Class Resource for PX2011 & PX3013 (2008/09)

Aurora

The Wikipedia free encyclopaedia site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Borealis gives useful introduction of aurora What are they, when we can see them and as well as types of aurora.

The Geophysical institute at university of Alaska site http://odin.gi.alaska.edu/FAQ/#color gives very useful description of what can make the colour of aurora, What cause aurora, any effect on environment, prediction about where and when aurora can occur.

Suzeth Maote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)

The Wikipedia page for the astrological phenomenon the Aurora is a good starting point as it gives an overall view of what an aurora is, what causes them, and other useful information.  It also gives other useful links on the subject which would help with further reading.

http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/iono/aurorawatch/

This site gives some background information about Auroras, but also allows you to predict, and view them, as well as having news, photographs and an archive of aurora activities.  Also part of it is based in Aberdeen.

Christopher Hendry

Aurora Watch (www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/iono/aurorawatch/) allows you to monitor geomagnetic activity in real time, and will let you know when aurora may be visibe from the UK.

Aurora Page (www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/) provides a guide to the Northern lights, a good tutorial description, predictions of forthcoming activity.

Robbie Adamson

Cassini-Huygens Mission

The European Space agency website- http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html , has a good amount of information in the form of separate articles regarding the Cassini-Huygens mission. It also has a selection of diagrams and videos showing the orbit of the spacecraft.

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/cassini/overview1.php , this website gives an overview and general facts about the mission; it also includes pictures of the mission itself as well as pictures taken form the Cassin-Huygens spacecraft flyby. The section at the end of the article also has links to more websites for further reading on the subject.

Tina Moro

Cosmic Rays

The NASA website (http://mig.rssi.ru/mirrors/stern/Education/wcosray.html) gives a good introduction to cosmic rays, ie. what they are made up of, how they are formed and speculation into where they come from.

The Physical Review Focus site (http://focus.aps.org/story/v8/st8) explains how cosmic rays have an effect on the ozone layer by breaking down CFC's and realsing chlorine.

Iain Robertson

The encyclopaedia site define the cosmic rays, explain how do we study them, and how does our detectors work .It’s also tell us how do they come from http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/haverah/aims.shtml

The encyclopaedia site depicts the cosmic rays in the space and about the cosmic rays activities, also it includes Galactic Cosmic Rays Anomalous Cosmic Rays Solar, Energetic Particles http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/cosmic.html

Welwitschia Carvalho

The encyclopaedic site of Nasa (http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/cosmic.html) gives detailed information of cosmic rays, as well as good images for a better understanding.

The free Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray ), gives a brilliant summary of how cosmic rays produced as well its effect and application.

Isidro Queta

http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/cosmic.html

This site provides information on the different types of cosmic rays and provides links to other news on cosmic rays from numerous websites. It also has many images of cosmic rays to aid understanding.

http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/dick/cos_encyc.html

R. A. Mewaldt

California Institute of Technology

This site is an in-depth introduction to the field of cosmic rays, providing research on the history and current research on them. It also briefly describes their composition and where they are found. It is more of a information based website as opposed to a diagrammatic site.

John Maitland

The University of Leeds has a website (http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/haverah/aims.shtml) which looksat cosmic rays.  The site has a short introduction explaining what they are and has pages on how they are studied, how they are detected, where they come from and how much energy they possess.

The NASA site http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/cosmic.html has a brief overview of cosmic rays, how they are made up and how they are created.  This site also gives you an explanation of the different types of cosmic rays, i.e. Galactic, Anomalous and Solar Energetic Particles.

Bryan McCulloch

International space station

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station) gives a wide range of general information about the ISS. It describes history and the assemblage of ISS and gives an insight to the research programs and what life on board is like. Additionally it gives various links of Official ISS pages of participating space agencies.

One of the on Wikipedia provided links takes you to the ESA webpage (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/iss.html). A complete plan of all assemblages can be found as well as more in detail information on the already above mentioned topics and policies. A nice feature on this page shows where the ISS is just now.

Johannes Sobotzki

The NASA website, is the official site for information about the International Space Station,  - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html it has very good information on the current status of the International Space station and gives an insight about the crew and what research they do aboard this research laboratory.  It also includes a calendar of events which shows what events have taken place since in the 10 years it has been operating. 

Wikipedia   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station  is useful for more details information about which countries are involved in the running of the space station and mroe indepth information about it's assembly, power supplies and what life is like onboard the station.  It also includes numerous links to more specified areas of interest.  Each country involved in the running and maintenance of the Space station has it's own official website.

Kim Taylor

NASA's website specifically about the Internation Space Station (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html) has some great detail regarding the space station. It informs the reader of latest updates about the space station and includes some brilliant flash anmations on what the space station is and how it works. I particulary like the colourful professional layout and how it appeals to the younger generation. This source is entirely dependable as NASA helped build the space station and have astronauts up there.

Space.com's international space station reference guide ( http://www.space.com/internationalspacestation/) contains useful information about the space station and gives detailed statistics about the space station. While NASA's pages were colourful and "glitzy" space.com's website conveys more detailed information in a more mature fashion.

Nicholas Miller

Ionosphere

The free encyclopaedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionosphere provides a good introduction to the Ionosphere.  It is well referenced and provides many links to related topics.

assets.cambridge.org/97805213/30831/excerpt/9780521330831_excerpt.pdf  this page is the introduction to a book, it provides a detailed introduction with diagrams

Nico Wares

Soho Mission

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

Good introduction which explains about the SOHO mission, Has fantastic Gallery and massive amount of research on future missions and missions that have already happened.

Click “Best of SOHO” some amazing pictures.

http://soho.esa.int/sciencee/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=14

Fantastic website of for up to date news and improvements if the technology, awesome images and videos which help explain some horrid questions.

Callum Scott

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/soho/index.html

This is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website dedicated to the SOHO mission. It contains a short description of the concept alone and has several links at the side of the page, one of which is a large, extremely detailed .pdf file of describing the SOHO mission entirely. I would recommend this as a first port of call for anyone hoping to learn about the mission in depth.

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/120373_index_0_m.html

This is the European Space Agency (ESA) website page dedicated to the SOHO mission. It contains detailed descriptions of the spacecraft itself, the journey, history and partnerships involved in the mission.

Michael Palmer

Van Allen belt

http://www.crystalinks.com/vanallenbelt.html

Gives good detailed description of what the van Allen belts are and what problems they can cause. There is data on distances from the earth and sizes of the belts. Also good diagrams helping to back up the written explanation and data on distances and scale. It has an interesting discussion about removing the belts and weather that would b a good idea or not.

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/RADIATION_BELTS/DI160.htm

this site also describes the Van Allen belts but in less detail. It has additional information on satellite which have detected the belts and information on when and what satellite descoverd each belt. Also another good diagram of the belts in relation to the magnetic field of the earth

Duncan Mcgregor

Van Allen Belt-Wikipedia-(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt) Has to be one of the most useful search engines due to it’s ease of use and highlighted references for individual points. It has regular updated content and many external links.

Crystalinks (http://www.crystalinks.com/vanallenbelt.html) is somewhat simple and lacking advanced scientific information, this means that it is useful if a brief overview is needed but not for detailed study.

C.T.R Wilson and his cloud chamber

http://www.manhattanrarebooks-science.com/wilson.htm

Cloud chambers "developed from the work of Charles Wilson at the Cavendish Laboratory in the 1890's. He was interested in creating artificial mist, in order to investigate its effect on light, and did so by building a desktop-sized apparatus in which a glass chamber full of moist air was connected to a piston which could be suddenly moved outward, lowering the pressure and causing mist (or cloud) to form in the chamber. The mist droplets grow on tiny particles of dust in the air (cloud condensation nuclei). But, to his surprise, Wilson found that even when all the dust had been removed from the chamber, when the piston was rapidly moved out over a large distance a very thin mist still formed in the chamber. He surmised that the droplets were condensing around electrically charged particles (ions), and proved this, early in 1896, by operating the cloud chamber alongside a source of X-rays (X-rays had only been discovered in the preceding year) and seeing it fill up with condensation as the X-rays passing through it ionized the atoms in the air inside the chamber

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/cloud.html

The device came to be called the Wilson cloud chamber and was used widely in the study of radioactivity. An alpha particle left a broad, straight path of definite length while an electron produced a light path with bends due to collisions. Gamma rays did not produce a visible track since they produce very few ions in air. The Wilson cloud chamber led to the discovery of recoil electrons from x-ray and gamma ray collisions, the Compton-scattered electrons, and was used to discover the first intermediate mass particle, the muon. Wilson was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1927 for the development of the cloud chamber.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1927/wilson-bio.html

Some of the most important achievements using the Wilson chamber were: the demonstration of the existence of Compton recoil electrons, thus establishing beyond any doubt the reality of the Compton effect (Compton shared the Nobel Prize with Wilson in 1927); the discovery of the positron by Anderson (who was awarded the Nobel Prize for 1936 for this feat); the visual demonstration of the processes of "pair creation" and "annihilation" of electrons and positrons by Blackett and Occhialini; and that of the transmutation of atomic nuclei carried out by Cockcroft and Walton. Thus, Rutherford's remark that the cloud chamber was "the most original and wonderful instrument in scientific history" has been fully justified.