Parenago 1802

- Discuss stellar evolution (describing each stage in brief). What forces are opposing one another throughout the life of a star and how do they influence the various stages in the life cycle of a star

Vera Cooper Rubin was born July 23, 1928 in Philadelphia, PA. Her father was Philip Cooper, an electrical engineer, and her mother Rose. She first developed an interest in astronomy at the age of 10 while stargazing from her home in Washington D.C. Her father encouraged her to follow her dreams and took her to amateur astronomer meetings. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Vassar University in 1948 of which she was the only astronomy major that year. Later she earned her master’s from Cornell in 1950 with her masters’ thesis was controversial and centered around the possibility of bulk rotation by looking for “sideways” motion of galaxies. She finally got her Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1954. Her doctoral

Bottke, W.F., Vokrouhlick´y, D., Rubincam, D.P., & Broˇz, M.: 2002, in: W.F. Bottke, A. Cellino, P. Paolicchi & R.P. Binzel (eds.), Asteroids III (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press), p. 395-408.

On 2 August 2016, it was announced that an Earth-like planet had been found orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System. The planet named Proxima B is 4.85 billion years old, which is older than our 4.6 billion year old Sun. It sits a little over 4 light years away from Earth, which speaking in astronomical terms is right under our nose. While the discovery of exoplanets like Proxima B are driven by the same sense of curiosity the ancient Babylonians and Greeks had, sophisticated instruments have been used to discover these worlds. For more than 15 years, astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile have used the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) and the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) to hunt for such planets. These instruments detect wobbles in a star’s movement caused by gravitational tugs of the orbiting planets that they’re searching for. Data collated from UVES and HARPS from the last 16 years allowed astronomers to confirm the finding. While we no longer look towards planets like these to tell our fortune, Proxima B represents a possible future for our civilisation. Its discovery has excited astronomers for its striking similarities to Earth, most notably the fact that it circles Proxima Centauri’s habitable zone: the range of distances ideal for liquid water to form. Coupled with its rocky composition, the potential

Exoplanets are interesting to us for a number of reasons. By locating and observing them, we are able to gather a variety of useful data that tells us details about the planet, and then compare and contrast them to other exoplanets, as well as our own planet Earth. These comparisons are our attempt at better understanding the formation history of rocky planets such as the one we live on today, and furthermore understand the future of rocky planets based on their internal composition and proximity to their host stars.

The Orion Nebula contains one of the brightest star clusters in the night sky. With a magnitude of 4, this nebula is easily visible from the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months. It is surprising, therefore, that this region was not documented until 1610 by a French lawyer named Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. On March 4, 1769, Charles Messier inducted the Orion Nebula, M42, into his list of stellar objects. Then, in 1771, Messier released his list of objects for its first publication in Memoires de l'Academie.1

Other observations were made regarding the nearby stars GJ667A and GJ667B. The age of these two stars were estimated to be between 2-10 billion years old, thus GJ667C was similar in age. The mass of GJ667C star was to be around 0.33 Msun. The luminosity and surface temperature of GJ 667C using models for the mass, metallicity, and age. The orbital data for this star showed a slightly eccentric orbit of <0.27. The boundaries were determined for the zone where liquid water could exist on an Earth-like planet and planet “c” was found within that boundary. The data was also compared to known limits that make Venus uninhabitable and Mars habitable.

Shapely pointed out that the brightnesses and colours that had been measured in spiral nebulae were different compared to what he would expect to see if the Milky Way was observed from a distance. He suggested that the nebulae were, somehow, completely different to our Milky Way. To this, Curtis had no reply. Today we know that the differences exist because of interstellar absorption and reddening, which stops astronomers from looking at our own galaxy to compare it, but none of this information was known at their time. Curtis also noticed that the spectral lines seen in spiral nebulae were normally the same, with the nebulae’s being groups together huge amounts of stars. This was right, and supported his argument about there being stellar systems similar to our own

A nebulae as described in Fraknoi’s Voyages to the Stars and Galaxies is “all objects that were not sharp points of light” (Fraknoi, page 384). The Sagittarius Triplet is a group of three nebulae’s famous for their bright red and blue hues, which is a main reason I choose this picture. There are three nebulae in this picture and each is spectacular on its own but together the Sagittarius Triplet creates a visual buffet for the eyes. The dark reds in particular are beautiful to behold and take up the majority of the visual landscape. These red colors are created by the emission nebulae by hydrogen gas that is heated by the intense temperatures of present stars. The image made me feel the vastness of space and the endlessness of time. The interesting layout of the nebulae creates a long stardust highway across the image, connecting the NGC 6559 and M8 nebulae. These three nebulae are so bright they are routinely featured in telescopic tours of the Sagittarius constellation and the central Milky Way galaxy. M8 or the Lagoon Nebula and M20 or Trifid were first cataloged in 1764 by Charles Messier (Kronberg).

Astronomers at Yale and Harvard have measured the “heartbeats” of stars within elliptical galaxy M87 and used that data to determine the galaxy’s age in a new way. M87 is located 53 million light-years from Earth.

An accurate description of atomic processes governing the origin of elements in the astronomical objects is essential to understand the cosmic evolution of the universe. This project is one of the endeavors to accomplish this goal. Also, the knowledge of the atomic structure of heavy elements such as Krypton, Xenon, and Molybdenum is necessary to understand their interaction with the plasma in power generation reactors. New S2+ DR results may remove the anomalous behavior noticed by plasma modelers in its elemental abundance observed in the Orion Nebulae. Most importantly, this work will make my contribution as a woman in this male-dominating field and will inspire other women and me to take advantage of every opportunity come across to give

Observations of Novae – Shapley argued (correctly) that the observed apparent brightnesses of some “novae” seen in spiral nebulae implied enormous luminosities if the nebulae lay at large distances. Curtis suggested (also correctly) that

The discovery of Kepler-452b “Second Earth” wasn’t easy for the astronomers . In 2009,NASA’s kepler spacecraft has been observing stars for the photometer , an instrument that uses to detect transit events , in which a planet crosses in front and dims the star host’s brief and roughly regular period of time . In this last test Kepler observed 50000 stars , including Kepler-452 ; the exploratory light curves in the Kepler science team were sent for analysis . To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of the Kepler-452 system, the team searched for better observations at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck Observatory atop

First let’s start with the data we have Rodia has a surface temperature of 5894 K while Alderaan has one at 20,000. Rodia is a G 1 or 2 spectral type while Alderaan is B 1 or 2. Rodia’s main sequence lifetime is roughly 10^10 power or about 10,000,000,000 years and Alderaan’s is about 10 to the eighth or around 100,000,000 years. Rodia has an apparent magnitude at 10.1 and an absolute at 5.3. Alderaan has

The radial velocity method was used to detect the first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b (51 Peg b) around a main sequence star, 51 Pegasi (51 Peg). The radial velocity method uses the variations in velocity of a star due to the gravitational pull from an exoplanet (Lissauer 2002). Furthermore the velocity isn’t measured in terms of actual speed but in terms of light based on the Doppler effect. The Doppler effect occurs when a star moves. When it moves toward us, its wavelengths of light are shortened and when a star moves away from us, its wavelengths of light are lengthened. Through the continued observation of the Doppler effect on a stars spectrum of light, the velocity of a star is inferred. Any change in a stars velocity is caused by a sufficiently massive companion, an exoplanet (Lissaeur 2002).