Exploring Andromeda - Activities (Ages 8-11)
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The Dunhuang Chinese Sky: a Comprehensive Study of the Oldest Known Star Atlas
25/02/09JAHH/v4 1 THE DUNHUANG CHINESE SKY: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF THE OLDEST KNOWN STAR ATLAS JEAN-MARC BONNET-BIDAUD Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique ,Centre de Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France E-mail: [email protected] FRANÇOISE PRADERIE Observatoire de Paris, 61 Avenue de l’Observatoire, F- 75014 Paris, France E-mail: [email protected] and SUSAN WHITFIELD The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, UK E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of the star atlas included in the medieval Chinese manuscript (Or.8210/S.3326), discovered in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang and now held in the British Library. Although partially studied by a few Chinese scholars, it has never been fully displayed and discussed in the Western world. This set of sky maps (12 hour angle maps in quasi-cylindrical projection and a circumpolar map in azimuthal projection), displaying the full sky visible from the Northern hemisphere, is up to now the oldest complete preserved star atlas from any civilisation. It is also the first known pictorial representation of the quasi-totality of the Chinese constellations. This paper describes the history of the physical object – a roll of thin paper drawn with ink. We analyse the stellar content of each map (1339 stars, 257 asterisms) and the texts associated with the maps. We establish the precision with which the maps are drawn (1.5 to 4° for the brightest stars) and examine the type of projections used. -
Unusual Orbits in the Andromeda Galaxy Post-16
Unusual orbits in the Andromeda galaxy Post-16 Topics covered: spectra, Doppler effect, Newton’s law of gravitation, galaxy rotation curves, arc lengths, cosmological units, dark matter Teacher’s Notes In this activity students will use real scientific data to plot the rotation curve of M31 (Andromeda), our neighbouring spiral galaxy. They will use Kepler’s third law to predict the motion of stars around the centre of M31. They will then measure the wavelengths of hydrogen emission spectra taken at a range of radii. The Doppler equation will be used to determine whether these spectra come from the approaching or receding limb of the galaxy and the velocity of rotation at that point. They will plot a velocity vs radius graph and compare it with their predicted result. A flat rotation curve indicates the presence of dark matter within Andromeda. Equipment: calculator, ruler, graph paper (if needed) Questions to ask the class before the activity: What is the Universe composed of? Answer: energy, luminous matter, dark matter, dark energy. What is a spectrum and how so we get spectral lines? Answer: a ‘fingerprint’ of an object made of light. The spectrum of visible light is composed of the colours of the rainbow. Absorption lines arise from electrons absorbing photons of light and jumping an energy level or levels; emission lines occur when electrons fall down to a lower energy level and emit a photon in the process. What can a spectrum tell us? Answer: the composition of an object such as a star, its temperature, its pressure, the abundance of elements in the star, its motion (velocity). -
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. -
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. -
Spatial Distribution of Galactic Globular Clusters: Distance Uncertainties and Dynamical Effects
Juliana Crestani Ribeiro de Souza Spatial Distribution of Galactic Globular Clusters: Distance Uncertainties and Dynamical Effects Porto Alegre 2017 Juliana Crestani Ribeiro de Souza Spatial Distribution of Galactic Globular Clusters: Distance Uncertainties and Dynamical Effects Dissertação elaborada sob orientação do Prof. Dr. Eduardo Luis Damiani Bica, co- orientação do Prof. Dr. Charles José Bon- ato e apresentada ao Instituto de Física da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul em preenchimento do requisito par- cial para obtenção do título de Mestre em Física. Porto Alegre 2017 Acknowledgements To my parents, who supported me and made this possible, in a time and place where being in a university was just a distant dream. To my dearest friends Elisabeth, Robert, Augusto, and Natália - who so many times helped me go from "I give up" to "I’ll try once more". To my cats Kira, Fen, and Demi - who lazily join me in bed at the end of the day, and make everything worthwhile. "But, first of all, it will be necessary to explain what is our idea of a cluster of stars, and by what means we have obtained it. For an instance, I shall take the phenomenon which presents itself in many clusters: It is that of a number of lucid spots, of equal lustre, scattered over a circular space, in such a manner as to appear gradually more compressed towards the middle; and which compression, in the clusters to which I allude, is generally carried so far, as, by imperceptible degrees, to end in a luminous center, of a resolvable blaze of light." William Herschel, 1789 Abstract We provide a sample of 170 Galactic Globular Clusters (GCs) and analyse its spatial distribution properties. -
Astronomy 2008 Index
Astronomy Magazine Article Title Index 10 rising stars of astronomy, 8:60–8:63 1.5 million galaxies revealed, 3:41–3:43 185 million years before the dinosaurs’ demise, did an asteroid nearly end life on Earth?, 4:34–4:39 A Aligned aurorae, 8:27 All about the Veil Nebula, 6:56–6:61 Amateur astronomy’s greatest generation, 8:68–8:71 Amateurs see fireballs from U.S. satellite kill, 7:24 Another Earth, 6:13 Another super-Earth discovered, 9:21 Antares gang, The, 7:18 Antimatter traced, 5:23 Are big-planet systems uncommon?, 10:23 Are super-sized Earths the new frontier?, 11:26–11:31 Are these space rocks from Mercury?, 11:32–11:37 Are we done yet?, 4:14 Are we looking for life in the right places?, 7:28–7:33 Ask the aliens, 3:12 Asteroid sleuths find the dino killer, 1:20 Astro-humiliation, 10:14 Astroimaging over ancient Greece, 12:64–12:69 Astronaut rescue rocket revs up, 11:22 Astronomers spy a giant particle accelerator in the sky, 5:21 Astronomers unearth a star’s death secrets, 10:18 Astronomers witness alien star flip-out, 6:27 Astronomy magazine’s first 35 years, 8:supplement Astronomy’s guide to Go-to telescopes, 10:supplement Auroral storm trigger confirmed, 11:18 B Backstage at Astronomy, 8:76–8:82 Basking in the Sun, 5:16 Biggest planet’s 5 deepest mysteries, The, 1:38–1:43 Binary pulsar test affirms relativity, 10:21 Binocular Telescope snaps first image, 6:21 Black hole sets a record, 2:20 Black holes wind up galaxy arms, 9:19 Brightest starburst galaxy discovered, 12:23 C Calling all space probes, 10:64–10:65 Calling on Cassiopeia, 11:76 Canada to launch new asteroid hunter, 11:19 Canada’s handy robot, 1:24 Cannibal next door, The, 3:38 Capture images of our local star, 4:66–4:67 Cassini confirms Titan lakes, 12:27 Cassini scopes Saturn’s two-toned moon, 1:25 Cassini “tastes” Enceladus’ plumes, 7:26 Cepheus’ fall delights, 10:85 Choose the dome that’s right for you, 5:70–5:71 Clearing the air about seeing vs. -
And Ecclesiastical Cosmology
GSJ: VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3, MARCH 2018 101 GSJ: Volume 6, Issue 3, March 2018, Online: ISSN 2320-9186 www.globalscientificjournal.com DEMOLITION HUBBLE'S LAW, BIG BANG THE BASIS OF "MODERN" AND ECCLESIASTICAL COSMOLOGY Author: Weitter Duckss (Slavko Sedic) Zadar Croatia Pусскй Croatian „If two objects are represented by ball bearings and space-time by the stretching of a rubber sheet, the Doppler effect is caused by the rolling of ball bearings over the rubber sheet in order to achieve a particular motion. A cosmological red shift occurs when ball bearings get stuck on the sheet, which is stretched.“ Wikipedia OK, let's check that on our local group of galaxies (the table from my article „Where did the blue spectral shift inside the universe come from?“) galaxies, local groups Redshift km/s Blueshift km/s Sextans B (4.44 ± 0.23 Mly) 300 ± 0 Sextans A 324 ± 2 NGC 3109 403 ± 1 Tucana Dwarf 130 ± ? Leo I 285 ± 2 NGC 6822 -57 ± 2 Andromeda Galaxy -301 ± 1 Leo II (about 690,000 ly) 79 ± 1 Phoenix Dwarf 60 ± 30 SagDIG -79 ± 1 Aquarius Dwarf -141 ± 2 Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte -122 ± 2 Pisces Dwarf -287 ± 0 Antlia Dwarf 362 ± 0 Leo A 0.000067 (z) Pegasus Dwarf Spheroidal -354 ± 3 IC 10 -348 ± 1 NGC 185 -202 ± 3 Canes Venatici I ~ 31 GSJ© 2018 www.globalscientificjournal.com GSJ: VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3, MARCH 2018 102 Andromeda III -351 ± 9 Andromeda II -188 ± 3 Triangulum Galaxy -179 ± 3 Messier 110 -241 ± 3 NGC 147 (2.53 ± 0.11 Mly) -193 ± 3 Small Magellanic Cloud 0.000527 Large Magellanic Cloud - - M32 -200 ± 6 NGC 205 -241 ± 3 IC 1613 -234 ± 1 Carina Dwarf 230 ± 60 Sextans Dwarf 224 ± 2 Ursa Minor Dwarf (200 ± 30 kly) -247 ± 1 Draco Dwarf -292 ± 21 Cassiopeia Dwarf -307 ± 2 Ursa Major II Dwarf - 116 Leo IV 130 Leo V ( 585 kly) 173 Leo T -60 Bootes II -120 Pegasus Dwarf -183 ± 0 Sculptor Dwarf 110 ± 1 Etc. -
Classical Images – Greek Pegasus
Classical images – Greek Pegasus Red-figure kylix crater Attic Red-figure kylix Triptolemus Painter, c. 460 BC attr Skythes, c. 510 BC Edinburgh, National Museums of Scotland Boston, MFA (source: theoi.com) Faliscan black pottery kylix Athena with Pegasus on shield Black-figure water jar (Perseus on neck, Pegasus with Etrurian, attr. the Sokran Group, c. 350 BC Athenian black-figure amphora necklace of bullae (studs) and wings on feet, Centaur) London, The British Museum (1842.0407) attr. Kleophrades pntr., 5th C BC From Vulci, attr. Micali painter, c. 510-500 BC 1 New York, Metropolitan Museum of ART (07.286.79) London, The British Museum (1836.0224.159) Classical images – Greek Pegasus Pegasus Pegasus Attic, red-figure plate, c. 420 BC Source: Wikimedia (Rome, Palazzo Massimo exh) 2 Classical images – Greek Pegasus Pegasus London, The British Museum Virginia, Museum of Fine Arts exh (The Horse in Art) Pegasus Red-figure oinochoe Apulian, c. 320-10 BC 3 Boston, MFA Classical images – Greek Pegasus Silver coin (Pegasus and Athena) Silver coin (Pegasus and Lion/Bull combat) Corinth, c. 415-387 BC Lycia, c. 500-460 BC London, The British Museum (Ac RPK.p6B.30 Cor) London, The British Museum (Ac 1979.0101.697) Silver coin (Pegasus protome and Warrior (Nergal?)) Silver coin (Arethusa and Pegasus Levantine, 5th-4th C BC Graeco-Iberian, after 241 BC London, The British Museum (Ac 1983, 0533.1) London, The British Museum (Ac. 1987.0649.434) 4 Classical images – Greek (winged horses) Pegasus Helios (Sol-Apollo) in his chariot Eos in her chariot Attic kalyx-krater, c. -
Facilitator Information – Galaxies
Facilitator Information (All you need to know about galaxies to survive the day) What is a galaxy? Galaxies are large collections of stars and gas and dust. They have millions to billions of stars, all held into a cluster by gravitational attraction. Most galaxies are flat, but there are different shapes — some are spirals, some are elliptical, and some are irregular. Our Galaxy The Milky Way is a galaxy, a slowly rotating cluster of more than 200,000,000,000 stars! Our Milky Way Galaxy looks a little like a pinwheel. It is a spiral galaxy, about 100,000 light years across. Spiral galaxies have: a bulge in the center (called the nuclear bulge) that contains the nucleus; a wide, flat disk with distinct spiral arms containing stars; and a surrounding halo of stars. There are several “spiral arms” in our Milky Way: Sagittarius, Cygnus, Perseus, and Orion. Where are we in the Milky Way Galaxy? We are in one of the spiral arms, about 30,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy — or about two-thirds of the way from the center. Can you see the Milky Way? Yes! On a very dark night, away from bright lights, you can see a faint, hazy — or milky — band in the sky. This is the Milky Way. The hazy appearance is because there so many stars that are very distant; your eye cannot distinguish the stars as separate points of light. By using binoculars or a telescope, you can see the individual stars. The Milky Way is like a big, flat disk in space. -
The Andromeda Galaxy's Most Important Merger
The Andromeda Galaxy’s most important merger ~ 2 Gyrs ago as M32’s likely progenitor Richard D’Souza* & Eric F. Bell Although the Andromeda Galaxy’s (M31) proximity offers a singular opportunity to understand how mergers affect galaxies1, uncertainty remains about M31’s most important mergers. Previous studies focused individually on the giant stellar stream2 or the impact of M32 on M31’s disk3,4, thereby suggesting many significant satellite interactions5. Yet, models of M31’s disk heating6 and the similarity between the stellar populations of different tidal substructures in M31’s outskirts7 both suggested a single large merger. M31’s outer low- surface brightness regions (its stellar halo) is built up from the tidal debris of satellites5 and provides decisive guidance about its important mergers8. Here we use cosmological models of galaxy formation9,10 to show that M31’s massive11 and metal-rich12 stellar halo, containing intermediate-age stars7, dramatically narrows the range of allowed interactions, requiring a 10 single dominant merger with a large galaxy (M*~2.5x10 M¤, the third largest member of the Local Group) ~2 Gyr ago. This single event explains many observations that were previously considered separately: its compact and metal-rich satellite M3213 is likely to be the stripped core of the disrupted galaxy, M31’s rotating inner stellar halo14 contains most of the merger debris, and the giant stellar stream15 is likely to have been thrown out during the merger. This interaction may explain M31’s global burst of star formation ~2 Gyr ago16 in which ~1/5 of its stars were formed. -
Stars and Galaxies
Stars and Galaxies STUDENT PAGE Se e i n g i n to t h e Pa S t A galaxy is a gravitationally bound system of stars, gas, and dust. Gal- We can’t travel into the past, but we axies range in diameter from a few thousand to a few hundred thou- can get a glimpse of it. Every sand light-years. Each galaxy contains billions (10 9) or trillions (1012) time we look at the Moon, for of stars. In this activity, you will apply concepts of scale to grasp the example, we see it as it was a distances between stars and galaxies. You will use this understanding little more than a second ago. to elaborate on the question, Do galaxies collide? That’s because sunlight reflected from the Moon’s surface takes a little more EX P LORE than a second to reach Earth. We see On a clear, dark night, you can see hundreds of bright stars. The next table the Sun as it looked about eight minutes shows some of the brightest stars with their diameters and distances from ago, and the other stars as they were a the Sun. Use a calculator to determine the scaled distance to each star few years to a few centuries ago. (how many times you could fit the star between itself and the Sun). Hint: And then there’s M31, the Androm- you first need to convert light-years and solar diameters into meters. One eda galaxy — the most distant object light-year equals 9.46 x 1015 meters, and the Sun’s diameter is 1.4 x 109 that’s readily visible to human eyes. -
Extragalactic Astronomy: the U Nivcre Bey Nd Our Galaxy
U1IJT RESUPE EU 1J3 199 021 775 dacon Eenneth Char TITLE Extragalactic Astronomy: The U nivcre Bey nd Our Galaxy. American Astronomical Society, Princeton, N.J. SFONS AGENCY National Aeronautics and Space Administra ashingtonl D.C.; National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. REPOBT NO NASA-i:T-129 PUB DATE Sep 76 NOTE 44p.; FOF ltEd aocunents, _e SE 021 773-776 AVAII,AULE Superintendent of Documents, U.S. G-vernment Prin ing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402(5 ock Number 033-000-00657-8, $1.30) E.-RS PE10E 1F-$0.03 HC-$2.06 Plus Postige. DESCilIPTORS *Astronomy; Curriculum; *Instructional Materials; Science Education; *Scientific iesearch; Secondary Education; *Secondary School Science; *Space Sciences TIF NASA; National Aeronautics and Space Administration BSTRACT This booklet is part of an American Astronomical Society curriculum project designed to provide teaching materials to teachers or secondary school chemistry, physics, and earth science. The material is presented in three parts: one section provides the fundamental content of extragalactic astronomy, another section discusses modern discoveries in detail, and the last section summarizes the earlier discussions within the structure of the Big Bang Theory of Evolution. Each of the three sections is followed by student exercises and activities, laboratory projects, and questions and answers. The glossary contains unfamiliar terms used in the text and a collection of teacher aids such as literature references and audiovisual materials. (111) ***** *** * ** ** ***************** ********** Document., acquired by IC include many informal unpublished aterials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and tbis affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS).