Today was the day, I saw the eclipse. It was amazing, and truly a piece of art. There were lots of clouds and I was barely able to see the eclipse although when seeing it, it was eye burning. Literally. As I had no glasses, I took a video of it that I am very glad to share on this blog. It is not very visible due to clouds, but it is seeable. The vision of the eclipse made me think of the cloudy nebula that we observed for the observing assignment. It was really great, and I wish I would’ve seen the total eclipse. I also read an article the other day on solar eclipses and that animals act unusually weird during this time, and I want to know why as well.You are also able to see the corona of the sun (plasma) as it isn’t viewable during regular times of non-eclipses.
Category: Astro 2110
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Pluto’s as a planet is very intriguing. Despite being located far from the Sun; Pluto has seasonal changes due to its tilted axis (just like earth!) and highly elliptical orbit. When Pluto is closer to the Sun in its orbit, the frozen nitrogen, and methane on its surface can temporarily sublimate, creating a thin atmosphere. This atmosphere can lead to the formation of haze and clouds, which is a reason on why Pluto appears reddish. However, as Pluto moves farther from the Sun, its gases refreeze, and the atmosphere collapses back to a thin layer of frost on the surface. The surface of Pluto is diverse as it has plains, mountains of water ice, and regions covered in tholins (uv light hitting carbon), which is a mixture of complex organic compounds that give the surface its reddish appearance. The most famous feature on Pluto is the heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio, a plain named after the discoverer of Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh. This region is a very new surface feature, that was most likely formed by the convection of nitrogen ice. Pluto’s terrain and weather is very dynamic, despite its small size and large distance from the Sun, it remains to have unknowns that interest lots of Physicists today.
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Composition
-The solar system is primarily composed of the Sun, which makes up about 99.8% of its total mass. The Sun is primarily composed of 74% hydrogen and about 24% helium with some amounts of heavier elements. Planets in our solar system are divided into two main groups based on their composition: the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) which are mostly composed of rocky materials, and metals, and the Jovian planets, (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) which are primarily composed of hydrogen, helium, with relatively low densities compared to terrestrial planets. Dwarf planets like Pluto, as well as small bodies like asteroids and comets, are composed of rock, metal, and ice, with some containing organic compounds. Moons can have diverse compositions that can be ranging from rocky bodies similar to asteroids to even icy bodies. The asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, contains rocky and metallic objects that are remnants from the early solar system, while the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune, contains icy bodies and dwarf planets.
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The solar system began to form from a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust particles about 4.6 billion years ago. This cloud most likely experienced a shock wave from a nearby supernova, which could have made it collapse under its own gravity. It then began to spin and flatten into a disk shape due to conservation of angular momentum. Most of the material in this nebula was pulled towards the center, in which formed our Sun. Within the spinning disk, the process of accretion had tiny grains of dust colling that caused them to stick and form larger particles called planetesimals. These planetesimals continued to collide and accumulate to form planets. Close to the Sun, where it is hotter, only rocky materials could condense, leading to the formation of 4 inner terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. As you go more towards the outside, the cooler, icy materials are able to condense, allowing for the formation of the outer gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. As the planets formed, they cleared out their paths of orbit, by gravitational attraction. However, some debris remained which led to the formation of asteroids and comets. Asteroids are rocky remnants from the early solar system that never formed into planets, primarily found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Comets are icy bodies composed of dust, rock, and ice that originate from the outer solar system and sometimes head closer to the Sun.
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What is Gravity?
Gravity is the physical attraction of masses. The idea that all masses attract each other.
Why Does Gravity Happen?
Gravity happens due to curvature in spacetime, it bends and warps space and that space causes an attraction between the objects.
Facts About Gravity
- The attraction of objects is proportional to their mass.
- It is inversely proportional to the distance squared.
- Fgrav = (G M1M2)/r^2
- Gravity has no limits on distance.
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Hello everyone, I will post a few fun facts about Physics (and Astrophysics) every Tuesday!
Facts!!
- Scientists use detectors that are about the size of buildings to capture the products made by particle colliders. These detectors can pick up just about all particles created in these collisions.
- A big question that is still asked today, is the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Dark Energy is about 68% of the Universe and 27% of the Universe is Dark Matter, and the rest is what we have only observed so far!
- The Voyager 1 spacecraft which was launched on September 5, 1977, is the farthest human sent object from Earth and has entered interstellar space, which means that it is in the process of leaving the influence of the Sun’s solar winds.
Image of the Day! 1/23/2024 Deep Nebulas: From Seagull to California
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I have watched a video that shows the magnitude of everything in the world , with the perspective of meters to to the power. It is actually more interesting than I thought it to be.It goes from the large Virgo cluster of galaxies that is about 10 million light years away , or 10 to the 23 meters and then 0.000001 angstroms or 10 to the -16 meters, which is about the size of a single proton. Some amazing magnitudes that I viwed ,is the earth being about 10 to the 7 meters and the solar sytem being about 10 to the 13 meters. Realizing how small we are relative to not only the entire universe, but just even the solar system. You begin to imagine the size and ration of objects that exist and their relative size to ech other. Here is the Video
#astro2110 #blog1
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My name is Robert, and I am a Physics major that is interested in High-Energy Particle Physics.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17yyithX4rUXAYRYtZeWww8mFAsAEuQnA/view?usp=sharing
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Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.
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Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.
Robert Navarro 
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