Week 5: Galaxies to Black Holes

 

  1. This week in lab we gave presentations. Below are my notes from those presentations:

Lifecycles of stars 

Preconceptions 

  • Every star has the same life cycle 

  • Stars burn like fire

  • The sun is not a star

Facts 

  • Stars are a giant ball of gas 

  • Stars are different colors (depending on the temperature)

  • There are more stars than grains of sands 

Important People

  • Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

  • Nasa’s Kepler Mission; Steve Kawlaer (ISU professor) 

Quiz 

  • The explosion of a star is called what? Supernova 

Galaxies

Preconceptions 

  • Milky Way is the only galaxy 

  • All galaxies are the same size and shape 

Current 

  • Galaxies are collections of billions of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity in space 

Facts 

  • The milky way; milky band across the sky and is home to 100-400 billion stars

  • Andromeda Galaxy is the closest galaxy to us 

  • Not all galaxies are the same size

Quiz 

  • Which best describes a galaxy? A collection of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity 

  • The Andromeda galaxy is? 2.5 million light-years away from the Milky Way

  • The milky way is classified as a? Spiral galaxy

Black Holes

Preconceptions

  • Wormholes 

  • Suck everything in them 

  • Our sun will become a black hole

Current 

  • They are huge concentrations of matter packed into tiny spaces 

  • Black holes do not omit or reflect light 

Facts 

  • Millions of black holes in milky way 

  • Black holes do not live forever 

  • The intense gravity of black holes causes time and space to warp, making time and space move slower 

Quiz

  • What year did we get the first image of a black hole? 2019

  • What happens when objects get too close to a black hole? They get pulled in by its strong gravity 

  • What happens to our sun when it dies? Becomes a red giant 

Our Solar System: Inner/Ounter Planets/Moon

Preconceptions

  • Asteroid belt is dangerous 

  • Mercury is the hottest planet 

Planets

  • Inner: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars

  • Outer: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune 

  • Gas Giants: Jupiter and Saturn 

  • Ice Giants: Uranus and Neptune

  • Dwarf planets: Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Malemale, Ceres 

Asteroid Belt 

  • Separates inner and outer planets 

  • Rocky left overs from the formation of our solar system 

  • Gravity from Jupiter keeps them from forming a planet

Moons 

  • 891 Moons 

  • About half orbit planets; Other half orbit dwarf planets and/or asteroids 

Quiz 

  • Which inner plane is known as the red planet? Mars

  • Where is the steroid belt located? Between Mars and Jupiter 

  • Which statement about moons in our solar system is correct? There 891 moons and some orbit planets 

  1. Big Question: How do stars, planets, black holes, meteorites, etc. explain the interconnectedness of space?

  2. 09/25 Lecture Notes:

Life cycle of stars 

  • Stellar nebula (gas), average star, red giant, planetary nebula, white dwarf

  • Stellar nebula, massive star, super red giant, supernova, black hole or neutron star

Stars 

  • Light didn’t happen until about 300,000 years after the big bang

  • Stars and galaxies began to form about 12.7 billion years ago

  • Our star (Sun) formed from a stellar nebula (dust and debris) most likely from a star that underwent a supernova

  • Ours is 4.65 billion years old and is about half way through its supply 

  • Red giants burn fuel and lose mass, therefore increasing its size due to less mass

  • Nuclear fusion, stars can make up to Iron on the periodic table

  • Where did everything else come from? Supernova; when a star explodes it is so powerful that it builds everything else in the periodic table

Origin of the Earth

  • Created 4.65 billion years ago, not in the big band

  • Dust and debris, most likely from a former star that exploded

  • Disk like creation where sun gobbled up 99.84% of all mass

  • Everything including us is star dust

  • Plane of the Ecliptic created planets 

  • Inner planets are composed of more dense matter, rocky, less gas

Meteors and Meteorites

  • Asteroid belt; there are chunks of rock

  • Comet: Icy body that releases gases as it orbits the Sun

  • Meteor: streak of light seen when a meteoroid heats up in the atmosphere 

  • Asteroid: Rocky body smaller than a planet that orbits the sun

  • Meteoroid: Rocky or metallic fragment of an asteroid, comet, or planet

  • Meteorite: Meteor fragment that reaches the ground

  • -oids and comets are just out there, when it hits the Earth it is a Meteor, when it hits the ground it is a Meteorite, the feature that a meteorite leaves behind is a crater

Galaxies

  • A galaxy is a collection of on average 200 billion stars 

  • There are over 2 trillion galaxies; therefore there are 4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 other planets, no way we are the only life/humans

  • We live in the Milky Way galaxy, specifically on Orion’s arm, in a spiral galaxy 

  • Three primary shapes: Spiral, Elliptical, Irregular

  • Super massive black hole in the center of most galaxies, provides the gravitational pull that holds it all together

  • It would take us 81,000 years to reach the next sun; Alpha Centari

Black Holes

  • Super dense

  • Nothing, including light, can escape

  • Center of galaxies

Inner Plants: 

  • Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars 

  • Terrestrial, rocky, smaller

  • Three moons total (Earth has 1, Mars has 2)

Outer Planets 

  • Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

  • Huge, Gas, Ice (methane not H20)

  • 143 known moons

  • Many rings 

  • Inner and outer planets separated by asteroid belt 

Plane of the Ecliptic: Pluto kicked out (clear area, plane)

  • Not in the plane, not built out of the same stuff

  • To be a planet you need to have enough gravitational pull to clear the area around you, Pluto does not have that 

  1. In this chapter, I learned much more about the universe. I began by strengthening my understanding of stars. I learned that stars begin their life as clouds of dust and gas, which are called nebulae, then nuclear fission occurs under intense heat and pressure and the star ignites. I found it interesting that the sun is considered an average star and that we are made of stardust. I then learned more about meteors, meteorites, craters, and comets such as they are all different types of space rocks, each with unique characteristics. Meteoroids burn in Earth’s atmosphere as meteors, surviving pieces are meteorites, asteroids are rocky bodies mainly in the asteroid belt, and comets are icy bodies with glowing tails when near the Sun. These differences explain phenomena like shooting stars, craters, and famous events such as Halley’s Comet. I then learned that the asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter and that a black hole is an area in space with strong gravity which no light can escape. Lastly, I learned more about galaxies, and more specifically, our galaxy the Milky Way. I found it interesting that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, and got that name from its appearance as a milky band of light in the sky. Overall, I found all the pictures, visuals, and videos throughout this chapter helpful to deepen my understanding. However, I am still struggling to grasp the lifecycle of a star, and plan to continue reviewing that material. 

  2. I have no questions, comments, or concerns at this time.

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