Monday, May 25, 2015

The Milky Way Galaxy 
This week I learned about Space, which is infinitely growing larger than one could ever imagine. Space includes planets, stars, galaxies, comets and even us. We, along with our entire solar system, are located in one of the arms of a large spiral galaxy called the Milky Way. The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion stars along with enormous amounts of dust and gas[1].

Probably the most interesting video I've watched all quarter in this class would be Powers of Ten. It starts with a person lying down at a picnic and expands at powers of 10 of a square meeter out into space and reversed all the way into the cells and atoms within his skin. It shows entire sphere of the earth at 10 million meters and the entire Milky Way at 100,000 lightyears[2]. It amazes me how small we are in comparison with the universe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=384&v=0fKBhvDjuy0

                     
                      Copernicus 

Telescope















Copernicus was the first to introduce the sun-centered model with mathematics to back it up. The telescope, created in the 17th century, started a great era with numerous discoveries that expanded our knowledge of space significantly[3]. This brings back memories because my grandma has a telescope at her house and we would always look at the stars together when I was young.

Colliding Lazer Plasma Experiment 
This is a great image where "three dimensional field lines taken from a volumetric data set in an experiment in which two laser produced plasmas collide." The experiment includes magnetic fields, and Alfven wave currents; while the blueish white sparkles are the induced electric field[4].

Image of the day for NASA: Coronal Loops Over a Sunspot Group

"Sunspots are regions on the solar surface that appear dark because they are cooler than the surrounding photosphere...and are carried around the surface of the Sun by its rotation." Scientists use these sunspots to measure the period of solar rotation[5].

Our Solar System 





Images:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/lectures/copernicus.htm

http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/8197+8198.cfm

http://plasma.physics.ucla.edu/page/gallery.html

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/coronal-loops-over-a-sunspot-group

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/sun/sunspots.html

Citations: 

[1]"ESA - Space for Kids - Our Universe - The Milky Way." ESA - Space for Kids - Our Universe - The Milky Way. Web. 26 May 2015. http://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/SEM536WJD1E_OurUniverse_0.html

[2]"Powers of Ten." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 26 May 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=384&v=0fKBhvDjuy0

[3]Vesna , Victoria . "8 Space pt1 ." Unit 9: Space + Art. , . 25 May 2015. Lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8

[4]"Basic Plasma Science Facility at UCLA." BaPSF. Web. 26 May 2015. http://plasma.physics.ucla.edu/page/gallery.html

[5]"Sunspots." Sunspots. Web. 26 May 2015.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/sun/sunspots.html

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