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EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND EVENTS

Educational Resources and Events Catalog

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  1. Cosmic Canvas: Stellar Evolution Program Guide & Resources

    Activities | Resource Guide
    Stars are born, live incredible lives, and eventually die — sometimes in dramatic ways! This journey, known as stellar evolution, helps us understand how stars shape the universe. With these program...
    Artist's concept of the binary star system HM Sge on the black background of space sprinkled with various sizes of red and white points of light. At the top of the image, a blazing hot white disk surrounds a white dwarf star that is pulling a stream of material from its red giant companion, the glowing mottled ball at bottom right.

  2. Paint a Star-forming Nebula

    Activities
    In this activity, participants explore real telescope images of star-forming nebulae and create watercolor paintings to visualize how stars, gas, and dust interact in these dynamic regions. A step-by-step...
    A person’s hand holds a paintbrush and is adding finishing touches to a watercolor painting of a star-forming nebula. The scene is viewed from above, with the paper placed on a wooden table. The nebula painting shows towering, reddish-brown pillar-like formations resembling those found in deep space images, surrounded by a soft, swirling purple and blue sky filled with stars. Bright yellow and orange star shapes, along with small scattered black and blue dots, depict stars scattered across the cosmic scene. On the left side of the image, a watercolor palette features over 30 vibrant colors, including shades of pink, orange, blue, green, and brown. A few colors show signs of recent use, with drops of paint on the palette and paper.

  3. Star Formation from the Carina Nebula to the Cosmic Cliffs

    Videos
    This scientific visualization traverses the vast star-forming region of the Carina Nebula Complex using multiwavelength data from NASA space telescopes. The narrated journey explores clusters of massive...
    Four images from the Carina Nebula Complex are spliced vertically at an angle. From left to right: Hubble’s view in brown, gray, and light blue tones with a brilliant white star cluster at center; a bright purple and pink observation by Chandra; a bright pink wash with tiny blue orbs imaged by Spitzer; and a Webb view showing bright blue at top with brown clouds at bottom, overlaid with stars.

  4. Program Guide & Resources: Stars

    Resource Guide
    Stars are giant balls of gas held together by their own gravity. They have different colors and sizes, and like humans, they have a life cycle: Stars are born, grow old, and eventually die.  With...
    Rectangular graphic illustrating the Stars program theme. The right four-fifths of the graphic consists of an infrared image of the Pillars of Creation from the Webb Space Telescope. The pillars are a ghostly blue-gray color with craggy finger-like tips. Running vertically along the left side of the image is a wide pink bar. In the lower half of the bar is a line drawing of a simple hand-held telescope on a tripod. The telescope points toward a circular field of view showing stylized stars with four-pointed diffraction patterns.

  5. Stellar Life Cycle Bookmark and Bracelet

    Activities
    This activity introduces the life cycle of stars. Participants will learn that the evolution of a star depends on its initial mass. They will create a tassel for a bookmark describing the stages of a star’s...
    A beaded bracelet, three bookmarks with beaded charms, and a phone with a beaded charm.

  6. Stellar Evolution Scavenger Hunt

    Activities
    This activity introduces participants to the stages in the life cycles of massive and low-to-intermediate-mass stars. They will learn how a star’s life cycle depends on its mass by participating...
    Red-orange arcs surround the carbon star CW Leonis. Brilliant searchlight beams from the star’s surface poke through.

  7. Stellar Evolution Flipbook Activity Guide

    Activities
    This activity introduces the life cycle of stars. Participants will learn that the evolution of a star depends on its initial mass. They will explore the different stages in the life of a star by creating...
    A printed horizontal series of white pages are clipped together at left by a black binder clip. The title on the first page, "The Life of a Sun-like Star" appears at right, with much smaller text running vertically, NASA's universe of Learning. The paper is set against a star field filled with stars and irregular layers of brown gas,

  8. Eta Carinae: The Great Eruption of a Massive Star

    Videos
    Eta Carinae, or Eta Car, is famous for a brilliant and unusual outburst, called the "Great Eruption," observed in the 1840s. This visualization presents the story of that event and examines the...
    Eta Carinae

  9. Zoom to AG Carinae (Frame Sets)

    Videos
    This visualization starts with a wide-view of the Carina constellation and zooms down to the Hubble Space Telescope view of the massive star, AG Carinae. One of the brightest stars in our galaxy, AG Carinae...
    Bright star surrounded by shell of gas and dust

  10. Flight to AG Carinae (Frame Sets)

    Videos
    This visualization starts with the Hubble Space Telescope view of the massive star, AG Carinae. One of the brightest stars in our galaxy, AG Carinae undergoes eruptions that have ejected a small nebula...
    Bright star surrounded by shell of gas and dust

  11. AG Carinae: A Luminous Blue Variable Star (Frame Sets)

    Videos
    This visualization starts with a wide-field view of the Carina constellation and zooms down to the Hubble Space Telescope view of the massive star, AG Carinae. One of the brightest stars in our galaxy,...
    Bright star surrounded by shell of gas and dust

  12. Life and Death of Stars Resource Guide

    Resource Guide
    Do stars really move? How do stars form and die? What are nebulas and supernovas? This resource guide contains a range of resources and activities to help you guide audiences as they explore many facets...
    Combined telescope images of the Crab Nebula displayed in red, yellow, green, ultraviolet, and X-ray light

  13. The Bubble Nebula: Winds and Radiation from a Massive Star (Frame Sets)

    Videos
    This visualization of the Bubble Nebula begins with a ground-based view that encompasses the glowing cloud. The high-energy light from the massive O star, BD +60°2522, is responsible for ionizing the...
    The Bubble Nebula