For as long as humans have existed, we've been looking upward, trying to figure out what in (or out of) this world is going on. As time has progressed, so have our ways of examining the night sky, and in modern times, we've gone from just looking looking up at the stars to actively uncovering the mysteries of our solar system and the vast universe.
Watch this animation to find out more about space exploration. Then answer the questions in the Take Notes box below.
Humans have been gazing up at the sky for as long as we’ve been human, and through the millenia, we’ve figured out a lot of details about our solar system. (ex. Images of early cultures: Mesopotamia, Greek, Egypt, Islamic age, Chinese, Mayans)
But only recently with the advent of modern science have we graduated from observing,
calculating and philosophizing to actively exploring our solar system, our galaxy, other galaxies, and the larger universe.
In just the past century…
We’ve gazed deeper into space (examples: Hubble Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope)
We’ve sent satellites and probes to and past other planets (examples: Curiosity/Perseverance rovers (Mars), Voyager (outer planets))
We’ve traveled to and lived in space (examples: Saturn V rocket, Apollo 11 Moon Landing, International Space Station)
Space exploration has done more for us than just simply making us feel really small, slightly insignificant, and seemingly alone… The inventions we needed to do all this exploration of space has changed how we live. From the lenses in telescopes, to more modern conveniences (ex. calculator, satellites, AppSTAR radio, camera phones) space science inventions have made it into our daily lives.
All of this invention, innovation and star-gazing has allowed us to answer
some pretty big questions about our place in the universe, and to create more for us to wonder about.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Answer the following questions in the Notes box, below.