Astronomy Lesson of Records
 

Xavier gets ready for the questions.

Francis walks in and sits down, getting ready for the questions.

Mithos enters the classroom and sits next to Francis. Read for the questions he is glad to see that his fellow Ravenclaws were there too. He smiled at Francis.

Xavier looks around and sees all of his fellow Ravenclaws. He smiles, hoping that they win their house 125 points.

Julia walks into the classroom and takes a seat next to Mithos. She really hopes the Ravenclaws win the 125 house points. She looks at the other Ravenclaws. She smiles at them and looks up at the professor.

"the orion nebula", francis replied.

Thats right!

2. The most luminous star in the galaxy?

Sirius is the brightest star

"Located 45,000 light years away across our galaxy, LBV 1806-20 could be 40 million times brighter and 150 times larger than our own Sun.", francis replied

Mithos raised his hand "Pistol"

[OOC:Sorry computer wigged for a second there...]

Yes!

3. Brightest supernova of modern times?

Mithos raised his hand "Large Magellanic Cloud."

"SN 1987 A", Francis replied.

Zekke raised his hand. "SN 2004dj?"

"Errr wait... that would depend... They said that the SN 2004DJ was the brightest of the decade..." His voice trailed off.

SN 1993J, which was found in the beautiful spiral galaxy M81 on 28 March 1993

Thats it!

4. Most massive extrasolar planet?

Julia raises her hand "HD 209458?"

Francis raised her hand, "Tau Bootis"

raises hand "Jupiter"

Nat raised her hand. "55 Cancri B?"

Julia thinks for a moment. She raises her hand again. "Vega?"

Mithos raises his hand once again "HD73256"

"51 Pegasi B?" Zekke suggested.

Francis raises her hand again, "HD 162060?"

Kali raised her hand, " HD 160691 D?"

Mithos raised his hand "HD10647"

Francis replied, "HD 14762?"

Francis raised her hand, "
HD137510 "

raises hand "109 Psc?"

Raises hand "HD 2638 b"

Julia raises her hand for another shot at it. "2MASSWJI207334-393254?"



ooc: Wow...that is a long number...is that even a logical number? LOL!

Francis raises her hand, "hd 202206"

Kali couldn't decide between two so she just said both.

"Either hd169830 or hd89744?"

*raise hand* I want to say, Mu Are d? But that's the record of the -least- massive extrasolar planet...


EDIT: Just noticed the 'not named' part.

New answer: HD 168443?

Diana scratches her head and frowned in fustration. "Drat, if only I had studied those stars..."

Serena raised her hand.

I found GI 876b (Gliese 876b) which is said to be 1.89 to 2.4 times the size of Jupiter. But more recently in 2004, 2M1207, called a brown dwarf, was shown to be about 5 times as massive as Jupiter.

Rosa raised her hand
' HD 114762?'

"Oops! You are right, I did forget to say the letter which refers to the planet and not the star alone. The letter is C.

The complete answer would then be HD 168443 c. Well, if that's correct^^"

[OOC:Sorry bout the whole car thing! I missed it so much and now I have it back, it looks great too!]

Yes, 10 points!

5. Greatest explosion ever?

Francis raised her hand, "The universe? Most astronomers now believe that the universe began around 12 billion years ago in a cataclysmic explosion we call the Big Bang. All of the matter and energy in the universe had its origins in this event, along with time itself. One second after the Big Bang, the temperature was around ten thousand million degrees, or around ten times hotter than the interior of the Sun."

*raise hand* "Can it be SN 1006?

Mmh... SN 2004dj?

"Hmm...I can't name the star...but is it the one that scientists discovered that it became a supernova in...1984?"

SN 1999, this supernova observed on January 23, 1999, had the brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded.

Francis raised her hand, "The crab nebula, which was seen in 1054 AD, is recognized today as the brightest supernova remnant in the sky. Approximately 940 years before the Crab attained its current appearance, a massive star exploded with the power of 400 billion Suns. It left behind a rapidly rotating neutron star and a cloud of ejected gases flying outwards at speeds of 1000 kilometers per second (or 2.2 million miles per hour)."

SN 1987A was the brightest supernova recorded in the last few centuries.

Can it be the N132D?

As two of Kali's guess were already said she guessed another.

"Was it the N49?" she said with uncertainty.

'could it be the horseshoe or swan nebula?' Rosa said, 'that's the same..' she murmured after it. 'it's also called M17 NGC6618'

Yes!

7. Brightest globular cluster in the Milky Way?

Peony raised her hand.

"Omega Centauri -- the brightest globular cluster in the Milky Way.
Within Centauri,it's found that certain metal-rich stars were about two billion years younger than some of their neighbors, implying that the globular cluster must have experienced at least two periods of star formation. Scientists suggest that the cluster was formed in a separate dwarf galaxy, which was then sucked into the Milky Way, stimulating a new burst of star formation."

She paused.

HD 209 458 b, which is situated 150 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

The TrES-1? This extrasolar planet is 500 light years away. It was found in August 2004.
(Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey. TrES is pronounced trace.)

Francis raised her hand, "OGLE-TR-56b ?"

That's right!

9. Coldest place in the Milky Way?

Francis raised her hand, "Boomerang Nebula"

Serena raised her hand,

The coldest place in the solar system is the surface of Neptune's largest moon Triton, which has a temperature of -391 degrees Fahrenheit, only 69 degrees Fahrenheit above absolute zero.

Serena raised her hand again,

Oh, the Boomerang Nebula is colder. With a temperature of -272 Celsius, it is only one degree warmer than absolute zero.

Yep thats the one...

9. Nearest globular cluster?

*raise hand* "M4 in Scorpius. NGC6121?"

Meghan raised her hand hoping she got it right. " Omega Centauri which is in our Milky Way?"

Globular Cluster NGC 6397 (also known as NGC 6397) is a globular cluster in the Ara constellation. It is located about 7,200 light years from Earth, making it one of the two nearest globular cluster to Earth (the other one being Messie Object 4).

... Sedna maybe?

Is it Sedna, a “planetoid” that orbits beyond Pluto and measures between 600 and 1,000 miles wide.

Diana messes her hair up in more fustration- they've all been answering to quickly.

*raise hand again* 'Don't have an especific name but, may is be the one found rotating around Gliese 876?

"The existence of a planet around the star Gliese 876, only 15 light years distant from Earth, was announced this week by planeteer Geoffrey Marcy of San Francisco State University at a meeting in Victoria, British Columbia. The star, whose presence is inferred not from direct observation but by the wobble it imparts to the star, has a mass about 1.6 that of Jupiter. Gliese itself only has a mass of about one third that of our sun, making it the lightest known star to have a planet. The planet circles the star every 61 days at a radius of one-fifth the Earth-Sun distance. The discovery was soon confirmed by other astronomers. (Science News, 27 June 1998.)"

Francis raised her hand, "I'm not sure of the name.. but on Aug 7, 2000 a team of astronomers led by Dr. William Cochran of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory [USA], announced the discovery of the nearest planet outside the solar System. The Planet - probably slightly larger than Jupiter - orbits the star Epsilon Eridani. This star, at only 10.5 light years distant, is one of the closet stars to the Sun, which means that is is the main phase of its life span"

There are 2 planets orbiting Gliese 876.

The first, is GJ876b. It's orbit period is 61.02 days and is furthest from Gliese 876. Thus making it closer to us then GJ876c.

The second, is GJ876c. It's orbit period is 30.12 days and is closest to Gliese 876.

''Centered in this unremarkable, 1/4 degree wide patch of sky in the constellation Aquarius is the star Gliese 876. Gliese 876 is smaller than the Sun, only about 1/3 as massive, and too faint to be seen without a telescope. But it is known to be one of the nearest stars, only 15 light-years distant. Astronomers have just announced findings that imply Gliese 876 has a planet at least 1.6 times as massive as Jupiter - making this now one of the closest suspected planetary systems. Like many recent discoveries, this planet's detection is not based on direct imaging but on spectroscopic measurements of the periodic change in motion or "Doppler wobble" produced in the parent star as the planet orbits. The Doppler wobble of Gliese 876 indicates that its planet orbits once every 61 days at an average distance of about 1/5 the radius of the Earth's orbit.''

Yes that's it! You get the 10 points... taking this lesson's total points to a possible 135. Maybe it will go even higher...

11. The most distant object in the universe?

*raise hand* I have two answers that I'm not sure are the same.

One soruces says that the most distant objects lies roughly 13.6 billion light-years away from Earth (Put another way, the light traveled for 13 billion years to reach Earth.) A faint galaxy, outlined by a white ring in the shape of a sausage, is said to be the farthest known object in the universe. It was found thanks to an intervening galaxy cluster called Abell 370, which magnified the light.

The second answer is a quasar. The most distant quasar ever observed, with a record-shattering redshift of 5.8 (The previous record was hold by a luminous galaxy at redshift 5.74 in the Constellation of Aquarius. ). Distant quasars, which are extremely rare in the universe, take on the appearance of very red stars. Today is it believed quasars are the very bright centers of some distant galaxies, where some sort of energetic action is occurring, most probably due to the presence of a supermassive black hole at the center of that galaxy.

This means the quasar might be the centre of the galaxy in question, but I'm not sure nor I have names of those.

I do know, however, that z 3.366 (23) and 0014 813 are two of the most the most luminous quasars known, and the second is at the same distance that the galaxy I talked about before.

Therefore my answer will have to be: Quasar 0014 813.

*Sabina raises hand*
''The most distant object in the universe is a galaxy whch is 13.6 billion light years away from earth. Because its light has taken billions of years to travel to Earth, astronomers are seeing the galaxy as it looked when the Universe was only about 900 million years old. Astronomers, led by a muggle named Esther Hu , have found this galaxy with the help of an intervening galaxy cluster called Abell 370.''

The furthest object ever seen in the Universe is a quasar called SDSSpJ104433.04-012502.2. It is racing away from us at just over 128,000 miles a second (205,000 kilometres a second) which is 68.5 percent of the speed of light. It is 10,000 million light years away and was discovered in April 2000. Most quasars are trillions of times brighter than the Sun but no larger than out Solar System.

The farthest objects that we can see are some very bright galaxies that
are shining at us almost from the beginning of the universe. These are called
"quasars" because they look like very small objects (quasi-stellar) even though they are so bright. Depending on how old the universe is, these galaxies are around 10 billion light-years away.

We also have signals almost from the beginning of the universe.
The problem with space is the distances are so huge that the most distant things were there a very long time ago - it's impossible for us to be able to see instantaneously what's out there at 10 billion light-years, but light takes 10 billion years to get there.

[QUOTE=She-Who-Is-Not-To-Be-Psycho!]

One soruces says that the most distant objects lies roughly 13.6 billion light-years away from Earth (Put another way, the light traveled for 13 billion years to reach Earth.) A faint galaxy, outlined by a white ring in the shape of a sausage, is said to be the farthest known object in the universe. It was found thanks to an intervening galaxy cluster called Abell 370, which magnified the light.

Yep!

12. Oldest planet in the Milky Way?

Francis raised her hand, "the oldest planet ever detected is nearly 13 billion years old and more than twice the size of Jupiter, locked in orbit around a whirling pulsar and a white dwarf. "The old planet is located near the heart of a globular star cluster some 5,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, about the distance light travels in a year."

Ya ha!

13. Hottest place in the solar system?

The Sun?


(ooc: my answer was 13,6 billion light years, can that be?)

Francis raised her hand, "Io.. one of jupiter's moons?"

"Other than the sun, I'm thinking Mercury is."

The Sun. The surface of the sun is about 6,000 degrees Celsius while the corona soars to several million degrees.