The Formation of Circumbinary Planets

Kepler-34(AB)b is a circumbinary planet, which means it orbits two planets instead of one. The formation of such planets are rare. The presence of them is also not common due to the fact that "powerful gravitational perturbations from the two stars on the rocky building blocks of planets lead to destructive collisions that grind down the material."

The Astrophysical Journal Letters published a research article in which they mentioned how Dr. Zoe Leinhardt and assistants from Bristol's School of Physics  have made computer simulations of how planets form and the early stages of the formation around binary stars. They used complex models that calculate the effects gravity has and the physical collisions between building blocks of planets. They discovered that maybe these planets weren't formed there but must have moved there with time.  

As Dr Leinhardt quoted: "Our simulations show that the circumbinary disk is a hostile environment even for large, gravitationally strong objects. Taking into account data on collisions as well as the physical growth rate of planets, we found that Kepler 34(AB)b would have struggled to grow where we find it now."

"Circumbinary planets have captured the imagination of many science-fiction writers and film-makers -- our research shows just how remarkable such planets are. Understanding more about where they form will assist future exoplanet discovery missions in the hunt for earth-like planets in binary star systems." (Stefan Lines, author of this study.)

"One Planet, Two Stars: New Research Shows How Circumbinary Planets Form."ScienceDaily.                                   ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.<http://www.sciencedaily.com
                  /releases/2014/01/140131130757.htm>.

Newly Discovered Asteroid Missed Earth but will Return in 2032

Recently, an asteroid made a close pass (in astronomical terms) by Earth. It was newly discovered and it is probable that it will return in 2032, although there is just a really small chance that it will crash the Earth or even create an impact crater according to NASA. It is said that it is a one in 63,000 chance that it will hit Earth.

The asteroid is known as 2013 TV135. It passed 4.2 million miles or 6.7 million km from Earth this past Wednesday according to the U.S. Space Agency.

Astronomers from the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Ukraine discovered it on October 8th.
Don Yeomans who is the manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California said "To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent."

More information about the asteroid is being presented next week.

They believe the asteroid is 1,300 feet in size.

The "Spaceguard" or the Near-Earth Object Observation Program tracks asteroids and comets that go by Earth to see if any could cause harm to be able to find a solution and avoid a natural catastrophe.

This asteroid is one of the 10,332 near-Earth objects that have been identified so far.

MLA Citation:
"Newly Discovered Asteroid Missed Earth but Will Return in 2032." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 29 Apr.
0000. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. http://news.yahoo.com/newly-discovered-asteroid-missed-earth- return-2032-193217461.html.

Biggest Star Ever Found Is Ripping Apart

The biggest star ever found by scientists is called the W26. It is even bigger tan the sun! This star is

1,500 times wider than the sun. The star is nearly dying, since the bigger the star, the faster they die.


Officials with the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in the U.K. said in a statement. "Some of the

most massive stars have lifetimes of less than a few million years before they exhaust their nuclear

fuel and explode as supernovas. At the very ends of their lives these stars become highly unstable and

eject a considerable amount of material from their outer envelopes."


The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Survey Telescope (VST) in Chile is

being used by astronomers to study the Westerlund 1, a large cluster of stars in the Milky Way

Galaxy about 16,000 light years from Earth. W26 is one of the stars in this collection of stars.


The W26 is surrounded by a cloud of hydrogen which is the first "ionized nebula" found around one of those stars.



MLA Citation:

Miriam Kramer, Staff. "Biggest Star Ever Found Is Ripping Apart." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 30 

             Oct. 0000. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. <http://news.yahoo.com/biggest-star-ever-found-ripping-apart-photo-135019188.html>.

Seeking the Loneliest Whale

Scientists, have found out that there is a lonely whale in the North Pacific. Nobody has seen it but the
whale's 52- Hertz calls have revealed it's existance. This high pitch has been recorded by even the
U.S. Navy since 1989. It is believed the whale is a male since it's pitch is only heard during mating
season. Scientists know the whale isn't in a group because the whale goes through doesn't match
groups' paths. It appears to be healthy because it has swam as much as 11,000 kilometers in a season.



Bruce Mate, who is the director of the Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute in
Newport will try to find the whale in an expedition next year. He thinks it's not the last member of an
endagered or extinct species. He thinks it might be a hybrid, a mix of two species. The expedition
will be documented by filmmakers. He said "We're trying to track these whales from the season we
know to the season that we don't. There hasn't been an experiment yet where we didn't have "an 'a-ha'
moment."




MLA FORMAT:

 

Perkins, Sid. "People: The Science Life: Seeking The Loneliest Whale." Science News 184.6 (2013): 

 

              32. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

Voyager 1

Voyager 1 made it out of the solar system more tan a year ago and is now 13 billion miles (21 billion km), which makes the distance farther tan from the earth to the sun.

Scientists believe Voyager 1 made it out of the solar system in August 2012. That summer, Voyager 1 sent back loads of information about galactic cosmic rays from outside the solar system.

Last year, scientists concluded that Voyager had reached interstellar space and was still recording measurements from magnetic fields that were similar to those of the sun.

A phycisist from University of Alabama in Huntsville called Gary Zank said
"The magnetic field is still something that puzzles us considerably."

"Scientists now believe the interstellar magnetic field is somehow draped around and twisted by the heliosphere, the bubble of space under the sun's influence."

Voyager 1 has a sister spacecraft called Voyager 2.



Klotz, Irene. Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 30 Dec. -0001. Web. 12 Sept. 2013. <http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-confirm-voyager-1-probe-interstellar-space-204809737.html>.

NASA Robotic Spacecraft Lifts Off to Probe Lunar Dust

NASA sent a small satellite to the moon on Friday at 11:27 pm EDT from the Virginia coast. The satellite was sent with an "unmanned" rocket.  LADEE or Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer is designed to look for dust coming from the lunar surface, which is a mystery reported decades ago by Apollo astronauts. This is the first time in 40 years that NASA has the opportunity to research this phenomenon.

LADEE will explore the moon's atmosphere from an orbit of 31 miles above the lunar surface. "The tenuous atmosphere, which contains argon, helium, sodium, potassium and other elements, may hold clues about how water came to be trapped inside craters on the moon's frozen poles." The moon's atmosphere however, is more delicate tan ours.

The mission will take 30 days and includes three passes around Earth timed perfectly so that in the final orbit LADEE will be able to capture the moon's gravity.

"The $280 million mission is expected to last about six months."

Citation:
Klotz, Irene. Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 06 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.   <http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-robotic-spacecraft-lifts-off-probe-lunar-dust-035827410--finance.html>.

Niels Bohr

Here is a prezi to inform about the atomic model, life and career, theories, and experiments of Niels Bohr.
By: Lucia Hasfura, Daniella Chicas (http://daniellachicaschemistryblog.blogspot.com/) and Adriana Guevara (http://adriguevarachemistry.blogspot.com/)
Here's the link: Niels Bohr Prezi