Heliophysics Big Idea 2.1

What should learners know about this topic at each level?

Introductory: The biosphere includes all life on Earth, from the roots of plants to humans, from ocean depths to mountaintops. Plants, animals and human beings need the Sun in order to live. The Sun gives of light and produces energy.

Intermediate: The biosphere supports almost every aspect of human well-being and distinguishes Earth from other planets in our solar system. NASA data have changed the way we study life on Earth. Data on vegetation health, primary productivity, evapotranspiration, forest structure, and ocean chlorophyll provide insight into the health and productivity of the biosphere. The Sun is the only star we know of that supports a planet with a biosphere.

Advanced: During the daytime, X-rays and extreme ultraviolet rays from the Sun and galactic cosmic rays ionize Earth’s upper atmosphere, creating Earth’s ionosphere; the largest daytime contribution is from high-energy electromagnetic radiation from the Sun. At night, only cosmic rays ionize Earth’s upper atmosphere to create the ionosphere. The definition of “habitable zone” is the distance from a star at which liquid water could exist on orbiting planets’ surfaces. This is where conditions might be just right – neither too hot nor too cold – for life. While Venus, Earth, and Mars exist within the habitable zone around the Sun, only the conditions and ingredients on Earth allowed for life to evolve and flourish, most importantly the presence of water.

What should learners know about this topic at each level?

Introductory: The Sun warms the land, air, and water because these materials absorbe the sunlight energy that falls upon them. Sunlight can be converted into electricity using solar panels as a way to run many devices.

Intermediate: There are a great variety of electromagnetic waves: radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X-rays, and gamma rays. These wavelengths vary from radio waves, the longest, to gamma rays, the shortest. Energy in solar processes moves and changes form. Electrical energy can be generated from sunlight, and can be transformed into almost any other form of energy. Energy from the Sun is available indefinitely.

Advanced: Sunlight is the ultimate source of most of the energy we use. The energy in fossil fuels such as oil and coal comes from energy that plants captured from the Sun long ago. Solar panels absorbe sunlight and convert it directly into electricity. On the Sun, magnetic fields contain stored energy, which in a process called magnetic reconnection, can be released to heat up and accelerate local plasma.

What should learners know about this topic at each level?

Introductory: The biosphere includes all life on Earth, from the roots of plants to humans, from ocean depths to mountaintops. Plants, animals and human beings need the Sun in order to live. The Sun gives of light and produces energy.

Intermediate: The biosphere supports almost every aspect of human well-being and distinguishes Earth from other planets in our solar system. NASA data have changed the way we study life on Earth. Data on vegetation health, primary productivity, evapotranspiration, forest structure, and ocean chlorophyll provide insight into the health and productivity of the biosphere. The Sun is the only star we know of that supports a planet with a biosphere.

Advanced: During the daytime, X-rays and extreme ultraviolet rays from the Sun and galactic cosmic rays ionize Earth’s upper atmosphere, creating Earth’s ionosphere; the largest daytime contribution is from high-energy electromagnetic radiation from the Sun. At night, only cosmic rays ionize Earth’s upper atmosphere to create the ionosphere. The definition of “habitable zone” is the distance from a star at which liquid water could exist on orbiting planets’ surfaces. This is where conditions might be just right – neither too hot nor too cold – for life. While Venus, Earth, and Mars exist within the habitable zone around the Sun, only the conditions and ingredients on Earth allowed for life to evolve and flourish, most importantly the presence of water.

What should learners know about this topic at each level?

Introductory: Electromagnetic energy travels in waves from very long radio waves to very short gamma rays. Humans can only see visitble light. When you tune your radio, watch TV, send a text message, or pop popcorn in a microwave oven, you are using electromagnetic energy. NASA’s scientific instruments use the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum to study the Earth, the solar system, and the universe beyond.

Intermediate: Spectroscopy is the science of reading light to determine the size, distance, spin and chemical composition of distant objects in space. There are a great variety of electromagnetic waves: radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X-rays, and gamma rays. These wavelengths vary from radio waves, the longest, to gamma rays, the shortest. The Sun emits all these types of electromagnetic waves, though in different amounts for various wavelengths. NASA spacecraft use spectrometers to study the composition, physical structure and electronic structure of matter at the atomic, molecular and macro scale, and over astronomical distances.

Advanced: Life is adapted to conditions on the Earth, including an intensity of electromagnetic waves from the Sun that allows water to be present in the liquid state. When electrically charged objects undergo a change in motion, they produce electromagnetic waves around them. Magnetic forces are very closely related to electric forces and are thought of as different aspects of a single electromagnetic force. Moving electrically charged objects produces magnetic forces and moving magnets produces electric forces. In empty space, all electromagnetic waves move at the same speed – the speed of light.

What should learners know about this topic at each level?

Introductory: Earth’s magnetic field is created deep within its core and extends out into space, just as the magnetic field of a toy magnet does. Within this magnetic field, charged particles are affected and feel a magnetic force as they move. This region of space near Earth, where Earth’s magnetic field controls the movement of matter is called the magnetosphere.

Intermediate: in our solar system, several planets, including Earth, and even one of Jupiter’s moons have magnetospheres. Magnetospheres of planets have a “teardrop” or ice cream cone shape, with a rounded, shorter end created as the Sun’s material pushes against the magnetic field and a long tail (magnetotail) trailing away on the other side. Like a windsock near a breezy airport runway, Earth’s magnetotail flaps back and forth in the gusty solar wind. The immense magnetotail of Earth fluctuates in length and can measure hundreds of Earth radii, far past the moon’s orbit at 60 Earth radii. Electric currents in the earth’s interior give the earth an extensive magnetic field, which we detect from the orientation of compass needles. The Earth’s magnetosphere shield our planet from some types of solar particles.

Advanced: A magnetosphere is formed when the solar wind interacts with and is deflected by the magnetic field of a planet or other body. Earth’s magnetic field is important for life on our planet. Earth’s space environment (ionosphere, upper atmosphere, and magnetosphere) changes with time, and understanding those changes helps us ease any negative effects those changes might have on Earth-based and space-based systems. Space explorers, both human and robotic, encounter extreme environments outside our magnetosphere and need to be able to adapt to them.

What should learners know about this topic at each level?

Introductory: Plants grow and thrive through photosynthesis, a process that converts sunlight into energy.

Intermediate: Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy in the form of sugar.

Advanced: During photosynthesis, plants emit what is called fluorescence – light invisible to the naked eye but detectable by satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth. NASA scientists have now established a method to turn this satellite data into global maps of the subtle phenomenon in more detail than ever before.

What should learners know about this topic at each level?

Introductory: Outside the protective cocoon of the Earth’s atmosphere is a universe full of radiation – it is all around us. Radiation can be created by humans (microwaves, cell phones, radios, light bulbs, diagnostic medical applications such as x-rays) or naturally occurring.

Intermediate: Radiation is a form of energy that is emitted in the form of rays, electromagnetic waves, and/or particles. Most of the radiation that the Sun emits is in the form of visible light. Energy appears in different forms and can be transformed and transported within the Sun’s system.

Advanced: Naturally occuring sources of radiation are the Sun, radioactive elements in the Earth’s crust, radiation trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field, stars, and other astrophysical objects like quasars or galactic centers). In some cases, radiation can be seen (visible light) or felt (infrared radiation), while other forms—like x-rays and gamma rays—are not visible and can only be observed with special equipment. Space radiation is different from the kinds of radiation we experience here on Earth. Space radiation is comprised of atoms in which electrons have been stripped away as the atom accelerated in interstellar space to speeds approaching the speed of light – eventually, only the nucleus of the atom remains.