ESC 1000 Class Video ††††††††Name: __________________
Section: MW† TR† R††††††††††††† Date: ______________
Life and Death of the Sun - Space - Exploring the mysteries
of our local star Ė the Sun
Film Notes: (use the back if necessary)
How do scientists collect samples of the Sun when a probe could never get near the Sunís surface?
How do we get the Sunís energy?
How old is the Sun?
How and when will the Sun die and will the Earth survive?
The Sun is the most powerful force in our solar system. It generates the heat and light that sustains us. Without it we wouldnít have life on Earth. But the Sun is violent and volatile and is becoming more dangerous as it ages.
We explore the life and death of the Sun. We explore what will happen in the future as the Sun ages? How are our lives linked to the Sunís life cycle?
Firstly we want to understand how the Sun was created form a giant cloud of dust and gas. Scientists pretty much agree on the theory but physical evidence is hard to come byÖÖ.at least until now. We meet scientists at Johnson Space Center who have been working on a ten year mission to bring a piece of the Sun back to Earth. How do scientists collect samples of the Sun when a probe could never get near the Sunís surface? We follow NASAís dare devil mission to capture the samples.
Today we rely on the Sun to live. Itís energy fuels trees and plants which are essential for the food chain we all depend upon. But how do we get the energy? This film explores the incredible journey that the particles of light from the Sun have to make to earth to deliver their energy.
How old is the Sun? This is a question which has fascinated scientists for a long time. Scientists have now established the Sunís age with the aid of one remarkable fact that the Sun sings. We visit Big Bear Solar Observatory in California to meet one of the scientists who has been at the forefront of using the Sunís sounds to determine its age.
The Sunís warmth and light helped life on Earth to begin but it can also play havoc with our modern way of life. Billions of tons of plasma erupting from the sun send powerful storms hurtling through our solar system. We visit the Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colorado where they try to predict the sunís violent moods. 1989 brought one of the most dramatic space storms and we uncover the events which took place on the Earth. But what lies behind the explosive events on the Sun. We travel to the California Institute of Technology in Los Angeles where they are trying to understand the science behind the explosions by creating them in the laboratory.
But what about the risks of solar storms to astronauts in Space? We meet Michael Foale who was directly in the line of fire on the International Space Station during the intense solar activity in 2003. There is one solar event astronauts canít be protected from. A superflare. Superflares are up to 10 million times more energetic than the most powerful solar flares. We journeys to Louisiana to meet an astrophysicist who has found evidence of nine stars that have experienced superflares. And what if our sun ever produced a superflare? What would happen to life on earth?