Abstract:

Space missions that explore the planets of our Solar System are a great way to involve students and engage them in science: they produce beautiful images, they tell the fascinating story of human exploration, they have a strong connection to new technologies.
So, why not learn how to effectively bring space missions into the classroom with Planets in a Room (PIAR), a very powerful educational and outreach tool?

Planets in a Room (PIAR) is a do-it-yourself planet simulator made of a low-cost 3D-printable kit and an online software interface,and that uses two commercial lenses and a standard projector. It was developed by the scientific association Speak Science in collaboration with the National Institute for Astrophysics (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, or INAF) and Roma Tre University to be used as an innovative tool for engaging the public and teaching in schools, small museums, exhibits, planetariums and public events. It is also useful in scientific research contexts in order to show full-dome scientific images and planetary data on a spherical surface. [1]

In this talk we will show how to use PIAR to tell the story of the beautiful gas giant Jupiter and its fascinating moons, taking advantage of the opportunity of Juice, the next legendary long term ESA mission. Juice will be launched in spring 2023 and will make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three large ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. With its suite of scientific instruments, Juice will characterize Jupiter and these moons both as planetary objects and as possible habitats.

In this presentation we will describe the Juice-related educational path “Jupiter (and its moons) in a room!”, showing how this original and freely distributed content can be easily related to school topics at different levels (like gravity in a physics class, history with galileo’s first observations of Jupiter, or the basics of mathematics used for space travel).
Get ready to be impressed by the incredible storms in Jupiter’s atmosphere, to see Ganymede, the biggest moon of the Solar System rise in front of you, and to dive with Juice in Europa’s subsurface oceans: with PIAR we will show you the magic of real planets (and moons) and how to use it in your classroom!

References:
[1] Astronomy & Geophysics, Volume 63, Issue 5, October 2022, Pages 5.31–5.33, https://doi.org/10.1093/astrogeo/atac067

Keywords:

Planets, space mission, Jupiter, data visualization, astronomy.