Dominic+H.

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



Scrapbook Project:

**Spacecraft reveals new anatomy around a black hole (Summary 1) ** [] - The new spacecrafts which were the XMM- Newton and Integral have found an extremely large black hole while sent into space. They have pictures of the black hole and sent them back to the NASA and showed that there is gas given off from it. The men that are looking at this black hole found it in the middle of a galaxy. This galaxy is named Markarian which is 500 million light years away. The black hole is a lot larger than the sun and is still growing to this day. It gets larger by how much it can feed on whatever it captures. The reason for studying this galaxy is because of its brightness. I think this is a very interesting achievement for the men that found this. The fact that we found a black hole in the center of another galaxy 500 million light years away is amazing. The varying in brightness is why this galaxy is chosen and we were surprised with finding a supermassive black hole in the heart of it. **The Pacman nebula gets some teeth(Summary 2) ** [] -We have found a cloud in space that looks as if it growing teeth and eating through space. That is how it got its name, the Pacman Nebula. Scientists have used infared light which makes the nebula look like it has sharp looking teeth on the lower part of its triangle shaped mouth. The appearance through this form is a lot different through infared light rather than a normal telescope. Scientist think that the teeth being formed in the cloud is actually new stars forming. They were made when stars blew gas and dust away leaving only the material seen which makes them appear as teeth. Scientists have also observed in the cloud there are red dots which they think are young stars forming from dust. **Planets smashed to dust near supermassive black hole(Summary 3) ** [] -Scientists have found dust clouds that are around a black hole and think that the dust could have came from crashes from asteroids and planets. Black holes are usually found in the center of galaxies. Astronomers say that most of the are hard to find because of the fact that they are covered and hidden by dust from collisions. Planets and asteroids have also been known to be located at the center of galaxies which is the reason for collisions like these. Astronomers record collision speed to be around 620 miles per second which will make any asteroid into dust. I think it is interesting to see how black holes are hidden by collisions at these ridiculous speeds. Finding these black holes will help us understand how they affect the galaxy. **Observations of gamma ray burst reveal surprising ingredients of early galaxies(Summary 4) ** [] -A team of astronomers used a probe to study galaxies that are far away. It will help us study what they are made up of. So far, we have discovered two galaxies that have more chemicals than our sun. The galaxies found are thought to be merging. These galaxies are found by observatories large telescopes. Scientists immediately study them as soon they are found. These galaxies are seen as they were 12 billion years ago. Finding these galaxies are an amazing way to see into our past and find out a lot more about our universe and everything in it.

**NASA discovers first Earth sized planets beyond of our solar system(Summary 5) ** [] -On the Kepler mission, we discovered that there are other Earth sized planets orbiting a star, such as the planets in our galaxy, but are outside of our solar system. The planets found are to close to the star it is orbiting to have life or to even sustain life. It wouldn't be able to have water on the surface. This is a huge accomplishment and milestone in the search for planets that are similar to Earth. These planets temperature is extremely hot because of the distance from the star they orbit. The main goal of these missions is to find other planets like Earth that can have life on them. Finding other planets that are like Earth would be a huge step for mankind and could lead us to finding other life forms.

**Astronomers discover two planets that survived their stars expansion(Summary 6) ** [] -Astronomers have found some Earth sized planets that survived getting caught in their host star growing. Steve Kawaler was a very important part of studying these planets. There is a research team that helped Steve used information from the Kepler space telescope. The information found let us know that the light given off from the star was from the planets orbiting it. I think that the discovery of Earth sized planets is very important to science and if we could find any type of Earth sized planets, then maybe we could find out if there is life on them or if they are even habitable. This could lead to many new discoveries and we can learn a lot from what we find.

**Christmas comet Lovejoy captured at Paranal(Summary 7) ** [] -Photos have been taken of a new discovery, the Comet Lovejoy. The astronomer Gabriel was finishing his shift when he found out that there was the comet that rose over the horizon. This comet was found on November 27th 2011, by Terry Lovejoy. The comet has an orbit that is very close to the sun. This comet was supposed to break, but instead, survived and reappeared later surprising everyone. I think this was a surprise to everyone because it was supposed to break up from the encounter with the Sun. This comet also surprised everyone because it reappeared so close to Christmas.

**NASA telescopes help find rare galaxy at dawn of time(Summary 8) ** [] -Astronomers found that one of the most far away galaxies is producing stars at a very high rate. The galaxy is the brightest galaxy found so far. Scientists have found out that this galaxy is 12.9 billion light years away. This was found by using ground based telescopes. The astronomer Masami Ouchi found it by scanning the sky. This discovery was found while he was on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. With the help of Infrared light, we were able to measure the galaxy's star formation. We were surprised to find such a large explosion of a star forming because of the small size of the galaxy. This discovery helps us see into our past all the way back to the dawn of time. The more we study these galaxies and discover new galaxies will help us learn more about our Solar System.

**Look for meteors in the early morning sky(Summary 9) ** [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">-There is an annual meteor shower that is called the Quadrantid meteor shower. This is considered by many to be the best. It will take place when the moon sets. The shower will take place around 2 o'clock. Anyone who wants to see the meteor shower should be watching for as long as possible because you cant 100% predict when they will appear. I have not seen any meteor showers personally, but this seems like it would be a once and a life time experience. Many people observe this shower and I would love to see it first hand.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">NASA’s twin spacecraft on final approach for Moon Orbit(Summary10) ** [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">-NASA has sent twin spacecraft to study the moon. It is supposed to study all parts of it from its crust to core. Astronomers are monitoring this closely to make sure nothing goes wrong and to keep a close eye on the health of the spacecraft. The mission took place on New Years Eve. This is when the Spacecraft went into lunar orbit. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px;">If all goes correctly with the mission, we can learn a lot from our own moon and could possibly discover new things about it. We can discover many new things with the data we gather from this mission.