It has been over a year since I published my book on how to build DIY magnetometers that can detect geomagnetic storms. The $8.00 B/W book ‘Exploring Space Weather with DIY Magnetometers‘, is available at Amazon by clicking [HERE]. It contains 146 pages with 116 illustrations and figures that describe six different magnetometers that you can build step-by-step for under $50.00.
Over the last year I have posted at my Astronomy Cafe blog, and at various LinkedIn groups, the magnetograms from my most sensitive magnetometers to show how well they capture the rapid changes of Earth’s magnetic field during a geomagnetic storm. Since I started posting these DIY magnetograms on Linkedin, they have received over 13,500 views so there seem to be a lot of teachers, amateur astronomers and space weather enthusiasts interested in my DIY technology.
On the NOAA Scale, these storms are stronger than G2 and are currently happening every month or so during the sunspot-maximum period. This blog is my Gallery of the storms I have detected so far. I also show the data for each storm event observed from the Fredericksburg Magnetic Observatory (FRD) located about 200 miles south of my suburban Maryland location. This will give you a sense of just how accurate my designs are compared to the far more expensive, professional-grade systems.
By the way, the July 14, 2023 magnetogram ‘spots’ shows what can be accomplished by a simple $5.00 soda bottle magnetometer if you follow a design with a laser pointer and a 7-meter projection distance as described in my book.
Ok…so here are the magnetograms in reverse chronological order starting from the most recent storms and working down the list to the earlier ones towards the end of 2023. I am only presenting the magnetograms and not a lot of supporting information about the circumstances of the storms themselves. For this information, visit the Spaceweather.com website and in the upper right corner of the webpage in the Archive area enter the date of the storm and you will be able to see a lot of info and even amateur photos of the resulting aurora themselves.
October 10-12, 2024, Major Kp=8-9, Great Aurora. FRD magnetic observatory plot (red) versus the RM3100 (black). Single-digit Kp index numbers on top row (from 2 to 9). The features that look like sudden ‘glitches’ at Kp=9, 8 and 7 seem to be very real and rapid changes in the D-component (angular displacement). 1000 units on the vertical axis corresponds to 200 arcseconds or 3.3-arcminutes variation.
August 12, 2024. Major Kp=8 storm. Green arrows are the Sq current variations. FRD (red) and RM3100 (black).
August 2, 2024 Kp=7 storm event. FRD(black) and RM3100 (blue).
June 23, 2024, Kp=8. Sq minima (arrows). Storm event (blue bar).
May 12, 2024, Kp=6 storm. FRD(red), RM3100 (black), Photo (blue), Hall (green).
May 10, 2024 Kp=8-9 major geomagnetic storm.
May 5, 2024 storm Kp=4-5. FRD(red), RM3100 (black)
March 23, 2024. Diurnal Sq dips (arrows) and a strong geomagnetic storm (hour 40). FRD data (red) and RM3100 data (black).
November 27, 2023. Minor Kp=6 storm at running UT of 83-86 . FRD data (yellow), RM3100 (grey), photoelectric magnetometer (orange), Hall sensor (blue)
November 5, 2023. A significant Kp=7 geomagnetic storm superposed on a few wobbles due to Sq current effects.
October 30, 2023. Three days of Sq variations and no geomagnetic storms. FRD data (red), RM3100 magnetometer (black), photoelectric magnetometer (blue), Hall effect magnetometer (orange).
July 14, 2023. Kp=4 geomagnetic storm (blue bar) with three cycles (yellow) of the diurnal Sq current. Red line = FRD data. Spots = soda bottle magnetometer.
Like the introduction of hand calculators into the classroom in the 1970s, ChatGPT offers enormous promise but currently suffers from a variety of negative expectations. Some of the arguments against students using calculators in the 1970s classroom are being used today against ChatGPT. I think there are some applications that work very well if you consider ChatGPT to be an intelligent ‘hand calculator’ in the math and physical science classroom. Here is an example I came up with without much effort!
I. Student Pre-Requisite Knowledge
The following example requires students to work with Scientific Notation, calculating the volume of spheres and shells, and working with the mass:density:volume relationship.
II. Exoplanet Interior Modeling
Astronomers have discovered over 5000 exoplanets orbiting other stars. We call these ‘exoplanets’ so that they don’t get confused with the ‘planets’ in our solar system. From a careful study of these exoplanets, astronomers can figure out how long they take to orbit their stars, their distance from the star, their diameters and their masses. How do they use this information to figure out what the insides of these exoplanets look like? This activity will show how a simple knowledge of mass, volume and density provides the clues!
III. Mass, Density and Volume
Mass, volume and density are related to each other. If two things occupy the same volume but have different masses, the less-massive one will have the lower density.
Density = Mass / Volume.
Example 1: A Prospector had his sample weighed to be 20 grams, and its volume calculated by water displacement and found to be 4 cubic centimeters. If pure gold has a density of 19.3 gm/cc, is his sample actually gold or is it iron pyrite (density 5.0 gm/cc)?
Answer: Density = 20 gm/4 cc = 5 gm/cc so it’s iron pyrite or ‘Fools Gold’.
Example 2: A basic principle of physics is that light things of low density float on top of denser things. Why do you have to shake a bottle of salad dressing before you use it?
ChatGPT Query: There are five different liquids mixed together in a bottle. After 10 minutes they sort themselves out. The liquids are: Olive oil ( 0.92 g/cc ), water ( 1.0 g/cc), molassis ( 1.4 g/cc) , vinegar ( 1.0006 g/cc), honey (1.43 g/cc). From bottom to top, how will the liquids separate themselves?
IV. Designing Mercury with a One-Component Interior Model
Mercury was formed close to the sun where only iron and nickel-rich compounds could condense into a planet. Let’s model Mercury and see what we discover. The actual mass of Mercury is 0.055 times Earth.
Step 1 – Use the formula for the volume of a sphere V=4/3 pR3 and with a known radius for Mercury of Rm = 2.43×106 meters to get the volume of the planet of V = 6×1019 m3.
Step 2 – Calculate the mass of Mercury for various choices of density. Give the predicted mass for Mercury in multiples of Earth’s mass of 5.97×1024 kg.
Step 3: Test your knowledge: For a density of 5000 kg/m3 and a radius of 2.43×106 meters, what is the mass of Mercury for these selected values? Give your answer to two significant figures.
Volume = 4/3p (2.43×106meters)3 = 6.0×1019 m3
Mass = 5000 x Volume = 3.0×1023 kg
Mase(Earth units) = 3.0×1023 kg /5.97×1024 kg = 0.05 times Earth
Use ChatGPT to generate data for plotting. Enter this question into the window:
ChatGPT Query: A sphere has a radius of 2.43×10^6 meters. What is the mass of the sphere if its density is 5000 kg per cubic meter? Express your answer in units of Earth’s mass of 5.97 x 10^24 kg. Give your answer to two significant figures.
Repeat the ChatGPT query four times to generate a mass estimate for densities of 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500 and 6500 kg/m3. Plot these points on a graph of mass versus density and draw a line through the values. Which density gives the best match to the observed mass of Mercury of 0.055 Mearth? (Answer: about 5500 kg/m3).
V. Designing Mars with Two-Component Models
Now we add two components together for planets that have a high density core and a lower density mantle. These would have formed farther out than the orbit of Mercury but with masses lower than than of Earth. The mathematical model consists of a spherical core with a radius of Rc, surrounded by a spherical shell with an inner radius of Rc and an outer radius of Rp, where Rp is the observed planetary radius. Mathematically the model looks like this:
M = Dc x 4/3p Rc3 + Dm x 4/3p ( Rp3 – Rc3)
Draw a diagram of the planet’s interior showing Rc and Rp and confirm that this is the correct formula for the total mass of the planet where Dc is the core density, and Dm is the mantle density.
Test Case: An exoplanet is discovered with a mass of 5.97×10^24 kg and a radius of 6,378 kilometers. If the radius of its core is estimated to be Rc = 3,000 km and its core density is 7000 kg/m3, what is the average density of the mantle material?
Dm = (5.97×1024 – 7000 x 1.1×1020)/9.8×1020 = 5300 kg/m3
Check your answer with ChatGPT using this query. A planet consists of a core region with a radius of Rc and a mantle region extending to the planet’s surface at a radius of Rp. If the planet is a perfect sphere with a radius Rp = 6378 km and Rc = 3000 km, with a total mass of 5.97×10^24 kg, for a core density of 7000 kg/cubic meters, what is the average mantle density? Give the answer to two significant figures.
Now lets use ChatGPT to generate some models and then we can select the best one. We will select a mantle density from three values, 2000, 3000 and 4000 kg/m3. The core density Dc will be fixed at Dc = 9000 kg/m3. We will use the measured radius for Mars of Rp = 3.4×106 meters, and its total mass of Mm = 6.4×1023 kg. We then vary the core radius Rc. We will plot three curves on a graph of Rc versus Mm one for each value of the assumed mantle density. Use this ChatGPT query to generate your data points.
ChatGPT Query: A planet is modeled as a sphere with a radius of Rp=3.4×10^6 meters. It consists of a spherical core region with a radius of Rc surrounded by a spherical shell with an inner radius of Rc and an outer radius of Rp. The core of the planet has a density of 9000 kg/cubic meters. The radius of the core Rc = 30% of the planet’s radius. If the density of the mantle is 2000 kg/cubic meter, what is the total mass of the planet in multiples of the mass of Earth, which is 5.97×10^24 kg? Give your answer to two significant figures?
Repeat this query by changing the mantle density and the core radius values and then plot enough points along each density curve to see the trend clearly. An example of an Excel spreadsheet version of this data is shown in this graph:
This graph shows solutions for a two-component mars model where the mantle has three different densities (2000, 3000 and 4000 kg/m3). The average density of mars is 3900 kg/m3. Which core radius and mantle density combinations seem to be a better match for Mar’s total mass of 0.11 Mearth for the given density of the mantle?
VI: Modeling Terrestrial Planets with a three-component interior.
The most general exoplanet model has three zones; a dense core, a mantle and a low-density crust. This is the expected case for Earth-like worlds. Using our Earth as an example, rocky exoplanets have interiors stratified into three layers: Core, mantle, crust.
Core material is typically iron-nickel with a density of 9000 kg/m3
Mantle material is basaltic rock at a density of 4500 kg/m3
Crust is low-density silicate rich material with a density of 3300 kg/m3
The basic idea in modeling a planet interior is that with the three assumed densities, you vary the volume that they occupy inside the exoplanet until you match the actual mass (Mexo) in kilograms and radius (Rexo) in meters of the exoplanet that is observed. The three zones occupy the radii Rc, Rm, Rp
We will adjust the core and mantle radii until we get a good match to the exoplanet observed total mass and radius. Let’s assume that the measured values for the Super-Earth exoplanet mass is Mp = 2.5xEarth = 1.5×1025 kg, and its radius is Rp = 1.5xEarth = 9.6×106 meters.
Core Volume Vcore = 4/3p Rc3
Mantle Volume Vm = 4/3 p (Rm3 – Rc3)
Crust Volume Vcrust = 4/3 p (Rp3 – Rm3)
So the total Mass = (9000 Vcore + 4500Vm + 3300Vcrust)/Mp
Rc ,Rm and Rp are the core, mantle and planet radii in meters, and the total mass of the model is given in multiples of the exoplanet’s mass Mp.
Let’s do a test case that we work by hand to make sure we understand what we are doing.
Choose Rc = 30% of Rp and Rm = 80% of Rp. What is the predicted total mass of the exoplanet?
Rc = 0.3 x 9.6×106 meters = 2.9×106 meters.
Rm = 0.8x 9.6×106 meters = 7.7×106 meters.
Then
Vcore = 4/3p (2.9×106)3 = 1.0×1020 m3
Vm = 4/3p ( (7.7×106)3 – (2.9×106)3) = 1.8×1021 m3
Then Mass = (9000 Vcore + 4500 Vm + 3300Vcrust)/Mp
Mass = (9×1023 kg + 8.1×1024 kg + 5.9×1024 kg)/1.5×1025 kg = 1.0 Mp
Now lets use ChatGPT to generate some models from which we can make a choice.
Enter the following query into ChatGPT to check your answer to the above test problem.
ChatGPT Query: A spherical planet with a radius of Rp consists of three interior zones; a core with a radius of Rcore, a mantle with an inner radius of Rc and an outer radius of Rm, and a crust with an inner radius of Rm and an outer radius of Rp=9.6×10^6 meters. If the density of the core is 9000 kg/m^3, the mantle is 4500 kg/m^3 and the crust is 3300 kg/m^3, What is the total mass of the planet if Rc = 30% of Rp and Rm = 80% of Rp? Give your answer for the planet’s total mass in multiples of the planet’s known mass of 1.5×10^25 kg, and to two significant figures.
Re-run this ChatGPT query but change the values for the mantle radius Rm and core radius Rc each time. Plot your models on a graph of Rc versus the calculated mass Mp on curves for which Rm is constant. An example of this plot is shown in the excel spreadsheet plot below.
For example, along the black curve we are using Rm=0.8. At Rc = 0.5 we have a model where the core extends to 50% of the radius of the exoplanet .The mantle extends to 80% of the radius, and so the crust occupies the last 20% of the radius to the surface. With densities of 9000, 4500 and 3300 kg/m3 respectively, the Y-axis predicts a total mass of about 1.1 times the observed mass of the exoplanet (1.00 in these units). With a bit of fine-tuning we can get to the desired 1.00 of the mass. But what about the solution at (0.3, 1.00) ? In fact, all of the solutions along the horizontal line along y = 1.00 are mathematically valid.
Question 1: The exoplanet is located close to its star where iron and nickel can remain in solid phase but the lower density silicates remain in a gaseous phase. Which of the models favors this location at formation?
Answer: The exoplanet should have a large iron/nickel core and not much of a mantle or crust. This favors solutions on the y=1.00 line to the right of x=0.5.
Question 2: The exoplanet is located far from its star where it is cool enough that silicates can condense out of their gas phase as the exoplanet forms. Which of the models favor this location?
Answer: The exoplanet will have a small iron/nickel core and a large mantle and crust. This favors models to the left of x= 0.5.
So here you have some examples for how ChatGPT can be used as an intelligent calculator once the students understands how to use the equations and is able to explain why they are being used for a given modeling scenario.
I would be delighted to get your responses and suggestions to this approach . Just include your comment in the Linkedin page where I have posted this idea.
One year ago, I posted a fun problem of predicting when we will have the very last total solar eclipse viewable from Earth. It was a fun calculation to do, and the answer seemed to be 700 million years from now, but I have decided to revisit it with an important new feature added: The slow but steady evolution of the sun’s diameter. For educators, you can visit the Desmos module that Luke Henke and I put together for his students.
The apparent lunar diameter during a total solar eclipse depends on whether the moon is at perigee or apogee, or at some intermediate distance from Earth. This is represented by the two red curved lines and the red area in between them. The upper red line is the angular diameter viewed from Earth when the moon is at perigee (closest to Earth) and will have the largest possible diameter. The lower red curve is the moon’s angular diameter at apogee (farthest from Earth) when its apparent diameter will be the smallest possible. As I mentioned in the previous posting, these two curves will slowly drift to smaller values because the Moon is moving away from Earth at about 3cm per year. Using the best current models for lunar orbit evolution, these curves will have the shapes shown in the above graph and can be approxmately modeled by the quadratic equations:
Perigee: Diameter = T2 – 27T +2010 arcseconds
Apogee: Diameter = T2 -23T +1765 arcseconds.
where T is the time since the present in multiples of 100 million years, so a time 300 million years ago is T=-3, and a time 500 million years in the future is T=+5.
The blue region in the graph shows the change in the diameter of the Sun and is bounded above by its apparent diameter at perihelion (Earth closest to Sun) and below by its farthest distance called aphelion. This is a rather narrow band of possible angular sizes, and the one of interest will depend on where Earth is in its orbit around the Sun AND the fact that the elliptical orbit of Earth is slowly rotating within the plane of its orbit so that at the equinoxes when eclipses can occur, the Sun will vary in distance between its perihelion and aphelion distances over the course of 100,000 years or so. We can’t really predict exactly where the Earth will be between these limits so our prediction will be uncertain by at least 100,000 years. With any luck, however, we can estimate the ‘date’ to within a few million years.
Now in previous calculations it was assumed that the physical diameter of the Sun remained constant and only the Earth-Sun distance affected the angular diameter of the Sun. In fact, our Sun is an evolving star whose physical diameter is slowly increasing due to its evolution ‘off the Main Sequence’. Stellar evolution models can determine how the Sun’s radius changes. The figure below comes from the Yonsei-Yale theoretical models by Kim et al. 2002; (Astrophysical Journal Supplement, v.143, p.499) and Yi et al. 2003 (Astrophysical Journal Supplement, v.144, p.259).
The blue line shows that between 1 billion years ago and today, the solar radius has increased by about 5%. We can approximate this angular diameter change using the two linear equations:
Perihelion: Diameter = 18T + 1973 arcseconds.
Aphelion: Diameter = 17T + 1908 arrcseconds.
where T is the time since the present in multiples of 100 million years, so a time 300 million years ago is T=-3, and a time 500 million years in the future is T=+5. When we plot these four equations we get
There are four intersection points of interest. They can be found by setting the lunar and solar equations equal to each other and using the Quadratic Formula to solve for T in each of the four possible cases.:
Case A : T= 456 million years ago. The angular diameter of the Sun and Moon are 1890 arcseconds. At apogee, this is the smallest angular diameter the Moon can have at the time when the Sun has its largest diameter at perihelion. Before this time, you could have total solar eclipses when the Moon is at apogee. After this time the Moon’s diameter is too small for it to block out the large perihelion Sun disk and from this time forward you only have annular eclipses at apogee.
Case B : T = 330 million years ago and the angular diameters are 1852 arcseconds. At this time, the apogee disk of the Moon when the Sun disk is smallest at aphelion just covers the solar disk. Before this time, you could have total solar eclipses even when the Moon was at apogee and the Sun was between its aphelion and perihelion distance. After this time, the lunar disk at apogee was too small to cover even the small aphelion solar disk and you only get annular eclipses from this time forward.
Case C : T = 86 million years from now and the angular diameters are both 1988 arcseconds. At this time the large disk of the perigee Moon covers the large disk of the perihelion Sun and we get a total solar eclipse. However before this time, the perigee lunar disk is much larger than the Sun and although this allows a total solar eclipese to occur, more and more of the corona is covered by the lunar disk until the brightest portions can no longer be seen. After this time, the lunar disk at perigee is smaller than the solar disk between perihelion and aphelion and we get a mixture of total solar eclipses and annular eclipses.
Case D : T = 246 million years from now and the angular diameters are 1950 arcseconds. The largest lunar disk size at perigee is now as big as the solar disk at aphelion, but after this time, the maximum perigee lunar disk becomes smaller than the solar disk and we only get annular eclipses. This is approximately the last epoc when we can get total solar eclipses regardless of whether the Sun is at aphelion or perihelion, or the Moon is at apogee or perigee. The sun has evolved so that its disk is always too large for the moon to ever cover it again even when the Sun is at its farthest distance from Earth.
The answer to our initial question is that the last total solar eclipse is likely to occur about 246 million years from now when we include the slow increase in the solar diameter due to its evolution as a star.
Once again, if you want to use the Desmos interactive math module to exolore this problem, just visit the Solar Eclipses – The Last Total Eclipse? The graphical answers in Desmos will differ from the four above cases due to rounding errors in the Desmos lab, but the results are in close accord with the above analysis solved using quadratic roots.
This is my new book for the general public about our sun and its many influences across the solar system. I have already written several books about space weather but not that specifically deal with the sun itself, so this book fills that gap.
We start at the mysterious core of the sun, follow its energies to the surface, then explore how its magnetism creates the beautiful corona, the solar wind and of course all the details of space weather and their nasty effects on humans and our technology.
I have sections that highlight the biggest storms that have upset our technology, and a discussion of the formation and evolution of our sun based on Hubble and Webb images of stars as they are forming. I go into detail about the interior of our sun and how it creates its magnetic fields on the surface. This is the year of the April 2024 total solar eclipse so I cover the shape and origin of the beautful solar corona, too. You will be an expert among your friends when the 2024 eclipse happens.
Unlike all other books, I also have a chapter about how teachers can use this information as part of their standards-based curriculum using the NASA Framework for Heliospheric Education. I even have a section about why our textbooks are typically 10 – 50 years out of date when discussinbg the sun.
For the amateur scientists and hobbyists among you, there is an entire chapter on how to build your own magnetometers for under $50 that will let you monitor how our planet is responsing to solar storms, which will become very common during the next few years.
There hasn’t been a book like this in over a decade, so it is crammed with many new discoveries about our sun during the 21st century. Most books for the general public about the sun have actually been written in a style appropriate to college or even graduate students.
My book is designed to be understandable by my grandmother!
Generally, books on science do not sell very well, so this book is definitely written without much expectation for financial return on the effort. Most authors of popular science books make less than $500 in royalties. For those of you that do decide to get a copy, I think it will be a pleasurable experience in learning some remarkable things about our very own star! Please do remember to give a review of the book on the Amazon page. That would be a big help.
Yep…I want to get the e-book version ($5): Link to Amazon.
Yep…I want to get the paperback version ($15): Link to Amazon.
Oh…by the way…. I am a professional astronomer who has been working at NASA doing research, but also education and public outreach for over 20 years. Although I have published a number of books through brick-and-morter publishing houses, I love the immediacy of self-publishing on topics I am excited about, and seeing the result presented to the public within a month or two from the time I get the topic idea. I don’t have to go through the lengthy (month-year) tedium of pitching an idea to several publishers who are generally looking for self-help and murder mysteries. Popular science is NOT a category that publishers want to support, so that leaves me with the self-publishing option.
Other books you might like:
Exploring Space Weather with DIY Magnetometers. ($7). Link to Amazon.
History of Space Weather: From Babylon to the 21st Century. (paperback, $30) (ebook, $5). Link to Amazon.
Solar Storms and their Human Impacts (e-book; $2) Link to Amazon.
The 23rd CycleL Learning to live with a stormy star. – Out of print.
I have often wondered how the modern description of the Big Bang could be written as a story that people at different reading levels would be able to understand, so here are some progressively more complete descriptions beginning with Genesis and their reading level determined by Reliability Formulas.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning–the first day. And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning–the second day. And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning–the third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights–the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.”
The Flesch Reading ease Score gives this an 87.9 ‘easy to read‘ score. Flesch-Kincaid gives this a grade level of 4.5. The Automated Readability Index gives it an index of 4 which is 8-9 year olds in grades 4-5. Amazingly, the scientific content in this story is completely absent and in fact promotes many known misconceptions appropriate to what children under age-5 know about the world.
Can we do at least as well as this story in a 365-word summary that describes the origin of the universe, the origin of the sun, moon and earth, and the appearance of life? Because the reading level of Genesis is only at most Grade-5, can we describe a scientific treatment using only concepts known by the average Fifth-Grader? According to the Next Generation Science Standards, students know about gravity, and scales of time but ideas about atoms and other forces are for Grade 6 and above. The average adult reader can fully comprehend a text with a reading grade level of eight. So if the text has an eighth grade Flesch Kincaid level, its text should be easy to read and accessible by the average US adult. But according to Wylie Communications, half of all US adults read at or below 8th-grade level. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences survey also shows that US adults know about atoms (51%), that the universe began with a Big Bang (41%) and that Earth orbits the sun (76%) so that US adults rank between 5th and 9th internationally in our basic scientific knowledge.
The genesis story splits itself into three distinct parts: The origin of the universe;The origin of stars and planets; and The origin of life and humanity. Only the middle story has detailed observational evidence at every stage. The first and last stories were one-of events for which exact replication and experimentation is impossible.
Because we are 3000 years beyond the writing of Genesis, let’s allow a 400-word limit for each of these three parts and aim at a reading level and science concept level not higher than 7th grade.
First try (497 words):
Origin of the Universe. Our universe emerged from a timeless and spaceless void. We don’t know what this Void is, only that it had none of the properties we can easily imagine. It had no dimension, or space or time; energy or mass; color or absence of color. Scientists use their mathematics to imagine it as a Pure Nothingness. Not even the known laws of nature existed.
Part of this Void exploded in a burst of light and energy that expanded and created both time and space as it evolved in time. This event also locked into existence what we call the Laws of Nature that describe how many dimensions exist in space, the existence of four fundamental forces, and how these forces operate through space and time.
At first this energy was purely in the form of gravity, but as the universe cooled, some of this energy crystalized into particles of matter. Eventually, the familiar elementary particles such as electrons and quarks emerged and this matter became cold enough that basic elements like hydrogen and helium could form.
But the speed at which the universe was expanding wasn’t steady in time. Instead this expansion doubled in speed so quickly that within a fraction of a second, the space in our universe inflated from a size smaller than a baseball to something many billions of miles across. Today, after 14 billion years of further expansion we see only a small fraction of this expanded space today, and we call it the Observable Universe. But compared to all the space that came out of the Big Bang, our entire Observable Universe is as big as a grain of sand compared to the size of our Earth. The Universe is truly an enormous collection of matter, radiation and energy in its many forms.
Meanwhile, the brilliant ‘fireball’ light from the Big Bang also cooled as the universe expanded so that by one million years after the Big Bang, it was cooler than the light we get from the surface of our own sun. Once this light became this cool, familiar atoms could start to form. As the universe continued to expand and cool, eventually the light from the Big Bang became so cool that it could only be seen as a dull glow of infrared light every where in space. The atoms no longer felt the buffeting forces of this fireball light and had started to congregate under the force of gravity into emmence clouds throughout space. It is from these dark clouds that the first stars would begin to form.
Mixed in with the ordinary matter of hydrogen and helium atoms was a mysterious new kind of matter. Scientists call this dark matter because it is invisible but it still affects normal matter by its gravity. Dark matter in the universe is five times more common than ordinary matter. It prevents galaxies like the Milky Way from flying apart, and clusters of galaxies from dissolving into individual galaxies.
Origin of the Universe. Our universe emerged from a timeless and spaceless void. We don’t know what this Void was. We think it had none of the properties we can easily imagine. It had no dimension, or space or time. It had no energy or mass. There was no color to it either blackness or pure white. Scientists use their mathematics to imagine it as a Pure Nothingness. They are pretty sure that not even the known laws of nature existed within this Void.
Part of this Void exploded in a burst of light and energy. Astronomers call this the Big Bang. It expanded and created both time and space as it evolved in time. This event also locked into existence what we call the Laws of Nature. These Laws describe how many dimensions exist in space. The Laws define the four fundamental forces, and how they operate through space and time.
At first the energy in the Big bang was purely in the form of gravity. But as the universe expanded and cooled, some of this energy crystalized into particles of matter. Eventually, the familiar elementary particles such as electrons and quarks emerged. This matter became cold enough that basic elements like hydrogen and helium could form.
But the speed at which the universe was expanding wasn’t steady in time. Instead this expansion doubled in speed very quickly. Within a fraction of a second, the space in our universe grew from a size smaller than a baseball to something many billions of miles across. After 14 billion years of further expansion we see only a small fraction of this expanded space today. We call it the Observable Universe. But compared to all the space that came out of the Big Bang, our entire Observable Universe is as big as a grain of sand compared to the size of our Earth. The Universe is truly an enormous collection of matter, radiation and energy in its many forms.
Meanwhile, the brilliant ‘fireball’ light from the Big Bang also cooled as the universe expanded. By one million years after the Big Bang, it was cooler than the light we get from the surface of our own sun. Once this light became this cool, familiar atoms could start to form. As the universe continued to expand and cool, eventually the blinding light from the Big Bang faded into a dull glow of infrared light. At this time, a human would see the universe as completely dark. The atoms no longer felt the buffeting forces of this fireball light. They began to congregate under the force of gravity. Within millions of years, immense clouds began to form throughout space. It is from these dark clouds that the first stars would begin to form.
Mixed in with the ordinary matter of hydrogen and helium atoms was a mysterious new kind of matter. Scientists call this dark matter. It is invisible to the most powerful telescopes, but it still affects normal matter by its gravity. Dark matter in the universe is five times more common than the ordinary matter we see in stars. It prevents galaxies like the Milky Way from flying apart. It also prevents clusters of galaxies from dissolving into individual galaxies.
Origin of the Universe. Our universe appeared out of a timeless and spaceless void. We don’t know what this Void was. We can’t describe it by its size, its mass or its color. It wasn’t even ‘dark’ because dark (black) is a color. Scientists think of it as a Pure Nothing.
Part of this Void exploded in a burst of light and energy. We don’t know why. Astronomers call this event the rather funny name of the ‘Big Bang’. It was the birth of our universe. But it wasn’t like a fireworks explosion. Fireworks expand into the sky, which is space that already exists. The Big Bang created space as it went along. There was nothing for it to expand into. The Big Bang also created what we call the Laws of Nature. These Laws describe how forces like gravity and matter affect each other.
As the universe expanded and cooled, some of its energy became particles of matter. This is like raindrops condensing from a cloud when the cloud gets cool enough. Over time, these basic particles formed elements like hydrogen and helium.
The universe continued to expand. Within the blink of an eye, it grew from a size smaller than a baseball to something many billions of miles across. Today, after 14 billion years we see only a small piece of this expanded space today. Compared to all the space that came out of the Big Bang, what we see around us is as big as a grain of sand compared to the size of our Earth. The Universe is truly enormous!
After about one million years the fireball light from the Big Bang became very dim. At this time, a human would see the universe as completely dark. There were, as yet, no stars to light up the sky and the darkness of space. Atoms began to congregate under the force of gravity. Within millions of years, huge clouds the size of our entire Milky Way galaxy began to form throughout space. From these dark clouds, the first stars started to appear.
Mixed in with ordinary matter was a mysterious new kind of matter. Scientists call this dark matter. It is invisible to the most powerful telescopes. But it still affects normal matter by its gravity, and that’s a very good thing! Without dark matter, galaxies like our Milky Way and its billions of stars would fly apart, sending their stars into the dark depths of intergalactic space.
Flesch Reading Ease 73.3. (Fairly easy to read); Flesch-Kincaid Grade: 5.9 (Sixth grade) ; Automated Readability Index: 5.1 (8 – 9 year olds) Fourth to Fifth grade.
Summary.
The Third Try is about as simple and readable a story as I can conjure up, and it comes in at a reading level close to Fourth grade. Scientifically, it works with terms like energy, space, expansion, matter and gravity, and scales like millions and billions of years. All in all, it is not a bad attempt that reads pretty well, scientifically, and does not mangle some basic ideas. It also has a few ‘gee whiz’ ideas like Nothing, space expansion and dark matter.
So, what do you think? Leave me a note at my Facebook page!
Next time I will tackle the middle essay about the formation of stars and planets!
We all have smartphones, but did you know that they are chock-full of sensors that you can access and use to make some amazing measurements?
Here is an example of a few kinds of data provided by an app called Physics Toolbox, which you can get at the Apple or GOOGLE stores.
Sensor data accessed by Physics Toolbox app
Each of these functions leads to a separate screen where the data values are displayed in graphical form. You can even download the data as a .csv file and analyze it yourself. This provides lots of opportunities for teachers to ask their students to collect data and analyze it themselves, rather than using textbook tables with largely made-up numbers!
There are also many different separate apps that specialize in specific kinds of data such as magnetic field strength, sound volume, temperature, acceleration to name just a few.
I have written a guide to smartphone sensors and how to use them, along with dozens of experiments, and a whole section on how to mathematically analyze the data. The guide was written for a program at the Goddard Space Flight Center called the NASA Space Science Education Consortium, so if you know any teachers, students or science-curious tinkerer’s that might be interested in smartphone sensors, send them to this blog page so that I can count the traffic flow to the Guide.
Here is an interview with the folks at ISTE where I talk about smartphone sensors in a bit more detail:
