SUPARCO - ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICSSUPARCO - ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS ... The gravitational pulls of the Sun and Moon cause the Earth to wobble in ... Schemetic view of inner layers

Volume I, Issue 12 December, 2012

SUPARCO - ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

Pakistan’s Space Vision 2040, was approved by the Prime Minister of Pakistan which inter-alia included augmentation / strengthening of the Astronomy and Astrophysics programmes of SUPARCO.

SUPARCO`s astronomy and astrophysics program is mainly focused on theoretical and observational research. For this an astronomical observatory is planned to be established. Research studies pertaining to deep space objects including galaxies, nebulae and variable stars are also being initiated. Search for earth like planets is a hot topic in astrophysics nowadays. It is planned to conduct research studies in this field also.

Events of the MonthDate Time Event\Direction

AfterSunset

Mid Night

3 Dec

BULLETIN

SUPARCO - ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS Bulletin is a monthly publication

Toutatis Asteroid12 Dec

New Moon13 Dec

Mars comes into conjunction with Pluto

13-14 Dec

Inside this Issue:

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Jupiter in opposition/ West

After Sunset

The Earth, our home world, is the third planet from the Sun and the largest of the four rocky inner planets. Among the planets of the solar system, the Earth is unique in having abundant surface water and an atmosphere rich in nitrogen and oxygen. It is also the only planet known with certainty to harbor life, supporting a complex population of plants and animals. In the Solar system, only the Earth is suitable for life of our kind; it lies in the middle of the ‘ecosphere’, the region round the Sun where temperatures are neither too high nor too low. Venus lies at the extreme inner edge of the ecosphere, and Mars at the extreme outer edge.

Earth has one natural satellite, the Moon, unlike Mercury and Venus. The Earth–Moon system is often regarded as a double planet rather than as a planet and a satellite. The effect of tidal friction increases the Earth’s axial rotation period by an average of 1.7 milli second per century.

The Terrestrial Planets; The Earth:

The Earth

EARTH’S MOVING AXIS The gravitational pulls of the Sun and Moon cause the Earth to wobble in space like a spinning top, although one wobble takes 25,000 years to complete. This wobble, called precession, causes the coordinates of stars to change slowly over time. Astronomers must take this into account when measuring star positions.

The Terrestrial Planets:the Earth 1

Quasars 3

Monthly Star Guide: December 4

Software Review 5

Web Review

Book Review 6

Monthly News update 6

Sky t his Month 7

Understanding Space Weather 8

Geomagnetic Storm monitored by SUPARCO 9 Observation of Andromeda Galaxy 10

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Full Moon AfterSunset28 Dec


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ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE The layer of gases that surrounds the Earth plays an important part in protecting and sustaining life. Not only does it shield the surface from excessive solar radiation and meteorite impacts, but its density, combined with Earth’s surface favorable distance from the Sun, provides the right temperature for water to exist as a liquid. Water and carbon dioxide are used as food by plants, which in turn release the oxygen that is essential for animal life. Circulation in atmosphere is also an important mechanism by which heat energy is distributed poleward from the equator.

Schemetic view of inner layers of Earth Atmophere

LIGHT POLLUTION Light pollution is caused by the artificial lights shining into the sky. The problem is greatest I urban areas and is so extensive that in some developed countries there are now few places with truly dark skies. As well as being a waste of energy, light pollution is growing nuisance to astronomers, as relatively faint celestial objects become lost in the glare from surface lighting.

Atmospheric Composition

GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY The Earth’s crust is made up of sections, called plates, that flost on the surface of the viscous mantle and slowly moves apart or slips beneath one another. Mountain ranges, volcanoes, and Earthquakes occur along the margins of the plates. The Earth has a core of iron and nickel, the outer part of which is liquid. Motions in the liquid outer core give rise to the Earth’s magnetic field, which extends into space, creating a magnetic cocoon around our planet termed the magnetosphere.

Schemetic view of inner layers of Earth

Earth at Night


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Quasars are the very luminous and most distant objects in the known Universe. In the early 1960’s quasars were referred to as radio stars because they were discovered to be a strong source of radio waves. In fact, the term quasar comes from the words, “Quasi-stellar radio source”. Today, many astronomers refer to these objects as quasi stellar objects. As the resolution of our radio and optical telescopes became better, it was noticed that these were not true stars but some type of as yet unknown star-like objects. It also appeared that the radio emissions were coming from a pair of lobes surrounding these faint star-like objects. It was also discovered that these objects were located well outside our own galaxy. Quasars are very mysterious objects. Astronomers today are still not sure exactly what these objects are. What we do know about them is that they emit enormous amounts of energy. They can burn with the energy of a trillion suns. Some quasars are believed to be producing 10 to 100 times more energy than our entire galaxy. All of this energy seems to be produced in an area not much than our solar system.

Quasars

An artist conception of Quasar

Nature of QuasarsWe do know that quasars are extremely distant. In fact, they may be the most distant objects in the universe. They show largest red-shift of any other objects in the cosmos. Astronomers are able to measure speed and distance of far away objects by measuring the spectrum of their light. If the colors of this spectrum are shifted toward the red, this means that the object is moving away from us. The greater the red shift, the farther the object and the faster it is moving. Since quasars have such a high red shift, they are extremely far away and are moving away from us at extremely high speeds. It is believed that some quasars may be moving away from us at 240,000 kilometers per second or nearly 80% the speed of light. Quasars are, in fact, the most distant objects to ever be detected in the universe. We know that light travels a certain distance in a year. Quasars are so far away that the

light we see when we observe them has been traveling for billions of years to reach us. This means that quasars are among the most ancient objects known in the universe. The most distant quasars observed so far are over 10 billion light-years away. This means we are seeing them as they appeared 10 billion years ago. It is entirely possible that some or all of the quasars we see today may not even exist anymore.

We still do not know exactly what a quasar is. But the most educated guess points to the possibility that quasars are produced by super massive black holes consuming matter in an acceleration disk. As the matter spins faster and faster, it heats up. The friction between all of the particles would give off enormous amounts of light other forms of radiation such as x-rays. The black hole would be devouring the equivalent mass of one Sun per year. As this matter is crushed out of existence by the black hole, enormous amounts of energy would be ejected along the black hole's north and south poles. Astronomers refer to these formations as cosmic jets. Another possible explanation for quasars is that they are very young galaxies. Since we know very little about the evolutionary process of galaxies, it is possible that quasars, as old as they are, represent a very early stage in the formation of galaxies. The energy we see may be ejected from the cores of these very young and very active galaxies. Some scientists even believe that quasars are distant points in space where new matter may be entering our universe. This would make them the opposite of black holes. But this is only conjecture. It may be some time before we really understand these strange objects.

Nature of Quasar


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Book Review

The Book is very up-to-date in terms of the latest science, for those who have a curiosity about the Universe and would like to catch-up with all that has been happening in the past few years book really is This is a series of short essays of topics of interest in modern astronomy. This experience manifests itself in the ability to take cutting-edge research topics and present them at a level which is both clearly explained and informative without being too simplistic. On the whole, this is a considered, well-written, and informative book which can be dipped into as the fancy takes one.

It is 400 years since Galileo first turned the newly invented telescope towards the heavens and saw things that few had ever seen before. His discoveries, along with those of his contemporaries, completely changed our view of the world.

Since that time, there have been many revolutions in our understanding of the universe, some perhaps even more revolutionary than the ones from Galileo’s time. In this book, Will Gater leads us through various recent advances in modern astronomy that have increased our understanding of the universe and seen it grow from a single Solar System full of intriguing worlds to a galaxy filled with other star systems and their own planets — maybe even Earthlike worlds.

This is a journey like no other. What you glimpse through Gater’s keyhole is vast, breathtakingly beautiful, and sometimes utterly bizarre, certainly unfamiliar to those of us on Terra Firma. From the desolate plains of Mars and the frozen moons of the outer Solar System, from the Milky Way to the ends of the universe, you will learn of wonders often hard to describe and sometimes even harder to fathom. And you, too, will come to know some of the enthralling secrets of the universe.

Astronomers Take a Photograph of the Youngest Supernova Right After Its ExplosionAstronomers have obtained a never-before achieved radio astronomical photograph of the youngest supernova. Fourteen days after the explosion of a star in the galaxy Galàxia del Remolí (M51) last June, coordinated telescopes around Europe have taken a photograph of the cosmic explosion in great detail-equivalent to seeing a golf ball on the surface of the moon. Black Hole Surprise in Ancient Star ClusterAstronomers have made the unexpected discovery of two black holes inside an ancient cluster of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.Astronomers Discover Origin of Thermonuclear SupernovaLSU astronomers recently discovered the solution to a long-standing fundamental problem of astrophysics: what produces thermonuclear, or Type Ia, supernovae, which are tremendous explosions where the light is often brighter than a whole galaxy? LSU Professor of Physics & Astronomy Bradley Schaefer and graduate student Ashley Pagnotta have proven that these supernova are caused by a pair of white dwarf stars.A Planetary System from the Early UniverseA group of European astronomers has discovered an ancient planetary system that is likely to be a survivor from one of the earliest cosmic eras, 13 billion years ago. The system consists of the star HIP 11952 and two planets, which have orbital periods of 290 and 7 days, respectively. The system promises to shed light on planet formation in the early universe -- under conditions quite different from those of later planetary systems, such as our own.Comet Collisions Every Six Seconds Explain 17-Year-Old Stellar MysteryEvery six seconds, for millions of years, comets have been colliding with one another near a star in the constellation Cetus called 49 CETI, which is visible to the naked eye.Milky Way Now Has a Twin (or Two): Astronomers Find First Group of Galaxies Just Like OursResearch presented Aug. 23, 2012 at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Beijing has found the first group of galaxies that is just like ours, a rare sight in the local Universe.Astronomers Reach New Frontiers of Dark MatterAstronomers have mapped dark matter on the largest scale ever observed. New findings reveal a Universe comprising an intricate cosmic web of dark matter and galaxies spanning more than one billion light years.

Monthly Science News


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Software Review

www.portaltotheuniverse.org

TThe Portal to The Universe provides a global portal for online astronomy content, serving as an index and aggregator. The site itself features news, blogs, video podcasts, audio podcasts, images, videos and more. Web 2.0 collaborative tools, such as the ranking of different services according to popularity, help the user to sift constructively through the wealth of information available and will promote interactions within the astronomy multimedia community. A range of "widgets" (small applications) have also been developed to tap into all sorts of existing "live data", such as near-live pictures of the Sun, live positions of spacecraft or live observations from telescopes.

It is clear that even in such a well-defined field as astronomy, there is much more 'information confusion' than you might think. There is a real need in the community for this kind of site, where astronomy content is gathered in one place and is easily accessible. This website will provide a single entry point to stars and galaxies". The vision for the Portal is to enable real-time access to content by aggregating (pulling) from providers of dynamic content like blogs, images, news, etc. and distributing (pushing) to users, as well as indexing and archiving, collecting and maintaining a central repository of useful information.

Your Sky is an interactive planetarium of the Web. You can produce maps in the forms described below for any time and date, viewpoint, and observing location. If you enter the orbital elements of an asteroid or comet, Your Sky will compute its current position and plot it on the map. Each map is accompanied by an ephemeris for the Sun, Moon, planets, and any tracked asteroid or comet. A control panel permits customization of which objects are plotted, limiting magnitudes, color scheme, image size, and other parameters; each control is linked to its description in the help file.

Your Sky provides three ways to view the sky with links, where appropriate, among the various presentations. Sky Map

The sky map shows the entire sky as viewed from a given location at a specified time and date. A stereographic projection is used, as is the convention for printed star maps. Bottom of FormHorizon Views

Horizon Views, showing the stars above the horizon as seen from a specified observing site at a given date and time. The viewing direction (azimuth) may be set to cardinal points on the compass or arbitrarily by entering a value in degrees. The Virtual TelescopeYour Sky's Virtual Telescope is your Humble Soft Telescope of the Web. Controls allow you to set time and date, aiming point, orbital elements to track an asteroid or comet, and a variety of viewing options. You can compose a request with custom settings and save the results in your browser's hotlist or bookmark table, allowing direct access to the virtual telescope with all the controls preset to your own preferences.

Web Review


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Quasars discovery The first identified quasar was called 3C 273 and was located in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by T. Matthews and A. Sandage in 1960. It appeared to be associated with a 16th magnitude star like object. Three years later, in 1963, it was noticed that the object had an extremely high red shift. The true nature of this object became apparent when astronomers discovered that the intense energy was being produced in a relatively small area. Today, quasars are identified primarily by their red shift. If an object is discovered to have a very high red shift and appears to be producing vast amounts of energy, it becomes a prime candidate for quasar research. Today more than 2000 quasars have been identified. The Hubble space telescope has been a key tool in the search for these elusive objects. As technology continues to enhance our windows to the universe, we may one day understand these fantastic lights.

Nights are at their longest and days at their shortest in the Northern Hemisphere, and the vice versa in the south. Much of the sky as it appears in the far south is occupied by constellations that were never seen by the astronomer of ancient Greece. A bright meteor shower radiates from Gemini in mid-month.

Northern Latitudes

Looking north Perseus is almost overhead with Capella and the other stars of Auriga to its right. Gemini farther east, with cancer rising beneath it .On the north-eastern horizon, Regulus leads the stars of Leo into view. In the north-west are Cassiopeia and Cepheus, with Deneb closer to the Horizon.

Looking South Taurus is high in the south. Ideally placed for observing the Pleiades and Hyades clusters Eridanus is beneath it, while to its lower left Orion is still rising, followed by brilliant Sirius and Procyon. Cetus can be seen in the southwestern sky, with Pisces and Pegasus visible progressively farther to the west.

Monthly Star Guide: December

The stars of Taurus depicted at right shows the Hyades cluster in V shape inverted. Aldebran,the brightest star, is visible in orange color. The Pleiades cluster can also be

seen at left as an aggregation of blue stars.


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December 3, 2012 - Jupiter in oppositionThe giant planet Jupiter will be on the closest distance from Earth and its surface will be fully illuminated by the Sun. This is the best time to view and photograph Jupiter and its moons.

December 12, 2012 - Toutatis asteroid With a diameter of 5 km, passing near Earth, it has an orbital period of almost four years and is an asteroid passing near Mars, with a chaotic orbit. The shortest distance that can ever have this asteroid will be 0.006 UA, which is 2, 3 times the distance between us and the Moon (2.3 Moon distances).

December 13, 2012 - New Moon Moon will be directly between Earth and Sun and will not be visible from Earth.

December 13, 14, 2012 - Geminids meteor showerIt is considered by many to be the best meteor shower on the sky. Geminids are known to produce up to 60 multicolored meteors per hour at their peak. Most usually appear on, or around 13 by December and 14, although some meteors should be visible between 06 and 19 December. They radiate from the constellation Gemini and originate from the asteroid 3200 Phaeton. This year, New Moon will guarantee a dark sky, so it

Sky this Month

December 28, 2012 - Full MoonEarth will be between the Sun and Moon, and therefore, the Moon will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This phase takes place at 10:21 UT.

it would be a wonderful show. The best observation is to the east after midnight in a dark area.

December 21, 2012 - Winter SolsticeThe December solstice occurs at 11:12 UT. South Pole of the Earth will be tilted towards the Sun, and will reach the most northern position in the sky. This makes it the first day of winter (winter solstice), the northern hemisphere, and the first day of summer (summer solstice), in the southern hemisphere.


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Like radio blackouts the solar radiation storms (or simply the radiation storms in the context of space weather) have been categorized from a scale of S1 (minor) to S5 (extreme) also.

The explosive events taking place on Sun include solar flare, solar energetic particles and coronal mass ejection (CME). In case of one or more of these events a gust of energetic particles travels in outer space and if it travels towards the Earth an increase in magnetic flux takes place in the magnetosphere and consequently in the ionosphere. This extra energy may reach the Earth in 15 minutes to 24 hours after the solar explosive event(s). This increase in the magnetic flux is termed as solar radiation storm.

The first effect of radiation storm appears at the high latitude due to modification of the ionosphere. The ionosphere at the poles undergoes absorption and the connectivity of high frequency (HF) communication systems is impaired during such storms. The polar region of the Earth is critical as communication satellites orbiting above 80� latitude are quite less in numbers. The communicators rely on HF systems for polar flights (particularly). Both communication system and travelers onboard are at risk during a radiation storm.

It has been found that such solar storms have adverse effects on human health when onboard or in space. In case of an astronaut performing extra vehicular activities (EVA) in space chances are higher to get exposed to the radiations than a passenger travelling in the polar flight at the time of storm.

In case of exposure to radiations (for 5minutes) the magnitudes of the particle flux has been calculated which could ranges from 10 million-electron-volts (MeV) (minor storm) to 100,000 MeV (extreme storm).

Along with the adverse effects on human health, satellite operations are also vulnerable due to radiation storms. Satellite malfunctioning may take place at the time of solar radiation storm which includes loss of control, noise in data, loss of location, damage to solar panels etc.

The table shows NOAA scale for solar radiation storms as taken from www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/.The description of geomagnetic storms would be given in the next issue of this bulletin.

Understanding Space Weather (Cont)


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Geomagnetic Storm monitored by SUPARCO

The magnetograms from the Abdus Salam Geomagnetic Observatory, Sonmiani shows the CME impact on Oct 31 at 1500 UT and the following disturbance until Nov 2.

The magnetograms from the Geomagnetic Observatory, Islamabad shows the CME impact on Oct 31 at 1500 UT and the following disturbance until Nov 2.

The magnetograms from the Geomagnetic Observatory, Islamabad shows the CME impact on Oct 31 at 1500 UT and the following disturbance until Nov 2.

The Space Weather Monitoring Facilities at SUPARCO recorded 02 different geomagnetic disturbances caused by the arrival of the Coronal Mass Ejection on Oct. 31 at 15:39 UT (20:39 hrs PST) and Nov 12/13 around 23:00 UT (05:00 hrs PST, Nov 13, 2012). The Magnetograms given below shows these disturbances recorded by the Abdus Salam Geomagnetic Observatory at Sonmiani and the geomagnetic Observatory at Islamabad.

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SPAS DirectorateGulzar-e-Hijri SUPARCO RoadSector 28, SUPARCO, Karachi, PakistanTel: 021-34690765-74Fax 021-34690795Email: [email protected]

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Observation of Andromeda GalaxyThe Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth in the Andromeda constellation. It is also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224. The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy. It gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears the constellation of Andromeda, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda. The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion (1012) stars at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.

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The upper left picture is a closer picture taken by SUPARCO of Andromeda Galaxy with an 8 inch diameter Telescope. The right picture shows the galaxy along with some nearby stars.

The Andromeda Galaxy is estimated to be 7.1 exp 11 solar masses. In comparison a 2009 study estimated that the Milky Way and M31 are about equal in mass, while a 2006 study put the mass of the Milky Way at ~80% of the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy. The two galaxies are expected to collide in 3.75 billion years, eventually merging to form a giant elliptical galaxy.

At an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is notable for being one of the brightest Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. Although it appears more than six times as wide as the full Moon when photographed through a larger telescope, only the brighter central region is visible to the naked eye or when viewed using binoculars or a small telescope.

Documents

SUPARCO - ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICSSUPARCO - ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS ... The gravitational pulls of the Sun and Moon cause the Earth to wobble in ... Schemetic view of inner layers