Zooniverse

This week I did two hours of zooniverse in class. My total count of stars I have classified is 239.

APOD 4.5

The Antennae (2011 April 29)

This is a picture of two galaxies colliding in the constellation Corvus. The two galaxies are called NGC 4038 and NGC 4039. However, because galaxies are made up of mostly empty space filled with dust and molecular gases, their stars are not actually colliding. Only the gas and dust collide which helps to start star formation wear they collide. This collision is about 500 thousand light-years long. And the two streaks that look like antennaes are actually matter flung from the collision because of the gravitational tidal forces. The two areas of orange are actually the centers of the two colliding galaxy. I chose this apod because one of our constellations this week was corvus, the crow. With the links provided, I was able to learn of the myth of the crow and how the crow got it's black coat of feathers. It was interesting to read about the many different theories.

Zooniverse

Last week I did 2 hours of zooniverse on planet hunters in class. So far I have classified 174 stars and I even added one of the stars to my favorites because it had so many transits.

APOD 4.4

Peculiar Galaxies of Arp 273 (2011 April 21)

This picture is of the two galaxies of Arp 273. They are over 300 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy. There are about 5 bright spiky stars that are in the foreground of this picture. These stars are actually inside of the Milky Way Galaxy. So even with the distance between those stars and Arp 273, you can get a sense of how large these galaxies are. Their distorted appearance is due to gravitational tides as the two galaxies experience close encounters. This isn't strange at all though because interacting galaxies are actually very common. One example is with the Andromeda Galaxy and our own Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2 million light-years away and is getting closer to us. By observing Arp 273, astronomers may get a better sense of what could happen as the Andromeda Galaxy approaches us. In a video sequence from "Infinity Express: A 20-Minute Tour of the Universe," one can actually watch the results of these encounters that scientists have developed thanks to research and computer graphics. This was actually released in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2002 and was shown in the Einstein Planetarium. The result is supposed to be a merger into a single galaxy of stars. To be able to see this in the planetarium must have been amazing.

Zooniverse

This is the second week doing zooniverse. I did another two hours in class which makes a total of four. So far I have classified 112 stars. 

APOD 4.3

50 Years Ago: Yuri's Planet (2011 April 12)ass

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human in space. Gagarin was a military pilot and he was chosen for the first group of cosmonauts in 1960. In the Volstok 1 spacecraft, he was carried to an altitude of 200 miles and carried him once around the planet. His orbital flight lasted 108 minutes. About a month later, Alan Shepard would be the first US astronaut in space. His flight made him a hero throughout the world and a legend. In Gagarin's flight, he described that "The sky was very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly." This picture is what he would have most likely saw. This picture was taken from the ISS in 2003. He was killed in 1968 when his MIG jet crashed during a training flight. He had a hero's funeral and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall. 20 years later on April 12, NASA launched the first space shuttle. This was interesting to read because it gave me a sense of how important his flight was. Everyone knew his name and admired him. And this picture does fit the description he gave. I also noticed that there can be a blue haze seen around Earth where the sky is. I actually never noticed that before.

Zooniverse

I chose to do planet hunters on zooniverse which involves looking at a graph of a star's luminosity and seeing where it plunges. If there is a sudden drop that means there was a transit and there is a possible planet. This week I did two hours of analyzing the graphs in class.

APOD 4.2

Verona Rupes: Tallest Known Cliff in the Solar System (4 April 2011)

This is a picture of Verona Rupes. It is the tallest known cliff in the solar system and it is located on Miranda, Uranus' moon. It is supposed to be 20 km deep which is about 10 times the depth of the Earth's Grand Canyon. Miranda was named after Miranda in Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Miranda actually looks similar to our moon. It is gray and it has all these craters and broken terrain. However, it's surface may be mostly water ice. Despite the depth of this canyon, I was surprised to read that someone could actually jump off of this cliff and survive. Because of it's low gravity, it would take 12 minutes for a person to reach the bottom at the speed of 200 km/hr which is about the speed of a race car, but with the proper airbag protection, a person could actually survive. This picture was taken by the passing Voyager 2 robotic spacecraft in 1986. They do not know what created this cliff but they suspect it's related to a large impact or tectonic surface motion. Reading this gives me an idea of how big this cliff is and how much a difference gravity makes to be able to jump off at 200 km/hr and survive.