APOD 4.4

This photo is about M101, which is a massive spiral galaxy that lies about 25 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The sheer size of this galaxy is breathtaking, it is over twice the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy, or about 170,000 light years across. The amount of stars that our contained in this galaxy is equally astounding as it contains many more stars than our own and therefore greatly increases the possibility that it contains planets that are suitable to life or perhaps even planets that already have life forms on them. Galaxies such as this one provide much hope that there could be life other than our own.

APOD 4.3

Today I chose to write about the far side of the Moon because it is something that is astronomically very close to us, yet has been seen by very few people. Because the Moon is locked in a synchronous orbit with the Earth only one side of the Moon can ever be seen from Earth and it is this side that almost everybody is familiar with. This picture however shows the other side of the Moon and it is very interesting how much this side varies with the side we can see. There are no lunar maria on this side, but instead it is covered with a massive amount of craters and appears very rough. Overall it is very interesting how much the Moon can vary simply by looking at one side or another.

Zooniverse

I have been doing planet hunters on Zooniverse for the last several days. So far I have found 2 stars that have been identified as stars of interest and are among the most likely candidates to have planets orbiting them. Looking through the data is very interesting, especially trying to figure out why some of the light curves happen the way they do, and seeing the variable curves of stars in binary systems.

APOD 4.2

This week I chose to write about M74, which is a massive spiral galaxy that is about 32 million light years away. This galaxy is positioned so that it is almost face on with our own, and so the many spirals of it can be seen very well. This galaxy is estimated to have about 100 billion stars in it, which is much larger than our own. A merge between this and a nearby galaxy can also be seen as the smaller galaxy is sucked into M74's core. Furthermore, the idea that when we see this galaxy we are actually looking 32 million years into the past is astounding, because if somebody were to look at earth from this distance they would see it without humans, but with dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. This is why I chose to write about M74 this week.