APOD 3.6

This is a picture of the Auriga Nebulae. The constellation Auriga is visible in the winter sky and has several M objects. It has a clearly visible first magnitude star, Capella. Broadband filter data allows the nebulae to be seen in this picture. The picture spans about 4 degrees across the entire night sky. It is also known as the flaming star nebula. It is red because of the hot class O-star. The bright nebula is visible during winter and is on the plane of the milky way galaxy.

APOD 3.5

This is a picture of the Merope's reflection nebula. Reflection nebulae reflect light from nearby stars by utilizing carbon. The carbon atoms reflect the light away from the nebulae most often in a blue shade. This blue shade is caused by the bluish light being reflected more efficiently. The luminosity of the nebula is actually caused by the composition of the nebula. The size and density of the carbon grains is primarily responsible. This nebula is reflecting the light from the Pleiades.

How Do Stars Form?

There were previously two models for star formation. One way that was proposed was the accretion of material by star seeds. Material from gas clouds would accumulate on the seed and the star would grow. This model was eventually disproved because of the lack of observational support. The more explainable option is the gravitational collapse theory. In this model, huge clumps of molecular material that break down into smaller cores that form stars. This model supports the common formation of different types of stars, such as brown dwarfs and massive stars. Essentially, the gas clouds and dust form masses due to turbulence within the clouds. These masses then begin to collapse because of their own gravitational attraction. As the system begins to collapse, the center of the material begins to heat up. This area is labeled the protostar. This model suggests that the material breaks into several blobs, which supports the observation of stars forming in pairs or triplets. The material that isn't turned into the star can form asteroids or other planets. The core does attract more surrounding material however. Thus stars are formed through the accumulation of large mass from interstellar clouds of material that break apart and form cores that attract more material.

astronomy cast qt 3 pt. 1

"What if Something Were Different?"
In this episode of Astronomy Casts, Fraser and Pamela discuss what would happen to us and our solar system if several things were different. The first topic that they discuss is the density of our galaxy. It turns out that galaxies with large densities essentially eliminate any star formation. This would eliminate some constellations and nebula such as the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades. Conversely, if our galaxy had its matter spread to thin the sky would essentially be empty. The next thing they discussed was the formation of our sun. If our sun was formed earlier, close to the big bang, then our sun would have lacked a lot of the metals that helped cool it down. Without cooling off, the sun would have had a much shorter life and we would possibly not exist. If the sun had tried to form trillions of years later, it may not have been possible. Star formation continues and matter is used, but eventually it is spread too thin for there to be continued star formation. The universe is continually expanding so eventually star formation will cease to exist. They then talked about the location of our solar system in the galaxy. If we were closer to the more turbulent center of the galaxy, the integrity of the solar system could be ruined by passing stars. These stars could affect planets in the outer region by changing their orbit or even the star that they orbit around. Being on the outside of the galaxy could lead to a dearth of metals that could inhibit planetary formation. This would have prevented our solar system from ever truly developing. The two primarily discussed how the solar system and our lives would be affected if our location and surroundings and even time frame were changed.

"Carina Constellation"
In this episode, Fraser and Pamela discuss the Carina Constellation. The first discuss how it is part of one of the greatest star forming parts of the universe. Carina was also a group of stars that attempted to go supernova but failed to do so. The went off on an interesting tangent about the location of someone on earth to their view of the sky. People in the southern hemisphere get a different view of constellations than those in the north. We are able to view Carina because we are far enough south. The brightest star currently is Eta Carinae. The nebula is able to viewed during July and August and appears to just be a fuzzy area. The brightest star in the constellation used to be alpha carinae, but that was due to a process where the star almost exploded but did not quite go supernova. The Carina nebula is a large area, appearing to be about 7 times the size of the moon, and gives off red light. This part of the constellation is the part that is responsible for the continued formation of stars. Eta Carinae, the almost supernova star is imminent to explode for real, but imminent is defined as tens of thousands of years. Finally, the constellation has two double cluster stars in its system.

APOD 3.4

This is a picture of the nebula NGC 6752. Taken by the Hubble Telescope, this picture shows a nebula that is 13000 light years away towards the southern sky constellation Pavo. This object holds over 100 thousand stars in a sphere only 100 light years in diameter. This picture is of the internal 10 light years. Blue straggler stars appear that are relatively young, and do not belong in clusters with stars twice as old as our sun. Many of the visible stars are clusters and groupings of stars that have supporting arguments with each other.

APOD 3.3

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This is a picture of the Eagle Nebula, M16. It is a picture from 1995 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The color scheme was created using composite images from the Herschel Space Observatory. Infared sensors pick up the energy emitted from the nebula and give a significant amount of information about the nebula. XMM-Newton telescopes pick up X-rays that reveal the remainder of the emitted spectra.