This resource is part of the Science Education Gateway (SEGway) project, funded by NASA, which is a national consortium of scientists, museums, and educators working together to bring the latest science to students, teachers, and the general public. This activity introduces students to planetary research. Using some of the most famous and interesting images of the Solar System, students learn to focus ... Full description.

This collection of lithographs includes downloadable, printable pictures and information about Earth and its Moon (including the famous 'blue marble' photo of Earth taken by the crew of Apollo 17), the other planets of the solar system, their moons, the sun, the Kuiper belt, and the Oort cloud. Full description.

The Sun-Earth Viewer is an experimental Flash-based viewer that allows visitors to zoom and pan live NASA solar and Earth images. In addition, it features video interviews with scientists and detailed scientific animations, extensive interactive sun-earth illustrations, and live interactive solar and aurora images. Full description.

This educator's guide consists of nine sequential activities for younger students, in which they acquire content knowledge and conduct investigations to compare and contrast Mars and Earth. They will begin by examining images of the two planets, learn about the instruments used to make them, and use the knowledge they have gained by examining images of Earth to begin analyzing images of Mars. The ... Full description.

This educator's guide features eight activities in which younger students use brainstorming, observations, and experiments to learn about the Sun. They will begin by learning that light is our means of studying the Sun, use spectroscopes to separate white light into its component colors, and learn that there are other forms of light outside the visible spectrum. Then the students will conduct experiments ... Full description.

In this article, The Why Files examines the possible finding of water ice on our Moon, and the implications for this discovery. The article discusses why scientists believe there is water on the Moon, how a neutron spectrometer picks up the unusual presence of hydrogen on the Moon which could indicate water, what scientists hope to use this water for, and where this water may have come from. A moon ... Full description.

This tutorial traces the history of the telescope, beginning with Galileo's first small refractor, to the era of orbiting space telescopes. Topics include Galileo's trouble with the church over the observations he made with his new instrument, Sir Isaac Newton's invention of the reflecting telescope, and the development of technologies that made it possible to construct increasingly larger, more powerful ... Full description.

This resource gives an impression of how immense our Universe is by starting with an image of the Earth and then zooming out to the furthest visible reaches of the Universe. Its goal is to show astronomical distances without scientific notation. Instead, it focuses on the large number of zeros that are in astronomical distances when we measure them with a familiar unit like the kilometer. The number ... Full description.

This hands-on demonstration of the communications path between scientists and the NASA Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) Satellite shows how scientific data are downloaded from the satellite. The same demonstration can also be used to illustrate how the instruments on the satellite are commanded by scientists on Earth. It gives students a feel for the dynamics of satellite communications and orbital ... Full description.

This 2-3 week module, based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cassini mission to Saturn, uses the mission as a context for learning fundamental science/math concepts. It consists of six standards-based, constructivist lessons, enrichment activities, and supplemental material such as questions and answers, a glossary, and a chart of Cassini's position in the sky. Full description.