Dr. Charles Ippolito January 4, 2010
Massive Black Hole Implicated in Stellar Destruction
link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104120148.htm
Scientists from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory believe that a star has recently been destroyed by a big black hole. The scientists suggest that this black hole is much more massive than the Sun. Supposedly a thousand times as massive. These Chandra observations showed a source of X-rays in a cluster of stars and mysterious elements which were in the emissions of X-rays. It is believed that these X-rays are part of the "ultralimonous X-ray source" or ULX category. This would mean that the ULX is more luminant than any stellar X-ray source but its less luminous than the bright X-ray sources that have to do with massive black holes. However the nature of the ultralimonous X-ray sources is still a mystery. The ULX source that was believed to be seen was in a cluster of old stars. Jimmy Irwin of the University of Alabama led the study. Him and his colleagues were able to pick up an optical spectra of the cluster using Magellan 1 and 2 telescopes in Las Campanas, Chile. The data showed emission from gas that had oxygen and nitrogen but not hydrogen. They believe that the gas is orbiting a black hole that has at least 1000 solar masses. Irwin concluded that the destroyed star was a white dwarf.
This article is important for kids who are studying astronomy and chemistry, It teaches about line spectras and how they can be used to identify gases when they are obtained. This current events article is important to me because I had no idea that X-rays, which contain large amounts of energy, could be found in clusters of stars.
I didnt enjoy this article too much. Although it did teach me more about astronomy. When I first came across it it seemed interesting, but I didn't find it very attention grabbing while I was reading it. It isn't the type of article that I would enjoy reading.
NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. "Massive Black Hole Implicated in Stellar Destruction." ScienceDaily 4 January 2010. 4 January 2010
Nick did a an excellent job reviewing this article. He explained the situation with the black hole in a way which made us know the facts of where, what, when, who, why, and how. He explained the problem with the black hole well because he described what the black hole did. He also, described the founders and how they found the black hole.
ReplyDeleteNick could've talked more about what this black hole could do in the future. And, Nick could've described the black hole a little bit more.
Astronomy is one of my favorite science's, so I would like to learn more about this problem.
1) Nick did an excellent job of stating how the black hole was discovered. The black hole was found by the Chandra x-ray observatory. Another thing Nick did well, was he explained the importance of the black hole. The black hole is important, because the black hole is more massive than the sun and could destroy everything. Finally, Nick was descriptive on the size of the black hole. The black hole is a thousand times larger than the sun.
ReplyDelete2) A thing Nick could improve on is explaining what an ultralimonous X-ray source is. This seems important, because this is the category that the x-rays are found. Finally, nick could explain who Jimmy Irwin is. Nick states he is a professor at the University of Alabama and is leading the project. Next time, Nick could explain past achievements of Irwin.
1) I was suprised that this large black hole is not in the news. The black hole is larger than the sun and in my opinion a threat.
Three things about this article that Nick did well were, he included great detail on how black hole was found. He also described the great problem with the black hole and also described that it destroyed a white dwarf star. Two things Nick could have done better were explain more about Irwin and describe in better detail the importance of the white dwarf star. One thing I learned about this article was the destructive ability a black hole has.
ReplyDeleteLouis Florio
Comment on Blog
1/6/10
I thought Nicks topic was very interesting. He explained the article so that it was easy to understand. I also think that the depth he went into was good because it was enough for everybody to understand his topic. I had a little trouble hearing Nick. I also though he could've explained how the scientists found the star better. I was amazed that a single star could impact the earth in such a big way.
ReplyDeleteNick did a wonderful job presenting his article this week. One thing he executed well was telling us how the black hole was founded. He told us the dangers of the black hole and how it destroyed a white star as well. Two things he could've done better was explaining a white dwarf star and explain in greater detail how it was so dangerous through a more thorough example. This article was a more interesting current events we have had in a while and i believe it was interesting to find out they really cause damage.
ReplyDeleteI think that Nick did a very good job in clearly explaining what and where the black hole is. He also gave us a good description of how the black hole was discovered. Lastly I liked how he gave us a simple way of explaining how powerful the black hole is and how it could easily destroy everything because it is a thousand times bigger then even the sun.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think that Nick could have gone into more depth on is what the black hole could do in the future. Also I was confused about what ultralimonous X-ray sources are, he was very vague about that.
One thing I found very interesting about this article was the destructive abilities of the black hole and I was surprised to hear that they do not report about it on the news.