Pennsylvania Science Olympiad Southeast Regional Tournament 2013 Astronomy C Division Exam March 4, 2013
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Exploring Pulsars
High-energy astrophysics Explore the PUL SAR menagerie Astronomers are discovering many strange properties of compact stellar objects called pulsars. Here’s how they fit together. by Victoria M. Kaspi f you browse through an astronomy book published 25 years ago, you’d likely assume that astronomers understood extremely dense objects called neutron stars fairly well. The spectacular Crab Nebula’s central body has been a “poster child” for these objects for years. This specific neutron star is a pulsar that I rotates roughly 30 times per second, emitting regular appar- ent pulsations in Earth’s direction through a sort of “light- house” effect as the star rotates. While these textbook descriptions aren’t incorrect, research over roughly the past decade has shown that the picture they portray is fundamentally incomplete. Astrono- mers know that the simple scenario where neutron stars are all born “Crab-like” is not true. Experts in the field could not have imagined the variety of neutron stars they’ve recently observed. We’ve found that bizarre objects repre- sent a significant fraction of the neutron star population. With names like magnetars, anomalous X-ray pulsars, soft gamma repeaters, rotating radio transients, and compact Long the pulsar poster child, central objects, these bodies bear properties radically differ- the Crab Nebula’s central object is a fast-spinning neutron star ent from those of the Crab pulsar. Just how large a fraction that emits jets of radiation at its they represent is still hotly debated, but it’s at least 10 per- magnetic axis. Astronomers cent and maybe even the majority. -
Brochure Pulsar Multifunction Spectroscopy Service Complete Cased Hole Formation Evaluation and Reservoir Saturation Monitoring from A
Pulsar Multifunction spectroscopy service Introducing environment-independent, stand-alone cased hole formation evaluation and saturation monitoring 1 APPLICATIONS FEATURES AND BENEFITS ■ Stand-alone formation evaluation for diagnosis of bypassed ■ Environment-independent reservoir saturation monitoring ■ High-performance pulsed neutron generator (PNG) hydrocarbons, depleted reservoirs, and gas zones in any formation water salinity ● Optimized pulsing scheme with multiple square and short ● Differentiation of gas-filled porosity from very low porosity ● Production fluid profile determination for any well pulses for clean separation in measuring both inelastic and formations by using neutron porosity and fast neutron cross inclination: horizontal, deviated, and vertical capture gamma rays 8 section (FNXS) measurements ● Detection of water entry and flow behind casing ● High neutron output of 3.5 × 10 neutron/s for greater ■ measurement precision Petrophysical evaluation with greater accuracy by accounting ● Gravel-pack quality determination by using for grain density and mineral properties in neutron porosity elemental spectroscopy ■ State-of-the-art detectors ■ Total organic carbon (TOC) quantified as the difference ■ Metals for mining exploration ● Near and far detectors: cerium-doped lanthanum bromide between the measured total carbon and inorganic carbon ■ High-resolution determination of reservoir quality (RQ) (LaBr3:Ce) ■ Oil volume from TOC and completion quality (CQ) for formation evaluation ● Deep detector: yttrium aluminum perovskite -
Sky Notes - April 2012
North Devon Astronomical Society www.northdevonastronomy.co.uk Sky Notes - April 2012 THE MOON New Moon 21s t April First Quarter 29th April Full Moon 6th April Last Quarter 13th April THE PLANETS Mercury A morning object, Mercury is visible before sunrise by the middle of the month. The planet will reach greatest western elongation on the 18th, when it will be around 27 degrees from the Sun. Venus Now moving closer to the Sun once again following greatest elongation last month, but blazing away at magnitude -4.4, Venus still dominates the western evening sky. In the eyepiece, the planet presents a 25 arcsecond disc which is just under half illuminated. Mars Following last month’s opposition, The Red Planet remains fairly close to the bright star Regulus, in the constellation Leo. Though the apparent diameter of the planet will shrink slightly throughout the month, Mars remains worthy of observation and is visible for most of the night. Jupiter Though still visible low in the west after sunset, Jupiter will soon become lost in the evening twilight. Saturn R eaching opposition on the 15th, Saturn is observable all night in the constellation Virgo, close to the first magnitude star Spica, (Alpha Virginis). A magnificent object, Saturn’s rings and it’s largest satellite Titan are readily apparent in small telescopes, while larger instruments will show atmospheric bands and some of the smaller moons. Uranus Ur anus is too close to the Sun to be observable this month. Neptune A morning object, Neptune can be found among the stars of the constellation Aquarius. -
Messier Objects
Messier Objects From the Stocker Astroscience Center at Florida International University Miami Florida The Messier Project Main contributors: • Daniel Puentes • Steven Revesz • Bobby Martinez Charles Messier • Gabriel Salazar • Riya Gandhi • Dr. James Webb – Director, Stocker Astroscience center • All images reduced and combined using MIRA image processing software. (Mirametrics) What are Messier Objects? • Messier objects are a list of astronomical sources compiled by Charles Messier, an 18th and early 19th century astronomer. He created a list of distracting objects to avoid while comet hunting. This list now contains over 110 objects, many of which are the most famous astronomical bodies known. The list contains planetary nebula, star clusters, and other galaxies. - Bobby Martinez The Telescope The telescope used to take these images is an Astronomical Consultants and Equipment (ACE) 24- inch (0.61-meter) Ritchey-Chretien reflecting telescope. It has a focal ratio of F6.2 and is supported on a structure independent of the building that houses it. It is equipped with a Finger Lakes 1kx1k CCD camera cooled to -30o C at the Cassegrain focus. It is equipped with dual filter wheels, the first containing UBVRI scientific filters and the second RGBL color filters. Messier 1 Found 6,500 light years away in the constellation of Taurus, the Crab Nebula (known as M1) is a supernova remnant. The original supernova that formed the crab nebula was observed by Chinese, Japanese and Arab astronomers in 1054 AD as an incredibly bright “Guest star” which was visible for over twenty-two months. The supernova that produced the Crab Nebula is thought to have been an evolved star roughly ten times more massive than the Sun. -
Plotting Variable Stars on the H-R Diagram Activity
Pulsating Variable Stars and the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram The Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) Diagram: The H-R diagram is an important astronomical tool for understanding how stars evolve over time. Stellar evolution can not be studied by observing individual stars as most changes occur over millions and billions of years. Astrophysicists observe numerous stars at various stages in their evolutionary history to determine their changing properties and probable evolutionary tracks across the H-R diagram. The H-R diagram is a scatter graph of stars. When the absolute magnitude (MV) – intrinsic brightness – of stars is plotted against their surface temperature (stellar classification) the stars are not randomly distributed on the graph but are mostly restricted to a few well-defined regions. The stars within the same regions share a common set of characteristics. As the physical characteristics of a star change over its evolutionary history, its position on the H-R diagram The H-R Diagram changes also – so the H-R diagram can also be thought of as a graphical plot of stellar evolution. From the location of a star on the diagram, its luminosity, spectral type, color, temperature, mass, age, chemical composition and evolutionary history are known. Most stars are classified by surface temperature (spectral type) from hottest to coolest as follows: O B A F G K M. These categories are further subdivided into subclasses from hottest (0) to coolest (9). The hottest B stars are B0 and the coolest are B9, followed by spectral type A0. Each major spectral classification is characterized by its own unique spectra. -
Temperature, Mass and Size of Stars
Title Astro100 Lecture 13, March 25 Temperature, Mass and Size of Stars http://www.astro.umass.edu/~myun/teaching/a100/longlecture13.html Also, http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~archung/labs/spring2002/spring2002.html (Lab 1, 2, 3) Goal Goal: To learn how to measure various properties of stars 9 What properties of stars can astronomers learn from stellar spectra? Î Chemical composition, surface temperature 9 How useful are binary stars for astronomers? Î Mass 9 What is Stefan-Boltzmann Law? Î Luminosity, size, temperature 9 What is the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram? Î Distance and Age Temp1 Stellar Spectra Spectrum: light separated and spread out by wavelength using a prism or a grating BUT! Stellar spectra are not continuous… Temp2 Stellar Spectra Photons from inside of higher temperature get absorbed by the cool stellar atmosphere, resulting in “absorption lines” At which wavelengths we see these lines depends on the chemical composition and physical state of the gas Temp3 Stellar Spectra Using the most prominent absorption line (hydrogen), Temp4 Stellar Spectra Measuring the intensities at different wavelength, Intensity Wavelength Wien’s Law: λpeak= 2900/T(K) µm The hotter the blackbody the more energy emitted per unit area at all wavelengths. The peak emission from the blackbody moves to shorter wavelengths as the T increases (Wien's law). Temp5 Stellar Spectra Re-ordering the stellar spectra with the temperature Temp-summary Stellar Spectra From stellar spectra… Surface temperature (Wien’s Law), also chemical composition in the stellar -
Wynyard Planetarium & Observatory a Autumn Observing Notes
Wynyard Planetarium & Observatory A Autumn Observing Notes Wynyard Planetarium & Observatory PUBLIC OBSERVING – Autumn Tour of the Sky with the Naked Eye CASSIOPEIA Look for the ‘W’ 4 shape 3 Polaris URSA MINOR Notice how the constellations swing around Polaris during the night Pherkad Kochab Is Kochab orange compared 2 to Polaris? Pointers Is Dubhe Dubhe yellowish compared to Merak? 1 Merak THE PLOUGH Figure 1: Sketch of the northern sky in autumn. © Rob Peeling, CaDAS, 2007 version 1.2 Wynyard Planetarium & Observatory PUBLIC OBSERVING – Autumn North 1. On leaving the planetarium, turn around and look northwards over the roof of the building. Close to the horizon is a group of stars like the outline of a saucepan with the handle stretching to your left. This is the Plough (also called the Big Dipper) and is part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The two right-hand stars are called the Pointers. Can you tell that the higher of the two, Dubhe is slightly yellowish compared to the lower, Merak? Check with binoculars. Not all stars are white. The colour shows that Dubhe is cooler than Merak in the same way that red-hot is cooler than white- hot. 2. Use the Pointers to guide you upwards to the next bright star. This is Polaris, the Pole (or North) Star. Note that it is not the brightest star in the sky, a common misconception. Below and to the left are two prominent but fainter stars. These are Kochab and Pherkad, the Guardians of the Pole. Look carefully and you will notice that Kochab is slightly orange when compared to Polaris. -
Arxiv:1904.06897V1 [Astro-Ph.SR] 15 Apr 2019
MNRAS 000,1–16 (2019) Preprint 16 April 2019 Compiled using MNRAS LATEX style file v3.0 The Sejong Open cluster Survey (SOS) VI. A small star-forming region in the high Galactic latitude molecular cloud MBM 110 Hwankyung Sung1?, Michael S. Bessell2, Inseok Song3 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sejong University, 209 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05006, Korea 2Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA Last updated 2019 March 25 ABSTRACT We present optical photometric, spectroscopic data for the stars in the high Galactic latitude molecular cloud MBM 110. For the complete membership selection of MBM 110, we also analyze WISE mid-infrared data and Gaia astrometric data. Membership of individual stars is critically evaluated using the data mentioned above. The Gaia parallax of stars in MBM 110 is 2.667 ± 0.095 mas (d = 375 ± 13pc), which confirms that MBM 110 is a small star-forming region in the Orion-Eridanus superbubble. The age of MBM 110 is between 1.9 Myr and 3.1 Myr depending on the adopted pre-main sequence evolution model. The total stellar mass of MBM 110 is between 16 M (members only) and 23 M (including probable members). The star formation efficiency is estimated to be about 1.4%. We discuss the importance of such small star formation regions in the context of the global star formation rate and suggest that a galaxy’s star formation rate calculated from the Hα luminosity may underestimate the actual star formation rate. -
A 2.4-12 Microns Spectrophotometric Study with ISO of Cygnus X-3 in Quiescence
1 Abstract. We present mid-infrared spectrophotometric results obtained with the ISO on the peculiar X-ray bi- nary Cygnus X-3 in quiescence, at orbital phases 0.83 to 1.04. The 2.4 - 12 µm continuum radiation observed with ISOPHOT-S can be explained by thermal free-free emis- sion in an expanding wind with, above 6.5 µm, a possi- ble additional black-body component with temperature T ∼ 250K and radius R ∼ 5000R⊙ at 10 kpc, likely due to thermal emission by circumstellar dust. The observed brightness and continuum spectrum closely match that of the Wolf-Rayet star WR 147, a WN8+B0.5 binary system, when rescaled at the same 10 kpc distance as Cygnus X- 3. A rough mass loss estimate assuming a WN wind gives −4 −1 ∼ 1.2 × 10 M⊙.yr . A line at ∼ 4.3 µm with a more than 4.3 σ detection level, and with a dereddened flux of 126 mJy, is interpreted as the expected He I 3p-3s line at 4.295 µm, a prominent line in the WR 147 spectrum. These results are consistent with a Wolf-Rayet-like com- panion to the compact object in Cyg X-3 of WN8 type, a later type than suggested by earlier works. Key words: binaries: close - stars: individual: Cyg X-3 - stars: Wolf-Rayet - stars: mass loss - infrared: stars arXiv:astro-ph/0207466v1 22 Jul 2002 A&A manuscript no. ASTRONOMY (will be inserted by hand later) AND Your thesaurus codes are: missing; you have not inserted them ASTROPHYSICS A 2.4 - 12 µm spectrophotometric study with ISO of CygnusX-3 in quiescence ⋆ Lydie Koch-Miramond1, P´eter Abrah´am´ 2,3, Ya¨el Fuchs1,4, Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud1, and Arnaud Claret1 1 DAPNIA/Service d’Astrophysique, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France 2 Konkoly Observatory, P.O. -
Single Star – Sylvie D
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS – Single Star – Sylvie D. Vauclair and Gerard P. Vauclair SINGLE STARS Sylvie D. Vauclair Institut de Recherches en Astronomie et Planétologie, Université de Toulouse, Institut Universitaire de France, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France Gérard P. Vauclair Institut de Recherches en Astronomie et Planétologie, Université de Toulouse, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France Keywords: stars, stellar structure, stellar evolution, magnitudes, HR diagrams, asteroseismology, planetary nebulae, White Dwarfs, supernovae Contents 1. Introduction 2. Stellar observational data 2.1. Distances 2.1.1. Direct Methods 2.1.2. Indirect Methods 2.2. Stellar Luminosities 2.2.1. Apparent Magnitude 2.2.2. Absolute Magnitude 2.3. Surface Temperatures 2.3.1. Brightness Temperatures 2.3.2 Color Temperatures, Color Indices 2.3.3 Effective Temperatures 2.4 Stellar Spectroscopy 2.4.1. Spectral Types 2.4.2. Chemical Composition 2.4.3. Stellar Rotation and Magnetic Fields 2.6. Masses and Radii 3. Stellar structure and evolution 3.1. Color-Magnitude Diagrams 3.2. Stellar Structure 3.2.1. CharacteristicUNESCO Stellar Time Scales – EOLSS 3.2.2. The Basic Equations of the Stellar Structure 3.2.3. ApproximateSAMPLE Solutions CHAPTERS 3.3. Stellar Evolution 3.3.1. Stellar Evolutionary Codes 3.3.2. Stellar Evolution before the Main Sequence 3.3.3 The Main Sequence 3.3.4 Post Main Sequence Tracks 3.3.5 HR Diagrams of Stellar Clusters 3.4. Stars and Stellar Environment: Recent Developments 3.4.1 Atomic Diffusion 3.4.2 Rotation and Rotational Braking ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS – Single Star – Sylvie D. -
Kuchner, M. & Seager, S., Extrasolar Carbon Planets, Arxiv:Astro-Ph
Extrasolar Carbon Planets Marc J. Kuchner1 Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 S. Seager Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Rd. NW, Washington DC 20015 [email protected] ABSTRACT We suggest that some extrasolar planets . 60 ML will form substantially from silicon carbide and other carbon compounds. Pulsar planets and low-mass white dwarf planets are especially good candidate members of this new class of planets, but these objects could also conceivably form around stars like the Sun. This planet-formation pathway requires only a factor of two local enhancement of the protoplanetary disk’s C/O ratio above solar, a condition that pileups of carbonaceous grains may create in ordinary protoplanetary disks. Hot, Neptune- mass carbon planets should show a significant paucity of water vapor in their spectra compared to hot planets with solar abundances. Cooler, less massive carbon planets may show hydrocarbon-rich spectra and tar-covered surfaces. The high sublimation temperatures of diamond, SiC, and other carbon compounds could protect these planets from carbon depletion at high temperatures. arXiv:astro-ph/0504214v2 2 May 2005 Subject headings: astrobiology — planets and satellites, individual (Mercury, Jupiter) — planetary systems: formation — pulsars, individual (PSR 1257+12) — white dwarfs 1. INTRODUCTION The recent discoveries of Neptune-mass extrasolar planets by the radial velocity method (Santos et al. 2004; McArthur et al. 2004; Butler et al. 2004) and the rapid development 1Hubble Fellow –2– of new technologies to study the compositions of low-mass extrasolar planets (see, e.g., the review by Kuchner & Spergel 2003) have compelled several authors to consider planets with chemistries unlike those found in the solar system (Stevenson 2004) such as water planets (Kuchner 2003; Leger et al. -
A Review on Substellar Objects Below the Deuterium Burning Mass Limit: Planets, Brown Dwarfs Or What?
geosciences Review A Review on Substellar Objects below the Deuterium Burning Mass Limit: Planets, Brown Dwarfs or What? José A. Caballero Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), ESAC, Camino Bajo del Castillo s/n, E-28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain; [email protected] Received: 23 August 2018; Accepted: 10 September 2018; Published: 28 September 2018 Abstract: “Free-floating, non-deuterium-burning, substellar objects” are isolated bodies of a few Jupiter masses found in very young open clusters and associations, nearby young moving groups, and in the immediate vicinity of the Sun. They are neither brown dwarfs nor planets. In this paper, their nomenclature, history of discovery, sites of detection, formation mechanisms, and future directions of research are reviewed. Most free-floating, non-deuterium-burning, substellar objects share the same formation mechanism as low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, but there are still a few caveats, such as the value of the opacity mass limit, the minimum mass at which an isolated body can form via turbulent fragmentation from a cloud. The least massive free-floating substellar objects found to date have masses of about 0.004 Msol, but current and future surveys should aim at breaking this record. For that, we may need LSST, Euclid and WFIRST. Keywords: planetary systems; stars: brown dwarfs; stars: low mass; galaxy: solar neighborhood; galaxy: open clusters and associations 1. Introduction I can’t answer why (I’m not a gangstar) But I can tell you how (I’m not a flam star) We were born upside-down (I’m a star’s star) Born the wrong way ’round (I’m not a white star) I’m a blackstar, I’m not a gangstar I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar I’m not a pornstar, I’m not a wandering star I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar Blackstar, F (2016), David Bowie The tenth star of George van Biesbroeck’s catalogue of high, common, proper motion companions, vB 10, was from the end of the Second World War to the early 1980s, and had an entry on the least massive star known [1–3].