A special set of meteorites visit Walton High

Open Meteorites / March 6, 2015

I took an unusual and rather special collection of meteorites to Walton High (Walnut Tree, Milton Keynes), not the usual collection taken to OUTREACH events, which was as exciting for me as for the pupils! A piece of the infamous Chelyabinsk meteorite, Campo del Cielo, lunar and Martian samples and a huge 12 kg, as yet unclassified, ordinary chondrite from North West Africa were amongst the specimens shown. I took the pupils through the formation of asteroids and planetesimals, explained how we get metal, metal/rock and rock meteorites, the types of analysis performed on them and even discussed the origins of life from carbon rich (organic compound) meteorites such as Ivuna and Murchison. We are very grateful to Graham Ensor of the British and Irish Meteorite Society (BIMS) for the loan of these exciting specimens.

Roy Adkin

 

A very busy morning at Pendragon School

Open Meteorites / February 16, 2015

Armed with the case of outreach meteorites in one hand and balancing the small Philae model in the other, I carefully shuffled through the snow to Pendragon Primary School to give a short presentation to the whole school during an assembly on meteorites, space and comets. I had just a 15 minute slot, so a bit of a challenge! The excited head teacher welcomed me in and fortunately we had some time for her to handle the meteorites before the children arrived. Her first question to the school, as my introduction, was what significant space event had happened in November to which there was a show of hands and many replies, but it was my 4 year old daughter in reception class who was the one to reply that a spacecraft had landed on a comet, very proud!

Diane Turner shows the meteorites to pupils at Pendragon School (photo: Carol Shaw)

 

The presentation began with photos of the GC-MS instrumentation in the lab and some of the reasons for analysing samples. Moving on to a picture of Earth, I asked which planet this was – there was a large show of hands, asked what Earth was mostly made of there were some interesting answers including grass, we then discussed what we needed to live on Earth, primarily air and water. Next was a picture of the moon and again there was a large show of hands with the correct answer and we discussed man landing on the moon in 1969 and the robot from China that is currently analysing the moon. There was a smaller show of hands for our next picture of Mars and the range of answers for how long it takes to travel to Mars ranged from seconds to years, we then discussed the landers on Mars and what Mars is made of. At this point the lunar and martian meteorites were brought out and the excited children carefully passed them around to have a look. Some of the children also had the opportunity, with help, to hold the Gideon meterorite. The final question was what are comets and how can we find out what they are made of? Which brought us onto discussing Rosetta, Philae and Ptolemy – a miniature version of the GC-MS instruments shown at the beginning of the presentation of the lab and why we want to analyse them.

Pupils answering space quiz questions during Diane Turner’s assembly presentation at Pendragon School (photo: Carol Shaw)

After assembly I stayed on with the key stage 2 children to look at and handle all of the meteorites, as they currently have a project on space. I then moved to the Year 6 classroom to discuss the meteorites and space in general with the older children. There was lots of excitement and relevant questions. As a final test of their knowledge and to get both the children and the teachers thinking about space, I finished my morning at Pendragon School with the quick meteorite quiz, which I’m pleased to say they passed with flying colours!

A wonderful morning, thank you to my attentative audience!

Diane Turner

 

A late evening at the Museum

Open Meteorites / January 30, 2015

On Wednesday evening (28/01/15), Dr Simon Sheridan and I had an exhibit at the Science Musuem’s Lates event. These are themed free-to-enter events held by the museum on the last Wednesday of every month. The theme in January was “Engineer Your Future” an event to encourage engineering in the UK and we were there to showcase the OU’s Ptolemy instrument on the Philae Lander. We were surprised at how popular the event was, with 4310 people attending. It was an enjoyable evening, describing the ambitious Rosetta mission and re-living the excitement of landing on the comet. Many were fascinated and amused by the 3D comet model that we used during the landing site selection meetings, “Chury” the plastic duck. At the end of the evening we handed “Chury” to the museum curators for posterity, it is now a national treasure!

Andrew Morse

 

Dr Andrew Morse (without refreshment! and facing away from the camera) explains the pitfalls and difficulties involved in landing on a comet and then staying on it once you have touched down. (image: Simon Sheridan)

Dr Simon Sheridan (far right) talking to some visitors at the Science Museum’s Lates event. Simon is explaining the engineering challenges involved in constucting the OU’s Ptolemy mass spectrometer, which is part of the instrument package on the Rosetta Mission’s Philae Lander. (image: Andrew Morse)

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Festive Space

Open Meteorites / December 18, 2014

On Monday 15th December I took part in the OU’s School-University Partnership Initiative (SUPI) Christmas lecture series. The audience was high school children aged between 12 and 16, parents, and teachers. My talk focused on my main research interest, which is searching for and analysing water in Moon rocks. After the talk there was an opportunity to bring out the meteorites. The kids were amazed that they were actually holding a piece of rock from Mars and asked some hard hitting questions about the prospect of finding life on Mars, and when and what future space missions might go to the red planet in search for life and when humans might go. As always Gibeon caught everyone’s attention, with the adults too, who didn’t believe the iron meteorite was as heavy as the kids made out! It was a great opportunity to engage with local schools about the space research carried out at the OU, and the impressive line-up of three planetary and space science talks (on the Moon, Mercury, and the Rosetta mission), followed by show-casing the meteorites and the comet 67-P and Ptolemy instrument models made for a brilliant event!

Jessica Barnes

Jess with Lunar Sample

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Premier Academy visits the Open University

Open Meteorites / November 20, 2014

On 18th November, three year 5 classes from MK’s Premier Academy visited The Department of Physical Sciences.  Vic Pearson and Laura Brooker spent 30 minutes with each class showing them the meteorite collection and talking to them about the Solar System.  Laura was also able to tell them more about her research into impacts.  The students also took a tour of the OU Observatory with Andrew Norton and heard from Ben Dryer about building instruments for satellites.

Meteor Crater, Northern Arizona (© Meteor Crater, Northern Arizona, USA website: http://goo.gl/guJSVk )

Victoria Pearson

 

Shooting Stars at Stanton School

Open Meteorites / June 16, 2014

On the Monday 9th June 14, I went to visit Stanton School for three presentations about rocks for Year 5 and 6 students. Rocks you say? Yes, but rocks from space! During the talks I presented the current state of our Solar System and where meteorites come from and how they entered our atmosphere. I also discussed the general effects of meteorite impacts, craters and the main collection places and campaigns. Finally, I gave a very short and general overview of what meteorites can teach us about the various Solar System planetary bodies and the early times of the Solar System. After the talk, I presented the meteorite samples in more detail. It is always a great time when the children realise that they are holding a piece of Mars or of the Moon, a planet and a satellite they can easily visualise, and these meteorites had a great success. During the presentation of the meteorites, the students were encouraged to ask any questions they might have and some of them were quite surprising. The teachers, the students, and I were delighted at the end of the afternoon.

Such visits remind us that sharing science with people, and especially children, is a great source of motivation in our work and it reminds us that we are not only working on meteorites just for us, but for everyone and that many people are still interested in space science.

Jean-David Bodénan

Spectacular bolide imaged during Okie-Tex stargazing event 2008 

(http://www.okie-tex.com/2008_party.php) (image: Howard Edin)

 

An Alien Experience

Open Meteorites / May 10, 2014

(image: clipartlord.com)

In early May the meteorites visited St Paul’s Catholic School to aid me with the ‘Spaced Out enterprise day’. During this day, 80 year 9 students took part in a space themed day where they were asked to design a space craft, astronaut suits and a create languages to talk to any aliens they might meet. I was there as the ‘space expert’ that they could ask technical question about space. While I was there I was using the meteorites to explain and illustrate what was out there in space and to enthuse the students about space science.

Beth Steer