APOD 4.8

The Last Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour
May 18, 2011

I chose this picture because I've always wanted to go to a space shuttle launch and I only have one more chance to do so. The rocket is so powerful that it shakes the earth. Space Shuttle Endeavour is going to be retired after it's touchdown to Earth. Endeavour was named after a ship in the 1600's that sailed to the southern hemisphere in order to view Venus. After being postponed many times, the shuttle took off successfully, with Mr.P watching.The crew consists of 6 members. The commander of which is the husband of Congresswoman Kelly. The crew ventured off for a 14 day trip to the International Space Station in order to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The spectrometer will hopefully be used to better learn the origin of the universe through the research of particle physics. The spectrometer will hopefully increase our understanding of dark matter, antimatter, and strangelets. Dark matter is a tricky thing to define, but a general idea of it is that it is matter that was created when the universe was just seconds old. The matter has no protons or electrons. Antimatter, on the other hand, is basically made of protons and electrons, just the opposite charges. A positron is a positive electron. Strangelets are really complicated, but some scientists think that elemental isotopes might form in heavier nuggets, thus creating strangelets. There is only one more shuttle launch left scheduled for July 8. I really hope that I can go, but if not, then I'll just have to make something to send up there. :)

Vera Rubin Biography

Vera Rubin Biography

              Born in Philadelphia during July 23, 1928, Vera Rubin was an astronomer from the start. At age 10 she started to look up at the stars and wonder about them, while at age 14 she built her own telescope. Throughout high school Rubin was met with much opposition when she stated that she wanted to pursue a job related with astronomy. She attended Vassar College and earned her Bachelors in Astronomy. She then went to Cornell University in order to get her masters degree. While at Cornell, Vera met her to-be husband. Later in life she had four children. All of which are Ph.Ds in some science field or another. I thought it would be interesting to note that while Vera finished college through night classes, her husband had to drive her here and there because Vera never learned how to drive. But anyways, during her last years in college, Vera wrote a thesis paper about the expansion of the universe. This thesis paper was nothing but controversial. At the time the accepted theory about the universe was The Big Bang, in which the universe was at an extremely dense and hot state before it stared to expand. Rubin's paper added to this theory; the universe is not only expanding, but also rotating around a central point. Although not necessarily for the best, this paper made Rubin a well known astronomer.
               Rubin also decided to share her love of the stars to others. She became a teacher of physics and math at Montgomery Junior College. After that she went to Georgetown University to become a research associate astronomer. Soon after that, she moved and worked at University of California at San Diego. Here, she became a professional observer at Kitt Peak Arizona. She is also the first woman ever allowed to observe using the Palomar Observatory. In1965, Vera decided to work for the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Here she could work freely without the constant anxiety to publish any sort if findings.

               In the 1970's, Rubin really started to investigate the skies, especially spiral galaxies. She concluded that the stars on the outer rims of spiral galaxies are spinning just as fast as the ones toward the center. Rubin thought that there must be some kind of force acting on these stars in order to maintain the gravitation pull on the stars, or else the stars would just spin off into space. Although Rubin's findings were met with much opposition, after a lot of elbow grease and hard work, Rubin had collected enough data to start convincing her colleagues. Rubin's data shows that we might only know of 10% of the mass in the universe right now. There is still the other 90% unaccounted for. This is most likely the dark matter that Rubin discovered. Today, because of Vera Rubin, scientists are researching whether or not dark matter really exists.

Zooniverse Week of 5-9-11

This week I worked on planet hunters and Hubble project. I wasn't able to find as many planets this time as I did last time, but it was still interesting enough.

APOD 4.7

Wonder and Mystery Above the Very Large Telescopes
May 9, 2011

I chose this picture for the week because if shows a panorama of the night sky, granted that it was taken in Chile so the Southern Hemisphere is visible. We have just finished our last constellation of the week quiz where we added on new constellations. From here on out, we will just be reviewing them. No more new ones. I wasn't really able to identify constellations in this photo because the perspective is so different. I could point out Orion, but that's about it. An interesting feature of this picture is the amount of light that it captures. The light at the bottom of the photo is called Zodiacal Light. This light is a reflection of the dust in the Zodiacal Cloud. The dust is actually reflecting sunlight. Then of course is the Milky Way Galaxy.  The beautiful band of millions of stars that stretches across the sky. In Sarasota, it is nearly impossible to see the Milky Way, but one day I hope to see it. Like I said before, the picture was taken in Chile, which is in the southern hemisphere. The Very Large Telescopes are located here. The VLS are actually part of the European Space Agency. The aperture of the these telescopes are around 8.2 meters. Also observed in the photo are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These are small irregular galaxies. In addition is the Barnard Loop, found in Orion. Add all these ingredients together and you get our universe, or at least what we can see.

Works Cited for Vera Rubin

"Vera Cooper Rubin." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. Vol. 22. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 380-382. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 May. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3404708108&v=2.1&u=learn&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

 

Zooniverse Week of 5-2-11

This week I participated in Planet hunters and Hubble Zoo. It's very exciting to find new planets of see different kinds of galaxies. I did zooinverse Tuesday and Thursday.

APOD 4.6

Jupiter's Great Red Spot from Voyager 1
May 2, 2011

I chose this picture because of the tremendous detail. The storm is about 3 times the size of  Earth! It's the largest storm known thus far. The colors are beautiful; mixes of reds, oranges, and whites. The detail from this photo is unbelievable! Voyager 1 isn't anything new. It's been around since the seventies, and it's still going. It's amazing that this little spacecraft is still going. It is now officially the furthest traveled space craft, at about 17 billion kilometers from the sun. Even though it's old, it still takes brilliant photos. The storm itself is also a cause of wonder. The temperature in the storm is about 3,000-4,000 degrees Kelvin! Jupiter is so far away from the sun and it can still reach these kinds of temperatures!!! WHOA! Also, the atmospheric pressure is about 1/5 than on earth in the storm. The storm has been on Jupiter for at least 181 years. It could have been there for 360 years though. The storm is crazy, and it's just a tiny blemish on a tiny planet in the humongous thing we call space.