June 2006.Indd
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Where Are the Distant Worlds? Star Maps
W here Are the Distant Worlds? Star Maps Abo ut the Activity Whe re are the distant worlds in the night sky? Use a star map to find constellations and to identify stars with extrasolar planets. (Northern Hemisphere only, naked eye) Topics Covered • How to find Constellations • Where we have found planets around other stars Participants Adults, teens, families with children 8 years and up If a school/youth group, 10 years and older 1 to 4 participants per map Materials Needed Location and Timing • Current month's Star Map for the Use this activity at a star party on a public (included) dark, clear night. Timing depends only • At least one set Planetary on how long you want to observe. Postcards with Key (included) • A small (red) flashlight • (Optional) Print list of Visible Stars with Planets (included) Included in This Packet Page Detailed Activity Description 2 Helpful Hints 4 Background Information 5 Planetary Postcards 7 Key Planetary Postcards 9 Star Maps 20 Visible Stars With Planets 33 © 2008 Astronomical Society of the Pacific www.astrosociety.org Copies for educational purposes are permitted. Additional astronomy activities can be found here: http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov Detailed Activity Description Leader’s Role Participants’ Roles (Anticipated) Introduction: To Ask: Who has heard that scientists have found planets around stars other than our own Sun? How many of these stars might you think have been found? Anyone ever see a star that has planets around it? (our own Sun, some may know of other stars) We can’t see the planets around other stars, but we can see the star. -
Download the Search for New Planets
“VITAL ARTICLES ON SCIENCE/CREATION” September 1999 Impact #315 THE SEARCH FOR NEW PLANETS by Don DeYoung, Ph.D.* The nine solar system planets, from Mercury to Pluto, have been much-studied targets of the space age. In general, a planet is any massive object which orbits a star, in our case, the Sun. Some have questioned the status of Pluto, mainly because of its small size, but it remains a full-fledged planet. There is little evidence for additional solar planets beyond Pluto. Instead, attention has turned to extrasolar planets which may circle other stars. Intense competition has arisen among astronomers to detect such objects. Success insures media attention, journal publication, and continued research funding. The Interest in Planets Just one word explains the intense interest in new planets—life. Many scientists are convinced that we are not alone in space. Since life evolved on Earth, it must likewise have happened elsewhere, either on planets or their moons. The naïve assumption is that life will arise if we “just add water”: Earth-like planet + water → spontaneous life This equation is falsified by over a century of biological research showing the deep complexity of life. Scarcely is there a fact more certain than that matter does not spring into life on its own. Drake Equation Astronomer Frank Drake pioneered the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence project, or SETI, in the 1960s. He also attempted to calculate the total number of planets with life. The Drake Equation in simplified form is: Total livable Probability of Planets with planets x evolution = evolved life *Don DeYoung, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at ICR. -
Naming the Extrasolar Planets
Naming the extrasolar planets W. Lyra Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, K¨onigstuhl 17, 69177, Heidelberg, Germany [email protected] Abstract and OGLE-TR-182 b, which does not help educators convey the message that these planets are quite similar to Jupiter. Extrasolar planets are not named and are referred to only In stark contrast, the sentence“planet Apollo is a gas giant by their assigned scientific designation. The reason given like Jupiter” is heavily - yet invisibly - coated with Coper- by the IAU to not name the planets is that it is consid- nicanism. ered impractical as planets are expected to be common. I One reason given by the IAU for not considering naming advance some reasons as to why this logic is flawed, and sug- the extrasolar planets is that it is a task deemed impractical. gest names for the 403 extrasolar planet candidates known One source is quoted as having said “if planets are found to as of Oct 2009. The names follow a scheme of association occur very frequently in the Universe, a system of individual with the constellation that the host star pertains to, and names for planets might well rapidly be found equally im- therefore are mostly drawn from Roman-Greek mythology. practicable as it is for stars, as planet discoveries progress.” Other mythologies may also be used given that a suitable 1. This leads to a second argument. It is indeed impractical association is established. to name all stars. But some stars are named nonetheless. In fact, all other classes of astronomical bodies are named. -
400 Years of Women in Science Review by Andrew W
National Capital Astronomers, Inc. Phone: 301/565-3709 Volume 56, Number I September, 1997 ISSN 0898-7548 A biography Alan P. Boss is a staff member at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Abstract highly eccentric orbits are a clue to their (DTM) in northwest Washington, D.C. Searches for extrasolar planets and origin as stars rather than as planets. Boss received his Ph.D. in physics from brown dwarfs have a long and dismal Giant planets must form in the relatively the University of California, Santa Bar- history. HowevAr r"-of discoveries cool, outer regions of protoplanetary bara, in 1979. He spent two years as a have . the advent of an era of disks, which is why the discovery of postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Ames ~ ..----tfi'SCovery of extrasolar planetary sys- several giant planets with circular orbits Reseach Center in California before tems. The newly discovered objects ap- very close to their central stars was a joining the staff ofDTM in 1981. Boss's pear to be a mixture of gas giant planets, shock to theorists. These discoveries research focuses on using three dimen- similar to Jupiter, and brown dwarf have forced theorists to accept the fact sional hydrodynamics codes to model stars, elusive objects that have long been that some planets must migrate inwards the formation of stars and planetary sys- hypothesized to exist but never seen from their place of birth toward their tems. He has been helping NASA plan before. Brown dwarf stars are interme- central star. This inward migration ap- its search for extrasolar planets ever diate in mass between giant planets and pears to have been negligible for our since 1988, and continues to be acti ve in the lowest mass stars that can burn hy- solar system, however. -
Today in Astronomy 106: Exoplanets
Today in Astronomy 106: exoplanets The successful search for extrasolar planets Prospects for determining the fraction of stars with planets, and the number of habitable planets per planetary system (fp and ne). T. Pyle, SSC/JPL/Caltech/NASA. 26 May 2011 Astronomy 106, Summer 2011 1 Observing exoplanets Stars are vastly brighter and more massive than planets, and most stars are far enough away that the planets are lost in the glare. So astronomers have had to be more clever and employ the motion of the orbiting planet. The methods they use (exoplanets detected thereby): Astrometry (0): tiny wobble in star’s motion across the sky. Radial velocity (399): tiny wobble in star’s motion along the line of sight by Doppler shift. Timing (9): tiny delay or advance in arrival of pulses from regularly-pulsating stars. Gravitational microlensing (10): brightening of very distant star as it passes behind a planet. 26 May 2011 Astronomy 106, Summer 2011 2 Observing exoplanets (continued) Transits (69): periodic eclipsing of star by planet, or vice versa. Very small effect, about like that of a bug flying in front of the headlight of a car 10 miles away. Imaging (11 but 6 are most likely to be faint stars): taking a picture of the planet, usually by blotting out the star. Of these by far the most useful so far has been the combination of radial-velocity and transit detection. Astrometry and gravitational microlensing of sufficient precision to detect lots of planets would need dedicated, specialized observatories in space. Imaging lots of planets will require 30-meter-diameter telescopes for visible and infrared wavelengths. -
Urania Nr 5/2001
Eta Carinae To zdjęcie mgławicy otaczającej gwiazdę // Carinae uzyskano za po mocą telskopu kosmicznego Hubble a (K. Davidson i J. Mors). Porównując je z innymi zdjęciami, a w szczególności z obrazem wyko nanym 17 miesięcy wcześniej, Auto rzy stwierdzili rozprężanie się mgła wicy z szybkością ok. 2,5 min km/h, co prowadzi do wniosku, że rozpo częła ona swe istnienie około 150 lat temu. To bardzo ciekawy i intrygujący wynik. Otóż największy znany roz błysk )j Carinae miał miejsce w roku 1840. Wtedy gwiazda ta stała się naj jaśniejszą gwiazdą południowego nie ba i jasność jej przez krótki czas znacznie przewyższała blask gwiaz dy Canopus. Jednak pyłowy dysk ob serwowany wokół)/ Carinae wydaje się być znacznie młodszy - jego wiek (ekspansji) jest oceniany na 100 lat, co może znaczyć, że powstał w cza sie innego, mniejszego wybuchu ob serwowanego w roku 1890. Więcej na temat tego intrygują cego obiektu przeczytać można we wnątrz numeru, w artykule poświę conym tej gwieździe. NGC 6537 Obserwacje przeprowadzone teleskopem Hubble’a pokazały istnienie wielkich falowych struktur w mgławicy Czerwonego Pająka (NGC 6537) w gwiazdozbiorze Strzelca.Ta gorąca i „wietrzna” mgławica powstała wokół jednej z najgorętszych gwiazd Wszech świata, której wiatr gwiazdowy wiejący z prędkością 2000-4500 kilometrów na sekundę wytwarza fale o wysokości 100 miliardów kilometrów. Sama mgławica rozszerza się z szybkością 300 km/s. Jest też ona wyjątkowo gorąca — ok. 10000 K. Sama gwiazda, która utworzyła mgławicę, jest obecnie białym karłem i musi mieć temperaturę nie niższą niż pół miliona stopni — jest tak gorąca, że nie widać jej w obszarach uzyskanych teleskopem Hubble’a, a świeci głównie w promieniowaniu X. -
IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names 2019 Annual Report
IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names 2019 Annual Report Eric Mamajek (chair, USA) WG Members: Juan Antonio Belmote Avilés (Spain), Sze-leung Cheung (Thailand), Beatriz García (Argentina), Steven Gullberg (USA), Duane Hamacher (Australia), Susanne M. Hoffmann (Germany), Alejandro López (Argentina), Javier Mejuto (Honduras), Thierry Montmerle (France), Jay Pasachoff (USA), Ian Ridpath (UK), Clive Ruggles (UK), B.S. Shylaja (India), Robert van Gent (Netherlands), Hitoshi Yamaoka (Japan) WG Associates: Danielle Adams (USA), Yunli Shi (China), Doris Vickers (Austria) WGSN Website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/ WGSN Email: [email protected] The Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) consists of an international group of astronomers with expertise in stellar astronomy, astronomical history, and cultural astronomy who research and catalog proper names for stars for use by the international astronomical community, and also to aid the recognition and preservation of intangible astronomical heritage. The Terms of Reference and membership for WG Star Names (WGSN) are provided at the IAU website: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/280/. WGSN was re-proposed to Division C and was approved in April 2019 as a functional WG whose scope extends beyond the normal 3-year cycle of IAU working groups. The WGSN was specifically called out on p. 22 of IAU Strategic Plan 2020-2030: “The IAU serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and their surface features. To do so, the IAU has a number of Working Groups on various topics, most notably on the nomenclature of small bodies in the Solar System and planetary systems under Division F and on Star Names under Division C.” WGSN continues its long term activity of researching cultural astronomy literature for star names, and researching etymologies with the goal of adding this information to the WGSN’s online materials. -
AMD-Stability and the Classification of Planetary Systems
A&A 605, A72 (2017) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201630022 Astronomy c ESO 2017 Astrophysics& AMD-stability and the classification of planetary systems? J. Laskar and A. C. Petit ASD/IMCCE, CNRS-UMR 8028, Observatoire de Paris, PSL, UPMC, 77 Avenue Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] Received 7 November 2016 / Accepted 23 January 2017 ABSTRACT We present here in full detail the evolution of the angular momentum deficit (AMD) during collisions as it was described in Laskar (2000, Phys. Rev. Lett., 84, 3240). Since then, the AMD has been revealed to be a key parameter for the understanding of the outcome of planetary formation models. We define here the AMD-stability criterion that can be easily verified on a newly discovered planetary system. We show how AMD-stability can be used to establish a classification of the multiplanet systems in order to exhibit the planetary systems that are long-term stable because they are AMD-stable, and those that are AMD-unstable which then require some additional dynamical studies to conclude on their stability. The AMD-stability classification is applied to the 131 multiplanet systems from The Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia database for which the orbital elements are sufficiently well known. Key words. chaos – celestial mechanics – planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability – planets and satellites: formation – planets and satellites: general 1. Introduction motion resonances (MMR, Wisdom 1980; Deck et al. 2013; Ramos et al. 2015) could justify the Hill-type criteria, but the The increasing number of planetary systems has made it nec- results on the overlap of the MMR island are valid only for close essary to search for a possible classification of these planetary orbits and for short-term stability. -
Astro-Ph/0611658V3 26 Nov 2006 Ahntn C20015-1305 DC Washington, Ytegnru Nnilspoto H .M Ekfoundation
Four New Exoplanets, and Hints of Additional Substellar Companions to Exoplanet Host Stars1 J. T. Wright2, G. W. Marcy2, D. A Fischer3, R. P. Butler4, S. S. Vogt5, C. G. Tinney6, H. R. A. Jones7, B. D. Carter8, J. A. Johnson2, C. McCarthy3, K. Apps9 ABSTRACT We present four new exoplanets: HIP 14810 b & c, HD 154345 b, and HD 187123 c. The two planets orbiting HIP 14810, from the N2K project, have masses of 3.9 and 0.76 MJup. We have searched the radial velocity time series of 90 known exoplanet systems and found new residual trends due to additional, long period companions. Two stars known to host one exoplanet have sufficient curvature in the residuals to a one planet fit to constrain the minimum mass of the outer companion to be substellar: HD 68988 c with 8 MJup < m sin i< 20 MJup and HD 187123 c with 3MJup < m sin i< 7 MJup, both with P > 8 y. We have also searched the velocity residuals of known exoplanet systems for prospective low-amplitude exoplanets and present some candidates. We discuss techniques for constraining the mass and period of exoplanets in such cases, and for quantifying the significance of weak RV signals. We also present two substellar companions with incomplete orbits and periods longer than 8 y: HD 24040 b and HD 154345 b with m sin i< 20MJup and m sin i< 10 MJup, respectively. Subject headings: planetary systems — techniques: radial velocities 1Based on observations obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the Uni- arXiv:astro-ph/0611658v3 26 Nov 2006 versity of California and the California Institute of Technology. -
Superflares and Giant Planets
Superflares and Giant Planets From time to time, a few sunlike stars produce gargantuan outbursts. Large planets in tight orbits might account for these eruptions Eric P. Rubenstein nvision a pale blue planet, not un- bushes to burst into flames. Nor will the lar flares, which typically last a fraction Elike the Earth, orbiting a yellow star surface of the planet feel the blast of ul- of an hour and release their energy in a in some distant corner of the Galaxy. traviolet light and x rays, which will be combination of charged particles, ul- This exercise need not challenge the absorbed high in the atmosphere. But traviolet light and x rays. Thankfully, imagination. After all, astronomers the more energetic component of these this radiation does not reach danger- have now uncovered some 50 “extra- x rays and the charged particles that fol- ous levels at the surface of the Earth: solar” planets (albeit giant ones). Now low them are going to create havoc The terrestrial magnetic field easily de- suppose for a moment something less when they strike air molecules and trig- flects the charged particles, the upper likely: that this planet teems with life ger the production of nitrogen oxides, atmosphere screens out the x rays, and and is, perhaps, populated by intelli- which rapidly destroy ozone. the stratospheric ozone layer absorbs gent beings, ones who enjoy looking So in the space of a few days the pro- most of the ultraviolet light. So solar up at the sky from time to time. tective blanket of ozone around this flares, even the largest ones, normally During the day, these creatures planet will largely disintegrate, allow- pass uneventfully. -
Downloads/ Astero2007.Pdf) and by Aerts Et Al (2010)
This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights and duplication or sale of all or part is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for research, private study, criticism/review or educational purposes. Electronic or print copies are for your own personal, non- commercial use and shall not be passed to any other individual. No quotation may be published without proper acknowledgement. For any other use, or to quote extensively from the work, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder/s. i Fundamental Properties of Solar-Type Eclipsing Binary Stars, and Kinematic Biases of Exoplanet Host Stars Richard J. Hutcheon Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Research Institute: School of Environmental and Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics. University of Keele June 2015 ii iii Abstract This thesis is in three parts: 1) a kinematical study of exoplanet host stars, 2) a study of the detached eclipsing binary V1094 Tau and 3) and observations of other eclipsing binaries. Part I investigates kinematical biases between two methods of detecting exoplanets; the ground based transit and radial velocity methods. Distances of the host stars from each method lie in almost non-overlapping groups. Samples of host stars from each group are selected. They are compared by means of matching comparison samples of stars not known to have exoplanets. The detection methods are found to introduce a negligible bias into the metallicities of the host stars but the ground based transit method introduces a median age bias of about -2 Gyr. -
(March 2019) UT (Universal Time) Or GMT Is Used This Month
The Night Sky (March 2019) UT (Universal Time) or GMT is used this month. 22:00 hours early in the month 21:00 hours in the middle of the month 20:00 hours at the end of the month March The General Weather Pattern March can be quite still and dry but it is renowned for its strong winds and occasional fog. Even though daytime temperatures are usually better than the previous months, it can still be freezing at night. Don’t underestimate how cold it can be at this time of the year, and dress for it. Wrap up warm and wear multiple layers of clothes, with a warm hat, socks and shoes. As always, an energy snack and a flask containing a warm drink wouldn’t go amiss. Should you be interested in obtaining a detailed weather forecast for observing in the Usk area, log on to https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/seeing/usk_united-kingdom_2635052 Other locations are available. Astronomical symbols are shown before an object’s name. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) abbreviations for an astronomical body are displayed in parenthesis after its name. Earth (E) Throughout this month, the ecliptic is at a steep angle of about 63º at sunset, the maximum angle occurs at the Spring Equinox on the 20th. In this configuration, the angle of separation of a planet from the Sun translates into higher altitude at sunset, and inferior planets at greatest elongation are best observed when they occur at this time of year. The opposite is true of the dawn.