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Planetary Science 2014 – Part 1
This presentation is for the National Science Olympiad Solar System B Event 2014, with a
content focus on planetary science. The competition will be held in Orlando, Florida on May 17th,
2014. I am Donna Young, the National Event Supervisor for the Astronomy Event. I work
for the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Office in Cambridge,
MA. The Chandra E/PO office has supported both the B and the C division astronomy events
since 1999. Dustin Schroeder, who was my co-event supervisor for several years, is the National
Event Supervisor for the B division Reach for the Stars/Solar System event. We are all
operating under a handicap this year, as we do not know what this year’s Solar System
Event will look like. This is the first year since Dusty became the National Event Supervisor
that the B Division astronomy event has rotated to the Solar System topic, so there is no
prior event that can be downloaded to use to prepare for this event. We are all starting
from scratch. If you have been involved with the Reach for the Stars (RFTS) event for the
previous two years, you will have an idea of how Dusty constructs his events.
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) also supports this event.
If you go to the aavso.org website and click on the Variable Stars , you will see a section
on Science Olympiad. In this section the RTFS/Solar System and Astronomy materials are posted.
All of the materials for the past few years are posted by year. The materials will not
be useful this year since this is the first year for the Solar System/Planetary Science
topic. The 2014 Event will be posted after competition which can be used to study for
the 2015 Solar System Event. This webinar will be posted on the site, as well as the
PowerPoint presentation in case teams or regional/state event supervisors want to download the slide
presentation as well as listen to the webinar. Flash card sets and coaches clinic materials
are also posted on the AAVSO site. The parameters for the event have not changed. The emphasis this year is
an understanding and knowledge of the properties and evolution of extraterrestrial ice and
water in the solar system. Each team may bring two 8.5” x 11” two-sided pages of information
from any source. The one difference is that the notes may be used during both parts. For
the previous Reach for the Stars topic the notes could not be used during the first part
of the event since teams had to identify stars and constellations.
In Part 1, teams will be asked to identify planets, moons and features, and most importantly,
will need to be knowledgeable about the history and processes that involve the formation and
movement of water/ice and how they contributed to the landforms and features in the list.
The content, for example, does not include the moon because even though some water has
been discovered in craters, there has never been a significant amount of water flowing
over or under the surface of the moon that would have contributed to the formation of
features on the lunar surface. The Planetary Science event focuses
on locations where features have been formed by the movement of water – these features
are listed on the slide. Part 2 of the event description lists four
topics from which teams will be asked to interpret a variety of data, charts and/or graphs to
answer questions. These topics are all inter-related, and probably these tasks will involve more
than one topic area. Again, the history and process of formation due to water is the focus
of this year’s event. All images of these features are remote sensing from satellites
and spacecraft. Water is necessary for life as we know it here on Earth, and vital for
searching for potential habitats for life. Some of the objects in this year’s list
have been visited by multiple spacecraft, and some only by one or two. These topics all
merge in the study of planetary science.