Shooting Stars

It all begins by asking the simple question: what is real? Seeing is believing, human as the most advanced species on earth have evolved to be heavily reliant on vision, it is estimated that eighty to eighty five percent of our perception, learning, cognition and activities are mediated through vision, so what we see must be real. Right? Figure 1 is a picture of an Einstein Ring, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. When you first look at it, after all the amazement caused

Type II supernova results from the rapid collapse and explosion of a massive star. For a star to explode as a type II supernova it must be several times more massive than the sun. it is estimated that their mass must be at least 8 times greater than that of the sun, but no more than 40-50 times the suns mass. Stars generate energy via nuclear fusion of elements. Stars of the magnitude great enough to become type II supernovae possess the mass needed to fuse elements that have an atomic mass greater

most transformative innovation in modern chemistry. 92 of the 118 elements are naturally occurring. Elements are created in stars during nuclear fusion. In the high pressure situations stars fuse hydrogen atoms into helium. Helium atoms then fuse to create beryllium, and so on, until fusion in the star's core has created every element up to iron. Iron is the last element stars create in their cores. After iron is created in the core, a star's first life

process of combining the nuclei of smaller atoms(less protons & neutrons and hence, a smaller atomic number) to create a larger atom. In many stars, the process starts with hydrogen (H) atoms combining to form helium atoms (He) then combining again to form Beryllium (Be) atoms and so on... The process stops when all the atoms are converted to Iron (Fe) and the star is thus dead. The reason for this is that once the atoms reach Iron and higher, the energy required to fuse the atoms becomes greater than

Sunspots are regions on the surface of the sun, which is called the photosphere. Sunspots are cool, dark and temporary. The surface temperate of the sun is 6000 Celsius and sunspots are about 1500 Celsius. They can last up to hours or even months. Sunspots usually expand and contract as they move across the surface of the sun and can be as large as 80,000 km in diameter. Sunspots are magnetic fields on the sun, which are thousand times stronger than the magnetic fields on the earth. The magnetic

When a massive star, outclassing our own sun by fiat, grows old enough that it’s run out of fuel, it sometimes explodes in a violent reaction releasing the elements necessary for new stars, new planets and systems into the depths of space in a matter of minutes. This process is believed to resemble the big bang itself, and astronomers have just discovered the presence of a chemical called lithium in a nova, and this chemical’s presence is helping us understand the concentration of lithium in stellar

(S3). Supernovae can happen in two ways depending on the mass of the star; Type I or Type II. A Type I supernova happens when the star “steals” matter from a neighbor until a nuclear reaction ignites. Type I supernovae are generally thought to come from white dwarf stars only in binary star systems (S1). A white dwarf star is what stars like our sun become after they have used up their nuclear fuel. As the gas of the neighboring star grows onto the white dwarf, the white dwarf is progressively and

of a more distant Cepheid, astronomers could immediately determine its luminosity – and hence, its distance. How We Use Cepheids Astronomers use Cepheid stars to measure distance. First, the period of a distant Cepheid is measured. The period is the length of time between brightness peaks. Next, they measure the peak luminosity of the star itself; this gives them the apparent brightness. Then, assuming that all Cepheids of the same period have the same absolute brightness, the distance is computed

interests me and since Pictor has something to do with art, as it could be symbolic inspiration to painters all over the magical and muggle world. It helps me by inspiring me that one day i could be a painter as long as i put in the effort, like the stars in the constellation put in the effort to burn brightly every day. Pictor is a minor, faint constellation located in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Pictor is located between Canopus and the Large Magellanic Cloud. It's name is a shortened version

Canis Major is my favorite constellation because I love dogs. I have currently have three Labrador Retrievers. Canis Major means "Greater Dog" in Latin. He is often represented with Canis Minor (Lesser Dog) and both are following Orion (The Hunter). Canis Major is located in the southern celestial hemisphere. Mythologists say that the constellation represents Laelaps, a dog so fast that no prey could outrun it. This dog had a long list of owners. The most likely version says that he was given