Ask Like a Scientist
This kind of question can be answered with just "yes," "no," or one word, so it does NOT make a good scientific question.
What is a closed-ended question?
This type of scientific question asks WHY or HOW something happens: the cause behind an observation.
What is an explanatory question?
In a system model, this word names each individual part of the system, such as a mirror or an antenna.
What is a component?
In a data table, these run up and down. On Data Table 1, you labeled them A, B, C, and D from left to right.
What are columns?
Compared with space telescopes, these observatories cost far less to build and run, are easy to repair and upgrade, and can have very large mirrors.
What are land (ground-based) observatories?
A good scientific question is testable. That means it can be answered using this, gathered from observations, measurements, or investigations.
What is evidence?
This type of scientific question asks about what can be seen, measured, or described, such as what, where, when, or how many.
What is an observational question?
This Webb telescope component has five layers that shield the observatory from the light and heat of the Sun and Earth.
What is the multilayer sunshield?
Explain why finding clay minerals in a Martian rock is evidence of water.
Clay minerals usually form in water and have water built into their structure, so the rock was likely once in contact with water.
Astronauts were able to repair this space telescope because it orbits close to Earth. Webb, about 1 million miles away, is too far to reach for repairs.
What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
Give TWO reasons why "Do you think aliens are real?" is NOT a good scientific question.
It asks for an opinion ("do you think") and it can be answered with yes or no.
Name the question type: "How can engineers make a telescope mirror light enough to launch on a rocket?"
What is an engineering question?
Put these Webb components in the order that light from a distant galaxy reaches them: science instruments, primary mirror, secondary mirror.
Primary mirror → secondary mirror → science instruments
Data Table 1 (columns A–D go left to right; Row 1 is the header row). Row 1: Name | Type | Year | Cost. Row 2: Viking 1 & 2 | Spacecraft | 1975 | $7.1 billion. Row 3: Curiosity | Rover | 2011 | $3.2 billion. Row 4: Perseverance | Rover | 2020 | $2.9 billion. What is in cell D3?
What is $3.2 billion?
Curiosity studied its rock samples on site, in its onboard laboratory. What does Perseverance do with the rock cores it drills?
It saves them in sample tubes for possible future study by scientists.
A student looks at a photo of a spiral galaxy. Which statement is an OBSERVATION? A) "The galaxy is spinning." B) "The galaxy is very far away." C) "The center is the brightest part."
What is C, "The center is the brightest part"?
Name the type of EACH question about the same spiral galaxy. A) "Where are the pink spots located along the spiral arms?" B) "Why do the arms get fainter toward their ends?"
A is observational; B is explanatory.
Webb's cameras and computer still work, but Webb stops receiving commands from NASA's Deep Space Network, and no new science data reaches Earth. Which ONE component most likely failed?
What is the Earth-pointing antenna?
Data Table 1 lists "Viking 1 & 2" at $7.1 billion and Curiosity at $3.2 billion. Why is it misleading to say Viking cost more than twice as much as Curiosity?
The Viking cost covers two missions (Viking 1 and Viking 2) together, while Curiosity's cost is for one rover.
Why can't NASA drive a Mars rover in real time, like a remote-control car?
Radio signals take minutes to travel between Earth and Mars (about 11 minutes on Perseverance's landing day), so commands arrive too late for real-time driving.
This question sounds open-ended, but it is still NOT a good scientific question. Give one reason why: "How long does the average spacecraft stay functioning?"
It can be answered with a single number.
Name the question type AND explain your choice: "If a rover's wheels are damaged by rough ground, how will that affect the rest of the rover?"
What is a system question? It asks how a change in one part (component) affects the whole system.
Trace the energy that powers Webb's cameras. Start at the Sun, name the component that changes the energy's form, and name the form it becomes.
Sunlight from the Sun hits the solar power array, which converts it into electricity. The electricity powers the observatory, including the cameras in the science instrument module.
Curiosity found rounded pebbles in one rock and thin, even layers of mudstone in another. Both are evidence of water on Mars, but of different kinds. What kind of water does each one point to?
Rounded pebbles point to flowing water (a river or stream) that tumbled them a long way. Thin mudstone layers point to still water (the bottom of a lake) where fine mud settled.
Webb's gold-coated mirror captures faint infrared light. Using the trade-offs between land and space telescopes, explain why a telescope like Webb works far better in space than on the ground.
Earth's atmosphere blocks much of the infrared light from space, so it never reaches telescopes on the ground. Above the atmosphere, Webb can detect it.