Educator Guide: Physics Helps Alien Rain Stay In Shape

clouds of Jupiter

The swirling clouds of Jupiter, captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, could release semisolid ammonia slushballs of precipitation. New work suggests that any liquid rain on Jupiter would be similar in some ways to rain on any other cloudy world.

Gerald Eichstadt/MSSS/SwRI/JPL-Caltech/NASA

About this guide

In this guide, students will learn how the laws of physics shape rain on other planets and explore how molecules interact within alien raindrops.

This Guide Includes:

Sizing up alien rain

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “How the laws of physics constrain the size of alien raindrops,” which explores a new model for rain on planets across the Milky Way. A version of the story, “Physics helps alien rain stay in shape,” appears in the May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021 issue of Science News.

Modeling molecules in alien rain

Students will compare and contrast rain on Earth with rain on other planets and practice drawing molecular structures of various rain substances to examine the substances' physical and chemical properties. Students will use that information, along with the planetary conditions needed to form rain, to create a short weather forecast for one planet.

Sign up if you’re interested in receiving free Science News magazines plus educator resources next school year. The Society for Science’s Science News Learning program serves nearly 5,000 public high schools across the United States and worldwide.

Learn More