Scientific Tutorials


The ESA Science Archives contain a wealth of scientific data, freely available online to researchers and the public alike.

To support the research of professionals, the studies of University students and the learning of school children and teachers, the ESDC have created a range of scientific tutorials. These tutorials have been designed to show example science use cases and how the tools can be used by professionals and students to answer scientific questions. The tutorials are step-by-step and in some cases demonstrate how the archives can be used in collaboration with other VO-enabled tools.

The tutorials are the following:

 

IDENTIFYING KINEMATICAL MEMBERS OF THE PLEIADES CLUSTER: A STEP-BY-STEP VO TUTORIAL USING ESASKY AND TOPCAT

 

 

 

A tutorial demonstrating how to use ESASky and TOPCAT for normal scientific work. It uses Hipparcos and Gaia data to identify members of the Pleiades cluster with ESASky and the VO tool TOPCAT. Useful for researchers wanting to get familiar with the applications as well as for University students.

 

 

cesar-esasky science cases

Educational activities using ESASky for Secondary School students and undergraduates, done in collaboration with the CESAR educational initiative at ESAC.

 

 

The Colours of Astonomy: Introduction to multi-wavelength Astronomy

 

Exploring the ISM: Introduction to the Interstellar Medium

 

The Secrets of Galaxies: Introduction to the basic properties of galaxies.

 

 

ESAC SOHO Science Archive Tutorial: Determining the Solar Differential Rotation

 

The aim of this tutorial is to explore SOHO images of the Sun, watch the evolution of sunspots and finally to determine the differential rotation of the Sun at different latitudes. This is a classroom tutorial developed for secondary school students and uses the ESAC SOHO Science Archive and the VO tool Aladin.

 

 

Investigating Solar Cycles. A SOHO Science Archive and Ulysses Final Archive tutorial

 

A step-by-step classroom tutorial developed for University undergraduates and school students. This tutorial uses the ESAC SOHO Science Archive and the Ulysses Final Archive..

 

 

Merging Galaxies: An XMM-Newton Science Archive and Hubble Space Telescope tutorial

 

A classroom tutorial developed for university undergraduates and secondary school students. Uses the ESA XMM-Newton Science Archive and the VO tool Aladin.

 

 

 

Classifying the SEDs of Herbig Ae/Be Stars

 

A fully developed example science case, using the VO Tools VOSpec and TOPCAT.

 

 

VOSpec Science Tutorial: Calculating the Redshift Of Galaxies

 

A step-by-step tutorial developed for university undergraduates and pre-undergraduate students, using the VO tool VOSpec.

Associated files:
HB89-0237-233_UV_SFLX_BLUE437D2.xml
HB89-1143-245_UV_SFLX_BLUE390D1.xml

 

VOSpec Science Tutorial: Comparing Spectra of the Sun and Similar Stars

A step-by-step classroom tutorial developed for school students. This tutorial uses the VO Tool VOSpec.
Associated files:
solar_spectrum_900_1200.xml

   

Complete tutorial

 

Experiment section and printer friendly version

 

Theory section and printer friendly version

 

VOSpec typical session

A step-by-step tutorial on how to use the VO tool VOSpec, available as a web pagecolour pdf and printer friendly pdf.