Download Astronomy Journals, Physics 1040

Shaylin Rose
Astronomy 1040
Article 1
Black Hole Connected to a Be Star
The article I found this week is from space.com. The heading of this article is Oddly
Quiet Black Hole Spotted Around Fast-Spinning Star by Mike Wall, published January 15th. I
would first like to start off by saying I’m sorry I don’t know if I read this article accurate enough
to understand the true meaning of what is happening. What I comprehended is a huge star known
as the MWC 656 also known as a “B–emission” or Be stars, shares space with a companion of a
stellar mass black hole. Be stars usually share companions but more often with small and very
dense supernova remnants know as neutron starts. This is the first time a black hole has ever
been found as a companion of a Be star. Researched reported that this black hole companion
emits no X RAY radiation which is very uncommon for a black hole which explains why the
object eluded detection until now.
I retrieved my information from
http://www.space.com/24290-quiet-black-hole-discovery.html
I also watched the video from this website
http://www.space.com/24299-weirdly-passive-black-hole-discovered-orbiting-fast-spinning-staranimation.html
Article 2
The article I found for this week is from space.com the title is New Supernovas in Night
Sky Captivates Amateur Astronomers and written by Megan Gannon on January 23, 2014. In this
past week a new supernova appeared in a nearby galaxy M82, at only 12 million light years away
this is the closest star explosion to be spotted from earth in at least 20 years. This star explosion
was discovered by students at the University College London. This supernova is considerably
brighter than any part of the galaxy and as it brightens it may outshine billions of stars in M82.
The star explosion happened on January 22, also because this new supernova is twelve million
light years away this star actually exploded twelve million years ago. But we are only getting a
glimpse of it now. Supernovas are not rare but spotted so close to earth is rare. The last
supernova that was this close to earth was in 1993 known as galaxy M81. This new supernova is
very special to astronomers because its type can be used to measure distance across the universe.
I found this very interesting and the video I watch was amazing to see an opionion I read
at the end of this article 1 read a comment saying that the video was very misleading and it
shows that there are multiple supernovas, but there’s not.
Article is http://www.space.com/24388-new-supernova-m82-photos-amateur-astronomers.html
Video is from http://www.space.com/24373-supernova-explosion-seen-in-nearby-galaxyvideo.html
Article 3
NASA Satellites sees Sochi Winter Olympics venues from space
An article I found on space.com by Tariq Maik was published February 7 the opening day of the
2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The photos that were in the article were captured by the
NASA Terra satellite that was launched in space in December 1999.NASA’s Terra satellite
used its advance Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer to show vegetation,
snow, buildings, and the ocean. The images show the Olympic park coastal cluster for indoor
sports and the Rosa Khutar ski resort. Also, the Olympic torch was launched to the space station
last fall, there cosmonauts took the torch for a spacewalk and then returned in to earth in
November.
Article: http://www.space.com/24614-winter-olympics-from-space-nasa-photos.html
Article 4
On March 25, senior writer of space.com Mike Wall wrote an article Mars Rover Curiosity
Takes Aim at Next Martian Science Project. This article goes to tell that the one –ton Curiosity
Rover is just 282 feet north from the site of “the Kimberley” where four different types of terrain
intersect. The interesting things of these durable sandstones are while looking similar the rocks
likely formed and evolved very different from each other. These sandstones that were found by
Curiosity represent a different type of rock. The variation in these sandstones like why some are
harder than others, help scientist piece together the past of this red plants life. In issue that it
being found with the Curiosity Rover is the tires are worn out, to help instructors have now been
driving Curiosity backwards and choosing less punishing routes. These ideas have been paying
off and helping the tires.
http://www.space.com/25207-mars-rover-curiosity-science-target.html
Article 5
On March 31 a video was captured on the NASA’s solar dynamic observatory of a M1.4 class
flare erupting out of the sunspot known as AR2014. During the eruption the plasma erupted out
but then it sucked itself back into the sun
http://www.space.com/25291-sun-sticks-out-a-tongue-of-super-heated-plasma-video.html
Article 6
In the article by Miriam Kramer titled the Incredible Technology: How to Grab an Asteroid and
Park it Near Earth, found on March 31 tells how NASA has an idea to lasso an asteroid and
bring it to a near orbit of the moon to let astronauts visit and examine the asteroid. They have
thought of two ways to accomplish this task, one is send a robotic probe to a small asteroid and
bring back the whole thing to examine. The second idea was taking part of the larger space rock
and parking it near the moon. These two missions will help work out problems of sending
humans into space deeper than ever. These two missions would also help us to detect a
dangerous asteroid if it were on a path to earth. The idea of snagging a space rock attains
designing a robot that would seal a 32 foot asteroid into a bag and bring it into the orbit near the
moon. Astronomers have already decided that 2009BD would be a candidate for the mission of
picking up a smaller asteroid and bringing it back, and planning to launch mission in 2019 and
bring the rock to the earth-moon system by 2023. With the fact that human launching will be in
2024 or earlier. The mission to pick up a larger part of rock and take it near the moon has four
possible steroid candidates, asteroid Itokawa, Asteroid Bennu, 199JU and 2008EV. These
missions would launch no earlier than 2019. Mostly all the comments on this article were saying
it’s a bad idea and if something wrong happens it could affect earth and this idea is more of a
distraction then anything.
http://www.space.com/25289-asteroid-retrieval-mission-incredible-technology.html
Article 7
An article from space.com written by Robert Z Pearlman titled Its t-365 Until Astronaut and
Cosmonaut Spend One Year on Space Station, published on march 31. This article goes to that
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly will leave planet Earth in 2015 to spend a year in space. Kelly is
not going alone, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are now in their final twelve months of training
for their year long experience on the international space station. These two men are to launch
onto Russia’s Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft on march 28 2015. Both men have already
experienced half a year in space but never a full year.
http://www.space.com/25286-one-year-space-station-mission-countdown.html
Article 8
On April 12 an article on space.com called Searching high and low for dark matter was written
by Bruce Lieberman. Lieberman goes to say in his article that attended the At Dark Matter 2014
in UCLA where 160 physicists from around the world came to share their research on the
cosmology’s biggest mystery. What is the unknown stuff that makes up a quarter of the
universe? The Kavli foundation was the group that conducted this meeting, the point of the
meeting was to find out to see if everyone was on the right path of figuring out what dark matter
is. Blas Cebrera a member explains that the only leading idea of finding evidence of a dark
matter particle is the WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle) another big topic at this
conference was Dan Hooper he had a presentation about to indirectly detect dark matter by
studying radiation coming from the center of the Milky Way. Hooper explains that gamma rays
are the most energetic form of light radiating from the center of the galaxy, which could be very
likely to be a signal of annihilating dark matter particles. We believe that dark matter is made of
particles and we expect them to be stable meaning they don’t decay into other particles or forms
of radiation.
http://www.space.com/25466-top-scientists-discuss-dark-matter.html
Article 9
Blood Moon photos: spectacular total lunar eclipse views by stargazers was an article written
by Miriam Kramer on April 15 the morning following the lunar eclipse. This article included
videos and photos from stargazers who watched the eclipse happen. The first total lunar eclipse
of 2014 lasted for 3.5 hours and was seen from North America, South America, Hawaii and parts
of Alaska. Even though the clouds did not work in our favor most photos came to be pretty clear
and red with no disturbance from the thin layer of cirrus clouds. This eclipse was known as the
Blood moon because the sunlight scattered by Earth’s atmosphere casts a red pall on the face of
the moon. Another fascinating thing that happened that night was just before the eclipse mars
made its closest approach to earth since 2008. April 28-29 the sun will turn into a “ring of fire”
during the annular eclipse, but will only be visible from uninhabited part of Antarctica. The next
lunar eclipse will be on October 8th and be visible to much of North America.
http://www.space.com/25508-blood-moon-photos-total-lunar-eclipse.html
Article 10
An article titled NASA photo may show birth of new Saturn moon was written by Mike Wall
on april 15. In April 2013 the Cassini probe took a photo of the egde of Saturns outermost ring
and noticed an arc and some strange bumps nearby, these were proababy created by gravity of a
small, ice object that could possibly be a newborn moon. Carl Murray the lead researcher stated ‘
we may be looking at the act of birth, where is object just leaving the rings and heading off to be
a moon in its own right.” They named this object Peggy, about .5 miles wide which is to small to
be seen in images taken by Cassini. In 2016 researchers will move the spacecraft closer to the
rings edge to study Peggy. Saturn has over 60 known moons ranging in size. Scientist believe
that these moons form in the ice particles within the rings and then move outward while growing
and combining with other nascent satellites. This study on Peggy helped scientist with new
information. Even though Peggy is done growing and maybe disintegrating, it gave a unique
opportunity because Saturn may be done making new moons.
http://www.space.com/25502-saturn-moon-birth-nasa-photo.html
Article 11
An article on space.com by Tariq Malik posted on April 22 no other then the day of
Earth day. The picture was captured by the GOES-East satellite. The picture taken of earth was
taken 22,300 miles above the planet. The weather was also given by looking at the picture a cold
front from Montreal, Canada to southern Texas passing through Tennessee. Rain will happen in
Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and other Midwestern locales. The GOES satellites constantly
monitor the planet for data analysis. The satellite hover over a specific point of earth for
continuous weather monitoring.
http://www.space.com/25595-earth-day-from-space-satellite-photo.html
Article 12
In the article Milky Way Structure Mapped in Unprecedented Detail by Katine
Moskvitch tells that astronomers are one step closer to solving the mystery as what the milky
way looks like. It’s tough to get a broad view of the galaxy from within. The article goes on to
say that astronomers are fairly confident that the milky way is a spiral galaxy. Mark Reid led a
new study of using the very long baseline Array to map our galaxy.
http://www.space.com/25584-milky-way-structure-spiral-arms.html
Article 13
There wasn’t much of a “finding something new” in this article but I find the northern lights
amazing. I have never seen them in person, only in pictures and puzzle art forms this article was
interesting to be because of the images. I found this on space.com By Nin Sen and the title of the
article is Spellbinding Colors of Northern Lights Astound Alaska Photographer. An
astrophotography by the name of Dora Miller captured the aurora image on April 20th the
picture is breathtaking from the display of the purple and green lights. Dora has studied auroras
and she has never seen one as beautiful as this one. An Aurora is caused by the charged particles
from the sun that interacts with the earth’s upper atmosphere causing a glow.
http://www.space.com/25675-spellbinding-northern-lights-colors-alaska-photo.html
Article 14
As we have studies gamma rays are the fastest wave length. A gamma ray burst that was
talked about in the article from space.com by Megan Gannon, is known as the brightest flash in
the universe. This gamma ray burst gives off an afterglow of light waves that move in a
corkscrew shape spiral. That would explain the title Weird Corkscrew-Shaped Light Unleashed
by Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions. The discovery was unveiled Wednesday April 30th.
To explain a gamma ray burst to say a big bundle of waves is an understatement. These intensely
bright flashes of light may only last a second but they give off more energy than our sun will
radiate in its entire lifetime. Gamma ray bursts happen when a massive dying star collapses in a
jet spewing black hole. The light waves of this burst move around in a corkscrew spiral motion.
Researches analyzed the afterglow of a gamma ray burst and found that the light from a gamma
ray burst that occurred 10 billions years ago reached earths sight on October 24,2012. “ we were
gobsmacked by this high level of circular polarization.
http://www.space.com/25707-corkscrew-shaped-light-gamma-ray-bursts.html