Venus South Polar Vortex

I learned that Venus is actually similar to Earth in many ways, and has developed the name of "Earth's sister planet." Venus and Earth contain the same amount of carbon dioxide, however on Earth it is stored in the crust, while on Venus it exsts as gas,is swirling around the atmosphere.Sulfur dioxide present in the atmosphere mixes with water vapor to form sulfuric acid droplets. These droplets make up the swirling clouds that cover the face of venus. This unusual vortex was found swirling over the south pole of Venus. The study of this vortex may tell us more about hurricanes on our planet.

Sources

Sources for Astronomer project:
1. Wikipedia. org , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christen_S%C3%B8rensen_Longomontanus
2. Dictionary of Science biography

Observation 9/24/10

Last night, the full moon was exceptionally bright and close to Earth. It was a harvest moon. The autumnal equinox occured yesterday at 3:09 universal time. Jupiter was also visible, relatively close to the moon.

An Extraordinary Spiral

In this picture, the spiral structure on the left is mysterious. One possability as to what it might be would be a  binary star that is about to enter planetary nebula phase and is ejecting its outermost atmoshphere.I learned that a binary star is characterised by two stars orbiting around a common center of focus. This spiral is 1/3 of a lightyear across. it takes the amount of time for the starts to orbit eachother as it takes another layer of the spiral to form, approximately 800 years.

Observation 9/22/10

At 10:16 PM, I observed the moon while standing in my driveway, high in the East, a full moon.

Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula

This picture shows molecular clouds of the Carina Nebula that are made up of thick molecular gas and dust. Although these clouds are very thick I have learned that they are not as dense as the Earth's atmosphere. This nebula lies within the contstellation of Carina. The name karina means keel, and refers to the keel of the ship, the Argo Navis. The Carina Nebula lies in the southern hemisphere, and spans over 300 light years. It is 75,000 miles away from Earth. Within this nebula is one of the brightest most massive star formations, known as the Eta Carinae. it was thought to be one massive star, but was later found to be a stellular syestem. The biggest star in this system is more than 100 times the size of the sun. the brightness of the entire formation is 4 milion times that of the sun. in the future, this star is expected to explode, forming a supernova.

Observation 9/12/10

I saw the moon yesterday the earliest i have in a while, at 4:20 in the afternoon. i was driving south and i saw it faintly, high in the sky, a waxing cresent. at first glance i thought it was a cloud, and then i realised it was the moon.

Bubble Nebula

This nebula is commonly known as the bubble nebula due to its familiar bubble like shape. It is a gass shell surrounding an O-type star that is shaping it with the violent winds it produces. the star that it is shaped by is 10 to 20 times the size of our sun.The bubble nebula has a diameter of 10 light years and it is 11,300 light years away from Earth. its position in the sky is RA 23h 20m 44.40s Dec.+61degrees 11'40.80". It is close to the contellation Cassiopeia This bubble nebula may seem beautiful, however, Hubble cameras are designed so that different types and temperatures of gas show up as different colors. Sulfur hydrogen and oxygen atoms show up as blue, green, or red. Although this picture of  the bubble nebula is accurate, it is not how the human eye would see it naturally.