The telescopes working in space, from Hubble to JWST, and what each one is for.
Year 9 · AC9S9U04NSW Stage 5 · SC5-WAM-01
Students will
describe light as a wave and place telescopes on the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays.
10-minute activity
Draw the electromagnetic spectrum across the board and place each telescope from the list on the band it observes. Why do X-ray and most infrared telescopes have to be in space? Which band would you use to see through clouds of dust?
How far each spacecraft is, and how long its signal takes to reach us.
Year 10 · AC9S10U03
Students will
use astronomical units, light-time and light-years to describe the scale of the solar system and the universe.
10-minute activity
Find Voyager 1's distance on the map: its signal takes about a day to reach us. Convert the distance to astronomical units and to light-years. The nearest star is about 4.2 light-years away: how many Voyager distances is that?
The telescopes working in space, from Hubble to JWST, and what each one is for.
Year 10 · AC9S10U03Year 10 · AC9S10H02
Students will
describe the evidence for the big bang, and how new telescopes have made that evidence stronger.
10-minute activity
Find JWST on the list: it sees some of the first galaxies, whose light left them more than 13 billion years ago. List the main evidence for the big bang: galaxies moving apart, the cosmic microwave background and the mix of light elements. What could the Square Kilometre Array, being built in Western Australia, add?
Every upcoming rocket launch, and when it lifts off.
Year 10 · AC9S10U05NSW Stage 5 · SC5-WAM-02
Students will
apply Newton's three laws to a rocket launch, and use F = ma to find its acceleration at lift-off.
10-minute activity
Find the next launch on the schedule. Take a 500-tonne rocket with 7,600 kN of thrust: work out its weight, the net force and its acceleration at lift-off (a = F/m). Why does the acceleration grow as the fuel burns?
Where the ISS is right now, and how fast it is going.
Year 10 · AC9S10U05
Students will
explain the space station's orbit with Newton's laws: gravity is the unbalanced force that keeps changing its direction.
10-minute activity
Read the station's speed and height from the tracker, and use the worksheet to find the time for one orbit. The station's speed stays about the same, but it is still accelerating: why? Which of Newton's laws explains it?
Orbit details for thousands of satellites: height, period and inclination.
Year 10 · AC9S10H02
Students will
explain how satellites have made new climate science possible, such as measuring sea level, ice and temperature from space.
10-minute activity
Search the directory for an Earth-observation satellite and note its orbit. Most climate satellites are in polar orbits: why does that help them see the whole planet? List three climate measurements that would be hard to make without satellites.
Where the tracked junk in orbit is, and how crowded each height has become.
Year 10 · AC9S10H04
Students will
discuss how society's needs and values decide which problems scientists work on, using space debris as the example.
10-minute activity
Show the map and how crowded low orbit has become. Who should pay to clean it up: the companies that left the junk, the countries that launched it, or everyone who uses satellites? Each group argues one side, then the class votes on which research to fund first.
These are our suggestions for where each tool fits. Always preview a page before using it with a class: some tools show ads, these school pages do not.
Australian Curriculum codes are content descriptions, for example AC9S7U03. NSW syllabus outcomes are a second tag, for example SC4-OTU-01. Victoria and Western Australia have their own codes: the activities still fit.
Know a better fit for your class, or a topic we have missed? Tell us and we will add it.
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Orbital Radar. (2026, November 4). Years 9 and 10: Universe and Big Bang. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://orbitalradar.com/schools/au/years-9-10
“Years 9 and 10: Universe and Big Bang.” Orbital Radar, 4 Nov. 2026, orbitalradar.com/schools/au/years-9-10. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.
Orbital Radar (2026) Years 9 and 10: Universe and Big Bang. Available at: https://orbitalradar.com/schools/au/years-9-10 (Accessed: 5 November 2026).
Orbital Radar. “Years 9 and 10: Universe and Big Bang.” Last modified November 4, 2026. https://orbitalradar.com/schools/au/years-9-10.
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title = {Years 9 and 10: Universe and Big Bang},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
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url = {https://orbitalradar.com/schools/au/years-9-10},
urldate = {2026-11-05},
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