1.
Bulge (astronomy)
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In astronomy, a bulge is a tightly packed group of stars within a larger formation. The term almost exclusively refers to the group of stars found in most spiral galaxies. It is now thought there are at least two types of bulges, bulges that are like ellipticals and bulges that are like spiral galaxies. Bulges that have similar to those of elliptical galaxies are often called classical bulges due to their similarity to the historic view of bulges. These bulges are composed primarily of stars that are older, Population II stars and these stars are also in orbits that are essentially random compared to the plane of the galaxy, giving the bulge a distinct spherical form. Due to the lack of dust and gasses, bulges tend to have almost no star formation, the distribution of light is described by de Vaucouleurs law. Classical bulges are thought to be the result of collisions of smaller structures and these disrupt the paths of stars, resulting in the randomness of bulge orbits. Following such a merger, gas clouds are more likely to be converted into stars, many bulges have properties more similar to those of the central regions of spiral galaxies than elliptical galaxies. They are often referred to as pseudobulges or disky-bulges and these bulges have stars that are not orbiting randomly, but rather orbit in an ordered fashion in the same plane as the stars in the outer disk. This contrasts greatly with elliptical galaxies, subsequent studies show that the bulges of many galaxies are not devoid of dust, but rather show a varied and complex structure. This structure often looks similar to a galaxy, but is much smaller. Giant spiral galaxies are typically 2–100 times the size of those spirals that exist in bulges, where they exist, these central spirals dominate the light of the bulge in which they reside. Typically the rate at which new stars are formed in pseudobulges is similar to the rate at which stars form in disk galaxies, sometimes bulges contain nuclear rings that are forming stars at much higher rate than is typically found in outer disks, as shown in NGC4314. Properties such as structure and young stars suggest that some bulges did not form through the same process that made elliptical galaxies. Yet the theories for the formation of pseudobulges are less certain than those for classical bulges, pseudobulges may be the result of extremely gas-rich mergers that happened more recently than those mergers that formed classical bulges. However, it is difficult for disks to survive the merging process, many astronomers suggest that bulges that appear similar to disks form outside of the disk, and are not the product of a merging process. When left alone, disk galaxies can rearrange their stars and gas, the products of this process are often observed in such galaxies, both spiral disks and galactic bars can result from secular evolution of galaxy disks. Secular evolution is expected to send gas and stars to the center of a galaxy
2.
Central massive object
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Central massive object refers to a mass concentration at the center of a galaxy. It can be either a black hole or a nuclear star cluster. The most massive galaxies are thought to contain a supermassive black hole, these galaxies do not contain nuclear star clusters. Fainter galaxies usually contain a star cluster. In most of these galaxies it is not known whether a black hole is present. A few galaxies, for instance the Milky Way and NGC4395, are known to both a SBH and a NSC. The mass associated with CMOs is roughly 0. 1–0. 3% times the mass of the galactic bulge
3.
Milky Way
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The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. The descriptive milky is derived from the appearance from Earth of the galaxy – a band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610, until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies, the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 100,000 light-years and 180,000 light-years. The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars, there are probably at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way. The Solar System is located within the disk, about 26,000 light-years from the Galactic Center, on the edge of one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas. The stars in the inner ≈10,000 light-years form a bulge, the very center is marked by an intense radio source, named Sagittarius A*, which is likely to be a supermassive black hole. Stars and gases at a range of distances from the Galactic Center orbit at approximately 220 kilometers per second. The constant rotation speed contradicts the laws of Keplerian dynamics and suggests much of the mass of the Milky Way does not emit or absorb electromagnetic radiation. This mass has been termed dark matter, the rotational period is about 240 million years at the position of the Sun. The Milky Way as a whole is moving at a velocity of approximately 600 km per second with respect to frames of reference. The oldest stars in the Milky Way are nearly as old as the Universe itself, the Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which is a component of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster. The Milky Way can be seen as a band of white light some 30 degrees wide arcing across the sky. Dark regions within the band, such as the Great Rift, the area of the sky obscured by the Milky Way is called the Zone of Avoidance. The Milky Way has a low surface brightness. Its visibility can be reduced by background light such as light pollution or stray light from the Moon. The sky needs to be darker than about 20.2 magnitude per square arcsecond in order for the Milky Way to be seen and it should be visible when the limiting magnitude is approximately +5.1 or better and shows a great deal of detail at +6.1
4.
Parsec
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The parsec is a unit of length used to measure large distances to objects outside the Solar System. One parsec is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one arcsecond, a parsec is equal to about 3.26 light-years in length. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 1.3 parsecs from the Sun, most of the stars visible to the unaided eye in the nighttime sky are within 500 parsecs of the Sun. The parsec unit was likely first suggested in 1913 by the British astronomer Herbert Hall Turner, named from an abbreviation of the parallax of one arcsecond, it was defined so as to make calculations of astronomical distances quick and easy for astronomers from only their raw observational data. Partly for this reason, it is still the unit preferred in astronomy and astrophysics, though the light-year remains prominent in science texts. This corresponds to the definition of the parsec found in many contemporary astronomical references. Derivation, create a triangle with one leg being from the Earth to the Sun. As that point in space away, the angle between the Sun and Earth decreases. A parsec is the length of that leg when the angle between the Sun and Earth is one arc-second. One of the oldest methods used by astronomers to calculate the distance to a star is to record the difference in angle between two measurements of the position of the star in the sky. The first measurement is taken from the Earth on one side of the Sun, and the second is approximately half a year later. The distance between the two positions of the Earth when the two measurements were taken is twice the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The difference in angle between the two measurements is twice the angle, which is formed by lines from the Sun. Then the distance to the star could be calculated using trigonometry. 5-parsec distance of 61 Cygni, the parallax of a star is defined as half of the angular distance that a star appears to move relative to the celestial sphere as Earth orbits the Sun. Equivalently, it is the angle, from that stars perspective. The star, the Sun and the Earth form the corners of a right triangle in space, the right angle is the corner at the Sun. Therefore, given a measurement of the angle, along with the rules of trigonometry. A parsec is defined as the length of the adjacent to the vertex occupied by a star whose parallax angle is one arcsecond
5.
Constellation
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A constellation is formally defined as a region of the celestial sphere, with boundaries laid down by the International Astronomical Union. The constellation areas mostly had their origins in Western-traditional patterns of stars from which the constellations take their names, in 1922, the International Astronomical Union officially recognized the 88 modern constellations, which cover the entire sky. They began as the 48 classical Greek constellations laid down by Ptolemy in the Almagest, Constellations in the far southern sky are late 16th- and mid 18th-century constructions. 12 of the 88 constellations compose the zodiac signs, though the positions of the constellations only loosely match the dates assigned to them in astrology. The term constellation can refer to the stars within the boundaries of that constellation. Notable groupings of stars that do not form a constellation are called asterisms, when astronomers say something is “in” a given constellation they mean it is within those official boundaries. Any given point in a coordinate system can unambiguously be assigned to a single constellation. Many astronomical naming systems give the constellation in which an object is found along with a designation in order to convey a rough idea in which part of the sky it is located. For example, the Flamsteed designation for bright stars consists of a number, the word constellation seems to come from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō, which can be translated as set of stars, and came into use in English during the 14th century. It also denotes 88 named groups of stars in the shape of stellar-patterns, the Ancient Greek word for constellation was ἄστρον. Colloquial usage does not draw a distinction between constellation in the sense of an asterism and constellation in the sense of an area surrounding an asterism. The modern system of constellations used in astronomy employs the latter concept, the term circumpolar constellation is used for any constellation that, from a particular latitude on Earth, never sets below the horizon. From the North Pole or South Pole, all constellations south or north of the equator are circumpolar constellations. In the equatorial or temperate latitudes, the term equatorial constellation has sometimes been used for constellations that lie to the opposite the circumpolar constellations. They generally include all constellations that intersect the celestial equator or part of the zodiac, usually the only thing the stars in a constellation have in common is that they appear near each other in the sky when viewed from the Earth. In galactic space, the stars of a constellation usually lie at a variety of distances, since stars also travel on their own orbits through the Milky Way, the star patterns of the constellations change slowly over time. After tens to hundreds of thousands of years, their familiar outlines will become unrecognisable, the terms chosen for the constellation themselves, together with the appearance of a constellation, may reveal where and when its constellation makers lived. The earliest direct evidence for the constellations comes from inscribed stones and it seems that the bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval from around 1300 to 1000 BC
6.
Sagittarius (constellation)
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Sagittarius is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy and its name is Latin for the archer, and its symbol is, a stylized arrow. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur pulling-back a bow and it lies between Scorpius and Ophiuchus to the west and Capricornus to the east. The center of the Milky Way lies in the westernmost part of Sagittarius, as seen from the northern hemisphere, the constellations brighter stars form an easily recognizable asterism known as the Teapot. The stars δ Sgr, ε Sgr, ζ Sgr, and φ Sgr form the body of the pot, λ Sgr is the point of the lid, γ2 Sgr is the tip of the spout and these same stars originally formed the bow and arrow of Sagittarius. Marking the bottom of the teapots handle (or the shoulder area of the archer, are the bright star Zeta Sagittarii, named Ascella, and the fainter Tau Sagittarii. The constellation as a whole is often depicted as having the appearance of a stick-figure archer drawing its bow. Sagittarius famously points its arrow at the heart of Scorpius, represented by the reddish star Antares, following the direct line formed by Delta Sagittarii and Gamma2 Sagittarii leads nearly directly to Antares. Fittingly, Sagittarii is Alnasl, the Arabic word for arrowhead, and Delta Sagittarii is called Kaus Media, Kaus Media bisects Lambda Sagittarii and Epsilon Sagittarii, whose names Kaus Borealis and Kaus Australis refer to the northern and southern portions of the bow, respectively. α Sgr despite having the alpha appellation, is not the brightest star of the constellation, instead, the brightest star is Epsilon Sagittarii, at magnitude 1.85. Sigma Sagittarii is the constellations second-brightest star at magnitude 2.08, Nunki is a B2V star approximately 260 light years away. Nunki is a Babylonian name of origin, but thought to represent the sacred Babylonian city of Eridu on the Euphrates. Zeta Sagittarii, with apparent magnitude 2.61 of A2 spectra, is actually a star whose two components have magnitudes 3.3 and 3.5. Delta Sagittarii, is a K2 spectra star with magnitude 2.71 and only 85 light years from Earth. Eta Sagittarii is a star with component magnitudes of 3.18 and 10, while Pi Sagittarii is actually a triple system whose components have magnitudes 3.7,3.8. The Bayer designation Beta Sagittarii is shared by two systems, β¹ Sagittarii, with apparent magnitude 3.96, and β² Sagittarii. The two stars are separated by 0. 36° in the sky and are 378 light years from earth, Beta Sagittarii, located at a position associated with the forelegs of the centaur, has the traditional name Arkab, meaning achilles tendon. Nova Sagittarii 2015 No.2 was discovered on March 15,2015, by John Seach of Chatsworth Island, NSW and it lies near the center of the constellation
7.
Ophiuchus
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Ophiuchus /ɒfiˈjuːkəs/ is a large constellation located around the celestial equator. Its name is from the Greek Ὀφιοῦχος Ophioukhos, serpent-bearer, Ophiuchus was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It was formerly referred to as Serpentarius /sɜːrpənˈtɛəriəs/ and Anguitenens, Ophiuchus is located between Aquila, Serpens and Hercules, northwest of the center of the Milky Way. The southern part lies between Scorpius to the west and Sagittarius to the east, in the northern hemisphere, it is best visible in summer. It is located opposite Orion in the sky, Ophiuchus straddles the equator but lies predominately to its south. However, Rasalhague, a conspicuous star in its north, is circumpolar north of 78° north latitude. The constellation extends southward to −30° declination, segments of the ecliptic that lie within Ophiuchus lie south of −20° declination. A determination of exactly where these stars are visible on Earth would depend on atmospheric refraction, in contrast to Orion, it is in the period November–January when Ophiuchus is in the daytime sky and thus not visible at most latitudes. However, for much of the Arctic Circle in the Northern Hemispheres winter months, stars are then visible at twilight for a few hours around local noon, low in the South. In countries close to the equator Ophiuchus appears overhead in June around midnight, the brightest stars in Ophiuchus include α Ophiuchi, called Rasalhague, at magnitude 2.07, and η Ophiuchi, known as Sabik, at magnitude 2.43. Other bright stars in the constellation include β Ophiuchi, Cebalrai and λ Ophiuchi, RS Ophiuchi is part of a class called recurrent novae, whose brightness increase at irregular intervals by hundreds of times in a period of just a few days. It is thought to be at the brink of becoming a type-1a supernova, barnards Star, one of the nearest stars to the Solar System, lies in Ophiuchus. It is located to the left of β and just north of the V-shaped group of stars in an area that was occupied by the now-obsolete constellation of Taurus Poniatovii. In 2005, astronomers using data from the Green Bank Telescope discovered a superbubble so large that it extends beyond the plane of the galaxy and it is called the Ophiuchus Superbubble. In April 2007, astronomers announced that the Swedish-built Odin satellite had made the first detection of clouds of molecular oxygen in space, the supernova of 1604 was first observed on 9 October 1604, near θ Ophiuchi. Johannes Kepler saw it first on 16 October and studied it so extensively that the supernova was subsequently called Keplers Supernova and he published his findings in a book titled De stella nova in pede Serpentarii. Galileo used its brief appearance to counter the Aristotelian dogma that the heavens are changeless. In 2009 it was announced that GJ1214, a star in Ophiuchus, undergoes repeated, the planets low density suggests that the planet may have a substantial component of low-density gas—possibly hydrogen or steam
8.
Scorpius
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Scorpius is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for scorpion, and its symbol is, Scorpius is one of the 48 constellations identified by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century. It is an ancient constellation that pre-dated the Greeks and it lies between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east. It is a constellation located in the southern hemisphere near the center of the Milky Way. Scorpius contains many stars, including Antares, rival of Mars, so named because of its distinct reddish hue, β1 Sco, a triple star, δ Sco, θ Sco, ν Sco, ξ Sco, π Sco, σ Sco. Marking the tip of the scorpions curved tail are λ Sco and υ Sco, given their proximity to one another, λ Sco and υ Sco are sometimes referred to as the Cats Eyes. The constellations bright stars form a pattern like a longshoremans hook, most of them are massive members of the nearest OB association, Scorpius-Centaurus. The star δ Sco, after having been a stable 2.3 magnitude star and it has since become a variable star fluctuating between 2.0 and 1.6. This means that at its brightest it is the second brightest star in Scorpius, U Scorpii is the fastest known nova with a period of about 10 years. ω¹ Scorpii and ω² Scorpii are a double, which can be resolved by the unaided eye. They have contrasting blue and yellow colours, the star once designated γ Sco is today known as σ Lib. The division into Libra was formalised during Roman times, Messier 80 is a globular cluster of magnitude 7.3,33,000 light-years from Earth. It is a compact Shapley class II cluster, the classification indicates that it is highly concentrated, m80 was discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier. It was the site of a discovery in 1860 when Arthur von Auwers discovered the nova T Scorpii. NGC6302, also called the Bug Nebula, is a planetary nebula. NGC6334, also known as the Cats Paw Nebula, is an emission nebula, in Greek mythology, the myths associated with Scorpio almost invariably also contain a reference to Orion. According to one of these myths it is written that Orion boasted to goddess Artemis and her mother, Leto, although Artemis was known to be a hunter herself she offered protection to all creatures. Artemis and her mother Leto sent a scorpion to deal with Orion, the pair battled and the scorpion killed Orion
9.
Sagittarius A*
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Sagittarius A* is a bright and very compact astronomical radio source at the center of the Milky Way, near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. Astronomers have been unable to observe Sgr A* in the spectrum because of the effect of 25 magnitudes of extinction by dust. Several teams of researchers have attempted to image Sagittarius A* in the spectrum using very-long-baseline interferometry. The current highest-resolution measurement, made at a wavelength of 1.3 mm, at a distance of 26,000 light-years, this yields a diameter of 44 million kilometers. For comparison, Earth is 150 million kilometers from the Sun, the proper motion of Sgr A* is approximately −2.70 mas per year for the right ascension and −5.6 mas per year for the declination. There are plans to image Sagittarius A* in much greater detail than before using interferometry combining images from widely spaced observatories at different places on Earth and it is hoped the measurements will test Einsteins theory of relativity more rigorously than has previously been done. Discrepancies may be found between the theory and actual observation or, if there are no discrepancies relativity may be confirmed. Karl Jansky was the first person to determine that a signal was coming from a location at the center of the Milky Way. Sgr A* was discovered on February 13 and 15,1974, by astronomers Bruce Balick, the name Sgr A* was coined by Brown in a 1982 paper because the radio source was exciting, and excited states of atoms are denoted with asterisks. The observations of S2 used near-infra red interferometry because of reduced interstellar extinction in this band, siO masers were used to align NIR images with radio observations, as they can be observed in both NIR and radio bands. The rapid motion of S2 easily stood out against slower-moving stars along the line-of-sight so these could be subtracted from the images, the VLBI radio observations of Sagittarius A* could also be aligned centrally with the images so S2 could be seen to orbit Sagittarius A*. From examining the Keplerian orbit of S2, they determined the mass of Sagittarius A* to be 2.6 ±0.2 million solar masses, confined in a volume with a radius no more than 17 light-hours. Later observations of the star S14 showed the mass of the object to be about 4.1 million solar masses within a volume with no larger than 6.25 light-hours or about 6.7 billion kilometres. They also determined the distance from Earth to the Galactic Center, in November 2004 a team of astronomers reported the discovery of a potential intermediate-mass black hole, referred to as GCIRS 13E, orbiting three light-years from Sagittarius A*. This black hole of 1,300 solar masses is within a cluster of seven stars and this observation may add support to the idea that supermassive black holes grow by absorbing nearby smaller black holes and stars. After monitoring stellar orbits around Sagittarius A* for 16 years, Gillessen et al. estimate the mass at 4.31 ±0.38 million solar masses. The result was announced in 2008 and published in The Astrophysical Journal in 2009, reinhard Genzel, team leader of the research, said the study has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist. The stellar orbits in the Galactic Center show that the mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole
10.
Red giant
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A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large, the appearance of the red giant is from yellow-orange to red, including the spectral types K and M, but also class S stars and most carbon stars. The most common red giants are stars on the red-giant branch that are still fusing hydrogen into helium in a shell surrounding an inert helium core. Red giants are stars that have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in their cores and have begun thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core and they have radii tens to hundreds of times larger than that of the Sun. However, their outer envelope is lower in temperature, giving them a reddish-orange hue, despite the lower energy density of their envelope, red giants are many times more luminous than the Sun because of their great size. Among the asymptotic-giant-branch stars belong the carbon stars of type C-N and late C-R, produced when carbon, the first dredge-up occurs during hydrogen shell burning on the red-giant branch, but does not produce a large carbon abundance at the surface. The second, and sometimes third, dredge up occurs during helium shell burning on the asymptotic-giant branch, the stellar limb of a red giant is not sharply-defined, contrary to their depiction in many illustrations. Rather, due to the low mass density of the envelope, such stars lack a well-defined photosphere. The coolest red giants have complex spectra, with lines, emission features. Red giants are evolved from main-sequence stars with masses in the range from about 0.3 M☉ to around 8 M☉, when a star initially forms from a collapsing molecular cloud in the interstellar medium, it contains primarily hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of metals. These elements are all uniformly mixed throughout the star, the star reaches the main sequence when the core reaches a temperature high enough to begin fusing hydrogen and establishes hydrostatic equilibrium. Over its main sequence life, the star slowly converts the hydrogen in the core into helium, for the Sun, the main-sequence lifetime is approximately 10 billion years. More-massive stars burn disproportionately faster and so have a lifetime than less massive stars. When the star exhausts the hydrogen fuel in its core, nuclear reactions can no longer continue and this brings additional hydrogen into a zone where the temperature and pressure are adequate to cause fusion to resume in a shell around the core. The higher temperatures lead to increasing rates, enough to increase the stars luminosity by a factor of 1. The outer layers of the star then expand greatly, thus beginning the red-giant phase of the stars life, in actuality, though, the color usually is orange. At this time, the star is said to be ascending the red-giant branch of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, the outer layers carry the energy evolved from fusion to the surface by way of convection. This causes material exposed to nuclear burning in the interior to be brought to the stars surface for the first time in its history
11.
Supergiant star
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Supergiants are among the most massive and most luminous stars. Supergiant stars occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram with absolute magnitudes between about −3 and −8 with temperatures spanning from about 3,500 K to over 20,000 K. The term supergiant, as applied to a star, does not have a concrete definition. The term giant star was first coined by Hertzsprung when it became apparent that the majority of stars fell into two regions of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. One region contained larger and more stars of spectral types A to M. Supergiant stars can be identified on the basis of their spectra, with distinctive lines sensitive to high luminosity, maury, had divided stars based on the widths of their spectral lines, with her class c identifying stars with the narrowest lines. Although it was not known at the time, these were the most luminous stars, in 1943 Morgan and Keenan formalised the definition of spectral luminosity classes, with class I referring to supergiant stars. The same system of MK luminosity classes is used today. Supergiants occur in every class from young blue class O supergiants to highly evolved red class M supergiants. Because they are enlarged compared to main-sequence and giant stars of the spectral type. Supergiants are also evolved stars with higher levels of heavy elements than main-sequence stars and this is the basis of the MK luminosity system which assigns stars to luminosity classes purely from observing their spectra. The MK system assigns stars to luminosity classes, Ib for supergiants, Ia for luminous supergiants, in reality there is very much of a continuum rather than well defined bands for these classifications, and classifications such as Iab are used for intermediate luminosity supergiants. Supergiant spectra are frequently annotated to indicate spectral peculiarities, for example B2 Iae or F5 Ipec, supergiants can also be defined as a specific phase in the evolutionary history of certain stars. Once these massive stars leave the main sequence their atmospheres inflate, stars initially under 10 M☉ will never form an iron core and in evolutionary terms do not become supergiants, although they can reach luminosities thousands of times the suns. They cannot fuse carbon and heavier elements after their core helium is exhausted, so they eventually just lose their outer layers and become a white dwarf. The phase where these stars have both hydrogen and helium burning shells is referred to as the giant branch, as stars gradually become more and more luminous class M stars. There are several categories of evolved star which are not supergiants in evolutionary terms, the dividing line becomes blurred at around 7–10 M☉ where stars start to undergo limited fusion of elements heavier than helium. Specialists studying these stars often refer to them as super AGB stars, others describe them as low-mass supergiants since they start to burn elements heavier than helium and can explode as supernovae
12.
Supermassive black hole
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In the case of the Milky Way, the SMBH corresponds with the location of Sagittarius A*. Supermassive black holes have properties that distinguish them from lower-mass classifications, first, the average density of a supermassive black hole can be less than the density of water in the case of some supermassive black holes. This is because the Schwarzschild radius is proportional to mass. In addition, the forces in the vicinity of the event horizon are significantly weaker for massive black holes. Unlike with stellar mass black holes, one would not experience significant tidal force until very deep into the black hole, donald Lynden-Bell and Martin Rees hypothesized in 1971 that the center of the Milky Way galaxy would contain a supermassive black hole. Sagittarius A* was discovered and named on February 13 and 15,1974, by astronomers Bruce Balick and they discovered a radio source that emits synchrotron radiation, it was found to be dense and immobile because of its gravitation. This was, therefore, the first indication that a black hole exists in the center of the Milky Way. The origin of black holes remains an open field of research. Astrophysicists agree that once a black hole is in place in the center of a galaxy, it can grow by accretion of matter, there are, however, several hypotheses for the formation mechanisms and initial masses of the progenitors, or seeds, of supermassive black holes. The most obvious hypothesis is that the seeds are black holes of tens or perhaps hundreds of masses that are left behind by the explosions of massive stars. Yet another model involves a dense stellar cluster undergoing core-collapse as the heat capacity of the system drives the velocity dispersion in the core to relativistic speeds. Finally, primordial black holes may have been produced directly from external pressure in the first moments after the Big Bang, formation of black holes from the deaths of the first stars has been extensively studied and corroborated by observations. The other models for black hole formation listed above are theoretical, the difficulty in forming a supermassive black hole resides in the need for enough matter to be in a small enough volume. This matter needs to have very little angular momentum in order for this to happen, normally, the process of accretion involves transporting a large initial endowment of angular momentum outwards, and this appears to be the limiting factor in black hole growth. This is a component of the theory of accretion disks. Gas accretion is the most efficient and also the most conspicuous way in black holes grow. The majority of the growth of supermassive black holes is thought to occur through episodes of rapid gas accretion. Observations reveal that quasars were more frequent when the Universe was younger, indicating that supermassive black holes formed
13.
Interstellar cloud
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An interstellar cloud is the generic name given to an accumulation of gas, plasma, and dust in our and other galaxies. Put differently, a cloud is a denser-than-average region of the interstellar medium. Depending on the density, size, and temperature of a given cloud, neutral and ionized clouds are sometimes also called diffuse clouds, while molecular clouds are sometimes also referred to as dense clouds. Analyzing the composition of clouds is achieved by studying electromagnetic radiation that we receive from them. Large radio telescopes scan the intensity in the sky of particular frequencies of radiation which are characteristic of certain molecules spectra. Some interstellar clouds are cold and tend to give out EM radiation of large wavelengths, a map of the abundance of these molecules can be made, enabling an understanding of the varying composition of the clouds. In hot clouds, there are ions of many elements, whose spectra can be seen in visible. Radio telescopes can also scan over the frequencies from one point in the map, peaks of frequencies mean that an abundance of that molecule or atom is present in the cloud. The height of the peak is proportional to the percentage that it makes up. Until recently the rates of reactions in interstellar clouds were expected to be slow, with minimal products being produced due to the low temperature. However, organic molecules were observed in the spectra that scientists would not have expected to find under these conditions, such as formaldehyde, methanol, the reactions needed to create such substances are familiar to scientists only at the much higher temperatures and pressures of earth and earth-based laboratories. These reactions are studied in the CRESU experiment, interstellar clouds also provide a medium to study the presence and proportions of metals in space. These interstellar clouds possess a velocity higher than can be explained by the rotation of the Milky Way, by definition, these clouds must have a vlsr greater than 90 km s−1, where vlsr is the local standard rest velocity. They are detected primarily in the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen, an example of the latter is the Magellanic Stream. To narrow down the origin of clouds, a better understanding of their distances. High-velocity clouds are identified with an HVC prefix, as with HVC 127-41-330
14.
Visible spectrum
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The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called light or simply light. A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from about 390 to 700 nm, in terms of frequency, this corresponds to a band in the vicinity of 430–770 THz. The spectrum does not, however, contain all the colors that the human eyes, unsaturated colors such as pink, or purple variations such as magenta, are absent, for example, because they can be made only by a mix of multiple wavelengths. Colors containing only one wavelength are called pure colors or spectral colors. Visible wavelengths pass through the window, the region of the electromagnetic spectrum that allows wavelengths to pass largely unattenuated through the Earths atmosphere. An example of this phenomenon is that clean air scatters blue light more than red wavelengths, the optical window is also referred to as the visible window because it overlaps the human visible response spectrum. The near infrared window lies just out of the vision, as well as the Medium Wavelength IR window. In the 13th century, Roger Bacon theorized that rainbows were produced by a process to the passage of light through glass or crystal. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton discovered that prisms could disassemble and reassemble white light and he was the first to use the word spectrum in this sense in print in 1671 in describing his experiments in optics. The result is red light is bent less sharply than violet as it passes through the prism. Newton divided the spectrum into seven named colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, the human eye is relatively insensitive to indigos frequencies, and some people who have otherwise-good vision cannot distinguish indigo from blue and violet. For this reason, some commentators, including Isaac Asimov, have suggested that indigo should not be regarded as a color in its own right. However, the evidence indicates that what Newton meant by indigo, comparing Newtons observation of prismatic colors to a color image of the visible light spectrum shows that indigo corresponds to what is today called blue, whereas blue corresponds to cyan. In the 18th century, Goethe wrote about optical spectra in his Theory of Colours, Goethe used the word spectrum to designate a ghostly optical afterimage, as did Schopenhauer in On Vision and Colors. Goethe argued that the spectrum was a compound phenomenon. Where Newton narrowed the beam of light to isolate the phenomenon, Goethe observed that a wider aperture produces not a spectrum but rather reddish-yellow, the spectrum appears only when these edges are close enough to overlap. Young was the first to measure the wavelengths of different colors of light, the connection between the visible spectrum and color vision was explored by Thomas Young and Hermann von Helmholtz in the early 19th century
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Ultraviolet
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Ultraviolet is an electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength from 10 nm to 400 nm, shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays. UV radiation constitutes about 10% of the light output of the Sun. It is also produced by electric arcs and specialized lights, such as lamps, tanning lamps. Consequently, the effects of UV are greater than simple heating effects. Suntan, freckling and sunburn are familiar effects of over-exposure, along with risk of skin cancer. Living things on dry land would be damaged by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun if most of it were not filtered out by the Earths atmosphere. More-energetic, shorter-wavelength extreme UV below 121 nm ionizes air so strongly that it is absorbed before it reaches the ground, Ultraviolet is also responsible for the formation of bone-strengthening vitamin D in most land vertebrates, including humans. The UV spectrum thus has both beneficial and harmful to human health. Ultraviolet rays are invisible to most humans, the lens in a human eye ordinarily filters out UVB frequencies or higher, and humans lack color receptor adaptations for ultraviolet rays. Under some conditions, children and young adults can see ultraviolet down to wavelengths of about 310 nm, near-UV radiation is visible to some insects, mammals, and birds. Small birds have a fourth color receptor for ultraviolet rays, this gives birds true UV vision, reindeer use near-UV radiation to see polar bears, who are poorly visible in regular light because they blend in with the snow. UV also allows mammals to see urine trails, which is helpful for animals to find food in the wild. The males and females of some species look identical to the human eye. Ultraviolet means beyond violet, violet being the color of the highest frequencies of visible light, Ultraviolet has a higher frequency than violet light. He called them oxidizing rays to emphasize chemical reactivity and to them from heat rays. The terms chemical and heat rays were eventually dropped in favour of ultraviolet and infrared radiation, in 1878 the effect of short-wavelength light on sterilizing bacteria was discovered. By 1903 it was known the most effective wavelengths were around 250 nm, in 1960, the effect of ultraviolet radiation on DNA was established. The discovery of the ultraviolet radiation below 200 nm, named vacuum ultraviolet because it is absorbed by air, was made in 1893 by the German physicist Victor Schumann
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X-ray
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X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz, X-ray wavelengths are shorter than those of UV rays and typically longer than those of gamma rays. Spelling of X-ray in the English language includes the variants x-ray, xray, X-rays with high photon energies are called hard X-rays, while those with lower energy are called soft X-rays. Due to their ability, hard X-rays are widely used to image the inside of objects, e. g. in medical radiography. The term X-ray is metonymically used to refer to an image produced using this method. Since the wavelengths of hard X-rays are similar to the size of atoms they are useful for determining crystal structures by X-ray crystallography. By contrast, soft X-rays are easily absorbed in air, the length of 600 eV X-rays in water is less than 1 micrometer. There is no consensus for a definition distinguishing between X-rays and gamma rays, one common practice is to distinguish between the two types of radiation based on their source, X-rays are emitted by electrons, while gamma rays are emitted by the atomic nucleus. This definition has problems, other processes also can generate these high-energy photons. One common alternative is to distinguish X- and gamma radiation on the basis of wavelength, with radiation shorter than some arbitrary wavelength, such as 10−11 m and this criterion assigns a photon to an unambiguous category, but is only possible if wavelength is known. Occasionally, one term or the other is used in specific contexts due to precedent, based on measurement technique. Thus, gamma-rays generated for medical and industrial uses, for radiotherapy, in the ranges of 6–20 MeV. X-ray photons carry enough energy to ionize atoms and disrupt molecular bonds and this makes it a type of ionizing radiation, and therefore harmful to living tissue. A very high radiation dose over a period of time causes radiation sickness. In medical imaging this increased risk is generally greatly outweighed by the benefits of the examination. The ionizing capability of X-rays can be utilized in treatment to kill malignant cells using radiation therapy. It is also used for material characterization using X-ray spectroscopy, hard X-rays can traverse relatively thick objects without being much absorbed or scattered. For this reason, X-rays are widely used to image the inside of visually opaque objects, the most often seen applications are in medical radiography and airport security scanners, but similar techniques are also important in industry and research
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Wavelength
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In physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave—the distance over which the waves shape repeats, and thus the inverse of the spatial frequency. Wavelength is commonly designated by the Greek letter lambda, the concept can also be applied to periodic waves of non-sinusoidal shape. The term wavelength is also applied to modulated waves. Wavelength depends on the medium that a wave travels through, examples of wave-like phenomena are sound waves, light, water waves and periodic electrical signals in a conductor. A sound wave is a variation in air pressure, while in light and other electromagnetic radiation the strength of the electric, water waves are variations in the height of a body of water. In a crystal lattice vibration, atomic positions vary, wavelength is a measure of the distance between repetitions of a shape feature such as peaks, valleys, or zero-crossings, not a measure of how far any given particle moves. For example, in waves over deep water a particle near the waters surface moves in a circle of the same diameter as the wave height. The range of wavelengths or frequencies for wave phenomena is called a spectrum, the name originated with the visible light spectrum but now can be applied to the entire electromagnetic spectrum as well as to a sound spectrum or vibration spectrum. In linear media, any pattern can be described in terms of the independent propagation of sinusoidal components. The wavelength λ of a sinusoidal waveform traveling at constant speed v is given by λ = v f, in a dispersive medium, the phase speed itself depends upon the frequency of the wave, making the relationship between wavelength and frequency nonlinear. In the case of electromagnetic radiation—such as light—in free space, the speed is the speed of light. Thus the wavelength of a 100 MHz electromagnetic wave is about, the wavelength of visible light ranges from deep red, roughly 700 nm, to violet, roughly 400 nm. For sound waves in air, the speed of sound is 343 m/s, the wavelengths of sound frequencies audible to the human ear are thus between approximately 17 m and 17 mm, respectively. Note that the wavelengths in audible sound are much longer than those in visible light, a standing wave is an undulatory motion that stays in one place. A sinusoidal standing wave includes stationary points of no motion, called nodes, the upper figure shows three standing waves in a box. The walls of the box are considered to require the wave to have nodes at the walls of the box determining which wavelengths are allowed, the stationary wave can be viewed as the sum of two traveling sinusoidal waves of oppositely directed velocities. Consequently, wavelength, period, and wave velocity are related just as for a traveling wave, for example, the speed of light can be determined from observation of standing waves in a metal box containing an ideal vacuum. In that case, the k, the magnitude of k, is still in the same relationship with wavelength as shown above
18.
Gamma ray
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Gamma ray, denoted by the lower-case Greek letter gamma, is penetrating electromagnetic radiation of a kind arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of photons in the highest observed range of photon energy, paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900 while studying radiation emitted by radium. In 1903, Ernest Rutherford named this radiation gamma rays, Rutherford had previously discovered two other types of radioactive decay, which he named alpha and beta rays. Gamma rays are able to ionize atoms, and are thus biologically hazardous. The decay of a nucleus from a high energy state to a lower energy state. Natural sources of gamma rays on Earth are observed in the decay of radionuclides. There are rare terrestrial natural sources, such as lightning strikes and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, However, a large fraction of such astronomical gamma rays are screened by Earths atmosphere and can only be detected by spacecraft. Gamma rays typically have frequencies above 10 exahertz, and therefore have energies above 100 keV and wavelengths less than 10 picometers, However, this is not a strict definition, but rather only a rule-of-thumb description for natural processes. Electromagnetic radiation from radioactive decay of nuclei is referred to as gamma rays no matter its energy. This radiation commonly has energy of a few hundred keV, in astronomy, gamma rays are defined by their energy, and no production process needs to be specified. The energies of gamma rays from astronomical sources range to over 10 TeV, a notable example is the extremely powerful bursts of high-energy radiation referred to as long duration gamma-ray bursts, of energies higher than can be produced by radioactive decay. These bursts of gamma rays are thought to be due to the collapse of stars called hypernovae, the first gamma ray source to be discovered historically was the radioactive decay process called gamma decay. In this type of decay, a nucleus emits a gamma ray almost immediately upon formation. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900, However, Villard did not consider naming them as a different fundamental type. Rutherford also noted that gamma rays were not deflected by a field, another property making them unlike alpha. Gamma rays were first thought to be particles with mass, like alpha, Rutherford initially believed that they might be extremely fast beta particles, but their failure to be deflected by a magnetic field indicated that they had no charge. In 1914, gamma rays were observed to be reflected from crystal surfaces, Rutherford and his coworker Edward Andrade measured the wavelengths of gamma rays from radium, and found that they were similar to X-rays, but with shorter wavelengths and higher frequency. This was eventually recognized as giving them more energy per photon
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Infrared
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It extends from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers, to 1000000 nm. Most of the radiation emitted by objects near room temperature is infrared. Like all EMR, IR carries radiant energy, and behaves both like a wave and like its quantum particle, the photon, slightly more than half of the total energy from the Sun was eventually found to arrive on Earth in the form of infrared. The balance between absorbed and emitted infrared radiation has an effect on Earths climate. Infrared radiation is emitted or absorbed by molecules when they change their rotational-vibrational movements and it excites vibrational modes in a molecule through a change in the dipole moment, making it a useful frequency range for study of these energy states for molecules of the proper symmetry. Infrared spectroscopy examines absorption and transmission of photons in the infrared range, Infrared radiation is used in industrial, scientific, and medical applications. Night-vision devices using active near-infrared illumination allow people or animals to be observed without the observer being detected, Infrared thermal-imaging cameras are used to detect heat loss in insulated systems, to observe changing blood flow in the skin, and to detect overheating of electrical apparatuses. Thermal-infrared imaging is used extensively for military and civilian purposes, military applications include target acquisition, surveillance, night vision, homing, and tracking. Humans at normal body temperature radiate chiefly at wavelengths around 10 μm, Infrared radiation extends from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers to 1 mm. This range of wavelengths corresponds to a range of approximately 430 THz down to 300 GHz. Below infrared is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Sunlight, at a temperature of 5,780 kelvins, is composed of near thermal-spectrum radiation that is slightly more than half infrared. At zenith, sunlight provides an irradiance of just over 1 kilowatt per square meter at sea level, of this energy,527 watts is infrared radiation,445 watts is visible light, and 32 watts is ultraviolet radiation. Nearly all the radiation in sunlight is near infrared, shorter than 4 micrometers. On the surface of Earth, at far lower temperatures than the surface of the Sun, almost all thermal radiation consists of infrared in mid-infrared region, much longer than in sunlight. Of these natural thermal radiation processes only lightning and natural fires are hot enough to produce much visible energy, thermal infrared radiation also has a maximum emission wavelength, which is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of object, in accordance with Wiens displacement law. Therefore, the band is often subdivided into smaller sections. Due to the nature of the blackbody radiation curves, typical hot objects, such as exhaust pipes, the three regions are used for observation of different temperature ranges, and hence different environments in space
20.
Radio wave
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Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies as high as 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, though some definitions describe waves above 1 or 3 GHz as microwaves, at 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm, and at 3 kHz is 100 km. Like all other electromagnetic waves, they travel at the speed of light, naturally occurring radio waves are generated by lightning, or by astronomical objects. Radio waves are generated by radio transmitters and received by radio receivers, the radio spectrum is divided into a number of radio bands on the basis of frequency, allocated to different uses. Radio waves were first predicted by mathematical work done in 1867 by Scottish mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell, Maxwell noticed wavelike properties of light and similarities in electrical and magnetic observations. Radio waves were first used for communication in the mid 1890s by Guglielmo Marconi, different frequencies experience different combinations of these phenomena in the Earths atmosphere, making certain radio bands more useful for specific purposes than others. It does not necessarily require a cleared sight path, at lower frequencies radio waves can pass through buildings, foliage and this is the only method of propagation possible at microwave frequencies and above. On the surface of the Earth, line of propagation is limited by the visual horizon to about 40 miles. This is the used by cell phones, cordless phones, walkie-talkies, wireless networks, FM and television broadcasting. Indirect propagation, Radio waves can reach points beyond the line-of-sight by diffraction, diffraction allows a radio wave to bend around obstructions such as a building edge, a vehicle, or a turn in a hall. Radio waves also reflect from surfaces such as walls, floors, ceilings, vehicles and these effects are used in short range radio communication systems. Ground waves allow mediumwave and longwave broadcasting stations to have coverage areas beyond the horizon, the nonzero resistance of the earth absorbs energy from ground waves, so as they propagate the waves lose power and the wavefronts bend over at an angle to the surface. As frequency decreases, the decrease and the achievable range increases. Military very low frequency and extremely low frequency communication systems can communicate over most of the Earth, and with submarines hundreds of feet underwater. Tropospheric propagation, In the VHF and UHF bands, radio waves can travel somewhat beyond the horizon due to refraction in the troposphere. This is due to changes in the index of air with temperature and pressure. At times, radio waves can travel up to 500 -1000 km due to tropospheric ducting and these effects are variable and not as reliable as ionospheric propagation, below. So radio waves directed at an angle into the sky can return to Earth beyond the horizon, by using multiple skips communication at intercontinental distances can be achieved
21.
Immanuel Kant
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Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who is considered a central figure in modern philosophy. Kant took himself to have effected a Copernican revolution in philosophy and his beliefs continue to have a major influence on contemporary philosophy, especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political theory, and aesthetics. Politically, Kant was one of the earliest exponents of the idea that peace could be secured through universal democracy. He believed that this will be the outcome of universal history. Kant wanted to put an end to an era of futile and speculative theories of human experience, Kant argued that our experiences are structured by necessary features of our minds. In his view, the shapes and structures experience so that, on an abstract level. Among other things, Kant believed that the concepts of space and time are integral to all human experience, as are our concepts of cause, Kant published other important works on ethics, religion, law, aesthetics, astronomy, and history. These included the Critique of Practical Reason, the Metaphysics of Morals, which dealt with ethics, and the Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Königsberg, Prussia. His mother, Anna Regina Reuter, was born in Königsberg to a father from Nuremberg. His father, Johann Georg Kant, was a German harness maker from Memel, Immanuel Kant believed that his paternal grandfather Hans Kant was of Scottish origin. Kant was the fourth of nine children, baptized Emanuel, he changed his name to Immanuel after learning Hebrew. Young Kant was a solid, albeit unspectacular, student and he was brought up in a Pietist household that stressed religious devotion, humility, and a literal interpretation of the Bible. His education was strict, punitive and disciplinary, and focused on Latin and religious instruction over mathematics, despite his religious upbringing and maintaining a belief in God, Kant was skeptical of religion in later life, various commentators have labelled him agnostic. Common myths about Kants personal mannerisms are listed, explained, and refuted in Goldthwaits introduction to his translation of Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. It is often held that Kant lived a strict and disciplined life. He never married, but seemed to have a social life — he was a popular teacher. He had a circle of friends whom he met, among them Joseph Green. A common myth is that Kant never traveled more than 16 kilometres from Königsberg his whole life, in fact, between 1750 and 1754 he worked as a tutor in Judtschen and in Groß-Arnsdorf
22.
Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven
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Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven is a work written and published anonymously by Immanuel Kant in 1755, based on a 1750 work by English astronomer Thomas Wright. According to Kant, the Solar System is merely a version of the fixed star systems, such as the Milky Way. The cosmogony that Kant proposes is closer to todays accepted ideas than that of some of his contemporary thinkers such as Pierre-Simon Laplace, moreover, Kants thought in this volume is strongly influenced by atomist theory, in addition to the ideas of Lucretius. In his introduction to the English translation of Kants book, Stanley Jaki criticises Kant for being a poor mathematician, however, such criticisms are on the whole unfair, as they are blaming Kant for not knowing about 20th-century developments. The first English translation of the work was done by the Scottish theologian William Hastie, other English translations include those by Stanley Jaki and Ian Johnston. Thomas Wright, author of An original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe Online version of the text English translation
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Sirius
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Sirius is a star system and the brightest star in the Earths night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the system has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris. The distance separating Sirius A from its companion varies between 8.2 and 31.5 AU, Sirius appears bright because of its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs, as determined by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slightly increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years. After that time its distance will begin to increase and it will become fainter, Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun but has a lower luminosity than other bright stars such as Canopus or Rigel. The system is between 200 and 300 million years old and it was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. Sirius is also known colloquially as the Dog Star, reflecting its prominence in its constellation, the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius is recorded in the earliest astronomical records. Every year, it disappears for seventy days before returning to the sky just before sunrise. This occurs at Cairo on 19 July, placing it just prior to the summer solstice, the ancient Greeks observed that the appearance of Sirius heralded the hot and dry summer and feared that it caused plants to wilt, men to weaken, and women to become aroused. Due to its brightness, Sirius would have been noted to twinkle more in the weather conditions of early summer. To Greek observers, this signified certain emanations which caused its malignant influence, anyone suffering its effects was said to be star-struck. It was described as burning or flaming in literature, the season following the stars reappearance came to be known as the dog days. The inhabitants of the island of Ceos in the Aegean Sea would offer sacrifices to Sirius and Zeus to bring cooling breezes, if it rose clear, it would portend good fortune, if it was misty or faint then it foretold pestilence. Coins retrieved from the island from the 3rd century BC feature dogs or stars with emanating rays, ptolemy of Alexandria mapped the stars in Books VII and VIII of his Almagest, in which he used Sirius as the location for the globes central meridian. He depicted it as one of six red-coloured stars, the other five are class M and K stars, such as Arcturus and Betelgeuse. Bright stars were important to the ancient Polynesians for navigation between the islands and atolls of the Pacific Ocean. Low on the horizon, they acted as stellar compasses and they also served as latitude markers, the declination of Sirius matches the latitude of the archipelago of Fiji at 17°S and thus passes directly over the islands each night
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Harlow Shapley
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Harlow Shapley was an American astronomer. He used RR Lyrae stars to correctly estimate the size of the Milky Way Galaxy, in 1953 he proposed his liquid water belt theory, now known as the concept of a habitable zone. Shapley was born on a farm in Nashville, Missouri, to Willis and Sarah Shapley, after studying at home and covering crime stories as a newspaper reporter, Shapley returned to complete a six-year high school program in only two years, graduating as class valedictorian. In 1907, Shapley went to journalism at the University of Missouri. When he learned that the opening of the School of Journalism had been postponed for a year, rejecting Archaeology, which Harlow later explained he couldnt pronounce, he chose the next subject, Astronomy. He was instrumental in moving away from the idea that Cepheids were spectroscopic binaries. He realized the Milky Way Galaxy was far larger than previously believed, and this discovery by Shapley is a part of the Copernican principle, according to which the Earth is not at the center of our Solar System, our galaxy, or our Universe. Shapley participated in the Great Debate with Heber D. Curtis on the nature of nebulae and galaxies, the debate took place on April 26,1920, in the hall of the United States National Academy of Sciences in Washington D. C. This issue and debate are the start of extragalactic astronomy, while the detailed arguments and data, often with ambiguities, however, Shapleys actual talk and argument given during the Great Debate was completely different from the published paper. Historian Michael Hoskin says His decision was to treat the National Academy of Sciences to an address so elementary that much of it was necessarily uncontroversial. With Shapleys motivation being only to impress a delegation from Harvard who were interviewing him for an offer as the next Director of Harvard College Observatory. With the default by Shapley, Curtis won the debate, the astronomical issues were soon resolved in favor of Curtis position when Edwin Hubble discovered Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy. At the time of the debate, Shapley was working at the Mount Wilson Observatory, after the debate, however, he was hired to replace the recently deceased Edward Charles Pickering as director of the Harvard College Observatory. He is also known to have incorrectly opposed Edwin Hubbles observations that there are additional galaxies in the other than the Milky Way. Shapley fiercely critiqued Hubble and regarded his work as junk science, however, after he received a letter from Hubble showing Hubbles observed light curve of V1, he withdrew his criticism. He reportedly told a colleague, Here is the letter that destroyed my universe and he also encouraged Hubble to write a paper for a joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hubbles findings went on to reshape fundamentally the scientific view of the universe and he served as director of the HCO from 1921 to 1952. During this time, he hired Cecilia Payne, who, in 1925, became the first person to earn a doctorate at Radcliffe College in the field of astronomy and he wrote many books on astronomy and the sciences
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Globular cluster
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A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes, the name of this category of star cluster is derived from the Latin globulus—a small sphere. A globular cluster is known more simply as a globular. Globular clusters are found in the halo of a galaxy and contain considerably more stars and are older than the less dense open clusters. Globular clusters are common, there are about 150 to 158 currently known globular clusters in the Milky Way. These globular clusters orbit the Galaxy at radii of 40 kiloparsecs or more, larger galaxies can have more, Andromeda Galaxy, for instance, may have as many as 500. Some giant elliptical galaxies such as M87, have as many as 13,000 globular clusters, every galaxy of sufficient mass in the Local Group has an associated group of globular clusters, and almost every large galaxy surveyed has been found to possess a system of globular clusters. The Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy and the disputed Canis Major Dwarf galaxy appear to be in the process of donating their associated globular clusters to the Milky Way and this demonstrates how many of this galaxys globular clusters might have been acquired in the past. Although it appears that globular clusters contain some of the first stars to be produced in the galaxy, their origins, the first known globular cluster, now called M22, was discovered in 1665 by Abraham Ihle, a German amateur astronomer. However, given the small aperture of early telescopes, individual stars within a cluster were not resolved until Charles Messier observed M4 in 1764. The first eight globular clusters discovered are shown in the table, subsequently, Abbé Lacaille would list NGC104, NGC4833, M55, M69, and NGC6397 in his 1751–52 catalogue. The M before a number refers to Charles Messiers catalogue, while NGC is from the New General Catalogue by John Dreyer, when William Herschel began his comprehensive survey of the sky using large telescopes in 1782 there were 34 known globular clusters. Herschel discovered another 36 himself and was the first to virtually all of them into stars. He coined the term globular cluster in his Catalogue of a Second Thousand New Nebulae, the number of globular clusters discovered continued to increase, reaching 83 in 1915,93 in 1930 and 97 by 1947. A total of 152 globular clusters have now discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. These additional, undiscovered globular clusters are believed to be hidden behind the gas, beginning in 1914, Harlow Shapley began a series of studies of globular clusters, published in about 40 scientific papers. He examined the RR Lyrae variables in the clusters and would use their period–luminosity relationship for distance estimates, later, it was found that RR Lyrae variables are fainter than Cepheid variables, which caused Shapley to overestimate the distance to the clusters. Of the globular clusters within the Milky Way, the majority are found in a halo around the core
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Mount Wilson Observatory
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The Mount Wilson Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a 1, 740-metre peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, the observatory was conceived and founded by George Ellery Hale, who had previously built the 1 meter telescope at the Yerkes Observatory, then the worlds largest telescope. The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory was first funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1904, among the conditions of the lease was that it allow public access. There are three solar telescopes at Mount Wilson Observatory, today, just one of these telescopes, the 60 foot Solar Tower, is still used for solar research. The Snow Solar Telescope was the first telescope installed at the fledgling Mount Wilson Solar Observatory and it was the worlds first permanently mounted solar telescope. Solar telescopes had previously been portable so they could be taken to solar eclipses around the world, the telescope was donated to Yerkes Observatory by Helen Snow of Chicago. George Ellery Hale, then director of Yerkes, had the telescope brought to Mount Wilson to put it into service as a scientific instrument. Stellar research soon followed as the brightest stars could have their spectra recorded with very long exposures on glass plates, today the Snow solar telescope is mostly used by undergraduate students who get hands on training in solar physics and spectroscopy. It was also used publicly for the May 9,2016 transit of Mercury across the face of the sun, the 60-foot Solar Tower soon built on the work started at the Snow telescope. At its completion in 1908, the tower design of the 60 foot focal length solar telescope allowed much higher resolution of the solar image. The higher resolution came from situating the optics higher above the ground, on June 25,1908, Hale would record Zeeman splitting in the spectrum of a sunspot, showing for the first time that magnetic fields existed somewhere besides the earth. A later discovery was of the polarity in sunspots of the new solar cycle of 1912. The success of the 60 foot Tower prompted Hale to pursue yet another, taller tower telescope, in the 1960s, Robert Leighton discovered the sun had a 5-minute oscillation and the field of heliosiesmology was born. The 60 foot Tower is operated by the Department of Physics, the 150-foot focal length solar tower expanded on the solar tower design with its tower-in-a-tower design. An inner tower supports the optics above, while an outer tower and this design allowed complete isolation of the optics from the effect of wind swaying the tower. Two mirrors feed sunlight to a 12-inch lens which focuses light down at the ground floor and it was first completed in 1910, but unsatisfactory optics caused a two-year delay before a suitable doublet lens was installed. Research included solar rotation, sunspot polarities, daily sunspot drawings, the solar telescope would be the worlds largest for 50 years until the McMath-Pierce Solar telescope was completed at Kitt Peak in Arizona in 1962. In 1985, UCLA took over operation of the tower from the Carnegie Observatories after it was decided to stop funding the observatory
27.
Gamma2 Sagittarii
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Gamma² Sagittarii, also named Alnasl, is a 3rd-magnitude star in the zodiac constellation of Sagittarius. The location of this forms the tip of the arrow in the bow of Sagittarius the Centaur. This star is close enough to the Earth that its distance can be determined using parallax and it has an apparent visual magnitude of +2.98, making it the seventh-brightest star in the constellation. It forms part of a star along with a fainter optical companion designated Gamma¹ Sagittarii located about 50 arcminutes north of this star. The latter is a magnitude 4.7 Cepheid variable star also has the variable star designation W Sagittarii. γ² Sagittarii is the stars Bayer designation and it bore the traditional names Alnasl, Nushaba and Awal al Warida. Alnasl is derived from the Arabic النصل al-naşl and Nushaba is derived from the Arabic Zujj al-Nashshaba and this ostrich was thought of as going down to the river to drink, and another ostrich was thought of as coming back up. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names to catalogue, the WGSN approved the name Alnasl for this star on 21 August 2016 and it is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. Gamma² Sagittarii, together with Delta Sagittarii, Epsilon Sagittarii, Zeta Sagittarii, Lambda Sagittarii, Sigma Sagittarii, Tau Sagittarii and Phi Sagittarii, together with Delta Sagittarii and Epsilon Sagittarii, Gamma Sagittarii formed the Akkadian Sin-nun‑tu, or Si-nu-nu‑tum the Swallow. In Chinese, 箕, meaning Winnowing Basket, refers to an asterism consisting of Gamma Sagittarii, Delta Sagittarii, Epsilon Sagittarii and Eta Sagittarii. Consequently, Gamma Sagittarii itself is known as 箕宿一 A stellar classification of K1 III reveals that this is a giant star and this means it has exhausted the hydrogen in its core and evolved away from the main sequence. The abundance of other than hydrogen and helium in this star. Gamma² Sagittarii has a temperature of 4,760 K. It is this temperature that gives Gamma² Sagittarii the orange hue that is a characteristic of K-type stars
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Baade's Window
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Baades Window is an area of the sky with relatively low amounts of interstellar dust along the line of sight from the Earth. This area is considered a window as the normally obscured Galactic Center of the Milky Way is visible in this direction. It is named for astronomer Walter Baade who first recognized its significance and this area corresponds to one of the brightest visible patches of the Milky Way. Walter Baade surveyed the stars in this area in the using the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in California while searching for the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Up until this time the structure and location of the center was not known with certainty. Baades Window is frequently used to study distant central bulge stars in visible and near-visible wavelengths of light, important information on the internal geometry of the Milky Way is still being refined by measurements made through this window. It is in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius, the window is now known to be slightly south of the main central galaxy bulge. The window is irregular in outline and subtends about 1 degree of the sky and it is centered on the globular cluster NGC6522. Baades Window is the largest of the six areas through which central bulge stars are visible, OGLE and other observation programs have successfully detected extrasolar planets orbiting around central bulge stars in this area by the gravitational microlensing method. Stars observed in Baades Window can be called BW stars, similarly giant stars can be called BW giants
29.
Dover Heights, New South Wales
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Dover Heights is a coastal, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Dover Heights is 9 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, Dover Heights borders Vaucluse to its north, North Bondi to its south and Rose Bay to its west and has the Pacific Ocean to its east. Dover Heights is a residential suburb. Many of the properties have views of Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Its Dudley Page Reserve is a site for tourist buses. Some properties have both harbour and ocean views, the Holman House, Dover Heights, was presented the Wilkinson Award by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 2005. The suburb is considered to be the most affluent within the Waverly Local Government Area and this is reflected in property prices - like nearby suburbs Vaucluse and Bellevue Hill, median house prices are above A$2 million. Dover Heights is believed to have named for its cliffs along the Pacific Ocean which resembled those found at Dover, in Kent. The first mention of Dover Heights appeared in records in 1886. The area was first used for market gardens, in 1830 land in the area was owned by Daniel Cooper, a partner in the firm Cooper and Levey, who owned the Waterloo Stores. The retailing emporium was located on the corner of George Street and Market Street in the city, the Dover Heights area was subdivided in 1913. At the 2011 census, there were 3,940 residents in Dover Heights,53. 7% of people were born in Australia with the most common other countries of birth being South Africa 14. 1%, England 3. 6% and Israel 2. 3%. Judaism was the most common response for religion in Dover Heights, the median weekly household income was $2,508 and 34. 4% of households had a weekly income of more than $3,000. Housing costs were high in Dover Heights with the monthly mortgage payment being $4,275. During the Second World War, Rodney Reserve, at the Dover Heights clifftop, was used by the Royal Australian Air Force for coastal defence radar, the site primarily made use of Yagi antennas. Radio astronomy at Dover Heights, Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia,4, CSIRO, Radio astronomy at Dover Heights Orchiston, W. & B. Slee, Ingenuity and Inititative in Australian Radio Astronomy, The Dover Heights ‘Hole-in-the-Ground’ Antenna, stanley, G. J. Recollections of John G. Bolton at Dover-Heights and Caltech, Australian Journal of Physics 47, 507-16. Radhakrishnan, Heights John Gatenby Bolton 1922-1993, Historical Records of Australian Science 10-4, the Book of Sydney Suburbs, Compiled by Frances Pollen, Angus & Robertson Publishers,1990, Published in Australia ISBN 0-207-14495-8 St Therese Catholic Church Dover Heights
30.
CSIRO
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The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is the federal government agency for scientific research in Australia. Its chief role is to improve the economic and social performance of industry, CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world, and CSIRO Publishing issues journals with the latest research by leading scientists on a broad range of subjects. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO maintains more than 50 sites across Australia and biological control research stations in France and Mexico, employing about 5000 in total. As of 1 July 2014, CSIRO is governed by a Board, chaired by David Thodey with nine directors inclusive of the CEO, daily management is led by a CEO, presently Dr Larry Marshall, with an executive team of seven. There are ten research flagships and twelve services areas, the CSIRO Flagship initiative was originally designed to integrate, focus and direct national scientific resources. In July 2014, all research Divisions and Flagships were merged into ten research flagships, the Bureau of Meteorology generates the high resolution weather forecasts and CSIRO has created computer models to calculate pollution levels. A precursor to CSIRO, the Advisory Council of Science and Industry, was established in 1916 at the initiative of prime minister Billy Hughes, however, the Advisory Council struggled with insufficient funding during the First World War. In 1920 the Council was renamed the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry, and was led by George Handley Knibbs, in 1926 The Science and Industry Research Act replaced the Institute with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The CSIR was structured to represent the structure of Australian government, and had state-level committees. As well as this structure, the CSIR benefited from strong bureaucratic management under George Julius, David Rivett. CSIR research focussed on primary and secondary industries, early in its existence, it established divisions studying animal health and animal nutrition. After the depression, the CSIR extended into secondary industries such as manufacturing, CSIRO today has expanded into a wider range of scientific inquiry. This expansion began with the evolution of CSIR to the CSIRO by the Ben Chifley Labor government in 1949 which amended the Science and Industry Research Act, the amendment enlarged and reconstituted the organisation and its administrative structure. Under Ian Clunies Ross as chairman, CSIRO pursued new areas such as radioastronomy, in October 2005, the journal Nature announced CSIRO scientists had developed near-perfect rubber from resilin, the elastic protein which gives fleas their jumping ability and helps insects fly. On 19 August 2005, CSIRO and the University of Texas at Dallas announced they were able to make transparent carbon nanotube sheets that will bring carbon nanotube products to the masses, CSIRO had a pioneering role in the scientific discovery of the universe through radio eyes. A team led by Paul Wild built and operated the world’s first solar radiospectrograph, for three decades, the Division of Radiophysics had a world-leading role in solar research, attracting prominent solar physicists from around the world. CSIRO owned the first computer in Australia, CSIRAC, built as part of a project began in the Sydney Radiophysics Laboratory in 1947, the CSIR Mk 1 ran its first program in 1949, the fifth electronic computer in the world. It was over 1,000 times faster than the mechanical calculators available at the time and it was decommissioned in 1955 and recommissioned in Melbourne as CSIRAC in 1956 as a general purpose computing machine used by over 700 projects until 1964
31.
Joseph Lade Pawsey
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Joseph Lade Pawsey was an Australian scientist, radiophysicist and radio astronomer. Pawsey was born in Ararat, Victoria to a family of farmers, at the age of 14 he was awarded a government scholarship to study at Wesley College, Melbourne, followed by a scholarship to study at the University of Melbourne. In 1929, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the university, Pawsey was then awarded an Exhibition Research Scholarship to study at Cambridge University, where he worked under the direction of J. A. In 1935, he was awarded a PhD from Cambridge and in September of that year he married Greta Lenore Nicoll, Pawsey then became a research physicist at EMI until 1939. In February 1940, Pawsey returned to Australia to work at the recently formed Division of Radiophysics in CSIR, one group he led developed a microwave set for the Royal Australian Navy while another group under his direction investigated the super-refraction of radio waves in the Earths atmosphere. Pawsey continued as a research physicist at the Division of Radiophysics until 1962, to investigate the latter Pawsey, with Ruby Payne-Scott and Lindsay McCready, used an existing Royal Australian Air Force antenna at Collaroy, a northern Sydney suburb. In addition to confirming that the Sun was a source of radio noise their data showed that the temperature in some regions of the Sun were as high as one million degrees. This temperature was far higher than was possible at the time. Work by the physicist David Forbes Martyn showed that peak in the Suns corona at one million degrees. The introduction of interferometry was probably Pawseys most important contribution to radio astronomy, in early 1946 he turned his attention to sunspots as a source of strong fluctuating radio noise. To overcome the limitations of the antennas, Pawsey used sea interferometry. The observations confirmed beyond doubt that sunspots were the source of the increase in radio noise. This work was confirmed four months later by radio astronomers at Cambridge University led by Martin Ryle, Pawsey did some work on his own, but his main focus was on guiding and administering his research teams, which worked in comparative isolation and sometimes in competition with each other. He was straightforward, honest and humble, and scrupulous in acknowledging his colleagues achievements and his subordinate Paul Wild, who in 1971 became division chief, said, Joe Pawsey was the. Father of radio astronomy in Australia and his influence on the growth of radio astronomy in Australia was great because … he just provided ideal conditions, an ideal environment to allow everyone to use their own initiative. Was a wonderfully inspiring leader, very self-effacing and taking no credit for himself, was often very perceptive, very good. International authorities gave much credit to his leadership, in 1963, in his introduction to the Utrecht Symposium on the Solar Spectrum, Professor M. G. J. Minnaert remarked, The history of solar radio-spectroscopy is mainly the history of Australian work on this subject, at each meeting of the IAU, at each important symposium on radio-astronomy, highly competent specialists such as Wild, Smerd and Christianson, headed by the dynamic personality of
32.
Sagittarius A
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Sagittarius A or Sgr A is a complex radio source at the center of the Milky Way. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius, and is hidden from view at optical wavelengths by large clouds of cosmic dust in the arms of the Milky Way. It consists of three components, the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East, the spiral structure Sagittarius A West, and these three overlap, Sagittarius A East is the largest, West appears off-center within East, and A* is at the center of West. These measurements were made through the use of a wavelength of 7 mm, the result was that Sagittarius A* was determined to be an elliptical Gaussian with a semi-major axis size of 35. 4×12.6 R☉ with an inclination of 95 degrees east of north. The observations for this finding were found from the detection of NIR flares, both flares come from electron excitation, not an enhanced accretion rate onto the black hole, which means that not all high energy events produce variability at radio wavelengths. A study done with the measured parallaxes and motions of 10 massive regions in the arms of Sagittarius in the Milky Way where stars are formed. Data was gathered using the BeSSeL Survey with the VLBA, the results were that the spiral pitch angle of the arms is 7.3 ±1.5 degrees, and the half-width of the arms of the Milky Way were found to be.2 kpc. The nearest arm from the Sun is around 1.4 ±0.2 kpc away and this feature is approximately 25 light-years in width and has the attributes of a supernova remnant from an explosive event that occurred between 35,000 and 100,000 BCE. However, it would take 50 to 100 times more energy than a supernova explosion to create a structure of this size. It is conjectured that Sgr A East is the remnant of the explosion of a star that was gravitationally compressed as it made an approach to the central black hole. Sgr A West has the appearance of a spiral, from the point of view of the Earth. For this reason, it is known as the Minispiral. This appearance and nickname are misleading, though, the structure of the Minispiral is not that of a spiral. It is made of several dust and gas clouds, which orbit, the surface layer of these clouds is ionized. The source of ionisation is the population of stars that also occupy the central parsec. Sgr A West is surrounded by a massive, clumpy torus of cooler molecular gas, the Northern Arm appears as a very bright North—South ridge of emission, but it extends far to the East and can be detected as a dim extended source. The Western Arc is interpreted as the inner surface of the CND. The Eastern Arm and the Bar seem to be two additional large clouds similar to the Northern Arm, although they do not share the same orbital plane and they have been estimated to amount for about 20 solar masses each
33.
International Astronomical Union
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The International Astronomical Union is an international association of professional astronomers, at the PhD level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy. Among other activities, it acts as the recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies. The IAU is a member of the International Council for Science and its main objective is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. The IAU maintains friendly relations with organizations that include amateur astronomers in their membership, the IAU has its head office on the second floor of the Institut dAstrophysique de Paris in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The IAU is also responsible for the system of astronomical telegrams which are produced and distributed on its behalf by the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the Minor Planet Center also operates under the IAU, and is a clearinghouse for all non-planetary or non-moon bodies in the Solar System. The Working Group for Meteor Shower Nomenclature and the Meteor Data Center coordinate the nomenclature of meteor showers, the IAU was founded on July 28,1919, at the Constitutive Assembly of the International Research Council held in Brussels, Belgium. The 7 initial member states were Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, Greece, Japan, the first executive committee consisted of Benjamin Baillaud, Alfred Fowler, and four vice presidents, William Campbell, Frank Dyson, Georges Lecointe, and Annibale Riccò. Thirty-two Commissions were appointed at the Brussels meeting and focused on topics ranging from relativity to minor planets, the reports of these 32 Commissions formed the main substance of the first General Assembly, which took place in Rome, Italy, May 2–10,1922. By the end of the first General Assembly, ten nations had joined the Union. Although the Union was officially formed eight months after the end of World War I, the first 50 years of the Unions history are well documented. Subsequent history is recorded in the form of reminiscences of past IAU Presidents, twelve of the fourteen past General Secretaries in the period 1964-2006 contributed their recollections of the Unions history in IAU Information Bulletin No.100. Six past IAU Presidents in the period 1976–2003 also contributed their recollections in IAU Information Bulletin No.104, the IAU includes a total of 12,664 individual members who are professional astronomers from 96 countries worldwide. 83% of all members are male, while 17% are female, among them the unions current president. Membership also includes 79 national members, professional astronomical communities representing their countrys affiliation with the IAU, the sovereign body of the IAU is its General Assembly, which comprises all members. The Assembly determines IAU policy, approves the Statutes and By-Laws of the Union, the right to vote on matters brought before the Assembly varies according to the type of business under discussion. On budget matters, votes are weighted according to the subscription levels of the national members. A second category vote requires a turnout of at least two-thirds of national members in order to be valid, an absolute majority is sufficient for approval in any vote, except for Statute revision which requires a two-thirds majority. An equality of votes is resolved by the vote of the President of the Union, since 1922, the IAU General Assembly meets every three years, with the exception of the period between 1938 and 1948, due to World War II
34.
Equatorial coordinate system
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The equatorial coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system widely used to specify the positions of celestial objects. The origin at the center of the Earth means the coordinates are geocentric, a right-handed convention means that coordinates are positive toward the north and toward the east in the fundamental plane. This description of the orientation of the frame is somewhat simplified. A slow motion of Earths axis, precession, causes a slow, continuous turning of the system westward about the poles of the ecliptic. Superimposed on this is a motion of the ecliptic. In order to fix the primary direction, these motions necessitate the specification of the equinox of a particular date, known as an epoch. The three most commonly used are, Mean equinox of an epoch is a fixed standard direction. Mean equinox of date is the intersection of the ecliptic of date with the mean equator, commonly used in planetary orbit calculation. True equinox of date is the intersection of the ecliptic of date with the true equator and this is the actual intersection of the two planes at any particular moment, with all motions accounted for. A position in the coordinate system is thus typically specified true equinox and equator of date, mean equinox and equator of J2000.0. Note that there is no mean ecliptic, as the ecliptic is not subject to small periodic oscillations, a stars spherical coordinates are often expressed as a pair, right ascension and declination, without a distance coordinate. The direction of distant objects is the same for all observers. Telescopes equipped with equatorial mounts and setting circles employ the equatorial coordinate system to find objects, setting circles in conjunction with a star chart or ephemeris allow the telescope to be easily pointed at known objects on the celestial sphere. The declination symbol δ, measures the distance of an object perpendicular to the celestial equator, positive to the north. For example, the celestial pole has a declination of +90°. The origin for declination is the equator, which is the projection of the Earths equator onto the celestial sphere. Declination is analogous to terrestrial latitude, the right ascension symbol α, measures the angular distance of an object eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the hour circle passing through the object. The vernal equinox point is one of the two where the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator, there are = 15° in one hour of right ascension, 24h of right ascension around the entire celestial equator
35.
Right ascension
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Right ascension is the angular distance measured eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the hour circle of the point in question. When combined with declination, these astronomical coordinates specify the direction of a point on the sphere in the equatorial coordinate system. Right ascension is the equivalent of terrestrial longitude. Both right ascension and longitude measure an angle from a direction on an equator. Right ascension is measured continuously in a circle from that equinox towards the east. Any units of measure could have been chosen for right ascension, but it is customarily measured in hours, minutes. Astronomers have chosen this unit to measure right ascension because they measure a stars location by timing its passage through the highest point in the sky as the Earth rotates. The highest point in the sky, called meridian, is the projection of a line onto the celestial sphere. A full circle, measured in units, contains 24 × 60 × 60 = 86 400s, or 24 × 60 = 1 440m. Because right ascensions are measured in hours, they can be used to time the positions of objects in the sky. For example, if a star with RA = 01h 30m 00s is on the meridian, sidereal hour angle, used in celestial navigation, is similar to right ascension, but increases westward rather than eastward. Usually measured in degrees, it is the complement of right ascension with respect to 24h and it is important not to confuse sidereal hour angle with the astronomical concept of hour angle, which measures angular distance of an object westward from the local meridian. The Earths axis rotates slowly westward about the poles of the ecliptic and this effect, known as precession, causes the coordinates of stationary celestial objects to change continuously, if rather slowly. Therefore, equatorial coordinates are inherently relative to the year of their observation, coordinates from different epochs must be mathematically rotated to match each other, or to match a standard epoch. The right ascension of Polaris is increasing quickly, the North Ecliptic Pole in Draco and the South Ecliptic Pole in Dorado are always at right ascension 18h and 6h respectively. The currently used standard epoch is J2000.0, which is January 1,2000 at 12,00 TT, the prefix J indicates that it is a Julian epoch. Prior to J2000.0, astronomers used the successive Besselian Epochs B1875.0, B1900.0, the concept of right ascension has been known at least as far back as Hipparchus who measured stars in equatorial coordinates in the 2nd century BC. But Hipparchus and his successors made their star catalogs in ecliptic coordinates, the easiest way to do that is to use an equatorial mount, which allows the telescope to be aligned with one of its two pivots parallel to the Earths axis
36.
Declination
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In astronomy, declination is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. Declinations angle is measured north or south of the celestial equator, the root of the word declination means a bending away or a bending down. It comes from the root as the words incline and recline. Declination in astronomy is comparable to geographic latitude, projected onto the celestial sphere, points north of the celestial equator have positive declinations, while those south have negative declinations. Any units of measure can be used for declination, but it is customarily measured in the degrees, minutes. Declinations with magnitudes greater than 90° do not occur, because the poles are the northernmost and southernmost points of the celestial sphere, the Earths axis rotates slowly westward about the poles of the ecliptic, completing one circuit in about 26,000 years. This effect, known as precession, causes the coordinates of stationary celestial objects to change continuously, therefore, equatorial coordinates are inherently relative to the year of their observation, and astronomers specify them with reference to a particular year, known as an epoch. Coordinates from different epochs must be rotated to match each other. The currently used standard epoch is J2000.0, which is January 1,2000 at 12,00 TT, the prefix J indicates that it is a Julian epoch. Prior to J2000.0, astronomers used the successive Besselian Epochs B1875.0, B1900.0, the declinations of Solar System objects change very rapidly compared to those of stars, due to orbital motion and close proximity. This similarly occurs in the Southern Hemisphere for objects with less than −90° − φ. An extreme example is the star which has a declination near to +90°. Circumpolar stars never dip below the horizon, conversely, there are other stars that never rise above the horizon, as seen from any given point on the Earths surface. Generally, if a star whose declination is δ is circumpolar for some observer, then a star whose declination is −δ never rises above the horizon, as seen by the same observer. Likewise, if a star is circumpolar for an observer at latitude φ, neglecting atmospheric refraction, declination is always 0° at east and west points of the horizon. At the north point, it is 90° − |φ|, and at the south point, from the poles, declination is uniform around the entire horizon, approximately 0°. Non-circumpolar stars are visible only during certain days or seasons of the year, the Suns declination varies with the seasons. As seen from arctic or antarctic latitudes, the Sun is circumpolar near the summer solstice, leading to the phenomenon of it being above the horizon at midnight
37.
Solar System
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The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets, with the remainder being significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets, of the objects that orbit the Sun indirectly, the moons, two are larger than the smallest planet, Mercury. The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of a giant interstellar molecular cloud. The vast majority of the mass is in the Sun. The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, are terrestrial planets, being composed of rock. The four outer planets are giant planets, being more massive than the terrestrials. All planets have almost circular orbits that lie within a flat disc called the ecliptic. The Solar System also contains smaller objects, the asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, mostly contains objects composed, like the terrestrial planets, of rock and metal. Beyond Neptunes orbit lie the Kuiper belt and scattered disc, which are populations of trans-Neptunian objects composed mostly of ices, within these populations are several dozen to possibly tens of thousands of objects large enough that they have been rounded by their own gravity. Such objects are categorized as dwarf planets, identified dwarf planets include the asteroid Ceres and the trans-Neptunian objects Pluto and Eris. In addition to two regions, various other small-body populations, including comets, centaurs and interplanetary dust clouds. Six of the planets, at least four of the dwarf planets, each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other small objects. The solar wind, a stream of charged particles flowing outwards from the Sun, the heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind is equal to the opposing pressure of the interstellar medium, it extends out to the edge of the scattered disc. The Oort cloud, which is thought to be the source for long-period comets, the Solar System is located in the Orion Arm,26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. For most of history, humanity did not recognize or understand the concept of the Solar System, the invention of the telescope led to the discovery of further planets and moons. The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G2 main-sequence star that contains 99. 86% of the known mass. The Suns four largest orbiting bodies, the giant planets, account for 99% of the mass, with Jupiter. The remaining objects of the Solar System together comprise less than 0. 002% of the Solar Systems total mass, most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earths orbit, known as the ecliptic
38.
Cosmic distance ladder
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The cosmic distance ladder is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A real direct distance measurement of an object is possible only for those objects that are close enough to Earth. The techniques for determining distances to more distant objects are all based on various measured correlations between methods that work at distances and methods that work at larger distances. Several methods rely on a candle, which is an astronomical object that has a known luminosity. The ladder analogy arises because no single technique can measure distances at all ranges encountered in astronomy, instead, one method can be used to measure nearby distances, a second can be used to measure nearby to intermediate distances, and so on. Each rung of the ladder provides information that can be used to determine the distances at the next higher rung, at the base of the ladder are fundamental distance measurements, in which distances are determined directly, with no physical assumptions about the nature of the object in question. The precise measurement of stellar positions is part of the discipline of astrometry, direct distance measurements are based upon the astronomical unit, which is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Historically, observations of transits of Venus were crucial in determining the AU, in the first half of the 20th century, observations of asteroids were also important. Keplers laws provide precise ratios of the sizes of the orbits of objects orbiting the Sun, radar is used to measure the distance between the orbits of the Earth and of a second body. From that measurement and the ratio of the two sizes, the size of Earths orbit is calculated. The Earths orbit is known with a precision of a few meters, the most important fundamental distance measurements come from trigonometric parallax. As the Earth orbits the Sun, the position of stars will appear to shift slightly against the more distant background. These shifts are angles in a triangle, with 2 AU making the base leg of the triangle. The amount of shift is small, measuring 1 arcsecond for an object at the 1 parsec distance of the nearest stars. Astronomers usually express distances in units of parsecs, light-years are used in popular media, because parallax becomes smaller for a greater stellar distance, useful distances can be measured only for stars whose parallax is larger than a few times the precision of the measurement. Parallax measurements typically have an accuracy measured in milliarcseconds, the Hubble telescope WFC3 now has the potential to provide a precision of 20 to 40 microarcseconds, enabling reliable distance measurements up to 5,000 parsecs for small numbers of stars. By the early 2020s, the GAIA space mission will provide similarly accurate distances to all bright stars. Stars have a velocity relative to the Sun that causes proper motion, for a group of stars with the same spectral class and a similar magnitude range, a mean parallax can be derived from statistical analysis of the proper motions relative to their radial velocities
39.
Variable star
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A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth fluctuates. Many, possibly most, stars have at least some variation in luminosity, an ancient Egyptian calendar of lucky and unlucky days composed some 3,200 years ago may be the oldest preserved historical document of the discovery of a variable star, the eclipsing binary Algol. This discovery, combined with supernovae observed in 1572 and 1604, proved that the sky was not eternally invariable as Aristotle. In this way, the discovery of variable stars contributed to the revolution of the sixteenth. The second variable star to be described was the eclipsing variable Algol, by Geminiano Montanari in 1669, chi Cygni was identified in 1686 by G. Kirch, then R Hydrae in 1704 by G. D. Maraldi. By 1786 ten variable stars were known, John Goodricke himself discovered Delta Cephei and Beta Lyrae. Since 1850 the number of variable stars has increased rapidly, especially after 1890 when it became possible to identify variable stars by means of photography. The latest edition of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars lists more than 46,000 variable stars in the Milky Way, as well as 10,000 in other galaxies, and over 10,000 suspected variables. The most common kinds of variability involve changes in brightness, but other types of variability also occur, by combining light curve data with observed spectral changes, astronomers are often able to explain why a particular star is variable. Variable stars are generally analysed using photometry, spectrophotometry and spectroscopy, measurements of their changes in brightness can be plotted to produce light curves. Peak brightnesses in the curve are known as maxima, while troughs are known as minima. By estimating the magnitude and noting the time of observation a visual lightcurve can be constructed. The American Association of Variable Star Observers collects such observations from participants around the world, from the light curve the following data are derived, are the brightness variations periodical, semiperiodical, irregular, or unique. What is the period of the brightness fluctuations, what is the shape of the light curve. From the spectrum the following data are derived, what kind of star is it, what is its temperature, is it a single star, or a binary. does the spectrum change with time. In very few cases it is possible to make pictures of a stellar disk and these may show darker spots on its surface. Combining light curves with spectral data often gives a clue as to the changes occur in a variable star. For example, evidence for a star is found in its shifting spectrum because its surface periodically moves toward and away from us
40.
RR Lyrae variable
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RR Lyrae variables are periodic variable stars, commonly found in globular clusters and are used as standard candles to measure galactic distances. This class of star is named after the prototype and brightest example. RR Lyraes are pulsating horizontal branch aging stars of spectral class A or F, with a mass of around half the Suns. They are thought to have previously shed mass during the Red-giant branch phase, the period of pulsation and absolute magnitude of RR Lyraes makes them good standard candles for relatively nearby targets, especially within the Milky Way and Local Group. Beyond the Milky Way they are difficult to due to their low luminosity. They are extensively used in globular cluster studies, and also used to study properties of older stars. In surveys of clusters, these cluster-type variables were being rapidly identified in the mid-1890s. Probably the first star of definitely RR Lyrae type found outside a cluster was U Leporis, the prototype star RR Lyrae was discovered prior to 1899 by Williamina Fleming, and reported by Pickering in 1900 as indistinguishable from cluster-type variables. RR Lyrae variables are metal-poor, Population II stars, RR Lyraes have proven difficult to observe in external galaxies because of their intrinsic faintness. Using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in the 1980s, Pritchet & van den Bergh found Lyraes in Andromedas galactic halo and, more recently, several times as many RR Lyraes are known as all Cepheids combined, in the 1980s, about 1900 were known in globular clusters. Some estimates have about 85000 in the Milky Way, though binary star systems are common for typical stars, RR Lyrae are very rarely observed in pairs. RR Lyrae stars pulse in a similar to Cepheid variables. Like all variables on the Cepheid instability strip, pulsations are caused by the κ-mechanism, RR Lyraes are old, relatively low mass, Population II stars, in common with W Virginis and BL Herculis variables, the type II Cepheids. Classical Cepheid variables are higher mass population I stars, RR Lyrae variables are much more common than Cepheids, but also much less luminous. The average absolute magnitude of an RR Lyrae star is about +0.75 and their period is shorter, typically less than one day, sometimes ranging down to seven hours. Some RRab stars, include RR Lyrae itself, exhibit the Blazhko effect in which there is a conspicuous phase, unlike Cepheid variables, RR Lyrae variables do not follow a strict period-luminosity relationship at visual wavelengths, although they do in the infrared K band. They are normally analysed using a period-colour-relationship, for using a Wesenheit function. In this way, they can be used as standard candles for distance measurements although there are difficulties with the effects of metallicity, faintness, and blending
41.
Standard candles
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The cosmic distance ladder is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A real direct distance measurement of an object is possible only for those objects that are close enough to Earth. The techniques for determining distances to more distant objects are all based on various measured correlations between methods that work at distances and methods that work at larger distances. Several methods rely on a candle, which is an astronomical object that has a known luminosity. The ladder analogy arises because no single technique can measure distances at all ranges encountered in astronomy, instead, one method can be used to measure nearby distances, a second can be used to measure nearby to intermediate distances, and so on. Each rung of the ladder provides information that can be used to determine the distances at the next higher rung, at the base of the ladder are fundamental distance measurements, in which distances are determined directly, with no physical assumptions about the nature of the object in question. The precise measurement of stellar positions is part of the discipline of astrometry, direct distance measurements are based upon the astronomical unit, which is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Historically, observations of transits of Venus were crucial in determining the AU, in the first half of the 20th century, observations of asteroids were also important. Keplers laws provide precise ratios of the sizes of the orbits of objects orbiting the Sun, radar is used to measure the distance between the orbits of the Earth and of a second body. From that measurement and the ratio of the two sizes, the size of Earths orbit is calculated. The Earths orbit is known with a precision of a few meters, the most important fundamental distance measurements come from trigonometric parallax. As the Earth orbits the Sun, the position of stars will appear to shift slightly against the more distant background. These shifts are angles in a triangle, with 2 AU making the base leg of the triangle. The amount of shift is small, measuring 1 arcsecond for an object at the 1 parsec distance of the nearest stars. Astronomers usually express distances in units of parsecs, light-years are used in popular media, because parallax becomes smaller for a greater stellar distance, useful distances can be measured only for stars whose parallax is larger than a few times the precision of the measurement. Parallax measurements typically have an accuracy measured in milliarcseconds, the Hubble telescope WFC3 now has the potential to provide a precision of 20 to 40 microarcseconds, enabling reliable distance measurements up to 5,000 parsecs for small numbers of stars. By the early 2020s, the GAIA space mission will provide similarly accurate distances to all bright stars. Stars have a velocity relative to the Sun that causes proper motion, for a group of stars with the same spectral class and a similar magnitude range, a mean parallax can be derived from statistical analysis of the proper motions relative to their radial velocities
. Bibcode:2013ARep...57..128M. doi:10.1134/S1063772913020078. Russian original Малкин, З. М. (2013). "Об определении расстояния от Солнца до центра Галактики". Astronomicheskii Zhurnal (in Russian). 90 (2): 152–157. doi:10.7868/S0004629913020072.
