Astronomy: Journey End or The Start of Something New

I got to say that my view on astronomy changes quite a lot during these past few weeks. I have gone from someone who has no clue about almost anything in space, to moderately know enough to actually teach it to someone else. Well, not really teach it, but at least explain the concepts of astronomy. About eight weeks ago, I have no clue what a Hubble Space Telescope and now I just cannot get over it. The various missions it goes on and the important findings that it made are truly amazing. I always thought looking at stars is all an astronomer does and their job is quite easy. Boy was I wrong. It is true they do look at planets and stars, but their job is to also notice the changes in the sky and explain the phenomena behind it. This is very important because it helps us explore and understand more about the universe.

The Pillars of the Eagle Nebula. Photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Another important job for an astronomer is to pass on their knowledge of what they know and discover. This will help others in considering a career in astronomer and most importantly for future generations so that we can better ourselves to explore and learn more from the universe; whether it is looking for other life-forms or a new home. Although there is still a lot of time before the sun explodes and take the Earth with it, but overpopulation will be our destruction if we do not find another planet to colonize. I believe astronomers can help achieve this goal. Although I highly doubt that overpopulation will occur in my lifetime, but it would be a good thing to know that there are places out there to settle and astronomers can help achieve this by studying the planets and stars.

Orion Nebula, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope

Astronomy is actually quite interesting, and although I do not know much about it now, but I am eager to know more about it. It helps create a path in my life that I am considering to pursue. The thing is that I also like high energy physics and particle physics too. So I do not really know if I should pursue astronomy or stick with what I am doing. The best thing for me to do now is to do research and see what I like better and from there decide a path for myself.  So whether I choose to be an Astronomer or not, I will continue to set time to explore more about the universe and get myself a telescope, as well as visiting various Astronomy Observatories all around the world.

Starry Night



Starry Night


“Starlight, star bright, please grant me my wish tonight”. This is something I would always say when I was a kid. Sometimes my wish came true, and other times it did not. I always thought stars have magical abilities that grant your wish, or so my mom said, but she only says those things so that I would behave. She told me that a star will always grant your wish if you are a good kid. Well, I fall for it and that is how I ended up where I am right now, otherwise I would be a high school dropout chasing for a dead-end job. Thank you mom for lying to make me a better kid. I love you mom!

Anyways, as I grow older, I found out that stars are not magical; however, they are quite interesting. A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. The closest star to us is our very own sun.  We also see bright stars in the sky all the time, but do you actually know what it is or looks like. And NO, they do not look like the five triangle point-shape extending out, the ones that you often draw. They are actually in spherical shape and the shine is due to the thermonuclear fusion of the hydrogen in its core releasing energy that traverses the star’s interior and then radiates it into space. So that is why we see star shines so bright.



Hydrostaic Equilibrium Equation 



The interior of the star, or rather a stable star, is in a state of hydrostatic equilibrium, in which the forces on any small volume almost exactly counterbalance each other out. The gravitational force is always attractive, implying that an opposing force must exist if a star is to avoid collapsing. Rho is the density and g is the acceleration of gravity at radius r. Also, I am sure that you are aware that some star are brighter than others. Well, this means that the brighter they are, the more likely they live longer. According to stellar energy sources, the rate of energy output of stars, or rather their luminosities, is very large. So the measure of a star lifetime must be related to how long it sustains its power output. Another thing to know about a star is that it has three energy transport mechanisms. The first being radiation, allows the energy produced by nuclear reactions and gravitation to be carried to the surface via photons. The second is convection where transport mechanism in many regions of a star buoyant mass elements carrying excess energy outward while cool elements fall inward. The third is conduction, where transport heat via collisions between particles.

I can ramble on and on about what a star is, but most people say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is an image that shows a cross-section of a solar-type star.



Courtesy of NASA



So the next time you look at the stars, enjoy its beauty because magical or not, they are amazing and that they have been with the universe since the beginning of time. To me that is magical enough. Now that you know what a star looks like, quiz your friends and ask them to draw a star. Most people would draw that typical shape that everyone thinks a star looks like, but the amazing thing about my little cousin is that I ask him to draw a star and he draws a spherical shape with a luminosity glow, and he is only 5 years old. WOW.

The Beauty of Nox Caelum

Have you ever looked at the sky and curse like crazy because a meteor passes by too fast for you to observe? Even though you might try to capture and image or even record it, it never comes out right. Well, someone did and he created it into an amazing video compile with shots that he took. Photographer Randy Halverson spends more than two years into creating such an awesome video for all to enjoy. He called it “Temporal Distortion.”  It is often hard to capture an image sometimes since the night sky is not always clear. The shots took places in White River of central South Dakota, Arches National Park in Utah, Canyon of the Ancients in Colorado, and Madison in Wisconsin. In it includes a tail of meteor and northern lights that most people never even see in their entire life, including me. Also, enjoy the time-lapse video music by composer Bear McCreary. McCreary is known for writing soundtracks to “Battlestar Galactica” and “The Walking Dead.”

I notice that the video might be difficult to see since the screen is so small, so here is a link where you can see with much better quality where you can actually widen the screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1hDUIyRnl4


Now that you see the video, what do you think? Did you notice the bands of red and green light? How about the noctilucent clouds, airglow, or faint Aurora? Did you notice that the Milky Way is also in the video, along with the meteor and moon lit night time-lapse? There are some shots that look like it is shot during the daytime. Wrong. The shot is actually the moon lighting up the landscape, which is pretty awesome since we do not often see this due to living in the city. Now that I think about it, by living in the city, we are the ones that miss out the most from the night sky. Illuminating lights everywhere lights the sky so bright that it is almost impossible for us to see even the stars itself.

If you have time, go far away from the city if you can and just lie on the grass and gaze the beauty of the night sky. You will soon see what you are missing out. It is better if you have the opposite sex with you where anything can happen. Under the beautiful night sky, anything can happen. I am going to be truthful with you, that is how “I happen.” To clarify that, it means it because of a night under the sky that I am here. Yes, it is under the night sky that my parents snuggle and have me. J

Aside from that, enjoy the night sky. Not of what you can or might do with your lover, but the glorious beauty of the night sky. It might be cold, so bring a sweater. If you are interested in learning more about the wonders of the night sky, visit this site below. It have an extended cut from the video above and also have more pictures and explanations of the things that take place during the night sky.

http://dakotalapse.com/2012/02/temporal-distortion-extended-cut/

New Watery Planet

February 21, 2012, a new headline being publish introduces a waterworld that could possibly sustain life very much like earth. The headline titles “New Type of Alien Planet.” At first the headline throws me off because I thought we have discover alien life on a planet, but it is nothing more than a waterworld. Despite that the planet is quite interesting. First of all, scientists called the planet GJ 1214b. They know about the planet two years already, but it is only recently that they can provided proof what the watery planet. The process to prove this is by using the Hubble’s Space Telescope to determine the composition of the planet’s atmosphere and how it filtered the starlight by how the planet cross in front of the red dwarf.

The planet is about 40 light-years away. The planet is showed to be a steamy atmosphere orbiting the red dwarf star. Scientists have concluded that the density of GJ 1241b is about two grams per cubic centimeters; whereas the Earth’s density is about 5.5 grams per cubic centimeters. This means that the planet have much more water than Earth does.

Also, with the launched of the new NASA James Webb Space Telescope set to be launch in 2018, it could help us learn more about the planet.

With such a great planet and stories of pollution on Earth, the GJ 1214b might be a new home for humans. Wrong. Not only that scientist have concluded that the estimated surface temperature of the planet to be about 446 degrees Fahrenheit, which is way too hot for humans, but it is also 40 light-years away. Unless the temperature of the planet decreases dramatically to accommodate human life and someone invented a spaceship or shuttle that can travel at hyper-speed, like in the movie Star Wars, it cannot be a place for humans to colonize. Still, we gain a priceless knowledge of knowing that there other planets that could possibility hold life. We might be able to discover real alien life-forms, assuming that they will not try to conquer or destroy us for our resources like in the 1996 movie “Independence Day” starring Will Smith & Jeff Goldblum.


I think that the James Webb Space Telescope will be a fine addition in helping astronomer knowing more about the universe. To see the possible deployment animation of the James Webb Space Telescope, go to Samantha Rorick's blog. Here is the link to her blog: http://iknowsomeofthesewords.blogspot.com/2012/02/hubbles-successor-james-webb-space.html

Different Kind of Telescope

Most people are very familiar with a telescope and its main function of viewing objects at a very far distance, but do not realize that there are various kinds of telescope. The most common known telescopes are the optical telescopes and they are the one used to view objects at a great distance. Some common telescopes to look at stars and planets from Earth are the refracting telescope, reflecting telescope, and catadioptric telescope.

Diagram of Galilean telescope: y - distant object; y' - real image from objective; y'' - magnified virtual image from eye piece; D - entrance pupil diameter; d - virtual exit pupil diameter; L1 - objective lens; L2 - eyepiece lens, virtual exist pupil

Once of the very first optical telescope is the Galilean telescope with involves using the objective lens and a divergence eyepiece lens to produce an upright image. Although there are many flaws in the designs, but the telescope is still good in observing stars and planets. Despite its blurry and distorted images, the telescope set a path for better telescopes.

Taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope, it is the Helix Nebula. Blue show infrared light of 3.6 to 4.5 micrometers; green shows infrared light of 5.8 to 8 micrometers; and red shows infrared light of 24 micrometers.

The there are the space telescopes. These telescopes are the ones that orbit by a Space Shuttle in low Earth orbit. Some of their main functions include observing in near ultraviolet, visible, and in near infrared. They share much similarity to the optics telescope, but operate in space instead. Some famous telescopes include the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.

World's Largest single-aperture radio telescope

Then there are the radio telescopes which most people do not know or even heard of until today, like me. These telescopes are a form of directional radio antenna which used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes. They are different than the optical telescopes in that they operate in the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum where they can detect and collect data on radio sources. They are often located far away from major centers or even town to avoid electromagnetic interference from radio, TV, etc. They are typically in a form of parabolic dish antennas used singly or in an array. The World’s largest single-aperture radio telescope is at the Arechibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Carrying the MSSTA on May 1991

Next are the X-ray telescopes. These telescopes are designed to observe remote objects in the X-ray spectrum. In order to get above the Earth’s atmosphere, which is opaque to X-rays, these telescopes must be mounted on high altitude rockets or artificial satellites. Here is a picture of the X-Ray telescope on the Swift MIDEX mission in May of 1991. The purpose of the telescope is to measure the fluxes, spectra and light curves of Gamma-ray busters and afterglows over a wide dynamic range covering more than 7 orders of magnitude in flux. It is about 4.67 meters in length with a focal length of 3.5 meters and a diameter of 0.51 meter.

Lastly, here is a diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum with the Earth’s atmosphere transmittance or opacity and the types of telescopes used to image parts of the spectrum.

I also hope that by showing and explaining various types of telescopes, you will become more interested in astronomy and help convinced Congress to bring back the funding for NASA and JPL so I can find a job when I finally graduate next year. J

So Bright

Sir Issac Newton Issac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727), a well known English physicist, mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer. Most people know Newton for his three laws of motion as well as the apple falling down the tree experiment. What most people do not know is that he is also known for his investigation and experiment with the refraction of light as well as proving that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum of colors, and that a lens and a second prism could recompose the multicolored spectrum into white light. He first became interested in lights when he notices the nature of light and went to the point that he would stare right into the sun, risking his eyesight just to enjoy its magnificent glory.

He also showed that the colored of the light does not change its properties by separating out a colored beam and shining it on various objects. Newton noted that regardless of whether it was reflected or scattered or transmitted, it stayed the same color. Thus, he observed that color is the result of objects interacting with already-colored light rather than objects generating the color themselves. This is known as Newton’s theory of color. From this work, he concluded that the lens of any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colors (chromatic aberration).

Newton's 1st handmade telescope replica Above showed Newton first handmade telescope, but this is only the replica of the original. He builds the telescope to prove his theory of light being bent does not change its properties as well as magnifying the objects from a great distance. It is known as the Newtonian telescope. Newton did not know it yet, but his telescope is going to be an invention that changes astronomy and set paths for future generations in understanding the universe. So using mirrors of reflective speculum metal, the light did not go through, but bounce off the surface instead. Newton’s ring causes the reflection of the light that created an interference pattern and it is being used to view the object much better. His invention become so well known that when he is asked to present it to the Royal Society in 1671, they are quite impress with the result that they encouraged him to publish it. He did just that when he publish his notes into his now known novel called Opticks, which introduces the theory of light.

If you are interested in reading Newton’s Optical Papers, here is a link for it.

http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=47

The Birth of Planck's Constant

In the late 1900s, a German physicist named Max Planck (1858-1947) had discovered an empirical formula that fit the blackbody spectra, which is…

E = spectral radiance

C1 & C2 = constants

Lambda = wavelength

T = temperature in Kelvin

To evaluate the constants, Planck considered a cavity of temperature filled with blackbody radiation. (Can be thought as a hot oven filled with standing waves of electromagnetic radiation).  Planck attempts to extend the permitted wavelength forever to increasingly shorter wavelengths, such as 2L, L, 2L/3, etc.

 What is Planck’s dilemma if he attempts to extend the wavelengths?

Each permitted wavelength should and could only receive an amount of energy equation to kT, a direct similarity to ideal gas law. This is considered an “ultraviolet catastrophe” because the infinite number of infinitesimally short wavelengths implied that an unlimited amount of blackbody radiation energy was contained in the oven.

Planck attempts to circumvent this problem by using a clever mathematical trick that involves assuming that a standing electromagnetic wave of wavelength and frequency could not acquire just an arbitrary amount of energy, but instead the wave could have only specific energy values that were integral multiples of minimum wave energy, known as quantum of energy.  So given the assumption of quantized wave energy with a minimum energy proportion to the frequency of the wave, the ultraviolet catastrophe can be avoided.

Planck hopes that the constant "h" will be 0, hoping that an artificial constant should not remain as his result.

Planck stratagem worked, but his formula only worked if the constant “h” is a certain value.

Therefore,  the value became known as Planck’s constant, which is 6.26E-34 J/s.