ASTR120 FALL 2007 BULLETIN BOARD

MESSAGE #54. Thu Dec 20 0:38:34 2007 . William Updegraff wrote:

Thought people might like this:

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law_application_for_antigravitatory_cats

MESSAGE #53. Sat Dec 15 18:34:23 2007 . Lauren Woolsey wrote:

To William: Al Gore mentioned this in his movie, and I did a little research on it because I'm rather bored. Snow does affect it, and when the planet warms up and the snow/ice melts, the warming is enhanced by this lower albedo. From the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, "If Earth’s climate is colder and there is more snow and ice on the planet, more solar radiation is reflected back out to space and the climate gets even cooler. On the other hand, when warming causes snow and ice to melt, darker colored Earth surface and ocean are exposed and less solar energy is reflected out to space causing even more warming. This is known as the ice-albedo feedback" (http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/albedo.html).

To Prof. Hamilton: When will the exams be graded? I hate this waiting around not knowing, haha. All my friends are getting their math exam grades back and such, and I don't have as much patience as I ought to have. Oh well.

MESSAGE #52. Sun Dec 9 13:37:05 2007 . William Updegraff wrote:

I was wondering; does snowfall significantly impact the earth's albedo? What about seasonal pack ice? If global warming reduces snowfall and pack ice, will that make the earth less reflective in the winter, thereby heating the planet further?

MESSAGE #51. Fri Dec 7 13:59:35 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Over break, watch for the Messenger spacecraft's first Mercury Flyby January 14, 2008 - we will get our first-ever spacecraft images of the previously unseen 1/2 of the planet! Messenger Website

MESSAGE #50. Fri Dec 7 13:54:33 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hi Class!

Some quick announcements!

1. Since the Dec. 5 Open House was cancelled, there is a make-up assignment due Tuesday 12/11, the last day of class. The make up assignment is to go to the Air and Space Museum downtown, pick out an historic spaceprobe and write a 2-3 page paper about its history, discoveries, and importance. If possible, pick a spaceprobe with a scientific mission rather than a manned spacecraft. You can use additional sources, but have the Air and Space Museum be your primary source. I am expecting about 10 of these papers based on a show of hands yesterday. The deadline has to be firm, since the final exam is only 2-days later. Please don't skip the assignment - its worth 40 points!

2. The Final Exam (200pts) is cumulative, with a slight emphasis on new material that has not been tested before. We'll talk more about this on Tuesday. Mia will run a review session Wednesday from 6-8 in our classroom. Don't forget to study for the final in the excitement of the end of the semester!

3. Course Evaluations are online and linked from the ASTR120 page. Please fill these out! The campus, in its wisdom, equates lack of response with a poorly-taught class. I'll see your comments (anonymously), so please note things that you think I can do to make ASTR121 an even better class than ASTR120!

MESSAGE #49. Wed Dec 5 18:16:38 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

The Open House is cancelled tonight! Watch this space for a makeup assignment ...

MESSAGE #48. Fri Nov 16 11:35:08 2007 . Lauren Woolsey wrote:

HubbleSite has a nice release on the Comet Holmes. It has been observing it for a little while and gives some basic facts about it.

Oh, and while I'm talking about hubblesite... This game is so much fun, and you learn a lot you didn't know. I'd suggest putting your computer on mute, the sounds can get annoying after a short while.

MESSAGE #47. Thu Nov 8 20:53:44 2007 . Nathaniel Niles wrote:

Here's a nice HD video of the Moon recently released by JAXA. It's 2 clips back to back - if you get bored with the first one, make sure you skip ahead and watch the second.

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071107_kaguya_movie_e.html

MESSAGE #46. Wed Oct 31 15:53:50 2007 . Kristin Rutkowski wrote:

Also, the observatory at JHU is open extra nights just for the comet. http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~camercha/openhouse.htm

I'm going to try to go tonight around 8 or 9, if anyone would like a ride. (krutkows at umd.edu)

MESSAGE #45. Wed Oct 31 10:36:27 2007 . Lauren Woolsey wrote:

I'll try to give you a pretty good idea of where the comet is, if I can, because it really is incredible.

After sunset, there should be a pretty bright star in the east. This star is Capella (if you wanted to use Starry Night or Stellarium to find it, that would work well). Near the zenith is a W-shaped constellation, Cassiopoeia. If you go upwards in the sky from Capella towards Cassiopoeia, there will be a small isoceles/equilateral triangle. The lower left point is the comet. (.'.)

If anyone wants to come by Denton, I have high-quality binoculars that show the spherical shell of the asteroid. It's one of the coolest things I've seen in the night sky.

MESSAGE #44. Tue Oct 30 14:23:44 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Comet Holmes brightened by nearly a factor of a million exactly a week ago! It is easily visible with or even without binoculars in the early evening. Check out this Sky and Telescope website with finding chart (click on the image for a more detailed view). Look for the constellation Perseus (partway between the more commonly recognized Cassiopeia and Orion). The brightest star in Perseus and the comet can be seen in the same binocular field of view. The comet is below the bright star. Look for something fuzzy and non-star-like - you'll know it when you see it!

MESSAGE #43. Fri Oct 26 13:45:57 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Elizabeth - The Mayans figured out a lot of interesting things!

Elizabeth2 - Nice Jupiter Pics!

Adam - I approve of your reading list!

And I wanted to let you all know that there is a new Challenge Problem on the assignments page. Several of you have expressed interest in forming study sessions for the homework. Post a message here to form one for HW#7!

MESSAGE #42. Tue Oct 16 22:06:02 2007 . Elizabeth Tuley wrote:

Hey Everyone,

This is the best article that I could find online explaining what will happen December 21, 2012: http://www.astro.uu.nl/~strous/AA/en/2012.html

Basically, the Mayans produced a calandar which revolved around a period of time which they calculated based on the cycles of the solar year, the synodic year of venus, and the human natal period (i.e. 9 months) and was socially significant to them. They predicted the end of the Earth (or rather, the fourth Earth age according to their mythology) to fall on December 21, 2012 based on these cycles and the fact that December 21 is also a winter solstice. However, it is believed by scientists the locations of the planets in the night sky are coincidental.

If you're interested in this topic, I would suggest taking Ancient Astronomies by Prof Carlson. It's offered every Spring by the Honors Department, and it's a very interesting class!

MESSAGE #41. Tue Oct 16 15:06:30 2007 . Elizabeth Terry wrote:

Hey, guys.

I finally got the final product of the research i did over the summer. This image was made from 7 different images taken during one rotation of Jupiter in October 1996 from Hubble's many color filters. It's not real color obviously but the best approximation NASA can do at the moment, without seeing it with our own eyes. [This version is scaled down because the original image is about 36 inches wide.]

So here you go! [URL=http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/6/10/16/f_Oct1996colom_3772c52.png&srv=img27][IMG]http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/6/10/16/f_Oct1996colom_3772c52.png[/IMG][/URL]

MESSAGE #40. Fri Oct 12 6:56:06 2007 . Adam Dowd wrote:

Hey all,

I was reading one of the science mags I subscribe to when I stumbled upon this article featuring our professor as a quoted expert.

Here is the link:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/10/11/moon_spa.html?category=space&guid=20071011140000&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000

The article is pretty interesting. It describes the resonant effects of the gravitational fields of Jupiter and Venus have upon our moon. Appartently, over time these small gravitaional perturbations cause the lunar orbit to increase in eccentricity.

I just think it is cool to see that what we are learning in class is actually being discussed in professional astronomy, by our, um... professor, no less!

MESSAGE #39. Wed Oct 10 13:36:17 2007 . TA Mia Bovill wrote:

Exam I Review Session

Today (Wednesday) 6-8 pm in CSS 2428 (usual room).

Questions on Chapters 1-4,7,8 and Homeworks 1-5 are fair game.

MESSAGE #38. Sat Oct 6 11:14:59 2007 . Jesus Careaga wrote:

i just read this on yahooo, its kind of cool, im not sure if anyone will see this on time though but here you go.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20071005/sc_space/seeacelestialsummitmeeting

MESSAGE #37. Wed Oct 3 17:55:27 2007 . TA Mia Bovill wrote:

Homework Hint:

On Problem 32 (Chapter 7), Part b, you can ignore them motion of the Earth. Just assume that you are standing on the surface of the Sun with really good heat protection :).

MESSAGE #36. Tue Oct 2 20:15:01 2007 . Jaime Gomez wrote:

Is there any way to contact Mia or Prof. Hamilton by e-mail concerning the homework? If so, what are their e-mail addresses.

Jaime

MESSAGE #35. Tue Oct 2 11:39:55 2007 . Ian Mitchell wrote:

somone in class today asked about the orbit of stars around the black hole at the center of the galaxy, here is a little video from the eso website. :-)

http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/video/vid-02-02.mpg

MESSAGE #34. Mon Oct 1 16:27:32 2007 . Anthony Burnetti wrote:

To Elizabeth Terry: We ran Seti@home on all the computers at my middle school. The problem is the huge distances and the likely paucity of civilizations - you can look at the drake equation calculator for more on that. I think I've heard that we could probably only detect Earth from its radio emissions from a few (single digits) light years away. Its still the most likely way to find something though - we've beamed high power specific messages in all sorts of directions.

Anyone else read Contact, by Carl Sagan? Awesome novel about the detection of a radio message from an alien civilization.

MESSAGE #33. Mon Oct 1 16:24:07 2007 . Anthony Burnetti wrote:

Thanks for the cool info on how Mars will look later this year!

I was remembering how we briefly touched on astrology and how it doesn't work (or have any mechanism by which it COULD work). Theres a video series on youtube called "bogosity" where this guy takes ideas like astrology, the moon "hoax", etc. and debunks it. He does a good job with astrology, although towards the end he gets more into criticizing more people on youtube who post things saying that astrology is true. Its divided into parts - he first two parts are at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rDRpyLkces and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XRri1nbqco . The 3rd is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnCgT5uDHiI but here he is more ranting at people on youtube who don't like him.

MESSAGE #32. Sun Sep 30 19:57:42 2007 . Lauren Woolsey wrote:

Viewing Mars is going to be easier than ever this week. From the article itself: "But as it continues to approach our Earth in the coming weeks and months, Mars will only be getting brighter: it will surpass Sirius, the brightest star in the sky by Dec. 9 and during the latter half of December it will even almost match Jupiter in brilliance."

MESSAGE #31. Sun Sep 30 0:33:55 2007 . Eran Bar Noy wrote:

Hey guys, so apparently some undergraduate student discovered something in Astronomy that actual astronomers dismissed. Scientists looked more into it, and they think what the student saw was either two neutron stars colliding, or a black hole "dying". You can read more about the story in recent news (some site like http://www.csiro.au/news/EnergyBurst.html), and also see a cool animation (that does take kind of long to download) of neutron stars colliding (http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~ajameson/swinmedia/). I know we haven't learned about neutron stars formally yet, but this is still cool.

MESSAGE #30. Fri Sep 28 7:44:56 2007 . Kristin Rutkowski wrote:

Has anyone seen "In the Shadow of the Moon" from Ron Howard? Tonight is the last night it's playing in Maryland, at just one theater in Baltimore. The theater is right next to Johns Hopkins University, and conveniently enough their observatory is open to the public on Friday nights!

MESSAGE #29. Thu Sep 27 18:07:45 2007 . Elizabeth Terry wrote:

Hey guys, i was wondering how many of you have the SETI@Home program on your computers? And of the people who do, do you think they're going to find anything??

-Eliz

MESSAGE #28. Wed Sep 26 22:02:31 2007 . Kristin Rutkowski wrote:

For question 35, look at page 71 ("Relating Synodic and Sidereal Periods"). Pretend that Earth is the inferior planet, and then there are multiple superior planets. And think about the whole lapping concept. At least that's how I think you answer it.

MESSAGE #27. Wed Sep 26 21:00:46 2007 . Alejandra Ferrufino wrote:

hey! Ive been thinking about prob#35 on the hmw, but i dont really understand... :s I even think it should be the opposite 'cause it'd take more time for the planet to reach the opposition point.. can anyone give me a hand plz.... alex

MESSAGE #26. Wed Sep 26 19:58:04 2007 . Kristin Rutkowski wrote:

Hi all!

I read this space.com article about the harvest moon, and it says that the reason the differences in moon rise times aren't as different night to night is because the moon seems to move along the ecliptic, and right now the ecliptic is as close as possible to the horizon. I'm having a hard time picturing that, though. I can picture the Sun in the middle, and the Earth orbiting around the ecliptic, and the Earth tilted 23 degrees, and the Moon orbiting the Earth, and mostly picture the Moon's 5 degree tilt. But I still get a little thrown trying to picture how everything revolves together, and how it all relates to what I see in the sky (although Starry Night really helps there). Has anyone come across a good 3-d video of how the orbits and ecliptic all match up? Or good physical models? Kind of like Prof Hamilton's model of the celestial sphere (although I like having the Sun in the middle rather than the Earth).

Kristin

MESSAGE #25. Tue Sep 25 16:14:08 2007 . Valerie Klavans wrote:

Hey!

I found a cool interactive site on the Drake equation. Basically the Drake equation calculates a possible number of communicating civilizations in the Milky Way, based on 7 factors, starting with the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and ending with the fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations live. The first part of the page explains each variable in the equation and how the Drake equation works. The second half lets you input numbers for the variables and calculate a possible number of communicating civilizations in the Milky Way. Yay!

Here is the link: http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html

MESSAGE #24. Tue Sep 25 13:45:42 2007 . Muiz Amusat wrote:

Hi, I just checked out the galaxy zoo website, it there a way to view it without signing up

MESSAGE #23. Sun Sep 23 16:24:55 2007 . Wesley Szamotula wrote:

I found this cool picture online that shows high res pictures of lots of different planets side by side so you can see how big they all are compared to each other. Take a look.

http://www.linkydinky.com/images/CelestialBodies.jpg

MESSAGE #22. Fri Sep 21 19:07:32 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hey Class!

Sorry for those of you who were turned away at the Open House last night - the observatory was overwhelmed with ASTR100 students! We are working to make sure that this does not happen again ...

DH

MESSAGE #21. Wed Sep 19 0:18:16 2007 . Benjamin Crist wrote:

Hey, Im Benjamin Crist and i am intrested for the class this year. I do have one question though on the homework 2 for question 34 i know it does not make a big difference but what day should we use when calculating the anwser a sidereal day or solar day? Other then that ill see everyone in class thursday

MESSAGE #20. Tue Sep 18 13:29:27 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Here is an email I sent that I'll post here just in case it doesn't go through. DH

Hi Class!

Hopefully this email will go through this time ...

A quick reminder on assignment policy since Mia and I have been overwhelmed with too many special cases! Part of this is because this class is oversubscriped with 54 students (should be limited to 40!). To make things managable, if you will miss class or section, you *must*

i) Notify us *both* by email *before* the missed class ii) This does *not* automatically excuse you from homework deadlines (especially if you know about the absence ahead of time as with a holiday). iii) Homeworks are due Thursday at the beginning of class. If you miss a class, arrange to have a friend turn it in. In special cases, Mia will accept the homework on Friday *before* section for a late penalty. Homeworks will not be accepted after section Friday. iv) Make up work for section (with an excused absence) *must* be completed by 2pm the following Friday. It is up to you to make arrangements with Mia.

Please try to follow these guidelines to make everything flow smoothly!

Thanks! Doug Hamilton

MESSAGE #19. Thu Sep 13 0:14:50 2007 . Lauren Woolsey wrote:

Aww man, it's sad to hear that the Astroterp meetings are on Thursdays at 6, I'm in class until 6:45 every Thursday...Maybe next semester, I guess.

MESSAGE #18. Wed Sep 12 17:51:10 2007 . Elizabeth Tuley wrote:

I'm a member of AstroTerps, and it's basically an astronomy club. We meet every Thursday at 6p.m., and Professor Hamilton said, in CSS 0254. We plan events for the Astronomy Department as well as fun things like trips and parties. We'll be at the First Look Fair next week if you want to ask more questions.

Also, there will be movie night, September 27. We'll be watching Men In Black, so everyone should come join us!!

MESSAGE #17. Tue Sep 11 23:24:56 2007 . Lauren Woolsey wrote:

Rebrand NASA...

MESSAGE #16. Sun Sep 9 16:10:18 2007 . Ian Mitchell wrote:

im having trouble getting the homeworkl prroblem w15 to run. i was wondering if anyone else could get it to run, and could possibly explain how. thanks!

MESSAGE #15. Wed Sep 5 17:51:55 2007 . Alicia Jose wrote:

I saw someone mentioned the AstroTerps. What is that? It sounds fun.

MESSAGE #14. Tue Sep 4 18:39:27 2007 . Elizabeth Terry wrote:

Hey guys! I heard a bunch of you guys say you liked Jupiter the best which is awesome because it is the best planet (Sorry all you Mercury fans!)

I did research on Jupiter at NASA Goddard over the summer and came out with some pretty amazing stuff. Unfortunately i can't put any of the stuff i worked on on the web because it hasn't been released by the government yet, but there is this cool movie of Jupiter's atmosphere (taken by the Voyager missions) i found when i worked at Brown university. Enjoy!! [hopefully it works]

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff211/jupiterfreak/?action=view¤t=JupiterAtmosphere.flv

MESSAGE #13. Tue Sep 4 16:30:55 2007 . Brian Sullivan wrote:

So I was looking through a news website and found a cool link to a bunch of Astronomical analogies dealing with size and distance between Earth and the Sun and our galaxy compared to others. I found it really helpful to understand just how big the universe is, so if you want to check it out you can find it here: http://www.astrosurf.com/benschop/Scale.htm

MESSAGE #12. Tue Sep 4 14:24:39 2007 . Katherine Krivjanik wrote:

The Galaxy Song from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life:

The Galaxy Song

MESSAGE #11. Tue Sep 4 13:00:26 2007 . Michael Preusser wrote:

Hey everybody. I just transfered from upstate New York, majoring in astronomy here at UMD. I live off of Metzerott Rd. where the campus observatory is located so if any wants to hangout and party after a meeting just let me know, I plan on attending the open houses any chance I can get. I also plan on joining the Astroterps, which coordinates events as well as trips. Hope everyone enjoys the class...see ya!

MESSAGE #10. Mon Sep 3 17:26:59 2007 . Ian Mitchell wrote:

hey everybody,

i found a pretty cool site Galaxy Zoo you get to classify pictures of galaxies from a sky survey. just thought i would share it with everyone

Ian

MESSAGE #9. Sun Sep 2 11:53:25 2007 . Jesus Careaga wrote:

The only thing i know about a quasar is that it is the brightest thing on the sky. It can be as bright as a star thats 10 light years, but the quasar is probably more then 1000 light years away. Also quasars get their energy from energy that is coming from huge black holes in space. i know its probably more complicated then that but thats all i read in the text.

MESSAGE #8. Sun Sep 2 0:31:00 2007 . Eran Bar Noy wrote:

Well, if we are all posting questions we have, I would definitely like to know what a quasar is. I have heard that some people think it is a huge black hole, but then again I have also heard that some people think it is not a black hole but are still confused about it because it is too far away. If anyone has any ideas I would greatly enjoy hearing them.

Thanks, Eran

MESSAGE #7. Sat Sep 1 20:15:40 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Thanks Lauren! Two students and I worked really hard on the Solar System Visualizer last semester - we finished just in time for ASTR120!

Hannah's big empty spot in space is, I think, a region devoid of galaxies. We'll learn in ASTR121 that galaxies tend to group together in space, creating clusters and superclusters. Between these structures are vast empty spaces full of nothing!

And Kelly is trying to unify the four fundamental forces - gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force and the strong force. The latter three have been combined in successful theories, but gravity is proving difficult. Scientists working with large accelerators like CERN seek clues in ever more energetic collisions between particles traveling at near light speeds.

And finally, if you want to post links here, use the "View Source" button on your browser to see how its done. You can type HTML code directly into your messages.

MESSAGE #6. Fri Aug 31 22:13:07 2007 . Lauren Woolsey wrote:

To Jason Schwankert: I also think it was a good move to kick Pluto out of the planetary "club." In fact, I made a group when it happened on facebook but didn't do much with it. Anyone is free to join and spill their thoughts on the situation: http://umd.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2207108150

That solar system visualizer you posted, Professor Hamilton, is so cool! You should make Pluto a "minor body" now, haha.

Also, if anyone is vaguely opposed to spending money on the Starry Night software (I have it at home, it /is/ really nice) but still wants that sort of program on their computer, there's a free alternative that has a lot to offer: Stellarium. You can load it on linux, Windows, or even Mac OS. You should definitely check it out. http://www.stellarium.org/

MESSAGE #5. Fri Aug 31 17:29:50 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

A few of you asked about how to get involved in extracurricular astronomy activities. There are several options! The astronomy club on campus is called Astroterps and this is their website: http://www.astro.umd.edu/~astroterp/. Their next meeting is on Thursday, Sept. 6 at 6pm in the Astronomy Lounge CSS 0254. Elisabeth Warner, who runs the Astonomy Open Houses, is usually looking for volunteers to help the public with the telescopes - she'll provide all of the training that you need, and she even hires a few part timers. And if you know anything about Flash coding, I'm looking for someone to help take the Solar Systems application into 3D!

MESSAGE #4. Fri Aug 31 13:38:45 2007 . Hannah Gerlach wrote:

What do you think about the huge empty spot in space? What do you think it is? Why do you think it formed?

Cheers, Hannah

MESSAGE #3. Fri Aug 31 11:59:20 2007 . Kelly Colwell wrote:

Hey everybody!

I was just wondering about your opinion of string theory vs. brane theory... I mean, they are based on completely different concepts, one is model-building while the other employs a theory that seems to fit, but isn't based on solid facts. Do you think that the experiment at CERN to find the kalutza-klein particles will change this?

Thanks :)

Kelly

MESSAGE #2. Thu Aug 30 15:19:16 2007 . Jason Schwankert wrote:

As a freshman in college I had written a paper for ENGL101 about the debate over Pluto's planetary status. I had advocated for its demotion due to Pluto’s lack of similarities with the other objects that we consider planets. Now that the debate has been decided I have been curious what others think of the decision made and I thought this board would be a good place to find out. Anyone have any thoughts on Pluto’s new status?

MESSAGE #1. Mon Aug 13 18:25:19 2007 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Welcome to the ASTR120 Bulletin Board! Please feel free to use this space to communicate with each other about any astro topic, and to post interesting and relevant Solar System news, links, etc. Special One-Time Offer: Post something fun here by September 30 and receive 2 juicy bonus points!*

* Offer void where prohibited by law, you must be enrolled in ASTR120 to participate, and bonus points have no cash value.

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