Asteroids

                                                               Asteroids
     Asteroids are big space rocks. There are millions if not billions 
of asteroids in space. If they have the size of a planet, they are called planetoids. They are found in the inner and outer solar systems and  all throughout space. The first spotted asteroid is called Ceres. It was founded by an astronomer by the name of  Giuseppe Piazzi, and since it had the size of a planet, he thought that it was one. Later, astronomers found similar objects and they didn't classify them as planets. Instead, they called them the term "asteroids".
     The asteroid belt is a ring of clustered asteroids located between Mars and Jupiter, separating the inner and the outer planets. There is another belt known as the Kuiper Belt. It's near Pluto, and it contains of icy materials unlike the asteroid belt.
    There has been a lot of misunderstandings and I just wanted to clear it up. Meteoroids are small particles of asteroids. (Most of the time, they come from comets.) If they come close to the Earth's atmosphere, they are called meteors. Meteorites are the remains of the meteor that survived the Earth's atmosphere and are, later, found on Earth. Many people have trouble figuring out the difference between these terms, and I just wanted to tell you guys about it. (No idea who would debate about these things, but there are billions of people out there. There just has to be somebody. XD)       If you see tons of meteors going in "one direction" in the sky, it is possible that you have seen a meteor shower. They are caused by comets when they go near the sun. Bits of their icy material falls off causing the particles to float in space. If, by chance, a group of the particles are near the Earth, a meteor shower occurs.

Comets

                                Comets
     Comets are huge chunks of dusty ice in space. They have their own orbit course and it's very rare for humans to see one. Their orbit course is very long and it would usually be around the sun, because of the star's strong gravitational pull. Comets are basically made of ice, dust, and gases. Comets have a carbon-filled layer on the outside that protects the inside. You can call them dusty snowballs if you want. If one was ever to appear in our solar system at night, than, with telescopes, we could see a tail, called a coma, at its end. That's because of the sun's radiation on the comet, heating up its gases and ice, making it evaporate. Chunks of rock and dust close to the surface of the comet, begins to detach from its place and falls out. Vapor, dust, and the rocks cloud behind the nucleus, the comet, and follows it in its path. 
     Astronomers believe that comets come from the Oort Cloud and the scattered disc. Long term orbit comets, comets whose orbit period is 200 years or more, come from the Oort Cloud (the name was named after the Danish astronomer named Jan Oort) and short term orbit comets, comets whose orbit period is 200 years or less, come from the scattered disc. Jan Oort hypothesized that there is a cloud of ice way beyond Pluto and it contains millions if not billions of comets. The scattered disc is a place where many icy dwarf planets, such as Pluto, populate. Astronomers believe that comets originated from the scattered disc due to all of the icy materials and substances in that place.

Halley's Comet

    There is a comet known as the Halley's Comet. (I'm sure you all know this comet.) This comet travels for a short time in a short orbit around this galaxy. It only takes about 75-76 years for it to be visible to the people on Earth to see it with the naked eye. If your lucky, you can see it twice in your lifetime. Many people feel that this comet is very unlucky and it can cause many horrible things to happen. I, for one, feels very sorry for Halley. I mean, it's not its fault that you had a bad day. The only thing you can blame is yourself.

Stars

                                                  Stars  
    If you went online and searched up "stars" the articles that pop up will be filled with words and sentences that a normal grade and/or middle school-er wouldn't understand. Now I'm going to try and change that. 
     On Earth, in the city, we can see very little stars in the sky. The reason behind this is that we have a ton of city lights that block our eyesight from seeing the bright stars. If we go into the country-side, we would see numerous amounts of stars since there is not a lot of light in the rural areas. 
    Stars can be born in several different types of nebulae. One type of nebulae is called an emission nebula. It's the most brightest and colorful nebula due to its different color gases and dust. 

Binary Stars

    Stars are made with the gases and dust in the nebulae. With a sudden jolt, the gases and dust begins to crash into each other making the center of the collision heat up. The hot center is called a protostar, and someday, it will become a star. Now , you may all think that the shining stars are just alone and individual. But that is not true. During the collision of the gases and dust, they sometimes divide into 2 - 4 stars. These groups are called binary stars. So when you look up in the sky and you see a star, think that maybe it's not just one, but multiples of stars grouped together. (Sometimes the separated parts, when forming the star, can actually become a planet, comet, or an asteroid.)
     Stars are made of mostly hydrogen and helium. In the core of our sun, scientists predicted that it has something known as plasma, this mixture of electrons and protons that were pulled apart by the hydrogen atoms. Astronomers think that the plasma is about 15 million degrees Celsius.
     According to astronomers, the stars brightness depends on  the surface temperature of the star. The hottest star is the blue star and the coolest is the red dwarf star. 
     As time passes, the stars become old and they become white dwarfs. White dwarfs are about the size of Earth. It, the white dwarf, keeps itself intact, unbroken, and from collapsing by high speed electrons moving all around it. Our sun will become one, billions of years from now.

Supernova

     The bigger the star, the faster it will die; However, the stars still live for a very long time. Stars die in a super huge explosion called supernova which is when the star's core collapses and explodes. 
    After the explosion, a neutron star or a black hole may appear. If the core of a supernova is about 1.4 to 3 solar masses, weight of the star, the protons and electrons continues and forms into neutrons. This process creates neutron stars. If the solar mass of the core is more than 3, then the core becomes a black hole.
     After the supernova, the gases and dust remains gets reused and the process of forming a star begins again. 
     
      

The Milky Way Galaxy

                                        The Milky Way Galaxy
    The Milky Way is the name of our galaxy. It contains of billions of stars, 8 planets, an asteroid belt, black holes, gas and dust, comets, and many other celestial things. This galaxy is a spiraled galaxy with a big bump in the middle with 4 spiral arms. 
    Many people might not know this but galaxies are moving, including ours. Our solar system is moving with the Milky Way along with the things this galaxy contains. Our solar system moves at a tremendous speed of 828,000 km. per hour, circulating the whole galaxy in 230 million years. 
    In the middle of the galaxy, there is something called the galactic bulge which contains a ton of stars, gas, and dust. The gas and dust covers so much space of the bulge making humans unable to see a lot of the stars in the galaxy. In the very center of the bulge, there is a humongous black hole. It is WAY bigger than the sun and it feeds on the stars, gases, and dusts that goes in its path,  growing huger and huger. 

Andromeda  (left) Milky Way (right)

    Now, based on the fact that galaxies do move, what do you think is going to happen? (Hint: There is a galaxy very close to ours called the Andromeda Galaxy...and it's heading our way.) Answer: Our galaxy is going to clash and collide into it. Now, don't worry. I know it's hard to take in, but it's not 'till 4 billion years later when that happens. So we are fine... for now. Remember, our sun is also a star. That means it will die at some point in time. Scientists calculated that before Milky Way and Andromeda clash course, the sun would have already begin dying and it would make our solar system inhabitable. Surprised?
    I have been thinking about our future for the past few days. What will happen to our solar system after the sun dies? Will there be another type of organism that will strive and live after the collision of the two galaxies? But I can't answer those questions. I don't think anyone can...

•     Our solar system contains of 8 planets and 3 dwarf planets. For all you starters out there, the sun is in the middle while the following planets and 3 dwarf planets spin around it: 1. Mercury 2. Venus 3. Earth 4. Mars 5. Jupiter 6. Saturn 7. Uranus (lol) 8. Neptune 9. Pluto 10. Ceres 11. Eris. An asteroid belt divides the inner and the outer planets starting from Jupiter. (My favorite planet is Saturn. Don't know why.)
•      Stars are hot spherical shaped objects in space and are made of about 70% hydrogen, 25% helium, and 5% of other elements. Stars that are red are called red giants. They are the least hot of all the different colored stars. Blue stars are the hottest of all stars.
•     Black holes are like HUMONGOUS vacuums in space. Nobody knows where you go to when you get sucked into it. That's the scary part about black holes. I think that the only good part about them are that they keep space clean. (lol)

BLACK HOLE

  

Technology For Astronomers and Astronauts

Technology

   A lot of people who are interested in science, have a habit of not paying attention to the technologies scientists use to do their experiments and/or research. I’m one of those people so researching and writing about scientist’s (mainly astronomer’s) technologies is going to be hard. On the other hand, scientists can go on and on about the technologies that they use. Scientists use technology so much that they feel like technology is part of their daily routine and life.

·       Satellites are used by all kinds of scientists. They help scientists by taking pictures of the Earth or any other extraterrestrial things. Satellites are also used for communication. Telephone lines, television shows,  GPS signals, and many more need satellites in order to perform their activities.

·       Radio interferometers are used by astronomers to study celestial (space) objects. Large antennas send radio waves into space, making an image out of the object that is blocking the way of the waves.

·       Robots are very important for astronomers. Mobile robots can travel to places where humans cannot in space. They take pictures and send them to the scientists. Human-like robots were made to perform daily tasks of the astronauts.

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·       Spectrographs are used by astronomers to measure the spectra, meaning the light waves, of stars and galaxies.

·       Computers help astronomers by it having useful tools and apps that the scientists can use to study space, like Microsoft Windows for example.

·       Space shuttles help astronauts travel to places in space to take a closer look at things.

·       Telescopes are very important to astronomers, but I’m sure that you all know what they help scientists do. The Hubble Telescope is a telescope made to perform the same tasks as a satellite, but also works as a telescope. (No idea why they can’t just call it the Hubble Satellite.) 

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The Basics About Space

                      

                                                        The Basics About Space

      Space is a place in the universe where stars, planets, meteors, asteroids, black holes, and many more extraterrestrial things float non-stop due to zero gravity. Since there is no air in space, no known living organisms live in it. Also, there is no way to communicate with each other since sound cannot be carried through space. In our solar system, the Milky Way Galaxy, we have one star called the sun and 8 planets that orbit the yellow star due to its gravitational pull. Our solar system is just a tiny part of space. There are billions and trillions more galaxies out there that scientists haven't discovered, yet. There are spiral ones, circular ones, just plain irregular shaped ones, and many more kinds of galaxy shapes. 

    The theory of Big Bang is about how our whole universe was created. Big Bang states that the whole universe started at one point and then expanded. Scientists calculated that the universe started about 13.8 billion years ago. Astronomers, today, are still trying to find the answers to the thousands if not millions of questions that had not been answered yet. But through time and as knowledge grows through the generations, questions might be answered. Scientists might figure out a way for humans to live in Mars. We might even see aliens coming to our planet and try to take over it. (JK) But as far as I'm concerned, we all just need to be patient and let time be the tunnel to victory.