What do supernovas, bees, and kid scientists all have in common? If you’re a teacher you’ll know they are in the latest main idea task cards.
If you’re a student, here a few videos and paragraphs to help you figure out how these three topics are connected!
What is a Supernova?
Stars don’t last forever. At some point, a star disappears. Sometimes this happens with a massive explosion. This is called a supernova.
Let’s zoom in on a supernova from Earth.
This video starts with a view of the night sky as seen from the ground and zooms in onto the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. A further zoom shows the remnants of the supernova explosion 1987A, nestled between red-coloured gas, as they are seen by Hubble. The site of the supernova is surrounded by a ring of material that is illuminated by a wave of energy from the outburst. Two faint outer rings are also visible. All three of these rings existed before the explosion.
More information and download options: http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic1704c/
Credit:
NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
Here’s another video where NASA catches a flash of an exploding star forming a supernova.
Honeybees
Bees are special little creatures. They have some special traits:
- They have queens.
- They have drones.
- They live in hives.
Here’s a video to share a little more.
These topics are included in the Main Idea Task Cards #8 at the TeamTom TeachersPayTeachers store. You can preview them there.
