Exploring the Universe: Shrewsbury Pupils Celebrate World Space Week

The 5th Form Astronomy class celebrated World Space Week by choosing their favourite NASA image and writing a few words about the science behind it, and why they found it interesting.

You can read their work here.

Recently in class, they have been studying icy moons, space missions in the Solar System, and the potential for life on planets elsewhere in the universe. They are looking forward to learning about the Big Bang and cosmology after half term, as well as star birth and death, which proved a popular topic. 

I made use of the dark skies in Shropshire last month on an impromptu stargazing evening, even observing the Ring Nebula, the remains of a beautiful exploded star which shines brightly on clear nights. It can be seen by the naked eye or a pair of binoculars, and even photographed on a 10s exposure time by an iPhone camera, as seen in the image below. In comparison, the Hubble telescope naturally produced a much sharper image, also seen below. (https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-57/).

The Shropshire countryside is an excellent place for stargazing enthusiasts on clear nights due to the rural location, and many interesting stellar objects can be captured with even the most basic photography equipment, as the students found out on a trip last year. 

Ms Visser Velez, STEM Fellow, Physics, Astronomy & Maths