The Wonders of Space

Observatory / Course Archives / ASTR 110 Fall 2019 / Shin

55 Cancri e

The Super-Earth 55 Cancri e is known as the first exoplanet to have its atmosphere characterized successfully. Discovered in 2004, it is twice as big as Earth and eight times the mass of Earth. The question of whether this planet has an atmosphere like Earth and Venus, or just a rocky core and no atmosphere has been discussed and debated ever since its discovery. To the scientists’ delight, a study conducted by scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggests that 55 Cancri e indeed has an atmosphere that is similar to Earth’s, despite its intense surface heat. It is also found out by the researchers that the atmosphere of this planet could contain nitrogen, water, and surprisingly, even oxygen. The biggest difference between the atmosphere of this planet and the atmosphere of Earth, then, is that 55 Cancri e has a much higher temperature throughout the planet. The question that many are curious to know is: Why and how is the atmosphere present on this planet, given its perilous radiation environment? The scientists are still on a quest in finding the answer to this question.

Messier 16, The Eagle Nebula

The Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16, is home to several active star-forming gas and dust regions, which includes the Pillars of Creation, with its famous appearance of a winged creature poised on a pedestal. The soaring tower is comprised of cold gas and dust, with its blue colors representing oxygen, red representing sulfur, and green representing both nitrogen and hydrogen. The appearance of a glowing tower can be attributed to the illumination of the dust clouds by emission light, where high-energy radiation from the young stars excited the particles of gas. The Pillars of Creation, having a span of roughly 4 to 5 light-years, is in fact only a small feature of the entire nebula, which spans 70 by 55 light-years. First discovered by the Swiss astronomer Phillippe Loys de Cheseaux in 1745, the Eagle Nebula is located 7,000 light-years away in the next inner spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Registered as a mass of small stars in the midst of faint light, the Eagle Nebula can be spotted quite easily through a small telescope. The best time of year to see Messier 16 is during July.

Messier 64, The Black Eye Galaxy

Located in the Coma Berenices constellation, roughly 24 million light-years away from our world, Messier 64 is also known as the Black Eye galaxy due to its dark band of absorbing dust that lies below the galaxy’s bright nucleus. The Black Eye Galaxy is often recognized by its bizarre internal motion, as the gas in the regions outside rotates in the opposite direction from the gas and stars in its inner regions, which makes the clouds of gas and dust into smaller blobs, collapsing to give birth to new stars. This fascinating behavior can be explained by the merger between the M64 and a satellite galaxy, which is over a billion years old. The new stars that have been formed through the process live relatively short lives—no more than a few tens of millions of years. Because of its short life-span, many of the bright blue stars have already become supernovae. With an apparent magnitude of 9.8, the Black Eye galaxy can be spotted with a moderately sized telescope and is best observed in May.