Astronomy Picture Of The Day

Observatory / Course Archives / ASTR 110 Fall 2019 / Lee

K2-18B

Through the Kepler Mission, scientists have been able to find using the Kepler Space Telescope an exoplanet that contained water vapor within a habitable zone of a star. Its name is K2-18B. It is approximately 110 light years away, and recently scientists have discovered that on this planet there is in fact water vapor, meaning that the distance from the sun is at a perfect distance where water is not frozen or evaporated.

There was a big buzz with the discovery of water vapor within the planet’s atmosphere, however, due to being so large compared to earth (more than twice the size), and maybe even lacking a significant atmosphere for life, it may be impossible for life to exist on the planet. This is still a very significant discovery as it does suggest that this is one of the many planets that may be similar to k2-18B, yet may actually be habitable.

Southern Crab Nebula

The Southern Crab Nebula named after the Crab Nebula, was discovered using the Hubble Space telescope. Within the center of this nebula lies two stars, one red giant and one dwarf star. The dust and the bubbles appear to be the brightest from the edges giving it the image of legs. It was first discovered in 1960, but in 1989, was studied more closely and discovering why the galaxy appeared to have such a unique shape to it.

The hourglass shape is caused by the shedding of the outer layers of the red giant within the center of the galaxy, this then causes the white dwarf to be attracted also towards the red giant. Due to this bioth stars are embedded within a flat disk, and this then causes the hourglass shape to appear due to the constriction of gas from being embedded within the disk.

NGC 3147

In 1785, William Herschel discovered this galaxy, NGC 3147, which is approximately 130 million lightyears away, and 140,000 lightyears across. This galaxy is located within the constellation Draco, and the spiral arms are compiled of young blue stars, and pink nebulas, giving it such a majestic look. However, within the center of this galaxy lies a strange black hole which scientists say shouldn't exist, questioning Einstein's Law of relativity.

Whipping around the black hole at a tenth of the speed of light is the material the black hole is sucking in, and causes a disk around it. This is called relativistic beaming. Within this blackhole, the gravitational pull is so strong that the photons of light even appear to change.