The ABC's of Astronomy

The ABC's of Astronomy
by Oey Sally

A is for Astronomy, the science of far out
B is for Big Bang, how cosmos came about
C is for Chandrasekhar, who knew things compact
D is for Dark matter, whose existence is a fact
E is for Eddington, and matters radiative
F is for Faraday, and wave planes rotative
G is for Galaxies, which fly between voids
H is for Hubble, who knew disks from ellipsoids
I is for Ionization, revealing energy states
J is for Julian Day, for periodic dates
K is for Kepler, and his revolution
L is for Local Group, a galaxian profusion
M is for Molecular Cloud, a protostellar batter
N is for Neutron Star, the densest of matter
O is for Oort Cloud, that beyond Pluto lies
P is for Photon, the coveted prize
Q is for Quasar, the most energetic
R is for Redshift, revealing the kinetic
S is for Supernova, Nucleosynthesis site
T is for Telescope, gatherer of light
U is for Ultraviolet, seen only from space
V is for Virial Theorem, an equilibrium case
W is for Wolf-Rayet Star, massive and bright
X is for X-ray, where hot things emit light
Y is for fraction of helium by amassed
Z is for Zenith, the highest and last

Kuiper Belt: 20 tahun kemudian...

Kuiper belt ni masih kurang difahami oleh para ahli astronomi. Apa yang kita tahu, kuiper belt merupakan suatu kawasan yang berbentuk cakera dan terletak pada bahagian luar sistem solar iaitu selepas orbit Neptun. objek-objek yang terdapat di kawasan belt yang jgak dikenalai sebagai KBOs (kuiper belt objects) kebanyakkannya terdiri ketulan-ketulan ais kecil dan mempunyai orbit eliptik yang sangat tinggi.

Illustrasi Kuiper Belt

mungkin timbul persoalan, kenapa tajuk tertulis '20 tahun kemudian'?

haha,
sebenarnya 20 tahun itu merujuk kepada ulang tahun penemuan objek kuiper belt pertama pada tahun 1992. objek tersebut diberi nama sebagai 1992QB1.

jadi, apakah telah kita pelajari mengenai kuiper belt selama 20 tahun ini?

Perseid datang lagi

Gambar Perseid yang diambil pada 12 ogos di Las Vegas.
kredit imej:  Tyler Leavitt Via Space.com

Hari ni, 13 ogos, merupakan hari maksimum bagi hujan meteor Perseid. dan seperti tahun-tahun lepas, saya masih lagi gagal untuk tengok perseid dengan mata saya sendiri. harap-harap umur kita panjang lagi untuk 'memburu' perseid tahun depan =)

pernahkan kalian bertanya, apa perseid ni sebenarnya? macam mana perseid boleh selalu ada setiap tahun?

Transit Zuhrah 2012

jom sama-sama saksikan transit zuhrah pada subuh nanti!
jika korang terlepas transit, maka tunggulah sampai 2117 nnt hahaa..

InsyaAllah akan ke Planetarium pagi esok. sapa yang free, jom jumpa disana. =)

millions of stars??

long time no see~~~

i just read a book about mathematical stuff (well actually im just assuming since it have a lot of numbers! haha), and something 'astronomically' caught my attention!

it said there that... or maybe it easier for me to quote it right~~ haha.. silly me~

and i quote: "..and when you looked up into the night sky, you will see millions of stars twinkling..."

and i like :

"..ffffuuuuufufuuuuu~~!!.."

just want to share with you guys, it's true that there were millions of stars out there, in fact it's maybe billions! or it could be hundreds of billions! hahaha.. i know, BELIEVE IT! haha

but thing that makes me goes "ffffuuuuuuufufufuuuuu" is the "looked up into the night sky" part.

you see, actually the numbers of star visible to our humble eyes are just around 6000 but one can only sees 3000 at a time. why? easy.. because u can only be on one side of the hemisphere at a time. on the northern hemisphere, u can see 3000 stars while another half on the other side of hemisphere.

maybe a simple illustration might help~~:-

as u can see, 3000 at northern + 3000 at southern = 6000 stars!

if you familiar with the term "celestial sphere", you might understand this better. i will talk about it sometime in the near future.. if i remember! hahaha.. anyway, you can just google it, the concept is quite easy to understand actually~~ (^_^)

so, why only 6000 stars visible to our naked eye??

hmmmm... the reason why we can only see 6000 stars is because the intensity of the starlight. our eye can only detect or see a star as dimmed as magnitude 6. beyond that, we can't see them anymore. (high magnitude means dimmer intensity)

the intensity of a star is cause by many factors:

• size of the star
• distant of the star
• temperature of the star
• etc (i can only remember these much~~~ im sory~~ hahahaa too lazy to hit the books haha)

hurmmmm.... but hows the factors affect the intensity?

hahahahhahaa.... the truth is, i hate writing~~ haha.. how about i explain it some other day~~

ok c u next time! =)

p/s: the quote is written based on what i remembered~~ but mainly, it sounded just like that~~ haha..