Virtual Visits and Star System Symphonies

I was puttering along yesterday doing my chores…when I realized that it’s August! August!

When I was in school, the beginning of August was always tough. It meant that the summer was coming to an end, and the beginning of the school year was approaching all too rapidly. I would get up earlier and stay up later, trying to pack as much play, adventure, and harmless mischief as I could into each day.

Since scientists have declared 2023 to be the hottest summer in recorded history, it is probably safer this year to do some exploring indoors. Don’t worry. NASA has your back.

Check out the Exoplanet Travel Bureau! From there you can learn about and visit 7 of the thousands of exoplanets that have been discovered in our galaxy. You can even take a virtual tour of the surface of these distant destinations. If you have your 3-D glasses handy, the view is remarkable! Remember to download your souvenir poster before you leave each planet. Before you return home, you can visit the NASA telescopes, too. They also have collectable posters and coloring pages. Some of them offer 3D tours, too.

If you don’t have 3-D glasses, you can make your own. Here are the directions.

If you’d like an exoplanet challenge, give the ExoQuest: An Eyes on Exoplanets Scavenger Hunt a try.

After your tour and scavenger hunt, you can spend some time with the education team of the Chandra X-Ray Telescope creating your own musical solar system with block code. They also show you how you can use data collected about other star systems to create your own Cosmic Space Jam Session.

Check it out! And have a blast!