Stellar Giants
uncommon objects in the heavens
A report by:
Comm. R. M. Wey
COSR: SFS-SFC
While most stellar bodies in the heavens[or the great expanse of space]are of a magnitude in distance that, when viewed through a ground[or even sometimes, space based]telescopes they appear as nothing more than specks of light, there are a few that defy this qualification. One case in point is the red super-giant Betelgeuse[some five hundred light years distant [noted as the star marking the shoulder of Orion the hunter.
Research into the statistics of this stellar body has found that its hot outer atmosphere is calculated at stretching more than a billion miles across. Or greater in size than the distance of the planet Jupiter from its sun.
The surface temperature of Betelgeuse is approximately nine thousand degrees Fahrenheit[or some one to two thousand degrees cooler than earth's sun]. However, where earth's sun radiates heat evenly across its surface, Betelgeuse has a hot spot[radiating at twelve thousand degrees]which occupies approximately ten to twenty percent of the stars' disk.
Currently, there is no known phenomenon to explain the existence of such conditions, though it has been suggested that it may correspond to the pulsation cycle, which the star undergoes every four hundred twenty days.
And while this example of the diversity and complexity of stellar bodies is not rare, it is the first.
Empty Space?
What lies between the spiral arms and beyond
An article by:
Comm. R.M. Wey
COSR: SFS-SFC
Research is on going in the area of determining the viability of the Hubble constant. And while it is known that hot, bright stars fill the arms of spiral galaxies, little is known of what occupies the spaces between the arms.
Is the missing matter[which is needed to make the constant constant]to be found within these gaps, or are they just what they are…empty?
Observations made of various pairs of galaxies[viewed where they partially overlap as seen from a distance]reveal they appear as empty as they look.
One explanation given for this phenomenon is that ‘density waves’[caused by the movement of galactic bodies through the universe]concentrate the dust into the spiral arms themselves.
Gravitational forces in the arms[created through their rotation]create high gravity regions which pull the dust into clumps of compressed gas that creates a wave of star formation which adds the ephemeral glow observed in so many galaxies.
Thus, one must need look else where for the ‘missing mass’ that will keep the universe expanding forever.
Fundamental Particle?
The Bigon enters the scene
A report by:
Comm. R.M. Wey
COSR: SFS-SFC
Research conducted into finding a better medium than microchips resulted in the discovery of a new fundamental particle. And although it exists for merely just millionths of a second, it is equivalent in size to a bowling ball. It was discovered[ironically enough]while generating a large current through a vacuum tube.
It is believed that the electric field within the vacuum somehow altered the energy state of the of the computer monitors cathode ray tubes vacuum[considering that no ‘vacuum’ is truly empty, that virtual particles appear and disappear], causing it to implode. It is thought that such a particle may be the cause
of ‘ball’ lightning.
Presently, detection of these particles is being carried out in a specially built cloud chamber[a gas filled detector that traces particle paths].
However, positive acceptance of this ‘new’ particle will require further study to confirm.
The Building Blocks of Life
a report by:
Comm. R.M. Wey
COSR: SFS-SFC
Research conducted by the office of scientific research into one of the fundamental building blocks of life, carbon, has uncovered findings that may require the reassessment of how our galaxy works.
For just about everywhere one wishes to look…within the Sol system can be found carbon. After hydrogen, helium, and oxygen, it is the most abundant element in the system.
And after observing the composition of our own sun and that of several hundred ‘ordinary’ stars within the Milky Way, such observations reveal that our sun contains far more carbon than do any of its neighbors.
Scientific record has been that carbon is formed from the fusion of helium nuclei in the hearts of old, giant stars. And that when these stars explode, their carbon is scattered into interstellar space to be joined with other, heavier elements.
Thus, all the carbon observed would have come from earlier stars that had lived out their lives and died, enriching the clouds of gas and dust from which the current generation of stars were born.
However, measurements taken of the concentration of carbon in younger stars does not support this. Carbon concentration counts have been measured at between 175 to 275 for an average[as number of carbon atoms per million of hydrogen], with our own suns measured at 355 per million.
Which makes the Sol system uniquely suited to the creation of life. Perhaps it was a curious happenstance, or even an intervention by god. But whatever the cause…WE are the result. For without the abundance of carbon, life as we know it on this world, would not be at all.