Star Clusters - Articles - Zimbio

Astronomers Simulate Life And Death In The Universe

Mon, 30 Oct 2007 09:07:00 GMT

posted by spaceman0

Stars always evolve in the universe in large groups, known as clusters. Astronomers distinguish these formations by their age and size. The question of how star clusters are created from interstellar gas clouds and why they then develop in different ways has now been answered by researchers at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn with the aid of computer simulations. The scientists have solved -- at least at a theoretical level -- one of the oldest astronomical puzzles, namely the question of whether star clusters differ in their internal structure.

Astronomical observations have shown that all stars are formed in star clusters. Astronomers distinguish between, on the one hand, small and, by astronomical standards, young star clusters ranging in number from several hundred to several thousand stars and, on the other, large high-density globular star clusters consisting of as many as ten million tightly packed stars which are as old as the universe. No one knows how many star clusters there might be of each type, because scientists have not previously managed to fully compute the physical processes behind their genesis.

Stars and star clusters are formed as interstellar gas clouds collapse. Within these increasingly dense clouds, individual "lumps" emerge which, under their own gravitational pull, draw ever closer together and finally become stars. Similar to our "solar wind", the stars send out strong streams of charged particles. These "winds" literally sweep out the remaining gas from the cloud. What remains is a cluster that gradually disintegrates until its component stars can move freely in the interstellar space of the Milky Way.

Scientists believe that our own sun arose within a small star cluster which disintegrated in the course of its development. "Otherwise our planetary system would probably have been destroyed by a star moving close by," says Professor Dr. Pavel Kroupa of the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at Bonn University. In order to achieve a better understanding of the birth and death of stellar aggregations Professor Kroupa and Dr. Holger Baumgardt have developed a computer programme that simulates the influence of the gases remaining in a cluster on the paths taken by stars.

Heavy star clusters live longer

The main focus of this research has been on the question of what the initial conditions must look like if a new-born star cluster is to survive for a long time. The Bonn astronomers discovered that clusters below a certain size are very easily destroyed by the radiation of their component stars. Heavy star clusters, on the other hand, enjoy significantly better "survival chances".

For astronomers, another important insight from this work is that both light and heavy star clusters do have the same origins. As Professor Kroupa explains, "It seems that when the universe was born there were not only globular clusters but also countless mini star clusters. A challenge now for astrophysics is to find their remains." The computations in Bonn have paved the way for this search by providing some valuable theoretical pointers.

The Argelander Institute has recently been equipped with five "GRAPE Computers", which operate at speeds 1,000 times higher than normal PCs. They are being deployed not only in research but also for research-related teaching: "Thanks to the GRAPE facilities, our students and junior academics are learning to exploit the power of supercomputers and the software developed specially for them." The Argelander Institute is regarded world-wide as a Mecca for the computation of stellar processes. Despite their enormous calculating capacity, the machines require several weeks to complete the simulation.

Glittering star cluster is galactic heavyweight

Fri, 6 Oct 2007 08:11:00 GMT

posted by spaceman0

One of the galaxy's most massive young star clusters is revealed in a stunning new image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The cluster of thousands of stars lies 20,000 light years from Earth in the Carina spiral arm of our galaxy. It is embedded in a star-forming nebula called NGC 3603, a cloud of gas and dust with enough material to form 400,000 stars like the Sun. Watch a video zooming in on the star cluster's location in the sky by clicking on the image at right.

Most of the bright stars in the image are very hot and massive. Their radiation and stellar winds have blown out a large cavity in the nebula around them.

The three brightest ones at the heart of the cluster had previously appeared to be more massive than theory allows. But the Hubble investigation, hints that each of these objects may actually be a blurring of light from two or more individual stars that are too close together to be observed as separate objects.

Previous measurements by Hubble and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile had come to the same conclusion for two of these star systems, indicating that the heaviest star involved is as massive as 114 Suns, which is at the borderline of what some theoretical models allow.

The new investigation also indicates that the most massive stars have gathered at the cluster's centre, something that has previously been observed in more massive groupings called globular star clusters. Globular clusters behave like cosmic sorting machines. Over time, interactions between the stars cause the most massive ones to settle near the centre of clusters, while less massive stars stay farther out.

Also appearing in the image are some dark and extremely cold "Bok globules" at top right. Bok globules are dense clouds of dust and gas with between 10 and 50 times the mass of the Sun. Among the coldest objects known in the universe, with temperatures just a few degrees above absolute zero, they are thought to be condensing and on their way to forming new stars.

Kabah shining like stars

Wed, 2 Oct 2008 18:12:00 GMT

posted by jobislands
When I googling sentence of “miracle of kabah”, I found the following images of Kabah were taken using IKONOS satellite on December, 1999 and obtained from www.spaceimaging.com like this:

I try to go to www.spaceimaging.com , but unfortunately, the pages had changed and redirect to URL GeoEye.com, the world’s largest space imaging corporation. Then I try to www.wikimapia.org and typed “kabah” in search form and the results is an image shining of Kabah area, but out of Kabah area are dark.

The link is here :
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=21.4225247&lon=39.8262039&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2&search=makkah

SPACENOODLES.COM: IT IS SIX BILLION BC IN THE CENTAURI GLOBULAR STAR CLUSTER, NGC5139, AND A WEAKER BINARY STAR JUST WENT NOVA SCATTERING PLANETARY DEBRIS IN TO INTERSTELLAR SPACE…

Sat, 2 Mar 2008 18:41:48 GMT

posted by spacenoodles

Six billion years ago…. In WWW.SPACENOODLES.COM we find the weaker of two binary stars has gone nova in the Centauri Globular Star Cluster, NGC5139, scattering planetary debris in all directions of the Delta Prime sector.

One of the four planets in this binary system is the Little Green Planet home to a race of people who are intelligent plant life and their affectionate name is Little Green People ( LGP).

Their planet destroyed, they are no more and a whole race of people has just been wiped out, rendered to extinction by cosmic violence…but wait..maybe not.

Their DNA, locked in to super nova debris, has been winging across the void of interstellar space for millions of years and now has randomly landed on New Terra, a sister planet some six light years away.

Some of the debris from this exploding binary star has gone in to orbit about planet New Terra forming a moon.

This newly formed moon is helping to bring up necessary nutrients, with it’s strong gravitational attraction, from deep in New Terra’s planetary crust.

The sister planet, New Terra, is just beginning life and only has simple blue green algae evolving.

But…the blue green algae is of a genus that it is compatible with Little Green People’s DNA and now they have begun to regenerate and in a few million years will have evolved back to about 80% of their original physiological structure.

Their evolution will continue on because they were one of the solar systems, within a small star cluster of 13 stars, close enough for the continuation of life to regenerate on a new world.

We on Planet Earth have no such fail safe planetary system to go to.

At the end of our star’s life, in about 4.5 billion years, the Earth and all of the planets in our solar system will perish in a fire ball of unimaginable cosmic violence.

The Sun’s final days of life will result in a dimly lighted small burned out cinder called a white dwarf that will aimlessly drift out in to the void of interstellar space no longer the mighty star that gave us life.

See Hank Curci’s fun online store at:

WWW.SPACENOODLES.COM/SHOP.ASP

Chat with Hank at:

hcurci@hotmail.com

….END TRANSMISSION…

�

SPACENOODLES.COM: IT IS SIX BILLION BC IN THE CENTAURI GLOBULAR STAR CLUSTER, NGC5139…PLANET EARTH WONT BE FORMED FOR ANOTHER TWO BILLION YEARS…. A WEAKER BINARY STAR JUST WENT NOVA SCATTERING PLANETARY DEBRIS IN TO INSTELLAR SPACE…

Wed, 27 Mar 2008 17:56:16 GMT

posted by spacenoodles

In WWW.SPACENOODLES.COM we find the weaker of two binary stars exploding??in the Centauri Globular Star??Cluster, NGC5139,??scattering planetary debris in all directions of the Delta Prime sector.

One of??the four planets in this binary system is the Little Green Planet home to a race of people who are intelligent plant life and their affectionate name is Little Green People ( LGP).

Their planet destroyed, they are no more and a whole race of people has just been wiped out, rendered to extinction by cosmic violence…but wait..maybe not.

Their DNA, winging across the void of interstellar space for thousands??of??years,??has now??randomly landed on, New Terra,??a sister planet some six light years away.

Some of the debris from this exploding binary star has gone in to orbit about planet New Terra forming a moon.

This newly formed moon is helping to bring up necessary nutrients, with it’s strong gravitational attraction,??from deep in New Terra’s planetary crust.

The sister planet, New Terra, is just beginning life and only has simple blue green algae evolving.

But…the blue green algae is of a genus that it is compatible with Little Green People’s DNA and now they have begun to regenerate and in a few million years will have??evolved back to about 80% of their original??physiological structure.

Their evolution will continue on because they were??one of the solar systems, within a small star cluster of 13 stars,?? close enough for the continuation of life to regenerate on a new world.

We on Planet Earth have no such fail safe planetary system to go to.

At??the end of our star’s life, in about 4.5 billion years,??the Earth and??all of the planets in our??solar system will perish in a fire ball of unimaginable cosmic violence.

See Hank Curci’s fun online store at:

WWW.SPACENOODLES.COM/SHOP.ASP

Chat with Hank at:

??????hcurci@hotmail.com

???????? ….END TRANSMISSION…???