Professor Nakamura was looking forward to teaching some more in-depth lessons about astronomy. NEWT level was where it really got interesting, after all. “Good evening,” Professor Nakamura greeted as everyone took their seats, “tonight we will be going over sunspots and solar flares. Sunspots are temporary dark spots which appear on the surface of the sun. They don’t emit light. They are generally caused by the magnetic field within the sun.” Professor Nakamura paused, making sure everyone was writing down their notes. He smiled at those who were.
“Solar flares, our second topic, are episodes of sudden brightness on the sun. These are usually near the surface and near a sunspot group. It’s important to note that powerful flares are often, but not always, accompanied by a mass coronial ejection.”
“What is a mass coronial ejection? It is a significant release of plasma and the magnetic field from the sun’s corona into the heliosphere. They often occur after solar flares and generally present during a solar prominence eruption. Released into the solar wind, the plasma can be observed with a coronascope*.” Professor Nakamura raised a telescope that looked a little different from the others, with a lens dark enough to appear black. He offered the students an opportunity to look through the telescope, showing how it blocked out the light sources and allowed the user to view the sun safely.
Professor Nakamura spent some time letting the students look through the telescope (though the sun wasn’t viewable at that time of day) to get an idea of how it worked. He then spent the rest of the lesson talking about the difference between our sun and the rest of the stars in the galaxy, as well as taking questions. Some questions were easily answered by Professor Nakamura, others were unknown even to astronomers. Once the questions were over, Professor Nakamura dismissed the class.
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Roleplay the lesson for full marks.
It isn’t necessary to include a question for Professor Nakamura to answer, but feel free to roleplay whether or not your character took part in the question-and-answer session.
*A made up telescope that takes corona imagery for the wizarding world.
“Solar flares, our second topic, are episodes of sudden brightness on the sun. These are usually near the surface and near a sunspot group. It’s important to note that powerful flares are often, but not always, accompanied by a mass coronial ejection.”
“What is a mass coronial ejection? It is a significant release of plasma and the magnetic field from the sun’s corona into the heliosphere. They often occur after solar flares and generally present during a solar prominence eruption. Released into the solar wind, the plasma can be observed with a coronascope*.” Professor Nakamura raised a telescope that looked a little different from the others, with a lens dark enough to appear black. He offered the students an opportunity to look through the telescope, showing how it blocked out the light sources and allowed the user to view the sun safely.
Professor Nakamura spent some time letting the students look through the telescope (though the sun wasn’t viewable at that time of day) to get an idea of how it worked. He then spent the rest of the lesson talking about the difference between our sun and the rest of the stars in the galaxy, as well as taking questions. Some questions were easily answered by Professor Nakamura, others were unknown even to astronomers. Once the questions were over, Professor Nakamura dismissed the class.
---
Roleplay the lesson for full marks.
It isn’t necessary to include a question for Professor Nakamura to answer, but feel free to roleplay whether or not your character took part in the question-and-answer session.
*A made up telescope that takes corona imagery for the wizarding world.
