This can result in many of those who undertake such a degree not continuing an Astronomy career, but rather redirecting those acquired skills in other disciplines, e. Read more about studying astronomy.
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Bachelor of Science. Bachelor of Arts. Business Administration. Online Bachelor Degrees. Student Resources. Student Tips. Joanna Hughes. Many students with a degree in astronomy go on to rewarding careers as researchers and educators. Others work for national observatories, research centers, private industry, museums and planetariums, or in journalism and public relations.
A major in astronomy provides a solid foundation in mathematics and physics, and most gain experience with computer programming and statistics as well.
This can be an attractive package of skills for employers. In fact, on some lists Astronomy is one of the top 10 college degrees for starting salaries.
You can draw a map in any direction that you want. But to avoid confusion most maps are drawn so that north is up and east is to the right. Often there is a little "compass" mark that shows the directions of north, south, east, and west. I have seen a few maps with the directions turned, but there is always a compass mark somewhere on the map to tell you which way is which. It does make some sense to put either the North Pole or South Pole at the top, because of the earth's rotation.
That defines north and south. I understand that the reason the North Pole is at the top is that many of the early mapmakers were from Europe and thus live in the Northern Hemisphere. I have seen some maps drawn the other way round — with the South Pole at the top — usually done by people who live in the Southern Hemisphere trying to make this point!
How was celestial navigation discovered? Do people still use it today? What are the most important stars to navigate by? We are still using celestial navigation but in a new way. Many of our satellites steer by the stars. But to point exactly in the right place, we must locate one or two known stars for which we know the positions. From those stars we can then point precisely at whatever point in the sky we want. I believe that celestial navigation began with sailors.
Out on the ocean there is only the water, the sun, and the stars. So early sailors thousands of years ago probably figured out some basic navigation. Probably the most important star for navigation, both then and now is Polaris, the Pole Star. You may have learned to find the Big Dipper Ursa Major constellation.
The two stars at the end of the dipper point at the Pole Star which is part of a fainter constellation, the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor. As long as you are in the Northern Hemisphere of the earth, you can use Polaris to find north at night if it's not cloudy, raining, or snowing. How do people use celestial navigation? Are there any other things in the sky that they use except stars? I think that celestial navigation is not used so much any more by ships. Ships and planes use radio beacons to determine where they are.
If you can pick up two or more radio beacons, you can figure out where you are pretty precisely. Recently we have been using radio beacons from space! There are several satellites in orbit that are used just to figure out where you are. If I recall correctly, it was developed by the U. People can now buy a GPS device and put it into their own boat, even if it's just a yacht or a rowboat.
It is very accurate and is now available commercially. It has built into it all the radio sensors and a computer to do the calculations for you.
Who gets the credit for saying the sun is the center of the solar system, and that the planets rotate around it?
The idea that the sun is the center of our solar system goes back to a Polish astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus.
He first published this idea in But this idea was not immediately accepted. A Danish astronomer named Tycho Brahe performed very careful observations of the motion of the planets, the best that had ever been done. These observations were the test of any theory about the orbits of the planets. They were done during the late s he discovered a supernova in It was the German astronomer Johannes Kepler who came up with the mathematical theory that really worked to explain the motion of the planets using the careful observations by Tycho.
He showed that the planets actually move in ovals, not circles, around the sun. His work on planetary orbits was published in — Finally, Galileo was the first person to look at the night sky with a telescope. He found moons in orbit around Jupiter, that Venus has phases, and that the planets appeared larger and smaller as they moved through the sky.
He found that these observations could only make sense if the sun is the center of the solar system. His ideas were published in He ran into trouble though, because the Catholic Church at the time insisted that the earth was the center of the universe. So the idea comes from Copernicus, but it took awhile before it could be proved and before it was generally accepted as correct.
A magnet would work fine in space. It doesn't need air or gravity or anything else to work. In fact the earth is a big magnet. Its magnetic fields help to produce the aurora, as particles given off by the sun interact with the magnetic field. Those fields are called the Van Allen belts.
If by space, we are talking about out in space away from planets and stars, then no, there is no rain and lightning, because there are no water clouds. But there can be rain on another planet if there are water clouds. Mars comes pretty close. It has a little water, but it is cold, so it shows up as frost and icy fogs.
We have also seen lightning on Jupiter. It has different clouds — methane, ammonia, stuff like that. But lightning is basically an electrical discharge, and that can happen. I would guess that lightning occurs in the clouds of some of the other planets as well. Talking is sound. Sound is vibrations traveling through something — air if you are talking, but sound can travel through liquids the ocean and through solids the earth as well. Space is very empty, nearly a vacuum.
So there would be no sound. All those great whooshes and pows in science fiction movies are great special effects, but not real. Could you explain what is meant by curved space, as I believe Einstein described? We usually talk about curved space with respect to gravity. A large mass like the sun distorts space by its gravity, causing both matter and energy to "fall" in toward it. The usual analogy is to picture a two-dimensional universe.
If nothing were in it, it would be flat, but put a "star" in the middle and it "sags" in toward the star.
The northern and southern lights occur when charged particles emitted by the sun encounter the earth's magnetic field. These particles slide along the lines of magnetic force toward the North and South poles. When the particles hit the earth's atmosphere, they can excite add energy to the molecules in the air.
Supernova researchers are putting this data into medical imaging software originally designed for brain scans to get a 3D model that can be viewed in degrees. To take it one step further, the models can then be 3D printed, allowing you to hold a dead star in your hand.
By pursuing scientific research, our scientists never know what might be the next big breakthrough. New detector technology means better lighter cameras. Astronomical data analysis software can be reconfigured to make cars safer. Novel techniques in radio astronomy paved the way for wireless internet. Support Our Science. Utility Menu News Events. How can astronomy improve life on earth? Share this Page. Facebook Share on Facebook. Twitter Share on Twitter. Share on LinkedIn.
Share via Email. Protecting the Planet In , the Sun launched an enormous magnetized mass of plasma at the Earth, shorting electrical lines, starting electrical fires and knocking out telegraph communication.
Research Topics. See All Staff. Our Work The need for extremely precise instrumentation in astronomy can often be transferred into the medical field. Related News.
With techniques developed in quantum mechanics, molecular spectra can be modeled by a set of discrete fundamental parameters.
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