Fusion

For centuries, humankind has looked at the stars, and for just as many years humankind has tried to explain the existence of those very same stars. Were they holes in an enormous canvas that covered the earth? Were they fire-flies that could only be seen when the Apollo had parked his chariot for the night? There seemed to be as many explanations for the stars as there were stars themselves. Then one day an individual named Galileo Galilei made an astounding discovery: the stars were replicas of our own sun, only so far away that they seemed as large as pin pricks to the naked eye. This in turn gave rise to many more questions. What keeps the stars burning? Have they always been glowing, or are they born like humans, and thus will they die? The answers to all these questions can be summed up in two words; stellar fusion. Therefore one can begin to understand the stars by understanding what fusion is, how it affects the life of a star, and what happens to a star when fusion can no longer occur. The first question one must ask is, "What is fusion?" One simple way of explaining it is taking two balls of clay and mashing them into one, creating a new, larger particle from the two. Now replace those balls of clay with sub-atomic particles, and when they meld, release an enormous amount of energy. This is fusion. There is currently three known variations of fusion: the proton-proton reaction (Figure 1.1), the carbon cycle (Figure 1.2), and the triple-alpha process (Figure 1.3). In the proton-proton reaction, a proton (the positively charged nucleus of a hydrogen atom) is forced so close to another proton (within a tenth of a trillionth of an inch) that a short range nuclear force known as the strong force takes over and forces the two protons to bond together (1). One proton then decays into a neutron (a particle with the same mass as a proton, but with no charge), a positron (a positively charged particle with almost no mass), and a neutrino (a particle with almost no mass, and no charge). The neutrino and positron then radiate off, releasing heat energy. The remaining particle is known as a deuteron, or the nucleus of the hydrogen isotope deuterium. This deuteron is then fused with another proton, creating a helium isotope (2). Then two helium isotopes fuse, creating a helium nucleus and releasing two protons, which facilitate the chain reaction (3). This final split is so violent that one-half of the total fusion energy is carried away by the two free protons. The second fusion variation, the carbon cycle, starts with a carbon nucleus being fused with a lone proton (1). This creates a nitrogen isotope. One proton then decays into it's primaries -- a neutron, positron and neutrino. The positron and neutrino separate from the nuclei as another proton fuses with the cluster. This creates a nitrogen nucleus which is then fused with yet another proton, forming an oxygen isotope (2). One proton then decays again as still another proton is forced into the nucleus (3). This final fusion splits into a nitrogen and a carbon nucleus; the nitrogen carries away the majority of the fusion heat, while the carbon goes back into the cycle. The triple-alpha process, the last known variety, is perhaps one of the simplest fusion reactions to understand. In this process, two helium nuclei fuse together to form a beryllium nucleus (four protons and four neutrons) (1). Almost immediately after this, another helium nucleus is forced into the cluster, creating a carbon nucleus of six protons and six neutrons (2). In this reaction, all of the heat given off is short-wavelength gamma rays, one of the most penetrating forms of radiation. Each variety of fusion occurs depending on the size and age of the star. This will affect core temperature, causing the corresponding variety of stellar fusion. Now that fusion has been explained, one can learn how it occurs in the different star types. All stellar bodies start off as protostars, or concentrations of combusting gases found within large clouds of dust and various gases. These protostars, under their own gravity, collapse inward until it's core has been heated and compressed enough to begin proton-proton fusion reactions. After that starts, a star's mass will determine how long and through what kind of reactions it will go through. Generally, there are three classes of stars which can form: dwarfs, sun-class stars, and giants. Dwarfs begin as protostars of low size and mass (most protostars fall under this category). These stars, which have on average less than one-third the mass of our sun, go through very basic existances. One variety is the red dwarf, which has at least one-third the mass of the sun. Because of it's low mass, the red dwarf is predicted to last thousands of billions of years. The gravitational pressure of the star will cause the proton-proton reaction to occur in it's core, but after all the hydrogen has been fused into helium, the star lacks the pressure to begin the triple-alpha process. It is predicted that it will then contract into and inert, compressed ball of gas known as a black dwarf. Another variety of dwarf is the brown dwarf, which is so light (less than one-tenth the mass of the sun) that it lacks the pressure to even begin the proton-proton reaction, and becomes a black dwarf within just a few hundred million years, it's nuclear fuels unexpended. Sun-class stars are massive enough to move past the hurdle that the dwarves encounter and continue on the fusion chain. With a mass of two to five times that of the sun, the core of these stars rise to several million degrees Kelvin, bringing the surface temperature to approximately 6,000 degrees. After ten billion years, the inert helium in the core has compressed and the released heat ignites a hydrogen shell around the core. The energy given off by the combustion causes the stars size to double. The star continues to grow into a super-giant, raising the core temperature so high that in what's known as a helium flash, the helium core fuses into carbon. The series of these reactions causes varying shells of helium, hydrogen, and fusing hydrogen until the lack of pressure to fuse carbon ends the fusion in the core, it's gaseous surroundings dissipating, leaving a highly compressed and hot ball of carbon known as a white dwarf. Giants, the largest of all stars, have the shortest and most complex lives of any of the stars. These bright blue monstrosities begin from protostars which are hundreds of times the size of our sun. Within only a hundred million years, the proton-proton reaction at the core ends. The star is now six times the sun's size, and almost four times as hot. Once the core has changed to helium, the heat from it's compression causes the star to double in size. The star now makes it's final journey into oblivion. Most stars end their lives by lacking pressure to continue fusion and calmly fade into inert masses. This is not the case with giant class stars. After a mere 9 or 10 million years, all of the hydrogen atoms in the core have fused into helium (Figure 2.1). This causes a temporary pause to the fusion in the core, allowing gravity to compress it. This compression raises the core temperature to 170 million degrees Kelvin (from 40 million degrees during the proton-proton reaction phase). This energy is transferred to the hydrogen envelope surrounding the core, expanding it to a thousand times the diameter of our sun. After this, most of the events of importance that occur happen in the core. With one million years to go, the collapse of the star raises the core temperature enough to halt the collapse and fuse it's core into carbon and oxygen while fusing the outer shell into helium (Figure 2.2). It remains this way for almost a million years. With a thousand years to go, most of the helium in the core is gone. This again pauses fusion, and collapse continues. The periods of collapse and fusion get increasingly shorter as time goes on. Once the collapse raises the temperature to 700 million degrees Kelvin, the carbon/oxygen core begins to fuse into neon and magnesium, creating layers around the core that continue to fuse hydrogen into helium, and helium into carbon (Figure 2.3). With a mere seven years to go, the core temperature of 1.5 billion degrees, the neon atoms in the core begin to fuse into more oxygen and magnesium, giving the star an onion-like appearance, each layer being denser toward the center (Figure 2.4). With one year to go, the core temperature reaches two billion degrees, fusing the oxygen core into sulfur and silicon (Figure 2.5). Only a few days to go, and the core temperature soars to three billion degrees, fusing the core into tightly compressed iron, which has a mass of almost 1.44 solar masses (the mass of our sun is one solar mass) (Figure 2.6). Since iron cannot fuse into anything further, the core continues to collapse under it's own gravity. With a tenth of a second to go, the iron core is collapsing at approximately 45,000 miles a second, packing the earth-sized core into a sphere only ten miles across. The iron atoms become so compressed that the nuclei melt together, creating enough heat to fill the core with neutrinos. The core has now reached maximum crunch, meaning it can no longer contract (Figure 2.7). The repulsive force in the core becomes so strong that it overpowers the gravitational force, and the core recoils and projects matter in a shock wave that bursts through all the outside layers. Almost one hundred percent of the energy is released as neutrinos, the first outwardly noticeable sign of the death of the star. The shock wave dissipates all of the surrounding layers, leaving a small dense sphere composed of neutrons which is known as a neutron star. This final explosion can be seen for thousands of years. Most remain neutrino stars , but if the core had more than three solar masses, it's gravity continues to collapse it, condensing the star into a singularity, or point of infinite mass and density. The gravity of this singularity is so great that even light cannot escape. This is what is known as a black hole. Through examining the above circumstances, one can now understand what solar fusion is, and how a star is directly connected to it. And yet one must take the information with a grain of salt. Scientists have only determined these facts from the information they now have. Everyday new things are discovered that may discredit all we believe to be fact. One can only hope that one day we as a people can learn enough to prove once and for all the exact nature of the universe.

Black Holes

Into the Depths of A Black Hole Everyday we look out upon the night sky, wondering and dreaming of what lies beyond our planet. The universe that we live in is so diverse and unique, it interests us to learn about all the variance that lies beyond our grasp. Within this marvel of wonders, our universe holds a mystery that is very difficult to understand, because of the complications that arise when trying to examine and explore the principles of space. That mystery happens to be that of black holes. As you will read about black holes, you can finally appreciate the phenomenon, we all know as, black holes. In order to understand what exactly a black hole is, we must first take a look at the basis for the cause of a black hole. All black holes are formed from the gravitational collapse of a star, usually having a great, massive, core. A star is created when huge, gigantic, gas clouds bind together due to attractive forces and form a hot core, combined from all the energy of the two gas clouds. This energy produced is so great when it first collides, that a nuclear reaction occurs, and the gases within the star start to burn continuously. The Hydrogen gas is usually the first type of gas consumed in a star and then other gas elements such as Carbon, Oxygen, and Helium are consumed. This chain reaction fuels the star for millions, or billions, of years depending upon the amount of gases there are. The star manages to avoid collapsing at this point because of the equilibrium achieved by itself. The gravitational pull from the core of the star is equal to the gravitational pull of the gases forming a type of orbit, however when this equality is broken the star can go into several different stages. Usually if the star is small in mass, most of the gases will be consumed while some of it escapes. This occurs because there is not a tremendous gravitational pull upon those gases and therefore the star weakens and becomes smaller. It is then referred to as a 'White Dwarf'. If the star was to have a larger mass however, then it may possibly Supernova, meaning that the nuclear fusion within the star simply goes out of control causing the star to explode. After exploding a fraction of the star is usually left (if it has not turned into pure gas) and that fraction of the star is known as a neutron star. Black holes are one of the last option that a star may take. If the core of the star is so massive (approximately 68 solar masses; one solar mass being equal to the sun's mass), then it is most likely that when the star's gases are almost consumed those gases will collapse inward, forced into the core by the gravitational force laid upon them. After a black hole is created, the gravitational force continues to pull in space debris and other type of matters to help add to the mass of the core, making the hole stronger and more powerful. Most black holes tend to be in a consistent spinning motion. This motion absorbs various matter and spins it within the ring (known as the Event Horizon) that is formed around the black hole. The matter keeps within the Event Horizon until it has spun into the centre where it is concentrated within the core adding to the mass. Such spinning black holes are known as Kerr Black Holes. Most black holes orbit around stars due to the fact that they once were a star, and this may cause some problems for the neighboring stars. If a black hole gets powerful enough it may actually pull a star into it and disrupt the orbit of many other stars. The black hole could then grow even stronger (from the star's mass) as to possibly absorb another. When a black hole absorbs a star, the star is first pulled into the Ergosphere, which sweeps all the matter into the Event Horizon, named for it's flat horizontal appearance and because this happens to be the place where mostly all the action within the black hole occurs. When the star is passed on into the Event Horizon the light that the star endures is bent within the current and therefore cannot be seen in space. At this exact point in time, high amounts of radiation are given off, that with the proper equipment can be detected and seen as an image of a black hole. Through this technique astronomers now believe that they have found a black hole known as Cygnus X1. This supposed black hole has a huge star orbiting around it, therefore we assume there must be a black hole that it is in orbit with. The first scientists to really take an in depth look at black holes and the collapsing of stars, were a professor, Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder, in the early nineteen hundreds. They concluded on the basis of Einstein's theory of relativity that if the speed of light was the utmost speed over any massive object, then nothing could escape a black hole once in it's clutches. The name "black hole" was named such, because of the fact that light could not escape from the gravitational pull from the core, thus making the black hole impossible for humans to see without using technological advancements for measuring such things like radiation. The second part of the word was named "hole" due to the fact that the actual hole, is where everything is absorbed and where the center core presides. This core is the main part of the black hole where the mass is concentrated and appears purely black on all readings even through the use of radiation detection devices. Just recently a major discovery was found with the help of a device known as The Hubble Telescope. This telescope has just recently found what many astronomers believe to be a black hole, after being focused on a star orbiting empty space. Several pictures were sent back to Earth from the telescopes showing many computer enhanced pictures of various radiation fluctuations and other diverse types of readings, that could be read from the area in which the black hole is suspected to be in. Several diagrams were made showing how astronomers believe that if somehow you were to survive through the center of the black hole, that there would be enough gravitational force to possibly warp you to another end in the universe or possibly to another universe. The creative ideas that can be hypothesized from this discovery are endless. Although our universe is filled with much unexplained, glorious, phenomenons, it is our duty to continue exploring them and to continue learning, but in the process we must not take any of it for granted. As you have read, black holes are a major topic within our universe and they contain so much curiosity that they could possibly hold unlimited uses. Black holes are a sensation that astronomers are still very puzzled with. It seems that as we get closer to solving their existence and functions, we just end up with more and more questions. Although these questions just lead us into more and more unanswered problems we seek and find refuge into them, dreaming that maybe one day, one far off distant day, we will understand all the conceptions and we will be able to use the universe to our advantage and go where only our dreams could take us.

galileo

Galileo Galilei was one of the most remarkable scientists ever. He discovered many new ideas and theories and introduced them to mankind. Galileo helped society as an Italian astronomer and physicist, but how did he come to be such a great and well-known scientist? It took hard work and patience.... Galileo was born during the renaissance in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. He was raised by his mom, Giulia Ammanati, and his dad, Vincenzo Galilei. His family had enough money for school, but they were not rich. When he was about seven years old, his family moved to Florence where he started his education. In 1581, his father sent him to the University of Pisa because he thought his son should be a doctor. For four years, he studied medicine and the different theories of the scientist Aristotle. He was not interested in medicine, but soon he became interested in math. In 1585, he convinced his father to let him leave the school without a degree. Galileo was a math tutor for the next four years in Florence. He spent a lot of the four years studying the scientific thoughts and philosophies of Aristotle. He also invented an instrument that could find the gravity of objects. This instrument, called a hydrostatic balance, was used by weighing the objects in water. Galileo returned to Pisa in 1589 and became a professor in math. He taught courses in astronomy at the University of Pisa, based on Ptolemy's theory that the sun and all of the planets move around the earth. Teaching these courses, he became more understanding of astronomy. In 1592, the University of Padua gave him a professorship in math. He stayed at that school for eighteen years. He learned and believed Nicolaus Copernicus's theory that all of the planets move around the sun, made a mechanical tool called a sector, explained the tides based on Copernican theory of motion of earth, found that the Milky Way was made up of many stars, and told people that machines cannot create power, they can only change it. In 1602, still at Padua, Galileo did research on motion. The Aristotelian theory of motion went against the theory that the earth moves. Because of this, Galileo worked on forming a theory that would show that the earth does move. He formed a theory that all pendulums swing at the same rate no matter what size the arc is by watching a chandelier swing at the cathedral at Pisa. He timed it with his pulse and found out that the c

Aristotle

Aristotle Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and was born in 348 B.C. He studied under another philopsopher Plato and later tutored Alexander the Great at the Macedonian court. In 335 B.C. he opened a school in the Athenian Lyceum. During the anti-macedonian agitation after Alexander's death Aristotle fled to Chalcis where he later died in 322 B.C. His extant writings, largely in the form of lecture notes made by his students, include the Organum (treatises of logic); Physics; Metaphysics; De Anima (on the soul); Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics; Politics: De Poetica: Rhetoric; and works biology and physics. Aristotle held philosophy to be the the discerning, through the use of systematic logic as expressed in Syllogisms, of the self-evident, changeless first principles that form the basis of all knowledge. He taught that knowledge of a thing requires an inquiry into causality and that the "final cause"-the purpose or function of the thing-is primary. This is a direct quote from his works (translated): "The highest good for the individual is the complete exercise of the specifically human function of rationality. In contrast to the Platonic belief that a concrete reality partakes of a from but does not embody it with the exception of the Prime Mover (God), form has no separate existence but is immanent in matter." Aristotle's work was lost following the decline of the Roman Empire but was reintroduced to the West through the work of Arab and Jewish scholars, becoming the basis of medieval scholasticism. In my opinion Aristotle was one of the greatest and most important of the philosophers and scientists of the world's history.

ET and Egypt

"Did the early Egyptians have help in building the pyramids?" All over the world remain fantastic objects, vestiges of people or forces which the theories of archaeology, history, and religion cannot explain. There is something inconsistent about our archaeology. They have found electric batteries many thousands of years old. They have found strange beings in perfect space-suits with platinum fasteners. They have also found numbers with fifteen digits-something not registered by any computer. How did the early men acquire the ability to do this? \par \tab Some say all these questions can be answered through the evidence found in ancient wall paintings and carvings, and the sculpture and buildings found in many different parts of the world. All over Europe and South America there is evidence left behind by the ancient people of these great civilizations.\par \tab First, a look at whether there is or could be intelligent life on other planets. It is conceivable ! that w e world citizens of the twentieth century are not the only living beings of our kind in the cosmos. Because no aliens\par from another planet is on display in a museum for us to visit, the answer, "our earth is the only planet with human beings," still seems to be legitimate and convincing. But that is a very narrow-minded way to look at things. The idea that life can flourish only under terrestrial conditions has been made obsolete by research. It is a mistake to believe that life cannot exist without water and oxygen. Even on our own earth there are forms of life that need no oxygen. They are called anaerobic bacteria. A given amount of oxygen acts like poison on them. Why should there not be higher forms of life that do not need oxygen?\par We are still convinced that our earth is the center of everything, although it has been proved that the earth is an ordinary star of insignificant size-30,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. The human race is cer! tainly more willing to accept the possibility of extraterrestria l contact now than it was, say, half a century ago. So if there is evidence shown the extraterrestrials did have an influence on ancient civilizations, we should be able to look at it and make a intelligent decision for ourselves.\par \tab Much evidence is found on the walls of ancient buildings and temples. The walls of tombs and even caves have the signature of something other than human. In Anannhet, Tassili there are rock paintings 8,000 years old with strong figures. These figures are flying above a spherical object with a hatch like lid and two protrustions, l that seem to be spitting fire or smoke. Also, on these rock paintings there is a painting of a creature with antenna-like excrescence's on his arms and thighs. He has a helmet with slits for eyes nose, and mouth. There is a naked woman next to him. Also, in the Libyan Desert there are Stone Age Cave paintings of floating people, creatures. How do cavemen, or how would they think of floating men? They did! n't ev en have a spoken language. On another Tassili Mountains there is a man that seems to be wearing a close fitting spacesuit like that in modern times. A disc was found named the "genetic disc". It was named this because on each side on the disc there were carvings of the life from conception to full growth the disc is dated around 12,000 B>C> This is very amazing since prehistoric inhabitants of Colombia or anywhere else for that matter didn't have microscopes and therefore it would have been almost impossible to know of spermatozoa. So where did they get this knowledge Many wall paintings and carvings are just this. They show men in modern day astronaut suits and wings. There are carvings of flying machines in many places all over the world. Did these ancient people just think of these creatures and very modern objects? One must remember most ancient civilizations depicted everyday life on their walls and things that really happened to them. So why would they draw s! pace suits and flying men and objects.\par \tab There are also m any sculptures that have certain characteristics that are unusual to the normal art of the civilizations and its people. Sculptures of half human half animal creatures are found in many parts of the world. Also on Lake Maracabo, Venezzuela a female figure with four faces and huge slanty eyes was found. Some archaeologists even think that the statuettes of the pregnant women even represent something. They think that the abnormal huge shape of the women shows that they had to be carrying something more then normal embryo. Is it that or just the depiction of the pregnant women to these ancient people. There are legends that say giant people invade Malta. That they impregnated their women and that is why the women were so huge, they had huge babies inside them.\par \pard \tab \tab Kebra Negast tells use about wombs split at birth\tab because the fetuses had grown too big. A Sumerian \tab cuneiform inscription from Nippur says that Enlil, god \tab of the air, violated t! he chi ld of earth, Ninlil. \tab Ninlil beseeched the profligate: "...my vagina is too \tab small, it does not understand intercourse. My lips are \tab to small, they do not understand how to kiss..."\par \tab \tab I do not venture to speculate whether Enlil was \tab an extraterrestrial or a first generation descendant\par \tab but it does emerge clearly from the Sumerian text that \tab his body and its parts were too big for the normal-\tab sized maiden, Ninlil.\par \par \pard\sl480 \tab So does the prove that there were extraterrestrials? No, but it does give one more piece of evidence to support that theory.\par \tab Next, let's look at the buildings and the architecture of the ancient civilizations. First, in Sacsayhuaman, Peru there are huge steps that are made with such accuracy and are so large there is no credible explanation for them. There are also monoliths that look as if they had been pre-\par cast like modern concrete. Thrones for giants? These are huge. Did ! giant men sit in them? There water conduits are cut out solid p ieces of exact measurements. They have polished insides and outside surfaces, with smooth cross sections. In Tiahuanaco there are blocks that have holes and ridges in them as if there were clamps that held the two stones together. There are also massive stones that have been cut in La Paz, Bolivia, presicely and with such sharp edges they couldn't have been made by the stone axes or wooden wedges used in the time this was carved. A ball made of one solid piece of stone stands in San Jose, Costa Rica, as a decoration. This ball is dated several thousand years ago. It stands with a diameter of seven feet, one inch. The surface is very smooth and the ball is a perfect sphere. All of these structures are amazing in that, it is unexplainable how people of these ancient civilizations could have made them with the resources they had to work with. However, I think one of the most amazing of all the ancient structures are the pyramids of ancient Egypt. These pyramids are s! o awes ome in size that it is very hard to believe that any human being, or even several hundred human beings together could build such a mammoth structure. It might be more convincing if they made the pyramids out of small blocks. It would take a long time, but they could do it. Instead, they were made out of huge blocks of stone and carried from far off places. There are many theories on how these pyramids were built, but all theories have been disproven or at least quite far-fetched. There are many structures that cannot be explained. So should we look to the stars? There may be an answer.\par \tab From the sky there is another facit to the theories of extraterrestrials on earth. From an airplane, one can see an ape, 260 feet high included in a geometrical system of lines drawn with an extreme accuracy that would have been inconceivable without a knowledge of surveying. There are also pictures scratched on the hillsides near Nazca that show figures several yards high, wi! th radiating crowns, similar to the aureoles in Christian painti ngs. In Peru there are worshipping figures in rock drawing, they have zigzag lines that are attributes on the gods, according to Peruvian tradition. How could these be made? They are high sophisticated designs that are to large to do while on the ground, without a way to see it. \par \tab We have only looked at a very small portion of the evidence. There are book after book that give evidence to support these theories and to explain how it all fits together. Are there any answers? Really all there is , is the evidence that one archaeologist or another has said was done or was the work of extraterrestrials. One must look at the evidence. All the wall paintings and sculptures, all the amazing structures with no real reason or explanation. To reallly look at thie subject, one will need to open their mind and forget about all the traditional rules and decisions and maybe see that the possibilities are endless.\par }

Comet

Comets Have you ever looked up in the sky and seen a little ball creeping by? If so, did you wonder what it was? That little ball is called a comet. Comets are small, fragile, and irregularly shaped. Most are composed of frozen gas. However, some are composed of frozen gas and non-volatile grains. They usually follow very strict paths around the sun. Comets become most visible when they cross the sun. This also applies to people who view comets with telescopes. When a comet gets near the sun it becomes very visible because the sun's radiation starts to sublime its volatile gases, which, in turn, blow away small bits of the little solid material the comet has. Another feature of a comet is a long tail. This is caused by materials breaking off and expanding. They expand into an enormous escaping atmosphere called the coma. This becomes at least the size of our planet. With the comet going so fast, these materials are forced behind the comet, forming a long tail of dust and gas. Comets are cold bodies. We see them only because the gases they are composed of glow in the sunlight. All comets are regular family members of the solar system family. They are bound by gravity to a strict path around the solar system. Scientists believe that all comets were formed of material, originally in the outer part of the solar system, which did not become incorporated into planets. This material is from when the planets just started forming. This makes comets an extremely interesting topic to scientists who are studying the history of the solar system. In comparison to planets, comets are very small. They can be anywhere from 750 meters (or less) to 20 kilometers in diameter. However, lately, scientists have been finding proof that there are comets 300 kilometers in diameter or greater. Comets are still compared to the planets, though. Planets usually follow the shape of a sphere. Most planets are fat at the equator. Comets come in all different shapes and sizes. Most evidence that science has revealed says that comets are extremely fragile. A comet is so poorly structured that it is like a loose snowball--it can be pulled apart with one's own bare hands. Comets have very awkward rotation periods. They are very oblong. When comets reach their aphelion they are usually near Jupiter or even sometimes Neptune. Other comets, however, come from even farther out in the solar system. No matter what, if a comet passes Jupiter, it is strongly attracted to it. Sometimes Jupiter's massive gravitational pull makes comets slam into planets . Comets' nuclei look like dirty snowballs. They are solid, persisting of ice and gas. Most nuclei contain rock, actually, small grains of rock somewhat like rock here on Earth. A nucleus appears to be black in color because it is made up of carbon compounds and sometimes free carbon. Since comet nuclei are so small they are difficult to study from Earth. An interesting feature of a comet that few people know is that even though a comet appears to have a single tail, it actually has two. One tail is a dust tail and the other is an ion tail. Although comets are very old, the oldest comet recorded is Comet Halley. They are Chinese records of this comet dating as far back as 240 BC Sir Edmund Halley predicted in 1705 that a comet which had appeared in 1531, 1607, and also 1682 would return in 1758. (unfortunately, the comet appeared on the day he was born and the day he died, he never got to see the comet) It was named Comet Halley in honor of him. A sighting of the comet was confirmed on Christmas day 1758. Halley predicted the date on which the comet would return using Kepler's Third Law which states: 1. All orbits are ellipses with the sun at one focus. 2. A line between a planet and the Sun sweeps out an equal area during any fixed interval of time (i.e. planets move quickly when they are close to the sun) 3. (OrbitalPeriod(years))squared = (OrbitalRadius(AU))cubed A comet that has been discovered more recently is the Hale-Bopp comet. It is scheduled to appear in April 1997. Alan Hale is a native New Mexican. Hale is a professional astronomer, he specializes in studying sunlike stars and searching for other planetary systems. He has been studying comets since 1970. Here is how he discovered the comet: "During my normal study of comets, it is my practice to observe comets once a week, on the average, and measure their brightnesses. On the night of July 22--the first clear night here in a week and a half--I planned to observe two comets. I finished with the first one--Periodic Comet Clark--shortly before midnight, and had about an hour and a half to wait before the second one--Periodic Comet D'Arrest--rose high enough in the east to get a good look at. I decided to pass the time by observing some deep-sky objects in Sagittarius, and when I turned my telescope (a Meade DS-16) to M70, I immediately noticed a fuzzy object in the field that hadn't been there when I had looked at M70 two seeks earlier. After verifying that I was indeed looking at M70, and not one of the many other globular clusters in that part of the sky, I checked the various deep-sky catalogues, then ran the comment-identification program at the IAU Central Bureau's computer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I sent an e-mail to Brian Marsden and Dan Green at the Central Bureau at that time informing them of a possible comet; later, when I had verified that the object had moved against the background stars, I sent them an additional e-mail. I continued to follow the comet for a total of about 3 hours, until it set behind trees in the southwest, and then was able to e-mail a detailed report, complete with two positions." After he discovered the comet he said "I love this irony -- I've spent over 400 hours of my life looking for comets, and I haven't found anything, and now, suddenly, when I'm not looking for one, I get one dumped right in my lap. I had obtained an observation of P/Clark earlier, and I needed to wait an hour or so before P/d' Arrest got high enough to look at, and I was just passing time til' then and I decided to look at some deep-sky objects in Sagittarius. When I turned to M70, I saw a fuzzy object in the same field, and almost immediately expected a comet, since I had been looking at M70 last month, and *knew* there wasn't any objects there." It all started for Bopp on July 22nd, 1995 on the exact night that Alan Hale saw the comet. In fact, they both saw the comet within 5 minutes of each other. Alan Hale was the first person to see it however. Here is the story of Thomas Bopp. "On the night of July 22, some friends and I headed out into the desert for a dark moon observation session. The site, which is west of Stanfield, Arizona, and a few miles of interstate 8 is about 90 miles southwest of my home. My friend Jim Stevens had brought his 17-1/2" Dobsonian. We started the evening observing some of the messier objects such as the Veil and the North American Nebulae in Cygnus, when Jim said "Lets look at some of the globularsin Sagittarius." We started our tour with M22 and M28, observing at 50X and then 180X. Around 11:00 local time, we had M70 in the field when Jim went to the charts to determine the next object of investigation. I continued watching M70 slowly drift across the field, when it reached a point 3/4 of the way across an alight glow appeared on the eastern edge. I repositioned the scope to the center on the new object but was unable to resolve it. I called to Jim and asked him if he knew what it might be, after visual inspection he stated he was not familiar with it but would check the charts. After determining the general position of the object he was unable to find it on Sky Atlas 2000.0 or Uranometria. The moment Jim said "we might have something" excitement began to grow among our group and I breathed a silent prayer thanking God for his wondrous creation. My friend, Kevin Gill then took a position from his digital setting circlesand estimated a magnitude. At 11:15 I said that we needed to check the object for motion and should watch it for an hour. The group observed it change position against the star field over that period and at 12:25 I decided to drive home and report our finding. Arriving at home, initial attempts to send a telegram were unsuccessful due to an incomplete address I had. After searching my library I was able to locate the correct address and confirmation was requested. At 8:25 A.M. July 23rd, 1995, Daniel Green of the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory telephoned and said, "Congratulations Tom, I believe you discovered a new comet." And that was one of the happiest moments of my life." Thomas Bopp lives in Glendale, Arizona. (Small suburb just barely outside Phoenix) He is the supervisor for a construction material company in Phoenix. Bopp is an enthusiastic observer of deep sky objects. The exact name of the site Bopp saw the comet at is Vekol Ranch. Since they discovered the comet within minutes of each other the comet was named the Hale-Bopp Comet. Nobody knows the exact orbital period of the comet but it is believed to be a little over 3000 years. It has passed through our solar system before (that is, it is not a new comet from the Oort Cloud) On April 1, 1997, the comet is expected to reach its closed point to the sun. At this time it will also be most visible because the sun reflects off the tail of the comet. It will come .914 astronomical units from the sun. This is not all that close to the sun considering the fact that some comets have run into the sun and others have skimmed the surface of it. Although the comet will be closest to the sun on April 1, it will be closest to the earth on March 23, 1997. Some people have been saying that the comet will hit earth and cause human extinction, just like the dinosaurs. The fact is, however, THE COMET WILL NOT HIT EARTH. The closest it will come is 120 million miles away from the earth. Some people are saying that the comet is going to Be huge, and others say it will be small. We will never know though because we can not see the nucleus of a comet. The part of the comet we see is the tail. The tail of a comet can be over 10,000 kilometers long. In all, comets, the history of comets, and comets waiting to be discovered is very interesting. I think that one day we will get to see the nucleus of a comet, and be able to watch comets form in the Oort Cloud.

Aquarius viewing and history

Aquarius can be found in the SE sky in autumn, especially October. A dark night is especially helpful because many faint stars make up Aquarius. This will help to make the fainter stars stand out because its hard enough to see a shape in Aquarius. Up and to the west of aquarius, pegasus can be found. Down and to the east of aquarius, capricorn can be found. Aquarius portrays a man or boy spilling water from an urn. Aquarius is identified with Ganymede, a beautiful young shepherd who was abducted by Zeus and taken to Mount Olympus to be the cup bearer for the gods. Stars: Sadalmelik: Arabic for "lucky one of the king". It lies just off the celestial equator. Sudalsud: It means "luckiest of the lucky" in Arabic. It is the brightest star in the constellation Sadachbia: Arabic for "lucky star of hidden things" or " lucky star of the tents." This makes up part of the asterism sometimes called the tent, but is usually called the urn referring to Aquarius. Skat or Scheat: It comes from the Arabic word for shin and it dates back to the translation of Ptolemy's Almagest. Albali: The name comes from the Arabic, which means "swallower"; no one really knows why the star got this name Situla: This name comes from Latin and means "well bucket". Situla was the original Arabic name for the entire constellation Aquarius. There are three star clusters contained in Aquarius. M2, which was discovered in 1764, is one that can be seen with a small telescope. A larger telescope is needed to make out the individual stars. M72 is another cluster that is located southeast of Albali and isn't far from the Saturn Nebula. NGC 7492 is the third cluster and is located east of Skat. Aquarius also has two nebulae in it. It is called the Saturn Nebula because it resembles the rings on Saturn. A very large telescope is needed to see its rings. It was discovered in 1782 by William Herschel. In a small telescopes it will appear as faint disks of fuzzy light. It lies southeast of Albali near the cluster M72. Its central star can be spotted with a large telescope. The other nebula, NGC 7923 is southwest of Skat and is a well known Helix Nebula. It is brighter than NGC 7009, the Saturn nebula, but has a fainter central star. There are five galaxies in Aquarius but they only appear as fuzzy patches in amateur telescopes. They are: NGC 7184, NGC 7606, NGC 7721, NGC 7723, and NGC 7727.

Neptune

Neptune is the outermost planet of the gas giants. It has an equatorial diameter of 49,500 kilometers (30,760 miles) and is the eighth planet from the sun. If Neptune were hollow, it could contain nearly 60 Earth's. Neptune orbits the Sun every 165 years. It has eight moons, six of which were found by Voyager 2. A day on Neptune is 16 hours and 6.7 minutes. Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle, of the Berlin Observatory. Neptune got its named from the Roman God of the Sea. Much of what is know today about Neptune was discovered in 1989 by the U.S Voyager 2 spacecraft during its 1989 flyby f Neptune. Neptune as compared to Earth is 3.9 times the diameter, 30 times the distance from the sun, 17 times as massive, and 0.3 times the density. Neptune travels around the Sun in an elliptical orbit at an average distance of 4.504 billion km (2.799 billion miles). Neptune consists largely of hydrogen and helium, and it has no apparent solid surface. The first two thirds of Neptune is composed of a mixture of molten rock, water, liquid ammonia and methane. The outer third is a mixture of heated gases comprised of hydrogen, helium, water and methane. The atmospheric composition is 85% Hydrogen, 13% Helium, and 2% methane. The planet's atmosphere, particularly the outer layers, contains substantial amounts of methane gas. Absorption of red light by the atmospheric methane is responsible for Neptune's deep blue color. Neptune is a dynamic planet with several large, dark spots reminiscent of Jupiter's hurricane-like storms. The largest spot, known as the Great Dark Spot, is about the size of the earth and is similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Neptune receives less than half as much sunlight as Uranus, but heat escaping from its interior makes Neptune slightly warmer than Uranus. The heat liberated may also be responsible for Neptune's stormier atmosphere, which exhibits the fastest winds seen on any planet in the solar system. Most of the winds there blow westward, opposite to the rotation of the planet. Near the Great Dark Spot, winds blow up to 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) an hour. Voyager 2 found that the winds averaged about 300 meters per second (700 miles/hour) in the planet's atmosphere. Long bright clouds, similar to cirrus clouds on Earth, were seen high in Neptune's atmosphere. At low northern latitudes, Voyager captured images of cloud streaks casting their shadows on cloud decks below. Feathery white clouds fill the boundary between the dark and light blue regions on the Great Dark Spot. The pinwheel shape of both the dark boundary and the white cirrus suggests that the storm system rotates counterclockwise. Periodic small scale patterns in the white cloud, possibly waves, are short lived and do not persist from one Neptunian rotation to the next. (Courtesy NASA/JPL) Until the Voyager 2 encounter in 1989, the rings surrounding Neptune were thought to be arcs. We now know that the rings completely circle the planet, but the thickness of each ring varies along its length. Neptune has a set of four rings which are narrow and very faint. The rings are made up of dust particles thought to have been made by tiny meteorites smashing into Neptune's moons. From ground based telescopes the rings appear to be arcs but from Voyager 2 the arcs turned out to be bright spots or clumps in the ring system. The exact cause of the bright clumps is unknown. The magnetic field of Neptune, like that of Uranus, is highly tilted at 47 degrees from the rotation axis and offset at least 13,500 kilometers or 8,500 miles from the physical center. Comparing the magnetic fields of the two planets, scientists think the extreme orientation may be characteristic of flows in the interior of the planet and not the result of that planet's sideways orientation or of any possible field reversals within the planet. Neptune also has eight known satellites. Only two of these, Triton and Nereid, had been observed prior to the Voyager 2 flyby. Triton is the largest of the eight satellites and is almost as big as the Earth's Moon. The other Neptunian satellites range in diameter from 58 to 416 km (36 to 258 miles). Apart from Triton, the moons of Neptune are irregularly shaped and have very dark surfaces. Triton is the largest moon of Neptune, with a diameter of 2,700 kilometers (1,680 miles). It was discovered by William Lassell, a British astronomer, in 1846 scarcely a month after Neptune was discovered. Triton is colder than any other measured object in the Solar System with a surface temperature of -235° C (-391° F). It has an extremely thin atmosphere. Nitrogen ice particles might form thin clouds a few kilometers above the surface. The atmospheric pressure at Triton's surface is about 14 microbars, 1/70,000th the surface pressure on Earth. Triton is the only large satellite in the solar system to circle a planet in a retrograde direction -- in a direction opposite to the rotation of the planet. It also has a density of about 2.066 grams per cubic centimeter (the density of water is 1.0 gram per cubic centimeter). This means Triton contains more rock in its interior than the icy satellites of Saturn and Uranus do. The relatively high density and the retrograde orbit has led some scientists to suggest that Triton may have been captured by Neptune as it traveled through space several billion years ago. If that is the case, tidal heating could have melted Triton in its originally eccentric orbit, and the satellite might even have been liquid for as long as one billion years after its capture by Neptune. Triton is scarred by enormous cracks. Voyager 2 images showed active geyser-like eruptions spewing nitrogen gas and dark dust particles several kilometers into the atmosphere.

Hale Bopp

As I am sure all of you know, we have recently been able to see a new but not permanent additon to the night sky. This addition is known as Hale-Bopp, a comet that is about 122 million miles (about 1.3 times the distance of the sun to the earth) from the earth and is approximately 25 miles wide. Hale-Bopp was discovered on July 23,1995 by two scientists named Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona. This is the first discovery for both of them, although Alan Hale is one of the top visual comet observers in the world, having seen about 200 comet apparitions. That is one of the reasons they put his name first. Alan Hale comments, "I love the irony -- I've spent over 400 hours of my life looking for comets, and haven't found anything, and now, suddenly, when I'm not looking for one, I get one dumped in my lap. I had obtained an observation of P/Clark earlier, and needed to wait an hour or so before P/d'Arrest got high enough to look at, and was just passing the time til then, and I decided to look at some deep-sky objects in Sagittarius. When I turned to M70, I saw a fuzzy object in the same field, and almost immediately suspected a comet, since I had been looking at M70 last month, and *knew* there wasn't any other objects there." Thomas Bopp explains his story like this, "On the night of July 22, 1995 some friends and I headed out into the desert for a dark of the moon observing session. The site, which is west of Stanfield, AZ and a few mile south of Interstate 8 is about 90 miles southwest from my home. My friend Jim Stevens had brought his 17-1/2" Dobsonian. We started the evening observing some of the Messier objects such as the Veil and North American Nebulae in Cygnus, when Jim said " Let's look at some of the globulars in Sagittarius." We started our tour with M22 and M28, observing at 50X and then at 180X. Around 11:00 local time, we had M-70 in the field when Jim went to the charts to determine the next object of investigation. I continued watching M-70 slowly drift across the field, when it reached a point 3/4 of the way across a slight glow appeared on the eastern edge. I repositioned the scope to center on the new object but was unable to resolve it. I called to Jim and asked him if he knew what it might be, after a visual inspection he stated he wasn't familiar with it but would check the charts. After determining the general position of the object he was unable to find it on either Sky Atlas 2000.0 or Uranometria. The moment Jim said "we might have something" excitement began to grow among our group and I breathed a silent prayer thanking God for his wondrous creation. My friend, Kevin Gill then took a position from his digital setting circles and estimated a magnitude. At 11:15 I said that we needed to check the object for motion and should watch it for an hour. The group observed it change position against the star field over that period and at 12:25 I decided to drive home and report our finding. Arriving at home initial attempts to send the telegram were unsuccessful due to an incomplete address I had. After searching my library I was able to located the correct address and confirmation was requested. At 8:25 AM July 23, 1995 Daniel Green of the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory telephoned and said, "Congratulations Tom, I believe you discovered a new comet." and that was one of the most exciting moments of my life. The comet is visible in the evening. Look about 40 degrees west of North and about 20 degrees off the horizon at about 8:00 p.m. The comet will be the brightest object in the northwest sky.The comet is traveling at about 28 km per second and the orbit of this comet is about 4,200 years since the last appearance and because of gravitational tugs by the planets, especially Jupiter, the next appearance will be in about 2380 years or the year 4377. Hale-Bopp has been through our solar system before which surprisingly means it is not a new comet from the Oort Cloud. Its orbit is a very long, stretched out orbit and the comet is part of our solar system in orbit around our Sun. Sadly, this excitment will end in October when Hale-Bopp will disapear to the naked eye. (Special thanks to Kevin Gill of the Black Mountain Observatory for Alan Hale's and Thomas Bopp's quotes.)

Little Green Men or Just Little Microscopic Organisms

Little Green Men or Just Little Microscopic Organisms? The question of life on Mars is a puzzle that has plagued many minds throughout the world. Life on Mars, though, is a reality. When you think of Martians, you think of little green men who are planning to invade Earth and destroy all human life, right? Well, some do and some do not. Though believing that there are little green men on Mars is just a fantasy, or is it? The kind of life that may have lived there is the kind you would never consider of giving the name "Martian" to. They are small organisms such as microbes or bacteria. Proof of this was found in a meteorite containing the fossils of the microscopic organisms intact. Two highly regarded chemistry professors from Stanford, Claude Maechling and Richard Zare, dissected three meteorites that were about 2 to 8 millimeters long and found trace elements of a big mumbo jumbo word- polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. That pretty much means that there once was a warmer climate and maybe even lakes or oceans. Life on Mars is now a real idea. The climate of Mars about 3.8 billion years ago was much similar to the young Earth. Microbes and bacteria probably sprouted everywhere in the warm and wet climate. Although now we only see a cold red planet, which was probably due to a collision of an astroid that would have set back the evolution process of Mars, causing it to be a harsh planet. A Viking spacecraft which landed on Mars in 1976 found that the planet was bathed in ultraviolet radiation, "intense enough so it would probably fry any microbe we know on this planet,"says Jack Farmer, an Ames researcher who calls himself an "exopaleontologist"-a searcher for fossils on other worlds. The redness of Mars is due to the chemical assault known as oxidation, which turns iron compounds into rust, and it would surely kill anything that sticks its head up. "So why do you still believe that there is life on Mars?" you say. Life on Mars is not located on the ultraviolet radiation oxidized surface. The microbes are found below it, probably located in the boiling hot springs, or in frozen time capsules. Life here on Earth are located in some strange places so why wouldn't the Martian microbes be found in strange places if they were trying to survive? Scientists have found bacteria here on Earth that were living inside rocks where they got all of their nourishment from the rocks and from some water. Martians probably do the same thing. The Marsokhod, which is Russian for "Mars Rover"- a six-wheeled vehicle about the size of a golf cart, with an arm for carrying a camera or other instruments, is planned to launch in 1998. The rover might actually find the truth that there was once life and that there is still life on Mars. Who knows, but what if the once ancient microbes or bacteria have evolved into little green men who are planning to invade Earth and destroy all human life? What if there was a whole colony of Martians in underground tunnels all over Mars? How did we evolve? From microscopic microbes, right? They may have evolved, too. When I read all of this I am reminded by a quote from a character on Jurassic Park named Ian Malcolm who said, "Life finds a way."

Gamma Rays

Gamma Rays are Waves on the electromagnetic Spectrum that have a Wavelength of 10 or Higher and 11 down. Gamma Rays are produced in labs through the process of nuclear collision and also through the artificial Radioactivity that accompanies these interactions. The high energy nuclei needed for the collisions are accelerated by such devices such as the Cyclotron and synchrotron. There are also many uses for Gamma rays in Medicine. Gamma Rays are used in medicine to kill and treat certain types of cancers and tumors. Gamma rays passing through the tissue of the body produce ionization in the tissue. Gamma rays can harm the cells in our body. The rays can also detect brain and Cardiovascular Abnormalities. These are some of the many uses of Gamma Rays in Medicine. Gamma Rays are also Used a great deal in modern day industries. Gamma Rays can be used to examine metallic castings or welds in oil pipelines for weak points. The rays pass through the metal and darken a photographic film at places opposite weak points. In industry, Gamma rays are also used for detecting internal defects in metal castings and in welded structures. Gamma rays are used to kill pesticides and bugs in food. Gamma rays are also used in nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. Gamma rays are often used in the food industry. The radioisotopes preserve foods. Although the rays never come in contact with the food, Beta radiation kills various organisms such as bacteria, yeast, and insects. Gamma rays are sometimes used in science. They are used to detect Beryllium. They also played a very important role in the development of the atomic bomb. Gamma Rays can be very dangerous to use or be in contact with. Gamma rays bombard our bodies constantly. They come from the naturally radioactive materials in rocks and soil. We take some of these materials into our bodies from the air we breath and the water we drink. Gamma rays passing through our bodies produce ionization in the tissue. High levels of gamma Radiation can produce ionization of the tissue and cause skin cancer. There are many ways in which we can protect ourselves from these harmful affects Protection from gamma rays can be obtained Using a sheet of iron that is a 1/2 inch thick. This kind of shielding will block only 50% of 1 million electron volts of Gamma rays. We can also protect ourselves from gamma rays with 4 inches of water. Lead provides the most protection from gamma rays. A 1/4 of an inch absorbs all the gamma ray exposure. Many Gamma rays also come from outer space in a few major bursts the sun produces gamma rays with energies up to one million electron volts. The interaction of high energy electrons, Protons, and Nuclei of the sun, emit the rays. Gamma rays can also come from the other stars in space, Through the creation and death of the stars along with the creation of solar flares. Astronomers have studied gamma rays to gain a better understanding of the astronomical process. Gamma rays are a form of Electromagnetic radiation similar to X-rays. Gamma rays carry millions of electron volts. As gamma rays pass through matter, They lose energy, But at the same time Knock electrons loose from the atom which ionizes them. Uranium and other naturally occurring radioactive elements, which emit alpha and beta particles from their nuclei which transforming into new elements, also emit gamma rays. Long before experiments gamma rays emitted by cosmic sources, scientists had known that the universe should be producing such photons. Hard work by several brilliant scientists had shown that a number of different processes which were occurring in the universe would result in gamma ray emissions. These processes included cosmic ray interactions with interstellar gases, supernova explosions, and interactions of energetic electrons with magnetic fields. In the 1960's we finally developed thew ability to actually detect these emissions and we have been looking at them ever since.

Black Hole

Into the Depths of A Black Hole Everyday we look out upon the night sky, wondering and dreaming of what lies beyond our planet. The universe that we live in is so diverse and unique, and it interests us to learn about all the variance that lies beyond our grasp. Within this marvel of wonders our universe holds a mystery that is very difficult to understand because of the complications that arise when trying to examine and explore the principles of space. That mystery happens to be that of the ever clandestine, black hole. This essay will hopefully give you the knowledge and understanding of the concepts, properties, and processes involved with the space phenomenon of the black hole. It will describe how a black hole is generally formed, how it functions, and the effects it has on the universe. In order to understand what exactly a black hole is, we must first take a look at the basis for the cause of a black hole. All black holes are formed from the gravitational collapse of a star, usually having a great, massive, core. A star is created when huge, gigantic, gas clouds bind together due to attractive forces and form a hot core, combined from all the energy of the two gas clouds. This energy produced is so great when it first collides, that a nuclear reaction occurs and the gases within the star start to burn continuously. The Hydrogen gas is usually the first type of gas consumed in a star and then other gas elements such as Carbon, Oxygen, and Helium are consumed. This chain reaction fuels the star for millions or billions of years depending upon the amount of gases there are. The star manages to avoid collapsing at this point because of the equilibrium achieved by itself. The gravitational pull from the core of the star is equal to the gravitational pull of the gases forming a type of orbit, however when this equality is broken the star can go into several different stages. Usually if the star is small in mass, most of the gases will be consumed while some of it escapes. This occurs because there is not a tremendous gravitational pull upon those gases and therefore the star weakens and becomes smaller. It is then referred to as a White Dwarf. If the star was to have a larger mass however, then it may possibly Supernova, meaning that the nuclear fusion within the star simply goes out of control causing the star to explode. After exploding a fraction of the star is usually left (if it has not turned into pure gas) and that fraction of the star is known as a neutron star. A black hole is one of the last option that a star may take. If the core of the star is so massive (approximately 6-8 solar masses; one solar mass being equal to the sun's mass) then it is most likely that when the star's gases are almost consumed those gases will collapse inward, forced into the core by the gravitational force laid upon them. After a black hole is created, the gravitational force continues to pull in space debris and other type of matters to help add to the mass of the core, making the hole stronger and more powerful. Most black holes tend to be in a consistent spinning motion. This motion absorbs various matter and spins it within the ring (known as the Event Horizon) that is formed around the black hole. The matter keeps within the Event Horizon until it has spun into the centre where it is concentrated within the core adding to the mass. Such spinning black holes are known as Kerr Black Holes. Most black holes orbit around stars due to the fact that they once were a star, and this may cause some problems for the neighbouring stars. If a black hole gets powerful enough it may actually pull a star into it and disrupt the orbit of many other stars. The black hole could then grow even stronger (from the star's mass) as to possibly absorb another. When a black hole absorbs a star, the star is first pulled into the Ergosphere, which sweeps all the matter into the Event Horizon, named for it's flat horizontal appearance and because this happens to be the place where mostly all the action within the black hole occurs. When the star is passed on into the Event Horizon the light that the star endures is bent within the current and therefore cannot be seen in space. At this exact point in time, high amounts of radiation are given off, that with the proper equipment can be detected and seen as an image of a black hole. Through this technique astronomers now believe that they have found a black hole known as Cygnus X1. This supposed black hole has a huge star orbiting around it, therefore we assume there must be a black hole that it is in orbit with. The first scientists to really take an in depth look at black holes and the collapsing of stars, were a professor, Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder, in the early nineteen hundreds. They concluded on the basis of Einstein's theory of relativity that if the speed of light was the utmost speed over any massive object, then nothing could escape a black hole once in it's clutches. **(1) The name "black hole" was named such, because of the fact that light could not escape from the gravitational pull from the core, thus making the black hole impossible for humans to see without using technological advancements for measuring such things like radiation. The second part of the word was named "hole" due to the fact that the actual hole, is where everything is absorbed and where the centre core presides. This core is the main part of the black hole where the mass is concentrated and appears purely black on all readings even through the use of radiation detection devices. Just recently a major discovery was found with the help of a device known as The Hubble Telescope. This telescope has just recently found what many astronomers believe to be a black hole, after being focused on an star orbiting empty space. Several picture were sent back to Earth from the telescope showing many computer enhanced pictures of various radiation fluctuations and other diverse types of readings that could be read from the area in which the black hole is suspected to be in. Several diagrams were made showing how astronomers believe that if somehow you were to survive through the centre of the black hole that there would be enough gravitational force to possible warp you to another end in the universe or possibly to another universe. The creative ideas that can be hypothesized from this discovery are endless. Although our universe is filled with much unexplained, glorious, phenomenons, it is our duty to continue exploring them and to continue learning, but in the process we must not take any of it for granted. As you have read, black holes are a major topic within our universe and they contain so much curiosity that they could possibly hold unlimited uses. Black holes are a sensation that astronomers are still very puzzled with. It seems that as we get closer to solving their existence and functions, we just end up with more and more questions. Although these questions just lead us into more and more unanswered problems we seek and find refuge into them, dreaming that maybe one day, one far off distant day, we will understand all the conceptions and we will be able to use the universe to our advantage and go where only our dreams could take us.

Beta Pictoris Planets Life or what

The ultimate question is; Is there a possibility that life might exist on a planet in the Beta Pictoris system? First, one must ask, Are there planets in the Beta Pictoris system?. However, that question would be impossible to answer if one did not answer the most basic questions first; Where do planets come from? and do the key elements and situations, needed to form planets, exist in the Beta Pictoris system?. To understand where planets come from, one has to first look at where the planets in our solar system came from. Does or did our star, the sun, have a circumstellar disk around it? the answer is believed to be yes. Scientists believe that a newly formed star is immediately surrounded by a relatively dense cloud of gas and dust. In 1965, A. Poveda stated, "That new stars are likely to be obscured by this envelope of gas and dust (1)." In 1967, Davidson and Harwit agreed with Poveda and then termed this occurrence, the "cocoon nebula" (1). Other authors have referred to this occurrence as, a "placental nebula" (1), noting that it sustains the growth of planetary bodies. For a long time, even before there was the term cocoon nebula, planetary scientists knew that a cocoon nebula had surrounded the sun, long ago, in order for our solar system to form and take on their currents motions (1). In 1755, a German, named Immanuel Kant, reasoned that "gravity would make circumsolar cloud contract and that rotation would flatten it (1)." Thus, the cloud would assume the general shape of a rotating disk, explaining the fact that the planets, in our solar system, revolve in a disk-shaped distribution. This idea, about the disk-shaped nebula that was formed around the early sun, came to be known as the nebula hypothesis (1). Then, in 1796, a French mathematician named Laplace, proposed that the rotating disk continued to cool and contract, forming planetary bodies (1). Also, when investigating the evolution of stars, it was proposed "that a star forms as a central condensation in an extended nebula... The outer part remains behind as the cocoon nebula (1)". During the same study it was also indicated that under various conditions such as: rotation, turbulence, etc. the nucleus of the forming star may divide into two or more bodies orbiting each other (1). This may be the explanation as to why more than half of all star systems are binary or multiple, rather than singles stars, like ours, the sun. This same fragmentation may also form bodies too small to become stars. However, they could form into large planets, about the same size as Jupiter (1). In 1966, Low and Smith calculated that the dust must be orbiting the star at a distance of many tens of astronomical units, in order for planets to from (1). Others have reasoned that the cocoon nebula must contain silicate and/or ice particles (planet-forming materials), in order for the presence of planetary bodies (1). Still others have concluded that planets form during the early life of a star (1). After determining that planets are formed in a circumstellar disk surrounding a star, we must ask ourselves, Does Beta Pictoris have a cirumstellar disk around it? Beta Pictoris was found to have a circumstellar disk in 1983. It was first detected by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite. The disk is seen to extend to more than 400 astronomical units from the star (2). The orbits of most of the particles are inclined 5 degrees or less to the plane of the system (2). These minimal orbital inclinations are typical of the major planets in our own solar system. There is evidence that the circumstellar material around Beta Pictoris takes the form of a highly flattened disk, rather than a spherical shell implies an almost certain association with planet formation (2). The disk material itself is believed to be a potential source for planet accretion (2). This retention of nearly coplanar orbits in the Beta Pictoris disk is a qualitative argument in support of its being a relatively young system (2). Some astronomers believe that we are witnessing planet formation in the process. Lagage and Pantin found that the inner region of the disk surrounding Beta Pictoris is clear of dust, a prime indicator that there is evidence of one or more planetary bodies (3). The depletion zone extends to about 15 AU from the star, about the same size as our solar system; and has an average particle density only one tenth of the area just outside this zone (3). Lagage and Pantin believe that the inner zone may have been swept clean by the gravitational pull of a planet orbiting around Beta Pictoris (3). A planet would gravitationally deflect the particles out of the inner zone. This planet, which is only believed to exist, may also be deflecting comets into the star, as indicated by the presence of highly variable absorption lines in the spectrum of Beta Pictoris (3). The infrared image by Lagage and Pantin also provide information that the edge-on disk is not symmetrical around the star (3). This suggests a more intimate relationship between the asymmetry and the properties of the inner disk. As the orbital timescale for particles is relatively short (less than 100 years), one would expect that the irregularities in the disk would have been smoothed out by now (3). Unless, there was something stirring it up, such as a planet (3). If there is a planet orbiting Beta Pictoris, its orbit is probably eccentric, as are most of the planetary orbits in our solar system (4). A planet with even a moderately eccentric orbit would generate the asymmetry that is been noted in the dust disk surrounding Beat Pictoris (4). The Hubble Space Telescope, using the high-resolution spectrograph, found that the disk surrounding beta Pictoris consists of two parts: an outer ring of small, solid particles, and an inner ring of diffuse gas within a few hundred miles of the star (5). Albert Boggess, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, suspects that the gas comes from the ring of solid particles (5). If he is correct, then the gas may be a sign that planets are being born there. The gas could be a result from the collision of solid particles in the outer ring accreting into planets that are still too small to see because of the brightness of the star itself (5). During the collisions some of the particles would be vaporized and drawn toward the star. The planets in our own solar system are believed to have formed through countless numbers of such collisions (5). Boggess also believes that Beta Pictoris is very similar to a very early phase of our own solar system (5). Additional evidence, from the Hubble, also suggests that Beta Pictoris might be following in our footsteps. The gaseous inner ring appears to contain clumps of material spiraling toward the star (5). These clumps may be comets, diverted from the normal paths by close calls with protoplanets (5). This also fits with current ideas about the evolution of our own solar system. Gases from comet impacts may have been the creating factor of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans (5). Wetherill argues that life on Earth is reliant upon the existence of Jupiter and Saturn, because they cleansed our Solar System of most of its planetesimals (comets) that, otherwise, would be striking the Earth (6). In order for a planet to survive long enough for life to begin, it is necessary for the existence of gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) to get rid of the hazardous comets. No one person can say for sure whether there are planets in the Beta Pictoris System, or not. However, it is definitely a possibility. There is a circumstellar disk surrounding Beta Pictoris. It is a highly flattened disk, as was the disk that once surrounded the Sun. The disk contains the necessary elements for planet formation. The star is a young one. The inner zone of the disk is clear. All of these things point to the almost probable formation of planets. Richard Terrile, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says, "It's hard not to form planets from material like this (7)." To answer whether or not there could be life on one of these planets, is not easy to say. No one can really even speculate. I, believe that it is possible, if all the variables come together in just the right way. I am not 'earthnocentric' to assume that the earth is the only planet in the Universe that can sustain life. Whether or not a planet in the Beta Pictoris system has what it takes, who knows, we can only wait and watch. BIBLIOGRAPHY (1) Moons And Planets, third edition; William K. Hartman; Wadsworth Publishing company; California; 1993. (2) A Circumstellar Disk Around Beta Pictoris; Science; volume 226; pages 1421-1424. (3) Footprints in The Dust; Charles M. Telesco; Nature; volume 369; pages 610-611. (4) Dust Depletion In The Inner Disk Of Beta Pictoris As A Possible Indicator Of Planets; P. O. Lagage and E. Pantin; Nature; volume 369; pages 628- 630. (5) Birth Of A Solar System?; Tim Folger; Discover; volume 13; page 27. (6) Inhibition Of Giant-planet formation By Rapid Gas Depletion Around Young Stars; B. Zucherman, T. Forveille, and J. H. Kastner; Nature; volume 373; pages 494-496. (7) A Planet Around Beta Pictoris?; Sky and Telescope; Volume 88; page 10.

Asteroid Defense

When it comes down to developing a way to defend the entire planet from destruction I am all for it. A large asteroid or comet hitting the earth is not a common occurrence. But it has happened many times before and when it does happen again the asteroid may wipe out all life, including humans. If our government did develop an anti-asteroid defense system, it would not only have to protect our country, but the whole planet. If we had such technology we would first have to be very sure it would work. We wouldn't want to shoot a nuclear weapon at an asteroid just to have it break into multiple pieces and have those pieces raining down on Earth. One of the most important parts of defending our planet would be to find and chart every asteroid that could threaten us. That would be a very tedious and never ending job, but is necessary for the defense system to work. It would do us humans no good to have some sort of defense against asteroids if we don't know when they will strike. So after thinking about an anti-asteroid defense system, I think that our government should look into constructing one. When one thinks about what an asteroid could do to our planet it is usually a very scary thought. In the past we have been very lucky with where asteroids have hit our earth. Back in 1908 in the Tunguska region of Siberia, an object from space hit there causing miles of forest to be devastated. If that same object had hit New York, it would have probably been like a 20 megaton bomb going off in Times Square. That would have completely altered history. What makes it worse is that it is thought that a small comet hit in Tunguska. What if a huge comet had hit there? These examples are very good reasons why I think that humankind needs to come up with a way to stop asteroids or any other type of object that could kill off all life on earth.

Astrology

WHAT IS ASTROLOGY By Lauren Kaplan Astrology is the study of planetary influences and their affect on the world and everything in it. Astrology is usually limited to human beings--their nature, and their affairs, although a chart can be drawn up for just about any event. The horoscope is a blue print or pattern of the solar system cast for a particular moment of time. It is from this that the astrologer bases the interpretation or delineation as indicated by the nature of the sun, moon, and planets. The natal horoscope is a chart drawn at the moment of birth to see and understand the nature and makeup of the soul of the newborn as it takes residence in the physical vehicle or body. The human soul is a focal point of cosmic energy, and the pattern of the heavens, as charted in the horoscope, is the means the soul comes to know itself and its destiny. Astrology points the way to soul development and growth. The soul's strengths and weaknesses are noted in the horoscope. Life is an opportunity given to soul for further enhancement. Because the heavens are in constant motion, and because this motion is quite ordered and exact, it is possible to project the positions of the sun, moon, and planets for any given time. Astrologers use this information to draw-up a horoscope and forecast the "influences" that will affect the soul at that time. Astrologers usually do not predict actual events in the future. They can only say what might happen, or could happen, but not what will happen--much like a weather forecast; although many psychics do make predictions, and astrology is the tool they use to focus their abilities. Another common feature of astrology is the comparison of birth charts to ascertain the compatibility of two people. This is a straightforward method used by over-laying one chart upon the other. The aspects or angles formed by the planets are then analyzed to determine how the energy fields of each person blend together. Some couples form more harmonious bonds than others, less harmonious bonds offer a greater challenge for peace and happiness. Over the years astrologers have developed numerous techniques for expanding their "art" to include a multitude of services that can only be evaluated upon the merit and usefulness of that technique. Astrology can only offer so much; it is imperative that the individual soul strive to attain that which is rightfully theirs in this short life, and to regard any advice with great care.

Apollo and Challenger Disasters

Introduction This paper is going to compare the Apollo 1 and the Challenger disasters. Both space programs were unfortunate disasters, caused by a series of oversights and misjudgments. How did this lost of life occur in such a high tech environment? Apollo 4 On January 27, 1967, the three astronauts of the Apollo 4, were doing a test countdown on the launch pad. Gus Grissom was in charge. His crew were Edward H. White, the first American to walk in space, and Roger B. Chaffee, a naval officer going up for the first time. 182 feet below, R.C.A technician Gary Propst was seated in front of a bank of television monitors, listening to the crew radio channel and watching various televisions for important activity. Inside the Apollo 4 there was a metal door with a sharp edge. Each time the door was open and shut, it scraped against an environmental control unit wire. The repeated abrasion had exposed two tiny sections of wire. A spark alone would not cause a fire, but just below the cuts in the cable was a length of aluminum tubing, which took a ninety- degree turn. There were hundreds of these turns in the whole capsule. The aluminum tubing carried a glycol cooling fluid, which is not flammable, but when exposed to air it turns to flammable fumes. The capsule was filled with pure oxygen in an effort to allow the astronauts to work more efficiently. It also turns normally not so flammable items to highly flammable items. Raschel netting that was highly flammable in the pure oxygen environment was near the exposed section of the wires. At 6:31:04 p.m. the Raschel netting burst into an open flame. A second after the netting burst into flames, the first message came over the crew's radio channel: "Fire," Grissom said. Two Seconds later, Chaffee said clearly, "We've got a fire in the cockpit." His tone was businesslike (Murray 191). There was no camera in the cabin, but a remote control camera, if zoomed in on the porthole could provide a partial, shadowy view of the interior of the space craft. There was a lot of motion, Propst explained, as White seemed to fumble with something and then quickly pull his arms back, then reach out again. Another pair of arms came into view from the left, Grissom's, as the flames spread from the far left-hand corner of the spacecraft toward the porthole (Murray 192). The crew struggled for about 30 seconds after their suits failed, and then died of asphyxiation, not the heat. To get out of the capsule astronauts had to remove three separate hatches, atleast 90 seconds was required to open all three hatches. The IB Saturn rocket contained no fuel, so no chance of fire was really thought of, so there were no fire crews or doctors standing by. Many people were listening to the crew's radio channel, and would have responded, but were caught off guard and the first mention of fire was not clearly heard by anyone. Challenger On January 28, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger was ready to launch. The lead up to the launch had not been without its share of problems. The talk of cold weather, icicles, and brittle and faulty o-rings were the main problems. It was revealed that deep doubts of some engineers had not been passed on by their superiors to the shuttle director, Mr. Moore. Something was unusual about that morning in Florida: it was uncommonly cold. The night before, the temperature had dropped to twenty-two degrees fahrenheit. Icicles hung from the launch pad, it was said that the icicles could have broken off and damaged the space shuttle's heat tiles. It had been the coldest day on which a shuttle launch had ever been attempted. Cold weather had made the rubber O-ring seals so brittle that they no longer sealed the joint properly. People feared a reduction in the efficiency of the O-ring seals on the solid rocket boosters. Level 1 authorities at NASA had received enough information about faulty O-rings by August 1985 that they should have ordered discontinuation of flights. The shuttle rocketed away from the icicle laden launch pad, carrying a New Hampshire school teacher, NASA's first citizen in space. It was the worst accident in the history of NASA in nearly 25 years. 11:38 a.m. cape time, the main engine ignition followed by clouds of smoke and flame came from the solid fuel rocket boosters. Unknown to anyone in the cabin or on the ground, there was a jet of flame around the giant orange fuel tank coming from the right-hand booster rocket. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off the Challenger suddenly disappeared amid a cataclysmic explosion which ripped the fuel tank from nose to tail (Timothy 441). The explosion occured as Challenger was 10.35 miles high and 8.05 miles downrange from the cape, speeding toward space at 1,977 mph. Lost along with the $1.2 billion spacecraft were a $100 million satellite that was to have becooome an important part of NASA's communications network (Associated Press 217). Pictures taken revealed that even after the enormous explosion occurred the cockpit remained somewhat intact. Aerodynamic pressure exerted on the human passengers would have killed anyone who survived the explosion. The remains of the shuttle were spread over miles of ocean. Over half were recovered. In comparison, both disasters were preventable. Both disasters had a main explosion or malfunction, but even if there were survivors they would have died because there was no escape. The Challenger disaster was mainly a lot of people wanting to get better jobs and more money, or simply to get on the good side of someone. The Apollo 4 had many problems which should have been caught. Conclusion Apollo 4 had many deficiencies: loose, shoddy wiring, excessive use of combustible materials in spite of a 100 percent oxygen atmosphere, inadequate provisions for rescue, and a three layer, ninety plus second hatch. The Challenger had faulty O-rings, icicles, and bad management which threatened to bring the entire american astronaut program to an end. Over a billion dollars was lost all together. Both disasters could have been prevented if the time, effort, and funding was spent. Many people involved in both disasters were either lazy or greedy.

Mercury

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It's average distance from the sun is approximately fifty-eight million km and it's diameter is 4875 km, making it the second smallest planet in our solar system. It's volume and mass are about 1/18 that of the earth and it's average density is approximately equal to that of the earth. Mercury's magnetic field is one-hundred times weaker than that of Earth's. Mercury has the shortest revolution of all the planets in our solar system and revolves around the sun in about eighty-eight days. Radar observations of the planet show that its period of rotation is 58.7 days, or two-thirds of its period of revolution. That means that Mercury has one and one-half days in it's year. Mercury doesn't have an atmosphere, but it does have a thin layer of helium. The helium is actually solar wind that is trapped by Mercury's weak gravity. Scientists think that collisions with protoplanets early in the history of the solar system may have stripped away lighter materials, making Mercury a very dense planet with an iron core extending outwards 4/5 of the way to the surface. Mercury bares a very similar resemblance to our moon because it has a lot of craters. The craters, which cover seventy-five percent of Mercury's surface, were formed by huge rocks that smashed into the planet's surface. The largest crater is called the Caloris Basin and it is 1400 km in diameter and is flooded with molten lava. Mercury also has many cliffs that are usually over 300 miles long and two miles high. The rest of the planet's surface is smooth and may have been formed by lava flowing out of cracks in the surface. Temperatures on Mercury vary greatly because of it's closeness to the sun. The surface temperature on the sunlit side is about 430 degrees Celsius, while the dark side may reach temperatures of -170 degrees Celsius.. Mercury was a difficult planet to study before the invention of the telescope. Even then, you could only see Mercury in the morning and evening. Then the Mariner 10 was built in the 1970's to go observe Mercury. The Mariner 10 spacecraft passed Mercury twice in 1974 and once in 1975 and it took hundreds of pictures of the planet. After this, the Mariner 10 came too close to the sun and is now orbiting the sun. Mercury has no known moons and it also has a double sunrise at perihelion (the point closest to the sun). Mercury also has the widest temperature range (500 degrees between coldest and hottest) of all the planets. But even with all this information, scientists still don't know that much about Mercury.

Evolution of Satalites

satellite is probably the most useful invention since the wheel. Satellites have the capability to let you talk with someone across the nation or let you close a business deal through video communication. Almost everything today is heading towards the use of satellites, such as telephones. At&t has used this communications satellite (top right) ever since the late 1950s. TVS and radios are also turning to the use of satellites. RCA and Sony have released satellite dishes for Radio and Television services. New technology also allows the military to use satellites as a weapon. The new ION cannon is a satellite that can shoot a particle beam anywhere on earth and create an earthquake. They can also use it's capability for imaging enhancement, which allows you to zoom in on someone's nose hairs all the way from space. Robert Gossard (left) was one of the most integral inventors of the satellite. He was born on October 5, 1882. He earned his Masters and Doctoral degree in Physics at Clark University. He conducted research on improving solid-propellant rockets. He is known best for firing the world's first successful liquid-propellant rocket on March 16, 1926. This was a simple pressure-fed rocket that burned gasoline and liquid oxygen. It traveled only 56m (184 ft) but proved to the world that the principle was valid. Gossard Died August 10, 1945. Gossard did not work alone, he was also in partnership with a Russian theorist named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Tsiolkovsky was born on September 7, 1857. As a child Tsiolkovsky educated himself and rose to become a High School teacher of mathematics in the small town of Kaluga, 145km (90mi) south of Moscow. In his early years Tsiolkovsky caught scarlet fever and became 80% deaf. Together, the theoretical work of Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the experimental work of American Robert Gossard, confirmed that a satellite might be launched by means of a rocket. I chose the satellite to research because many things such as computers, TVS and telephones are using satellites, and I thought it would be a good idea to figure out how they work and the history behind them before we start to use them more rapidly. I also picked the satellite because I think that my life would differ without it. For instance, The Internet or World Wide Web would run very slowly or would cease to exist altogether. We wouldn't be able to talk to people across the world because telephone wires would have to travel across the Atlantic, and if they did, the reception would be horrible. We wouldn't know what the weather would be like on earth, or what the stars and planets are like in space. We wouldn't be able to watch live television premiers across the country because all those are via satellite. A satellite is a secondary object that revolves in a closed orbit around a planet or the sun, but an artificial satellite is used to revolve around the earth for scientific research, earth applications, or Military Reconnaissance. All artificial satellites consist of certain features in common. They include radar for altitude measurements, sensors such as optical devices in observation satellites, receivers and transmitters in communication satellites, and stable radio-signal sources in navigation satellites. Solar cells generate power from the sun , and storage batteries are used for the periods when the satellite is blocked from the sun by the Earth. These batteries in turn are recharged by the solar cells. The Russians launched Sputnik 1 (left) on October 4, 1957, as the first satellite ever to be in space. The United States followed by launching Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. In the years that followed, more than 3,500 satellites were launched by the end of 1986. A science physicist said that "If you added up all the radio waved sent and received by satellites, it wouldn't equal the energy of a snowflake hitting the ground. Satellites were built and tested on the ground. They were then placed into a rocket and launched into space, where they were released and placed into orbit. The rocket would then become space junk, and the owner of the satellite would lose a tremendous amount of money. Now that NASA has created a space shuttle, several satellites can be launched simultaneously from the shuttle and the shuttle can then land for reuse and financial purposes. The space shuttles also have the capability to retrieve a satellite from orbit and bring it down to earth for repairs or destruction. Once the satellite is released from the space shuttle, the antenna on the satellite will receive a signal from earth that will activate it's rockets to move it into orbit. Once in orbit, The antenna will receive another signal telling the satellite to erect it's solar panels (bottom). Then the control center on earth will upload a program to the satellite telling it to use it's censors to maintain a natural orbit with earth. The satellite will then pick a target point on earth, and stay above that point for the remainder of it' s life. Once a satellite shuts down, the program uploaded to the satellite will tell it to fold up it's solar panels and remain in its orbit. Several days after the shut down, a space shuttle will pick up the satellite for repairs or replacement of new cells. As you can see, the satellite is a very complicated piece of technology, but it's capabilities are endless. By the end of the year 2000, there will be an estimated 7,000 satellites in orbit! That's a satellite per 36,000 people. Satellites are becoming more and more useful as technology advances. Computers are turning towards the Internet, telephones are turning towards video-communication, and televisions are looking for better cable services. So as long as satellites orbit the earth, you might as well take advantage of them now, before it's too late.

The Big Bang Theory

It is always a mystery about how the universe began, whether if and when it will end. Astronomers construct hypotheses called cosmological models that try to find the answer. There are two types of models: Big Bang and Steady State. However, through many observational evidences, the Big Bang theory can best explain the creation of the universe. The Big Bang model postulates that about 15 to 20 billion years ago, the universe violently exploded into being, in an event called the Big Bang. Before the Big Bang, all of the matter and radiation of our present universe were packed together in the primeval fireball--an extremely hot dense state from which the universe rapidly expanded.1 The Big Bang was the start of time and space. The matter and radiation of that early stage rapidly expanded and cooled. Several million years later, it condensed into galaxies. The universe has continued to expand, and the galaxies have continued moving away from each other ever since. Today the universe is still expanding, as astronomers have observed. The Steady State model says that the universe does not evolve or change in time. There was no beginning in the past, nor will there be change in the future. This model assumes the perfect cosmological principle. This principle says that the universe is the same everywhere on the large scale, at all times.2 It maintains the same average density of matter forever. There are observational evidences found that can prove the Big Bang model is more reasonable than the Steady State model. First, the redshifts of distant galaxies. Redshift is a Doppler effect which states that if a galaxy is moving away, the spectral line of that galaxy observed will have a shift to the red end. The faster the galaxy moves, the more shift it has. If the galaxy is moving closer, the spectral line will show a blue shift. If the galaxy is not moving, there is no shift at all. However, as astronomers observed, the more distance a galaxy is located from Earth, the more redshift it shows on the spectrum. This means the further a galaxy is, the faster it moves. Therefore, the universe is expanding, and the Big Bang model seems more reasonable than the Steady State model. The second observational evidence is the radiation produced by the Big Bang. The Big Bang model predicts that the universe should still be filled with a small remnant of radiation left over from the original violent explosion of the primeval fireball in the past. The primeval fireball would have sent strong shortwave radiation in all directions into space. In time, that radiation would spread out, cool, and fill the expanding universe uniformly. By now it would strike Earth as microwave radiation. In 1965 physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected microwave radiation coming equally from all directions in the sky, day and night, all year.3 And so it appears that astronomers have detected the fireball radiation that was produced by the Big Bang. This casts serious doubt on the Steady State model. The Steady State could not explain the existence of this radiation, so the model cannot best explain the beginning of the universe. Since the Big Bang model is the better model, the existence and the future of the universe can also be explained. Around 15 to 20 billion years ago, time began. The points that were to become the universe exploded in the primeval fireball called the Big Bang. The exact nature of this explosion may never be known. However, recent theoretical breakthroughs, based on the principles of quantum theory, have suggested that space, and the matter within it, masks an infinitesimal realm of utter chaos, where events happen randomly, in a state called quantum weirdness.4 Before the universe began, this chaos was all there was. At some time, a portion of this randomness happened to form a bubble, with a temperature in excess of 10 to the power of 34 degrees Kelvin. Being that hot, naturally it expanded. For an extremely brief and short period, billionths of billionths of a second, it inflated. At the end of the period of inflation, the universe may have a diameter of a few centimetres. The temperature had cooled enough for particles of matter and antimatter to form, and they instantly destroy each other, producing fire and a thin haze of matter-apparently because slightly more matter than antimatter was formed.5 The fireball, and the smoke of its burning, was the universe at an age of trillionth of a second. The temperature of the expanding fireball dropped rapidly, cooling to a few billion degrees in few minutes. Matter continued to condense out of energy, first protons and neutrons, then electrons, and finally neutrinos. After about an hour, the temperature had dropped below a billion degrees, and protons and neutrons combined and formed hydrogen, deuterium, helium. In a billion years, this cloud of energy, atoms, and neutrinos had cooled enough for galaxies to form. The expanding cloud cooled still further until today, its temperature is a couple of degrees above absolute zero. In the future, the universe may end up in two possible situations. From the initial Big Bang, the universe attained a speed of expansion. If that speed is greater than the universe's own escape velocity, then the universe will not stop its expansion. Such a universe is said to be open. If the velocity of expansion is slower than the escape velocity, the universe will eventually reach the limit of its outward thrust, just like a ball thrown in the air comes to the top of its arc, slows, stops, and starts to fall. The crash of the long fall may be the Big Bang to the beginning of another universe, as the fireball formed at the end of the contraction leaps outward in another great expansion.6 Such a universe is said to be closed, and pulsating. If the universe has achieved escape velocity, it will continue to expand forever. The stars will redden and die, the universe will be like a limitless empty haze, expanding infinitely into the darkness. This space will become even emptier, as the fundamental particles of matter age, and decay through time. As the years stretch on into infinity, nothing will remain. A few primitive atoms such as positrons and electrons will be orbiting each other at distances of hundreds of astronomical units.7 These particles will spiral slowly toward each other until touching, and they will vanish in the last flash of light. After all, the Big Bang model is only an assumption. No one knows for sure that exactly how the universe began and how it will end. However, the Big Bang model is the most logical and reasonable theory to explain the universe in modern science.