Hi!!!My name is Calvin.I am very interested in astronomy.
I have many hobbies,such as:reading,playing table tennis and seaching the internet.I love to eat japanese cuisine,it's yummy!
E-mail:leungklcalvin@yahoo.com.hk
I love astrology too!(I mean both astrology and astronomy)
Astronomy news!!!
Scientists discover massive star R136a1 in Tarantula Nebula galaxy
Scientists have made a significantly remarkable discovery in space. The discovery, a massive star named R136a1 located in the Tarantula Nebula, a neighboring galaxy, has been reported to be hundreds of times larger than the sun and may be the heaviest star ever. The weight of this new finding was made public on July 21, 2010.
Scientists believe the star probably once weighed as much as 320 solar masses when it originally formed.
The discovery was made by astrophysicist Paul Crowther, who is an astrophysicist in northern England at the University of Sheffield, and a team of scientists by using a combination of instruments including ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and archival data derived from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The Associated Press reports "Crowther said the obese star twice as heavy as any previously discovered has already slimmed down considerably over its lifetime. In fact it's burning itself off with such intensity that it shines with nearly 10 million times the luminosity of the sun."
Crowther goes on to explain that stars are born heavy and shed these pounds as they age. He has described R136a1 as being "middle aged", currently weighing in at 256 solar masses. Due to the structure and attributes this mass currently has, it is believed that the star is not only so much larger than the sun, but brighter and hotter as well.
To give an idea of the massive size, a comparison related the Earth's Sun to the Moon, saying that the "if R136a1 replaced the Sun in our Solar System, it would outshine the Sun by as much as the Sun currently outshines the full Moon".It's luminosity is described as being 10 million times greater than the sun. An incredibly bright shine, hard to fathom since the sun in itself is so bright.
R136a1 has been approximated to be seven times hotter than the sun. Surface temperatures are described by Crowther as 40,000 degrees Celsius, which translates to 72,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which means that is one hot mass.
The humongous star burns brightly and Crowther's team had discovered several massive stars recently, and this one stood out.
However other scientists are speculating that R136a1 is perhaps not one star, but two neighboring ones close together and give the illusion of being one star. The AP also reports "In clusters that are too far away it isn't always possible to tell if a telescope has picked up on one heavyweight star or two smaller ones in close proximity."
Despite the querying thoughts, scientists challenging the weight calculations do concur that Crowther and his team make a strong case. Crowther also acknowledges R136a1 could have a partner, but feels if this is the case, the neighboring star would be significantly smaller, which seemingly means he still believes R136a1 would be the largest star even if there were two in close proximity.
It is amazing when you think about it. There has been so much learned, but yet so much more to be discovered about not only our own galaxy, but of those surrounding ones.
Three Sun's' came out at the same time
Venus+Jupiter+upper cresent Moon=A smiley face!