Next week’s night sky
A lot of cool things are happening early this week! On Sunday 7/12, the moon will be in its last quarter. On Monday, July 13, ceres will reverse direction! If you have a telescope, this is an incredibly cool thing to watch. To find ceres, navigate to this website: Stellarium Web Online Star Map, and then look up ceres. On Tuesday, July 14th, Jupiter will be at apposition! This means that it will be brightest and closest it will be all year! You can find Jupiter on Stellarium.
An enormous super flare
Using a new telescope based in Kyoto, this solar flare was detected and found to be 20 times bigger than the biggest flare coming from our own sun! Solar flares happen when a buildup of magnetic energy in a star is suddenly released. To learn more about this spectacular phenomenon, click here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200709113523.htm.
Merging neutron stars
Neutron stars are some of the rarest and strangest things in the universe. If you would like to know more about neutron stars, click here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/all-about-neutron-stars-and-pulsars/. Whenever something happens to them, scientists need to know. This means that it is huge news that scientists have finally found a way to monitor the merging of neutron stars! We really don’t know what happens when these stars merge, so it is expected that this will further scientific knowledge a lot! The method consists of detecting gravity waves via a very precise instrument and then using math to find out exactly where these stars are. If you would like to learn more, click this link: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.04175.pdf.
A stellar stream
Scientists are using the existence of a stellar stream to prove that billions of years ago, the galaxy merged with another galaxy called Nyx!
A stellar stream is a stream of gas, dust, and star that moves in a noticeable pattern across the sky. These are created when the gravity from one galaxy drags through another galaxy, moving stars in a pattern that looks like a river. By tracing this stream, we can approximate where and when the galaxies interacted! If you want to read more, go to this website:https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.07190.pdf.
Planet black hole
Finally, to settle the rumors about planet nine being a black hole, Harvard researchers are launching a proposal to find out the right answer to this question. Using new and improved methods, they expect to efficiently settle this debate. To read more about this mission, click here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2020-13.
Do you have any cool research from this week? Let me know in the comments below!