Observation 2, September 22, 2010

This observation is from Wednesday, September 22, 2010.  I looked up at the sky from my front yard at 8 P.M. The sky was mostly dark but little to no stars were visible as far as I could see because I don't think it was dark enough yet.  There were some clouds but not too many.  The Moon was in the Full phase and it was bright white in color and was relatively high in the sky.  I could see some dark spots on the Moon's surface.  I also saw something underneath the Moon and it might have been just a satellite but I thought it could have been Jupiter or some other planet.  It appeared too bright to be a star.

APOD 1.4

This photo took place in Tromso, Norway.  Shown is an aurora which is a spectacular multicolored view in the sky.  In more scientific terms, auroras are caused by collisions between charged particles from the magnetosphere and air molecules high in Earth's atmosphere.  While they look like moonlit clouds, they only add light to the sky and do not block the stars in the background from being seen.  Auroras are often referred to as northern lights in the northern hemisphere.  When viewing from space, these auroras appear to glow in X-ray ultraviolet light.  Amazingly, some auroras can be predicted.  This is possible because they might occur a few days after a powerful magnetic event has been seen on the Sun.  I hope to be able to see an aurora at some point in my lifetime because they seem incredible!

Observation 1, 9/11/10

This observation is from September 11th, 2010.  I looked up at the sky from my front yard at 9:20 P.M.  The sky was relatively clear as far as I could tell and it was completely dark outside.  I saw that the Moon was in the waxing crescent phase.  I also noticed that it looked very orange and it was very low in the sky.  I couldnt see any planets or any other objects in the sky except for the stars.

APOD 1.3

I learned that these filaments of visible shocked, glowing gas, make up what is known as the Veil Nebula.  It is seen in the Earth's sky toward the constellation of Cygnus.  This nebula is a "large supernova remnant", which means it is an expanding cloud that was created through the death of explosion of a massive star.  This explosion of a massive star in our galaxy occurs about every 50 years.  What I was shocked to learn was that the light from the original supernova explosion likely reached Earth over 5,000 years ago.  The Veil Nebula is also known as the Cygnus Loop and it spans about 3 degrees.  This means it is about 6 times the diameter of the Full Moon which fascinates me.  The Veil is so large that its brighter parts are recognized as separate nebulae.  These include The Witch's Broom, located at the bottom of this photo, and Pickering's Triangle, located towards the bottom of this photo to the right.

APOD 1.2

I learned that a black hole has never been seen directly and it is in the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas.  There is bright light emitted by the swirling gas and it has been studied in detail.  Interestingly, studies have shown that the surrounding gas flickers at a rate of 450 times a second.  Given its mass, the extremely fast rate of flickering can be explained by a black hole that is rotating amazingly fast.  Lastly, I learned that the physical forces that actually cause this flickering have yet to be discovered.

APOD 1.1

I learned that this fog like substance has the familiar shape of a bubble therefore it was given the scientific name of "The Bubble Nebula".  I also learned that while it looks delicate, it is actually 10 light-years in diameter and it is caused by the violent blowing of winds.  I also learned that it contains an O-type star which is so hot that it destroys the planet forming disks in other stars  The surrounding molecular cloud of the Bubble Nebula is made up of dense gas and dust clouds.  Lastly, I learned that the Bubble Nebula lies only 11,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia.