Passport to the Universe - Program 2: "Live From the Edge of Space and Time" (2001)
(rebroadcast of live performance)
Target: Grades 6-10
Length: 59 minutes 29 seconds
Guide: Passport to Knowledge (P2K)
P.O. Box 1587
Morristown, NJ, 07962-1587
Phone: (973) 656-9403
Internet: http://passporttoknowledge.com →
Originally broadcast live from the CHANDRA X-ray Observatory Operations Control Center in Cambridge, MA, this program allowed students to interact via the Internet with CHANDRA scientists (including CXO Director Harvey Tananbaum and Project Scientist Martin Weisskopf from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center) and to explore some of the most exciting and mysterious phenomena in the Universe. Students find out how to track CHANDRA and other telescopes in real time via the Web, and how to link to the latest and most beautiful images. They'll see some of the most distant and ancient objects we know of--quasars and distant galaxies--and find out how black holes power some of the most energetic events in the entire Universe. But on the very edge of space, time and current knowledge are phenomena like "dark matter" and "dark energy." Current thinking is that what we see out there in space is not all that exists. Fermilab tracks the collisions of matter and anti-matter and find out how astronomy and particle physics are both being used to understand the dynamic and evolving universe in which we live. The mini-series concludes by looking ahead to the new missions and telescopes which today's students may themselves use tomorrow in the ongoing exploration of the Universe.
