1.
SN 1054
–
SN1054 is a supernova that was first observed on 4 July 1054, and remained visible for around two years. The event was recorded in contemporary Chinese astronomy, and references to it are found in a later Japanese document. The remnant of SN1054, which consists of debris ejected during the explosion, is known as the Crab Nebula and it is located in the sky near the star Zeta Tauri. The core of the star formed a pulsar, called the Crab Pulsar. The nebula and the pulsar that it contains are some of the most studied astronomical objects outside the Solar System and it is one of the few Galactic supernovae where the date of the explosion is well known. The two objects are the most luminous in their respective categories, for these reasons, and because of the important role it has repeatedly played in the modern era, SN1054 is the best known supernova in the history of astronomy. When the French astronomer Charles Messier watched for the return of Halleys Comet in 1758, he confused the nebula for the comet, due to this error, he created his catalogue of non-cometary nebulous objects, the Messier Catalogue, to avoid such mistakes in the future. The nebula is catalogued as the first Messier object, or M1, the Crab Nebula was identified as the supernova remnant of SN1054 between 1921 and 1942, at first speculatively, with some plausibility by 1939, and beyond reasonable doubt by Jan Oort in 1942. In 1921, Carl Otto Lampland was the first to announce that he had changes in the structure of the Crab Nebula. This announcement occurred at a time when the nature of the nebulas in the sky was completely unknown and their nature, size and distance were subject to debate. Lamplands comments were confirmed some weeks later by John Charles Duncan, the points were moving away from the centre, and did so faster as they got further from it. Also in 1921, Knut Lundmark compiled the data for the guest stars mentioned in the Chinese chronicles known in the West. Lundmark gives a list of 60 suspected novae, then the term for a stellar explosion. The nova of 1054, already mentioned by the Biots in 1843, is part of the list. In 1928, Edwin Hubble was the first to note that the aspect of the Crab Nebula. Hubble therefore deduced, correctly, that this cloud was the remains of the explosion which was observed by Chinese astronomers, hubbles comment remained relatively unknown as the physical phenomenon of the explosion was not known at the time. This was under the assumption that the velocities of expansion along the line of sight, based on the reference to the brightness of the star which featured in the first documents discovered in 1934, he deduced that it was a supernova rather than a nova. This deduction was subsequently refined, which pushed Mayall and Jan Oort in 1942 to analyse historic accounts relating to the guest star more closely, other historical supernovae of which there are written accounts which precede the invention of the telescope are however established with certitude
SN 1054
–
Giant picture mosaic of the
Crab Nebula, remnant of SN 1054, taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope in
visible light. Credit:
NASA /
ESA.
SN 1054
–
The guest star reported by Chinese astronomers in 1054 is identified as SN 1054. The highlighted passages refer to the supernova.
SN 1054
–
Henry before
Tivoli pointing up at a new star.
2.
Crab Nebula
–
The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus. The now-current name is due to William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, corresponding to a bright supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054, the nebula was observed later by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a supernova explosion. At an apparent magnitude of 8.4, comparable to that of Saturns moon Titan, it is not visible to the naked eye, the nebula lies in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of about 2.0 kiloparsecs from Earth. It has a diameter of 3.4 parsecs, corresponding to an apparent diameter of some 7 arcminutes, and is expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometres per second, or 0. 5% of the speed of light. At the center of the lies the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star 28–30 kilometres across with a spin rate of 30.2 times per second. At X-ray and gamma ray energies above 30 keV, the Crab Nebula is generally the strongest persistent source in the sky, the nebulas radiation allows for the detailed studying of celestial bodies that occult it. The inner part of the nebula is a much smaller pulsar wind nebula that appears as a shell surrounding the pulsar, for the Crab Nebula, the divisions are superficial but remain meaningful to researchers and their lines of study. Modern understanding that the Crab Nebula was created by a supernova dates to 1921 and this eventually led to the conclusion that the creation of the Crab Nebula corresponds to the bright SN1054 supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in AD1054. There is also a 13th-century Japanese reference to this guest star in Meigetsuki, the Crab Nebula was first identified in 1731 by John Bevis. The nebula was independently rediscovered in 1758 by Charles Messier as he was observing a bright comet and it is in searching in vain for the comet that Charles Messier found the Crab nebula, which he at first thought to be Halleys comet. After some observation, noticing that the object that he was observing was not moving across the sky, Messier then realised the usefulness of compiling a catalogue of celestial objects of a cloudy nature, but fixed in the sky, to avoid incorrectly cataloguing them as comets. After several observations, he concluded that it was composed of a group of stars. The 3rd Earl of Rosse observed the nebula at Birr Castle in 1844 using a 36-inch telescope and he observed it again later, in 1848, using a 72-inch telescope and could not confirm the supposed resemblance, but the name stuck nevertheless. In 1913, when Vesto Slipher registered his spectroscopy study of the sky, in the early twentieth century, the analysis of early photographs of the nebula taken several years apart revealed that it was expanding. Tracing the expansion back revealed that the nebula must have become visible on Earth about 900 years ago, historical records revealed that a new star bright enough to be seen in the daytime had been recorded in the same part of the sky by Chinese astronomers in 1054. Changes in the cloud, suggesting its small extent, were discovered by Carl Lampland in 1921 and that same year, John Charles Duncan demonstrated that the remnant is expanding, while Knut Lundmark noted its proximity to the guest star of 1054.5 by July. The supernova was visible to the eye for about two years after its first observation
Crab Nebula
–
Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image assembled from 24 individual
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000
Crab Nebula
–
Reproduction of the first depiction of the nebula by Lord Rosse (1844) (colour-inverted to appear white-on-black)
Crab Nebula
–
Image combining optical data from
Hubble (in red) and
X-ray images from
Chandra X-ray Observatory (in blue).
Crab Nebula
–
Hubble image of a small region of the Crab Nebula, showing
Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities in its intricate filamentary structure.
3.
Star
–
It is primarily present in steroid-producing cells, including theca cells and luteal cells in the ovary, Leydig cells in the testis and cell types in the adrenal cortex. The aqueous phase between two membranes cannot be crossed by the lipophilic cholesterol, unless certain proteins assist in this process. It is now clear that this process is mediated by the action of StAR. The mechanism by which StAR causes cholesterol movement remains unclear as it appears to act from the outside of the mitochondria, some involve StAR transferring cholesterol itself like a shuttle. Another notion is that it causes cholesterol to be kicked out of the membrane to the inner. StAR may also promote the formation of contact sites between the outer and inner mitochondrial membranes to allow cholesterol influx, another suggests that StAR acts in conjunction with PBR, causing the movement of Cl− out of the mitochondria to facilitate contact site formation. However, evidence for an interaction between StAR and PBR remains elusive, in humans, the gene for StAR is located on chromosome 8p11.2 and the protein has 285 amino acids. The signal sequence of StAR that targets it to the mitochondria is clipped off in two steps with import into the mitochondria, phosphorylation at the serine at position 195 increases its activity. The domain of StAR important for promoting cholesterol transfer is the StAR-related transfer domain, StAR is the prototypic member of the START domain family of proteins and is thus also known as STARD1 for START domain-containing protein 1. It is hypothesized that the START domain forms a pocket in StAR that binds single cholesterol molecules for delivery to P450scc, the closest homolog to StAR is MLN64. Together they comprise the StarD1/D3 subfamily of START domain-containing proteins, StAR is a mitochondrial protein that is rapidly synthesized in response to stimulation of the cell to produce steroid. Hormones that stimulate its production depend on the type and include luteinizing hormone, ACTH. At the cellular level, StAR is synthesized typically in response to activation of the second messenger system. StAR has thus far found in all tissues that can produce steroids, including the adrenal cortex, the gonads, the brain. One known exception is the human placenta, mutations in the gene for StAR cause lipoid congenital adrenal hyperplasia, in which patients produce little steroid and can die shortly after birth. Mutations that less severely affect the function of StAR result in nonclassic lipoid CAH or familial glucocorticoid deficiency type 3, all known mutations disrupt StAR function by altering its START domain. In the case of StAR mutation, the phenotype does not present until birth since human placental steroidogenesis is independent of StAR. At the cellular level, the lack of StAR results in an accumulation of lipid within cells
Star
4.
Supernova
–
This causes the sudden appearance of a new bright star, before slowly fading from sight over several weeks or months. Supernovae are more energetic than novae, in Latin, nova means new, referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star. Adding the prefix super- distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous, the word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931. It is pronounced /ˌsuːpərnoʊvə/ with the plural supernovae /ˌsuːpərnoʊviː/ or supernovas, only three Milky Way naked-eye supernova events have been observed during the last thousand years, though many have been seen in other galaxies using telescopes. The most recent directly observed supernova in the Milky Way was Keplers Supernova in 1604, Supernovae may expel much, if not all, of the material away from a star, at velocities up to 30,000 km/s or 10% of the speed of light. This drives an expanding and fast-moving shock wave into the interstellar medium, and in turn, sweeping up an expanding shell of gas and dust. Supernovae create, fuse and eject the bulk of the chemical elements produced by nucleosynthesis, Supernovae play a significant role in enriching the interstellar medium with the heavier atomic mass chemical elements. Furthermore, the shock waves from supernovae can trigger the formation of new stars. Supernova remnants are expected to accelerate a large fraction of primary cosmic rays. They are also potentially strong galactic sources of gravitational waves, in the second case, the core of a massive star may undergo sudden gravitational collapse, releasing gravitational potential energy as a supernova. While some observed supernovae are more complex than these two simplified theories, the astrophysical collapse mechanics have been established and accepted by most astronomers for some time, in Latin, Nova means new, referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star. Adding the prefix super- distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous, the word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931. It is pronounced /ˌsuːpərnoʊvə/ with the plural supernovae /ˌsuːpərnoʊviː/ or supernovas, the earliest recorded supernova, SN185, was viewed by Chinese astronomers in 185 AD. The brightest recorded supernova was SN1006, which occurred in 1006 AD and was described in detail by Chinese, the widely observed supernova SN1054 produced the Crab Nebula. Johannes Kepler began observing SN1604 at its peak on October 17,1604 and it was the second supernova to be observed in a generation. There is some evidence that the youngest galactic supernova, G1. 9+0.3, occurred in the late 19th century, neither supernova was noted at the time. In the case of G1. 9+0.3, high extinction along the plane of the galaxy could have dimmed the event sufficiently to go unnoticed, the situation for Cassiopeia A is less clear. Infrared light echos have been detected showing that it was a type IIb supernova and was not in a region of especially high extinction, before the development of the telescope, there have only been five supernovae seen in the last millennium
Supernova
–
SN 1994D (bright spot on the lower left), a
type Ia supernova in the
NGC 4526 galaxy
Supernova
–
The
Crab Nebula is a
pulsar wind nebula associated with the
1054 supernova
Supernova
–
The highlighted passages refer to the Chinese observation of SN 1054
Supernova
–
The
remnant of a star gone supernova.
5.
Shock wave
–
In physics, a shock wave, or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance. When a wave moves faster than the speed of sound in a fluid it is a shock wave. In supersonic flows, expansion is achieved through an expansion fan also known as a Prandtl-Meyer expansion fan, unlike solitons, the energy of a shock wave dissipates relatively quickly with distance. Also, the accompanying expansion wave approaches and eventually merges with the shock wave, when a shock wave passes through matter, energy is preserved but entropy increases. Shock waves can be, Normal, at 90° to the shock mediums flow direction, oblique, at an angle to the direction of flow. Bow, Occurs upstream of the front of a blunt object when the flow velocity exceeds Mach 1. Some other terms Shock Front, The boundary over which the physical conditions undergo a change because of a shock wave. Contact Front, in a wave caused by a driver gas. The Contact Front trails the Shock Front, when an object moves faster than the information about it can propagate into the surrounding fluid, fluid near the disturbance cannot react or get out of the way before the disturbance arrives. In a shock wave the properties of the fluid change almost instantaneously, measurements of the thickness of shock waves in air have resulted in values around 200 nm, which is on the same order of magnitude as the mean free gas molecule path. In reference to the continuum, this implies the shock wave can be treated as either a line or a plane if the field is two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Shock waves are formed when a pressure front moves at supersonic speeds, Shock waves are not conventional sound waves, a shock wave takes the form of a very sharp change in the gas properties. Shock waves in air are heard as a crack or snap noise. Over longer distances, a wave can change from a nonlinear wave into a linear wave, degenerating into a conventional sound wave as it heats the air. The sound wave is heard as the familiar thud or thump of a sonic boom, the shock wave is one of several different ways in which a gas in a supersonic flow can be compressed. Some other methods are isentropic compressions, including Prandtl-Meyer compressions, the method of compression of a gas results in different temperatures and densities for a given pressure ratio which can be analytically calculated for a non-reacting gas. A shock wave compression results in a loss of pressure, meaning that it is a less efficient method of compressing gases for some purposes. The appearance of pressure-drag on supersonic aircraft is due to the effect of shock compression on the flow
Shock wave
–
Schlieren photograph of an attached shock on a sharp-nosed supersonic body.
Shock wave
–
Shock wave propagating into a stationary medium, ahead of the fireball of an explosion. The shock is made visible by the
shadow effect (Trinity explosion.)
Shock wave
–
Schlieren photograph of the detached shock on a bullet in supersonic flight, published by Ernst Mach and Peter Salcher in 1887.
Shock wave
–
Shadowgram of shock waves from a supersonic bullet fired from a rifle. The shadowgraph optical technique reveals that the bullet is moving at about a Mach number of 1.9. Left- and right-running bow waves and tail waves stream back from the bullet and its turbulent wake is also visible. Patterns at the far right are from unburned gunpowder particles ejected by the rifle.
6.
Neutron star
–
A neutron star is the collapsed core of a large star. Neutron stars are the smallest and densest stars known to exist, though neutron stars typically have a radius on the order of 10 km, they can have masses of about twice that of the Sun. They result from the explosion of a massive star, combined with gravitational collapse. They are supported against further collapse by neutron degeneracy pressure, a described by the Pauli exclusion principle. If the remnant has too great a density, something which occurs in excess of a limit of the size of neutron stars at 2–3 solar masses. Neutron stars that can be observed are very hot and typically have a temperature around 6×105 K. They are so dense that a normal-sized matchbox containing neutron-star material would have a mass of approximately 3 billion tonnes and their magnetic fields are between 108 and 1015 times as strong as that of the Earth. The gravitational field at the stars surface is about 2×1011 times that of the Earth. As the stars core collapses, its rotation rate increases as a result of conservation of angular momentum, some neutron stars emit beams of electromagnetic radiation that make them detectable as pulsars. Indeed, the discovery of pulsars in 1967 was the first observational suggestion that stars exist. The radiation from pulsars is thought to be emitted from regions near their magnetic poles. The fastest-spinning neutron star known is PSR J1748-2446ad, rotating at a rate of 716 times a second or 43,000 revolutions per minute, giving a linear speed at the surface on the order of 0.24 c. There are thought to be around 100 million neutron stars in the Milky Way, however, most are old and cold, and neutron stars can only be easily detected in certain instances, such as if they are a pulsar or part of a binary system. Soft gamma repeaters are conjectured to be a type of neutron star with strong magnetic fields, known as magnetars, or alternatively. Additionally, such accretion can recycle old pulsars and potentially cause them to mass and spin-up to very fast rotation rates. The merger of binary stars may be the source of short-duration gamma-ray bursts and are likely strong sources of gravitational waves. Any main-sequence star with a mass of above 8 times the mass of the sun has the potential to produce a neutron star. As the star evolves away from the sequence, subsequent nuclear burning produces an iron-rich core
Neutron star
–
Radiation from the
pulsar PSR B1509-58, a rapidly spinning neutron star, makes nearby gas glow in
X-rays (gold, from
Chandra) and illuminates the rest of the
nebula, here seen in
infrared (blue and red, from
WISE).
Neutron star
–
The first direct observation of a neutron star in visible light. The neutron star is
RX J185635-3754.
Neutron star
–
NASA artist's conception of a "
starquake ", or "stellar quake".
Neutron star
–
Circinus X-1: X-ray light rings from a binary neutron star (24 June 2015;
Chandra X-ray Observatory).
7.
Black hole
–
A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it. The theory of relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon, although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, no locally detectable features appear to be observed. In many ways a black hole acts like a black body. Moreover, quantum theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation. This temperature is on the order of billionths of a kelvin for black holes of stellar mass, objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. Black holes were considered a mathematical curiosity, it was during the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity. The discovery of neutron stars sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality, black holes of stellar mass are expected to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings, by absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses may form. There is general consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies, despite its invisible interior, the presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. Matter that falls onto a black hole can form an accretion disk heated by friction. If there are other stars orbiting a black hole, their orbits can be used to determine the black holes mass, such observations can be used to exclude possible alternatives such as neutron stars.3 million solar masses. On 15 June 2016, a detection of a gravitational wave event from colliding black holes was announced. The idea of a body so massive that light could not escape was briefly proposed by astronomical pioneer John Michell in a letter published in 1783-4. Michell correctly noted that such supermassive but non-radiating bodies might be detectable through their effects on nearby visible bodies. In 1915, Albert Einstein developed his theory of general relativity, only a few months later, Karl Schwarzschild found a solution to the Einstein field equations, which describes the gravitational field of a point mass and a spherical mass. A few months after Schwarzschild, Johannes Droste, a student of Hendrik Lorentz, independently gave the solution for the point mass. This solution had a peculiar behaviour at what is now called the Schwarzschild radius, the nature of this surface was not quite understood at the time
Black hole
–
Predicted appearance of non-rotating black hole with toroidal ring of ionised matter, such as has been proposed as a model for
Sagittarius A*. The asymmetry is due to the
Doppler effect resulting from the enormous orbital speed needed for centrifugal balance of the very strong gravitational attraction of the hole.
Black hole
–
Simulation of
gravitational lensing by a black hole, which distorts the image of a
galaxy in the background
Black hole
–
A simple illustration of a non-spinning black hole
Black hole
–
A simulated event in the CMS detector, a collision in which a micro black hole may be created.
8.
White dwarf
–
A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense, its mass is comparable to that of the Sun, a white dwarfs faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy, no fusion takes place in a white dwarf wherein mass is converted to energy. The nearest known white dwarf is Sirius B, at 8.6 light years, there are currently thought to be eight white dwarfs among the hundred star systems nearest the Sun. The unusual faintness of white dwarfs was first recognized in 1910, the name white dwarf was coined by Willem Luyten in 1922. The universe has not existed long enough to experience a white dwarf releasing all of its energy as it will take many billions of years. If a red giant has insufficient mass to generate the temperatures, around 1 billion K, required to fuse carbon. After such a star sheds its outer layers and forms a planetary nebula, it will leave behind a core, usually, white dwarfs are composed of carbon and oxygen. If the mass of the progenitor is between 8 and 10.5 solar masses, the temperature will be sufficient to fuse carbon but not neon. Stars of very low mass will not be able to fuse helium, hence, the material in a white dwarf no longer undergoes fusion reactions, so the star has no source of energy. As a result, it support itself by the heat generated by fusion against gravitational collapse. A carbon-oxygen white dwarf that approaches this limit, typically by mass transfer from a companion star. A white dwarf is very hot when it forms, but because it has no source of energy, it will gradually radiate its energy and this means that its radiation, which initially has a high color temperature, will lessen and redden with time. Over a very time, a white dwarf will cool. The stars low temperature means it will no longer emit significant heat or light, and it will become a cold black dwarf. Because the length of time it takes for a dwarf to reach this state is calculated to be longer than the current age of the universe. The oldest white dwarfs still radiate at temperatures of a few thousand kelvins, the pair 40 Eridani B/C was discovered by William Herschel on 31 January 1783, p.73 it was again observed by Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve in 1825 and by Otto Wilhelm von Struve in 1851. In 1910, Henry Norris Russell, Edward Charles Pickering and Williamina Fleming discovered that, despite being a dim star,40 Eridani B was of spectral type A, or white. In 1939, Russell looked back on the discovery, p.1 I was visiting my friend and generous benefactor and this piece of apparently routine work proved very fruitful—it led to the discovery that all the stars of very faint absolute magnitude were of spectral class M
White dwarf
–
Artist's impression of debris around a white dwarf
White dwarf
–
Image of
Sirius A and Sirius B taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope. Sirius B, which is a white dwarf, can be seen as a faint pinprick of light to the lower left of the much brighter Sirius A.
9.
Accretion (astrophysics)
–
In astrophysics, accretion is the accumulation of particles into a massive object by gravitationally attracting more matter, typically gaseous matter, in an accretion disk. Most astronomical objects, such as galaxies, stars, and planets, are formed by accretion processes, the idea proposed in the 19th century that Earth and the other terrestrial planets formed from meteoric material was developed in a quantitative way in 1969 by Viktor Safronov. He calculated, in detail, the different stages of planet formation. Since then, the theory has been developed using intensive numerical simulations to study planetesimal accumulation. Stars form by the collapse of interstellar gas. Prior to collapse, this gas is mostly in the form of molecular clouds, as the cloud collapses, losing potential energy, it heats up, gaining kinetic energy, and the conservation of angular momentum ensures that the cloud forms a flatted disk—the accretion disk. A few hundred years after the Big Bang, the Universe cooled to the point where atoms could form. As the Universe continued to expand and cool, the atoms lost enough kinetic energy, as further accretion occurred, galaxies formed. Galaxies grow through mergers and smooth gas accretion, accretion also occurs inside galaxies, forming stars. Stars are thought to form inside giant clouds of cold molecular hydrogen—giant molecular clouds of roughly 300,000 M☉ and 65 light-years in diameter, over millions of years, giant molecular clouds are prone to collapse and fragmentation. These fragments then form small, dense cores, which in turn collapse into stars, the cores range in mass from a fraction to several times that of the Sun and are called protostellar nebulae. They possess diameters of 2, 000–20,000 astronomical units, compare it with the particle number density of the air at the sea level—2. 8×1019/cm3. The initial collapse of a solar-mass protostellar nebula takes around 100,000 years, every nebula begins with a certain amount of angular momentum. This core forms the seed of what will become a star, as the collapse continues, conservation of angular momentum dictates that the rotation of the infalling envelope accelerates, which eventually forms a disk. Around this time the protostar begins to fuse deuterium, if the protostar is sufficiently massive, hydrogen fusion follows. Otherwise, if its mass is too low, the object becomes a brown dwarf and this birth of a new star occurs approximately 100,000 years after the collapse begins. Objects at this stage are known as Class I protostars, which are also called young T Tauri stars, evolved protostars, or young stellar objects. By this time, the star has already accreted much of its mass
Accretion (astrophysics)
–
Atacama Large Millimeter Array image of
HL Tauri, a
protoplanetary disc
Accretion (astrophysics)
10.
Supersonic speed
–
Supersonic travel is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound. For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C at sea level, speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often referred to as hypersonic. Flights during which some parts of the air surrounding an object, such as the ends of rotor blades. This occurs typically somewhere between Mach 0.8 and Mach 1.23, sounds are traveling vibrations in the form of pressure waves in an elastic medium. In gases, sound travels longitudinally at different speeds, mostly depending on the mass and temperature of the gas. Since air temperature and composition varies significantly with altitude, Mach numbers for aircraft may change despite a constant travel speed, in water at room temperature supersonic speed can be considered as any speed greater than 1,440 m/s. In solids, sound waves can be polarized longitudinally or transversely and have higher velocities. Supersonic fracture is crack motion faster than the speed of sound in a brittle material, at the beginning of the 20th century, the term supersonic was used as an adjective to describe sound whose frequency is above the range of normal human hearing. The modern term for this meaning is ultrasonic, the tip of a bullwhip is thought to be the first man-made object to break the sound barrier, resulting in the telltale crack. The wave motion traveling through the bullwhip is what makes it capable of achieving supersonic speeds, most modern fighter aircraft are supersonic aircraft, but there have been supersonic passenger aircraft, namely Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. Both these passenger aircraft and some modern fighters are also capable of supercruise, since Concordes final retirement flight on November 26,2003, there are no supersonic passenger aircraft left in service. Some large bombers, such as the Tupolev Tu-160 and Rockwell B-1 Lancer are also supersonic-capable, most modern firearm bullets are supersonic, with rifle projectiles often travelling at speeds approaching and in some cases well exceeding Mach 3. Most spacecraft, most notably the Space Shuttle are supersonic at least during portions of their reentry, during ascent, launch vehicles generally avoid going supersonic below 30 km to reduce air drag. Note that the speed of sound decreases somewhat with altitude, due to lower temperatures found there, at even higher altitudes the temperature starts increasing, with the corresponding increase in the speed of sound. When an inflated balloon is burst, the pieces of latex contracts at a supersonic speed. Supersonic aerodynamics is simpler than subsonic aerodynamics because the airsheets at different points along the plane often cant affect each other, Supersonic jets and rocket vehicles require several times greater thrust to push through the extra aerodynamic drag experienced within the transonic region. Designers use the Supersonic area rule and the Whitcomb area rule to minimize changes in size. However, in applications, a supersonic aircraft will have to operate stably in both subsonic and supersonic profiles, hence aerodynamic design is more complex
Supersonic speed
–
A
United States Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet in
transonic flight
Supersonic speed
–
U.S. Navy
F/A-18 approaching the sound barrier. The white cloud forms as a result of the
supersonic expansion fans dropping the air temperature below the dew point.
11.
Mach number
–
In fluid dynamics, the Mach number is a dimensionless quantity representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound. M = u c, where, M is the Mach number, u is the flow velocity with respect to the boundaries. By definition, Mach 1 is equal to the speed of sound, Mach 0.65 is 65% of the speed of sound, and Mach 1.35 is 35% faster than the speed of sound. The local speed of sound, and thereby the Mach number, depends on the condition of the surrounding medium, the Mach number is primarily used to determine the approximation with which a flow can be treated as an incompressible flow. The medium can be a gas or a liquid, the boundary can be the boundary of an object immersed in the medium, or of a channel such as a nozzle, diffusers or wind tunnels channeling the medium. As the Mach number is defined as the ratio of two speeds, it is a dimensionless number, if M <0. 2–0.3 and the flow is quasi-steady and isothermal, compressibility effects will be small and simplified incompressible flow equations can be used. The Mach number is named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, as the Mach number is a dimensionless quantity rather than a unit of measure, with Mach, the number comes after the unit, the second Mach number is Mach 2 instead of 2 Mach. This is somewhat reminiscent of the modern ocean sounding unit mark, which was also unit-first. In the decade preceding faster-than-sound human flight, aeronautical engineers referred to the speed of sound as Machs number, never Mach 1, Mach number is useful because the fluid behaves in a similar manner at a given Mach number, regardless of other variables. As modeled in the International Standard Atmosphere, dry air at sea level, standard temperature of 15 °C. For example, the atmosphere model lapses temperature to −56.5 °C at 11,000 meters altitude. In the following table, the regimes or ranges of Mach values are referred to, generally, NASA defines high hypersonic as any Mach number from 10 to 25, and re-entry speeds as anything greater than Mach 25. Aircraft operating in this include the Space Shuttle and various space planes in development. Flight can be classified in six categories, For comparison. At transonic speeds, the field around the object includes both sub- and supersonic parts. The transonic period begins when first zones of M >1 flow appear around the object, in case of an airfoil, this typically happens above the wing. Supersonic flow can decelerate back to only in a normal shock. As the speed increases, the zone of M >1 flow increases towards both leading and trailing edges
Mach number
–
An
F/A-18 Hornet creating a
vapor cone at
transonic speed just before reaching the speed of sound
12.
Plasma (physics)
–
Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter, the others being solid, liquid, and gas. Yet unlike these three states of matter, plasma does not naturally exist on the Earth under normal surface conditions, the term was first introduced by chemist Irving Langmuir in the 1920s. However, true plasma production is from the separation of these ions and electrons that produces an electric field. Based on the environmental temperature and density either partially ionised or fully ionised forms of plasma may be produced. The positive charge in ions is achieved by stripping away electrons from atomic nuclei, the number of electrons removed is related to either the increase in temperature or the local density of other ionised matter. Plasma may be the most abundant form of matter in the universe, although this is currently tentative based on the existence. Plasma is mostly associated with the Sun and stars, extending to the rarefied intracluster medium, Plasma was first identified in a Crookes tube, and so described by Sir William Crookes in 1879. The nature of the Crookes tube cathode ray matter was identified by British physicist Sir J. J. The term plasma was coined by Irving Langmuir in 1928, perhaps because the glowing discharge molds itself to the shape of the Crookes tube and we shall use the name plasma to describe this region containing balanced charges of ions and electrons. Plasma is a neutral medium of unbound positive and negative particles. Although these particles are unbound, they are not ‘free’ in the sense of not experiencing forces, in turn this governs collective behavior with many degrees of variation. The average number of particles in the Debye sphere is given by the plasma parameter, bulk interactions, The Debye screening length is short compared to the physical size of the plasma. This criterion means that interactions in the bulk of the plasma are more important than those at its edges, when this criterion is satisfied, the plasma is quasineutral. Plasma frequency, The electron plasma frequency is compared to the electron-neutral collision frequency. When this condition is valid, electrostatic interactions dominate over the processes of ordinary gas kinetics, for plasma to exist, ionization is necessary. The term plasma density by itself refers to the electron density, that is. The degree of ionization of a plasma is the proportion of atoms that have lost or gained electrons, even a partially ionized gas in which as little as 1% of the particles are ionized can have the characteristics of a plasma. The degree of ionization, α, is defined as α = n i n i + n n, where n i is the number density of ions and n n is the number density of neutral atoms
Plasma (physics)
–
Plasma
Plasma (physics)
Plasma (physics)
Plasma (physics)
13.
Parsec
–
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
Parsec
–
The jet erupting from the
active galactic nucleus of
M87 is thought to be 7000150000000000000♠ 1.5 kiloparsecs (7019462629720109201♠ 4890
ly) long. (image from Hubble Space Telescope)
Parsec
–
A parsec is the distance from the
Sun to an
astronomical object that has a
parallax angle of one
arcsecond (the diagram is not to scale).
14.
SN 1987A
–
SN 1987A was a supernova in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs from Earth and this was close enough that it was easily visible to the naked eye and it could be seen from the Southern Hemisphere. It was the closest observed supernova since SN1604, which occurred in the Milky Way itself, the light from the new supernova reached Earth on February 23,1987. As the first supernova discovered in 1987, it was labeled “1987A” and its brightness peaked in May with an apparent magnitude of about 3 and slowly declined in the following months. It was the first opportunity for astronomers to study the development of a supernova in great detail. This definitely proved the radioactive nature of the long-duration post-explosion glow of supernovae, SN 1987A was discovered by Ian Shelton and Oscar Duhalde at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on February 24,1987, and within the same 24 hours independently by Albert Jones in New Zealand. On March 4–12,1987, it was observed from space by Astron, four days after the event was recorded, the progenitor star was tentatively identified as Sanduleak −69°202, a blue supergiant. After the supernova faded, that identification was confirmed by Sanduleak −69°202 having disappeared. This was an identification, because models of high mass stellar evolution at the time did not predict that blue supergiants are susceptible to a supernova event. Many models of the progenitor have since attributed the color to its composition, particularly the low levels of heavy elements. There was some speculation that the star might have merged with a companion star prior to the supernova, because blue supergiant supernovae are not as bright as those generated by red supergiants, we cannot see them in as large a volume. We would thus not expect to see as many of them, approximately two to three hours before the visible light from SN 1987A reached Earth, a burst of neutrinos was observed at three separate neutrino observatories. This is likely due to emission, which occurs simultaneously with core collapse. Transmission of visible light is a process that occurs only after the shock wave reaches the stellar surface. At 07,35 UT, Kamiokande II detected 12 antineutrinos, IMB,8 antineutrinos, approximately three hours earlier, the Mont Blanc liquid scintillator detected a five-neutrino burst, but this is generally not believed to be associated with SN 1987A. The Kamiokande II detection, which at 12 neutrinos had the largest sample population, the first pulse, which started at 07,35,35 comprised 9 neutrinos, all of which arrived over a period of 1.915 seconds. A second pulse of three neutrinos arrived between 9.219 and 12.439 seconds after the first neutrino was detected, for a duration of 3.220 seconds. Although only 25 neutrinos were detected during the event, it was a significant increase from the previously observed background level and this was the first time neutrinos known to be emitted from a supernova had been observed directly, which marked the beginning of neutrino astronomy
SN 1987A
–
Remnant of SN 1987A seen in light overlays of different spectra.
ALMA data (
radio, in red) shows newly formed dust in the center of the remnant.
Hubble (
visible, in green) and
Chandra (
X-ray, in blue) data show the expanding shock wave.
SN 1987A
–
The SN 1987A remnant is the small, purplish point near the top of the frame, just right of center. Credit
ESO
SN 1987A
–
The expanding ring-shaped
remnant of SN 1987A and its interaction with its surroundings, seen in X-ray and visible light.
SN 1987A
–
SN 1987A, one of the brightest stellar explosions detected since the invention of the telescope more than 400 years ago
15.
Large Magellanic Cloud
–
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The LMC has a diameter of about 14,000 light-years, the LMC is the fourth-largest galaxy in the Local Group, after the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way, and the Triangulum Galaxy. The LMC is classified as a Magellanic spiral and it contains a very prominent bar in its center, suggesting that it may have been a barred dwarf spiral galaxy before its spiral arms were disrupted, likely by the Milky Ways gravity. The LMCs present irregular appearance is likely the result of interactions with both the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud. The first recorded mention of the Large Magellanic Cloud was by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi Shirazi, the next recorded observation was in 1503–4 by Amerigo Vespucci in a letter about his third voyage. In this letter he mentions three Canopes, two bright and one obscure, bright refers to the two Magellanic Clouds, and obscure refers to the Coalsack, ferdinand Magellan sighted the LMC on his voyage in 1519, and his writings brought the LMC into common Western knowledge. The galaxy now bears his name, measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope, announced in 2006, suggest the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds may be moving too fast to be orbiting the Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud is usually considered an irregular galaxy, however, it shows signs of a bar structure, and is often reclassified as a Magellanic-type dwarf spiral galaxy. The Large Magellanic Cloud has a prominent central bar and a spiral arm, the central bar seems to be warped so that the east and west ends are nearer the Milky Way than the middle. In 2014, measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope made it possible to determine that the LMC has a period of 250 million years. The LMC was long considered to be a galaxy that could be assumed to lie at a single distance from the Solar System. However, in 1986, Caldwell and Coulson found that field Cepheid variables in the northeast portion of the LMC lie closer to the Milky Way than Cepheids in the southwest portion. More recently, this inclined geometry for field stars in the LMC has been confirmed via observations of Cepheids, core helium-burning red clump stars, all three of these papers find an inclination of ~35°, where a face-on galaxy has an inclination of 0°. Further work on the structure of the LMC using the kinematics of stars showed that the LMCs disk is both thick and flared. These results were confirmed by Grocholski et al. who calculated distances to a number of clusters, the distance to the LMC has been calculated using a variety of standard candles, with Cepheid variables being one of the most popular. Cepheids have been shown to have a relationship between their absolute luminosity and the period over which their brightness varies, however, Cepheids appear to suffer from a metallicity effect, where Cepheids of different metallicities have different period–luminosity relations. Unfortunately, the Cepheids in the Milky Way typically used to calibrate the period–luminosity relation are more rich than those found in the LMC. Modern 8-meter-class optical telescopes have discovered eclipsing binaries throughout the Local Group, parameters of these systems can be measured without mass or compositional assumptions
Large Magellanic Cloud
–
The Large Magellanic Cloud
Large Magellanic Cloud
–
Small part of the Large Magellanic Cloud
Large Magellanic Cloud
–
Location of the Large Magellanic Cloud with respect to the
Milky Way and other satellite galaxies
Large Magellanic Cloud
–
Two very different glowing gas clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud
16.
SN 1572
–
SN1572, B Cassiopeiae, or 3C10 was a supernova of Type Ia in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of about eight supernovae visible to the naked eye in historical records. It appeared in early November 1572 and was discovered by many individuals. The appearance of the Milky Way supernova of 1572 belongs among the important observation events in the history of astronomy. It also challenged the Aristotelian dogma of the unchangeability of the realm of stars, Tycho was not the first to observe the 1572 supernova, although he was probably the most accurate observer of the object. Almost as accurate were his European colleagues, such as Wolfgang Schuler, Thomas Digges, John Dee, Francesco Maurolico, Jerónimo Muñoz, Tadeáš Hájek, or Bartholomäus Reisacher. The more reliable contemporary reports state that the new star itself burst forth sometime between November 2 and 6, in 1572, when it rivalled Venus in brightness, the supernova remained visible to the naked eye into 1574, gradually fading until it disappeared from view. The distance to the remnant has been estimated to between 2 and 5 kpc, but recent studies suggest a value closer to 2.5 and 3 kpc. The search for a remnant was negative until 1952, when Hanbury Brown and Cyril Hazard reported a radio detection at 158.5 MHz. There is no dispute that 3C10 is the remnant of the supernova observed in 1572–1573, following a review article by Minkowski, the designation 3C10 appears to be that most commonly used in the literature when referring to the radio remnant of B Cas. Because the radio remnant was reported before the optical supernova-remnant wisps were discovered, the supernova remnant of B Cas was discovered in the 1960s by scientists with a Palomar Mountain telescope as a very faint nebula. It was later photographed by a telescope on the international ROSAT spacecraft, the supernova has been confirmed as Type Ia, in which a white dwarf star has accreted matter from a companion until it approaches the Chandrasekhar limit and explodes. This type of supernova does not typically create the spectacular nebula more typical of Type II supernovas, a shell of gas is still expanding from its center at about 9,000 km/s. A recent study indicates a rate of expansion below 5,000 km/s, in October 2004, a letter in Nature reported the discovery of a G2 star, similar in type to our own Sun and named Tycho G. It is thought to be the star that contributed mass to the white dwarf that ultimately resulted in the supernova. This find has been challenged in recent years, the star is relatively far away from the center and does not show rotation which might be expected of a companion star. In September 2008, the Subaru telescope obtained the spectrum of Tycho Brahes supernova near maximum brightness from a scattered-light echo. It has been confirmed that SN1572 belongs to the majority class of normal SNe Ia, an X-ray source designated Cepheus X-1 was detected by the Uhuru X-ray observatory at 4U 0022+63. Earlier catalog designations are X120+2 and XRS 00224+638, Cepheus X-1 is actually in the constellation Cassiopeia, and it is SN1572, the Tycho SNR
SN 1572
–
Remnant of SN 1572 as seen in
X-ray light from the
Chandra X-ray Observatory
SN 1572
–
Star map of the constellation Cassiopeia showing the position (labelled I) of the supernova of 1572; from Tycho Brahe's De nova... stella
SN 1572
–
The red circle visible in the upper left part of this
WISE image is the remnant of SN 1572.
17.
Tycho Brahe
–
Tycho Brahe, born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. He was born in the then Danish peninsula of Scania, well known in his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer and alchemist, he has been described as the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical facts. His observations were some five times more accurate than the best available observations at the time, an heir to several of Denmarks principal noble families, he received a comprehensive education. He took an interest in astronomy and in the creation of more instruments of measurement. His system correctly saw the Moon as orbiting Earth, and the planets as orbiting the Sun, furthermore, he was the last of the major naked eye astronomers, working without telescopes for his observations. In his De nova stella of 1573, he refuted the Aristotelian belief in a celestial realm. Using similar measurements he showed that comets were also not atmospheric phenomena, as previously thought, on the island he founded manufactories, such as a paper mill, to provide material for printing his results. He built an observatory at Benátky nad Jizerou, there, from 1600 until his death in 1601, he was assisted by Johannes Kepler, who later used Tychos astronomical data to develop his three laws of planetary motion. Tychos body has been exhumed twice, in 1901 and 2010, to examine the circumstances of his death, both of his grandfathers and all of his great grandfathers had served as members of the Danish kings Privy Council. His paternal grandfather and namesake Thyge Brahe was the lord of Tosterup Castle in Scania, Tychos father Otte Brahe, like his father a royal Privy Councilor, married Beate Bille, who was herself a powerful figure at the Danish court holding several royal land titles. Both parents are buried under the floor of Kågeröd Church, four kilometres east of Knutstorp, Tycho was born at his familys ancestral seat of Knutstorp Castle, about eight kilometres north of Svalöv in then Danish Scania. He was the oldest of 12 siblngs,8 of whom lived to adulthood and his twin brother died before being baptized. Tycho later wrote an ode in Latin to his dead twin, an epitaph, originally from Knutstorp, but now on a plaque near the church door, shows the whole family, including Tycho as a boy. When he was two years old Tycho was taken away to be raised by his uncle Jørgen Thygesen Brahe. It is unclear why the Otte Brahe reached this arrangement with his brother, Tycho later wrote that Jørgen Brahe raised me and generously provided for me during his life until my eighteenth year, he always treated me as his own son and made me his heir. From ages 6 to 12, Tycho attended Latin school, probably in Nykøbing, at age 12, on 19 April 1559, Tycho began studies at the University of Copenhagen. There, following his uncles wishes, he studied law, but also studied a variety of other subjects, at the University, Aristotle was a staple of scientific theory, and Tycho likely received a thorough training in Aristotelian physics and cosmology. He experienced the solar eclipse of 21 August 1560, and was impressed by the fact that it had been predicted
Tycho Brahe
–
Brahe wearing the
Order of the Elephant
Tycho Brahe
–
Portrait of Tycho Brahe (1596)
Skokloster Castle
Tycho Brahe
–
An artificial nose of the kind Tycho wore. This particular example did not belong to Tycho.
Tycho Brahe
–
Tycho Brahe's grave in Prague, new tomb stone from 1901
18.
SN 1604
–
Supernova 1604, also known as Keplers Supernova, Keplers Nova or Keplers Star, was a supernova of Type Ia that occurred in the Milky Way, in the constellation Ophiuchus. Visible to the eye, Keplers Star was brighter at its peak than any other star in the night sky. It was visible during the day for three weeks. The first recorded observation was in northern Italy on 9 October 1604, johannes Kepler began observing the luminous display on October 17 while working at the imperial court in Prague for Emperor Rudolf II. The supernova was recorded in Chinese and Korean sources. It was the supernova to be observed in a generation. No further supernovae have since been observed with certainty in the Milky Way, SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud was easily visible to the naked eye. Strong present day astronomical evidence exists for a Milky Way supernova whose signal would have reached Earth ca,1680, and another whose light should have arrived ca. There is no record of either having been detected at the time. The supernova remnant resulting from Keplers supernova is considered to be one of the objects of its kind. List of supernova remnants Blair, William P. Long, Knox S. Vancura, a detailed optical study of Keplers supernova remnant. Archived from the original on 2013-10-17
SN 1604
–
A
false-color composite (
HST /
SIRTF) image of the supernova remnant nebula from SN 1604. Credit: HST/
NASA /
ESA
19.
Johannes Kepler
–
Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th-century scientific revolution, he is best known for his laws of motion, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi. These works also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newtons theory of universal gravitation, Kepler was a mathematics teacher at a seminary school in Graz, where he became an associate of Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg. Later he became an assistant to the astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague and he was also a mathematics teacher in Linz, and an adviser to General Wallenstein. Kepler lived in an era when there was no distinction between astronomy and astrology, but there was a strong division between astronomy and physics. Kepler was born on December 27, the feast day of St John the Evangelist,1571 and his grandfather, Sebald Kepler, had been Lord Mayor of the city. By the time Johannes was born, he had two brothers and one sister and the Kepler family fortune was in decline and his father, Heinrich Kepler, earned a precarious living as a mercenary, and he left the family when Johannes was five years old. He was believed to have died in the Eighty Years War in the Netherlands and his mother Katharina Guldenmann, an innkeepers daughter, was a healer and herbalist. Born prematurely, Johannes claimed to have weak and sickly as a child. Nevertheless, he often impressed travelers at his grandfathers inn with his phenomenal mathematical faculty and he was introduced to astronomy at an early age, and developed a love for it that would span his entire life. At age six, he observed the Great Comet of 1577, in 1580, at age nine, he observed another astronomical event, a lunar eclipse, recording that he remembered being called outdoors to see it and that the moon appeared quite red. However, childhood smallpox left him with vision and crippled hands. In 1589, after moving through grammar school, Latin school, there, he studied philosophy under Vitus Müller and theology under Jacob Heerbrand, who also taught Michael Maestlin while he was a student, until he became Chancellor at Tübingen in 1590. He proved himself to be a mathematician and earned a reputation as a skilful astrologer. Under the instruction of Michael Maestlin, Tübingens professor of mathematics from 1583 to 1631 and he became a Copernican at that time. In a student disputation, he defended heliocentrism from both a theoretical and theological perspective, maintaining that the Sun was the source of motive power in the universe. Despite his desire to become a minister, near the end of his studies, Kepler was recommended for a position as teacher of mathematics and he accepted the position in April 1594, at the age of 23. Keplers first major work, Mysterium Cosmographicum, was the first published defense of the Copernican system
Johannes Kepler
–
A 1610 portrait of Johannes Kepler by an unknown artist
Johannes Kepler
–
Birthplace of Johannes Kepler in Weil der Stadt
Johannes Kepler
–
Portraits of Kepler and his wife in oval medallions
Johannes Kepler
–
House of Johannes Kepler and Barbara Müller in Gössendorf near Graz (1597–1599)
20.
Interstellar medium
–
In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and it fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic space. The energy that occupies the same volume, in the form of radiation, is the interstellar radiation field. The interstellar medium is composed of phases, distinguished by whether matter is ionic, atomic, or molecular. The interstellar medium is composed primarily of hydrogen followed by helium with trace amounts of carbon, oxygen, the thermal pressures of these phases are in rough equilibrium with one another. Magnetic fields and turbulent motions also provide pressure in the ISM, in all phases, the interstellar medium is extremely tenuous by terrestrial standards. In cool, dense regions of the ISM, matter is primarily in molecular form, in hot, diffuse regions of the ISM, matter is primarily ionized, and the density may be as low as 10−4 ions per cm3. Compare this with a density of roughly 1019 molecules per cm3 for air at sea level. By mass, 99% of the ISM is gas in any form, and 1% is dust. Of the gas in the ISM, by number 91% of atoms are hydrogen and 9% are helium, with 0. 1% being atoms of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium, by mass this amounts to 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, and 1. 5% heavier elements. The hydrogen and helium are primarily a result of primordial nucleosynthesis, the ISM plays a crucial role in astrophysics precisely because of its intermediate role between stellar and galactic scales. Stars form within the densest regions of the ISM, molecular clouds, and replenish the ISM with matter and energy through planetary nebulae, stellar winds, and supernovae. This interplay between stars and the ISM helps determine the rate at which a galaxy depletes its gaseous content, voyager 1 reached the ISM on August 25,2012, making it the first artificial object from Earth to do so. Interstellar plasma and dust will be studied until the end in 2025. Table 1 shows a breakdown of the properties of the components of the ISM of the Milky Way, field, Goldsmith & Habing put forward the static two phase equilibrium model to explain the observed properties of the ISM. Their modeled ISM consisted of a dense phase, consisting of clouds of neutral and molecular hydrogen. McKee & Ostriker added a third phase that represented the very hot gas which had been shock heated by supernovae. These phases are the temperatures where heating and cooling can reach a stable equilibrium and their paper formed the basis for further study over the past three decades
Interstellar medium
–
Star formation
Interstellar medium
–
The distribution of
ionized hydrogen (known by astronomers as H II from old spectroscopic terminology) in the parts of the Galactic interstellar medium visible from the Earth's northern hemisphere as observed with the Wisconsin Hα Mapper (Haffner et al. 2003).
Interstellar medium
–
Voyager 1 is the first artificial object to reach the ISM
Interstellar medium
–
Three-dimensional structure in Pillars of Creation.
21.
Blast wave
–
A blast wave in fluid dynamics is the pressure and flow resulting from the deposition of a large amount of energy in a small very localised volume. The flow field can be approximated as a shock wave. In simpler terms, a blast wave is an area of pressure expanding supersonically outward from an explosive core and it has a leading shock front of compressed gases. The blast wave is followed by a blast wind of negative pressure, the blast wave is harmful especially when one is very close to the center or at a location of constructive interference. High explosives, which detonate, generate blast waves, high-order explosives are more powerful than low-order explosives. HE detonate to produce a defining supersonic over-pressurization shock wave, several sources of HE include trinitrotoluene, C-4, Semtex, nitroglycerin, and ammonium nitrate fuel oil. LE deflagrate to create an explosion and lack HE’s over-pressurization wave. Sources of LE include pipe bombs, gunpowder, and most pure petroleum-based incendiary bombs such as Molotov cocktails or aircraft improvised as guided missiles, HE and LE induce different injury patterns. Only HE produce true blast waves, the classic flow solution—the so-called similarity solution—was independently devised by John von Neumann and British mathematician Geoffrey Ingram Taylor during World War II. After the war, the similarity solution was published by three other authors—L, sedov, R. Latter, and J. Lockwood-Taylor—who had discovered it independently. Since the early theoretical work more than 50 years ago, both theoretical and experimental studies of blast waves have been ongoing, the simplest form of a blast wave has been described and termed the Friedlander waveform. It occurs when a high explosive detonates in a free field, Blast waves have properties predicted by the physics of waves. For example, they can diffract through an opening. Like light or sound waves, when a blast wave reaches a boundary between two materials, part of it is transmitted, part of it is absorbed, and part of it is reflected, the impedances of the two materials determine how much of each occurs. The equation for a Friedlander waveform describes the pressure of the blast wave as a function of time, where Ps is the peak pressure and t* is the time at which the pressure first crosses the horizontal axis. Blast waves will wrap around objects and buildings, therefore, persons or objects behind a large building are not necessarily protected from a blast that starts on the opposite side of the building. Scientists use sophisticated mathematical models to predict how objects will respond to a blast in order to design effective barriers, anything in this area experiences peak pressures that can be several times higher than the peak pressure of the original shock front. In physics, interference is the meeting of two correlated waves and either increasing or lowering the net amplitude, depending on whether it is constructive or destructive interference, similarly two troughs make a trough of increased amplitude
Blast wave
–
A Friedlander waveform is the simplest form of a blast wave.
22.
X-ray
–
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
X-ray
–
Spectrum of the X-rays emitted by an X-ray tube with a
rhodium target, operated at 60
kV. The smooth, continuous curve is due to
bremsstrahlung, and the spikes are
characteristic K lines for rhodium atoms.
X-ray
–
X-rays are part of the
electromagnetic spectrum, with wavelengths shorter than
visible light. Different applications use different parts of the X-ray spectrum.
X-ray
–
A
chest radiograph of a female, demonstrating a
hiatus hernia
X-ray
–
An arm radiograph, demonstrating broken
ulna and
radius with implanted
internal fixation.
23.
Hydrogen
–
Hydrogen is a chemical element with chemical symbol H and atomic number 1. With a standard weight of circa 1.008, hydrogen is the lightest element on the periodic table. Its monatomic form is the most abundant chemical substance in the Universe, non-remnant stars are mainly composed of hydrogen in the plasma state. The most common isotope of hydrogen, termed protium, has one proton, the universal emergence of atomic hydrogen first occurred during the recombination epoch. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, nonmetallic, since hydrogen readily forms covalent compounds with most nonmetallic elements, most of the hydrogen on Earth exists in molecular forms such as water or organic compounds. Hydrogen plays an important role in acid–base reactions because most acid-base reactions involve the exchange of protons between soluble molecules. In ionic compounds, hydrogen can take the form of a charge when it is known as a hydride. The hydrogen cation is written as though composed of a bare proton, Hydrogen gas was first artificially produced in the early 16th century by the reaction of acids on metals. Industrial production is mainly from steam reforming natural gas, and less often from more energy-intensive methods such as the electrolysis of water. Most hydrogen is used near the site of its production, the two largest uses being fossil fuel processing and ammonia production, mostly for the fertilizer market, Hydrogen is a concern in metallurgy as it can embrittle many metals, complicating the design of pipelines and storage tanks. Hydrogen gas is flammable and will burn in air at a very wide range of concentrations between 4% and 75% by volume. The enthalpy of combustion is −286 kJ/mol,2 H2 + O2 →2 H2O +572 kJ Hydrogen gas forms explosive mixtures with air in concentrations from 4–74%, the explosive reactions may be triggered by spark, heat, or sunlight. The hydrogen autoignition temperature, the temperature of spontaneous ignition in air, is 500 °C, the detection of a burning hydrogen leak may require a flame detector, such leaks can be very dangerous. Hydrogen flames in other conditions are blue, resembling blue natural gas flames, the destruction of the Hindenburg airship was a notorious example of hydrogen combustion and the cause is still debated. The visible orange flames in that incident were the result of a mixture of hydrogen to oxygen combined with carbon compounds from the airship skin. H2 reacts with every oxidizing element, the ground state energy level of the electron in a hydrogen atom is −13.6 eV, which is equivalent to an ultraviolet photon of roughly 91 nm wavelength. The energy levels of hydrogen can be calculated fairly accurately using the Bohr model of the atom, however, the atomic electron and proton are held together by electromagnetic force, while planets and celestial objects are held by gravity. The most complicated treatments allow for the effects of special relativity
Hydrogen
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Purple glow in its plasma state
Hydrogen
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The
Space Shuttle Main Engine burnt hydrogen with oxygen, producing a nearly invisible flame at full thrust.
Hydrogen
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Spectral lines of hydrogen
Hydrogen
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First tracks observed in
liquid hydrogen bubble chamber at the
Bevatron
24.
Oxygen
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Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive nonmetal. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen, at standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O2. This is an important part of the atmosphere and diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20. 8% of the Earths atmosphere, additionally, as oxides the element makes up almost half of the Earths crust. Most of the mass of living organisms is oxygen as a component of water, conversely, oxygen is continuously replenished by photosynthesis, which uses the energy of sunlight to produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is too reactive to remain a free element in air without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms. Another form of oxygen, ozone, strongly absorbs ultraviolet UVB radiation, but ozone is a pollutant near the surface where it is a by-product of smog. At low earth orbit altitudes, sufficient atomic oxygen is present to cause corrosion of spacecraft, the name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, whose experiments with oxygen helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion. One of the first known experiments on the relationship between combustion and air was conducted by the 2nd century BCE Greek writer on mechanics, Philo of Byzantium. In his work Pneumatica, Philo observed that inverting a vessel over a burning candle, Philo incorrectly surmised that parts of the air in the vessel were converted into the classical element fire and thus were able to escape through pores in the glass. Many centuries later Leonardo da Vinci built on Philos work by observing that a portion of air is consumed during combustion and respiration, Oxygen was discovered by the Polish alchemist Sendivogius, who considered it the philosophers stone. In the late 17th century, Robert Boyle proved that air is necessary for combustion, English chemist John Mayow refined this work by showing that fire requires only a part of air that he called spiritus nitroaereus. From this he surmised that nitroaereus is consumed in both respiration and combustion, Mayow observed that antimony increased in weight when heated, and inferred that the nitroaereus must have combined with it. Accounts of these and other experiments and ideas were published in 1668 in his work Tractatus duo in the tract De respiratione. Robert Hooke, Ole Borch, Mikhail Lomonosov, and Pierre Bayen all produced oxygen in experiments in the 17th and the 18th century but none of them recognized it as a chemical element. This may have been in part due to the prevalence of the philosophy of combustion and corrosion called the phlogiston theory, which was then the favored explanation of those processes. Established in 1667 by the German alchemist J. J. Becher, one part, called phlogiston, was given off when the substance containing it was burned, while the dephlogisticated part was thought to be its true form, or calx. The fact that a substance like wood gains overall weight in burning was hidden by the buoyancy of the combustion products
Oxygen
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Spectral lines of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen
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A trickle of liquid oxygen is deflected by a magnetic field, illustrating its paramagnetic property
Oxygen
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Oxygen discharge (spectrum) tube. The green color is similar to the color of an
"aurora borealis"
25.
Nebular hypothesis
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The nebular hypothesis is the most widely accepted model in the field of cosmogony to explain the formation and evolution of the Solar System. It suggests that the Solar System formed from nebulous material, the theory was developed by Immanuel Kant and published in his Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels, published in 1755. Originally applied to the Solar System, the process of planetary formation is now thought to be at work throughout the Universe. The widely-accepted modern variant of the hypothesis is the solar nebular disk model or solar nebular model. It offered explanations for a variety of properties of the Solar System, including the circular and coplanar orbits of the planets. Some elements of the hypothesis are echoed in modern theories of planetary formation. According to the hypothesis, stars form in massive and dense clouds of molecular hydrogen—giant molecular clouds. These clouds are gravitationally unstable, and matter coalesces within them to smaller denser clumps, which rotate, collapse. Star formation is a process, which always produces a gaseous protoplanetary disk, proplyd. This may give birth to planets in certain circumstances, which are not well known, thus the formation of planetary systems is thought to be a natural result of star formation. A Sun-like star usually takes approximately 1 million years to form, the protoplanetary disk is an accretion disk that feeds the central star. Initially very hot, the disk later cools in what is known as the T tauri star stage, here, formation of small dust grains made of rocks, the grains eventually may coagulate into kilometer-sized planetesimals. If the disk is massive enough, the runaway accretions begin, near the star, the planetary embryos go through a stage of violent mergers, producing a few terrestrial planets. The last stage takes approximately 100 million to a billion years, the formation of giant planets is a more complicated process. It is thought to occur beyond the frost line, where planetary embryos mainly are made of various types of ice, as a result, they are several times more massive than in the inner part of the protoplanetary disk. What follows after the formation is not completely clear. Some embryos appear to continue to grow and eventually reach 5–10 Earth masses—the threshold value, jupiter- and Saturn-like planets are thought to accumulate the bulk of their mass during only 10,000 years. The accretion stops when the gas is exhausted, the formed planets can migrate over long distances during or after their formation
Nebular hypothesis
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Star formation
Nebular hypothesis
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The visible-light (left) and infrared (right) views of the
Trifid Nebula —a giant star-forming cloud of gas and dust located 5,400 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius
Nebular hypothesis
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Infrared image of the molecular outflow from an otherwise hidden newborn star HH 46/47
Nebular hypothesis
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Debris disks detected in
HST archival images of young stars, HD 141943 and HD 191089, using improved imaging processes (24 April 2014).
26.
Cassiopeia A
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Cassiopeia A is a supernova remnant in the constellation Cassiopeia and the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky at frequencies above 1 GHz. The supernova occurred approximately 11,000 light-years away within the Milky Way, the expanding cloud of material left over from the supernova now appears approximately 10 light-years across from Earths perspective. In wavelengths of light, it has been seen with amateur telescopes down to 234mm with filters. Possible explanations lean toward the idea that the star was unusually massive and had previously ejected much of its outer layers. These outer layers would have cloaked the star and re-absorbed much of the released as the inner star collapsed. Cas A was among the first discrete astronomical radio sources found and its discovery was reported in 1948 by Martin Ryle and Francis Graham-Smith, astronomers at Cambridge, based on observations with the Long Michelson Interferometer. The optical component was first identified in 1950, Cas A is 3C461 in the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources and G111. 7-2.1 in the Green Catalog of Supernova Remnants. Calculations working back from the currently observed expansion point to an explosion that would have become visible on Earth around 1667, at any rate, no supernova occurring within the Milky Way has been visible to the naked eye from Earth since. The expansion shell has a temperature of around 50 million degrees Fahrenheit, Cas A had a flux density of 2720 ±50 Jy at 1 GHz in 1980. Because the supernova remnant is cooling, its density is decreasing. At 1 GHz, its density is decreasing at a rate of 0.97 ±0.04 percent per year. This decrease means that, at frequencies below 1 GHz, Cas A is now less intense than Cygnus A. Cas A is still the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky at frequencies above 1 GHz, in 1979, Shklovsky predicted that Cas A had a black hole. In 1999, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory found a hot point-like source close to the center of the nebula that is likely the neutron star or black hole predicted. Although Cas X-1, the apparent first X-ray source in the constellation Cassiopeia was not detected during the June 16,1964, Aerobee sounding rocket flight, it was considered as a possible source. Cas A was scanned during another Aerobee rocket flight of October 1,1964, Cas XR-1 was discovered by an Aerobee rocket flight on April 25,1965, at RA 23h 21m Dec +58° 30′. Cas X-1 is Cas A, a Type II SNR at RA 23h 18m Dec +58° 30′, the designations Cassiopeia X-1, Cas XR-1, Cas X-1 are no longer used, but the X-ray source is Cas A at 2U 2321+58. Recently, an echo of the Cassiopeia A explosion was observed on nearby gas clouds using Spitzer Space Telescope. In 2013, astronomers detected phosphorus in Cassiopeia A, which confirmed that this element is produced in supernovae through supernova nucleosynthesis, the phosphorus-to-iron ratio in material from the supernova remnant could be up to 100 times higher than in the Milky Way in general
Cassiopeia A
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A false color image composited of data from three sources. Red is infrared data from the
Spitzer Space Telescope, orange is visible data from the
Hubble Space Telescope, and blue and green are data from the
Chandra X-ray Observatory. The cyan dot just off-center is the remnant of the star's core.
Cassiopeia A
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Cassiopeia A observed by the Hubble Space Telescope
27.
Pulsar wind nebula
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A pulsar wind nebula, sometimes called a plerion, is a type of nebula found inside the shells of supernova remnants that is powered by pulsar winds generated by its central pulsar. These nebulae were discovered in 1976 as small depressions at radio wavelengths near the centre of supernova remnants and they have since been found to be X-ray emitters and are possibly γ-ray sources. As the plerion ages, the nebulosity of the supernova remnant dissipates, over time, pulsar wind nebulae may change in behaviour and become relic nebulae surrounding millisecond radio pulsars or even older and slower rotating pulsars. Plerions are estimated to last around 15,000 years, after which the shell dissipates as the energies from the pulsar decreases, importantly, this depends on the rate of energy lost by the pulsar as its spin rate slows, which varies among the known pulsars. Pulsar winds are composed of charged particles accelerated to relativistic speeds by the rapidly rotating, the pulsar wind often streams into the surrounding interstellar medium, creating a standing shock wave called the wind termination shock, where matter is decelerated to sub-relativistic speed. Beyond this radius, synchrotron emission increases in the magnetized flow and these processes can switch on and off with many reversals, and this creates the numerous visible shells centred on the pulsar. Pulsar wind nebulae often show the properties, An increasing brightness towards the center. A highly polarized flux and a spectral index in the radio band. The index steepens at X-ray energies due to radiation losses. An X-ray size that is smaller than their radio and optical size. A photon index at TeV gamma-ray energies of ~2.3, Pulsar wind nebulae can be powerful probes of a pulsar/neutron stars interaction with its surroundings. Their unique properties can be used to infer the geometry, energetics, and composition of the wind, the space velocity of the pulsar itself. G292. 0+01.8 The Pulsar Wind Nebula Catalog
Pulsar wind nebula
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The
Crab Nebula seen in the optical by the
Hubble Space Telescope, an example of a Pulsar Wind nebula
28.
Pulsar
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Recently, the company has ventured into the thermal imaging market, with a British made thermal imager, the Pulsar Quantum. The firm owns factories in Lithuania, Belarus, Scotland, USA, beltex Optics is the Belarusian subsidiary of Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide, who manufactures high quality optics. Other factories are based in Scotland, USA, Lithuania (UAB Yukon Advanced Optics, the company also markets telescopic sights and night vision devices under the brandname PULSAR. Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide is the brand for night vision systems, Pulsar products comprise mainly of night vision and thermal imaging equipment, which employs IIT technology, and digital night vision technology. The Pulsar Digisight N550 had performance comparable to Gen2 and resolution comparable to lower-end Gen3 systems and these products use ULIS resistive amorphous silicon microbolometers, with refresh rates of 30Hz and 50Hz, which firmly puts them at the forefront of uncooled thermal imager performance
Pulsar
29.
Galactic cosmic ray
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Cosmic rays are high-energy radiation, mainly originating outside the Solar System. Upon impact with the Earths atmosphere, cosmic rays can produce showers of particles that sometimes reach the surface. Composed primarily of protons and atomic nuclei, they are of mysterious origin. Data from the Fermi space telescope have been interpreted as evidence that a significant fraction of cosmic rays originate from the supernovae explosions of stars. Active galactic nuclei probably also produce cosmic rays, the term ray is a historical accident, as cosmic rays were at first, and wrongly, thought to be mostly electromagnetic radiation. In current usage, the cosmic ray almost exclusively refers to massive particles. Massive particles – those that have rest mass – can gain additional, kinetic, mass-energy when they are moving, through this process, some particles acquire tremendously high mass-energies. These are significantly higher than the energy of even the highest-energy photons detected to date. The energy of the massless photon depends solely on frequency, not speed, at the higher end of the energy spectrum, relativistic kinetic energy is the main source of the mass-energy of cosmic rays. Hence, the highest-energy detected fermionic cosmic ray was around 3×106 times more energetic than the highest-energy detected cosmic photons, of primary cosmic rays, which originate outside of Earths atmosphere, about 99% are the nuclei of well-known atoms, and about 1% are solitary electrons. Of the nuclei, about 90% are simple protons, i. e. hydrogen nuclei, 9% are alpha particles, identical to helium nuclei, a very small fraction are stable particles of antimatter, such as positrons or antiprotons. The precise nature of this fraction is an area of active research. An active search from Earth orbit for anti-alpha particles has failed to detect them, one can show that such enormous energies might be achieved by means of the Centrifugal mechanism of acceleration in Active galactic nuclei. At 50 J, the highest-energy ultra-high-energy cosmic rays have energies comparable to the energy of a 90-kilometre-per-hour baseball. As a result of discoveries, there has been interest in investigating cosmic rays of even greater energies. Most cosmic rays, however, do not have such extreme energies, however, his paper published in Physikalische Zeitschrift was not widely accepted. In 1911 Domenico Pacini observed simultaneous variations of the rate of ionization over a lake, over the sea, Pacini concluded from the decrease of radioactivity underwater that a certain part of the ionization must be due to sources other than the radioactivity of the Earth. In 1912, Victor Hess carried three enhanced-accuracy Wulf electrometers to an altitude of 5300 meters in a balloon flight
Galactic cosmic ray
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Pacini makes a measurement in 1910.
Galactic cosmic ray
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Cosmic ray flux versus particle energy
Galactic cosmic ray
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Increase of ionization with altitude as measured by Hess in 1912 (left) and by Kolhörster (right)
Galactic cosmic ray
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Hess lands after his balloon flight in 1912.
30.
Fritz Zwicky
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Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, in 1933, Zwicky was the first to use the virial theorem to infer the existence of unseen dark matter, describing it as dunkle Materie. Fritz Zwicky was born in Varna, in the Principality of Bulgaria and his father, Fridolin, was a prominent industrialist in the Bulgarian city and also served as ambassador of Norway in Varna. The Zwicky House in Varna was designed and built by Fridolin Zwicky, fritzs mother, Franziska Vrček, was an ethnic Czech of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fritz was the oldest of the Zwicky familys three children, he had a brother named Rudolf and a sister, Leonie. Fritzs mother died in Varna in 1927, and his father Fridolin remained in Bulgaria until 1945 and his sister Leonie married a Bulgarian from Varna and spent her entire life in the city. In 1904, at the age of six, Fritz was sent to his grandparents in the familys ancestral canton in Glarus, Switzerland, to study commerce. His interests shifted to math and physics and he received an education in mathematics and experimental physics at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, located in Zurich. He was responsible for positing numerous cosmological theories that have a impact on the understanding of our universe today. He was the first to coin the term supernova during his fostering the concept of neutron stars, Zwicky was a lone wolf and did all of his own mathematical work. He intended to write an autobiography titled, Operation Lone Wolf and it would be five years later when Oppenheimer would publish his landmark paper announcing neutron stars. He developed some of the earliest jet engines and holds over 50 patents, many in jet propulsion, and is the inventor of the Underwater Jet, the Two Piece Jet Thrust Motor and Inverted Hydro Pulse. In April 1932, Fritz Zwicky married Dorothy Vernon Gates, a member of a prominent local family and her money was instrumental in the funding of the Palomar Observatory during the Great Depression. Nicholas Roosevelt, cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt, was his brother-in-law by marriage to Tirzah Gates, Zwicky and Dorothy divorced amicably in 1941. In 1947 Zwicky was married in Switzerland to Anna Margaritha Zurcher, Zwicky died in Pasadena on February 8,1974, and was buried in Mollis, Switzerland. He is remembered as both a genius and a curmudgeon, one of his favorite insults was to refer to people he did not approve of as spherical bastards, because, he explained, they were bastards no matter which way you looked at them. A recent biography in English was published by the Fritz Zwicky Foundation, Alfred Stöckli & Roland Müller, a review of the book is available from Acta Morphologica Generalis. Fritz Zwicky was a prolific scientist and made important contributions in areas of astronomy
Fritz Zwicky
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The memorial plaque on the house in Varna where Zwicky was born. His contributions to the understanding of the neutron stars and the dark matter are explicitly mentioned.
Fritz Zwicky
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Fritz Zwicky
