Description
- Title: Astrogeology – Meteorites and Spacecraft Missions
- Air Date: June 25, 2015
- Series: Smithsonian Science How webcasts, which are designed to connect natural history science and research to upper-elementary and middle-school students.
This video features Dr. Tim McCoy, geologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Have you ever wondered how we study asteroids and other bodies in our solar system without sending spacecraft to all of them? Meteorites, pieces of rock from space that hurtle to Earth, are great sources of information. Take a meteorite-filled journey with Tim McCoy to outer space and back in time to the formation of our solar system. Prepare to be amazed at how meteorites contain the very building blocks of life on Earth.
Teaching Resources
Asteroids and Meteorites
National Middle School Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Earth Science
MS-ESS1 Earth's Place in the Universe
- MS-ESS1-2: Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
- MS-ESS1-3: Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
- MS-ESS1-4: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.
Physical Science
MS-PS2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- MS-PS2-1: Apply Newton's Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
- MS-PS2-2: Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
- MS-PS2-4: Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
