Some Strange, Weird, Interesting, and Amazing Facts about Astronomy!

Throughout this semester, I have learned some pretty cool stuff.  The fact that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and is still expanding creates a mind boggling effect of how incredibly it truly is.  That is not the only thing, our moon has a gravitational pull against earths rotation creating a tidal effect that creates waves in the oceans.  We have things called the blue moon that happen when there are two full moons in a months time.  Our seasons are only possible because of the tilt of earths axis.  The speed of light is 300,000 km/s, yet it takes light from the sun to reach earth 8 minutes.  Probably the most amazing thing I learned this semester is that our galaxy contains a black hole.  I browsed the internet and found some more amazing facts that humans have learned studying our world as well as space.

1. In space the skin on your feet peels off- this is because you do not walk on your feet in space so the skin softens and flakes off.
2. You become taller in space- this is because there is no gravitational force pushing down on you.
3. Space is not that far away- Space begins at the Karman line which is roughly 100km so if you drove your car straight up, you’d be there in less than an hour.
4. The furthest manmade object is Voyager 1 which contains messages for aliens- It has a golden record that contains the sounds of earth.

Reference

Top 20 Awesome Facts About Space. (2014, December 19). Retrieved December 08, 2016, from http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/top-20-awesome-facts-about-space.html

Galaxies

Look up in the sky at night and you might notice a faint blurry whitish dust line running across the sky.  That line is called the Milky Way galaxy and it is the galaxy in which we live.  Since early times, it was assumed that was the end of the universe based on the fact  that was as far as the naked eye could see.  Galileo invented the telescope reaching far beyond the naked eye, but the Hubble telescope reached new heights.  With one picture, the Hubble picked up thousands of other galaxies.  What became interesting to astronomers was the different shapes of distant galaxies.  There are three classifications which are Elliptical s, Spirals, and Irregulars.  The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and embodied within it is a bulge, disk, and halo.  Spiral galaxies look blue, contain young stars, and have star formation.  Elliptical galaxies look red, contain old stars, and have no star formation.  Irregular galaxies do not have a distinct shape to them.  It is thought that these types of galaxies are actually two different galaxies merging together.  Below is an incredible forecast of our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy (the closest galaxy to us) merging together in about 4 billion years.

Reference

Youtube.com- Milky Way Versus Andromeda As Seen from Earth

Black Holes

Most of us think a black hole is a big hole in space that acts as a vacuum and sucks up everything nearby in which it would disappear forever.  Well this is not exactly true and is rather a misconception.  Black holes are more less just another object in space.  The mass of a black hole makes a dent in space time.  The deeper the dent the more massive the black hole will be.  This also effects the amount of gravitational pull the black hole will have on nearby planets and stars.  If the objects were to be pulled close enough to the black hole, there is an event in which they would not return.  This is referred to as the Event Horizon.  The object would have to travel faster than the speed of light to gain enough escape velocity to escape the big bad black hole.  If it continues past the event horizon it is going to be crushed by gravitational forces.  The gravity crushes all the matter that falls into the black hole at a single point known as singularity.  Some interesting points to end this blog is that 1) there is a black hole in our Milky Way Galaxy that is located near Sagittarius A and 2) scientists theorize a black hole is linked to a wormhole which is a passage way through space time to reach another part of the universe in a much less amount of time.

Reference

Google Images- Black Hole Event Horizon

 

Stars!

As children, we are taught about stars through the famous nursery rhyme, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”  We gaze up at night with many questions running through our heads and bedazzled at how the night sky seems so simple visually but yet so complex mathematically.  In all reality, it’s not as complex as one may think.  Scientist have formulated didn’t ways in which we are able to collect a stars luminosity, temperature, and mass.  One of the more useful ways is visually using The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.  The H-R diagram depicts a stars temperature, color, spectral type, luminosity, and radius.  In doing so scientist have found stars to be classified in three distinct areas.  The lower left region classified as White Dwarfs is where stars are the hottest and smallest in radius.  The upper right corner region classified as Giants and Super-giants is where extremely massive and luminous stars are located.  Lastly is the region of the Main Sequence stars that displays a long S curve and holds stars similar to our sun.  The most interesting fact about using this diagram is that scientist have been able to find the stars life expectancy by determining the luminosity, temperature, and mass.  Below is a great video that demonstrates how stars are created by thermal and gravitational pressures and where they end up in the H-R diagram based on their size, color, and temperature.

Reference

Youtube.com- Stars and Galaxies: The Live Cycle of Stars

The Sun

The sun is one of the most remarkable and important components in our solar system.  Distributing heat from millions of miles away to the earth is only possible by the process that happens within the core of the sun.  Nuclear fusion, or collision of hydrogen nuclei to form helium nucleus that produces light, happens at 10 million kelvin, but the core of the sun is thought to be even hotter at 15 million kelvin.  The sun is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old and will continue to create light for another 5.4 billion years.  The sun is actually getting smaller because of nuclear fusion.  Nuclear Fusion takes 4 hydrogen nuclei to create 1 Helium nucleus and thus is losing mass.  The sun contains many different layers.  The different layers from the center out are 1) the Core, 2) Radiation Zone, 3) Convention Zone, and 4) Photosphere.  The different atmospheres from closest to the sun’s surface out are the Chromosphere, Corona, and Solar Winds.  The sun is so big that 1.3 million earths can fit inside of it.  What I mentioned is only a brief summary of the endless possibilities the sun possesses.

Reference

Google Images- The Sun

Don’t Blink!

Every since we were kids, the most interesting thing about the sky was most likely a shooting star.  It was interesting to us because if you were able to catch one then you could make a wish.  As kids we didn’t understand the material and science behind a shooting star.  A shooting star is a meteoroid (rock in space) that has entered into the atmosphere in which it burst into extreme speed that emits a lighted path.  When it is in the atmosphere and creating a bright trail, it is classified as a meteor.  Some make it to Earths surface and when this happens it is called a meteorite.  Any one is able to go out at night and view a shooting star but something more remarkable is a meteor shower.  A meteor shower is the  disintegration of comets.  Earth is not the only planet to experience these amazing sights.  Some amateur astronomers got a view of a lifetime as an object was seen hitting Jupiter also called the Jupiter collision.  Below is a video that tells more about it.

Reference

Youtube.com- Jupiter Collision with Comet or Meteor Captured by Amateur Astronomers

Thank You Galileo

Recently I was out archery hunting for whitetail deer in Nebraska when I looked up and saw the moon during daytime hours.  It wasn’t long before I reached into my hunting pack and pulled out my binoculars to get a closer look.  I was kinda stunned by the fact that optics as simple as binoculars can get you that much closer of a look at the moon.  It also made me ponder about the Hubble Space Telescope.  The Hubble was sent out into space on April 24th, 1990 and has been one of the most amazing inventions humans have created for research.  It orbits the earth at about 340 miles and captures images for astronomers and scientists to evaluate.  According to NASA’s fact sheet on the Hubble Telescope, it has looks into the past at locations 13.4 billion light years from earth.  I find this to be truly amazing considering the Big Bang which started it all was estimated to be 14 billion years ago.  That means the telescope has almost reached the existence of our universe.

Reference

About the Hubble Space Telescope. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html

The Northern Lights!

One of the most amazing sights in my books is the beautiful art of the northern lights (Aurora Borealis).  These amazing light shows can been seen as far as the equator and in the southern hemisphere, people there get a light show of there own from the southern pole but it is harder to see.  The norther lights are more distinguishable making them more popular than the southern lights.  What exactly causes these light shows?  The sun has storms kind of like the earth but to much more extremes.  When the particles from the suns storms travel to the earth, it hits our atmosphere and reacts or excites the molecules and atoms creating different colors of light.  The wavy motion that it creates is the atoms falling (low energy) and rising (high energy) as the particles excite the atoms.  I can recall when I was younger being able to see the northern lights here in Nebraska.  Below is a clip of some interest facts about the northern and southern lights.

References

Youtube- 25 Interesting Facts About Northern Lights You Should Know Before You See Them.

By Eleanor Imster in Earth | January 8, 2016. (n.d.). What causes the northern lights? | EarthSky.org. Retrieved October 09, 2016, from http://earthsky.org/earth/what-causes-the-aurora-borealis-or-northern-lights

Living on the Moon!

We have all wondered if humans would be able to sustain life on the moon since the first astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins) landed there during the Apollo 13 mission. Advances in technology throughout human life has determined the possibility of living on the moon.  The leading hypothesis of how the moon was created called the Giant Impact suggests that a Mars-size object struck Earth causing it to send the shattered remains of earth into space where it then started to collect and form the moon.  The moon contains hydrogen compounds as well as other ingredients making life possible.  This information caused great excitement to send humans to the moon to start a new life.  The only problem is the extreme cost.  In order to send 4 astronauts to life on the moon for a year comes with a price tag of $36,000,000,000. (Astronomy Magazine)  Below is a great clip to show the price of everything in a mission.

References

Youtube- How Much Would it Cost to Live on the Moon?

Astronomy Magazine- http://www.astronomy.com/news/2016/09/how-much-it-would-cost-to-live-on-the-moon-in-9-minutes

The Moon and Ocean Tides

One may wonder how the ocean has  endless after endless waves.  In other words, why do waves come and go day after day.  It is because of the gravitational attraction the moon has with the earth.  This attraction differs as the earth spins on it axis.  The side of the Earth that is facing the moon has the greatest gravitational pull creating a bulge.  The opposite side of the earth has the weakest gravitational pull because the distance on that side is farther away from the moon.  These bulges are highest at full moon and new moon.  Now that we understand the bulges, we need to consider how the waves are made.  The earth is moving slightly faster than the moon.  With the moon being slightly slower and with the gravitational pull on the bulges, it creates tidal friction ultimately creating waves in the ocean.  Another interesting thing to think about is that the moon is slowing down earth and the moon is moving farther away.  Below is a short clip to maybe clear this up a bit.

Reference

Youtube.com-Does the Moon Really Control the Tides?