: It gets dark late this time of year, so our best viewing targets will be the bright planets Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. We’ll also get to see a skinny crescent moon at the start of the program. When it gets dark we will begin to see some of the Southern Milky Way.

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NASA Space Place – What Is The Asteroid Belt?

Posted on May 23, 2018 7:21 am - - Leave a Comment

Poster’s Note: One of the many under-appreciated aspects of NASA is the extent to which it publishes quality science content for children and Ph.D.’s alike. NASA Space Place has been providing general audience articles for quite some time that are freely available for download and republishing. Your tax dollars help promote science! The following article was provided for reprinting in May, 2018.

By Linda Hermans-Killiam

2013february2_spaceplaceThere are millions of pieces of rocky material left over from the formation of our solar system. These rocky chunks are called asteroids, and they can be found orbiting our Sun. Most asteroids are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They orbit the Sun in a doughnut-shaped region of space called the asteroid belt.

Asteroids come in many different sizes—from tiny rocks to giant boulders. Some can even be hundreds of miles across! Asteroids are mostly rocky, but some also have metals inside, such as iron and nickel. Almost all asteroids have irregular shapes. However, very large asteroids can have a rounder shape.

The asteroid belt is about as wide as the distance between Earth and the Sun. It’s a big space, so the objects in the asteroid belt aren’t very close together. That means there is plenty of room for spacecraft to safely pass through the belt. In fact, NASA has already sent several spacecraft through the asteroid belt!

The total mass of objects in the asteroid belt is only about 4 percent the mass of our Moon. Half of this mass is from the four largest objects in the belt. These objects are named Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea.

The dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt. However, Ceres is still pretty small. It is only about 587 miles across—only a quarter the diameter of Earth’s moon. In 2015, NASA’s Dawn mission mapped the surface of Ceres. From Dawn, we learned that the outermost layer of Ceres—called the crust—is made up of a mixture of rock and ice.

The Dawn spacecraft also visited the asteroid Vesta. Vesta is the second largest object in the asteroid belt. It is 329 miles across, and it is the brightest asteroid in the sky. Vesta is covered with light and dark patches, and lava once flowed on its surface.

The asteroid belt is filled with objects from the dawn of our solar system. Asteroids represent the building blocks of planets and moons, and studying them helps us learn about the early solar system.

For more information about asteroids, visit: spaceplace.nasa.gov/asteroid

Caption:This image captured by the Dawn spacecraft is an enhanced color view of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

About NASA Space Place

With articles, activities, crafts, games, and lesson plans, NASA Space Place encourages everyone to get excited about science and technology. Visit spaceplace.nasa.gov (facebook|twitter) to explore space and Earth science!

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CNY Rocket Team Challenge Volunteers Needed! – 2 June 2018

Posted on May 21, 2018 7:26 am - - 1 Comment

Greetings, fellow astrophiles!

This in from the TACNY list –

The MOST’s CNY Rocket Team Challenge (additional link) is approaching quickly, and we need your help! Volunteers are needed on Saturday, June 2, 2018 from 7:30 AM to 1:30 PM for a variety of roles during this annual event held at SU’s Skytop Field. Volunteers will be provided with lunch on the day of the event, as well as the opportunity to inspire the next generation of rocket scientists! For more information about the event, please visit the Rocket Team Challenge page.

Contact Emily Stewart (estewart@most.org) with your name and affiliation (employer, university, etc.), to request a list of volunteer roles, as well as to list role preference(s), no later than Monday, May 28.

As always, we are so grateful for the time and energy that you donate to the MOST and its outreach programs. These events couldn’t happen without you!

Thanks!

Emily & the 2018 CNY Rocket Team Challenge Organizing Committee

About TACNY

Founded in 1903 as the Technology Club of Syracuse, the nonprofit Technology Alliance of Central New York’s mission is to facilitate community awareness, appreciation, and education of technology; and to collaborate with like-minded organizations across Central New York.

For more information about TACNY, visit www.tacny.org.

Posted in: MOST, STEM - Tagged: , , , ,

NASA Space Place – What’s It Like Inside Mars?

Posted on May 9, 2018 7:53 am - - Leave a Comment

Poster’s Note: One of the many under-appreciated aspects of NASA is the extent to which it publishes quality science content for children and Ph.D.’s alike. NASA Space Place has been providing general audience articles for quite some time that are freely available for download and republishing. Your tax dollars help promote science! The following article was provided for reprinting in January, 2018.

By Jessica Stoller-Conrad

2013february2_spaceplaceMars is Earth’s neighbor in the solar system. NASA’s robotic explorers have visited our neighbor quite a few times. By orbiting, landing and roving on the Red Planet, we’ve learned so much about Martian canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil. However, we still don’t know exactly what Mars is like on the inside. This information could give scientists some really important clues about how Mars and the rest of our solar system formed.

This spring, NASA is launching a new mission to study the inside of Mars. It’s called Mars InSight. InSight—short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport—is a lander. When InSight lands on Mars later this year, it won’t drive around on the surface of Mars like a rover does. Instead, InSight will land, place instruments on the ground nearby and begin collecting information.

Just like a doctor uses instruments to understand what’s going on inside your body, InSight will use three science instruments to figure out what’s going on inside Mars.

One of these instruments is called a seismometer. On Earth, scientists use seismometers to study the vibrations that happen during earthquakes. InSight’s seismometer will measure the vibrations of earthquakes on Mars—known as marsquakes. We know that on Earth, different materials vibrate in different ways. By studying the vibrations from marsquakes, scientists hope to figure out what materials are found inside Mars.

InSight will also carry a heat probe that will take the temperature on Mars. The heat probe will dig almost 16 feet below Mars’ surface. After it burrows into the ground, the heat probe will measure the heat coming from the interior of Mars. These measurements can also help us understand where Mars’ heat comes from in the first place. This information will help scientists figure out how Mars formed and if it’s made from the same stuff as Earth and the Moon.

Scientists know that the very center of Mars, called the core, is made of iron. But what else is in there? InSight has an instrument called the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment, or RISE, that will hopefully help us to find out.

Although the InSight lander stays in one spot on Mars, Mars wobbles around as it orbits the Sun. RISE will keep track of InSight’s location so that scientists will have a way to measure these wobbles. This information will help determine what materials are in Mars’ core and whether the core is liquid or solid.

InSight will collect tons of information about what Mars is like under the surface. One day, these new details from InSight will help us understand more about how planets like Mars—and our home, Earth—came to be.

For more information about earthquakes and marsquakes, visit: spaceplace.nasa.gov/earthquakes

Caption: An artist’s illustration showing a possible inner structure of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

About NASA Space Place

With articles, activities, crafts, games, and lesson plans, NASA Space Place encourages everyone to get excited about science and technology. Visit spaceplace.nasa.gov (facebook|twitter) to explore space and Earth science!

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Sweet Science Series – Women in STEM Forum

Posted on May 6, 2018 3:11 pm - - Leave a Comment

Thursday, 10 May 2018, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Milton J Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology – Syracuse, NY


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Join us as we celebrate the achievements and discuss the challenges of women in STEM fields! Refreshments will be served followed by a panel discussion among women in STEM in the Syracuse area. We welcome you to join the dialogue about what we can do — as institutions and individuals — to encourage women and girls to take an interest in STEM.

People interested in learning more about women in STEM are invited to attend the free Sweet Science Series presentation on Thursday, May 10th, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Space Gallery meeting room at the Museum of Science & Technology in Syracuse’s Armory Square. Admission is free and open to the public. Light snacks will be served at 5:30pm. Walk-ins are welcome, but we ask that people RSVP by emailing sweet.science@tacny.org by May 8th, 2018.

Moderator:

Dr. Miriam Gillett-Kunnath – Dr. Gillett-Kunnath is the Research Assistant Professor of the Ruhlandt Research Group in the Department of Chemistry at Syracuse University. She is also a member of the MOST Board of Trustees and a Technical Specialist for Barclay Damon.

Panelists:

Dr. Hilary McManus – Dr. McManus is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Le Moyne College. She is also a participant in Homeward Bound, a leadership development initiative aiming to heighten the influence and impact of 1,000 women in STEMM from around the world over the next 10 years. After the year-long leadership development program, she joined 77 other women in STEMM on a three-week, all female expedition to Antarctica this past February-March.

Dr. Marie Garland – From 2011 through 2017, Dr. Marie Garland was the Executive Director of an NSF-funded initiative (SU ADVANCE) to increase recruitment and retention of women faculty in STEM at Syracuse University. Her academic expertise in communication and inclusion in the workplace, and on gendered occupational segregation in STEM careers in particular, was the basis for her previous work as a faculty member and as a human resources professional at Ithaca College and Cornell University, respectively.

Dr. Kate Lewis – Dr. Lewis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Syracuse University. She directs a federally-funded research group which studies how different types of nerve cells are made in the spinal cord. She is one of two faculty Co-Directors of Syracuse University’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program and the Director of the Neuroscience Integrated Learning Major.

Dr. Mary Taylor – Dr. Taylor is a Principal Systems Engineer with SRC (formerly Syracuse Research Corporation). While earning her doctorate at Syracuse University, she was the Principal Investigator for an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contract with NAVAIR. She has taught at Syracuse University and LeMoyne College and has worked for ALCOA and Philips. She is currently an officer in the IEEE Syracuse Section and is also a member of the Electrical Technology Advisory Committee of Cayuga College.

TACNY John Edson Sweet Lecture Series

TACNY John Edson Sweet Lectures, a program founded in 1913, is now called the Sweet Science Series and features discussions about topics in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in an informal atmosphere for adults of all levels of technical understanding. A minimum of six free and open to the public presentations are held each year.

About The MOST

The Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology (MOST) is a hands-on science and technology museum for all ages. The MOST hosts numerous STEM education programs and community outreach events annually and is home to 35,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, Silverman Planetarium, and Bristol IMAX® Omnitheater – the only domed IMAX theater in New York State. The MOST’s vision is to be a preeminent science and technology center, inspiring all generations through hands-on education and entertainment.

Technology Alliance of Central New York

Founded in 1903 as the Technology Club of Syracuse, the nonprofit Technology Alliance of Central New York’s mission is to facilitate community awareness, appreciation, and education of technology; and to collaborate with like-minded organizations across Central New York.

For more information about TACNY, visit www.tacny.org.

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