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Some stars die in a violent blast of fireworks these are the ones referred to as supernovas.
Supernovas are usually bright and after they burnet off all their fuel you are left with a remnant shell of gas shroud with lots of debris and radiation. The more massive stars are the one that die most violently.
There are currently around a million stars under surveillance to see if any stars die and suddenly disappear. Why stars should suddenly vanish from sight? There are few possibilities. The star has finally run out of fuel ending its life cycle explodes giving off a vast amount of light and then collapse into a black hole, just as quickly as it first appeared.
SN1987A, a supernova that exploded in 1987 in the Large Magellanic Cloud and was the nearest supernova to Earth in 400 years. (Image credits: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Nathan Smith/UC Berkeley)
As a supergiant ages, it accumulates iron in its core. Eventually, this iron core grows so massive that it is crushed by its own gravity, eventually forming a black hole.
The research team plans to take images of the galaxies twice per year, watching for the sudden disappearance of the red supergiants. By watching 1 million stars, the team hopes to catch at least one stellar death per year in their survey, which will last five years.
It is believed that our Sun will eventually die but may escape becoming a supernova after consuming the inner planets including Earth the Sun will become a dim white dwarf.
If a star does disappear, the team will try to confirm the formation of a black hole by looking for X-rays emitted by stray bits of matter falling into the black hole,
Research is currently underway to see if this theory works. The research is being conducted in Ohio State University using the Large Binocular Telescope.
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Image captured by MRO of the Phoenix Lander after touchdown
The month (August2008) marks the 3-year anniversary of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
MRO has been busy taking images of Mars and other space craft that have landed on the planet. NASA is particularly interested in a lost space craft called Polar Lander. The Lander went silent shortly before final touch down on Mars.
The Polar Lander is believed to have crash landed on the surface. It is hopeful that the MRO currently orbiting Mars will eventually find the missing space craft. If the Polar Lander is found the position of the debris will perhaps shed some light on what happened during the final few minutes before touchdown.
The MRO has recently taken more images of Mars including this one of the Crater Bound Dunes, Near Mars’s North Pole. The dune field is bounded by a small unnamed crater about 11 kilometers in diameter in the Vastitas Borealis region.
The Vastitas Borealis region on Mars
MRO did a special imaging sequence to slew over to where the Phoenix spacecraft was plummeting down through the atmosphere, and it WORKED!
Image taken by MRO as The Phoenix Lander Makes its way through the Martian Atmosphere
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Gemini Observatory GMOS-North Image showing Optical image of the host galaxy NGC 2770
Its not often that we get the chance to see a dying star exploding in real time.
Astronomers have previously observed thousands of post stellar explosions, known as supernovae, but they have always seen them after the massive cloud of debris had dissipated, Yet until now no one since 1604 has witnessed a star dying in real time when Kepler wrote an article about a new bright star.
A composite image of Kepler's supernova remnant. The image incorporates information from the Chandra Observatory, Hubble and Spitzer Telescopes.
The German astronomer Johannes Kepler studied the star for a year, and wrote a book about it titled "De Stella Nova" ("The New Star").In 1940 the gaseous cloud astronomers studying was an exploded star first commented by Kepler and was so named the Kepler nova.The latest outburst occurred in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, located 90 million light-years from Earth,
In essence we are now seeing back in time some 90 million years. A typical supernovae briefly outshines most neighbourhood stars. The life of a supernovae is short ranging from a few hours to weeks before it begins to fade from view.
The Star named SN 2008D exploded earlier this year (2008) and within a few hours observatories around the world began to study its light. In a rapid sequence of events the Gemini North telescope was able to capture and dissect the object’s light in a set of optical spectra that contains the earliest spectrum ever obtained of a massive star ending its life in a supernova explosion outside of our galaxy’s neighborhood.
On Wednesday August 20 2008 fellow astronomer Peter Maples who lives only a few kilometers from me discovered a Supernova named SN2008fa at magnitude 17.6 it far to dim to bee seen with naked eye, Even a large telescope will have difficulty without the aid of a CCD camera.
Supernova 2008fa discovered recently by Australian Amateur Astronomer: image P. Marples
in NGC 6722 an early-type spiral galaxy. He was very excited about the discovery.
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This image was taken with moonlight only time exposure Nikon D80 iso 800 : image Carlcan
With the exception of Venus and Mercury which have no moons at all
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At one time the suburban back yard was a refuge of peace and tranquility, the lights were few you could venture outside and see the stars and planets without seeing the green tinge of excessive light in the night sky. Now by far The biggest problem facing amateur and professional astronomers alike is excess light polluting the night sky. For amateur astronomers the problem of light pollution becomes a nightmare.
The night sky with the lights of Brisbane in the distance
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This month has been pretty eventful for sky watchers with the return of Venus and Mercury in the night sky (southern hemisphere), including a partial eclipse of the Moon. Mercury and Venus are the only two planets in our solar system not have Moons.
Comet 4P/Faye passes through Pisces unfortunately you wont be able to see it without a telescope
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completed its 100,000th orbit of Earth on the morning of August 12 2008.
As a fitting crowning achievement of this event in its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., aimed Hubble at a dazzling region of celestial geneses. Hubble captured a small portion of this nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074. This part of the region is a firestorm of raw stellar creation, perhaps triggered by a remnant supernova explosion. It lies about 170,000 light-years away near the Tarantula nebula, one of the most active stellar nursery region in our Local Group of galaxies.
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It has been over 100 years since a devastating meteorite struck the former USSR remote region of Tunguska Siberia. Although the asteroid that stuck Tunguska was small the effect to the surrounding countryside was swift and brutal.
There has been a lot of speculation regarding as to what caused the actual destruction of over 80 million trees. Some say it was caused by a colliding black hole but this theory has been largely discounted as the cause.
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It is commonly known that comets originate for a region in space beyond our solar system called the Oort cloud.
Image CarlCan
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Comment by CarlCan
on Self Destruction The Death of A Star
Astroearth
Thank you for the comment.
Yes scary perhaps this will happen to our Sun sometime in the future, although not in our liftime.
Cheers