Live Captioning Information
- Throughout Astronomy Days 2021, live captioning will be provided for all programs, with the exception of videos and movies.
- ASL interpreters are available upon request, please contact accessibility@naturalsciences.org at least 72 hours prior to the start of the program.
- Spanish captioning will be available on the NCMNS YouTube channel for all archived Astronomy Days 2021 programs.
MONDAY Jan 25th
Learn how planets go from small piles of rubble to large (sometimes habitable) rocky bodies.
Join us for our Citizen Science Adventures video premiere to learn everything you need to know to participate in the Spiral Graph citizen science project so you can make your own contributions to this important research!
With the help of planetarium software, we’ll tour the North Carolina night sky and identify planets and stars you can see with just your unaided eye on the next clear night.
The Moon: for millennia, Earth's nearest neighbor has inspired romance, poetry, science, exploration and innovation. Join the Raleigh Astronomy Club and NASA SSAs as we explore the Moon in real time over Moon Zoom!
TUESDAY Jan 26th
What can go wrong to make a rocket explode or a spacecraft crash? Find out in this special Astronomy Days Natural Sciences Classroom!
In 1919 Astronomers from two British Observatories travelled to Africa and South America to observe a total eclipse of the Sun. There, they carried out an experiment to test Einstein's predictions that light is affected by gravity and that spacetime is curved by the same force.
Sure, we send spacecraft all over the Solar System, but how do we know they'll get to where we want them to go? This presentation covers some of the ideas and techniques we use to aim at targets billions of miles away, and get them there successfully.
Stars give birds directional guidance for seasonal migrations. Lights may interfere with their routes and pose significant threats along the way. Let's talk about stars, lights and what we can do to help birds along their flyways.
WEDNESDAY Jan 27th
NASA is preparing to go back to the Moon — this time, to stay. How will this differ from Apollo, and what kinds of new things are we hoping to do this time around?
InSight has been hard at work on Mars for over two years now. Join us for mission updates on the InSight lander and what we have discovered so far!
Astronomy collides with yoga! Discover the story behind the Orion constellation while moving through yoga poses!
Wonder what it's like to study astronomy? Ask UNC astronomy students your burning questions.
THURSDAY Jan 28th
The Supercluster team will be presenting the world's first searchable, interactive database of every living thing that has launched to space.
A view on the benefits and tradeoffs of investing in space exploration given today's economic, social and environmental concerns. Also includes 10 amazing NASA spinoff technologies.
Astronomy collides with yoga! Explore Orion and other prominent constellations while moving through yoga poses; natural history connections will also be shared throughout the program.
The End of Everything is a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of all that we know.
FRIDAY Jan 29th
This entertaining presentation will explore 10 ways that stars (over their life cycles) can cause extinction, injury and harm on Earth.
Four and a half billion years ago, Jupiter migrated into and back out of the inner solar system, wreaking gravitational havoc upon the planets there. Learn how this made life as we know it possible on Earth.
Learn about NASA's biggest and smartest robot ever — the Mars Rover Perseverance — landing on Mars in February this coming year!
Learn more about the Artemis program: the hardware, science goals, and people including how North Carolina's Astronaut Christina Koch may contribute. Includes behind-the-scenes photos from the rollout of the new SLS rocket and testing at NASA facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Curiosity has been exploring Mars for 8+ years. What have we learned so far, and what new questions did it cause to be asked?
There's weather in space, on other planets, the Sun and even on the Moon. We'll talk about storms bigger than Earth on Jupiter, sulphuric acid rain on Venus, planet-sized dust storms on Mars and more.
Grab a pencil and paper and come design your own planet. We'll talk about rings, moons and more!
Have you ever wanted to talk to an astronomer? Join us for a live Q&A session with Dr. Patrick Treuthardt to learn more about spiral galaxies, what they mean for the study of dark matter, and how you can contribute to astronomical research in this live chat with a scientist!
The Europa Clipper is designated for a launch in 2023. Find out what NASA's looking for, and how the question; "Is there life on Europa?" will be answered.
SATURDAY Jan 30th
What happens when you take the Hubble Space Telescope and stare at a blank patch of sky for a very, very long time? NASA has done exactly that and we will learn about the Hubble Deep Field images and what they are teaching us about galaxies in the Universe.
As a millennium project, the American Museum of Natural History rebuilt the Hayden Planetarium into a whole new way of looking at space. Charting the observed universe in 3D allows us to see it from any position and reconsider if life could only be here and now, or might it be everywhere?
Sit down with astronomers to dissect what is true and not true in your favorite astronomy movies!
This talk will feature sky stories from around the world, focusing on various cultural interpretations of constellations, the Moon, the Aurora Borealis and more! Note: This talk is directed toward a K-5 audience.
Drake’s Equation can be used to (gu)estimate the number of intelligent, technologically capable civilizations that are out there, somewhere, in the Galaxy today.
Lunar samples record the history of how our solar system formed and evolved. Studies of such samples reveal ancient and modern processes important for understanding how the Earth-Moon system formed and evolved.
The giant planets of the Solar System hold some of the greatest mysteries in science. We will explore these mysteries in this program using OpenSpace software, a NASA-funded data visualization project to investigate the cosmos.
Meteorologists are the scientists of all TV stations. Though their job is to talk about meteorology, many times they are called on to be experts in many other sciences, including astronomy and space science.
If we want to go to Venus, we have to completely re-imagine rovers as we know them.
We will control the 32" telescope at DSO and remotely image celestial objects, including Mars, Uranus, the Orion Nebula, the Crab Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy and our Moon. In the event of clouds we will tour the facility and describe our research.
SUNDAY Jan 31st
OSIRIS-REx accomplished a key part of its mission in October by collecting its samples from the asteroid Bennu. This presentation will show how it was done and what we have learned, and discuss what challenges remain in the mission timeline.
All scientists, especially astronomers, need to know how to code. We'll ask an astronomy question and answer it live using the Python programming language using NASA/JPL resources. No previous knowledge needed.
Due to launch later this year, Webb is NASA's next flagship space telescope. The telescope is the scientific successor of the famous Hubble Space Telescope, and will reveal many previously unseen facets of our Universe. Please join Dr. Klaus Pontoppidan for a journey through the science of Webb.
Are we alone in the Universe? Is there really anybody out there? If so, why isn't anyone returning any our calls? If you've had these questions you're not alone and there just might be a lot of other people like yourself. Come explore the possibilities of life in our galaxy!
Join a virtual journey into the solar system as we explore the terrestrial planets and our small rocky neighbors — the asteroids and comets!
The NASA OSIRIS-REx mission will return samples from asteroid 101955 Bennu in September, 2023. Dr. Pierre Haenecour will provide an overview of the mission, the current key results, the predicted nature of the collected samples and plans for analysis.
Sam's presentation will be about his path to NASA and the STEM courses that got him there. He'll talk about entering NASA's apprenticeship to learn how to build dynamically scaled model aircraft and spacecraft.
Come explore and learn with NASA engineer Alan Sturgis about NASA’s vision and mission to the Moon through amazing iconic photographs and videos. He will inspire everyone to follow their passions whether on Earth or in space.
Get ready for some out of this world fun as you craft a rocket orbiting in space! Using basic art supplies, kids of all ages will follow a NASA graphic designer as he guides them step-by step how to make this DIY craft. Adult supervision is required and goggles are recommended.