Sarah Hatch Astronomy Professor Barnes

Weekly Article #1

June 15, 2014 Spectacular Whirlpool Galaxy Swirls into Space Telescopes View from
www.space.com
This article talks about how NASA captured an image of Messier 51 (Whirlpool Galaxy), an
illuminating spiral galaxy that is said to be similar to Earths own Milky Way. It was captured
for its swirling arms of stars and dust and is 30 million light-years from Earth. The article said
that astronomers think it could be home to many several black holes. It took over 250 hours of
observation time. They also thought there were neighboring stars around the black holes
suggesting that they are larger than the sun. The stellar wind would flow from the large stars into
the black holes, giving massive amounts of energy and hot matter that produce x-rays. The
astronomers think that because of the galaxies slamming into each other are creating waves of
star formation, and large newly formed stars speeding through life cycles in a few million years
collapsing in on themselves to form black holes or neutron stars, and create x-ray binaries. The
telescope is designed to pick up superheated regions in space. I think this is cool to know
because I have always had an interest in black holes. It interested me when I was reading about
the black holes part. I think it is cool to learn about them. I know starts pretty much create
everything in the universe, but I didnt know that black holes and to know what this looks like
through capturing images of this evidence, well kind of, is really fascinating.

Weekly Article #2

June 25, 2014 Nearby Alien Planet May Be Capable of Supporting Life from www.space.com
The international team of astronomers discovered an exoplanet in the star Gliese 832s
habitable zone. which is the right distances allowing liquid water to exist on a worlds
surface. The planet exists 16 light years from Earth and is five times more massive than our
planet Earth. Robert Wittenmyer noticed tiny wobbles that the planets gravity induces in the
motion of its host star. I think this is cool to learn about new planets, and stars the orbit them. I
think it is also interesting how the two planets they talk about in this article are pretty much like
our own solar system, comparing the two Gliese planets with Jupiter and Earth planets, or even
Venus. It makes me curious how similar planets are made with other planets in different
galaxies. Its a clich kind of thought when you think about that, especially when our world is
two dimensional and space is kind of four dimensional.

Weekly Article #3

July 2, 2014 Salt on Mars May turn Ice into Liquid Water from www.space.com
This articles talks about how they found some ice that could melt the ice it touches, which has
been found on Mars in a simulated red environment. They explained that this process is similar
to what takes place on Earth. This Martian experiment showed scientists suspicion that Mars
harbors flowing water, with pictures from NASA and European Space Agency orbiters exploring
the Red Planet showing what appears to be gullies on the Martian surface. It reminds me of the
salt we use on Earth to melt snow/ice to help us have better surfaces on the ground. This is a
good experiment/study found because if they found salt on Mars that could melt the ice it
touches, then thats a cool discovery. It is cool to learn of discoveries like this since it is a good
comparison to what we have found on other planets that relate to Earth. It is evident of this since
scientists have found microbes in salty waters in locations such as Antarctica. I think this is cool
to compare with other findings in other studies.

Weekly Article #4

July 10, 2014 Hubble Telescope Spies Gorgeous Galactic String of Pearls from
www.space.com
This article tells about how NASAs Hubble Space Telescope spotted a celestial string of pearls
wrapped around the hearts of two merging elliptical galaxies. What this means is that the curly
string is 100,000 light-years long and sports blue pearls(huge young star clusters) every 3,000
light-years along the way. The two colliding galaxies light which the clusters powerful gravity
has warped into strange patterns are bright blue arcs surrounding the galaxy cluster in the new
Hubble photo, researchers said in the article. I think this is a cool result to encounter for
scientists and astronomers. It is very cool to see it in a new perspective in the telescope industry.
Everything comes into a new light!

Weekly Article #5

July 18, 2014 Vintage NASA Probe, Once Abandoned in Space, Still Hast fuel from
www.space.com
This article was breathtaking. I loved it! It tells about how a NASA spacecraft proved it still had
fuel left after 36 years after being in space by having a bit of a thrust. Expecting that if they were
still full of fuel, the controllers rescinded since the temperatures in the fuel tanks rose only a little
bit. They discovered that some of the correct procedures were not followed because
documentation on the 1970s-era NASA spacecraft was incomplete. They made a solution to heat
the tanks, open some valves to move the gas inside, and then fire the engine for several hundred
pulses which produced some changes. The Puerto Rico observatory discovered several instances
of thrust. NASA had originally launched the ISEE-3 spacecraft in 1978 on a mission to explore
the interaction between the suns solar wind and earths magnetic field but then later reassigned
to study the interaction between the solar wind and the atmospheres of comets. Only the dark
matter halos around the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies have been studied at comparable
distances, and according to the scientists, that is not enough data to go off of.
I think that this is cool to know that one mission was later to help with another mission. I think it
was a blessing for them to have that miscalculation, especially since it wasnt in a more distant
galaxy which would be more difficult.

Weekly Article #6

July 24, 2014 Hubble Telescope Spies Off-Kilter Halo Around Distant Galaxy from
www.space.com
This article talks about how the Hubble Telescope spies the best view of a halo of stars around
the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A, finding that the galaxys outer edge rich in heavy metals.
They found that the stars in Centaurus As halo have a higher around of heavy elements than
thought possible. They also found a lopsided shape to the halo around the Centaurus A galaxy.
Centaurus A is the Milky Ways closest giant elliptical galaxy neighbor, making it closer to
observe. Rejkuba said that if it were for more-distant galaxies, it wouldnt be possible to observe
anything like this. The researchers also found stars in the outer regions of the stellar halo were
rich in metals -that were other than hydrogen and helium. They suggested that mergers with a
large spiral galaxy couldve cause the presence of stars with higher metallicities.
I think this is a wickedly cool finding in space! To know that stars have more than just Hydrogen
and Helium is good to know about and can lead to future investigation on what stars are and
what theyre made from, and what happens when they are made.

Weekly Article #7

July 30, 2014 Weird Orbits of Alien Planets May Be Due to Twin Stars from www.space.com
This article talks about orbits of alien planets that are partly caused by twin stars circling. In our
solar system, the orbits of most planets are nearly circular, orbiting the suns equator. The
scientists focused on two stars about 450 light-years from earth in the constellation of Taurus.
These stars are less than 5 million years old and separated about 36 billion miles. Jensen says
that if you forma lot of planets around a given star, especially if their orbits are pretty closely
packed together, you are going to have interactions between planets, which can change their
orbits. Researchers want to look at more binary systems with proto-planetary disks to see how
typical or atypical skewed disks are. I dont really know what to say about this article except the
fact that I didnt really know anything about it. It was really good to read a little more about the
subject I thought it was really interesting when it said that if you form a lot of planets around
a given star, especially if their orbits are pretty closely packed together, youre going to have
interactions between planets, which can change their orbits. This article helped me understand a
little more about orbiting planets.

Weekly Article#8

August 6, 2014 Face on Comet 67P Spotted by Rosetta Spacecraft from www.space.com
This article talks about how the Rosetta Spacecraft spots a photo of the Comet 67P (Churyumov-
Gerasimenko) while en route to its historic arrival at the comet. They compared it with the Face
on Mars. They say that the face on mars was just a trick of light and shadows. They plan to have
Rosetta as the first spacecraft to orbit a comet spending the next year studying Comet 67P-G in
extraordinary detail. In November, Rosetta is supposed to drop its lander Philae onto the comets
surface for closer observation. I think this is very cool to find this! However, I think there have
been many instances like this that are false and waste time. They are cool and interesting, but if
NASA keeps getting silly stuff like this, then I dont know what other important and useful
knowledge well gain about the universe.