Choose an observatory’s job
20 minutes · Paper · Pencil
Your investigation
- Write three goals: study a faint galaxy, inspect a nearby planet, and detect light absorbed by Earth’s air.
- For each goal, list a useful property, such as a larger collecting mirror, stable pointing, or placement above the atmosphere.
- Draw your observatory and label where light is collected and where it is measured.
- Write a safety label: “Never point at the Sun. This drawing is not a guide to building a solar telescope.”
Think, draw, explain
Why might a larger mirror help with a faint galaxy?
Why put some telescopes in space?
Grown-up guide & possible answers
- A larger collecting area can gather more light from a faint target; magnification alone does not gather extra light.
- Earth’s atmosphere absorbs some wavelengths and blurs some observations. Space telescopes avoid those effects, while ground telescopes still do valuable work.