nasa – Super Facts

Quasar TON 618

This is a submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

Image by Kevin from The Beginning at Last

Kevin’s artistic picture above reminds me of a Quasar, a supermassive black hole emitting enormous amounts of energy.

What is a Quasar ?

A Quasar is a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy that is emitting enormous amounts of energy. The quasar is the supermassive black hole plus its accretion disk, the gas it is feeding on and the radiation it emits. The quasar is actively feeding on gas and stars and emitting enormous amounts of radiation in the process. The radiant energy of quasars is enormous; the most powerful quasars have luminosities thousands of times greater than that of a galaxy such as the Milky Way, and millions of times greater than the largest and most luminous stars in the known universe.

Supermassive black hole at the center of a quasar. Singularity in space devouring matter and light. From Shutterstock Asset id: 2484018599 by Nazarii Neshcherenskyi.

TON 618

TON 618 is a hyper luminous Quasar known to house one of the most massive black holes ever discovered, with an estimated mass of around 40 to 60 billion solar masses. Its luminosity is estimated to be 140 trillion times that of the Sun. The diameter of TON 618 is 780 billion kilometers or 82.6 light-years. Keep in mind that the distance to the moon is 1.3 light seconds and 82.6 light years is more than two billion times larger than that. Our sun is gigantic with a diameter 109 times larger than the diameter of earth. 1.3 million earths could fit inside the volume of our sun. However, in comparison to TON 618, our sun is a lot less than tiny. The diameter of TON 618 is 561 million times larger than that of the sun’s diameter and 177 octillion (an octillion is 27 zeros) suns could fit inside the volume of TON 618. In other words, we are comparing a dust particle to planet earth size wise. I am pretty sure you are not going to be able to imagine this.

Quasar in deep space. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Asset id: 1758938918. by NASA images.

When TON 618 was discovered in 1957, quasars and supermassive black holes were not yet recognized and understood by astronomers. The word quasar inspired shock and awe in every nerd on the planet. The concept of quasars, or quasi-stellar radio sources, wasn’t fully recognized until 1963. When I was a kid in the 1970’s there was a lot of speculation as to what these gigantic ultra bright but far away objects could be. TON 618 is located 18.2 billion light years away. Considering that the reachable limit of the Universe is 16.5 billion light years even if you travel at the speed of light, you could never travel to TON 618 (barring the warp drive in Star Trek).

The Event Horizon

When we are talking about the diameter of a black hole we are not talking about a sphere with a solid surface. The black hole is a sphere, or an oval, wherein gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, not light, not anything. It’s truly black. As you approach the event horizon you become invisible, space deforms, and from the perspective of an outside observer, time appears to stop for someone reaching the event horizon of a black hole. Time will continue for someone falling in, well in some sense. You’ll be transported beyond our universe and time as we know it. We can guess but we can’t really know.

Black Holes

Black holes are invisible. They are truly black. However, we can see them if they are consuming matter. The matter close to black holes will heat up and glow. The closer to the event horizon the redder it is. It is called an accretion disk as in the depiction above. There are an estimated 100 million black holes in our galaxy, the Milky Way. At the center of the Milky Way is a super massive black hole called Sagittarius A-star. It is 4 million times more massive than our sun. There are supermassive black holes located at the center of most large galaxies. The supermassive black holes are considered to play a crucial role in the formation of galaxies.

3D illustration of giant Black hole in deep space. High quality digital space art in 5K – realistic visualization. Stock Illustration ID: 2476711459 by Vadim Sadovski.

Black Hole Animation

Below is an animation created by NASA that depicts what an observer falling into a black hole would see. The video is about 4 minutes long.

TON 618 Animation

Below is an animation of TON 618, a quasar and the largest black hole known in the universe. This video is about 5 minutes.

To see my The Bizarre Reality of Black Holes Super Fact Click Here

To see the Super Facts click here

Note : Today March 14 is Albert Einstein’s birthday, the man who gave us the General Theory of Relativity, which mathematically describes black holes. It is also Pi Day (first 10 digits 3.1415926535), and there’s a rare moon eclipse tonight called a blood moon or a worm moon. Also, Dallas is under a fire warning. Be careful.

Important Note : I am going on a ski vacation tomorrow and I will take a one-week break from blogging as well as a break from reading other people’s blogs.

The Betelgeuse Supernova

This is a submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

Supernova

A supernova is an explosion of a star so violent that it can outshine an entire galaxy. It can occur when a super massive star’s core contracts (the death of the star) and as it reaches a critical point it triggers nuclear reactions that cause the star to explode. Alternatively, it can occur when a white dwarf star is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion by a collision with another star.

Depending on how far away the supernova is it can be as luminous as a bright new star, the moon, or a second sun. It occurs suddenly and lasts for several weeks or months before fading away. If a supernova shines bright enough, the other stars in the sky will vanish from view. We can’t see the stars during the day, not because of the blue sky, but because of the ambient light from the sun.

This is also one major reason photos from space often lack stars in the black sky. If a supernova is close enough to earth it could destroy earth. Luckily there are no super massive stars close enough to earth to pose a risk.

Supernova explosion in the center of the Andromeda galaxy “Elements of this image furnished by NASA” It is essentially an enhanced photo of a supernova explosion in a neighboring galaxy. Stock Photo ID: 2495486227 by muratart.

The Betelgeuse Supernova

Betelgeuse the bright red star in the constellation Orion is thought to be close to going supernova, and when it does it will be about as bright as half a full moon in our sky but concentrated in a point. What does “close” mean? Some astronomers say within decades, some say within a few thousand years. Could Kevin’s beautiful picture above depict this future event?

Illustration of the Orion constellation. To find Betelgeuse, first find Orion’s belt, then look up to the left. The reddish star is Betelgeuse. It is visible at this time of year (on a clear night). Stock Vector ID: 1631025025 by Tedgun.

We are stardust

The first stars in the Universe were made of 75% hydrogen and 25% helium and trace amounts of Lithium, just like the entire Universe at the time. Heavier elements that could form rocky planets or other solid celestial bodies did not exist.

However, inside the cores of these stars, heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen, and iron were formed by fusion. These early stars are referred to as first generation stars. They tended to be large and ended their lives in massive supernova explosions. The dusty remains of these explosions became the building blocks of the second and third generation stars we see today as well as the planets, our bodies and all life. We are stardust.

The first-generation stars consisted of 75% hydrogen and 25% helium and trace amounts of Lithium. A second or third generation star like our sun is still mostly hydrogen and helium but also many other elements. The rocky planets circling the sun are mainly elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Image credit NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.

Finally, a 33 second YouTube video illustrating a Supernova (the creation of the Crab nebula)

Would you like to see Betelgeuse explode into a supernova in your lifetime?

To see the Super Facts click here

Black Holes Monsters in the Sky

“This”Black Holes Monsters in the Sky” is a submission for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday

Black holes, everyone has heard of them, no one understands them. They are inscrutable monsters in the sky. They are regions of spacetime wherein gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, not light, not anything. Some of them are small, only 15 kilometers across, and some have a diameter 27 billion times larger than that.

As you get close to a black hole your time will run slower. You won’t notice it, but others will see you move in slow motion. If you return from your close encounter an hour on your clock might correspond to years elsewhere. As you approach the event horizon, the boundary of no escape, you become invisible and time will stop, at least from an outside view.

There are an estimated 100 million black holes in our galaxy, the Milky Way. At the center of the Milky Way is a super massive black hole called Sagittarius A-star. It is 4 million times more massive than our sun. There are supermassive black holes located at the center of most large galaxies. The supermassive black holes are considered to play a crucial role in the formation of galaxies.

I’ve looked up in the sky, and I’ve seen the spot where Sagittarius A-star is located. I’ve tried to look at it with my telescope, but I cannot see it. It is not possible to see it with a telescope, but it is there. The picture above may depict the view from a planet in the center of our galaxy. Three scientists received the Nobel prize in physics in 2020 for their research on black holes (Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez).

However, before them the tele evangelist Jack Van Impe won the 2001 Ig Nobel Prize in Astrophysics for his discovery that black holes meet all the technical requirements for Hell. The Ig Nobel prize is an alternative and less serious Nobel Prize. To find out more about Black Holes click here.

Below is an animation created by NASA that depicts what an observer falling into a black hole would see.

To see the Super Facts click here

David Lee Summers and the NEID spectrograph

A couple of weeks ago I made a post about exo planets. My blogger friend and Astronomer David Lee Summers stopped by and mentioned that investigating exo planets was his day job. He is working with the NASA-funded NEID spectrometer. He also happens to be an author of several science fiction books and scifi-horror books. Below is the front cover of one of his books. This is a reblog of one of his posts regarding NEID spectrometer. Head over there and check it out.

Weighing Planets

Portion of the NASA funded spectroscope that David works with. Above is an image of the NEID fiber feed (Port Adaptor) mounted on the WIYN telescope obtained during commissioning of the instrument. The Port Adaptor feeds light from the telescope to the NEID instrument, which is located on another floor of the building, below the telescope.

To see the Super Facts click here

Supermoon October 2024

“Supermoon October 2024” is not a super-fact post but some fun facts about the Moon. It is a super-moon post instead.

As many of you probably have read, we currently have a so-called supermoon (October 17 & October 18). The moon’s orbit around earth is not a perfect circle but slightly elliptical. Therefore, the moon’s distance to earth varies.

A supermoon is when a full moon occurs when the moon is at its closest point to Earth, called perigee, making it appear larger and brighter than usual. Or more correctly, the term supermoon is usually used to describe a full moon that comes within at least 90% of the perigee. Since this is a special moon event, I took out my little telescope and looked at the moon and its craters. I also took a look at Jupiter, and I saw three of the four Galilean moons.

The green speck is Jupiter. The three little dots are three of the four Galilean Moons. I roughly saw this in my telescope an hour ago, but it is not my photo. Photo by Raoni Aldrich Dorim on Pexels.com

I thought I might as well mention a few interesting facts about the moon.

There is no dark side of the moon

This is a very common misunderstanding. The moon is always showing the same side towards us (or almost exactly the same side). When there is a full moon the backside, or far side, of the moon is dark, but that is not the case when the moon is half, or a crescent, etc. When the moon is new, the far side / backside is “full” from sunlight. If you wondered, NASA and other space agencies have photographed the far side of the moon.

The near side of the Moon and the far side of the Moon. Comparison between the two hemispheres of the Moon. Elements of this image were furnished by NASA. Stock Photo ID: 2157518223 by Claudio Caridi.

Below is a youTube video showing an animation composed of actual satellite photos by NASA.

A few comments about this animation. You see no stars because the sun is shining, and the earth is also quite bright. The reason you don’t easily see stars during the day is not because the sky is blue but because there is too much light to see them. The sun ruins the starry sky. In addition, stars are not easily captured by cameras when there is ambient light. And again, of course, contrary to the belief of some, the backside of the moon is not always dark.

The far side of the moon is different

As you can see in the YouTube video and the enhanced photo above, the far side looks different from the nearside and it is different in appearance and terrain. The near side of the moon has large, dark, flat-lying basins called maria. They look like oceans. The far side is a lot more rugged and covered by lots of craters. Another difference is that the far side of the moon has a much thicker crust compared to the near side.

The moon is drifting away from earth at about 3.8 centimeters per year

The moon is moving away from earth due to the gravitational forces between the moon and earth, which also causes tidal bulges in the Earth’s oceans and the moon. Back in high school I took a physics test on which you had to calculate how much the moon was moving away from earth based on the size of the tidal waves on earth. I did not solve that one, but not many did. The calculation made perfect sense though and some geniuses got it.

NASA found water on the moon

In 2020, NASA announced the discovery of water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. You can read about it here.

The moon was likely created by a celestial collision : The most widely accepted explanation for the existence of the moon is that the Moon was created when a planet-like object, the size of Mars slammed into Earth, soon after the solar system began forming. That was about 4.5 billion years ago.