Macho Dark Matter

              Objects included in macho dark matter include white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, black holes, neutron stars and faint red dwarfs. All objects contained in macho dark matter are either the remnants of old stars that have completed their evolutionary cycle or failed stars. White dwarfs are typically about the size of the earth and are formed when a star sheds its outter layers into a planetary nebula. The white dwarf is the core of the star that remains. Brown dwarfs are similar in size to Jupiter and are failed stars. Black holes are about the size of a pinhole and are formed when a supermassive star dies. Neutron stars are about 10 km in diameter and are formed when less massive stars die. Red dwarfs are about half as massive as the Sun and are low-mass stars. All dark macho dark matter is remnents of stars that have completed their cycle so many types of them could be near each other if they were in binary star systems. They are objects that are hard to detect and they are highly massive. They can detect these objects by looking about how objects move. Like objects that orbit something we can not see we can figure out there is mass there. Also they can tell if light bends around another object.

Final Reflection

Sky Journals: My sky journals improved a lot once I learned about Stellarium. Stellarium really helped me know what to look for. It’s really overwhelming to look at such a vast sky and try and pick out shapes that honestly don’t really look like what they’re supposed to look like anyway but I found that knowing what was out narrowed it down a lot and I was able to see the constellations. At the beginning of the quarter I was more concerned with being able to pick out something other than the Big Dipper and I find that I can now pick out quite a few constellations.

Class Reflection: My knowledge since the pretest has improved more than anything.  I really had very limited knowledge at the beginning of the class. I had never taken astronomy so anything I knew already was from previous physics and chemistry classes. Having taken the class I can answer almost all of the questions from the pretest and have a much broader understanding of how the universe works and how we fit into it. The math concepts weren’t too difficult and could be pretty easily explained.

Moon phase lab: This lab gave me a good knowledge of the different phases and when they occur.

Apods:  I enjoyed all APOD’s. The pictures were interesting to look at and the captions were informative.

Research: Telescope research gave me a better understanding of the different types of research. I thought the history researched covered more information than necessary. It was interesting to hear the different myths about why the story behind the constellations. I didn’t really feel like I learned much from the dark matter research that I hadn’t already assumed.  

Celestial Sphere lab: I really disliked this one. I understood how to look for things but I didn’t think it was explained very well how to line things up and how to tell what would appear at a certain location during a specific time of the year.

Scientific methods Lab: Very simple. The math was very familiar.

Sky Journal: They gave me a good, intermediate understanding of what is in the sky and how to look for things. Beneficial for sure.

Weekly Feedback: To be honest I don’t like doing these reflections. I think it’s good that those who aren’t comfortable talking to you in person can tell you this way but I don’t think they should be required and I feel like the things I’m writing on here I have said on my weekly reflections already.

Spectra lab: I liked looking at the different emission and absorption lines from the different elements.

Meteorite Lab and Satellite Lab: I liked these two because they were the most experiment-like. Timing, measuring and doing math are my favorite parts of lab.

Homework from Text: Helped reinforce the math concepts well.

Properties of the Sun: Doesn’t really stand out in my mind much. Maybe that is a reflection on how beneficial it was? I’m not sure.

Star clusters and Age Lab: Simple graphing. I had a hard time answering the questions and drawing conclusions.

Cepheid Yardstick activity: The relationship between the two variables was simple to understand. I liked that.

Stellar Evolution Group project: I didn’t really know what was expected of us when we started the project out and I think that was reflected in our final outcome.

Home Sweet Universe/Art Project: Forced me to research where I am specifically and helped me get the big picture.

Space Exploration/Drake Equation: I discovered that I don’t know what I believe in regards to intelligent life in the Milky Way at all but it was still fun to speculate.

Field trip: It was good to have everything pointed out to me. Perhaps this should happen before the celestial sphere lab?

Sky Journal #10

Date: December 2, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Crestview Lane, Mount Vernon, WA

The picture below is a replica I made of the sky as I saw it last night. The points have been drawn fairly large so that they’re able to be seen.
            a. Jupiter: Azimuth: 160⁰ Altitude: 35⁰.
            b. Fomalhaut. Azimuth: 175⁰. Altitude 10⁰. This star is the mouth of Piscis.
            c. The constellation Capricornus: Azimuth: 200⁰. Altitude: 20⁰. I was able to see most of the constellation but couldn’t tell which star was supposed to be the fin of the creature.

Weekly Reflection #9

I didn’t really know much about galaxies prior to this week. I obviously knew the shape of the Milky Way but it was interesting to learn the different shapes that galaxies come in. Learning about Seyferts, Quasars and Blazars was interesting and I our research on MACHO dark matter was pretty simple as we pretty much know the properties of the different types of dark matter from previous chapters. The lab we did as a group was pretty self-explanatory and the math concepts were simple which was appreciated. Lastly, when I was going through different messier objects I thought it pictures were all pretty cool. Our world is pretty beautiful.

Sky Journal #9

Date: November 19, 2010
Time: 9:30 PM
Location: Crestview Lane, Mount Vernon, WA

The picture below is a replica I made of the sky as I saw it last night. The points have been drawn fairly large so that they’re able to be seen.
            a. Fornax: Azimuth: 160⁰ Altitude: 30⁰.
            b. Jupiter: Azimuth: 210⁰. Altitude: 40⁰. I am assuming that this really bright object is Jupiter but it could also be a bright star. I have a hard time telling the difference between the two.

Weekly Reflection #8

The most difficult part for me this week was the labs. I had to skip one of them to go to a corporate meeting and I had difficulty understand the math concepts for both. I think that the actual plotting of the data was time consuming and I realize it can be done on excel but I couldn’t figure out how to overlap both sets of data on the same scatter plot. Aside from the labs I found the lectures to be informative and it was awesome to have a holiday this week! As for the test, I think I did okay on it and I’m sooooo glad that we are able to have notes, it takes away a lot of the stress of memorizing and I think it allows us to think about concepts more when we aren’t worried about memorizing formulas and information. I did think that the test included a lot of writing but with a two hour block that isn’t too much of a big deal. Lastly, I liked seeing how different groups presented the same information on stellar evolution and seeing how a couple groups displayed the information helped me understand the stage-to-stage process.

Sky Journal #8

Date: November 15, 2010
Time: 1:00 AM
Location: Crestview Lane, Mount Vernon, WA

The picture below is a replica I made of the sky as I saw it last night. The points have been drawn fairly large so that they’re able to be seen.
            a. The constellation Canis Major: Azimuth: 150⁰ Altitude: 50⁰. I was really excited to be able to see this one because this is one of the few constellations that actually looks like what is supposed to look like. I was able to see the head and the front legs of the dog as well as its back but the rest of the constellation was too close to the horizon.
            b. Sirius: Azimuth: 150⁰. Altitude: 80⁰. This star helped me pick out the constellation Canis Major as it is noticeably brighter. It marks the neck of the dog.
            c. Rigel: Azimuth: 170⁰. Altitude: 30⁰. Stellarium tells me that this star is supposed to be the foot of Orion. I was not able to see him but I was able to make out this star because it stood out in brightness above the rest.