Cepheid variables

I read a little astronomy and spent most of the night outside stargazing with my binoculars. I was mostly interested in theConstellation Cepheus and the surrounding stars. One star is Delta Cephei a variable star that has a constant change in brightness every five and a third days. This star lends its name to the class of Cepheid variables that were important in determining the size of our galaxy and the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy by Edwin Hubble in 1924 who found cepheids in that galaxy and ended the planetary nebula vs. island universe debate; before Hubble it was believed that these galaxies were where solar systems were being formed in our own Milky Way Galaxy and Hubble showed that the Andromeda Galaxy was two million light years away; I believe Astronomers have refined that to 2.4 million light years. I think I’ll keep an eye on Delta Cephei for the next few night!

I thought to myself a few months ago that maybe Red Dwarfs would be a good place to search for intelligent life. One idea would be that they were transplants from another star system whose sun had started on it way off the HR scale and wanted someplace more stable; and Red Dwarfs are very stable after the first billion years (also life could form there after that time)and that Red Dwarfs lasts trillions of years. Anyways I did a few searches and found that SETI is just now considering them.

M Dwarfs: The Search for Life is On

Coronal mass ejection (CME) activity of low mass M stars

ISS and Shuttle Flyby

I sat outside waiting for the ISS and Shuttle flyby that would take place at 7:44pm and come out of the southwest with a magnitude of -3.1 which would rival Venus! I called Mac and Ron Dehart up to let them know. Kevin called just before they flew over. He wouldn’t see them from Tucson because of rain clouds. There they were in the sky right on time! It looked to me as if the Shuttle had departed the ISS and the separation grew as they came overhead. Wow what a sight! I had them in the telescope for a bit but decided to just use the binoculars. As I described the flyby to Kevin I thought to myself that there are bags of water just like me aboard enclosed in cylinders under pressure in orbit around our planet! The night wasn’t done yet! As I was looking out towards Cygnus in the Milky Way I saw seven satellites within an hour until the Moon popped up to wash away the stars. That was more than I’ve ever seen in one sitting. Some nights I only see one or maybe two, and sometimes not a one. This was a magical night for me!

Moon and Venus

Friday 27 - Stoney invited me over for dinner to finish off them beans and rice, but we couldn’t quite manage to do it and fed the rest that was left to the rabbits. I took a shower while I was there and I’ll be nice and clean for potluck tomorrow. As I was getting into the Gross Polluter to leave for home I saw the Moon and Venus very close to each other in the evening sky. I got out my camera and took several pictures of them. When I got home I called Seimi and had him go outside for a look-see. Very cool!

Cosmological Principle

        I went for my evening walk listening to an astronomy lecture on “Homogeneity” which has to do with the Cosmological Principle, and how the universe is both Isotropic and Homogeneous. Isotropy is the uniformity of the universe in all directions that we look. Homogeneous is the composition of matter spread out in a very large area, is the same everywhere; the larger the area you view the more Homogeneous it becomes, the smaller the area you view the less Homogeneous it is (this is a tough one to understand). Okay, let’s try this: If you spill a pound of salt thinly and evenly on a large floor and you look at it very closely you would see the individual grains, but if you stand at a distance all you will see is a white flat surface. The Cosmological Principle is what scientists use in their mathematical models of the universe and the beginnings of the Big Bang.        There was one part that was of interest to me when they talked about after the Big Bang, how was it that matter was able to “talk” to each other so that matter would be the same everywhere. They said this was due to Cosmic Inflation, but they also said that there are other theories, one being that light could travel faster early on in the Big Bang; I’ll have to read up on this because it kind of goes along on my thinking about Black Holes shrinking, where matter is squeezed to a point that it loses space time and that exotic particles can exceed the speed of light and escape from a singularity. (Of course this is my imagination exceeding the limits of my knowledge)

Molecules in Space

        Went for my evening walk re-listening to the astronomy lecture on “Molecules in Space”. In the very early universe free protons flew around at very high energies and temperatures hitting each other and sometimes bonding to form molecular hydrogen (two protons: H2) which would cool down. Once enough molecular hydrogen was created and cooling down the universe to several thousand degrees, the first stars, hundred times larger than the Sun, could form. These massive stars had a lifespan of a million years or so until they went supernova creating heavier elements and cooling down the universe to a point where stars wouldn’t ever be that massive again. At least that’s how I understood it.

Moon Dog

From Bob's Stuff

Thursday December 11- The Moon was full and really bright and I saw something I’ve never seen before (from Wikipedia): “A moon dog or moondog (scientific name paraselene, plural paraselenae, i.e. "beside the moon") is a relatively rare bright circular spot on a lunar halo caused by the refraction of moonlight by hexagonal-plate-shaped ice crystals in cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Moondogs appear to the left and right of the moon approximately 22° away. They are exactly analogous to sun dogs, but are somewhat rarer because in order to be produced the moon must be bright and therefore full or nearly full. While a moondog may be brightly colored, the lunar halos they form in typically appear colorless to the naked eye because their light is not bright enough to activate the color photoreceptors in humans." Well the one I saw HAD color like a rainbow, and I tried to photograph it but it didn’t come out as bright as I could visually see it, but I got it! Just click on the image that I uploaded to get a better view. Like I mentioned last night in my journal this full Moon would be the brightest of the year.

Lives of Other Stars II

        I went on my evening walk and re-listened to “Live of Other Stars” Podcast. I was especially interested in Mass Loss of stars and one class of star, the Wolf-Rayet, have over 20 solar masses, are very hot, and their stellar winds exceed of 1000 MPH which eject a lot of matter giving it a high rate of Mass Loss. If you remember that large stars, with over five solar masses, Mass Loss plays an important role in determining if the star will become a Neutron star, a Black Hole, or even (some believe) a white dwarf. So there is more to this transition to a Neutron star, a Black Hole, or a white dwarf than I was led to believe. And it isn’t set in stone depending on just how massive a star is.

Lives of Other Stars

        I went for my evening walk re-listening to the lecture on “Lives of Other Stars”. Smaller stars with 0.26 solar masses, our Sun is one solar mass, use convection unlike larger star’s Radiative Transport , and mixes the hydrogen in their atmospheres like a lava lamp which causes these small stars to burn all their hydrogen efficiently into helium and are not hot enough to burn helium (what is called helium flash). Their life span can be over 100 billion years and bypasses the red giant stage and goes right to being a white dwarf with a helium core. Stars one and a half time larger than on solar mass also use convection and smoothly transitions to burn heavier elements. Stars with over five solar masses, depending on Mass Loss, go supernova turning into Neutron Stars or Black Holes. Depending on how large a star determines what elements the star eventually burns, the degenerate gas pressure which holds the core from collapsing, and what element ignites a supernova. Population three stars were the first stars to ever form, with over 250 solar masses, and used proton/proton chain reactions to fuse hydrogen into helium to form the first heavier elements. These stars had a life of a few million years and enriched the early universe with these first heavy elements so that smaller stars could form.

Nebulas

        I went for my evening walk and listened to astronomy lecture on Nebulas. A Nebula is interstellar dust consisting of hydrogen, helium, and other trace elements. Nebulas are formed by dying stars that blow out their atmospheres; from Red Giants or Supernovas. New stars are born in Nebulas. There are two kinds of nebula: reflecting and emission. A Reflecting Nebula reflects light from a nearby bright star, and its color is blue. An Emission Nebula is usually the process of new stars being born within and the light from these stars or protostars excites electrons in atoms of the Nebula to higher energies to emit photons. Emission Nebulas are red in color.

        My friend Kula called to ask about the Leonid Meteor Shower that peaks on the 17th and 18th of this month. I told her that the Moon would probably washout any meteors and the smoke from the fires would be another obstacle. I’m not going to bother with this one but I might go out to take a peak just in case!

Life Cycle of the Sun

        Went on my evening walk and listened to an astronomy lecture about the life cycle of our Sun. To make a long story short it will go through a few phases after it falls off the main sequence five billion years from now; burn most of its hydrogen fuel as its diameter expands to form a Red Giant. Helium replaces hydrogen in the core. Hydrogen still fuses a layer around the core as it condenses and heats up. At 100 million Kelvin helium starts to burn in the core producing carbon and oxygen. While all this is happening the outer layers are being breathed out forming a planetary nebula. When all the helium is turned into carbon, the core collapses down into a White Dwarf with electrons packed tightly together (what is called electron degeneracy). Basically a White Dwarf is a diamond and does not fuse matter but shines under its stored heat.

Orionid meteor Shower

        Last night at 3am before I went to bed I went back outside to view the Orionid meteor shower after an unsuccessful attempt at 10pm when I didn’t see a one. Orion was higher in the Northeast sky and I wasn’t let down! Even though the third quarter Moon was washing out the smaller meteors I saw many quickly shoot across the sky in bright white streaks, too cool!

More on Nucleosynthesis

        I went for my evening walk and listened to the astronomy lecture on “Nucleosynthesis”. They discussed the process of Stellar Nucleosynthesis where heavier elements are made by the proton-proton cycle that creates lighter elements in cool stars, and the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle in stars that are larger than 1.4 solar masses. These larger stars burn and create elements all the way up to iron 57 that needs more energy than the star can produce to burn and there is no pressure holding up the stars core, and the star collapses (depending on its size) into a neutron star or a black hole. This is called Explosive Nucleosynthesis. The collapse takes less than a second and creates a tremendous amount of energy to bombard iron and other elements with neutrons to create heavier elements like gold, uranium, and the like. There is another Explosive process: one that involves an accretion disk that surrounds a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. In each case, it involves a binary system where the dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole sucks matter from a neighboring large star, the disk reaches critical mass, and goes nova repeatedly. In addition, there is one other process where an old star that is rich in neutrons speeding from its core hit other atoms in the stars atmosphere to combine into heavier atoms. I’ll have to combine all that I have written so far on Nucleosynthesis and add to it later when I have time, but right or wrong; this is how I understand the process at this time. We are indeed made of star stuff!

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

        Went for my evening walk listening again to “Nucleosynthesis”. It starts with the “Big Bang Nucleosynthesis” at ten billion degrees where high-speed collisions occur in a soup of Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons. A free Proton catches an Electron and becomes a Hydrogen atom. The Hydrogen atom fuses with another Hydrogen atom to form Deuterium with one Proton and one Neutron, and releases a Positron (antielectron-antimatter that is annihilated when it encounters and Electron, producing two high-energy Photons- Gamma Rays), and a Neutrino (an elementary particle that has little mass and doesn’t carry an electric charge). Then the Deuterium fuses into Helium-3, and two Helium-3 fuses into Helium-4 that is very stable. An increase in energy was released as heavier isotopes and elements were fused. In the first three minutes after the Big Bang most of the Deuterium was converted into Helium and small amounts of Lithium, and nothing heavier because things cooled down and the process stopped. I’ll listen to it again hopefully tomorrow and write about Stellar Nucleosynthesis.

Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars

        I went on my evening walk listening to a new astronomy lecture called “Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars”. Nucleosynthesis is the formation of elements from either the Big Bang (light elements no greater than Lithium); Stellar Nucleosynthesis (heavier elements from Carbon to Calcium); Explosive Nucleosynthesis (elements heavier than Iron) created by Supernova; and Cosmic Ray Spallation that creates lighter elements by bombardment of gas and dust in the interstellar medium. Some of this I already knew but the term for it “Nucleosynthesis” is new to me. There was so much discussed in the lecture, and for me to understand fully the process, I’ll have to listen to it again and add to this post later. I did catch one error though; they said that light takes over a hundred thousand years to reach the surface from the Sun’s core, when in fact it takes around thirty-three thousand years. I think they had gotten their data from an old NASA site that hasn’t corrected it to the new theory yet.

A little stargazing with binoculars

I went outside with my binoculars to do a little stargazing. Fat Cat was glad to have my company and sat on my lap wanting to be scratched. Found the Andromeda galaxy for the first time this year. The Pleiades cluster was rising out of the east. At this angle in the eastern sky, it looked to me like a silhouette of a person, maybe Lincoln. Cool!

Higgs Boson degeneracy?

        I got to thinking about the Higgs Boson and if it is what’s at the center of black holes- that all matter is compressed into these Higgs Bosons. I read that the Higgs Boson is what gives matter mass. A very large star would first implode to the electron degeneracy pressure which holds the core, and then collapse further to neutron degeneracy, and then finally to a singularity where the Higgs Boson degeneracy takes over. This is all speculation on my part and they haven’t even found the Higgs Boson yet.

The Inverse Square Law

        I was so tired from all that work that I just laid down for a little while and relaxed. Then I went for an early evening walk and listened to a questions and answers astrophysics lecture. One question I thought interesting was about the force of magnetism. Why is it that the Earth’s magnetic field can be over whelmed by small refrigerator magnets? The answer was that the magnetic force loses its power because of the inverse square law- it loses it strength inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the source. Therefore, you can take a small magnet and place it next to a compass, which over powers the Earth’s magnetic field. Then draw the small magnet away by several feet- it no longer affects the compass and the Earth’s magnetic field takes back over because it’s so prevailing- 4000 miles beneath our feet and still extends way out into the upper atmosphere and into space to reflect high-energy particles emitted from the Sun solar wind causing auroras and protecting life.

The Search for the Theory of Everything

        Went for my evening walk listening to a lecture about “The Search for the Theory of Everything” that is combining all the forces of physics into one grand theory. Basically, the present “Standard Theory” doesn’t include Gravity or is having a hard time getting it to fit into equations. The String Theory does include Gravity but there isn’t any proof that this theory is plausible yet, but it is the only one that is in the running at present and scientist are at an impasse hoping to fine some kind of verifiable evidence. One such support for String Theory may be the Large Hadron Collider, which just went online this September, if the collider could measure gravity at a microscopic scale and provide evidence of extra dimensions. Also, scientist are looking for the ever elusive Higgs Boson, which they believe exists and causes matter to have mass. At least this is how I understand it right now. There was so much covered that I’ll have to re-listen to it.

The Strong and Weak Nuclear Force

        Went for my evening walk listening to a lecture on “The Strong and Weak Nuclear Force”. The Strong Force is what holds the nuclei of atoms together. When larger nuclei, on the periodic table of over one hundred, form, the strong force begins to break down and isn’t strong enough to hold everything together. The strong force causes gluons to fly back and forth between protons and neutrons to hold them together in the nucleus of an atom. The electron is not affected because of the electrostatic force. The Weak Nuclear force has to do with decay of neutrons and the cause of radioactivity. I’ll just leave it at that for now and I’ll re-listen to it again since there was so much more in the lecture.

        Went for my evening walk listening to the lecture again on the “Strong and Weak Force” so I could get a little more info out of it. The Strong Force also extends (by way of Gluons) down into the realm of Quarks which protons and neutrons (Hadrons) are made of. A proton is made up of two “up” quarks with an electric charge of +2/3 and one “down” quark with an electric charge of -1/3, which add up to a +1 charge for the proton. A neutron is made up of one “up” and two “down” quarks and does not have a charge. A free neutron will over a short period of time decay into a proton, and electron, and an antineutrino. The Strong force at this small of a level acts upon the color (charge properties) of the quark. At least this is how I understood it.