Dana+E

Below is a link to my Life Cycle of a Star story:



Here is the link to article 5: [] November 19, 2010 Here is my summary of article 5: **Planet From Another Galaxy Discovered ** For the past fifteen years, astronomers have discovered over 500 stars orbiting our neighborhood, but none foreign to our Milky Way Galaxy have been found, until now. Thanks to a team of European astronomers, we have came across an alien planet with a minimum mass of 1.25 times that of Jupiter orbiting a star of extragalactic origin, even though the star now finds itself within our own galaxy. We have uncovered that this planet was born in the Helmi Stream. Helmi Stream are a group of stars that our galaxy, the Milky Way, in an act of galactic cannibalism about 6 to 9 billion years ago. "For the first time, astronomers have detected a planetary system in a stellar stream of extragalactic origin. Because of the great distances involved, there are no confirmed detections of planets in other galaxies. But this cosmic merger has brought an extragalactic planet within our reach." said Rainer Klement of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA). We have even classified this planet in to a class! It is officially identified as HIP 13044! It falls under this class by looking for the tiny telltale wobbles of the star caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting companion. It is also one of the few exoplanets known to have survived the period when its host star expanded massively after exhausting the hydrogen fuel supply in its core. It only takes it 16.2 days to orbit! The star is 2,000 light years away, any closer-in planets may not have been so lucky. "The star is rotating relatively quickly for a horizontal branch star," said Setiawan. "One explanation is that HIP 13044 swallowed its inner planets during the red giant phase, which would make the star spin more quickly." The star also makes astronomers question how giant planets form, as it appears to contain few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. "It is a puzzle for the widely accepted model of planet formation to explain how such a star, which contains hardly any heavy elements at all, could have formed a planet,” said Setiawan.

Here is the link to article 6:

November 19, 2010 Here is the summary of article 6: **New NASA missions to investigate how Mars turned hostile** Named after the Roman God of war, Mars, the planet that looks like a spot of blood in our universe deserves a name no better. The planets hostile environment is unlivable for any earth organism. The Red Planet’s thin atmosphere does little to shield the ground against radiation from the Sun and space. Harsh chemicals, like hydrogen peroxide, permeate the soil. You would never expect such a harsh planet was actually once, billions of years ago, a much more inviting place. There are traces of dry riverbeds carved into the planet. Spacecraft sent to orbit Mars have found patches of minerals that form only in the presence of liquid water. It appears that in its youth, Mars was a place that could have harbored life with a thicker atmosphere warm enough for rain that formed lakes or even seas! In 2013 we plan on sending a space ship to understanding the red planet’s atmosphere in order complete the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission. This will help determine what caused the martian atmosphere and water to be lost to space, making the climate unlivable for life. It would be AMAZING if we could found out a way to make mars a home planet to live on. If a planet was once able to live on, maybe we can find a way to make it livable again. The traces of waterbeds and even beds as large as the sea are an outstanding discovery. Since Mars was once a lot like Earth, we should find out what made it dry up and be the way it is so our Earth will not have to be in Mars’s condition billions of years from now. Hopefully the mission in 2013 will give a better understanding on this mysterious planet. In that mission I hope we find out why mars is the way it is, and what happened to the atmosphere to make it so thin and not capable of holding water for it to rain. Mars is an amazing planet, and we have only scratched the surface on its history.
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Here is the link: November 21, 2011 [] Here is my summary:

=NASA budget controversy 2012 — the results=

Our generation has been successful with exploring the beauty of the never-ending extragalactic space. We have been able to send Opportunity and Spirit to the hostile blood planet, Mars! We have been able to send a man to the moon! Going to the moon and sending robots to mars has only scratched the surface to the discoveries and explorations NASA has made. But you must ask yourself, was any of this cheap? Nope. For months now, professional scientists and astronomy enthusiasts alike have awaited the result of congressional negotiations over NASA’s 2012 fiscal year budget. In 2010, NASA’s budget was roughly 18.7 billion dollars. For months now, professional scientists and astronomy enthusiasts alike have awaited the result of congressional negotiations over NASA’s 2012 fiscal year budget. The big controversy all has to do with James Webb Space Telescope. JWST is the agency’s replacement for Hubble. Will James survive the cut after some major overspending? Over the summer, congress was a house divided. The senate wanted to keep it, while the House wanted to cut it. It was only until President Obama signed the final budgetary into law that James fate was (temporarily) sealed: it will survive. According to the bill, NASA will get $17.8 billion in 2012, which is $684 million below the agency’s 2011 funding and $924 million less than what the White House had requested. But under certain regulations on how the money shall be spent. With budget cutting every year, how much longer can we keep making extravagant discoveries? Can we put a hold on JWST?

Here is the link: December 6th, 2011 [] Here is my summary: **Fastest rotating star found in neighboring galaxy ** A star that is twenty five times the mass of the sun and 100,000 times brighter has been discovered as the fastest rotating star in our neighboring galaxy. With a whopping rotation of one million miles per hour, there is no doubt any other star could compete with this hot blue giants dazzling rotation speed. If this star spun any faster it’s to the point of that it could be torn apart. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">It lies in a neighboring dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 160,000 light-years from Earth. Astronomers have concluded and theorized that the star may have had a violent past due to its binary star exploding. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">If the two stars were close, gas from the companion could have streamed over, and, in the process, the star would have spun faster and faster. So after ten million years (a short life) of its partner star, the explosion ejected and explained why the star has a different speed from that of its region. Yet astronomers cannot be sure that this is exactly what happened. But it is a theory to be recognized. Astronomers are still currently looking into it.

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<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Here is my summary:

**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 22px;">Europa helps astronomers peer inside Jupiter's missing belt **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">With the help of <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Europa as a guide star, Astronomers have discovered icy clouds obscuring the brown-red South Equatorial Belt. Using the Keck II telescope, we are able to observe <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">the heat from Jupiter's interior shines through the cold, high clouds in this 5-micron thermal infrared image. The thermal IR senses breaks in the cloud cover," said Mike Wong of the University Of California (UC) at Berkeley. To cancel out much of Earth’s atmosphere interference, the four-band infrared image does just that, and that is what makes Keck II unique. Usually astronomers use a bright red laser as a guide star, but the four-band infrared is much more efficient. Also, since Jupiter is so bright it tends to hide the laser. So, on November 30th, 2010 astronomers created the Icy Jovian, which was brighter and was able to be visible near Jupiter.

http://www.astronomy.com/News-Observing/News/2012/01/Mars%20rover%20to%20spend%20winter%20at%20Greeley%20Haven.aspx =Mars rover to spend winter at "Greeley Haven"= Ronald Greenly, an Arizona State University (ASU) Regents’ professor of planetary geology, who died October 27, 2011; was honored by having the coldest part of the martian winter at “Greeley Haven,” named after him. He was very passionate about exploring space and in particular the red planet, Mars. Greeley was involved with many missions to the Red Planet, including Mariners 6, 7, and 9; Viking; Mars Pathfinder; Mars Global Surveyor; and the two Mars Exploration Rovers. He was very interested in wind erosion, dunes, and dust devil activity, all of which can be found in abundance on Mars. “We hope that eventually the International Astronomical Union will name a crater or some other feature on Mars or some other solar system body for Ron,” said Bell from ASU. “But that process typically takes years.” He also adds ''This small commemoration helps preserve the memory of Ron’s contributions to planetary science within the community and beyond.” Now in to the dust rover section or article: Located just south of Mars’ equator, Opportunity has worked through four martian southern hemisphere winters. Opportunity has not needed to stay on a Sun-facing slope during previous winters. Now, however, its solar panels carry a thicker coating of dust than before. The dust makes it necessary for Opportunity to spend the winter at a Sun-facing site where the rover can tilt its power panels northward about 15° for maximum solar exposure. Greeley Haven provides just the right tilt.