Biomecas

La Paz | Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Night Sky

High-Level Project Summary

We develop a game which will show different stars which will describe their variability and its cause. We will also explain what stellar variability is through a character that we named "Astronauta" that will be with the user throughout the game. The game consists of reading all the information so that later the Astronauta who explained the theory, also at the end asks some questions about what he explained.

Link to Final Project

Previously install ren.py: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QdZbirJvSPGBRmUqMNuGQVYNUYEV_zEN?usp=sharing

Link to Project "Demo"

https://youtu.be/vxorxjQ493o

Detailed Project Description

REPORT

NASA SPACE APPS

OBJECTIVE

To develop a tool to help people learn about how and why the stars change in the night sky.

PROCEDURE

The project presented is a graphic novel which is a type of interactive video game, which is based on the ability to make decisions and alternative endings; in order to carry out the project, the following was used

Python, a high level programming language that is used to develop applications of all kinds from interfaces.
Libraries such as: tkinter, pygames and ren.py.
Tkinter: graphical user interface for Python that usually comes by default when Python is installed.
Pygames: a set of modules that allow the creation of video games in a simple way.
Renpy: is a visual novel engine, which makes them look like simulation games.
Gui: is an interface represented as a pop-up window, which simplifies the user to understand what the program is going to deal with.

In the pop-up window you can see 2 sections, one is open folder and the other is edit file. In the edit file section you can see 5 sections:

Script.rpy: it is all the code generated by the programmer.
Options.rpy: it is all the button declaration, to make it easier for the user to understand the game, it has actions like: jump from image to image, go back and go forward in the game.
Gui.rpy: it is the interface, the pop-up window.
Screens.rpy: it is the import of each one of the variables to run the gui.
All scripts: it is a button that shows all the previous sections.

In the section of open folder, we can observe 5 sections:

Game
Base
Images
Audio
Gui

All the mentioned sections are used to store data, first the specific data must be stored in the section that corresponds to then call it in the script.rpy, so that later it is executed by the gui.

Continuing to explain how we will do the game: we continue with what we want to achieve.

A game version of a visualizer could allow players to adjust their own personal stars and show what the resulting stars would look like, or it could show a field of stars and ask people to indicate which ones vary the most, the fastest, etc.

A curriculum solution could be materials that show examples of variable stars and explain how they vary and why.

show variations of a real star and ask the player to deduce what is causing the variation.

CONCEPT

Variable stars are stars that, when viewed from Earth, experience a variation in brightness or apparent magnitude over time. This variation is caused by a change in the light emitted or the partial blocking of light, so they are classified into:

Intrinsic variables. In this one, the luminosity actually changes; as the star periodically expands and contracts. Intrinsic variable types:
Pulsating variables. Have variations of the star radius
Cefeidas 1912, son proporcionales a su luminosidad, con lo cual la determinación del periodo brinda una indicación muy fiable de su distancia.
Delta Cephei is the fourth star in apparent magnitude in the constellation Cepheus. It is the prototype Cepheid variable star, stars that are known as simply 'Cepheids' and take their name from it.
Eta Aquilae, 1784 is a variable star in the constellation Eagle located about 1180 light-years from the solar system.
Eruptive variables. With changes in its surface, such as flares or ejections of matter.
FU Orionis stars, always enveloped in a nebula formed by the continuous eruptions of the star.
Flares, main-sequence stars that give off flares by undergoing sudden and unpredictable increases in brightness. Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system, is a flaring star.
Cataclysmic variables. These undergo an enormous change in their physical properties, such as novae and supernovae. Binary star, one component is a white dwarf, while the other is a normal star that gives gas to the companion.

Extrinsic variables. The changes in brightness are said to be due to changes in the amount of light that can reach the Earth; that is, the star has an orbiting companion that sometimes eclipses it. Eclipsing stars, which are binary stars in which the direction of observation coincides with the plane of their orbit and we then see one star passing in front of the other, resulting in periodic eclipses. Eclipsants of algol or beta lirae type. V838 monocerotis 2002, is binary.

PROBLEM

According to NASA studies, there is an increasing lack of interest in the cosmos.

SOLUTION

Develop a dynamic game that will briefly give an explanation about changes and how these changes of the stars happen, following this process the game will ask some questions about the theory presented above that has the purpose of having interaction with the user. And a future plan is that when a player finishes the game, he/she will be awarded a learning certification about stellar variability.

SCALABILITY

Future plans are to expand to an application with better performance, increased data, with access to verified NASA data.

MEMBERS

- Chuquimia Ticona, Abad Yesid

- Guzmán Espinoza, Geraldy Briseika

- Rodríguez Ojeda, José Joaquín

- Quisbert Cruz, Paolo Alejandro

- Wayar Irahola, María Belén

DIVISION OF THE PROYECT

- Chuquimia Ticona, Abad Yesid: Theory

- Guzmán Espinoza, Geraldy Briseika: slides

- Rodríguez Ojeda, José Joaquín: design

- Quisbert Cruz, Paolo Alejandro: research

- Wayar Irahola, Maria Belen: program

Space Agency Data

Cepheid Variables:

https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/cepheids.html

Introduction to Cataclysmic Variables (CVs):

https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/cataclysmic_variables.html

Hackathon Journey

Our experience in the hackathon was a mixture of emotions, such as happiness, interest, gratitude, helplessness, rage, anger, hunger; for our first time we took away a good impression and in the future we wish to participate again, since we believe that we did not give our 100%, but in spite of that, the experience gained will also prepare us for the future.