4.8 LAAAAST APOOD!

For my very last apod blog ever, I chose the photo entitled "The Ellusive Jellyfish Nebula". This is another photo which is in false color, although it looks pretty amazing. The photo also contains emission nebula Sharpless 249. The jellyfish nebula is 5,000 lightyears away from Earth. The colors come from the mapping of oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur. I'm gonna miss you next year Mr. Percieval! Astronomy was really fun! =)

4.6 apod

I chose the photo entitled "Jupiter from the Stratosphere". It is a picture of a real image of jupiter as well as a very colorful false image of the planet. Both images represent the planet sans the equatorial belt which can normally be seen in the upper hemisphere of the photo. Also one can see a tiny bit of jupiter's cloud tops because the clouds are transparent to infrared light.

1.7 apood blog

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

I love today's apod blog because there is actually a person in it! It's entitled "Calm, Crescent Moon, and Venus". The title describes the photo perfectly. The serene nighttime setting evokes a calming and peaceful feeling. The photo was taken by a lake called Vallentuna in Sweden. The crescent is beautiful because you can see the rest of the moon beside it as it shines brightly.

4.5 Apod Blog

I chose today's constellation photo called The Antenna because it mentions a constellation which we were quizzed on today, Corvus. However, the photo itself is of two galaxies within the constellation that collided. Resulting from the dust and gas clouds are two groups of star clusters. Although the title of the photo infers that the clusters look like an antenna, I actually think it looks more like a heart. Pretty!

INTERACTING GALAXIES!

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2009025c/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2009018a/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2001002a/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2008016az/
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/interacting/pr2010013f/

Margaret Gellar

Rania Shafie
Mr. Percieval
30th April, 2010
Astronomy Honors
Margaret Gellar
Margaret Gellar is an American born astronomer who masters in mapping galaxies in some of the farthest points in the universe that have ever been reached. Born in 1947 in Ithaca, New York, Margaret, who is still alive today, was brought up with an education in math and science. Her father was a scientist as well, who studied the formation of crystals, otherwise known as a crystallographer. When Margaret was just twenty eight years old she graduated from University of California with a PhD. She was always mainly interested in mapping galaxies. Her dissertation from the University of California was entitled, “Bright Galaxies in Rich Clusters: A Statistical Model for Magnitude Distributions.” After leaving the University, Gellar went on to be a research associate at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 1983, only eight years after writing her dissertation in California Margaret became an astrophysicist as well as a professor at Harvard.
Although Margaret Gellar’s academic accomplishments are notable as well as rare, her astronomical accomplishments are exceptional. Ever since the eighties Margaret has dedicated her career to mapping a large scale survey of galaxies, along with fellow astronomer John P. Huchra. Gellar and Huchra’s first publication regarding the mapping of galaxies occurred in 1986, and to the astronomical society’s surprise, their research presented a view that is now referred to as the “great wall”. This is a recording of countless galaxies which seem to be surrounded by incredibly thin bubble walls. The discrepancy, however, with the publication of the research is that the great wall is simply to large to have formed in any way which astronomers are aware. Some speculate that it is simply dark matter, which occupies the majority of our universe, which causes the discrepancy.
Margaret Gellar’s accomplishments are represented by the societies which she is currently apart of as well as awards which have been presented to her. She won what some refer to as the “genius award”. Officially the honor is referred to as the MacArthur fellowship, and she was presented with the honor in 1990. The very same year Gellar also received the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Astronomy organizations which Margaret is apart of include the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Today, Margaret continues to study the origin as well as evolution of galaxies, as well as map positions of the galaxies in the universe.

4.3=)

I chose the APOD blog "The extreme ultraviolet sun", because it's just so darn pretty! The photo, which appears strangely green and blue, was taken March 30th by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The view traces the hot plasma at temperature approaching one million kelvins. The Solar Dynamics Observatory is able to send 1.5 terabytes of data back every day, which is apparently equivalent to half a million songs on an MP3. The photo is also in falls color. Preeeetty!