The Sun is a single pixel.

You should get an orchestra to play. *hint hint*

LoL~ i <3 yous ppls. XD

[ back to cleaning.. D: ]

Today's photo is a detailed shot of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) or Messier Object 31. I mentioned in a previous post that this is our closest major galactic neighbor.

Andromeda occupies a space about the size of 5 full moons on the night sky. However, it will only appear to be a faint hazy dot to the naked eye (as seen in a previously posted photo). The galaxy itself is a spiral galaxy very similar to the Milky Way. Andromeda contains an estimated 1 trillion stars (1 with 12 zeros), which is more than twice the number of stars than the Milky Way. Despite this, the Milky Way is more massive as it contains more dark matter.

The distance to Andromeda is immense, about 2.5 million light years. Intergalactic space is so vast that travel between galaxies is a subject that even many science fiction writers do not broach. The Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are currently on a merging path, closing in on each other at about 80 miles per second. At this speed, it will be 4 to 5 billion years before they collide (initial approach) and begin the long process of combining to form a large elliptical galaxy.

An interesting statistic to consider about the "collision" is that despite the ~1.4 trillion stars in the two combined systems, the actual chance that a star will come close to physically hitting another star during this merger is actually on the order of millionths of a percent. This is because the distance between each star in space is much much greater than the diameter of the stars themselves. Space is mostly just empty space after all.

Balgus wrote:

Umbrasquall wrote:No rumors about my wife please. >:

Umbra:
1: whens the wedding?

2:and are we invited?

3: will there be cake?

4: what kind of presents should we get you?

5: did you get a dj, photographer, or an officiant yet?

6:can mono and i be in your wedding party? (riding in limos is fun, what can i say)



ps why am i the only one that noticed this?

1.) working on it.
2.) we will teleport you all
3.) duh.
4.) money. preferably lots of cash.
5.) kaki is our flower girl (he even promised to wear a dress), and mikizuko is our photographer.
6.) you two can be whatever you want to be. we'll even get you two your own limo. :]

TELEPORT?!??!!

ill take a plane

It is almost the 43 year anniversary of the launch of the Interstellar Mission Voyager 1. The Voyagers were originally designed to explore and take pictures of the outer planets and their moons, and eventually visit the Kuiper Belt around the outer rim of the solar system (which is almost like a larger, 2nd asteroid belt that contains minor planets like Pluto).

The Voyager crafts each contains a "Golden Record," which are phonograph records. On the records are various sounds of the Earth, such as ocean waves, birds calling, examples of classical and eastern music, greetings in different languages, and personal messages from world leaders including President Carter. There are drawn instructions on how to operate the phonograph within the vessel. The idea is for the Voyager to function as a time capsule, from which aliens who may discover them in the far future may learn about the history of Earth and Humanity.

Today's picture is a drawing of the positions of the two Voyagers. Voyager one is currently traveling at about 38,000 miles per hour (that's 1 and 1/2 times around the equator of the Earth every hour), and is about 0.002 light years from the Sun (hasn't gotten very far in the last 43 years lol). In fact, the Voyagers are technically not even out of the solar system yet, as you can see from the picture.

More googling for me to do... D:
Umbra makes me study so much even out of school. >.<

thats ok candy, i googled too and voyager was launched in 1977 not 1967 meaning its only 33 years old not 43

Oops, 33 years lol. What does this have to do with Candy

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?! YOU SAYING I'M OLD?!

The Bubble Nebula is one of the 3000 known planetary nebula in the Milky Way. These interesting formations are the eye-candy of the universe, and originate from the death of a star of 0.8 to 8 solar masses.

Planetary nebula is sort of a misnomer as they really have nothing to do with planets at all. They are formed as the superheated core of a star running out of hydrogen fuel begins to push out the outer layers of its own atmosphere. Billions of years from now, our own sun may puff out its outer layers to form one of these.

This particular formation is about 10 light years across, and 11,000 light years away towards the constellation Cassiopeia.



Trivia: My rainbow sprite in Mabi is named after one of the stars in this constellation, Gamma Cassiopeiae. This star is better known by its colloquial name: Navi.

"Your ring is a supernova remnant."

While stars similar to our sun die with a puff to form a white dwarf and a planetary nebula, massive stars (stars larger than 8 solar masses) end their life with a large explosion called a supernova (specifically type Ib and II supernovae). They form spectacular nebulae with a neutron star in the center (or a black hole if the star was larger than 20 solar masses).


These are much larger than planetary nebulae and are rich in elements that seed the creation of future stellar systems.


The phenomena is caused by the star collapsing on itself as it runs out of fuel. Normally, a star keeps an equilibrium state by balancing the outward pressure caused by core nuclear fusion and the gravitational force pulling everything towards the core. As a large star ages, it will begin to deplete the reserves of hydrogen in the inner core. As less hydrogen is available, the star contracts due to gravity which in turn makes the core hotter. Eventually, the core will become hot enough to fuse helium into carbon, then carbon into neon, etc. All the way up until iron.


The onion-like layers of a massive star just before supernova.


Iron is the last stop in the stellar fusion chain because it requires an input of energy to create anything heavier. Once the star hits this point (inner most core is iron) there is no more core fusion to counteract gravity. The outer layers all accelerate in towards the core all at once. When the later layers hit the core, there is an enormous amount of kinetic energy built up. The layers hit the iron core and "bounce" back. The result is a explosion of galactic visibility (supernovae may easily outshine the entire host galaxy). Matter that made up the layers of the star fly outward at speeds up to 10% the speed of light. Huge amounts of energy are produced in an outburst that may last many months. In an attempt to put things into perspective, the energy released from a supernova is about equal to the energy produced by our sun in its entire lifetime!

Sidenote: Only about 0.00000001% of the Sun's energy is actually intercepted by the Earth.

The Milky Way averages about one supernova every 50 years. If one of these occurs within 30 light years of the Solar System, Earth would lose 1/2 of it's ozone layer. If it happens within a few hundred light years it would be like having 2 suns for a few months to a year.

If you notice the elements in the layers of the aged star above, you'll see many familiar elements found on Earth. This is because all elements other than hydrogen and helium in the universe were produced inside of stars. That means that all the molecules of oxygen and carbon that you are made up of were produced inside of a star eons ago.

So what about elements heavier than iron? They were produced from these dying explosions of massive stars, which provide the input of energy necessary to fuse elements above iron. This means that the gold and silver in the ring or necklace that you wear is actually a very small remnant of supernova a very, very long time ago.

So much chemistry and physics... D:

BTW, what's that bright yellow lining in the first pic?

so im part star?

Candy wrote:So much chemistry and physics... D:

BTW, what's that bright yellow lining in the first pic?

I think that's probably a bad representation of the corona.

Trillz wrote:so im part star?

Yes Trillz. Probably all of the atoms in your body has at one point or another been part of a star.

Stellar remnants: white dwarfs and giant diamonds

I mentioned before that the formation of a planetary nebular by a medium-sized star will result in a white dwarf. But what exactly is it?

It turns out that it is the glowing carbon core of the dead star. The light they emit is purely from stored thermal energy, as there are no more nuclear reactions taking place. The theoretical black dwarf is what white dwarfs will evolve into after they lose all their thermal energy. However, the universe is not yet old enough for any white dwarfs to have cooled off enough to become black dwarfs. 97% of stars in the Milky Way are or will become white dwarfs.

A white dwarf is very dense. It is basically an object the size of the Earth but with the mass of the Sun. A teaspoon of a white dwarf would weigh close to 5 tons.

A thin layer of leftover gas from the original bulk of the star's atmosphere forms an atmosphere of a few tens of miles thick. The rest is very compressed solid carbon, oxygen, and other residue from late-life stellar fusion. Electron degeneracy pressure holds up all the mass from further collapse.

Further inside the dwarf, atoms would crystallize as it cools. Since much of the object is carbon, there is a large composition of crystallized carbon under high pressure in the interior of many white dwarfs. You probably would recognize this material as diamond. The largest known diamond in the galaxy is such a white dwarf called BPM 37093, which has up to 90% of it's mass in the form of crystallized carbon.


The closest white dwarf to us is Sirius B, shown here next to it's companion binary star Sirius A, the brightest star in the night sky. The Sirius system is 8.6 light years away in the constellation Canis Major

Umbrasquall wrote:Stellar remnants: white dwarfs and giant diamonds

I mentioned before that the formation of a planetary nebular by a medium-sized star will result in a white dwarf. But what exactly is it?

It turns out that it is the glowing carbon core of the dead star. The light they emit is purely from stored thermal energy, as there are no more nuclear reactions taking place. The theoretical black dwarf is what white dwarfs will evolve into after they lose all their thermal energy. However, the universe is not yet old enough for any white dwarfs to have cooled off enough to become black dwarfs. 97% of stars in the Milky Way are or will become white dwarfs.

A white dwarf is very dense. It is basically an object the size of the Earth but with the mass of the Sun. A teaspoon of a white dwarf would weigh close to 5 tons.

A thin layer of leftover gas from the original bulk of the star's atmosphere forms an atmosphere of a few tens of miles thick. The rest is very compressed solid carbon, oxygen, and other residue from late-life stellar fusion. Electron degeneracy pressure holds up all the mass from further collapse.

Further inside the dwarf, atoms would crystallize as it cools. Since much of the object is carbon, there is a large composition of crystallized carbon under high pressure in the interior of many white dwarfs. You probably would recognize this material as diamond. The largest known diamond in the galaxy is such a white dwarf called BPM 37093, which has up to 90% of it's mass in the form of crystallized carbon.


The closest white dwarf to us is Sirius B, shown here next to it's companion binary star Sirius A, the brightest star in the night sky. The Sirius system is 8.6 light years away in the constellation Canis Major

I didn't understand. But I like the picture. :]
Pretty bright circles. ^^

umbra, i think candy is telling you what sort of diamond she wants for her engagement ring.........






















































someone forgive me for sometimes i cannot help myself

Ring? I want cash.

psh hes a med student now, he has no cash

cool

since were part star how come we cant fly?

Because the laws of gravity forbid it. Blame Newtonian mechanics.

Trillz wrote:cool

since were part star how come we cant fly?

Lol flying stars.

Candy wrote:Ring? I want cash.

I see how it is.

Umbrasquall wrote:

Candy wrote:Ring? I want cash.

I see how it is.

I thought you knew I was a gold digger?