Ryan Klaus
Professor Yerkes
Comp 106
25 November 2008
Twinkle Twinkle
If you ask any English-speaking young child to sing you a nursery rhyme, I am willing to bet that at least half of them will start in with the melodious tunes of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. This fascination with the stars, however, is not age discriminative. The stars have captivated humans as long as they have been on this planet, sometimes dotting the midnight canopy with diamonds and providing a brilliant scene to gaze upon, and sometimes helping sailors find their way home. Whether your interest in stars is for their aesthetic value or is academic in nature, a recent event regarding a star forty times the size of our own sun is sure to pique your interest.
On Friday, March 21, 2008 at 2:12 a.m., the light from a star that exploded in a massive gamma-ray burst halfway across the known universe was detected by the NASA “Swift” satellite, which picks up gamma-ray bursts.
“NASA's Swift spacecraft is being readied for a mission to scan the sky for gamma-ray bursts, cosmic explosions that can burn with the intensity of billions of suns in less than a second. Researchers hope the mission will identify the events that trigger the bursts.” (Malik)
“The gamma rays were detected by NASA's Swift satellite at 2:12 a.m. "We'd never seen one before so bright and at such a distance," NASA's Neil Gehrels said. It was bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.” (Borenstein).
The burst of light given off by the star actually happened when the universe was only half its age. The reason for this delay is the incredible distance between the star and the Earth; the light from the explosion, even at its speed of 299, 792, 458 miles per second, took roughly seven and a half billion years to reach Earth. These numbers are staggering, as it proves just how unfathomable the size of our universe is. However, the truly thing amazing about the explosion was the fact that it was visible with the naked eye here on Earth. That means after traveling all that huge distance over billions of years, it still was bright enough to be seen with an unaided eye.
“The starburst would have appeared as bright as some of the stars in the handle of the Little Dipper constellation, said Penn State University astronomer David Burrows. How it looked wasn't remarkable, but the distance traveled was.” (Borenstein)
The reason the light given off by the exploding star was so intense and visible was that the star experienced what is known as a supernova.
“One of the most energetic explosive events known is a supernova. These occur at the end of a star's lifetime, when its nuclear fuel is exhausted and it is no longer supported by the release of nuclear energy. If the star is particularly massive, then its core will collapse and in so doing will release a huge amount of energy. This will cause a blast wave that ejects the star's envelope into interstellar space. The result of the collapse may be, in some cases, a rapidly rotating neutron star that can be observed many years later as a radio pulsar.” (Tyler)
As you can see, a supernova from a star forty times the size of our own sun would be a devastating force, destroying any matter in its path and giving off light and gamma rays that would be detectable some seven billion light years away.
“Before it exploded, the star was about 40 times bigger than our sun. The explosion vaporized any planet nearby, Gehrels said.” (Borenstein)
I believe this even holds significance for its scientific importance and for its humbling nature. The exploding star set a new world record for the most distant object that could be seen from Earth with the naked eye. This fact alone is mind-blowing, but it also provides us with a sense of perspective. Think about how fast the speed of light is. It is faster than anything in the universe and yet it still took over seven billion years to get here. That’s a one with nine zeros after it, and it’s not just days or months but full years. When faced with a distance such as that, it makes everything we do seem a little less important and it allows us to take a step back and realize just how small we, and our problems, are.
“Star Explodes Halfway Across the Universe.” Foxnews.com 21 March 2008. http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Mar21/0,4670,ExplodingStar,00.html
“The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission.” Heasarc.nasa.gov 3 November 2008. http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/swiftsc.html
“Supernova.” Heasarch.gsfc.nasa.gov 26 June 2003 http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/snr.htmlarch 2008.
Professor Yerkes
Comp 106
25 November 2008
Twinkle Twinkle
If you ask any English-speaking young child to sing you a nursery rhyme, I am willing to bet that at least half of them will start in with the melodious tunes of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. This fascination with the stars, however, is not age discriminative. The stars have captivated humans as long as they have been on this planet, sometimes dotting the midnight canopy with diamonds and providing a brilliant scene to gaze upon, and sometimes helping sailors find their way home. Whether your interest in stars is for their aesthetic value or is academic in nature, a recent event regarding a star forty times the size of our own sun is sure to pique your interest.
On Friday, March 21, 2008 at 2:12 a.m., the light from a star that exploded in a massive gamma-ray burst halfway across the known universe was detected by the NASA “Swift” satellite, which picks up gamma-ray bursts.
“NASA's Swift spacecraft is being readied for a mission to scan the sky for gamma-ray bursts, cosmic explosions that can burn with the intensity of billions of suns in less than a second. Researchers hope the mission will identify the events that trigger the bursts.” (Malik)
“The gamma rays were detected by NASA's Swift satellite at 2:12 a.m. "We'd never seen one before so bright and at such a distance," NASA's Neil Gehrels said. It was bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.” (Borenstein).
The burst of light given off by the star actually happened when the universe was only half its age. The reason for this delay is the incredible distance between the star and the Earth; the light from the explosion, even at its speed of 299, 792, 458 miles per second, took roughly seven and a half billion years to reach Earth. These numbers are staggering, as it proves just how unfathomable the size of our universe is. However, the truly thing amazing about the explosion was the fact that it was visible with the naked eye here on Earth. That means after traveling all that huge distance over billions of years, it still was bright enough to be seen with an unaided eye.
“The starburst would have appeared as bright as some of the stars in the handle of the Little Dipper constellation, said Penn State University astronomer David Burrows. How it looked wasn't remarkable, but the distance traveled was.” (Borenstein)
The reason the light given off by the exploding star was so intense and visible was that the star experienced what is known as a supernova.
“One of the most energetic explosive events known is a supernova. These occur at the end of a star's lifetime, when its nuclear fuel is exhausted and it is no longer supported by the release of nuclear energy. If the star is particularly massive, then its core will collapse and in so doing will release a huge amount of energy. This will cause a blast wave that ejects the star's envelope into interstellar space. The result of the collapse may be, in some cases, a rapidly rotating neutron star that can be observed many years later as a radio pulsar.” (Tyler)
As you can see, a supernova from a star forty times the size of our own sun would be a devastating force, destroying any matter in its path and giving off light and gamma rays that would be detectable some seven billion light years away.
“Before it exploded, the star was about 40 times bigger than our sun. The explosion vaporized any planet nearby, Gehrels said.” (Borenstein)
I believe this even holds significance for its scientific importance and for its humbling nature. The exploding star set a new world record for the most distant object that could be seen from Earth with the naked eye. This fact alone is mind-blowing, but it also provides us with a sense of perspective. Think about how fast the speed of light is. It is faster than anything in the universe and yet it still took over seven billion years to get here. That’s a one with nine zeros after it, and it’s not just days or months but full years. When faced with a distance such as that, it makes everything we do seem a little less important and it allows us to take a step back and realize just how small we, and our problems, are.
“Star Explodes Halfway Across the Universe.” Foxnews.com 21 March 2008. http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Mar21/0,4670,ExplodingStar,00.html
“The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission.” Heasarc.nasa.gov 3 November 2008. http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/swiftsc.html
“Supernova.” Heasarch.gsfc.nasa.gov 26 June 2003 http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/snr.htmlarch 2008.
