Pulsar is a contraction of two words, pulse and star (much like how quasar, meaning quasi-stellar object, was derived). By general definition, a pulsar is a small dense star (believed to be a neutron star) that emits mostly brief but intense bursts of electromagnetic radiation. The beam of radio wave produced is visible when pointed […]
Interstellar Medium is matter that makes up the space between stars and star systems in a galaxy. Most people think space is a complete vacuum, making resources or matter completely absent or none at all. This is a common misconception, since space and the star systems really have matter.
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Interstellar is attached to many other words, like the terms intergalactic and interplanetary. It literally means between or among stars, and is defined as an adjective in the English language. The term can also pertain to space clouds, matter in outer space or a specific study in astronomy. Interstellar cloud is a generic name for
Stars were thought to be fixed balls of light in the sky before the advent of the modern telescope. Astronomers have now discovered that some stars can change in brightness and call them variable stars.
Photo by: RJHall Creative Commons A star like the sun generates a huge quantity of energy because its core undergoes fusion, wherein hydrogen turns into helium. Over time though, the hydrogen at the core diminishes, thus preventing fusion. As the star begins to end, there will emerge a new source of hydrogen fuel which will
Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet discovered three stars with emission bands in 1867 using a 40cm Foucault telescope at the Paris Observatory. Stars absorb energy at different frequencies but stars that emit gas that include a sequence of helium and nitrogen or another sequence of helium, oxygen and carbon, were something unusual. These stars were
Trapezium Cluster, also known as the Orion Trapezium cluster is a tight group of stars in the constellation of Orion and the center of the Orion Nebula. Galileo is credited with its discovery when he sketched the stars in 1617 although he did not notice the nebulosity.
Technically, thermal radiation is the heat emitted by anything that is not at absolute zero; absolute zero being the coldest possible temperature where all activity at molecular level stops (also called zero K or roughly -273 degrees C and -460 degrees F). Examples of thermal radiation are sunlight and the light from an incandescent bulb.
Synchronous rotation is an astronomical term that is used to describe a celestial body orbiting another celestial body in a manner such that the orbiting body takes as long to rotate on its axis as it does to make one orbit. Therefore, it always keeps the same hemisphere pointed at the celestial body it orbits
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Astronomical transit is the passage of a small astronomical body across the disk or face of a significantly larger body as opposed to an eclipse where significant occultation occurs. Note that the word refers to events where the nearer and smaller object actually appears significantly smaller instead of completely hiding the other.
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