Chris+W

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



__scrapbook project:__
@http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2011/11/Hubble%20directly%20observes%20the%20disk%20around%20a%20black%20hole.aspx

Black hole observations

An international team of astronomers recently studied the rings around a black hole using a new technique. Using the Hubble space telescope combined with the gravitational lensing effect of stars in a distant galaxy, they measured the disk’s size and studied the colors, and temperatures of different parts of the disk. Though you can't see a black hole itself, you can see the Quasars it produces and this is essentially what they were studying, before now the size of Quasars were based on hypothetical experiments rather then direct observations. They studied a group of Quasars, and estimate that they're 60-190 billion miles across. The ability to make these observations and measurements opens a new window for understanding the nature of Quasars and black holes and i think that its just a step in our understanding of blackholes. Hopefully this new study opens new doors for astronomers world wide to find more out about blackholes and better understand them.

[]

Gamma Ray Pulsar

Paulo Freire from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and his collaborators have discovered the first gamma-ray pulsar in a globular cluster using the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. At a distance of around 27,000 light-years its the furthest pulsar ever detected by gamma rays. Also, its extreme gama ray luminosity makes them believe it to be the youngest millisecond pulsar ever discovered. Also they believe that these millisecond pulsars are very common in globular clustars. I believe that findings like this just prove that if we keep trying to find things using our current techniques then we can improve them and make our technology better, making it easier for us to study space.

@http://www.astronomy.com/News-Observing/News/2011/11/Asteroid%20to%20fly%20by%20Earth%20November%208.aspx

Asteroid passing by earth

NASA is currently tracking a large asteroid about to pass by earth and scientist are seeing it as a science target of oppurtunity. The Asteroid is 1300 ft wide, and believed to be about the size of an aircraft carrier. NASA will be tracking it from November 6th to November 10th for atleast 4 hours a day. It will make its closest approach to earth November 8th at approximately 3:28 p.m. PST. NASA understands the asteroids trajectory very well and it will pass no closer then 201,700 miles, which is .85 of the distance from earth to the moon. Its the largest asteroid to pass this close to earth since 1976, and the next one will be in 2028. This is one of those really exciting events for people who actually care about space and finding out more about it, i think its really cool that NASA will have the oppurtunity to study a passing asteroid, its a great oppurtunity for them and for discovering new things about asteroids.

@http://www.astronomy.com/News-Observing/News/2011/07/NASAs%20WISE%20mission%20finds%20first%20Trojan%20asteroid%20sharing%20Earths%20orbit.aspx

Earths first Trojan discovered

NASA has discovered the first "Trojan" asteroid orbiting earth and the sun. A Trojan asteroid is an asteroid that follows in front or behind a planet in the same orbit, so they cannot collide. I found this really interesting because i had never even heard of them before, it makes me wonder if theres a possibility of some small planet orbiting one of earth's sister planets that could sustain life out there. Anyways, scientist believed that earth had some but with them being pretty small in size and being hidden by being in the sun, we have just not found the first one. It was found because this Trojan has an unusual orbit that goes away from the sun then most Trojans go. The WISE telescope scanned the entire sky from January 2010 to Febuary 2011, this project studied more then 155,000 asteroids in the main belt, and nearly 500 NEO asteroids. It also discovered 132 that were previously unknown. Two of which were candidates to be Trojans, only one was though. Our Trojan is 1000 feet in diamater and is about 50 million miles from earth and in the next 10 years will come no closer the 15 million miles from earth.

[]

Water flow on Mars?

Photos taken by the Mars reconnaissance orbiter give signs that theres a possibilty there used to be flowing water on Mars. This find, along with other findings by NASA's Mars exploration program are bringing us closer to finding if Mars can and has sustained lifeforms, and reaffirms it as a future destination for human exploration. Dark, finger like features appear on the slopes of Mars surface, they fade in the winter and then reappear in spring. The best hypothesis for this so far is that it's running water, though it still puzzles some scientist it is clearly different from the features observed on matian planets. Also, it is noticed that they go further down every "warm season" and again ""freeze" or stop in the winter. Its clear that at the tempatures that Mars reaches in the winter that water would freeze so this hypothesis makes sense. Frozen water has been discovered on medium to high altitude regions too. To me, it makes the exploration of Mars sound that much more exciting, if we find more elements like this it could mean great things for us and Mars. I think it'd be so cool to be able to vacation to another planet, even if it was a dusty one likes Mars.

[]

New simulation shows how the universe unfolded?

A new supercomputer simulation software has provided scientist with the most accurate, and detailed large scale structure of the universe to date. It's called the Bolshoi simulation and gives physicist and astronomers a new tool to help them understand the universes many mysteries, such as dark matter, dark energy and galactic formation. If the simulation is correct then it proves that the current standard cosmological model is correct also. It simulates how the earth evolved after the big bang and the distribution of dark matter halos in which galaxies formed into and grew. It should help with many studies coming up in the future. If we can find out more about how the universe came to be from this, then maybe we can understand alot of the phenomena in space. I love hearing about things like this that back up things we thought we knew before and make the understanding of space that much easier.

[]

Faster then the Speed of Light?

A new experiment shows neutrinos have been clocked in going faster then the speed of light. Which if is true could change the way alot of things are looked at in the scientific community (at least i think so) and will probably cause neutrinos to be something scientist study closely until they can prove whether or not there are really neutrinos that move faster then the speed of light. Though there are quite a few astronomers who agree that they do indeed travel faster then the speed of light, and that their infrastructure does make this seemingly possible, there are other scientist who decline these findings, saying they are still only preliminary. They have all agreed that there is room for potential error in making the calculations of the speed in which neutrinos travel though. They're working on finding a way to make their calculations more correct.

[|http://www.universetoday.com/89478/nasa-is-looking-for-a-few-good-astronauts-like-you/#more-89478]

New applicants welcome!

NASA is currently looking for new applicants for long duration space missions and are hoping to get many applicants by 2013. Requirements to be accepted are a bachelors degree in engineering, science or math and also, 3 years of professional experience. usually, applicants have significant qualifications in engineering or science or have extensive experience flying high performance jet aircraft. They're looking for (right now) 8-12 people to join the NASA team, but the final number will be determined when they fully know what requirements they're looking for. Those accepted into the program will be trained in things such as Russian language, spacewalking and robotics and the final selections will be made in 2013. If i was smart enough then i'd be working my butt off to be one of the lucky ones to become a part of NASA, this is an amazing oppurtunity for anyone who meets what they're asking for and makes you a part of one of the coolest organizations around. []

Stratolaunch systems

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft has announced plans for a giant jet that will be used for sending commercial satellites into space and hopefully humans too. It will also serve use to the government sending things into space. Allen says that this is a dream of his, and has given much of his money towards astronomical studies and NASA funding. The two jets will be a part of his new company, Stratolaunch systems and aims to create the first airport like operation for space travel. The plans for this operation are set to have the first test of this new jet design in 2015, and to have the first official mission soon after in 2016. After those, and that its proven that the launch system is safe and reliable, manned flights will begin. To me this sounds like an epic project for science and for people hoping to go to space. This is really exciting because it means that us normal people might be able to go into space one day, and i for one would be one of the first saving my money to go! Its been a dream of mine since i was a little kid, but it is for most people too and it gives us all that chance!

[]

A new idea to scout Titan!

Physicist Jason Barnes has come up with an idea for a nuclear powered drone that could be sent to Saturn to scout out its moon, Titan. The idea for this drone which is called the "AVIATR" drone, is a nuclear powered airplane that would be able to easily navigate through the atmosphere of titan due to conditioning. Its honestly one of the coolest ideas I've ever heard about, apparently this bad boy could go on for almost forever on just 2 light bulbs worth of nuclear energy. According to Barnes, if this plan goes through then the mission would probably only last a year, but from his calculations there is no limit to how long the drone could stay airborne on Titan. They have really thought out this idea, and since the technology is already there thanks to our defense department then this is a very possible thing for NASA to achieve. They've even come up with ideas that would preserve energy and allow us to save energy, while still getting an optimal amount of data from this drone. I think that this is a great opportunity for the scientific community, its really cool that we could learn so much from such a simple (well, simple thought process wise) idea. I think this is something that would be really cool that i'd love to see go through, then we could learn a lot about Titan in a short period of time, and still be able to study it for as long as we want.