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Mugla | Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Star Game

High-Level Project Summary

When we look at the sky, we see that the brightness of the stars changes. The stars seem to shine. This is because the brightness of stars changes intrinsic or extrinsic. Some stars naturally change, meaning their true brightness increases and decreases. This is an example of intrinsic variation. In some stars, an extrinsic factor changes their apparent brightness. For example, in binary star systems, one of the stars gets ahead of the other, reducing its brightness. In order to teach people this variability in the sky in a fun and active way, and to ensure effective learning, we designed a game that includes the changes of the stars.

Link to Final Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARbTp7ANp2g

Link to Project "Demo"

https://youtu.be/-1wymQxkTY4

Detailed Project Description

A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as either:

Intrinsic variables, whose luminosity actually changes; for example, because the star periodically swells and shrinks. Extrinsic variables, whose apparent changes in brightness are due to changes in the amount of their light that can reach Earth; for example, because the star has an orbiting companion that sometimes eclipses it. Many, possibly most, stars have at least some variation in luminosity: the energy output of our Sun, for example, varies by about 0.1% over an 11-year solar cycle. The most common kinds of variability involve changes in brightness.

Variable stars may be either intrinsic or extrinsic.

Intrinsic variable stars: stars where the variability is being caused by changes in the physical properties of the stars themselves. This category can be divided into three subgroups. Pulsating variables, stars whose radius alternately expands and contracts as part of their natural evolutionary ageing processes. Eruptive variables, stars who experience eruptions on their surfaces like flares or mass ejections. Cataclysmic or explosive variables, stars that undergo a cataclysmic change in their properties like novae and supernovae. Extrinsic variable stars: stars where the variability is caused by external properties like rotation or eclipses. There are two main subgroups. Eclipsing binaries, double stars where, as seen from Earth's vantage point the stars occasionally eclipse one another as they orbit. Rotating variables, stars whose variability is caused by phenomena related to their rotation. Examples are stars with extreme "sunspots" which affect the apparent brightness or stars that have fast rotation speeds causing them to become ellipsoidal in shape.

We enjoyed doing research on space and learning about stars. Thanks to this project, being able to convey this information to people also enabled us to work efficiently for our project. While developing our project, we wanted everyone to get this information and chose to explain it in a fun way for effective learning. For this, we wanted to transfer our knowledge with the game. We determined the rules and questions in line with the information we obtained. We briefly showed in our video, the game can be improved by increasing the number of questions and players.

Game rules;

· Each star (gamer) starts the game with apparent brightness of 4.

· The questions are asked in order and the brightness of the star that answers the questions correctly increases and its apparent brightness decreases by 2 points. When an incorrect answer is given, its brightness decreases, that is, its apparent brightness increases by 2 points.

· Each star (player) has the right to reduce the brightness of her opponent for once by getting ahead of one of her opponents.

· Each star (player) has the right to double its brightness once.

· The star, who correctly answers the question that her opponent does not know, has the right to create a gas surrounding them and reduce the power of all her opponents by 1 point.

· The star (player) with a score of 0 wins the game.

QUESTIONS

1.What is the name of the brightest star in terms of apparent brightness?

Answer: Sirius

2. What do you call a star that suddenly increases in brightness and behaves as if it were another star?

Answer: Nova

3. When a star runs out of energy, it first explodes, then collapses and disappears. What is this big bang called?

Answer: Supernova

4. What is the name of the fastest star?

Answer: S4716

5. What is the true luminosity emitted by a star called?

Answer: Actual brightness

6. What is the luminosity of a star observed from Earth called?

Answer: Apparent brightness

Space Agency Data

While doing our research, we benefited comprehensively use of NASA's website (nasa.gov). We developed our knowledge by researching the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Hackathon Journey

Our experience with space applications aroused great curiosity in us. In this educational and entertaining journey, we enjoyed giving information while learning at the same time. We have learned that the brightness of stars may actually be different from that seen from our Earth. Being able to enable people to see the stellar changes and learn effectively has motivated us. We solved the setbacks by communicating with our teammates and sharing the work. Thanks to this challenge, we discovered that we have team spirit. We would like to thank our advisor teacher for helping us.