Next week, fourth graders will be video-conferencing with astronomer Max Mutchler. Mr. Mutchler is a former Lutherville parent who works with the Hubble Telescope. Can you tell from the news release below what Mr. Mutchler discovered and named?
Fourth graders, to prepare for our conference, please explore the links below and comment with a question that you would like to ask Mr. Mutchler. Students who submit approved questions will be invited to ask Mr. Mutchler next week.
The Hubble Telescope – ESA Kids
What did you name the three satellite’s of Pluto and why did you call them that?
How can the Hubble telescope capture dark energy in space I thought it was impossibale.
How did you become an astronomer why was it the right job for you?
What was your inspiration to become an astronomer?
I had a few inspirations: a book about the discovery of Pluto called “The Search for Planet X”, the PBS series “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan (which was reproduced this year starring Neil de Grasse Tyson), visiting a planetarium, and NASA centers.
Were the planets in our Solar System once much closer together, like the continents here on earth?
Only in the last few years have planetary scientists come up with a good model that can explain the current arrangement of the Solar System, based on a full history starting from when the planets formed billions of years ago. It is called the Nice model (as in the French city pronounced “niece”, not as in “nice person”), and it shows that the big planets have moved around and possibly Uranus and Neptune even switched places! See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LzQfR-T5_A
If another galaxy hits the Milky Way, could another “Planet” get pulled into our suns’ gravitational pull? Also,could that “Planet” collide with another planet to form a larger planet, with chunks of the other planet floating into our Solar System and being pulled into a different planets’ gravitational pull, forming a moon?
What an interesting question! When galaxies collide, nothing actually hits anything else because both galaxies are mostly empty space — it is more like they merge, and gravitationally interact with each other (they look warped). So it is very unlikely planets from each galaxy would collide, or even fall into orbit around each other’s parent star (Sun). Even if the got close enough, they’d be moving so fast relative to each other that they couldn’t switch stars or become another planet’s moon.
How big are the moons of Pluto? How long do the moons of Pluto orbit around Pluto?
These question show you are really thinking about the relative size of objects and their motion in our solar system, Brayden and Anthony! I bet that some of our fellow students might know the answer or be able to find the answer.
Take some time to explore the NASA web site and reply to this comment when you find the answer to these questions.
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/index.html
Ben wants to ask ” Have you ever discovered anything other than Pluto’s moons in the solar with New Horizons?”
I (Kevin) want to ask what do you guys do when you build a telescope and are there special people to help you build or do you guys just do it on your own?
Thanks!
Kevin and Ben.
I have discovered a few asteroids that happened to be streaking through Hubble images unintentionally. I even have an asteroid named after me: 6815 Mutchler.
We don’t build our telescopes (Hubble, Webb) — big aerospace contractors do that for NASA. At my Institute, we plan the observations and analyze the data coming from the space telescopes.
Dear Mr. Multcher,
Lucia- If the sun becomes a red giant, will Pluto’s ice melt so it supports life? Or will it still be
too far away?
Colleen-Are Pluto’s moons bigger, smaller or the same size as our moon? How big are Pluto’s moons, too?
Oooh, I really like this question because I don’t know the answer! I suspect that Pluto is far enough from the Sun that when it becomes a Red Giant, it won’t make much of a difference for Pluto’s temperature. But I could be wrong, and it would be exciting if Pluto became an even more geologically active planet then — I’ll ask some experts at our next Pluto meeting.
Pluto’s moons are much smaller than our moon — even Pluto’s big moon Charon. Pluto itself is smaller than our Moon (about 70% as big).
When you first looked at the two satellites on Pluto, did you know that they were satellites right away? Or did you need to think about them for a while? If you needed time, what did you think the satellites were before you identified them as satellites?
I have 3 questions for Mr.Mutchler.
1. How did you become an astronomer?
2. What is your favorite planet? Why?
3. Who was your inspiration? Why?
Thank you!
Did you discover anything else, besides Pluto’s 2nd moon?
I have two questions. 1. Do our sun and moon have actual names? 2. What is the red thing in space that can change sizes or gravity? If you know about this, can you tell me more about it?
11/25/15
Do you just forget about the telescope when can’t signal/call Earth again?
How long did it take to build New Horizons?
We can’t thank Mr. Mutchler enough for “visiting” and sharing his experiences with us. We are also grateful for the time that he has taken to respond to our questions on the blog. It’s always exciting to see a conversation continue here.
Thank you again, Mr. Mutchler!