Solar Heartbeat

This month, a drilling platform will rise in the Gulf of Mexico, but it won’t be aiming for oil. Scientists will try to sink a diamond-tipped bit into the heart of Chicxulub crater—the buried remnant of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that killed off the

Solarwinds, a “stream of charged particles from the sun’s upper part of the atmosphere, called Corona”. They said to be made out of hydrogens protons and electrons. Also having a traces of atomic nuclei and alpha particles. The Astrophysicist who first discovered this amazing thing, formerly known as Eugene Parker. It wasn't until 1958 when notice,“stiff

The KT extinction asteroid impact, arguably the most recognizable asteroid impact ever known, also known as the “Chicxulub Asteroid Impact” from the name of the location the impact occurred.(Schulte et al., 2010) The event itself happened around 65.5 million years ago. It is widely accepted as the event that caused the mass extinction that marked the boundary

2) In the field of astronomy, the earth-centered description of the planetary orbits was overthrown by the Copernican system, in which the sun was placed at the center of a series of concentric, circular planetary orbits. Later, this theory was modified, as measurements of the planets motions were found to be compatible with elliptical, not circular, orbits, and still later planetary motion was found to be derivable from Newton's laws.

In the 16th Century a Polish astronomer, Copernicus ,made a model that placed the Sun in the centre of the Solar System. Before then, astronomers had very complicated models which tried to explain the movement of the planets. They were said to move forwards then backwards. Astronomers had a theory that the planets were spheres in spheres which could explain the movement of the planets. Although Copernicus simplified it all and showed that the Earth was orbiting the Sun and the weird motions of the planets was easier to understand as the Earth caught up to them then passed them in orbit

However, this happened around 50,000 years ago, resulting in a crater 1 mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference and more than 700 feet deep. The impact of the meteor had energy of more than 20-million tons of TNT, and shook the southwestern plain for miles. The meteor left little evidence of its origin behind, it vaporized on impact with the earth. Moreover, erosion has done little to change the original crater.

The asteroid colliding with Earth left evidence in the planets core and mantle with iridium and shocked quartz. Iridium is present in extraterrestrial objects like asteroids and meteorites. The asteroid impact

While testing the layer of clay they discovered traces of iridium which is typically found in meteoroids. It could not have been asteroid dust that had just fallen from the sky because of how much iridium that was found there, it must have been a meteorite that struck earth. From different parts around the the world paleontologists had found this similar clay layer between the rocks and was found with traces of iridium. Iridium is rare on earth and since they knew how much iridium is in a meteor, they were able to determine that is was possible a meteorite had struck the earth. In 1980 the asteroid impact theory was put up front to determine and find more evidence if a meteor was the actual cause. There was some evidence that a meteor caused the mass extinction but what they could not find was a meteor crater. Until 1991, more evidence was found that supported the idea that a meteor was the possible cause of the extinction because a meteor impact crater called Chicxulub was found off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. It was similar in size and age as when the meteor hit 65 millions years ago. Iridium was found in the crater site making it possible that it was the crash site. Another thing found in the site was shocked quartz, it is when

not fully understood. Scientists still debate whether it was a comet or asteroid, if similar

There have been many theories to explain the dinosaur extinction. However, Walter Alvarez and colleagues had discovered the evidence for dinosaur extinction. They found the rocks laid down precisely at the K-T boundary contain extraordinary amounts of the metal iridium. And those materials of the rocks would not normally found on Earth’s surface. Then, they discovered those rocks were asteroids. Scientist discovered the K-T impact crater was deeply buried under in Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. The crater was 150-kilometer-wide. Scientists calculated that it likely caused by an object about 6 miles (10 km) across, would have released as much energy as 100 trillion tons of TNT. (Choi & Contributor, 2016) Moreover, scientists have concluded that

Luis Alvarez, Dr. Walter Alvarez also contributed to the research by investigating the geological affects an asteroid would have on the earth and its creatures during the cretaceous and tertiary periods. Scientists collected data and compared the composition of the elements in earth’s crust to the structure of a meteorite (Alvarez et al. 1980). Researchers found samples of sedimentary rocks mountains located in northern Italy which represented compounds which existed nearly 185 to 30 million years ago. 1 (p. 1096) Analysis from sections of limestone was mapped and placed in approximate chronological order to determine the age of the sediments. To ensure the results were not a coincidence, they also compared their findings to sections of rock in the found in the layers of Stevens Klint located near Copenhagen (Alvarez et al.

Astronomer Aristarchus was one of the first people to believe that the earth revolved around the sun. He came to this conclusion based on the size of the sun compared to the earth. He thought it was more logical then the sun revolving around the earth, though he had no actual proof. This first time there was actual proof of the motion of the Earth was in 1725, when James Bradley discovered stellar aberration. Stellar aberration is the yearly change in positions of all stars in the sky, which is due to Earth moving. It calculated by adding up the speed of light coming from the stars to Earths own motion. More proof was dissolved in 1838 by Friedrich Bessel. It’s called stellar parallax, which is based on when Earth changes its position relative

pg 153). These findings support the idea that convergence aloft (at the sun 's surface) leads to descending motion, which would explain how sunspots inhibit the convective uplift of energy.

the sun sweeps over equal areas in equal intervals of time. Kepler’s third law is that a planet’s

9. We don’t have evidence that sunspots are magnetic but we do know that the sunspots are caused by the magnetic activity amongst the sun. Also with the understanding of the Zeeman effect we can conclude how strong the magnetic fields are that cause the sunspots. In conclusion we see that sunspots are in fact apart of the magnetic field in the layers of the suns atmosphere.