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Erik Bakke, CWU Astronomy Club Secretary

For the week starting with Sunday, April 3, 2005

Greetings everyone!!

This is Erik Bakke, your Astronomy Club secretary for Spring Quarter 2005, filling you in on news that has been happening and will be happening with the Astronomy Club.

The CWU Astronomy Club will meet on April 4, 2005 at 8 PM in Lind 215 for our next meeting of Spring Quarter 2005.

Be sure to read Bruce Palmquist's column in the Saturday edition of the Ellensburg Daily Record that is titled "What's Up In The Night Sky" so that you will know what will be available in the night sky for the coming week.

Be sure to check out the CWU Astronomy Club web site at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. Basic Astronomy
B. CNN news and link
C. MSNBC news and link
D. NASA/ESA/Chandra
E. Web site and link
F. Last meeting and minutes (in brief)
G. Announcements

H. Close

A. Basic Astronomy
The Sun
The Sun, which is at the center of our solar system and is the largest object in our solar system, is a yellow white G2 class star. It has a diameter of 1,390,000 km, a core temperature of 15,600,000 K, and a surface temperature of 5,800 K. The Sun is about 75 % hydrogen and 25 % helium by mass.
Further information can be found at these links:
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/sol.html

Further information about the Sun can be found at this link:
http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/~elk/s-mass.html

Further information about the Sun (through the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram) can be found at these links:
http://home.cwru.edu/~sjr16/stars_hrdiagram.html
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Stars/hrdiagram.html
http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/courses/astro201/hr_diagram.htm
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/208/jan23/hr.html
http://www.rundetaarn.dk/engelsk/observatorium/hrd1.html
http://www.smv.org/jims/l6a.htm
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/herrus.html
http://ast.star.rl.ac.uk/hr.html

B. CNN news and link
After a major review of servicing the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), officials from NASA have concluded that the only option for the HST is a deorbit position, with the help of a robotically controlled liquid fuel motor, which would push the HST through the atmosphere where it would crash into a remote ocean spot, probably somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
Further information can be found at this link:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/04/01/hubble.deorbit/index.html

Astronomers have finally obtained the first photograph of a planet beyond our solar system. The planets is thought to be one to two times as massive as Jupiter. It orbits a star, named GQ Lupi, which is about 400 light years away and thought to be a younger version of our sun. A total of at least160 extra solar planets have been discovered in about the last 10 to 15 years.
Further information can be found at these links:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/04/01/extrasolar.planet.photo/index.html
SkyandTelescope.com (May 2005 edition of Sky and Telescope Magazine, page 19)

C. MSNBC news and link
Work is under way at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and also at MD Robotics in Brampton, Ontario Canada for telerobotic servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). As of last week, NASA is not going ahead with plans to service HST, but rather to deorbit HST by attaching a robotically controlled liquid fuel motor and use it to push HST through the atmosphere and crash HST into a remote ocean location, probably somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

On page 2 of this report, it is believed that the gyros will last until about 2008, but in order to do that, one of the gyros will be turned off. Of course, there is the ongoing deliberation of whether or not to save HST
Further information can be found at this link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7353224/

D. NASA/ESA/Chandra
NASA
New frontiers are currently opening in the search for life on other planets that are beyond our solar system. It is thought that once dead planets and moons may be brought back to life when their sun goes through the stages of being a red giant. Obviously, the planets and moons need to be within the habitation zone of the star -- too close and water vaporizes and the planet becomes too hot. Too far away and everything freezes.

Further information can be found at this link:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/frozenworlds.html

Chandra
X-rays signal the presence of elusive intermediate-mass black hole, as shown in an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in M74. ULX sources are distinctive because they radiate 10 to 1,000 more X-ray power that neutron stars and stellar mass black holes. Chandra observations of this ULX in M74 have provided evidence that its X-radiation is produced by a disk of hot gas swirling around a black hole with a mass of about 10,000 Suns.
Further information can be found at this link:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/m74/

Further information about M74 can be found at this link:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030524.html

E. Web site and link
As black holes were thought to be theoretical from about 30 years ago to about 15 years ago (and recently "proven"), it would seem that if there were individuals, groups, or scientific communities that said that black holes do not exist, then it would seem that the person, group, or scientific community would have said so years ago.

George Chapline, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California claims that black holes "do not exist" and are actually dark energy stars.

Further information can be found at this link:
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050328/full/050328-8.html

At precisely 4:30:26.65 PM Eastern Standard Time on December 27, 2004, the solar system and Earth was struck by a high energy radiation pulse from a neutron star named SGR 1806-20. The "superflare" irradiated Earth with more total energy than a powerful solar flare. This was the brightest flash ever seen from outside the solar system. SGR 1806-20 is 50,000 light years from Earth, located on the far side of the Milky Way Galaxy.

This information can be found on pages 29-32 of the May 2005 edition of Sky and Telescope magazine.
Further information can be found at these links:
SkyandTelescope.com

F. Last meeting and minutes (in brief)
The first meeting of the CWU Astronomy Club for Spring Quarter 2005 will be on April 4, 2005 at 8 PM in Lind Hall 215.

G. Announcements

The CWU Astronomy Club web site can be found at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb

The Ellensburg, WA Daily Record can be found on line at www.kvnews.com.

Be sure to read Bruce Palmquist's column in the Saturday edition of the Ellensburg Daily Record that is titled "What's Up In The Night Sky" so that you will know what will be available in the night sky for the coming week.

Bruce Palmquist's column in the Saturday edition of the Ellensburg Daily Record can also be found in the CWU Astronomy Club web site at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb or online at www.kvnews.com.

If you have any ideas for astronomy related topics that you would like to see in the newsletter, please e-mail the club secretary.

Be sure to check your junk mail file (and filters) so that your copy of the newsletter is not deleted.

H. Close

If you want to be removed from this list, e-mail the club secretary.

A reminder, check to make sure that you have enough free hard drive space in your computer's e-mail system for the newsletter.

Be sure to check out the CWU Astronomy Club web site at www.cwu.edu/~astroclb and send any comments to Rebekah.

If you have any comments, feedback, or suggestions about the newsletter, let me know (e-mail the club secretary).

Be sure to read Bruce Palmquist's column in the Saturday edition of the Ellensburg Daily Record that is titled "What's Up In The Night Sky" so that you will know what will be available in the night sky for the coming week.

The CWU Astronomy Club will meet on April 4, 2005 at 8 PM in Lind 215 for our first meeting of Spring Quarter 2005.

As Spring Quarter 2005 is continuing, there will be more to talk about and inform you as to what will be happening during Spring Quarter 2005 with the CWU Astronomy Club.

See you on Monday night!!

Look to the stars and see what you can see....

Enjoy your spring,

Erik Bakke