Something Unusual, Something New

Posted: October 28, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: American Astronomical Society, astronomers, Astronomical Societies, astronomy, entertainment, European Space Agency (ESA), Goddard Flight Center, scientists, space history, Spitzer Space Telescope, star evolution, supernovae, the Milky Way galaxy, the Universe | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »
 
 
Supernovas are some of the most powerful and visually striking events observed during the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time. Releasing more energy in a single moment than Sol will over its entire lifetime, a supernova is luminous enough to shine brighter in the night sky than entire galaxies during one moment in space and time, before slowly fading from view over several weeks or months. The force of a supernova expels a large percentage of a star’s mass into the darkness of space and time at about 10 percent of the speed of light, and creates a shockwave that sweeps up the expanding shell of gas and dust released during the explosion referred to by astronomers as a supernova remnant. 
 
Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to search the night sky for active galactic nuclei (AGN), super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies, recently reported the discovery of a supernova smothered in the remnants of its own star-dust during their search. This has astronomers scratching their heads in amazement at something they have never viewed during the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time. Scientists think supernovas like this one probably occurred during the early universe, more than they do during present time, and this discovery has astronomers looking for answers to questions they never thought they would be asking.
The recorded temperature of the object they were viewing was about 1,000 Kelvin (about 700 degrees Celsius), which is slightly hotter than the surface of Venus. This means something was dissipating the light energy of the supernova as heat? Astronomers wondered if the dust from the supernova could be choking off the light from the supernova and creating the heat they were viewing? Taking data from studies of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope astronomers worked backward in space and time to see if they could figure out what kind of star could have theoretically created this supernova and if they could recreate a scenario where the dust from a supernova obscures the universe from the light released during the supernova. They calculated that the star in this supernova would have to be a giant star at least 50 times as massive as Sol. Astronomers have viewed these types of stars releasing huge clouds of dust as they near the end of their lives, but they calculated this particular star probably released clouds of star-dust several times during this same period of time. The last cloud of star-dust expelled would therefore be closer to this massive star, than earlier released clouds of star-dust, they reasoned. If the earlier dust cloud was also opaque, it would absorb the light energy released during later energy releases, and this could certainly account for the hot dust cloud they observed through NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.
 
 
 
 

 

This dust cloud obscures the dust from its parent star

Explore the Celestial Zoo of Pulsars

Posted: October 26, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: anomalous x-ray pulsars, astronomers, astronomy, compact central objects, Crab Nebula, entertainment, magnetars, neutron stars, rotating radio transients, soft gamma repeaters, supernovae, the Milky Way galaxy, the Universe | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

 

The Crab Nebula was one of the first pulsars viewed during the human "Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time"

Browsing through a popular and well-read book on astronomy from the 1980s, one might get the idea astronomers have pierced the veil of secrecy surrounding stellar bodies we refer to as neutron stars. Astronomers and star gazers have boarded their time-machine-to-the-stars to journey to exotic parts of space and time to view these strange celestial bodies for decades. Astronomers have been studying the central body of the Crab Nebula for hundreds of years, watching as it emits regular apparent emissions in the direction of Earth about 30 times per second as it rotates, in what astronomers have described as a lighthouse effect.
 
The description of neutron stars in astronomy books from the 1980s isn’t necessarily incorrect, but research in the intervening years has led scientists to believe astronomy books need to be rewritten in parts and filled in a bit more. Astronomers now believe that neutron stars aren’t all born crab-like and that this scenario is only one of a menagerie of weird and unusual celestial objects they refer too as neutron stars. A menagerie of bizarre stellar bodies representing a significant percentage of the total population of neutron stars they have viewed during the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time.”
 
The menagerie of stellar bodies astronomers are bringing into the pulsar zoo are weird characters, with names like magnetars, anomalous x-ray pulsars, rotating radio transients, compact central objects, and soft gamma repeaters, and properties unlike the famous Crab Nebula. All of these characters constitute at least ten percent of the total population of neutron stars observed and they could represent a much higher percentage. I guess it’s time to rewrite the astronomy books!
 
What kind of characters will you find in the pulsar zoo? All of the characters you’ll view in the pulsar zoo have a few common and bizarre properties. They all have masses upwards of half a million Earths crammed into a sphere about 12 miles in diameter. The second most compact objects astronomers have viewed during the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time”, at the center of a neutron star lies a reality we as humans have yet to comprehend, with densities at least ten times the densities scientists have recorded inside the atomic nucleus. The laws of nature in this environment are beyond anything we as humans can truly understand at present, but neutron stars also have other properties.
 
Neutron stars also rotate at a tremendously fast rate and astronomers have brought neutron stars to the pulsar zoo that rotate 700 times per second. A rate of rotation that despite the pull of gravity on the surface of this neutron star, is likely to create a slightly pancake-shaped body, due to the extreme rate of rotation of this neutron star. The question now is just how fast can a neutron star rotate?
 
What are some of the less common properties of the more bizarre members of the pulsar zoo? We’ll take you through the pulsar zoo on another day and show you some of these weird and unusual celestial bodies. Until then, “Live long and prosper”.
 
 

 

Searching the Night Sky for a Supernova

Posted: October 25, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: astronomers, Astronomical Societies, astronomy, Barred galaxies, Edwin Hubble, Elliptical galaxies, entertainment, Hubble Space Telescope, irregular galaxies, John Hopkins University, NASA, National Solar Observatory, NGC 3982, Royal Astronomical Society, space history, spiral galaxies, supernovae, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Milky Way galaxy, the Universe, William Herschel | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »
Astronomers are looking at NGC 3982 and other galaxies for a supernova to study

If you see a supernova, it could be your big moment in life?

The Milky Way use to be thought of as a spiral galaxy, but recently collected data seems to suggest to astronomers that the Milky Way could in fact be a barred galaxy. Either way, the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” has revealed to astronomers a seeming infinity of galaxies beyond the celestial horizon we view from Earth. Spiral galaxies abound in amazing numbers in the universe, elliptical and barred galaxies have been viewed in endless numbers beyond the celestial horizon, and none of these galaxies look exactly the same. Beyond the horizon we view from Earth, the universe astronomers view goes on and on, without an end in sight, but everything we humans have experienced has an ending and beginning. Can the universe truly go on forever, or is it conceivable that somewhere beyond the celestial horizon there exists boundaries beyond which the known universe ends and another reality exists.

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope recently journeyed to spiral galaxy NGC 3982 to look for clues to these questions and others that have fascinated humans since the time of the first star gazers. A face-on spiral galaxy first discovered by William Herschel on April 14, 1789, NGC 3982′s spiraling arms are lined with pink star-forming regions of space and time glowing with hydrogen, newborn blue star clusters, and star dust capable of providing the raw material for future generations of stars. Astronomers believe hidden in the nucleus of NGC 3982 is a generation of older stars, which become more densely packed as the distance to the center of the nucleus of NGC 3982 lessens. NGC 3982 is an amazing 68 million light-years distant in the constellation Ursa Major and is currently speeding away from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at a recession velocity of 1187 km/s. NGC 3982 is also a smaller spiral galaxy and spans about 30,000 light years, which is only about one-third the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Astronomers are looking at spiral galaxy NGC 3982, and other similar galaxies, in the hopes of viewing a celestial event of amazing intensity and power, a supernova. They’re currently using the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope to look for a supernova in spiral and other galaxies, but soon the James Webb Space Telescope will add its star gazing ability to this job. They want to check current theories on how supernova occur and possibly the types of stars that end their lives in these spectacular explosions. Their search will be primarily in the bright blue knots in NGC 3982′s spiral arms, but they’ll certainly expand their search as the human “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” continues to expand.

Star Light, Star Bright

Posted: October 7, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Alex Filipenko, astronomers, Astronomical Societies, astronomy, Avishay Gal-Yam, entertainment, Hagai Perets, NASA, NGC 1032, SN 2005E, spiral galaxies, star evolution, supernovae, the Milky Way galaxy, the Universe | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

 

                                                            Supernova SN 2005E Says Hello to the Universe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supernova SN 2005E shines bright on the edge of spiral galaxy NGC 1032

 

A supernova is one of the most spectacular and massive events astronomers journeying backward to the beginning of space and time view, and can often be billions of times as bright as Sol, or shine brighter than an entire galaxy. Take a journey to a supernova, like SN 2005E, which astronomers became aware of when it lite up the spiral galaxy NGC 1032 in 2005, and your view of life and the universe would change forever.

Supernova SN 2005E is shown in the halo of NGC 1032 (red arrow)

Astronomers had previously only viewed supernovae occurring in two ways during their Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time. In the first example, the massive core of a star collapses inward near the end of its life cycle, creating a shock wave that expels the star’s outer layers into the cold darkness of space and time. In the second, a white dwarf star steals matter from a companion star, until it reaches 1.4 solar masses. At this point, the white dwarf star is unable to support anymore weight, according to natural law, and detonates in a titanic stellar explosion brighter than a galaxy.

A team of astronomers looking at the data obtained by space scientists studying supernova SN 2005E believe this supernova could represent a third, as yet unseen, path nature uses to create a supernova. This analysis of this team of scientists has determined that this supernova occurred in a region of space and time devoid of massive stars. They also determined that this supernova only ejected a small volume of stellar material (0.3 solar masses) and abnormally high levels of calcium and radioactive titanium into the universe.

Team member Alex Filipenko of the University of California, Berkeley, and team leaders Hagai Perets of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge and Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, conclude supernova SN 2005E took place between a low-mass white dwarf star that was stealing helium from a companion star. They also believe the volume of calcium released during supernova SN 2005E was large enough that only a few similar supernovae would be sufficient per century to provide all of the calcium presently viewed in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Supernova SN 2005E Says Hello to the Universe

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