Double Cluster in Perseus

Depicted in the lower center of the photo are two double clusters which are seen spanning roughtly 3.5 degrees across the constellation Perseus. The names of these clusters are h and Chi Persei. The contents of the clusters are much hotter and younger stars than we have in our sun. We estimate that the clusters are roughly 7,000 light years away from us. The stars in the clusters are probably 13 million years old. The red areas in the photo represent the hydrogen clouds surrounding the stars. The hydrogen is emitted from the stars.

Spitzer's Orion

This is a beautiful false color image of the stellar nusery, Orion's Belt which is located some 1,500 million light years away from Earth. The brighter region in the center of this infared photo shows the Trapezium Cluster which is the group of young, hot, massive stars in the nebula. Orion's Belt is its own constellation as well as being a part of the constellation Orion itself.

Resources for Third Quarter Biography: Karl Schwarzchild

"Schwarzschild's Spacetime:Introducing the Black Hole." The Light Cone:
The Schwarzschild Black Hole. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/modules/LIGHTCONE/schwarzschild.html.

"Karl Schwarzschild." Karl Schwarzschild. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. http://www.nndb.com/people/713/000168209/.

Weisstein, Eric. "Schwarzschild, Karl (1873-1916) -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography." Schwarzschild, Karl (1873-1916). Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Schwarzschild.html>.

"Jeremiah Horrocks Cont" refrence

         Work Cited 

"No. 2222: Jeremiah Horrocks." No. 2222: Jeremiah Horrocks. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

Big Star Bubble

This massive star bubble is located roughly 5,200 light years away from us here on Earth. A star bubble is the composition of hot gasses blown away by a really hot star. We assume it covers slightly more area the full moon does in our sky which may seem small to us but in actuality, that is roughly 60 light years in diameter. It is located near the constellation Canis Major and is assumed to have come from a "Wolf-Rayet star". Based on its color and size, scientists believe that the bubble is composed mainly of oxygen ions and is roughly 70,000 years old.  

Jeremiah Horrocks Cont.

Well known as the "father of British Astronomy", Jeremiah Horrocks, an esteemed astronomer accredited with the discovery of the transit of Venus, received his first telescope almost 30 years after the Dutch invention. Interestingly enough, Horrocks was also a noted poet.

Divine the hand which to Urania's power
Triumphant raised the trophy, which on man
Hath first bestowed the wondrous tube by art
Invented, and in noble daring taught
His mortal eyes to scan the furthest heavens.

The poem above reflects his admiration for the invention of the telescope and its uses in society to further the worldly knowledge of the universe. Despite his extensive education at Cambridge, Horrocks used his gift at home where he studied astronomy and truly made something of himself. 

It seemed as though everything about Horrocks was contradictory. He was a scientist and an artist, he had an extensive education but applied his knowledge outside the confines of the University, yet the most pertinent of his contradictory actions was his very distinct Puritan belief system greatly opposed his agreement with Ptolemy's heliocentric model of the universe. It was from all of these contradictions that Horrocks grew passionate about science and astronomy. He used Newtonian Calculus as well as other applied theories created by noted astronomers to calculate that the sun was in fact 60 million miles away from the Earth. Granted this was off by a factor of about 30 million miles, he still had the closest estimation thus far in the field of astronomy.

This lead to the "Horricks's Law" which stated that because of the massive expanse between the sun and each planet, along with relative size, all planets should appear the same size when viewed from the surface of the sun.