Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson Grade level:
K-8
Subject:
Science – Earth Science
Prepared by:
Shannon Buck
Overview & purpose
Education standards addressed
Introduce students to some principles of basic astronomy. Introduce students to meteors, comets. Purpose is to f amiliarise students with basic astronomy terminology and the night sky including identifying the constellation Perseus.
LA objectives – comp questions & working together. Some spelling. Greek derivatives. Science – orbits, comets, and K-T extinction event Socials – myth of Perseus & Andromeda, some Medusa
Teacher guide Objectives
(Specify skills/information that will be learned.)
Information (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)
Familiarise students with Give brief anatomy of comets and Swift-Tuttle history. Identify difference between stars and meteors. Familiarise students with Perseus myth. Basic knowledge of planetary planetary orbits, additional info (linked) would introduce introduce students to 3 Keplerian laws. Spelling. Vocab. Comprehension. Field trip to view Perseid meteor shower display, midnight August 11-12. Precedent verbal intro and poss. viewing of youtube vids of meteor showers photocopies of info pages handed out Antecedent comp questions given ZHR recorded
Materials needed
Paper Pencil Flashlight for writing results of ZHR exercise
Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)
Activity (Describe the independent activity to reinforce this lesson)
Notes
Discussion Comprehension Questions Spelling/Vocab Matching exercise Viewing of shower activity Divide night sky into sections, divide children (if more than one family), assign a section to each group, have groups count the ZHR of their section
This lesson plan is designed to cover a range of grade levels from about grade 2 to grade 8. Extra notations are given for students in higher grades to investigate further. For K-1 students, basic information can be drawn from the lesson and interest held with activity/colouring activity/colouring pages.
Other Resources
Introduction to Astronomy; Morford-Lenardon “Classical Myth ” Usborne Astronomy & Space p 40-41 Encycl. Science p173 Wikipedia pg: K-T event, ZHR, comet Swift Tuttle, Perseus, elliptical orbit, twilight, apsis, binary stars
What is a meteor shower? A meteor shower is a BIG show of shooting stars, all coming from the same point in the night sky. Shooting stars are actually not stars. Here’s what they are: – are always Small chunks of space debris – meteoroids – floating around the the solar system. They can be anywhere from the size of a grain of sand, to the size of a boulder. boulde r. When a meteoroid falls into our atmosphere, it burns up: it leaves a trail of gasses and a nd melted particles that catches the light from the moon and sun, and this visible trail is called a meteor .
If any bits of t he meteoroid make it all the way to earth’s surface, those bits are called meteorites .
Introducing “The Perseids”... There is a predictable meteor shower that is visible in the northern hemisphere during July and August each year. This event is called the Perseid Meteor Shower, or “Perseids” for
short.
To an earthly observer, the meteors all appear to come from the same point in the night sky – the constellation Perseus .
KNOWLEDGE TO STUN YOUR FRIENDS: The word “meteor” comes from the Greek word “meteòros”, meteòros”, meaning........’high in the air’ !! “Meteorology”, the study of weather, uses the same root. A CLOSER LOOK...
Because meteor shower particles are all traveling in parallel paths, and at the same velocity, they will all appear to an observer below to radiate away from a single point in the sky.
This “radiant point” is caused by the effect of perspective, similar
to railroad tracks converging at a single vanishing point on the horizon when viewed from the middle of the tracks.
Meteor showers are almost always named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. This "fixed point" slowly moves across the sky during the night due to the Earth turning on its axis, the same reason the stars appear to slowly march across the sky. The radiant also moves slightly from night to night against the background stars (radiant drift) due to the Earth moving in its orbit around the sun.
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson ORIGINS OF THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER Q: If space debris is always around, why are there so many meteors concentrated at once, such as during the Perseid shower? A: In July and August every year, the earth passes through the same spot in its rotation around the sun. At that spot, there is a floating cloud of dust and debris – the particles of dust and the bits of debris are what fall towards our planet and create the Perseid shower. Doodle a comet here:
Where did all these particles come from? Well, they fell off of a comet. No, really! Comets are chunks of ice, dust and grit. Their orbits are elliptical , which means oval-shaped. During most of their orbits, they are far, far away from the sun – sometimes it takes hundreds of years for them to come back to our solar system to make another pass. It’s only when comets approach the sun that they develop tails: a tail happens when the sun’s warmth
heats the comet, and the gas and dust that is melted off streams out behind the comet’s nucleus (or
A CLOSER LOOK... “Perihelion” is the point in an elliptical orbit where the orbiting body is closest to the sun. “Aphelion” (pronounced “app-HE-lee-un”) is the point FARTHEST
from the sun.
“helion” is the Greek word for sun . “peri-” is a Greek word meaning around , and “apo-” is a Greek word meaning
from , as in “away” (in English we used to say “they are from home today”, meaning “they are not at home”. So “perihelion” means “around the sun”, and “aphelion” means “[away] from the sun”. Look up:
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson VIEWING THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER The Perseid shower peaks on August 12 of every year. The best way to view it is to find a place that is far away from any city lights (in astronomy this is called “light pollution” – it prevents you from viewing celestial objects clearly). Also, you should try to go where you can see as much of the sky as possible. In the summer the nights are short, so in order to see the Perseids you have to either STAY UP LATE or GET UP EARLY! How early? Well, sunrise is not until 6:06 AM on August 12, 2009. If we were to go out at 5:00 AM, would that be early enough? NO! You see, the sun starts to illuminate the sky long before we humans can actually see its light. This means that, once twilight begins in the very early morning, many of the fainter meteors will be invisible to stargazers. To see the most meteors, you have to get to a dark, open place before 3:00 AM: twilight begins at 3:46 AM on August 12 this year.
A CLOSER LOOK There’s more to t wilight than meets the eye. There are
kinds of twilight, and they are defined exactly:
1. 2.
3.
And the best way to view meteors is lying down, to get as big a view of sky as possible. So bring a thermos of hot chocolate, a
three
Astronomical twilight – sun is 12-18°below the horizon. Faint celestial objects (dim stars, faint meteors) not visible though the sky appears fully dark. Nautical twilight – sun is 6-12°below the horizon. General outlines of ground objects may be distinguishable, but detailed outdoor activities are not possible and the horizon is indistinct. Nautical twilight is used in military operations – look it up! Civil twilight – sun is less than 6°below the horizon. Brightest stars appear. There is enough light for outdoor activities to carry on without artificial light. Horizon is clearly visible.
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson How spectacular IS your meteor shower? There is an official way to measure just how amazing any meteor shower is. You decide on a section of sky, usually right up at the top (like “that bit over there, between Perseus’ foot and those big trees”) and glue your eyes to it for an hour. You count all the shooting star s you can
see in that section of sky in one hour, and that is called:
THE ZENITHAL HOURLY RATE Impressive, isn’t it? “Zenith” just means “top” and that means you should be doing your counting when the meteor shower is directly overhead – and the Perseids are always directly
overhead on, or about, August 12 of every year.
We will divide into two or three groups, each take a chunk of sky, and each try to find the Zenithal Hourly Rate. Good luck – and keep your eye on the sky! Zenithal Hourly Rate (Group One)
Zenithal Hourly Rate (Group Two)
Zenithal Hourly Rate (Group Three)
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson Perseus – slayer of the Gorgon
King Acrisius, of Argos, had a daughter named Danaë. The Oracle at Delphi warned Acrisius that he would one day be killed by his daughter’s son, so Acrisius decided to thwart fate by locking Danaë up in a bronze chamber under his palace. Acrisius reckoned without Zeus. He came to Danaë in a shower of gold, and she conceived a son – Perseus. Acrisius, unwilling to kill them outright, set Danaë and Perseus adrift in a boat. They were taken in by a fisherman, who raised Perseus along with his own son. The fisherman was jealous of Perseus, though, and wanted to get rid of him so he could marry Danaë. Perseus had promised him a gift, and he demanded the head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons, who had h ad snakes for hair and who was so powerful that just looking at her would turn you into stone.
fear me, puny mortalssss!
Perseus wandered helplessly until some of the gods took pity on him and helped him out. Athena gave him a brightly polished bronze shield, Hermes gave him a sword, and Hades gave him a helmet of invisibility. Armed with these, plus a pair of winged sandals given by nymphs, he set out to find Medusa. Perseus went to the three Graeae, sisters of the Gorgons, and tricked them into giving him Medusa’s
Perseus, pursuing Medusa. You can see his winged sandals, his curved sword, and his helmet of invisibility, but not the shield.
location. He found her sleeping and, looking into the mirror of At hena’s shield, beheaded her with his
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson Perseus – slayer of the Gorgon Myth-y Matchup!
continued.... Wonky Words – unscramble these keywords from the Perseus myth.
Danaë
Old witches, related to Medusa
Acrisius
Can transform into showers of gold
Zeus
Gave Perseus winged sandals
Medusa
Perseus’ grandfather
Graeae
Sea nymphs, friends of Poseidon
RESPUES
Athena
Gave Perseus a polished shield
GROONG
Hermes
Hair of snakes, turns you into stone
CRAIIUSS
Hades
Gave Perseus a curved sword
Nymphs
Chained to a rock as a sacrifice
Cassiopeia
Boastful queen of Ethiopia
METHEL
Nereids
Gave Perseus a helmet
NALSADS
Andromeda
Perseus’ mother
PHYNSM
Did you notice...
SOARG SAMEDU NËADA SUZE
HENHAT DELISH MERESH
PEACSIIOAS EARGAE
...that there are more constellations mentioned in
SHEARKEL
this story? Perseus is one – but what about
SIRENED
SHADE
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson Time to Get Creative! Here’s your chance – an artist’s rendition of some aspect of the Perseus myth;
be it sweet or scary, bland or bloody!
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson Level One
VOCABULARY AND SPELLING WORDS Level Two
Level Three
Meteor
Medusa
Cassiopeia
Comet
Meteoroid
Andromeda
Perseus
Meteorite
Constellation
Twilight
Algol
Perihelion
Mirfak
Zenithal
Aphelion
Elliptical
Poseidon
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS A shooting star is really a ____________________________ A meteor is the visible trail of bits of space __________________igniting in our atmosphere.
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson Perseus Star Map
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson
Perseid Meteor Shower Lesson
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