...New Pulsar Star Discovery Throughout the universe many natural wonders occur on a moment to moment basis. These natural wonders have occurred for more than 14 billion years and will continue to occur as long as the universe exists. Some of these natural wonders are the super nova or the passing of the moon in front of the Sun to create an eclipse. One such wonder that has brought on quite the curiosity of late is the Pulsar. Discovery of the Pulsar Discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Burnell, Pulsars are neutron stars that appear to pulse because of the rotation of the star ("Neutron Stars and Pulsars – Introduction," 2006). Jocelyn Burnell is an astronomer and an astrophysicist born on July 15, 1943 in Belfast Ireland (CSU, n.d.). Jocelyn Burnell earned her physics degree at the Glasgow University, Scotland in 1965 and was the first person to discover the pulsar, which are stars that release regular bursts of radio waves (CSU, n.d.). Jocelyn Burrell’s discovery was a milestone in the history of astrophysics (CSU, n.d.). In addition, she was involved in the construction and operation of the telescope and was responsible for monitoring and interpreting the recordings of radio transmissions once the telescope had become operational in July 1967 (CSU, n.d.). Summary of the Article An international team of astronomers have discovered new information about a star that man has been cognizant of for over a decade. This star, called PSR B0943+10, operates in a different fashion...
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...The force of nature produced something so small with much effort. It was in this poem that I saw an elaborate explanation of the birth of a star stretched out into an array of words. The "Red Giant"a dying star in it's last stages of evolution, Is the star that will soon be replaced towards the end of the poem concluding a new star. The title Super Nova meaning a star is born contributes to the readers understanding because it is the "symbol" Object or action that means more than it's literally meaning, of the poem and the whole meaning of it really. The author Udiah I don't think is speaking directly, I think the poem is in third person and he makes it seem as if the planets are telling the story themselves or some foreign force. The situation in the poem is the amount of force in outer space that it takes for an old star to die and new one to come about. Although the poem is very vast and interesting there are some references that need explaining such as how the birth of a star happens exactly, I don't think an average reader would understand necessarily the science behind it. Some of the words I looked up helped me find better meaning in the poem, Nuclear Fission a nuclear reaction of a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of a particle splits into smaller parts. This particular word is used at the beginning of the poem, means to me that the red giant has exhausted it's supply of hydrogen and can no longer hold it all in anymore, there forth letting go. The...
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...Life Cycle of Stars The Birth of a Star In space, there exists huge clouds of gas and dust. These clouds consist of hydrogen and helium, and are the birthplaces of new stars. Gravity causes these clouds to shrink and become warmer. The body starts to collapse under its own gravity, and the temperature inside rises. After the temperature reaches several thousand degrees, the hydrogen molecules are ionized (electrons are stripped from them), and they become single protons. The contraction of the gas and the rise in temperature continue until the temperature of the star reaches about 10,000,000 degrees Celsius (18,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit). At this point, nuclear fusion occurs in a process called proton-proton reaction. Briefly, proton-proton reaction is when four protons join together and two are converted into neutrons; an 4He nucleus is formed. During this process, some matter is lost and converted to energy as dictated by Einstein's equation. At this point, the star stops collapsing because the outward force of heat balances the gravity. The Hydrogen Burning Stage The proton-proton reaction occurs during a period called the hydrogen-burning state, and its length depends on the star's weight. In heavy stars, the great amount of weight puts a large amount of pressure on the core, raising the temperature and speeding up the fusion process. These heavy stars are very bright, but only live for a short amount of time. After the energy from this deuteron-hydrogen fusion process...
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...serious war’’ that the largely irreligious crew has waged with him during the long mission. He thinks particularly of the ship’s doctor, Dr. Chandler, who sometimes professes himself willing to believe that ‘‘Something’’ created the infinite vastness of space and everything in it, but cannot accept that a being so powerful could possibly care about ‘‘us and our miserable little world.’’ The narrative goes on to reveal more details about the mission. The ship had been sent to examine the aftermath of a supernova—the explosion of a star, during which it burns with an intensity and a luminosity that may be a billion times that of the Earth’s sun. Following such an explosion, a star becomes a white dwarf, a body of very dense matter. These scientific details are imparted almost incidentally as the first-person narrative continues. When the ship reaches the solar system surrounding the white dwarf, they are surprised to find that the outermost planet survived the force of the supernova explosion, and that it contains a clearly demarcated vault. Within it they find artifacts recording the accomplishments of a highly advanced civilization. The narrator reports that his colleagues have...
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...White Dwarfs There are about 2,500 stars visible to the naked eye at any one time or at any one point on the Earth, and 5,800-8,000 total visible stars. However, in total there are about 200-400 billion within the Milky Way. White dwarfs are estimated to be about 12-13 billion years old. Another name for the White Dwarf is called a Degenerate Dwarf. White dwarfs are very dense in its mass compared to the sun even though its volume is compared to the earth. Its brightness comes from the emission of stored thermal energy. In January 2009, it was eight stars found nearest to our sun. That project was named the Research Consortium on Nearby Stars. In 1922 William Luyten created the name White Dwarf name. White Dwarfs are thought to be the last evolution of all stars that mass is not high enough to be a neutron star. The material in white dwarfs no longer undergoes fusion reactions, so the star has no more energy. A white dwarf is very hot when it’s formed but since it has no energy it gradually radiate away energy and cool down. This means that its radiation, which initially has a high color temperature, will start to lessen and redden with time. Over a very long time, a white dwarf will become a cold black dwarf by cooling to temperatures at which it will no longer emit significant heat or light. It has been said that White dwarfs can’t be older than the universe which is about 13.7 billion years old. Even the oldest white dwarfs still are at temperatures of a few thousand...
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...An Information & Activity Booklet Grades K-8 1997-1998 StarChild - a Learning Center for Young Astronomers EG-1997(09)-003-GSFC presents... Written by: Dr. Elizabeth Truelove & Ms. Joyce Dejoie Lakeside Middle School Evans, GA This booklet, along with its matching poster, is meant to be used in conjunction with the StarChild website or CD-ROM. http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Index Index ...........................................................................................................................i Association with National Standards .........................................................................ii Life Cycles of Stars....................................................................................................1 Level 1 Activities Star Life..........................................................................................................2 Star Sketches..................................................................................................3 Nebular Nonsense ..........................................................................................5 Space Spirals..................................................................................................6 Star Scrambles ...............................................................................................7 Space Connection...........................................................................................9 Level 2...
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...Lab 11 Assignment Part 1: Exploring the Moon I- How many Apollo missions were there and what years did they take place? 1. Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967 2. Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968 3. Apollo 8 on December 21, 1968 4. Apollo 9 on March 3, 1969 5. Apollo 10 on May 18, 1969 6. Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969 7. Apollo 12 on November 14, 1969 8. Apollo 13 on April 11, 1970 9. Apollo 14 on January 31, 1971 10. Apollo 15 on July 26, 1971 11. Apollo 16 on April 16, 1972 12. Apollo 17 on December 7, 1972 Apollo 2 and 3 (these were no craft named) Apollo 4 (Also called AS-501) on November 9, 1967. Apollo 5 (also called AS-204) on January 22, 1968. Apollo 6 (Also called AS-502) on April 4, 1968. There were 17 in total. II- How many of the missions orbited the Moon and how many landed? Which ones? * Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 orbited the Moon and returned. * Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and Apollo 17 landed on the Moon. A total of 6. III- Unfortunately, there was an accident early on. Which mission was it? The mission that suffered a tragic accident was Apollo 1. Part 2: Venus I- How many Venera Missions (Russian) were there? Over what time period did these missions occur? Did any of the crafts actually land on the surface? What happened? * Venera 1 in 1961 - Venera 8 in 1972 * Venera 2 and 3 in 1965 - Venera 9 and 10 in 1975 * Venera 4 in 1967 - Venera 11 and 12 in 1978 ...
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...Chapter 10 : The Sun THE SUNS ATMOSPHERE * the sun is so hot that it neither has a liquid or solid matter anywhere inside of it * moving down into the sun there is denser and hotter masses Photosphere (“sphere of light”) * The photosphere is the innermost of layer of the three layers that comprise the suns atmosphere * A gas layer of the sun that has the most visible light * It is about 400 km thick * Density of the photosphere is low by the earth standards about 0.01% as the air we breathe * Photosphere has a blackbody spectrum that corresponds to an average temp of 5800K * The photosphere appears darkest toward the edge or limb of the solar disk , a phenomenon called limb darkening, * This occurs b/c we see regions of different temp at different depths of the photosphere Granules * lightly colored convection features about 100 km in diameter seen constantly in the solar photosphere * time lapse photography shows that granules form, disappear then reform in cylces that last several minutes Chromosphere (“sphere of color”) * is a dim layer of less dense stellar gas that is above the photosphere * It is the layer we normally see * Astronomers can also study the chromosphere through filters that pass light with specific wavelengths strongly emitted by it – but not by the photosphere – or through telescope sensitive to nonvisble wavelengths that the chromosphere emits intensely Spicules - Are...
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...Astronomy 2B03: Lecture 2: What’s Out There? * Objects in the universe come in a hierarchy of scales and sizes: * Planets * Stars * Galaxies * The universe as a whole * These scales are so different from one step to the next that they are incredibly hard to comprehend all at once – no “everyday” experience to refer them to * If the Earth were a basketball how big would the moon be? Tennis ball * How many Earths would fit into the Sun? ~ 1 million * How many Jupiter’s would fit inside the Sun? 900 * How many Moons would fit inside the Earth? 50 * If we say the distance from here to Toronto (71 km) represents the distance between the Earth and the Sun, how far are we from Pluto? From Hamilton to Mexico, or from Hamilton to Calgary * If we say the distance from here to Toronto represents the distance between the Earth and the Sun, how far is the Earth from the Moon? From here to the edge of campus (Sterling and Forsyth) * If we say the distance from here to Toronto represents the distance between the Earth and the Sun, how big is the Earth? 3 meters * If we say the distance from here to Toronto represents the distance between the Earth and the Sun, how far is the Sun from the next nearest Star? 1/10th the distance from the Sun to Earth Lecture 3: The Earth: * Our starting point and only home * Both land and water * The only planet to have liquid water at its surface * Atmosphere: dense...
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