This week's picture is that of the Butterfly Nebula. The Butterfly Nebula was formed by one star of a binary star system ejecting large amounts of gas very quickly while the core of the star ionized the gas and made it glow the colors we can see or falsely color. The surface temp of the core, now called a white dwarf star, is estimated to be around 250 thousand degrees Celsius. Overall, the hot center of the Nebula is projecting the gas, some of which has been detected to be hydrogen, across light years and the Nebula itself only lies 4000 light years away.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111113.html
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
apod 2.2 submitted early
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111108.html
this weeks post is not a picture but instead a video of the phenomenon known as "sun dogs". The sun dog shown in the video is center stage and appears to be quickly jumping from place to place high within the clouds. The magic behind this wonderful show is currently hypothesized to be changes in an electrical field within the cloud quickly changing. this quick change would induces water crystals in the clouds to rearrange themselves and bend light in a different way with each change in the field. As amazing as this occurrence is, very little data is had on the phenomenon so scientist are scouring the world and the world wide web to find more evidence to analyze.
this weeks post is not a picture but instead a video of the phenomenon known as "sun dogs". The sun dog shown in the video is center stage and appears to be quickly jumping from place to place high within the clouds. The magic behind this wonderful show is currently hypothesized to be changes in an electrical field within the cloud quickly changing. this quick change would induces water crystals in the clouds to rearrange themselves and bend light in a different way with each change in the field. As amazing as this occurrence is, very little data is had on the phenomenon so scientist are scouring the world and the world wide web to find more evidence to analyze.
apod 2.1
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111102.html
This week's picture features the Wizard Nebula! Only 8000 light years away, this nebula is huge star forming region, NGC 7380 to be specific, and is really just a tower of super heated and super irradiated gasses and the actual star forming region is only 100 light years across. The wizard nebula lies in the constellation Cepheus and some of the stars forming in this nebula have the chance to out live our own sun! so in a few billion years, our ancestors, if still living, will be able to view the star clusters that this nebula will leave behind.
This week's picture features the Wizard Nebula! Only 8000 light years away, this nebula is huge star forming region, NGC 7380 to be specific, and is really just a tower of super heated and super irradiated gasses and the actual star forming region is only 100 light years across. The wizard nebula lies in the constellation Cepheus and some of the stars forming in this nebula have the chance to out live our own sun! so in a few billion years, our ancestors, if still living, will be able to view the star clusters that this nebula will leave behind.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Observation 2, Q1
Date: October 22, 2011
Time: 9:00 - 11:30 PM
Place: Charlotte Harbour
Sky Conditions: Mostly clear with a few pockets of light from Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Moon not present.
Instruments Used: eyes
Planets: Jupiter shown brightly and beautifully in the eastern sky, about 20 degres above the horizon .
Bright Stars noted: Vega, Epsilon Lyrae, Deneb, Alberio, Altair,( the summer triangle) in the western part of the sky, Antares early in the observation, Polaris dead ahead to the north. Overall, it seemed that the summer skychart had been cut in half and then turned 180 so that the side with Sagittarius on it was still above the sky. I noted that the Tea pot was pouring out all of it's contents into the western horizon.
Constellations noted: Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Pegasus, Andromeda, Delphinus,Sagitta, Vulpecula, Hercules, Ursa Minor and what may have been Cepheus. all of these constellations were spread across the sky with Delphinus being the closest to the zenith.
Deep Sky Objects: Pleiades was very faint but could be viewed rising almost due east from our location, and i could see what looked like a true little dipper being formed by the seven sisters.
Time: 9:00 - 11:30 PM
Place: Charlotte Harbour
Sky Conditions: Mostly clear with a few pockets of light from Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Moon not present.
Instruments Used: eyes
Planets: Jupiter shown brightly and beautifully in the eastern sky, about 20 degres above the horizon .
Bright Stars noted: Vega, Epsilon Lyrae, Deneb, Alberio, Altair,( the summer triangle) in the western part of the sky, Antares early in the observation, Polaris dead ahead to the north. Overall, it seemed that the summer skychart had been cut in half and then turned 180 so that the side with Sagittarius on it was still above the sky. I noted that the Tea pot was pouring out all of it's contents into the western horizon.
Constellations noted: Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Pegasus, Andromeda, Delphinus,Sagitta, Vulpecula, Hercules, Ursa Minor and what may have been Cepheus. all of these constellations were spread across the sky with Delphinus being the closest to the zenith.
Deep Sky Objects: Pleiades was very faint but could be viewed rising almost due east from our location, and i could see what looked like a true little dipper being formed by the seven sisters.
Apod 1.8
This weeks picture is from Oct. 17th and shows a galaxy cluster where one galaxy appears to be curved on the right side of the picture. The galaxy cluster shown is MACS1206 and what we are seeing is a "gravitational lens". The gravitational distortion of light is caused by the galaxy's, the one in the back of the galaxy cluster, light having to bend around multiple areas of heavy gravity which the scientist at NASA theorize is Dark Matter in this case. Dark Matter is substance that we have just recently discovered and we have also found out that most of the universe is composed of dark matter. The actual composition of dark matter is unknown but many theorize that is made up of exotic particles that allow for dark matter to have the gravitational pull that it does.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111017.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111017.html
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Apod 1.5
This weeks picture is from September 28th and features a large solar flare coming from a group of sunspots known currently as AR1302. This group of sunspots is very important or special because it is one of the most active groups in many years and it can even be seen without a telescope! The picture featured what is known as an X-class flare, or in layman's terms, a flare that could cause plant-wide radio black outs! This means the flare has to be huge in size, even for the sun. Overall, we have been lucky because AR1302 could have sent a very devastating solar flare our way but we have yet to be in the direct path of one.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110928.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110928.html
Apod 1.6
This weeks picture is that of M object 82, or better known as the Cigar Galaxy. this weeks picture shows a cloud of extremely hot and extremely fast moving gases being launched out of the galaxy. This massive amount of gas is being projected out of the galaxy because of the repeating supernovas inside of the galaxy and the solar winds that very large stars are giving off are combing to launch the debris into space. The supernovas and new star formations should last for another 100 million years, but until then, the galaxy will let loose unimaginable amounts of hydrogen gas enriched with heavier metals.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111006.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111006.html
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