cyksz-blog

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A giant icy storm on Uranus’s north pole

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IC 2944,  also known as the Running Chicken Nebula or the λ Centauri Nebula, is an open cluster with an associated emission nebula found in the constellation Centaurus, near the star λ Centauri.

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The orbits of the over 1,000 known potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). These are over 140 meters across & will pass within 7.5 million km of Earth. Credit:NASA,JPL-Caltech

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R136a1/ Wolf-Rayet stars

*R136a1 is the most massive star discovered (not to be confused with largest). R136a1 is a Wolf–Rayet star located at the center of R136, the central concentration of stars of the large NGC 2070 open cluster in the Tarantula Nebula.

* R136a1 is likely to be more than double the mass of Eta Carinae A, the Pistol Star, or the Peony Star. Wolf-Rayet stars are very massive stars close to exploding. They usually end in supernovas, or even hypernovas. A regular supernova will outshine an entire galaxy. A hypernova goes off with the power of a hundred supernovae. This is, basically, a supernova on steroids.

* R136a1 has a surface temperature over 50,000 K, nearly ten times hotter than the sun. R136a1 is located in the constellation Dorado. It is also about 157,000 light years away from Earth.

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Achernar, an oblate star.

*Achernar is the least spherical star in the Milky Way studied to date. It spins so rapidly that it has assumed the shape of an oblate spheroid with an equatorial diameter 56% greater than its polar diameter, causing its poles to be brighter and hotter.

* Achernar is located in the constellation Eridanus. Achernar spins at a speed of about 155 miles per second. Because of this, Achernars’ temprature can fluctuate from 14,500 to 19,300 K.

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Sagittarius A*

*Black holes, from what we know, are like vacuums in space. Their gravitational pull is so strong, not even light can escape it. They bend and warp the light around them.

*Sagittarius A*, or Sgr. A* is a super-massive black hole in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It has a radius of about 27.340332 million miles, and is about 25.640 light years away.

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M89, the perfect sphere of stars.

*M89 is a elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It is a perfect circle of dust and stars. M89 is about 50 million light years away, and contains about 100 billion stars. It is about 13.28 billion years old. It has a diameter of about 80,000 light years, and an apparent magnitude of 10.73.

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Mercury.

*Mercury, the smallest and innermost planet. Mercury is the most cratered, and wrinkled planet. Mercury is actually shrinking slowly.

*Mercury has an atmosphere so thin, it might as well be nonexistent. Mercury has no moons. It orbits the sun every 88 days. Mercury is tidal locked around the sun. It has a diameter of 4,879 km. The "wrinkles" on Mercury are caused by its surface heating, melting, and cooling. It is the second most dense planet.

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Saturn.

*Saturn, the planet of great rings. Saturn is the second largest planet, and the least dense. If saturn was somehow placed in a giant bathtub, it would float.

*Saturns rings are about 282,000 km across, but only about 1 km thick. Saturn completes a rotation every 10 hours. Saturn also has 62 moons including Titan, a possibly habitable moon. That's a lot of moons.

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Our star, the Sun.

*our star is the centerpiece of the solar system. Its great gravity holds all the planets in orbit. It generates all the light, heat, and energy we need to survive. Without the sun, Earth would be a cold, frozen, lifeless world.

*The sun is a yellow-white main sequence star. It has a temperature of about 6,000 K, and a radius of 432,169 mi.

*In about 5 billion years, the sun will swell up into a red giant, engulfing Mercury, Venus, and most likely Earth, making Mars extremely hot, and warming jupiter and Saturn, possibly making their moons habitable.

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The Andromeda Galaxy

*the Andromeda galaxy is our closet major galaxy, and is coming our direction at a speed of about 250,000 miles per hour. The Milky Way will collide with Andromeda in about 5 billion years.

*Andromeda is a spiral type galaxy, and has about 1 trillion stars. Andromeda has a radius of about 110,000 light years. Andromeda is also larger than the Milky Way.

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The sombrero galaxy

*The sombrero Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. The galaxy is about 29.35 million light years away, and has a radius of about 25,000 light years, making it 30% the size of the Milky Way.