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Educational problem
Students are taught about and familiarized with simple reference systems as those drawn on the black board. However setting a reference system is not trivial and it is closely related with the concept of relative motion and inertial reference systems.
Textbook teaching of the subject is limited due to the lack of accessible and inspiring experiments. Students are familiarized with GPS devices but they do not understand how the references are set.
This scenario aims to provide an initiation experiment to fill these gaps based on the stellar streams in the Gould’s Belt. It is also linked to the science to be carried out by the GAIA mission of the European Space Agency.
Educational scenario objectives
During this scenario, students will:
1. Learn about the motion of the Earth, Solar System bodies and Stars.
2. Learn about apparent motion and the relevance of distant bright objects to set references.
3. Get acquainted with making and studying astronomical observations.
4. Learn about measuring stellar motions by comparing images taken decades apart.
Download the PDF complete version by clicking on the following link educational_scenario_setting_references_serpens_english.pdf
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Setting references when everything moves – stellar streams
Last update | 20/06/2013