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UAF, NASA create fact-filled coloring book about the sun

A new sun-based and science-focused coloring book produced by the ���ϳԹ��� in collaboration with NASA is now available.

The book focuses on the bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields, known as the heliosphere, that is created by the sun’s outward-flowing solar wind. It surrounds the solar system and pushes against interstellar space, helping shield the planets from incoming cosmic radiation.

“Journey Through the Heliosphere” can be purchased through the UAF Geophysical Institute’s . Cost is $7 plus shipping. The book is also available as a .

The 28-page, 11-by-14 book includes science facts and coloring pages for 10 themes, including the sun’s magnetic field, the solar wind, the aurora, eclipses and how the sun influences Earth and more.

The book’s language and art is for children of middle-school age and above, as well as adults. The book includes solar references in seven of Alaska’s many Indigenous languages and has a glossary of scientific terms.

Staff from NASA, Oregon State University, the UAF International Arctic Research Center and the Geophysical Institute’s outreach and design teams created the book over two years.

Lynda McGilvary, who leads the Geophysical Institute’s education outreach team, said the collaboration made for an engaging product.

“It leveraged the strengths of each organization in a way that resulted in something that will support the goal of increasing America’s heliophysics literacy one coloring page at time,” she said. “I think it was a labor of love for us.”

NASA came up with the coloring book idea as part of its Heliophysics Education Activation Team, known as HEAT, to engage people who are not usually drawn to NASA science. UAF is a part of that program.

The coloring book also had the input from 13 Alaska Native language speakers, who shared their cultural knowledge about the sun. Links within the book connect to the Cultural Connections online , so users can hear fluent speakers correctly speaking each of the translated words.

McGilvary hopes the coloring book will encourage classroom and community discussions about Alaska’s important linguistic diversity.

“We hope that it will lead people to independently seek out and use other languages, especially the heritage languages of their friends and neighbors,” she said.

McGilvary noted the decades-long relationship NASA has with UAF.

“This coloring book is a tangible reflection of that relationship and the fact that it extends beyond the amazing science that NASA and UAF conduct together,” she said. “It was such a privilege to work with NASA’s heliophysics experts on this publication, and I personally learned so much more about the sun and our solar system in the process.”

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Lynda McGilvary, lmmcgilvary@alaska.edu

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