APOD 2.6

Picture from December 9, 2010

This is the spiral galaxy M81, in the constellation of Ursa Major (the one with the Big Dipper). It's approximately 11.8 million light years distant, but is one of the brightest galaxies in Earth's night sky. Above and to the left, a dwarf companion galaxy to M81 called Holmberg IX can be seen. More intriguing, however, is the large faint loop structure on the right known as Arp's Loop. The loop was thought to be what is called a tidal tail, or a large band of material separated from M81 by nearby galaxy M82. Recent observations though show that Arp's Loop actually might not be too far from the Milky Way. The loop appears similar to clouds of dust observed just a few hundred light years above the plane of the milky way. Weird.

Observation 12/6/10

Tonight I observed Cassiopeia from my neighborhood's community center at about 7:50 PM. I was facing NNW, looking about 70 degrees up. Specifically, I observed the Worm Asterism, which from my position was visible in its classic "M" shape.

APOD 2.5

This galaxy, called M33, lies in the constellation of Triangulum. It is known more commonly as the Triangulum Galaxy or the Pinwheel Galaxy. It's over 50,000 light years across, making it the third largest galaxy in the Local Group (a collection of galaxies relatively close to our own), after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Milky Way. An interesting fact about the Triangulum Galaxy is that it is thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy, in that it appears to revolve around the Andromeda Galaxy. Pretty hard to imagine an entire galaxy orbiting a whole other galaxy, eh? Also, that bright pink spot near the lower right is NGC 604, the brightest star forming region in the Triangulum Galaxy. The galaxy is actually a fairly important astronomical tool as well. Because of the measurements we have made of its variable stars, we can use it to measure distances across the cosmos.

APOD 2.4

Picture from November 8, 2010


There is a lot going on in this large 10 degree-wide picture around the constellation of Taurus. The famous Pleiades star cluster can be seen in the upper left. It is known for it's reflection nebulae, which consist of dust particles that scatter the light, creating the bluish glow around the cluster. Also in the picture is less popular LBN 777, the nebula near the center that resembles the head of a bird. Another nebula, VdB 27, is visible in the lower right, along with nearby star RY Tau.

APOD 2.3

Picture from November 10, 2010

The Fermi satellite orbiting the Earth has, for the past two years, been gathering information on gamma ray emissions across the sky. The results, pictured here, are astounding. The Milky Way appears to have two large bubbles (the red and white splotches above and below the center of the image) protruding from its center emitting gamma rays outwards. The bubbles can also be seen to emit x-rays as well as microwaves. The bubbles span some 50,000 light years from top to bottom, a length that rivals the size of the galaxy itself. Little is known about these huge bubbles. How did they originate? What causes them? This reflects the fact that we still have much left to learn about the phenomena of our own galaxy.

Great Worldwide Star Count

I reported that, at 27.2097 degrees latitude and -82.47616 degrees longitude on November 11 at 7:45 PM, the constellation of Cygnus was visible with a limiting magnitude of 3.

APOD 2.2

Picture from November 2, 2010

Solar flux tubes, or spicules, are big "pipes" of hot gas on the sun held in place by its magnetic field. An average size spicule is about as wide as an average state in the US and as long as the Earth's diameter. This picture, one of the highest resolution of it's kind to date, depicts such spicules converging at a sunspot in the bottom right. The lifespan of a spicule was found to be about 5 minutes, after which the gas falls back to the sun's surface. How exactly these spicules come about is still a mystery, but remains an active topic of research. The sun's importance to life on Earth is unquestionable, so it would behoove us to study the sun as much as possible.