National Aeronautics and Space Administration

X-ray Spectroscopy and the Chemistry of Supernova Remnants

Objectives

Students will read and write about the chemistry and spectroscopy of stars and supernova remnants, as well as understand their relevance and impact on human life. Students will also learn about cutting edge technology that will help us to build better instruments with which to study the Universe.

Each section has several pages of background material relevant to the associated activities and the lesson plan as a whole. The background sections include short exercises or thought questions developed to help the student reach a better understanding of the material presented. Each section also has activies developed by real teachers – designed to bring important concepts in astronomy right into the classroom. Each activity is correlated to national science and math standards for grades 9-12. These activities show how interelated chemistry, physics, and astronomy really are.

Outline of Unit

This unit is also available in PDF form using the download links at the bottom of this page.

Part I: How and Where are Elements Created?

• Background: The Life Cycles of Stars: How Supernovae Are Formed – Describes the life of a high-mass star – as well as its death in a giant supernova explosion.
• Background: The Dispersion of Elements – Describes how supernova explosions not only disperse the elements created inside a star, they create new elements.
• Activity: Fusion Reactions – In this activity, each student is given a card with an element produced inside stars on it – the students then form fusion reactions that occur within stars.

Part II: What is Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation? How is it created in atoms? What units are used to characterize EM radiation?

• Background: How Do the Properties of Light Help Us to Study Supernovae and Their Remnants? – Students learn about the electromagnetic spectrum.
• Activity: Calculation Investigation – Students learn about unit analysis by converting energies to wavelengths to frequencies.
• Background: Atoms and Light Energy – Describes how atoms emit light, and how we can use this to learn about astronomical objects.
• Activity: Calculate the Energy! – Students will calculate the energy differences in different energy states of the Bohr atom of Hydrogen.

Part III: What tools are used to identify elements? What importance do X-rays have to astronomy?

• Background: Introduction to Spectroscopy – Everything you ever wanted to know about spectroscopy but were afraid to ask!
• Activity: Graphing Spectra – Practice drawing graphs of spectra, and understanding the different ways spectra can be represented, as well as what each representation can tell us.
• Activity: Flame Test – A chemistry experiment that show how heated elements emit different colors of light.
• Activity: Design an Element Poster Advertisement – Students will discuss what they have learned about atoms and elements in their own words, designing a poster advertisement for their chosen element. Students will use more than just their right brain to think about science!

Part IV: How does the newest technology help us to understand the Universe?

• Background: All About The Microcalorimeter. – All about microcalorimeter technology, the next generatioon X-ray spectrometer.
• Activity: Identifying Light Energy by Temperature Changes – Learn first hand how a microcalorimeter really works
• Activity: Identifying Elements in Supernova Remnants using Spectra – Now the students get to take all they have learned and really apply it. Students will identify the elements present in a supernova remnant by analyzing its spectrum.
• Background: A Plethora of X-ray Telescopes – Learn about existing and future X-ray telescopes and what they hope to accomplish.
• Activity: Satellite Venn Diagram – Students will organize the information about X-ray observatories into a Venn diagram.
• Activity: Writing Assignment – As a closing activity, students will demonstrate the ability to use text information and data to persuade a reading audience of the benefits of using calorimeter detectors to do X-ray astronomy.

Download links

• Download entire unit in one file: Word, PDF
• Download each Part:
  • Part 1: Word, PDF
  • Part 2: Word, PDF
  • Part 3: Word, PDF
  • Part 4: Word, PDF
• Download just the student readings: Word, PDF
• Download just the student worksheets: Word, PDF
• Download keys to selected student worksheets: Word, PDF

Teacher's Corner

• Lesson Plans
  • Science in the Media
  • Heat Transfer in a Mixture
  • Another Way to Solve a Chilling Problem
  • Grazing Incidence Angle
  • X-ray Spectroscopy and the Chemistry of Supernova Remnants
• Educator Workshops
  • Science in the Media Workshop
  • Suzaku DVD Educator Workshop