Distance Learning Module: Cosmic Dust
Bid “happy retirement” to the Spitzer Space Telescope in this lesson all about an underappreciated substance in space (and our homes): DUST!
Includes activities appropriate for grade levels K-2, 3-5, and middle schoolers
This photograph of a nebula—a huge cloud of gas and dust in space—was captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2019. It is located in our galaxy, the Milky Way, within the constellation Aquila, or the Eagle. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Milky Way Project. LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS IMAGE)
Read It!
Start here for information on cosmic dust and how we can learn about it in a lab or from home
Outer space—all of the universe located outside Earth’s atmosphere—is full of gas and dust! Dust is made of lots of tiny particles of solid minerals, ice crystals, or specks of sand.
Cosmic dust—also known as space dust or star dust—comes in many forms. It can be found in clouds in the space between the stars, which is called interstellar space. Sometimes gravity causes a cloud of dust and gas to condense and heat up. This is how stars are born.
When a star dies, in a big explosion called a supernova, dust is released back into space. The dust is then recycled to form clouds, planets, comets, asteroids, and even new stars.
The rings around the planet Saturn are made of millions of fragments of dust-coated ice and rock. The gas giants Neptune and Uranus also have rings—but Saturn’s rings are the most visible and impressive. This beautiful picture was captured by the Hubble Telescope. (Image credit: NASA; ESA; A. Simon, GSFC; M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley; OPAL Team)
Some space dust falls to Earth every day!
These are pictures of TINY dust particles that have been enlarged many times with a scanning electron microscope. Microscopes help us to see things that are too small to see with just our eyes. (Image credits: Don Brownlee, University of Washington and Elmar Jassbeger, Institut fur Planetologie, Munster, Germany / NASA)
THIS is a picture of giant cloud of dust and gas in space. It is very far away from us—1500 light years! We call it the Horsehead Nebula. It is located within the constellation Orion. Have you ever seen Orion in the night sky?
Telescopes help us to see things that are too far away to see just with our eyes. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team)
The Spitzer Space Telescope helped scientists see and learn about cosmic dust
In 2003, NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope. It had two parts:
The Cryogenic Telescope Assembly contained an 85-centimeter telescope and Spitzer's three scientific instruments
The Spacecraft controlled the telescope, provided solar power to the instruments, handled the scientific data and communicated with Earth
Launch of the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2003, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Image Credit": NASA
The equipment on the Spitzer Space Telescope allowed it to take pictures of space in infrared. Our eyes cannot see the infrared energy put out by objects in space, but the telescope could “see” them for us.
The Spitzer mission ran until January 2020. Before it was retired, it helped astronomers to study many objects in space—including lots of cosmic dust!
Try It! Complete these hands-on activities to see today’s lesson in action
Activity: Dust Hunt
Launch your own sample-collecting mission from home. Adapted from the McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin
Materials:
Clear tape (packing tape is a great option)
White paper (such as plain copy paper)
Magnifying glass (optional, but recommended)
Preparation:
With an adult’s assistance, cut several strips of tape. Wrap each strip into a loop, and stick to a hard surface such as a countertop or the rim of a plate. Allow as little contact between the surface and the tape adhesive as possible.
Think about how much do you already know about dust…What does it look like? Where can you find it? What size it?
Process:
Use your tape loops to take several dust samples from around your house.
Hold the tape loop on your hand, sticky-side out
Place the section of tape that is just next to your fingertips onto a testing surface. This could be anywhere you think you will find dust in your home, such as as a floorboard, pant leg, windowsill, tabletop…where else will you try?
Gently pull the tape up
There should still be a portion of the tape loop—the part that was against your knuckles, that did not touch the sample surface—with no dust on it. Stick THAT portion of the tape onto your white paper, with the dusty loop facing up.
Label each sample as you stick it onto the paper, so you know where it came from
Examine your samples
Look closely at your samples, using a magnifying glass if one is available to you. What does each patch of dust look like? Consider the different sizes, shapes, and colors of dust particles you found. Think of three describing words that you would use for each sample—is it rough? Scratchy? Bumpy? Fluffy?
Some interesting information about your dust samples cannot be seen. For instance, how do you think the dust got inside? What is it made of? What clues do you use to understand your samples besides sight?
Look for patterns. Do all your samples look the same? Do you see a relationship between what the dust looks like and where it came from in the house? Can you find categories in your samples—for instance, all the ones that look sandy or all the ones that contain food crumbs?
Be sure to wash your hands after handling dust samples!
Storytime
Enjoy this story on your own or with a family member. Courtesy McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin
Dusty and Ashley’s Big Adventure
Dusty and Ashley live in Saturn’s rings. They enjoy orbiting Saturn with the other dust grains, ice chunks, and moons. They live in one of the most beautiful planets in our solar system.
One day, Prometheus, one of Saturn’s moons, tells Dusty and Ashley to visit their relatives on the rocky planets in the solar system. Away they go, heading toward the Sun.
After traveling for a long time, Ashley points to a small blue planet and says “Dusty, look! Liquid water! Let’s go for a swim!”
Down, down, down toward Earth Dusty and Ashley fell. They felt very hot as they plunged through Earth’s atmosphere. “Whew, I’m hot!” exclaimed Dusty. Ashley replied, “We will cool off soon. Look! Here comes the water!” SPLASH!
Dusty and Ashley swam in the ocean, and then washed up on shore. They met Sandy and other sand grains on the beach. They talked about Earth and the other rocky planets: Mars, Venus, and Mercury.
Soon, Dusty, Ashley, Sandy, and all the others on the beach realized that they were all in the same family! Dusty and Ashley learned from Sandy that some of their relatives live on Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Others are still drifting around the Sun in space.
^ Click the button above for an optional activity related to this reading ^
Cut out the story tiles, and place them in the correct order on the blank squares.
Activity: Interstellar Dust
This hands-on investigation of instant oatmeal models how scientists determine the composition and properties of interstellar dust (dust between and among stars) using the Spitzer Space Telescope. Break a “dust” sample into its components, and test these against known samples to determine the ingredients.
Adapted from the McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin
Materials:
Instant oatmeal variety pack
Small samples of various dry pantry goods—eg salt, sugar, M&Ms, nuts, dried fruit. Some of these should be present in the instant oatmeal, and some should not.
White paper
Clear tape
Wire-mesh kitchen strainer
Tweezers
Paintbrush
Magnifying glass (optional, but recommended)
Preparation:
1) Use the template below to create a paper reference strip:
Lay out a strip of tape, sticky side up, for each reference ingredient. You may choose ingredients other than the ones shown in the example.
Sprinkle a small amount of each sample ingredient onto the tape
Turn the tape over and adhere it, sticky side down, to the correct square on your reference strip. You should have a small “pocket” of ingredient trapped on the grid by the tape.
2) Create a dust sample by mixing together several packages of different-flavored oatmeal in a mixing bowl or sealable plastic bag
Process:
Your objective is to sort out the dry ingredients of pre-mixed instant oatmeal by their physical characteristics.
1) Using a wire-mesh strainer, separate the large-size ingredients (oats, dried fruit) from the fine-size ingredients (powder, sugar, cinnamon…).
2) Further separate fine ingredients as much as possible, using tweezers, a magnifying glass, and a paintbrush. You must sort based on visible properties (such as size, color, and texture). Astronomers cannot touch or taste their cosmic dust samples; they view them from images taken by equipment like the Spitzer Space Telescope.
3) When your sample dust is sorted, create a list or chart of all the ingredients present, and their properties:
What ingredients could you identify?
How did you organize the ingredients?
What properties did you record?
4) Now compare the ingredients present in your sample with the known ingredients on your reference strip.
Which ingredients did the strip help you identify?
How did you compare your sample ingredients to the reference ingredients?
Are there ingredients on the reference strip that you did not find in your sample dust? Do you think you could find them in the sample dust if you had more sensitive sorting or examination instruments?
