1. Astronomy Club 2013 Grand Tour of the Cosmos

2. Purpose: This initial meeting of the Astronomy Club will provide:
An overview of the night sky
The Solar System
The Galaxy
The Universe Surrounding
Some really cool stuff we’ll explore
Introduction to the tools that will be available to you through ANA

3. The Solar System Questions:
What did the ancient Greeks call the Planets? (Planetes…Wanderers)
How many of the planets were known to exist before the 1600’s?
How was Neptune discovered?
What is 2003 UB313 and why is it important? What is its common name?
Prior to Pluto being demoted, was it always the last planet?
Where is the Asteroid Belt?
What is the Kuiper Belt? Where is it?

4. The Discovery of Eris (a.k.a 2003 UB313 )

5. Our Star: The Sun
Sun converts hydrogen to helium in its core (75% hydrogen and 25% helium by mass)
Differential rotation
Equator the surface rotates once every 25.4 days
Poles about 36 days
Core conditions
temperature is 15.6 million Kelvin (surface 5800 K)
pressure is 250 billion earth atmospheres

6. Terrestrial Worlds: Mercury: Eccentric Orbit Perihelion 46 million km
Aphelion it is 70 million km
Closest to sun
88 Day Orbit
Venus:
Brightest Planet
Only seen in Phases
Hottest Planet
Used to develop Heliocentric Theory
Earth:
No longer the only body thought to have water
71% Water
29% Land
Age: 4.5 B Years
Mars:
Surface can be seen from earth
Red because it’s rusty from Iron soil
Phobos (moon) sinking into Marks
Meteorite from Mars found in Antarctica

7. Other Objects in our Solar System: Asteroids/Meteors
1980’s Style

8. Gas Giants: Jupiter: Contains 70% of mass of solar system 65 Moons
Ball of gas w/ small solid core
Differential rotation
Saturn:
Strong surface winds (500m/sec)
Less dense than water
Titan biggest moon (larger than Mercury)
Orbital period is 29 ½ earth years
Uranus:
Only planet whose name came from Greek God as opposed to Roman
Nights can last as long as 40 years
Ice Giant
~84 years per orbit
Neptune:
Stormiest Planet
Blue color due to methane gas
165 earth years per orbit
Rocky Core
Once had stronger storm spot

9. Other Objects in our Solar System: Kuiper Belt (~55 AU)

10. Other Objects in our Solar System: Oort Cloud (50K-100K AU)

11. Other Objects in our Solar System: Comets
Ison
Hale-Bopp
Break up of 73P/Schwassmann (1995)

12. The Milky Way: 120,000 light years across
Central bulge diameter 12,000 light years (located in Sagittarius)
2 direct neighbors: Large & Small Magellanic Clouds
Over 200 Billion Stars
Estimates place the age at about 13 Billion years
Closest large galaxy, Andromeda, will hit the Milky Way in 1 Billion hears
Part of Virgo Supercluster (You Are Here!)

13. What’s in between the Solar System and the edge of the Milky Way

14. Groups of Stars
Death of Stars
Birth of Stars
Constellations
Dark Patches of Gas

15. Exoplanets
New Solar Systems
Double Stars
Variable Stars

16. What’s Outside the Milky Way: Virgo Supercluster
Mean distance of 60 light years
Covers about 10 degrees in the sky
Estimated about galaxies in the cluster

17. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe
Herbig-Haro 110:
Mysterious jet of hot gas into the universe. However, these types of objects usually come from a new star, except that astronomers cannot find one here.

18. Really Cool Stuff: Hubble Deep Field
Currently the circles represent the earliest known galaxies that started forming just 500 million years after the big bang.

19. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe: Hubble Deep Field

20. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe: Colliding Galaxies

21. Really Cool Stuff in the Universe: Exploding Stars

22. Questions?