Genesis Education: Cosmic Chemistry: The Sun and Solar Wind

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This science module focuses on the role of model development in scientific inquiry and on the technology underlying the formulation of the Standard Solar Model. If you're using Genesis science modules for the first time, read the User's Guide thoroughly before you begin. (View User's Guide as a PDF.)

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Take a look at other science modules available. All technical terms in the science modules are compiled in the Glossary for easy access.

Technology Applications are available for this module.

Sun and Solar Wind
Which came first, the model or the technology?
The goal of this education module is to help students understand how the development of the Standard Solar Model has been limited by available analytical instrumentation and technology. However, refinements of the model have played crucial roles in the design of more advanced instrumentation and technology, such as will be used in the Genesis project, which is designed to help scientists determine how our solar system began and evolved.

During the initial exploration, students will examine the Standard Solar Model, based on data from past investigations, using then-current technology. In the final activity, students will develop a model that could account for the presence of heavy elements that are not predicted by the Standard Solar Model.

Student Mission
Students will explore various aspects of the Standard Solar Model and gain an appreciation for the interrelationship between what scientists learned from empirical observation and the development of that model.

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Teacher Resources

For a listing of additional resources that includes URLs, books, and periodicals, click here.

Module Overview

During the Apollo program, a series of solar wind experiments were conducted on the surface of the moon. For three days, a flag-sized sheet of aluminum foil collected solar particles. When neon and helium isotopes were analyzed in the Apollo samples, it was observed that the ratios of these isotopes were different from those ratios observed on Earth. This confirmed the need for more extensive sampling and analysis of the solar wind.

Genesis will continue solar wind experimentation where Apollo left off. It will obtain the first extraterrestrial samples since Apollo and bring them back to Earth for analysis. Plans are being made to analyze these data for the presence of every element from lithium to uranium, including all the isotopes along the way. The Sun

Even as the Genesis mission is launched, researchers will be invited to propose advanced new instrumentation to study the solar wind samples. When these analyses are complete, they will be a factor in the interpretation of a wide variety of space phenomena, resulting in a more thorough understanding of the composition of the original solar nebula. It is inevitable that the Genesis data from the solar wind will result in either improvement in the current model of the sun's composition or the design of new models.

Curriculum Connections
National Standards Addressed
National Science Education Standards

Grades 9-12
Science as Inquiry

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Understandings about scientific inquiry

Physical Science

Structure of Atoms
Structure and properties of matter

Earth and Space Science

Energy in the Earth System
The Orgin and Evolution of the Earth System
The Orgin and Evolution of the Universe

Science and Technology

Abilities of Technological Design
Understandings about Science and Technology

History and Nature of Science

Science as a Human Endeavor
Nature of Scientific Knowledge

The Invisible Sun: How Hot Is It?
	Teacher Guide
The Invisible Fire
	Student Activity
	Student Text
Models in Science
	Student Text
	PowerPoint
	PowerPoint as PDF

In the activities of this module on the sun and solar wind, the teacher's primary instructional role is Socratic. Through effective questioning, students should be made aware of the relationship between what scientists observe and the models they used to explain that information.

The Student Activity, "The Invisible Fire," can be used to introduce students not only to the Standard Solar Model, but also to some of the history and technology involved in the design of the model. This awareness will grow as they are involved in modeling the fusion reaction thought to occur in the core of the sun.

During the activity, students should be guided to an understanding of the following characteristics of scientific models:

Models corresponding to real events and objects help scientists understand and explain how things work. These explanations also generate logic-based models through the incorporation of new findings.

A good model is based on knowledge-and knowledge is achieved through scientific inquiry and observation using available instrumentation. The development of new and better models often depends upon the development of new and better technological instrumentation. But the reverse often occurs.

Photons in the Radiative Zone: Which Way is Out? An A-Maz-ing Model
	Teacher Guide
	Student Activity
	Student Text

Use the Student Activity, "Photons in the Radiative Zone: Which Way is Out?" to create interest in learning more about the Standard Solar Model. The activity starts with students simulating photons finding their way out of a circular maze, which models what we think happens in the sun's radiative zone.
The activities focused on electromagnetic radiation and solar wind, both of which affect the Earth and the rest of the solar system, will correlate the Standard Solar Model with energy and matter leaving the sun.

MASS MASS - Who has the MASS? Analyzing Tiny Samples
	Teacher Guide
	Student Activity
Analyzing Tiny Samples Using Mass Spectrometry
	Teacher Guide
	Student Activity

Students interact with peers to accomplish the tasks assigned in the Exploration and Development sections above. Each activity contains work to be done in groups, with the whole class sun setting

participating in preliminary and summary discussions.

The Solar Wind

Student Text

Here Comes the Light!

Teacher Guide

Student Activity

Electromagnetic Radiation

Student Text

Fraunhofer Lines

Student Text

Where Did This Come From? Where Does It Fit?
	Teacher Guide
	Student Activity

Students should be able to use their direct observations and/or data from other sources to decide whether or not the Standard Solar Model completely accounts for observations that do not appear explicitly in the model. If they decide that the current model is not adequate, they will then be challenged to supplement the model to include the observations and/or data presented.

Dr. Marcia Neugebauer
	Interview
	Pioneers of Space Physics: A Career In the Solar Wind

The Genesis Outreach Team would like to extend a special "Thank you!" to Sun and Solar Wind reviewer and NASA space mission scientist, Dr. Marcia Neugebauer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From the Apollo missions to the present, she has pioneered research and investigative work relating to the study of the solar wind. For more on Dr. Neugebauer's cutting edge work, read "Pioneers of Space Physics: A Career In the Solar Wind."