APOD 1.3

August 26 2012

      The Cat's Eye Nebula is labeled as a planetary nebula, but is in fact a binary star nebula. The term planetary nebula misleads the reader, because they think the center or subject of the nebula is a planet or a system of such. A binary star nebula however, is a nebula that has formed from stars throwing off their outer shells. This process creates a fantastic display of color and light, known as a nebula. A binary star system however is not a normal star, it's actually stars in orbit around a central object. So it's almost like a solar system with stars as planets! Pic found here!

APOD 1.2

September 12 2012

     Though we learned about Scorpius and it's only trait of note being that it's Zodiacal, we did not learn about the M object that resides within its tail. M7 is a large cluster of stars, so large in fact that it's the largest cluster of stars in the sky that we have found. This cluster contains around 100 stars, all brightly lit with a blue hue. After a bit of research, I found that these stars are known as "Blue Stragglers", and are were formed around the same time as the Milky Way. They spin 2-3 times faster than larger stars, and are formed in groups such as This (also picture). I had no idea such a cluster could be hidden away right in one of the first 2 constellations that we learned about!

APOD 1.4

June 29th 2012

Dark Clouds in Aquila

 We've learned about the constellation Aquila, but we haven't learned that through and by Aquila, lies the Aquila Rift. The Aquila Rift is a formation of dusty molecular clouds, behind the Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists are searching for signs of star birth within these clouds, which are believed to contain molecules and remains from hundreds of thousands of dead stars. The search is looking up, because of energetic outflows that have been associated with young stars are being spotted within the clouds. These energetic outflows are massive shots of energy shooting out in space, believed to be signs of star birth like how our sun was created. One has been recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope, but not at once. Since we are so far away from the outflows, they hardly move at all to the eye. But from 1994 to 2008, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures, which have been combined into a video located here, showing what these outflows look like. I had no idea that such massive changes could take place over such a great period of time, even given the speed at which light travels through space. I also didn't know that the constellation Aquila had the rift passing through it. In the picture, the bright star Altair, located in the constellation Aquila, can be located in the top right hand corner.

Picture Time!

Copernican Revolution

Nicolaus Copernicus:
- Showed that the movement of the stars and celestial objects can be explained without having Earth be Geocentric.

Tycho Brahe:
-  Showed that celestial objects and events could be predicted and followed a math system.

Johannes Kepler:
- Proposed Elliptical orbit, over circular orbit.

Galileo Galilei:
- Observed the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter.

Giordano Bruno:
- Argued for the theory of an infinite universe with other celestial objects such as stars and star systems.

Isaac Newton:
- Proved that planets are kept in their orbit by forces of gravity.

APOD 1.1

Amazing picture! The scientists have taken the paths hurricanes have followed for the last 161 years, and put them all on one map. It shows the locations most affected by hurricanes, and others where hurricanes either barely affect them, or don't touch at all. The summary also talks about the Coroilis effect, which is when hurricanes curve away from the equator.  Hey Mr. Percival!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html