Final

Have a nice break and good luck on your finals!!!!

Mission on Mars

Hey guys, this week's post is concerning NASA's rover mission to find life on the planet Mars. The rocket is called Atlas V, which was launched on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The six-wheeled rover, Curiosity, will take about eight and half months to reach the surface on Mars. Curiosity is the heaviest and biggest robot sent to Mars' surface. The rover contains a drill to dig into the Mars' surface and obtain samples. It is also equipped with a generator that converts heat from the natural decay of a non-weapons-grade plutonium into electricity. The electricity will be used to keep the rover warm in an environment where the average temperature is negative 64 degrees Fahrenheit.

Milky Way and Andromeda

Hey everyone, for this week's article I will be talking about the most recent research publication by Simon Mutch and his group of astronomers, of the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. These astronomer's research demonstrates that Milky Way and Andromeda are in transition from being young and star-forming into old and stagnant galaxies. They came up with the conclusion using the color difference between the young and the old galaxies. Instead of being blue or red color, a sign of young and active galaxy, Milky Way and Andromeda are green which is a sign of an old galaxy. Besides not being able to form new stars, the astronomers also said that these galaxies will be unable to produce an active galactic nucleus or AGN, which is brightest radio signals that can be seen across great distances.    

Formation of Planets

Hey Everyone,

I was reading some of the material in the book and came up on the formation of planets. This caught my eye because I have never heard of some of the theories given. The one that I became really interested in was the solar nebula theory. It is a branch of the evolutionary theory because it states that the Earth was formed from the by-product of the formation of the sun. The Earth formed from the nebula around the proto-sun, which is a result of the formation of the sun. So my question for you all is, which section during this semester did you find the most interesting?

Finals

Hey guys, as we approach the end of the fall 2011 semester, I would like to give everyone some tips on how to do better on your final exam in the astronomy course. The one important and main thing to do is to review all of the previous tests. Make sure to pay more attention to the material you have missed in the tests and try to answer each question without looking at your answers. If you don't know the answers of any questions, then first look it up in the book or your documents and if you still don't understand it then go to your professor and ask her. It is really important to understand all the material on the test because your final will most likely consist of similar questions. After you have finished with the tests, read the summary of the chapters your instructor has covered during the semester. Make sure you know all the objectives in your final exam and go to the exam relaxed.    

Hubble Telescope

Hey everyone.

I was just looking over some facts about the Hubble Telescope and I thought that I would share them with you. One of the first facts that I noticed was the fact that the Hubble Telescope cost around 1.5 billion dollars up to the launch period. This is a staggering amount of money, but necessary for the discoveries that it made. A couple other interesting details about the Hubble were that it runs on solar power from two 25 foot solar panels and that it can produce pin point accuracy. The two mirrors that form the telescope have almost a perfect curvature of their lenses. This curvature allows for the telescope to lock on a target and have minimum deviation. How do you think that the mirrors were formed to consist of almost a perfect curvature?

http://space.about.com/od/telescopesandoptics/p/hubbleinfo.htm

Tractor Beam

Tractor beams are used to trap and move objects using laser light. Recently NASA has funded $100,000 to a team of scientists, Barry Coyle, Paul Stysley, and Demetrios Poulios, to find a way to remotely capture particles in the space and send it to a spacecraft for analysis. The purpose of the idea was to use tractor beams to clean up the orbital debris, but according to the scientists it is impossible to do that at this time. So they decided to use the same idea to collect sample particles for analysis. This idea would reduce the cost of collecting samples, increase the amount of samples collected at one time, and reduce mission risk according to the team. There are three techniques selected by the team of scientists but the one which will work is not decided yet. Please read the following article and the three methods in the bottom and tell me which one do you think is most effective and most likely to work. Feel free to ask any questions about the methods. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103030817.htm   

The Ex-Planet

While scrolling through the text book I noticed that there was still a section that classified Pluto as a planet. After seeing this, I began to look in the book and online for more information on Pluto, or now know as 134340. In the book, the authors discuss if Pluto should actually be called a planet. It is one of the ten largest bodies orbiting the sun, and has been known to come closer than Neptune to the sun. In fact, from 1979 to 1999, Pluto's orbit was closer than Neptune's.

Furthermore, your text book and articles offline suggest that Pluto was once a moon for Neptune. Astronomers believed this because Pluto has the same density and about the same diameter of Neptune's moon Triton. Many disbelieve this claim because some say that even if Pluto was a moon of Neptune, it could not escape the orbit path of Neptune and still be able to have a moon itself. While this theory has been abandoned by most, do you think that Pluto could have escaped the orbit path of Neptune while still obtaining a moon?

Earth Wobble Rings

Here is an interesting article about a proof of Earth's axis not being fixed. It wobbles by a tiny fraction of a degree. Ulrich Schreiber of Technical University of Munich and his team experimented the wobble in a lab with a ring laser. The article talks about how a ring laser works and how they measure the wobble using the beams. Schreiber and his team created the "Gross Ring" which is a cheap and better astronomical method of studying the Earth's rotation. Please read the article for more details and ask me if you have any questions or comments.

Light Pollution

The light pollution is something that we overlook as it has robbed generations to see nature at its largest scale. The study shows that as many as 80% population have never seen the Milky Way. When huge power outage occurred in south California in 1990s, these people saw the Milky Way first time in their life. Billions of dollars are wasted every year on the energy by unnecessary lighting in the sky. All the lights outside which are not shielded downwards on the earth surface, pollute the atmosphere. Astronomers have to go to the different islands or mountains to study the stars because of the light pollution. Low-pressure sodium lamps are used in the city of Tucson, AZ which uses a limited amount of wavelength to prevent the light from spreading everywhere. If we do not control the light pollution then the future generations will not be able to enjoy seeing in the dark.

Venus: The Twin Planet?

Many kids learn about the planets while they are at a young age, most of the time during middle school. One piece of information given to the kids is that Earth has a twin planet, Venus. They are told this because there are many similarities between the two planets: size, density, mass, composition, and gravity. While this information is true, there are still many differences which set the two planets into different categories.

The section "Physical Characteristics of the Planet Venus", located on the website listed below, provides many different traits between Venus and Earth. Some of the traits are an intense temperature on Venus, atmospheric composition and pressure, and different surface features.

http://www.space.com/44-venus-second-planet-from-the-sun-brightest-planet-in-solar-system.html

After reading the section, do you think that Venus should still be known as Earth's twin?

Jupiter's Little Red Spot

Many of you guys might have seen the little circular red spots on the planet Jupiter. Little Red Spot is an anticyclone on Jupiter which produces winds up to 384 MPH. This storm has a direction of counterclockwise and because of the chemical reactions, it changes color after some time. Here on earth, we experience winds up to 156 MPH, which is a category five storm. The Red Spot can be seen from the earth using a telescope. Here is a link to an article if you are interested. 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/1108-jupiters_little_red_spot.htm   

The Asteroid Vesta

Hey guys, please read this article.

http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2011/10/New%20view%20of%20Vesta%20mountain%20from%20NASAs%20Dawn%20mission.aspx

I found this interesting article on the asteroid Vesta. It describes how the topography of a certain region of Vesta was seen to house a massive mountain. It was estimated that this mountain was three times the height of Mount Everest, which is the highest above ground peak in the world. Without this topography of Vesta, would you have believed that an asteroid could contain a mountain like figure which is three times the height of Mount Everest?

Nobel Prize in Physics

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess. Saul Perlmutter received $5 million and Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess received $2.5 million each. These Physicists were awarded for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae. Two separate teams, one leaded by Saul Perlmutter and other one by Brian Schmidt, located the most distant supernovae and observed it. Both teams reached the same conclusion which proved that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. This expansion can lead the universe to end in ice. It is believed that the acceleration is caused by some type of a dark energy which is still a mystery. Here is a link to an article if you guys want to read more into it. http://www.kva.se/en/pressroom/Press-releases-2011/The-Nobel-Prize-in-Physics-2011/

As you can see it is always interesting to see how Physics can help us figure out the answers to some of the toughest questions we have and which affects our future on the planet earth.   

Meteor Showers

Meteor showers occur when Earth moves through a stream of particales
produced by a decaying comet. This is because comets shed enormous quantities of
material during each orbit. Some of the largest being Comet Halley and Encke.
Meteoroid dust is blown away from the cometary nucleus by gas pressure. Most is
lost when the comet is closet to the Sun. A meteor stream develops along the
comet's orbit and is replenished each time a comet completes another orbit of
the Sun. When the parent comet finally disintergrates,it spells the end for one
particular stream as it is not being replenished regularly and its particles
disperse into space.
As the Earth moves along its orbit aorund the Sun, it regularly moves
through streams of meteoroids. Therefore meteor showers are regular and
predictable events and there are well over 20 per year.

http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/meteors.html

After reading this excerpt from the article, I remember hearing when meteor showers were going to be and staying up till around 3 in the morning to catch a glimpse. I was not able to watch everyone, but the ones I were able to see were amazing to watch. So my question to you is, "Have you ever stayed up through the night just to watch a meteor shower? If so, was it worth your while to stay up that late?".

How to study your Astronomy textbook

1. Review the assignment and gather all the handouts and information from internet.
2. Skim through the chapter by reading titles, subtitles, bold letter words, and graphics.
3. Read SLOWLY to understand the material which you will use in the following chapters.
4. Go back to re-read the material that you did not completely understand.
5. Mark the material that you are confused about and ask your teacher.
6. Build your way of understanding, for example visualize the pictures. Everyone has different styles.
7. It is really helpful to read the material before the lecture, 70% more understanding.

UARS

As many of you may have heard about the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) re-entering into the earth's atmosphere because of no gas and battery supplies. UARS was launched in 1991 and finished its mission in 2005, but it's been orbiting the earth for 20 years. Since it was built long time ago, scientists did not put the technology to control it when it is out of fuel and bring it safe on the earth surface as most of the new satellites work. NASA has predicted the time at which it will hit the surface during Saturday, which cannot be determined accurately because of its velocity, drag forces on it, and orientation. Solar activity was one of the drag force which could have affected the speed of the satellite, but since it passed the thermosphere already, it will not be affected by solar activity. Solar activity is when sun's flares affect changes in the earth's thermosphere. One other drag force which is included and will affect the UARS is caused by the air molecules in the atmosphere. Above all NASA did succeed in changing UARS's orientation and slowed it down. Now we can just wait and watch about what happens next. You can comment about your thoughts on this news.

Kepler's Laws

Just as there are the Newtonian Laws for motion of a particle, there are laws for the motion of planets. These laws were created by Johannes Kepler. Johannes Kepler was raised in a very poor lifestyle, having a father for only the first few years of his life and a mother accused of witchcraft. With him doing well in school, he was able to go to college in the late 1580's to early 1590's and then receive a job teaching at the University of Graz. There he taught mathematics and astronomy, even though he knew little about those, since he studied to be a Lutheran pastor. After a few years teaching, he wrote a book and afterwards became more interested in astronomy. It was at this time he came up with Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion.

I. The orbits of the planets are ellipses with the sun at one focus.

II. A line from a planet to the sun sweeps over equal areas in equal intervals of time

III. A planet's orbital period squared is proportional to its average distance from the sun cubed : Py^2=Dau^3

Now looking at the laws; if a planet has a distance of 13 AU away from the sun, how long would the period for that planet be in years?

Tatooine

Hey guys. This post is about the discovery of a new planet called Tatooine or Kepler-16b. NASA recently found the first ever known circumbinary planet which orbits around two suns about 200 light-years away from us. The planet is told to be very cold, gaseous, and the size of Saturn. It can not carry life according to NASA. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/15/scitech/main20106865.shtml Here is a link to a news article if you are interested. Just imagine having two sunsets, can you talk about the lifestyle changes everyone would have to experience if the earth was orbiting two suns. Here is a link to some videos. http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_18902827 

The discovery of R136 (start cluster) is an amazing find by astronomer Paul Crowther. New discoveries [as this one] provide new and critical information in the respected fields. Also, these discoveries can disprove many theories scientist have had. If you were a scientist, would you like for new discoveries in your field to be found? Remember, new discoveries provide new information but also cancel much information that you already know.

Scientific Notation

As many of you may know in scientific documents, research, and problems some numbers are really big or small to write it in its full form. To avoid mistakes and make it uncomplicated to write such numbers, scientific notation is used. In scientific notation numbers are written in the form, , in which b is an integer and a is any real number. Exponent b is the number of places the decimal should be moved, to the right for a positive value of b and to the left for a negative value of b. Remember not to write leading or trailing zeros for a. Here are few examples: 46600000 = 4.66 x 10^{7 ;} 0.00053 = 5.3 x 10^{-4 ;} 7354 = 7.354 x 10^{3 ;} 0.053 = 5.3 x 10^-2

Here are some practice problems:

5.2 x 10³

1.2 x 10^-3

The Tides

Hey everyone. When most people think about astronomy they think just about outer space, or at least I do. Even though, many things that are taking place outside Earth affect what is happening on Earth. Such is the case with tides. Many know that tides are caused by the gravitational pull from the moon. Some people do not realize how powerful these tides are. In the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada, the tides fluctuate 40 feet. This is a massive amount of water to oscillate, and it happens twice a day! Living in Florida, closer to the equator, we only experience a 1-2 foot fluctuation each day. These tides occur in the Gulf of Mexico. Larger fluctuations in tides occur (spring tides) when there is a new and full moon, while lower fluctuations occur (neap tides) when there is a first and third quarter moon. Now comes the first problem solving. Given that the tide for the Bay of Fundy happens twice a day, two times in and two out, calculate how much water moves (in volume) in 6 hours. Give a rough estimate. ( Hint : you are already given the depth).

The Constellations

Hello class. While I was thinkg about astronomy and what to write for the first blog, constellations popped into my mind. So I began thinking about constellations. More times than not, the only constellations that I can identify are the big and little dippers, although these are considered asterisms. Asterisms are less formally defined groupings that may be a part of larger constellations. Granted, I never took an astronomy course, but I have always been associated with people who point out constellations on behalf of me for future reference. So I felt this would be a good conversation starter for the blog. Have you [at any time] had trouble identifying constellations other than the big and little dippers, and do you believe that this class will help you out in this area as well as other astronomy areas? Also, which constellations, if any, have fascinated you?

New Place to Live?

Hello guys! First of all I hope everyone is doing great in all of their classes so far. I will be talking about something really interesting, which I think is best for our first post. I don't know if many of you have heard this in the news or not, but NASA probes just got evidence of water, in liquid state, on Mars. The water is only shown in spring and summer and it disappears in cold season. The water is told to be salty and briny, according to the scientists. Water is the first ingredient for life on other planets. It is really exciting to see some of these pictures from NASA which I am sharing with you guys. Tell me your feelings about living on Mars.

Also an announcement from SPS: The Society of Physics Students is having its first meeting this Thursday from 12:30 - 1:30 in MP 125. We will have free pizza and drinks for anyone who attends. On the agenda will be a discussion of this years possible upcoming events. In addition to this we will ask the members and anyone else in attendance what they would like to see from the Jacksonville University Society of Physics Students.

Marine Science Seminar Series starts on Thursday-Reid 105 at 12:30 - 1:25 pm for more information contact me!

About Me

Hi there. My name is Evan Schnitker and I am a junior at Jacksonville University. My major is engineering physics and therefore I will transfer at the end of this year to Georgia Institute of Technology. I will receive a mechanical engineering degree from GT and a physics degree from JU. My hometown is Madison, FL located near Tallahassee, FL ( Go Noles ).

I would like to know more about you, so for your first post please tell Jay and I about yourselves. Also if you all have any other questions about me feel free to ask. My email is eschnit@jacksonville.edu, and as I mentioned in the lab, I will be in the library from 6-9 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Introduction

Hello everyone. My name is Jainish Brahmbhatt, you can call me Jay, and I am Physics Engineering major and Math minor at JU. I am currently junior and enrolled in a dual degree engineering program at Jacksonville University. This is my last year here at JU and then I am planning to attend University of Florida to get my B.S. in Aerospace Engineering.

I am Indian but I lived in United States for seven years. I am currently from Ocala, FL. I enjoy engineering because I like designing and building different things. Jacksonville University has been a great experience for me, which I will never forget. The students and instructors here are very friendly and helpful. Physics really interests me because the everyday things we see around us has something to do with Physics and we do not realize it until we study it. I will leave you with one question before we meet on Monday, what is the best part about physics that you like?

Feel free to contact me for any questions. My e-mail is jbrahmb@jacksonville.edu. I am looking forward to post more blogs and listen to your responses.

A first post! More to come...

This blog will feature articles to supplement the discussions in PHYS 104 Astronomy: Out of this World in Fall 2011.

--Brian Lane