Welcome to the Astronomy 51 Homepage!
Table of contents
This list of astronomical resource sites is intended as a resource
for the Astronomy 51 course at Drake University. The site is based
on the HEASARC (NASA) Astronomy Resources site. If you know of
a particularly good site for astronomy information which is not
included here, please send e-mail to:
Prof. Anthony Marston
to have it considered. Please keep in mind, however, our objective
for this page is a short (rather than comprehensive) list of the
sites World Wide Web.
Homeworks
Homeworks and suggested questions associated with class material
will be placed here over the course of the semester. While I am
away please send email to me (tm9991r) if you have any questions.
- Homework Assignment #1
- Homework Assignment #3
Mars
The planet Mars has been the subject of great deal of interest
in recent months. In addition to a large number of robotic missions
heading to Mars, NASA has found evidence suggesting that life
once existed on Mars. Here's where to find out more!
On
the Question of the Mars Meteorite An
excellent summary of the scientific evidence and reasoning which
led to the conclusion that life once existed on Mars. Global Climate
Change on Mars Evidence
from past robotic missions to Mars has revealed that the planet
almost certainly has undergone several severe climate changes
in its history. Water has run over the Martian surface at more
than one geological time, and oceans may have also been formed.
This article, which also appears in the November, 1996 issue of
Scientific American, discusses the evidence of climate
changes particularly with regard to the presence of liquid water.
The
Red Planet: A Survey of Mars A
slide set of images of and from Mars, this resource has information
about a wide variety of topics as captions for the pictures. This
includes images of landslides, canyons, volcanoes, water erosion
features, and so on. Mars Global Surveyor Launched on November 7, 1996,
Mars Global Surveyor will arrive at Mars in 1997 and map the entire
planet over the course of a single Martian year. Mars
Pathfinder Mars Pathfinder
was launched towards Mars on December 4, 1996. This mission will
place a lander on the Martian surface and deploy a rover, Sojourner,
to explore the surface.
Extrasolar planets
There has never been a more exciting time for the discovery
of new planets! 1991 saw the discovery of the very first extrasolar
planets. In 1995, the first planet around a solar-type star was
discovered. And only weeks into 1996, not only was confirmation
of this discovery announced, but also evidence of additional planets
in the same system, plus possible planets around other solar-type
stars. Take a look at the current
list of candidate planets.
- Pulsar
Planets
- Alex Wolszczan found the very first confirmed extrasolar
planet orbiting the millisecond pulsar PSR 1257+12 in the constellation
Virgo. Here, some information on his discovery of three planets
in the pulsar system is available. Apparently there is now at
least preliminary evidence of a fourth planet in the system:
revisit this site as new information is available and confirmed!
- 51 Pegasi
- Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz's discovery of a 0.5 Jovian
mass planet just 0.05 A.U. from the star 51 Pegasi is explained,
along with information about how the discovery was made, the
constraints on the system (inclination, planetary mass, atmosphere,
etc).
- Hot
Jupiters (Why do some giant planets hug their stars?)
- A number of new planets being found orbiting stars have surprised
astronomers. Most are Jupiter-sized planets in very close orbits
around their star. Since current solar system formation theory
holds that Jupiter-sized planets cannot form in such proximity
to their parental star, the evidence that such planets might
be commonplace is generating active debate. This "Science
and the Citizen" article from the November, 1996 issue of
Scientific American discusses some of the current thoughts
in the astronomical community on such Hot Jupiters.
- The Kepler Mission
- Kepler is a new NASA mission proposal to detect Earth-sized
planets around nearby solar-type stars with orbital periods comparable
to the inner planets of our own solar system. The Kepler site
offers complete information on the objectives of the mission, descriptions
of the instrument, spacecraft, and mission (projected launch
in 2001), information and publications on the discovery techniques
to be employed, and education outreach.
- The
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia
- Information is available here on extrasolar planetary candidates,
habitable planets, detection methods, bibliography of terms,
and meetings on extrasolar planets.
- EXOPLANETS:
Discoveries of Worlds Orbiting Other Stars
- A comprehensive review site of all the new discoveries of
and about new extrasolar planets.
Astronomical images
- Images from the
Anglo-Australian Observatory
- The AAO has made available a collection of spectacular color
pictures created by David Malin. The photographs are taken through
three separate color filters and the results are then combined
to form a single color photograph which shows how the celestial
objects would appear if our eyes were able to perceive colors
from such faint sources. The photographs are cataloged by source
and by type.
- Hubble Space
Telescope Public Pictures
- The Space Telescope Science Institute's public picture archives
include the latest
release, past releases sorted by year and by
subject, animations
from the visualization lab, images from Shoemaker-Levy's
impact on Jupiter, the first servicing mission, and a "Greatest
Hits" picture gallery.
- Astronomy
Picture of the Day
- Each day, this site features a different image of an astronomical
object, accompanied by a brief descriptive explanation written
by a professional astronomer. Captions have links to further
information on topics related to the image. An archive of past
pictures is also available.
- Welcome to the
Planets
- A gallery of NASA's best images from their planetary exploration
programs. It has been extracted from the "Welcome to the
Planets" program distributed on the Planetary Data System
Educational CD-ROM.
- The
Web Nebulae
- The Web Nebulae allows you to browse through a collection
of images of almost thirty different nebulae, links with descriptive
explanations as well as a
appendix on how nebulae are classified as well as terms and
image credits.
Space exploration programs
- Expendable
Launch Vehicle pad
- The Kennedy Space Center has online information about NASA's
expendable launch vehicles (ELV), which includes the Titan, Atlas/Centaur,
Delta, Pegasus, and sounding rocket programs. Information is
available on launches,
the ELV program,
launch sites,
rockets,
and images
and sound clips from launches. You can also enroll to the
mailing list to get automatic updates of status changes in the
ELV program.
- NASA shuttle web
- NASA keeps information available and up-to-date on the current
space shuttle mission during flight; and the status of launch
preparations for the next launch when no shuttle is up. Links
are also included for all previous missions, payload information,
the current location of the shuttle over the earth, crew information,
and image, video, and sound archives.
- Planetary
Exploration
- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has information on missions
around the solar system: past, present, future, and proposed.
- Space
Science
- The Public Affairs office at Goddard Space Flight Center
maintains this web site with information about GSFC's
role in the Hubble Space Telescope, recent
and current space science missions, recent
images from space taken by Goddard missions, as well as links
to other Space Science WWW sites.
- The HEASARC image
and video archives.
- The High Energy Astrophysics
Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) at Goddard
Space Flight Center (GSFC) has a
collection of short movies of astrophysical phenomena, and
images and information
on every high-energy astrophysics satellite since Explorer 11's
pioneering flight.
- Space
Mission Acronym List and Hyperlink Guide
- NASA Headquarters has compiled this list of space missions
and their abbreviated names, with links to sites with information
about those missions. The site also offers links to many alternative
sites which may have more comprehensive lists of particular types
of missions and/or more information.
Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids
- Asteroid
and Comet Impact Hazards
- Small objects hit our upper atmosphere and fall to Earth
quite frequently and the effects are generally benign. However,
with relative velocities of up to 72 kilometers per second, such
objects need not be large for the effects to become much more
devastating. Information served from this page will tell you
much much more about the threat of impacts, the Spaceguard Survey
which monitora near-Earth and Earth-orbit crossing objects, as
well as tentative projects to intercept larger impactors.
- University
of Arizona's Shoemaker-Levy 9 image collection
- This is perhaps the most comprehensive single site on the
comet impact. Highlights include general information, images
of the impact, computer simulations of projected impact effects,
and movies of the impacts.
- Comet Observation
- Features include recent
news and observations about visible comets currently gracing
our skies, images
of comets, light curves, ephemerides for current comets,
definitions of
comet related terminology, and links
to other sources of information about comets. There is also
a good section on
incoming comet Hale-Bopp, written for the non-astronomer.
Hale-Bopp is currently slated to make closest approach to the
Sun in April - May 1997 and optimistic projections suggest it
might be the brightest comet in a century and a half.
- Comet
and Meteor Showers
- This site provides up-to-date information on comets
and meteor
showers, including introductory information, calendars of
known and projected events, a glossary of meteor and cometary
terms, as well as some miscellaneous information.
The Solar System
- Clementine
Lunar Image Browser
- The Clementine
space probe imaged most of the Moon's surface. This site
provides an interactive browser for examining images returned
by the space probe, including the less explored lunar poles and
far side. A gallery
of images from Clementine is also available.
- The
Face of Venus
- This site provides interactive browsers of databases on craters
and coronae on the surface of Venus, presenting the results of
queries in sinusoidal equal area projection maps. There is also
some technical information on different types of Venusian surface
features.
- The
Martian Chronicle
- The Martian Chronicle is an electronic newsletter
on Mars information and missions. The newsletter also maintains
a list of resources for more information about Mars and Martian
exploration.
- Project Galileo
- Galileo is a space probe to Jupiter, currently orbiting the
planet after dropping its atmospheric probe into Jupiter on December
7, 1995. JPL's Galileo site provides up-to-date information on
the status of the mission, news items, and science from the mission.
- The
Cassini Mission Online resources
- Cassini is the next planned space probe to Saturn, currently
scheduled to be launched in October, 1997. The Online Resources
include information about the Cassini mission, facts learned
about Saturn from the Voyager flybys, images of Saturn from the
Hubble Space Telescope and Voyager missions, and a detailed "Planetary
Profile" fact sheet.
- Pluto Express Mission
- The Pluto Express is a proposed low cost new mission to flyby
the binary planet system of Pluto and Charon with a projected
arrival date of 2010. Information served from this home page
include summaries of the Pluto Express concept, technical papers,
as well as educational resources and curriculum guides for teachers.
Astronomy magazines
- ASTRONOMY
magazine on the Web
- ASTRONOMY on the Web presents the current contents of ASTRONOMY
magazine, previews its next issue, and highlights current and
future sky
events. It also provides full text for featured articles,
an introduction to the hobby, and guides to observing and buying
telescopes. Software
originally presented in ASTRONOMY magazine is available for down-loading.
- Sky Online
- Sky Publishing Corporation (publishers of Sky & Telescope
and CCD Astronomy) offers several online services. These
include backyard
astronomy, a column of tips on observing the night sky; catalogs
of resources on astronomy; advertising from astronomical product
vendors; a weekly
news bulletin; test reports on new astronomy products; astronomical
software reviews; and a calendar
of astronomy club activities throughout the United States.
- The Astronomer
- The Astronomer magazine provides up-to-date information and
announcements about current events in the sky, such as newly
found comets, novae, eclipses, and variable star activity. The
past issues of the magazine are available, as is information
and calls for observation of many celestial objects. Most items
are geared towards moderately experienced amateur astronomers.
- Jonathan's
Space Report
- The Space Report is a weekly status update on all space launches,
including piloted missions and automated satellites. Back issues
are available by FTP. The geostationary satellite log is also
available here.
World Wide Web Hypermedia Astronomy textbooks
- Astronomy HyperText
Book
- Introductory undergraduate level textbook.
- The
Nine Planets
- A textbook on the Solar System and the spacecraft that have
explored it.
- An
astronomy course for middle/high school students
- Each chapter of this textbook is an excellent introduction
to the subject and includes links to more detailed resources.
The reading level is geared towards younger readers, but the
author (Ames (Iowa) High School teacher Jack Troeger) does not
skimp on content. A personal favorite is the
guide to binoculars and telescopes: If you are thinking about
starting to observe the night sky with a telescope or binoculars
of your own, I highly recommend you start by reading this chapter.
- Views of the Solar
System
- Calvin J. Hamilton at Los Alamos National Laboratory has
put together a hypermedia resource guide for information on the
solar system, Sun, comets, meteors and meteoroids, and the history
of space exploration. High school level introductions to each
topic are included with a well organized index of other resources
and information. Solar, planetary, and satellite data is available,
as well as a browsing tool to organize information, and a glossary
of terms.
History of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- 4000
years of Women in Science
- Dr. Sethanne Howard (NASA HQ) has collected and placed online
information about the contributions by women to science throughout
history. Information includes biographies, photographs, and references,
as well as an
excellent introduction to why women's contributions deserve study.
Knowledgeable users who can add more information to the rich
offerings here are strongly encourage to do so!
- Astronomiae
Historia / History of Astronomy
- A site maintained for the Working
Group for the History of Astronomy, lists here include links
to sites with a wide variety of historical information, including
the history of astronomy, history of science, and history in
general.
- History
of Astronomy and Space Science
- A list of sites around the world which have information on
a number of items of historical interest, such as the
Shapley-Curtis debate on "The Scale of the Universe"
in 1920, the History
of Space Exploration, and links to sites where important
historical discoveries in Astronomy were made.
- The
History of High Energy Astrophysics
- A chronological listing of mission launch and death dates
for most high-energy astrophysics satellites, as well as other
significant events in the history of astronomy. Links are included
to information pages for most individual missions.
Astronomical Organizations and Societies
- The American Association
of Variable Star Observers
- The American Astronomical Society
- Astronomical
Society of Australia
- The Astronomical Society
of the Pacific
- Australia
Telescope National Facility
- The International
Astronomical Union
- The
International Dark Sky Association
- The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Optical
Astronomy Observatories
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory
- The
Planetary Society
- The Search
for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) League
- Space Research
Institute (IKI)
Sites providing astronomy information
- The
High-Energy Astrophysics Learning Center
- An educational resource for students, teachers, and the general
public. The Learning Center provides information on topics in
astrophysics in the X-ray and gamma-ray regime. If you don't
find your questions answered, you can "Ask a High-Energy
Astronomer". Material is written at a variety of reading
levels from middle school to college. Teacher resources includes
information on resources at the Laboratory for High-Energy Astrophysics,
"Adopt an Astronomer", summer intern programs, and
lesson plans. We also maintain a list of other astronomy education
resources on the WWW.
- StarChild:
A learning center for young astronomers
- An educational resource for younger readers (from kindergarten
to junior high school). StarChild has information at multiple
reading levels on astronomy and space exploration.
- The
AstroWeb Consortium (NRAO site)
- The AstroWeb
Consortium (STScI site)
- Several institutions around the world maintain closely related
links to Astronomy resources called the AstroWeb Consortium.
These links, or any of the other AstroWeb sites, are excellent
starting points for browsing for astronomy resources. Services
include not only WWW support, but WAIS, Gopher, FTP, and Telnet
sites.
- The Galaxy Page
- The University of Arizona Students for the Exploration and
Development of Space (SEDS) have a truly impressive list of resources
through the WWW. These include resources lists on the
solar system, astronomy
and astrophysics (including amateur astronomy, date sources,
news, periodical, software, celestial events, observatories,
and more!), aerospace
and astronautics (including launch vehicles, current and
future satellites, shuttle schedules, etc), and future
exploration (including forthcoming launch systems, the new
International Space Station, and the human exploration of space.).
Network search engines
- Alta Vista (Digital
Equipment Corporation)
- Excite (Architext Software)
- Infoseek
- Lycos (Lycos Incorporated;
Carnegie Mellon University)
- Webcrawler (O'Reilly and
Associates, Inc.)
- Yahoo!
- There's no way this single page could be a comprehensive
guide to all the astronomy information on the World Wide Web.
If you can't find what you want, try a network search engine.
They will ask for a keyword or concept, then return a list of
URLs which contain information matching that keyword. You can
also get an
annotated list of Internet Search engines from Netscape.
Questions/Comments/Feedback
to: Prof. Anthony Marston
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