ASTR121 Spring 2014 BLOG

MESSAGE #41. Wed May 14 21:17:37 2014. TA: Marie Bernard wrote:

I know you guys are all studying for the exam right now...but this was just too cool not to share. Apparently they are working on a way to distinguish black holes from wormholes...omg

MESSAGE #40. Tue May 13 15:17:36 2014. TA: Marie Bernard wrote:

Astronomers Find a Sibling Star to the Sun

Astronomers find...a sun bro

MESSAGE #39. Wed May 7 21:15:16 2014. Leanne Whittemore wrote:

I found this page on neutrinos that I found pretty interesting.

Click me for cool cosmic neutrino info

Also, I looked into this guy and D.P. Hamilton is additionally listed as an author in his publications. Coincidence?

MESSAGE #38. Wed May 7 19:39:58 2014. TA: Marie Bernard wrote:

http://www.illustris-project.org/about/

Illustris, a massive simulation of the universe's evolution -- pretty cool!

MESSAGE #37. Wed Apr 30 14:35:17 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

• Course Evaluation Form - please help by rating your ASTR and other classes! Open through May 14

MESSAGE #36. Tue Apr 22 17:32:42 2014. Emily Garhart wrote:

http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

MESSAGE #35. Sun Apr 20 18:24:56 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

6 Irons and still no neutron star! This game is not addictive - I can stop anytime I want.

MESSAGE #34. Sun Apr 20 10:30:21 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Pretty interesting game and a fun way to learn about how stars work! I was using it to try to answer the age-old question of how may Irons does it take to make a neutron star! Apparently 5 Irons (plus a Silicon - I'm very proud of that final Silicon!) is not enough.

MESSAGE #33. Thu Apr 17 22:51:38 2014. Emily Garhart wrote:

This is that 2048 game but with fusion and you have to reach Iron. It is extremely addicting. http://newbrict.github.io/Fe26/

MESSAGE #32. Wed Apr 16 14:41:38 2014. TA: Marie Bernard wrote:

Chris Adami, a physicist & professor at MSU who has been working on the Black hole information paradox, did an AMA on r/science today. It's pretty interesting if you're interested in the latest from the ever-developing world of black holes--so check it out! A lot of the questions asked are questions I've heard many times before.

http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/236ap1/science_ama_series_im_chris_adami_the_guy_that/

PS: Some of you may remember me referencing the increasingly ridiculous names of some telescopes during the Exam 2 review Monday...this is the xkcd I was referring to: https://xkcd.com/1294/ ....hahahahahah!

MESSAGE #31. Tue Apr 15 19:18:39 2014. Mark Nellis wrote:

Hey guys here's a fun little game with orbits http://www.stefanom.org/spc/

MESSAGE #30. Fri Apr 11 10:01:02 2014. TA: Marie Bernard wrote:

Cool, helpful visualization of (GR) gravity -- A lycra sheet is used to represent spacetime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTY1Kje0yLg

MESSAGE #29. Fri Apr 4 1:16:41 2014. Jacob Shpiece wrote:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140403142019.htm

Oceans on Enceladus have been confirmed with gravitational analysis!

MESSAGE #28. Thu Apr 3 17:10:20 2014. Leanne Whittemore wrote:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxIwtxdEnQ I found this really cool video of a core collapse. It's only 2 minutes and has some pretty epic music.

I watched it a few times. When it says that less than half a second has pass during the simulation (which is crazy to think about) the screen flickers. See if you can catch it.

MESSAGE #27. Thu Apr 3 15:39:51 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

You heard it in ASTR120 and now again in ASTR121.

Early in the morning of April 15th there will be a total lunar eclipse! Check out this website for details: April 15 Eclipse.

Event Time in Washington DC

Penumbral Eclipse begins Apr 15 at 12:55 AM
Partial Eclipse begins Apr 15 at 1:59 AM
Full Eclipse begins Apr 15 at 3:08 AM
Maximum Eclipse Apr 15 at 3:46 AM
Full Eclipse ends Apr 15 at 4:23 AM
Partial Eclipse ends Apr 15 at 5:32 AM
Penumbral Eclipse ends Apr 15 at 6:36 AM


Try running their little eclipse movie to get a sense of what to look for! You might remember from ASTR120 that this is the first of four lunar eclipses space a little less than six months apart - a rare eclipse Tetrad!

MESSAGE #26. Tue Mar 25 19:02:39 2014. James Hazelrig wrote:

All I can say is, zoom in. Then think about how much more powerful the JWST is than the Spitzer.

Spitzer's Infrared Milky Way

MESSAGE #25. Sat Mar 15 0:41:57 2014. Mark Nellis wrote:

http://www.space.com/25026-largest-yellow-star-photos-video.html http://www.space.com/25024-rare-hypergiant-star-revealed-1300x-more-massive-than-sun-video.html Great article from www.Space.com Really relates to what we are learning in class currently

MESSAGE #24. Tue Mar 11 14:40:57 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Now that the midterm is past, please take a moment to let me know how ASTR121 is going so far - all feedback is anonymous and will be used to improve the class. It's worth 2 bonus points as well!

Mid-Semester Evaluation Form.

MESSAGE #23. Wed Mar 5 10:36:52 2014. Emanuel Anagnostiadis wrote:

http://news.yahoo.com/video/asteroid-approaching-close-encounter-earth-114658708.html

MESSAGE #22. Fri Feb 28 19:43:57 2014. Peter Harris wrote:

Hey, Here's a pretty cool animation of asteroids and their orbits than have been tracked by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Most of these asteroids are in the asteroid belt (naturally...), but it also includes Trojan asteroids, like the ones leading and following Jupiter. You're supposed to be able to see Earth's lone known Trojan, but I couldn't find it. While it's more closely related to 120 than 121, I thought it would be cool to share.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/dance-hundred-thousand-asteroids

p.s. IFLS has a lot of cool science stuff, so check them out.

MESSAGE #21. Thu Feb 27 19:10:47 2014. Kyle Elliott wrote:

I work with something called a monochromator in my lab which serves to pretty much do exactly what we understand about spectroscopy, but at an on-earth level for materials and stuff instead of astronomical objects. All it really consists of is a light source, a few mirrors (collimator, concave stuff...), and a diffraction grating, but the harder physics behind all that stuff is explained in one of the company's (Newport) technical documents - that is, for the particular product I use - offered on their website. Link is below:

http://assets.newport.com/webDocuments-EN/images/Monochromators_Spectrographs.pdf

MESSAGE #20. Tue Feb 25 19:22:52 2014. Hannah Olson wrote:

Oops I forgot to say it's pictures of a recent solar flare taken in different wavelengths

MESSAGE #19. Tue Feb 25 19:21:09 2014. Hannah Olson wrote:

Check out this cool picture that NASA tweeted earlier

MESSAGE #18. Wed Feb 19 20:27:49 2014. Amanda Drazen wrote:

Hey guys! Would anyone be interested in a study group sometime next week at McKeldin for the upcoming (2 weeks from tomorrow) test?

MESSAGE #17. Sat Feb 15 15:14:42 2014. Jacob Shpiece wrote:

Here's a fun xkcd post with a funny take on the comparison between stars in the Milky Way and grains of sand on a beach. http://what-if.xkcd.com/

MESSAGE #16. Wed Feb 12 10:30:17 2014. Hannah Olson wrote:

The ISS is going to be visible for a few minutes every night for about the next week. Here is a link that says when and where to look if you want to try to see it.

MESSAGE #15. Tue Feb 11 21:59:01 2014. Emily Garhart wrote:

Elizabeth Warner is speaking at the Open House on the 20th about interesting observing events coming up this year. Everyone should definitely go because she is amazing.

MESSAGE #14. Tue Feb 11 10:49:12 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Earth's best Natural Astronomer!

MESSAGE #13. Mon Feb 10 17:55:20 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

What Color is a Blackbody?

MESSAGE #12. Sun Feb 9 18:56:25 2014. Leanne Whittemore wrote:

For the love of science let's help NASA!

Here's an article about the project: http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/january/nasa-sponsored-disk-detective-lets-public-search-for-new-planetary-nurseries/#.UvgTT154Pvs

Or you can get right into it here: http://www.diskdetective.org/

MESSAGE #11. Tue Feb 4 21:15:47 2014. Barbara Dash wrote:

For anyone that still believes Pluto is a planet...

http://imgur.com/gallery/AOKw6nX

MESSAGE #10. Mon Feb 3 21:48:10 2014. Barbara Dash wrote:

I noticed a lot of you have never used MATLAB before. There's a 1 credit online course (MATH206) that you can take that teaches you MATLAB. There are only 3 projects that you submit online and its only half a semester long. Its an easy A and not much work goes into it.

If you don't want to bother registering for the class, here's a link to the class website that has a detailed and helpful tutorial on how to use basic MATLAB commands. I hope this helps!

http://www2.math.umd.edu/~immortal/206/tutorial/index.shtml

MESSAGE #9. Sat Feb 1 18:39:49 2014. Ajay Mysore wrote:

I found this article that really is hilarious. Someone is suing NASA for not investigating the "jelly doughnut" rock that popped up on Opportunity's cameras last week. Here's the article

"Just an attention-seeking effort that highlights the day-to-day frustrations scientists face when confronted with individuals with overactive imaginations"

MESSAGE #8. Wed Jan 29 16:27:38 2014. James Hazelrig wrote:

Was listening to the radio and thought about how the study and exploration of space has influenced modern popular music. These are just a few examples that came to mind, I'm sure there are lots more!

Muse Supermassive Black Hole

Train's Drops of Jupiter is dripping with astronomical references.

M83 the band is named after the spiral galaxy Messier 83 (recent APOD!) Midnight City

Incubus Stellar

Of course Moby's We Are All Made of Stars

Elton John Rocket Man

"Mars aint the kind of place to raise your kids In fact its cold as hell And theres no one there to raise them if you did And all this science I dont understand Its just my job five days a week"

MESSAGE #7. Wed Jan 29 0:50:11 2014. Fatima Abdurrahman wrote:

Hey everyone, I'm one of the new people this semester to 121. I'm in the earlier lab section, but because of a scheduling issue I'm consistently going to be ~10 minutes late to every lab. I talked to Marie and she said its cool if I come in ten minutes late and stay ten minutes extra, but I'd need a partner that could work on that schedule too. Does anyone else maybe have a similar situation so we could pair up? Or maybe someone who just wants to sleep in for an extra ten minutes? Let me know.

Fatima

MESSAGE #6. Tue Jan 28 16:47:38 2014. Kaitlin Evans wrote:

Also this...

http://xkcd.com/1297/

MESSAGE #5. Tue Jan 28 16:46:15 2014. Kaitlin Evans wrote:

Hey guys!

Here is an article discussing Stephen Hawking's recent statement about event horizons.

http://www.nature.com/news/stephen-hawking-there-are-no-black-holes-1.14583

MESSAGE #4. Tue Jan 28 12:45:17 2014. Justine Grabiec wrote:

Here's the link to the Scale of the Universe program that someone mentioned in class today:

http://htwins.net/scale2/

It's really eye-opening and was also recently the Astronomy Picture of the Day.

MESSAGE #3. Sat Jan 25 23:24:20 2014. James Hazelrig wrote:

Shotgun approach!

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Speech: Space as a Culture (one of many)

Brian Greene Multiverse TED Talk

Elon Musk "History is going to bifurcate in two directions. We’re going to be a mono-planet species until an extinction event … or a multi-planet species” Grasshopper Rocket(not long distance rocket, but cool nonetheless)

Michael Stevens (VSauce) How Hot Can It Get?

Derek Muller (Veritasium) Going Faster Than Light?

Numberphile 1+2+3... = -1/12 A big universe has copies of you.

MESSAGE #2. Fri Jan 24 0:17:20 2014. Arthur Schwab wrote:

Good day to all of you. For each of your consideration, here is a list of important astronomical dates for 2014 (according to http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-current.html, accessed 23 January 2014):

01 January – New Moon 02-03 January – Quadrantids Meteor Shower 05 January – Jupiter at Opposition
16 January – Full Moon
30 January – New Moon
14 February – Full Moon (an excellent Valentine’s Day treat…)
01 March – New Moon
16 March – Full Moon
20 March – Vernal/March Equinox
20 March – Occultation of Regulus
30 March – new Moon
08 April – Mars at Opposition
15 April – Full Moon
15 April – Total Lunar Eclipse
22-23 April – Lyrids Meteor Shower
29 April – New Moon
29 April – Annular Solar Eclipse
05-06 May – Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower
10 May – Saturn at Opposition
14 May – Full Moon
24 May – Possible Meteor Storm
28 May – New Moon
07 June – Conjugation of the Moon and Mars
13 June – Full Moon
21 June – Summer/June Solstice
27 June – New Moon
12 July – Full Moon
26 July – New Moon
28-29 July – Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower
10 August – Full Moon
12-13 August – Perseids Meteor Shower
18 August – Conjugation of Venus and Jupiter
25 August – New Moon
29 August – Neptune at Opposition
09 September – Full Moon
23 September – Autumnal/September Equinox
24 September – New Moon
07 October – Uranus at Opposition
08 October – Full Moon
08 October – Total Lunar Eclipse
08-09 October – Draconids Meteor Shower
22-23 October – Orionids Meteor Shower
23 October – New Moon
23 October – Partial Solar Eclipse
05-06 November – Taurids Meteor Shower
06 November – Full Moon
17-18 November – Leonids Meteor Shower
22 November – New Moon
06 December – Full Moon
13-14 December – Geminids Meteor Shower
21 December - Winter/December Solstice
22 December – New Moon
22-23 December – Ursids Meteor Shower

MESSAGE #1. Mon Jan 20 19:16:43 2014. Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Welcome to the ASTR121 Blog! Please feel free to use this space to communicate with each other about any astro topic, and to post interesting and relevant Stars and Galaxies news, links, etc. Special One-Time Offer: Post something fun here by February 28 and receive 2 juicy bonus points!*

* Offer void where prohibited by law, you must be enrolled in ASTR121 to participate, and bonus points have no cash value. Bonus points will be awarded in early March; please allow 6-8 additional days for delivery.

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