Year 9: Problems 479 to Current

Problem 513: The Remarkable Gamma Ray Burst GRB 130427A
Students work with the surface area of a sphere, metric conversions and scientific notation to calculate the total power of this distant supernova event. [Grade: 8-10 | Topics: surface area of sphere; scientific notation] (PDF)

Problem 512: New NASA Satellite Takes Pictures of Salton Sea
Students work with image of agricultural area to estimate the percentage of area cultivated and the total rainfall in gallons per year. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: area of square and rectangle; metric units; unit conversion] (PDF)

Problem 511: Giant Gas Cloud in System NGC 6240
Students use scientific notation and volume of sphere to estimate the density of the gas cloud, and the number of hydrogen atoms per cubic meter. [Grade: 8-10 | Topics:Volume of a sphere; scientific notation; unit conversion ] (PDF)

Problem 510: Planck Mission Sees the Ancient Universe Clearly
Students work with an image of the universe when it was 370,000 years old and determine from simple scaling and proportions the sizes of the features seen in the image compared to the Milky Way. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: scale and proportion; angular measure] (PDF)

Problem 509:Gail Spacecraft Creates a New Crater on the Moon
Students work with images of the Grail impact sites to estimate the diameter of the crater created after the spacecraft impacted the moon. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: scale and proportion; volume of cylinder; mass=DensityxVolume] (PDF)

Problem 508: The InSight Seismographic Station - Wave arrival times
Students work with the circumference of Mars and the speed of shock waves in the martian crust to estimate the arrival times of the waves at the InSight Lander. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: speed=distance/time; Time calculations; circumference of a circle] (PDF)

Problem 507: Exploring the Launch of the Falcon 9
Students use data from the launch of the Falcon 9 booster to determine its speed and acceleration. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: speed=distance/time; Time calculations] (PDF)

Problem 506: A New Belt for the Van Allen Belts
Students use a model of the orbit of the van Allen Belts Probes and simulated data to draw the locations of the three van Allen Belts in space. [Grade: 3-5 | Topics: Interpreting Tabular Data] (PDF)

Problem 505: SDO Sees Coronal Rain - Estimating Plasma Speeds
Students estimate the speed of plasma streamers near the solar surface using images from a Solar Dynamics Observatory. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: scale models; speed=distance/time; proportions] (PDF)

Problem 504: Grail Satellites Create a Gravity Map of the Moon
Students explore the gravity field of the moon, and the behavior of simple pendulum clocks in places on the moon where the local gravity is slightly different. [Grade: 9-12 | Topics: square-roots; evaluating equations] (PDF)

Problem 503: The Origin of Cosmic Rays
Students explore the Fermi Gamma-Ray Observatory's confirmation of the idea that supernova are the sources of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. They use a simple model to estimate how many supernova are needed to account for the current number of cosmic rays in the galaxy. [Grade: 8-10 | Topics: percercentages, scientific notation; volume of a disk] (PDF)

Problem 502:The Frequency of Large Meteor Impacts
Students examine how often a large meteor should be visible like the one that exploded over Russia on February 14, 2013. This asteroid had a mass of 10,000 tons and injured over 1000 people. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: percercentages, areas] (PDF)

Problem 501: Exploring the Most Distant Galaxies with Hubble
Students use recent Hubble Extreme Deep Field data and a polynomial to determine the light travel time between distant galaxies and Earth. [Grade: 11-12 | Topics: polynomials; linearization] (PDF)

Problem 500: Curiosity Uses X-Ray DIffraction to Identify Minerals on Mars
Students learn about diffraction geometry and then estimate the distance between crystal planes in a mars rock sample. [Grade: 10-12 | Topics: geometry; trigonometry] (PDF)

Problem 499: The Equation of a Magnetic Field Line
Students use calculus to determine the formula for a magnetic field line. [Grade: 12 | Topics: differential and integral calculus; slope; parametric equations] (PDF)

Problem 498: The Slope of a Magnetic Field Line
Students graph a magnetic field line in the First Quadrant, then calculate the segment midpoints using the Midpoint Formula, and then draw tangent lines at each midpoint to determine compass direction. [Grade: 7-8 | Topics: Graphing in the XY plane; midpoint formula; tangent lines to curves] (PDF)

Problem 497: Graphing a Magnetic Field Line
Students plot points along a magnetic field line in the First Quadrant, then use reflection symmetry to complete the field line shape in all four quadrants. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: graphing in XY plane; reflection symmetry] (PDF)

Problem 496: How to Grow a Planet or a Rain Drop
Students use calculus to slove for the growth in mass of a body, and solve the equation for the case of a raindrop and a planet like Earth. [Grade: 12 | Topics: Solving a simple differential equation.] (PDF)

Problem 495: The Volume of a Lunar Impact Crater
Students use calculus to determine the volume of a crater whose depth is defined by a fourth-order polynomial [Grade: 12 | Topics: Integration involving vollumes of rotation] (PDF)

Problem 494: The Close Encounter to the Sun of Barnards Star
Students use parametric equations and calculus to determine the linear equation for the path of Barnards Star, and then determine when the minimum distance to the sun occurs [Grade: 12 | Topics: Derivitives and minimization] (PDF)

Problem 493: Fun with Gears and Fractions
Students learn about how simple fractions are used to describe gears and gear trains that reduce or increase speed. [Grade: 4-7 | Topics: multiplying simple fractions] (PDF)

Problem 492: Alpha Centauri Bb - a nearby extrasolar planet?
Students plot data for the orbiting planet and determine its orbit period. They use this in a simple formula to determine its distance, then they estimate its surface temperature at this distance. [Grade: 9-12 | Topics: graphing periodic data; finding periods; evaluating simple formulae ] (PDF)

Problem 491: The Curiosity Rover on the Move.
Students plot the position of the Curiosity Rover on a cartesian grid covering the satellite image of the landing area. They use the 2-point distance formula to determine how far the rover traveled between stops, and determine it speed. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Cartseian graphs; ordered pairs and coordinates; distance = speed x time; metric measure ] (PDF)

Problem 490: LL Pegasi - A Perfect Spiral in Space
The star LL Persei is ejecting gas like a sprinkler on a lawn. Every 800 years the gas makes one complete orbit, and over time forms a spiral patteri in space. Students explore the timing of this pattern and estimate the size and age of this gas. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Distance = speed x time; unit conversions; evaluating formulas ] (PDF)

Problem 489: RBSP and the location of Dawn Chorus - III
The location of the Chorus signal from each of the RBSP spacecraft is given by a linear equation that represents the direction along which the signal is detected by each spacecraft. Students solve the two linear equations for the common intersection point representing the location of the Chorus signal in space. This can be done graphically by plotting each linear equation, or solved algebraically. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Linear equations; solving systems of equations; graphical solutions ] (PDF)

Problem 488: RBSP and the Location of Dawn Chorus - II
Students use hypothetical information from the twin RBSP spacecraft to triangulate the location of the Chorus signal near Earth using angle measurements, graphing and protractors to identify the intersection point of the CHorus signals. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Angles; graphing; protractors ] (PDF)

Problem 487: The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field
Students use the Hubble XDF to estimate the number of galaxies in the visible universe. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Counting, areas, proportions ] (PDF)

Problem 486: RBSP Hears Dawn Chorus - I
Students explore the method of triangulation and how it might be used by the RBSP spacecraft to find the origin of the Chorus signals. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Graphing on the Cartesian plane; distances between points. ] (PDF)

Problem 485: Curiosity Discovers Ancient Mars River
Students estimate the speed of an ancient mars river using images from the CUriosity rover. [Grade: 9-12 | Topics: Algebra; trigonometry; evaluating functions ] (PDF)

Problem 484: Exploring Water Use in Kansas
Students use Landsat imagery from 1972 and 2011 to determine how much additional water is being used for irrigation in a small region of Kansas. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Area of a circle; unit conversions ] (PDF)

Problem 483: The Radioactive Dating of a Star in the Milky Way!
Students explore Cayrel's Star, whose age has been dated to 12 billion years using a radioisotope dating technique involving the decay of uranium-238. [Grade: 9-12 | Topics: half-life; exponential functions; scientific notation] (PDF)

Problem 482: Exploring Density, Mass and Volume Across the Universe
Students calculate the density of various astronomical objects and convert them into hydrogen atoms per cubic meter in order to compare how astronomical objects differ enormously in their densities. [Grade: 9-12 | Topics: Density=mass/volume; scientific notation; unit conversion; metric math ] (PDF)

Problem 481: Pluto's Fifth Moon
Students explore Kepler's Third Law and estimate the orbit period of a hypothetical sixth moon using the distance:period law. They also determine the mass of Pluto using the orbit data, including the recently discovered fifth moon (P5) of Pluto by the Hubble Space Telescope. [Grade: 9-12 | Topics: Power functions; integer exponents; Scientific Notation; tabular data] (PDF)

Problem 480: The Expanding Gas Shell of U Camelopardalis
Students explore the expanding U Camelopardalis gas shell imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, to determine its age and the density of its gas. [Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Scientific Notation; distance = speed x time; density=mass/volume ] (PDF)

Problem 479: Exploring Gale Crater with the Curiosity Rover
Students explore the Gale Crater landing area and calculate rover distances to various way stations to determine the round trip distance and travel time. [Grade: 9-12 | Topics: Pythagorean Distance Formula; Coordinate geometry ] (PDF)