Paignton Library STEM Group – September 2022

The September STEM group meeting will be taking place on Saturday 10/9/2022.

There is a post on the STEM Group blog with further details.

Tags

#STEM,#Science,#Space,#Activities,#Coding.#Discussions

Paignton Library STEM Group – August 2022 Writeup

The August STEM group meeting took place on Saturday 13/8/2022. It was a quiet meeting but fairly productive.

I partly set up a monitor / keyboard and mouse as I was expecting 2 attendees to come along for help with a Raspberry Pi. They didn't make it so we just carried on with the other planned activities.

We watched the August Space Telescope Science Institute public lecture ( recording ) and had an interesting discussion around this, which also led to a discussion on photography and infra red and UV filtering. Harding also offered a talk on Space and time, which we will discuss further and agree for a later date.

Prior to the meeting starting, and with help from Loic at the library, we set up a tablet with the Lego WeDo 2.0 and got this working. So this is another activity for both Code Club and a future STEM Group meeting.

The next two Code Club will take place on the 20th August and 3rd September, while the next STEM group meeting will be on 10th September. So hopefully more of the same.

#STEM,#Science,#Space,#JWST,#Activities,#Coding.#Discussions

Paignton Library STEM Group – August 2022

The August STEM group meeting will take place on Saturday 13/8/2022. As with previous events, this will be a mix of Science, Technology, and Engineering subjects along with discussions and a look at projects brought along to the event.

We will be watching the August Space Telescope Science Institute public lecture ( recording )

Note : I have now fixed the issue with low volume, so we can now turn the sound up to level where people can hear any audio clearly.

Description

Speaker: Alexandra Lockwood (Space Telescope Science Institute)

The Webb Space Telescope has recently showcased its spectacular first images and is now ready to do incredible science! It has been a long road to get here, including meticulous planning, exacting execution, and an amazing amount of teamwork! Join Dr. Alex Lockwood as she talks about the journey from launch to commissioning, explores details of the first images and spectra, and helps us understand the awesome scientific potential of NASA's newest great observatory.

Recorded live on Tuesday, August 2, 2022.

Preceding this I have found a short video to explain emission and absorption spectra,

I have linked some courses on FreeCodeCamp, that are partially related to data analysis and use of Python in Science.

Schedule (talk / video stream)

• Emission and Absorption Line Spectra – A Level Physics
• James Webb – First image & Spectra – STSCI Lecture
  • Scientific Computing with Python
  • Data Analysis with Python
• STSCI
• JWST
• I have downloaded and printed the technical specification for the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope and will make this available too.
• Science forums question on spectra and molecules

The plan is to watch video, then have a discussion around this.

Schedule (projects stream)

As we are a bring you own projects group, then attendees can bring what they are working on, or perhaps carry on with what they are doing at Code Club for example.

Links

• Paignton Library
• Sense about Science
• Free Code Camp

Tags

#STEM,#Science,#Space,#JWST,#Activities,#Coding.#Discussions

August STSCI Lecture

The next space telescope science institute lecture is on the 2nd August. The topic of this is Webb's First Look: Images and Spectra from NASA's Newest Great Observatory

We will also be watching this lecture as part of the August STEM Group meeting on Saturday 13th August.

Description

Speaker: Alexandra Lockwood (Space Telescope Science Institute)

The Webb Space Telescope has recently showcased its spectacular first images and is now ready to do incredible science! It has been a long road to get here, including meticulous planning, exacting execution, and an amazing amount of teamwork! Join Dr. Alex Lockwood as she talks about the journey from launch to commissioning, explores details of the first images and spectra, and helps us understand the awesome scientific potential of NASA's newest great observatory.

Links

• STSCI
• JWST
• Science forums question on spectra and molecules

Tags

#Science,#Space,#JWST,STSCI,#Astronomy

Sending life to the stars

Reposting with an update

Interesting article from Science daily on Sending life to the stars. Looks like we are getting closer to being able to propel objects to near to the speed of light.

Granted this research they are looking at 20-30% but this is a big step forward.

• Sending life to the stars
• Link to paper
• Science Daily
• Discourse

Original Mastodon post

Happy do discuss on Mastodon, Discourse or at the Paignton Library STEM Group meetings.

• Speed of light
• Paignton Library STEM Group

Tags

#Space,#Travel,#ScienceDaily,#PaigntonLibrarySTEMGroup

Citation

University of California - Santa Barbara. "Sending life to the stars: Scientists contemplate launching tiny lifeforms into interstellar space." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 6 January 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220106133257.htm>.

Related (or seems to be) article from Biorxiv – Nematodes can survive in a suspended form of life for indefinite time

Lots of life which can survive in very harsh conditions.

The Webb Space Telescope: Launching a Legacy

This is the December public lecture from the Space Telescope Science Institute

Location: Online Attendance Only Date ; December 7th 2021 Time: 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM *

• US Time (Baltimore)

Links

• Space Telescope Science Institute
• Lecture page
• Discourse Discussion

Tags

#Science,#Space,#stsci,#Telescope,#Astronomy,#JamesWebb,#Webb

Astronomy Dec 2021

There are some really good resources out there for Amateur and professional astronomy enthusiasts. Two such websites are listed below.

I have also linked in the tags below so those links should bring up previous posts on this topic.

Skymaps provides a downloadable map, along with monthly events list and also a list of what can be seen, along with the distance to these objects.

Links

• Skymaps
• Deep Space Maps

Tags

#Astronomy,#Space,#Stellarium,#kstars

Where did the big bang happen

Another video from OpenScience videos

Links

• Discourse
• Qoto invite Link

Fedi Id's

Open Science : opensciencevids@tilvids.com (Mastodon) * OpenScience videos

Tags

#Science,#Physics,#Astronomy,#BigBang,#Universe,#Beginning,#OpenScience,#education,#Fermilab,#Physics,#science,#space