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Friday, May 30, 2008
~ 5:20 AM ~

Why is there a couple of "draft" posts here? And one of them is blank... o.O ... the other cut off halfway.

Anyway, I never heard of Magnetars until today, so I thought it will be useful for those of you who bother reading the chunk of... err.... "thing"... down there...... xP

taken from : http://www.thecheers.org/news/Science/news_25639_Astronomers-discover-giant-elliptical-ring-around-dead-star.html

Washington, May 29 : Astronomers have detected a giant elliptical ring around a rare star known as magnetar, a highly magnetized neutron star and the remnant of a brilliant supernova explosion signaling the death throes of a massive star.


Astronomers have detected a giant elliptical ring around a rare star known as magnetar, a highly magnetized neutron star and the remnant of a brilliant supernova explosion signaling the death throes of a massive star.

Magnetars are formed when a giant star ends its life in a supernova explosion, leaving behind a super dense neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field.

Stefanie Wachter, research scientist at NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, led the study, which links the origin of the magnetar to a nearby cluster of massive stars, whose light is dominated by two red supergiants at the center.

"Discovering the ring is groundbreaking because it discovers some other phenomenon associated with, and physically near, a magnetar," said Donald Figer, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology's Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science.

According to Figer, "Magnetars possess magnetic fields a million billion times stronger than the magnetic field of the Earth."

The magnetic field of a magnetar is one petagauss, while, in comparison, Earth's magnetic field strength registers at 0.5 gauss, the Sun at one gauss and a sunspot at about 1,000 gauss.

These extreme fields stretch the very fabric of matter, contorting atoms into thin cigar-shaped structures.

The stellar eruption may result from stress induced by the magnetic field dragging on the rapidly spinning star.

A fissure in the surface of the magnetar creates a "starquake," akin to earthquakes. The biggest variety of these eruptions can temporarily produce over a thousand times more energy than all of the stars in a galaxy.

The ring seen by Spitzer could not have formed during the original explosion, as any material as close to the star as the ring would have been disrupted by the supernova shock wave.

Scientists suspect that the ring my actually be the edges of a bubble that was hollowed out by an explosive burst from the magnetar in 1998.

"We think that the ring was created when a giant flare from the SGR (soft gamma repeater) carved a cavity into the dusty environment surrounding the magnetar, thus naturally explaining why the ring is centered on the magnetar," said Wachter. (ANI)



BTW, what do you guys use to find astro news? I use http://dailyastronomy.com which lists links of astro-related news/posts (although sometimes it have nothing to do with astro) which are posted recently in other websites (most of the time it have links to posts/news that is posted on the day you check...)

Anyway, I'm off...

-Jiale/Jade Login Out-

Sunday, May 18, 2008
~ 8:23 PM ~

A google for "Edrei Chua" found this.
19 May 2008


Before I start, I would like to remind each and every one of us that the verb is "google" not "oogle". So please, no weird ideas. Thanks ;)

http://www.ibuzz.nyp.edu.sg/subcampus_astrocomp_14Mar08.htm

For two hours, 32 Secondary School students pondered over a written test on physics, maths and the stars. In a separate lecture theatre, over 180 students ploughed through 60 multiple-choice questions. Apart from theories and calculations, their creativity was also tested when they had to draw an asterism by connecting a group of stars to produce the most creative pattern. Welcome to the NYP Astronomy Competition!


Into its 11th year, this prestigious competition, held on 14 March 2008, attracted over 210 participants from 25 Secondary Schools.

The highlight of the competition was when the top six teams were announced to battle it out on stage for the Top Team Prize. After three gruelling rounds of questions, the team from Bukit Panjang Government High (BPGH) School (left picture) emerged top, making the school an impressive seven-time winner of this prize!

The Best Astronomy Scorer Prize went to Edrei Chua (3rd from left), also from BPGH. What fascinated him about astronomy is the mystery of the unknown. “The universe is so big and there are still so many things that are not known, waiting to be discovered. This is what makes astronomy so exciting.”


(Nice quote, Edrei! (: )


Why was i looking away ): ...


That's all for today! Hopefully we'll get the same prize for NUS-NTU!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
~ 7:37 AM ~

Here is the latest update for NUS-NTU project round. Details for the other rounds had been sent to your emails by the organising committee (i think so).

Appendix III
Astrochallenge 2008

Project Round Information Sheet and Declaration Form

100 years ago, walking on the moon was only a dream. Around 40 years ago, the dream became reality; the first human beings stepped on the moon. What’s next after the moon? Until now, the moon still remains the furthest place humans have gone.

The harsh conditions and environment of space makes it very hard for humans to venture into space. For this round, you are to design and create a wearable spacesuit model. You can decide on any context for its use, except that it cannot be used on the moon for moon walk or on the space shuttle. You may build the spacesuit for space walk in Mars, Venus, or any other harsh place in space. Your main considerations will be the conditions required for humans to survive and carry out work, e.g. temperature, air, communication systems, mobility, flexibility etc. Examples of materials(but not limited to) that can be used to build the spacesuit model are old T-shirts, cardboard boxes. Use your creativity and imagination. You will present the model to the judges and/or audience on 9th June 2007.

The spacesuit model must be worn by one of the participants during the presentation.
The model will be judged based on the following:
1) Feasibility of idea
2) Creativity
3) Aesthetics
4) Materials used (recycled materials preferred)
5) Presentation

You are to abide by the regulations as stated in Appendix II and every member of the team as well as the Teacher in-charge must sign the following declaration which must be brought together with the project on the day of the Project Round.

We, team _____ from _________________________________, declare that we have not:
1) exceeded 35 man hours in the construction of this project
2) exceeded S$50 in the total cost of the project
3) obtained assistance from a teacher, trainer or professional expert to construct the project
We understand that any contravention to the above regulations may result in a penalty and/or the disqualification of the project.


______________________________ _____________________________Signature of team members Name/Signature of Teacher I/C /Date


emmm.... guess we will be working on a hectic schedue since sec 4 will be invovle in ISP (bah... olevel is still our main priority). But nvm... no worries... project round is only 20%... still got the other rounds to help us out

guess is time to say goodbye to *BP*

pH 7

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
~ 5:08 AM ~

By AMP, yet again. This week:

Tiny Canadian satellite to hunt for asteroids that could hit Earth

Telescope is world's first to conduct search from space

Tom Spears, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Friday, May 02, 2008

Canada is preparing to launch the first space mission to search for asteroids between Earth and the sun -- the type of asteroid most likely to slam into our planet.

Fittingly for this country, the Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite is not a Hubble-sized monster. It's a 60-kilogram microsatellite, costing a mere $10 million (including the price tag for launch), yet able to deliver science results never seen before.

NEOSSat will search for asteroids that are closer to the sun than Earth. These are nearly impossible to see from our planet's surface -- there's too much atmosphere and sunshine -- but easier to spot from space.

The suitcase-sized satellite is expected to launch in two years.

(more info, go to http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=ce46dde6-b119-4e27-977e-828df7c91102 )

-------------------------------------------------------------

NASA Pushes Hubble Flight Back 4-5 Weeks

Posted on: Thursday, 1 May 2008, 14:40 CDT

NASA’s Hubble Repair Mission launch date is being pushed back due to unexpected problems getting a new external fuel tank ready for the Atlantis orbiter’s launch.

The flight was set for August 28, but NASA said it expects that date to slip by four to five weeks.

The repair flight is intended to provide upgrades for the Hubble Space Telescope, which should expand its time in space to at least 2013.

(http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1366115/nasa_pushes_hubble_flight_back_45_weeks/)

======================================
And since this is most probably the most interesting news this week, i have decided to copy the entire article here.

Astronomers Discover New Type Of Pulsating White Dwarf Star

ScienceDaily (May 1, 2008) — University of Texas at Austin astronomers Michael H. Montgomery and Kurtis A. Williams, along with graduate student Steven DeGennaro, have predicted and confirmed the existence of a new type of variable star, with the help of the 2.1-meter Otto Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory. Called a "pulsating carbon white dwarf," this is the first new class of variable white dwarf star discovered in more than 25 years. Because the overwhelming majority of stars in the universe--including the sun--will end their lives as white dwarfs, studying the pulsations (i.e., variations in light output) of these newly discovered examples gives astronomers a window on an important end point in the lives of most stars.

A white dwarf star is the leftover remnant of a sun-like star that has burned all of the nuclear fuel in its core. It is extremely dense, packing half to 1.5 times the sun's mass into a volume about the size of Earth. Until recently, there were thought to be two main types of white dwarfs: those with an outer layer of hydrogen (about 80 percent of white dwarfs), and those with an outer layer of helium, whose hydrogen shells have somehow been stripped away (the other 20 percent).

Last year, University of Arizona astronomers Patrick Dufour and James Liebert discovered a third type of white dwarf star. For reasons that are not understood, these "hot carbon white dwarfs" have had both their hydrogen and helium shells stripped off, leaving their carbon layer exposed. Astronomers suspect that these could be among the most massive white dwarfs of all, the remnants of stars slightly too small to end their lives in a supernova explosion.

After these new carbon white dwarfs were announced, Montgomery calculated that pulsations in these stars were possible. Pulsating stars are of interest to astronomers because the changes in their light output can reveal what goes on in their interiors--similar to the way geologists study seismic waves from earthquakes to understand what goes on in Earth's interior. In fact, this type of star-study is called "asteroseismology."

So, Montgomery and Williams' team began a systematic study of carbon white dwarfs with the Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory, looking for pulsators. DeGennaro discovered that a star about 800 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, called SDSS J142625.71+575218.3, fits the bill. Its light intensity varies regularly by nearly two percent about every eight minutes.

"The discovery that one of these stars is pulsating is remarkably important," said NSF astronomer Michael Briley. "This will allow us to probe the white dwarf's interior, which in turn should help us solve the riddle of where the carbon white dwarfs come from and what happens to their hydrogen and helium."

The star lies about ten degrees east northeast of Mizar, the middle star in the handle of the Big Dipper. This white dwarf has about the same mass as our Sun, but its diameter is smaller than Earth's. The star has a temperature of 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit (19,500 C), and is only 1/600th as bright as the Sun.

None of the other stars in their sample were found to pulsate. Given the masses and temperatures of the stars in their sample, SDSS J142625.71+575218.3 is the only one expected to pulsate, based on Montgomery's calculations.

The astronomers speculate that the pulsations are caused by changes in the star's carbon outer envelope as the star cools down from its formation as a hot white dwarf. The ionized carbon atoms in the star's outer layers return to a neutral state, triggering the pulsations.

There is a chance that the star's variations might have another cause. Further study is needed, the astronomers say. Either way, studying these stars will shed light on the unknown process that strips away their surface layers of hydrogen and helium to lay bare their carbon interiors.



This is AMP, signing out.


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