Chapter 1
LINK101 AMAZING EARTH FACTS
DESCRIPTION The following list of Earth`s extremes and other amazing facts is presented in Q&A format, so you can cover the answers to test your knowledge of the home planet.`
LINKASTROGEOLOGY
DESCRIPTIONUSGS, One of the best resources included in this site is a complete catalog of the hundreds of USGS maps of the moons of the solar system, including Earth`s Moon, Io, Ganymede, Titan, and more, and all of the planets. This site also includes a maps and globes gallery for the planets and moons, and Lunar, Venus, and Mars online interactive maps, animations, and GIS data downloads.
LINKGOOGLE MARS
DESCRIPTIONGoogle, Google now has a shaded relief map of Mars. Navigation tools allow you to zoom and pan across the planet`s surface and pushpins mark over 100 morphology or planets could spend an awful lot of time exploring the mountains, plains, craters and canyons of Mars.
LINKMAP A PLANET
DESCRIPTIONfrom USGS, access global imagery of the planets and satellites from a variety of missions in an easy to use web interface. Customize and download your own image maps of the Moon, Mars, Venus, and other planets and moons [Ganymede, Europa, Io, and Callisto].
LINKPLANETARY GEOLOGY
DESCRIPTIONand you use to think that the USGS was concerned only with earthly pursuits. Find a comprehensive site with planetary images, wallpaper and screen savers, a map-a-planet interactive that allows you to create a map at your preferred level of customization, a current research section, a kids’ section, and even GIS for the planets: U.S.G.S. Planetary GIS Web Server.
LINKPLANETARY PHOTOJOURNAL
DESCRIPTIONCurrently this NASA site accesses over 2810 images, with more are being added every day. While a plethora of good images exists the querying methods could be more helpful. Currently, users can search only by spacecraft type as opposed to phenomena.
LINKTeaching What a Planet Is: the New Definition of a Planet
DESCRIPTIONAstronomy Education Review, looks at the science, politics, and educational implications of the recent changes in the definition of a planet by the International Astronomical Union, which resulted in the `demotion` of Pluto to the status of a dwarf planet..
LINKASTEROID AND COMET IMPACT HAZARDS
DESCRIPTIONfrom NASA, peruse an authoritative resource on asteroid and comet hazards. Start with the `Fact Sheet` and `FAQ` section for an overview. Gain more knowledge by accessing the `News Archive` section. View artists` rendition of asteroids striking the earth and a 1 MB video of the Peekskill Meteorite traveling across the sky.
LINKEARTH IMPACT DATABASE
DESCRIPTIONPlanetary and Space Science Centre, this will allow your students to see the geographical distribution of impact craters, references, and in some cases, cross sections related to impacts.
LINKEARTH IMPACT EFFECTS
DESCRIPTIONUniversity of Arizona, `an easy-to-use, interactive web site for estimating the regional environmental consequences of an impact on Earth. This program will estimate the ejecta distribution, ground shaking, atmospheric blast wave, and thermal effects of an impact as well as the size of the crater produced.` A .pdf file is available that details the observations, assumptions, and equations upon which this program is based.