APOD 2.5

What is a black hole?

A black hole is a point and a place where there is so much density in such a little amount of space that the gravitational pull is so great that nothing can escape it, not even light. Okay let me break this down for you. If you were to take the Earth and compress it until it is the size of a peanut, then you would have a black hole.

Why?

Well, that little peanut would be so dense that it would have such an immense gravitational pull that essentially everything would be "sucked" into it. Because of Earth's gravitational pull, we are basically pulled toward the core of Earth which enables to stand on the Earth, which is why basically people in Antarctica are standing upside down. The reason why we are not being sucked into Earth is because the particles and the matter in Earth are more spread out throughout its size and it is not as compressed and, of course, because its gravitational pull is not as strong as a black hole's. A planet's gravitational pull is dependent on the size of the planet or star. The bigger the planet, the bigger the pull. Since the peanut would have all these particles compressed in it, its gravitational pull ratio would be so significant that it would become a black hole.

Well, what makes a black hole?

Theoretically, anything has the ability to become one. Everyone and everything has something called the Schwarzschild radius. This radius is unique to everything in that bigger things have a bigger Schwarzschild radius. So when a Sun 100's of times bigger than our Sun is no longer able to sustain itself then it will collapse. Once it collapses it will, due to the amount of energy it still has, compress down to an infinitely small space and then create a black hole.

With such a great gravitational pull it can make light passing by the black hole orbit it. In the picture above, this black hole is near a star in which it is pull its light toward it. The light above and below the black hole are basically jets that are pushing some of the light out due to its faster-than-the-speed-of-light motion. Unfortunately for that star, it will soon die and meet it never ending doom into the black because once you enter a black hole, there is no getting out of it...

APOD 2.4

The picture above was taken in Australia in January in the year 2007. Here, as you can see, people are just casually relaxing at the beach watching the fireworks on the left (because they were celebrating Australia Day) and to the right, greatly contrasting with the bright sky, is obviously a thunderstorm with an amazing shot of lightening. Although most of the Australians and probably you are focusing on the sky as a whole, right in the middle of the sky, in between the clouds and the fireworks, if you look close enough you can see this one little white streak seeming to head downwards. What the many people on this beach did not even notice was that they were witnessing a comet!

This comet is called Comet McNaught. Last seen in 1935, this is the brightest this comet has ever been seen by the naked eye. Pretty coincidental right? Well there is a chance for you (unfortunately for those of you who live in the USA) to possibly see a comet like this but probably not as bright on Sunday before the Sun is about to rise. Just look by the star Spica and you will be able to see the comet!

APOD 2.3

As many are able to tell, the planet shown above is the planet Jupiter. As many of you who were able to actually witness the partial or solar (depending on where you were that day) eclipse you can tell that this event is happening on Jupiter as well, except with 3 of its moons!

Out of all the planets in our solar system, the gas planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, have the most moons circling them.

Even with over 60 moons gravitating around Jupiter, these eclipses are a rare event for Jupiter. For a recap, a Solar eclipse is when the Sun and the moon(s) come into perfect alignment during the day in which the shadow of the moon(s) are cast onto the a planet.

The moons that are in this solar eclipse are Callisto, Io and Europa. Callisto is the moon to the very left with its shadow shown on the bottom of Jupiter. Io is the moon closet to Jupiter and has its reflection closet to the Jupiter's Big Red Spot. Europa is the moon in the middle of the two same with its shadow.

Just looking at the moons' sizes compared to Jupiter just goes to emphasize how big Jupiter is! These moons are almost as big as Mercury too! Let's just hope Jupiter doesn't get any closer to us than it is!

Observation 2.2

As you can see, the Sun is beginning to rise.

Even in 1 minute you can see the slight color change in the sky.

When: November 3, 2013
Time: 7:23am-7:30am

This morning, I woke up really early and I ran outside to my backyard. Why? Because today there was going to be a total solar eclipse! That is of course if you were in the Atlantic Ocean right off the coast of Uganda. A solar eclipse is when the Sun and the Moon come in perfect alignment during daytime. Even though the total eclipse was on the other side of the world, there was a chance to see a partial eclipse on the eastern coastline of the U.S. all the way to Somalia. Unfortunately, my view of the horizon was obstructed by the tree line so by the time I was able to see the Sun the partial eclipse had passed. If I had gotten the chance to see the Sun right when it started to rise, I would have seen the Sun with a little chunk bitten off of it. This chunk would have been the Moon. Slowly as the Sun would rise higher and higher into the sky, the chunk would soon disappear as the Moon begin to seemingly move away from the Sun. Almost like this:

This is just a picture from the Internet.

I guess better luck next time!

Observation 2.1

When: October 31 2013
Time: 6:15am-6:30am

Observation: This morning, I went outside to see the stars and I noticed that the phase of the Moon was a waning crescent. When I was outside, I was able to make out the whole outline of the Moon, however, on this photo you are only able to see the crescent. What was really nice about the Moon today was that it was a little lower than it usually was this whole week and throughout the car ride to school I was able to see the Moon.

Although I do not have pictures of it, I also saw the constellations Ursa Major (Big Bear or Big Dipper) and Orion.

In a previous observation I took a picture of Orion and I indicated that it was more towards the East, however, as the months passed Orion is now fairly westward and for some reason I was able to stars around it clearer than before. This is probably due to the fact that the Sun has been rising later and later on in the day. Slowly, the constellations will move more and more to the West and some constellations that I was not able to see will soon become visible.

Just keep looking up and follow the stars!

Great World Wide Star Count

 

GREAT WORLD WIDE STAR COUNT:

When: October 30, 2013
When: 10:45pm approx.

In the area that I was located when I participated in the Great World Wide Star Count, I found that the stars visible in my neighborhood were stars up to magnitude 4.

 The time that I went out to look at the stars was around 10:45pm.

It unfortunately seems like my neighborhood area is partially affected by light pollution.

APOD 2.2

Taken on September 12 in Iceland, an aurora is displayed in the dark sky. On the ground, you can see openings on Earth's crust known as fumaroles. Don't worry, this does not mean the Earth is going to cave in on us! These are openings are usually found in places with volcanic activity and are naturally formed to let out gases, heat and steam from the center of the core of the Earth. If we did not have this, the world would have probably blown up by now.

Relating this to astronomy, auroras, like that seen in the sky of this picture, are usually seen in the artic region as well as Antarctica.

Why is this?
Well on of the main reason is because these regions are magnetic poles which attract and react with the electrons and protons emitted from the Sun. What causes the varying colors is due to the different excited states of different atoms. For example, this green aurora is caused by oxygen becoming excited. Being that this picture was taken in Iceland, this place is very close to the North magnetic pole.