Neutron Star With Odd Nuclear Matter

blog by: Brandon Rodgers

Two astrophysicists teams say they have found evidence of an odd type of nuclear matter inside a neutron star. The neutron star Cassiopeia A contains a nuclear matter that flows without any resistance like superconductivity with electricity throught solid earthy materials. They believe that a super hot super condenced neutron star creates a "superfluidity" about its nuclear material. They can tell this because when the crust of a spinning neutron star(Pulsar) interacts with the superfluidity of the nuclear matter it emits streams of electromagnetic pulses. This discovery of a superhot pulsar that is cooling down every second emiting electromagnetic pulses with the cause being a superfluid within the core is one of the biggest discoveries this year in astronomy.

I think this article is important to astronomy because it is more and more information about neutron stars. Neutron stars are something that we are still newly learning about and we don't know much about them. This completly changes the way we look at the core of a star at the end of its cycle. I think it's intresting because it is something that people dont really learn about often because it is so rare. Also seeing a neutron star in real life through a telescope would be amazing.

The link for the article this blog was about is posted here: click this

According to an article in Science News, "Black Holes Take Light for a Spin," spinning black holes could affect light passing around them, causing it to spin as well. It has already been theorised as an extension of Eintein's theory of relativity that spinning massive objects would bend spacetime around them, but has never been extended to include the angular momentum of light. Assuming that light is a wave, this angular momentum change would cause it to change from a wave to a helix centered around the direction of movement of the light. New telescopes can be fitted with devices to test this effect directly, although this has not been done yet. If the angular momentum of photons can be detected, then we can reverse the calculations to determine how fast objects in the universe are spinning.

The article explains a ridiculous theory, that's actually not very new. First, a little background knowledge on Black Holes, they're infinitely dense, small, and hot, and vacuum up everything near it. Supposedly Black Holes instantly eliminate out of existence all the matter it sucks in, and is so dense it does not emit light. But this theory says that there is actually another doorway in every Black Hole, the other side is called the White Hole, and all the matter it sucks in ends up on that other side. So that other side would be an entire parallel, alternate universe. Then that matter slowly forms back into planets and stars again. So the big idea is that our universe is infinitely sinking back down the drain - all the Black Holes - and fills up into another universe, a constant fluctuation between two universes.
This theory is extremely far out and is not taken very seriously or importantly by most major atronomers in the world. it completely breaks far away from many very old, concrete laws and logic in astronomy. The article explains the testable flaws and the proababilities and possibilities. Personally I can't ever even grasp the concept of the epic known universe so I can't understand why this theory could be possible or impossible, but I think it's a frigging cool idea.

Check it out here.

Smallest Exoplanet Found

Smallest Exoplanet Found

During NASA’s Kepler mission, they found the rocky exoplanet which is now named Kepler-10b. After eight months of observing, they have found that it is 1.4 times the size of Earth and is the smallest exoplanet found so far. They found this with Kepler’s ultra-precise photometer that saw the planet pass by its star, Kepler 10. This star is the first one that scientists have found that could potentially harbor a small transiting planet and is the brightest star that Kepler is documenting. This means that they are able to get a lot of information about orbiting planets. Since it is so small, the star only dimmed a small amount when it was seen. It orbits its star every .84 days which means it is 20 times closer to its star then Mercury is. This is proof that life on this planet is extremely unlikely. The W.M Keck Observatory in Hawaii was able to measure tiny changes in the stars spectrum called Doppler shifts, caused by tug exerted by the orbiting planet on the star.
 

Video about Kepler 10b

Enceladus, one of the moons next to Saturn's ring has proven to be quite an interesting place. Thanks to NASA's Cassini probe, it was implied that this small moon most-likely harbors an internal ocean that could potentially carry microbial life. But, unlike oceans Earth is used to, it is assumed that the water is "fizzy" similar to carbonated water. During one of Cassini's flybys, it detected water vapors shooting out fissures, or the "tiger stripes" of the ice surface. Salt was found in the ice particles spewing out of the fissures further implying an ocean to exist beneath the ice. Scientists believe the geysers act in the same way that a soda would. Gases are dissolved in the water that create bubbles and because it's density is less than the ice's, it rushes to the surface and explodes through the ice. But how does the water stay a liquid inside the ice capsule? It is thought that as Enceladus orbits Saturn, it creates internal friction which warms the water and keeps it from freezing.
I'm fascinated by this article because I have always assumed moons to be dead, life-less rocks that are just around, and I now know they're not. I found it amazing that we were even able to collect that much information about Enceladus (because it's so far away). It's interesting to think about an underground ocean too, especially one that is fizzy. The part though, that stuck out the most is that it is a potential host for life.



Check out the article!

Mars 500

Mars500 crew 'arrives at Red Planet' on simulated mission

    This article is about an experiment that is currently going on that might help us plan for a future expedition to Mars. The ESA (European Space Agency) is helping with this simulation but Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems is actually conducting and facilitating this experiment. The test subjects have just entered the “orbit of mars” stage and have not run across many signs of any physical or psychological effects, however they have not been able to stimulate the zero gravity of space so the results my not be accurate. This simulation is called Mars500 because it is expected to take 520 days to complete a trip to mars however it is estimated to take a lot longer. They are trying to test for multiple problems that could go on and for a day they cut power to simulation and the crew had to work to restore it. This could be a major step towards sending humans to Mars however it could still be a while before we have to funding for such a huge expedition.

I think that is experiment could be highly useful but at the same time it is a little controversial. From this we could find out how to accommodate for deep space travel and how prolonged isolation alters a person. However the fact that they are locking six people up in a facility and then testing them to see how they can mess them up by cutting the power or creating other malfunctions is a bit strange. I understand that they volunteered to do this but it seems obvious that isolating humans for 520 days will alter there physical and physiological state. I hope that there is some good data that comes from this because I find space travel very interesting and the idea of sending people to mars is very fascinating to me. 

Imagine That

On May 29, 2009 a “picture-perfect” disk galaxy was discovered. The galaxy is 22 million light years away in the constellation Hydra the Water Snake. The spiral galaxy, named NGC 3621, has a “flat pancake shape” and no bulge in the center of the spiral; this indicates that the galaxy hasn’t come into contact with any other galaxies. The contact with another galaxy would disturb the thin layer of stars and create a bulge in the middle. These types of galaxies are actually fairly common. This galaxy is interesting to astronomers because they can study it and learn more about stellar nurseries “and pulsating stars called Cepheid variables, which astronomers use as distance markers in the universe.” It was discovered that there is at least 69 Cepheid variables in this galaxy.
I think this galaxy is important because astronomers can study it and maybe someday they will discover something really interesting or important. I also find it interesting that it is a perfectly thin galaxy and hasn’t collided or combined with any other galaxies, at least so we think.


variable stars: measure of brightness changes over time

Worlds Orbiting Kepler 11

It has been discovered that six worlds orbit the sun-like star Kepler 11. Five of the six planets have an orbit closer to Kepler 11 than Mercury has to the sun. All six planets are bigger than Earth, and from what we can tell, they are made up of rock and gas. The years on these planets range from 10-47 days. Kepler 11 is 2000 light years away, in the constellation Cygnus. As NASA discovered wednesday, there are also over 1200 exoplanets in the Kepler system, making it the fullest exoplanetary system known to man. This discovery was based on observations made by NASA's Kepler Spacecraft. The measurements were taken by looking at pictures of the planets crossing the Kepler 11 star. They determined the size and density of the planets by how dim they made the massive star. These results are important because they open up the possibility of a habitable planet orbiting a star in our galaxy!

Picture of the Kepler 11 System

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

6 New Exoplanets

I read an article from Science.com titled "A Disturbingly Weird Exoplanet System". It is about how there were six new exoplanets discovered recently with the Kepler Telescope launched in March of 2010. Five of the six planets in the system orbit their star closer than Mercury orbits the Sun, while the sixth orbits closer to Venus' position to the Sun. This tightly packed solar system has almost stumped researchers as to where planets are created in relationship to their star. Their models have shown planets being created far away from the sun and moved closer after time, but they think that this solar system proves differently.

I think that this is really interesting in that it could prove a totally different idea of where planets are created. I also think it is amazing that we are still finding exoplanets that we didn't even knew existed, although these six are gas giants so they cannot support life it is still very cool. The closeness of these planets has really created a mystery because "Making all five Kepler-11 planets far out and moving them in is so complicated it's unlikely" "But forming them about where they are now would require an unrealistic amount of solid particles to form a rocky core".