A Sense Of Planetary Scale

Blogger Brad Goodspeed created an animation which shows different planets in our solar system as they would appear in the sky if it shared an orbit with our Moon, 380,000 km from earth. On his blog, he said he created it “to make you feel small.”

Source: Brad Goodspeed

Hubble Discovers Most Distant Galaxy Yet!

Hubble Ultra Deep Field - Part D

No Princess is sending holographic help messages. No Hans Solo is warming up a Millenium Falcon to jump into hyperdrive. We don’t even have a Death Star waiting around the corner. But, what we do have is evidence that astronomers have pushed the Hubble Space Telescope to its limits and have seen further back in time than ever before. “We are looking back through 96% of the life of the universe, and in so doing, we have found just one galaxy, but it is one, but it is a remarkable object. The universe was only 500 million years old at that time versus it now being thirteen thousand-seven hundred million years old. ” said Garth Illingworth, Ames Research Scientist. We know about the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, but we invite you to boldy go on…

While studying ultra-deep imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope, an international group of astronomers have found what may be the most distant galaxy ever seen, about 13.2 billion light-years away. “Two years ago, a powerful new camera was put on Hubble, a camera which works in the infrared which we had never really good capability before, and we have now taken the deepest image of the universe ever using this camera in the infrared.” said Garth Illingworth, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “We’re getting back very close to the first galaxies, which we think formed around 200 to 300 million years after the Big Bang.” The study pushed the limits of Hubble’s capabilities, extending its reach back to about 480 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was just 4 percent of its current age. The dim object, called UDFj-39546284, is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the Big Bang, only four percent of the universe’s current age. It is tiny. Over one hundred such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way.

The farthest and one of the very earliest galaxies ever seen in the universe appears as a faint red blob in this ultra-deep–field exposure taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This is the deepest infrared image taken of the universe. Based on the object's color, astronomers believe it is 13.2 billion light-years away. (Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team)

Illingworth and UCSC astronomer Rychard Bouwens (now at Leiden University in the Netherlands) led the study, which will be published in the January 27 issue of Nature. Using infrared data gathered by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 (WFC3), they were able to see dramatic changes in galaxies over a period from about 480 to 650 million years after the Big Bang. The rate of star birth in the universe increased by ten times during this 170-million-year period, Illingworth said. “This is an astonishing increase in such a short period, just 1 percent of the current age of the universe,” he said. There were also striking changes in the numbers of galaxies detected. “Our previous searches had found 47 galaxies at somewhat later times when the universe was about 650 million years old. However, we could only find one galaxy candidate just 170 million years earlier,” Illingworth said. “The universe was changing very quickly in a short amount of time.”

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field WFC3/IR Image. This Region of the Sky Contains the Deepest Optical and Near-Infrared Images Ever Taken of the Universe and is useful for finding star-forming galaxies at redshifts 8 and 10 (650 and 500 million years after the Big Bang, respectively). At UCSC and Leiden, we are using these data to better understand the properties of the first galaxies. Credit: Bouwen

According to Bouwens, these findings are consistent with the hierarchical picture of galaxy formation, in which galaxies grew and merged under the gravitational influence of dark matter. “We see a very rapid build-up of galaxies around this time,” he said. “For the first time now, we can make realistic statements about how the galaxy population changed during this period and provide meaningful constraints for models of galaxy formation.” Astronomers gauge the distance of an object from its redshift, a measure of how much the expansion of space has stretched the light from an object to longer (“redder”) wavelengths. The newly detected galaxy has a likely redshift value (“z”) of 10.3, which corresponds to an object that emitted the light we now see 13.2 billion years ago, just 480 million years after the birth of the universe. “This result is on the edge of our capabilities, but we spent months doing tests to confirm it, so we now feel pretty confident,” Illingworth said.

The galaxy, a faint smudge of starlight in the Hubble images, is tiny compared to the massive galaxies seen in the local universe. Our own Milky Way, for example, is more than 100 times larger. The researchers also described three other galaxies with redshifts greater than 8.3. The study involved a thorough search of data collected from deep imaging of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), a small patch of sky about one-tenth the size of the Moon. During two four-day stretches in summer 2009 and summer 2010, Hubble focused on one tiny spot in the HUDF for a total exposure of 87 hours with the WFC3 infrared camera.

“NASA continues to reach for new heights, and this latest Hubble discovery will deepen our understanding of the universe and benefit generations to come,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who was the pilot of the space shuttle mission that carried Hubble to orbit. “We could only dream when we launched Hubble more than 20 years ago that it would have the ability to make these types of groundbreaking discoveries and rewrite textbooks.”

To go beyond redshift 10, astronomers will have to wait for Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which NASA plans to launch later this decade. JWST will also be able to perform the spectroscopic measurements needed to confirm the reported galaxy at redshift 10. “It’s going to take JWST to do more work at higher redshifts. This study at least tells us that there are objects around at redshift 10 and that the first galaxies must have formed earlier than that,” Illingworth said.

“After 20 years of opening our eyes to the universe around us, Hubble continues to awe and surprise astronomers,” said Jon Morse, NASA’s Astrophysics Division director at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “It now offers a tantalizing look at the very edge of the known universe — a frontier NASA strives to explore.” How far back will we go? If you sit around a campfire watching the embers climb skywards and discuss cosmology after an observing night with your astro friends, someone will ultimately bring up the topic of space/time curvature. If you put an X on a balloon and expand it – and trace round its expanse – you will eventually return to your mark. If we see our beginnings, will we also eventually see our end coming up over the horizon? Wow… Pass the marshmallows, please. We’ve got a lot to think about.

Reader Info: Illingworth’s team maintains the First Galaxies website, with information about the latest research on distant galaxies. In addition to Bouwens and Illingworth, the coauthors of the Nature paper include Ivo Labbe of Carnegie Observatories; Pascal Oesch of UCSC and the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich; Michele Trenti of the University of Colorado; Marcella Carollo of the Institute for Astronomy; Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University; Marijn Franx of Leiden University; Massimo Stiavelli and Larry Bradley of the Space Telescope Science Institute; and Valentino Gonzalez and Daniel Magee of UC Santa Cruz. This research was supported by NASA and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image and Video courtesy of NASA/STSci.

Source: Universe Today

Short Quiz:
Can you calculate the velocity of that distant galaxy (UDFj-39546284) moving away from us? and, why is the more distant galaxy is younger than the closer one?

Tipe - Tipe Galaksi

Dengan mempergunakan teleskop 250 cm di Observatorium Mount Palomar, astronom Edwin Hubble (1924) memotret sebuah galaksi di rasi Andromeda. Dia menjelaskan, untuk ertama kalinya, bentuk galaksi yang kemudian terkenal dengan nama galaksi Andromeda, berjarak 2 juta tahun cahaya dari galaksi kita (Bimasakti/Milkyway). Galaksi Andromeda merupakan galaksi luar (extra galaxy) pertama yang diketahui astronom. Sejak penemuannya, banyak studi dilakukan dalam mempelajari galaksi-galaksi di luar galaksi Bimasakti tempat kita berada.

Upaya para astronom mempelajari galaksi melalui pengamatan semenjak abad ke-18, telah melahirkan berbagai katalog benda-benda langit yang meliputi gugusan bintang termasuk didalamnya adalah galaksi. Pada tahun 1888, J.L.E. Dreyer mempublikasikan New General Catalogue of nebulae and Clusters of Stars yang memuat 7840 obyek langit. Katalog ini dilengkapi dengan suplemennya, Index Catalogues pada tahun 1895 dan 1908. Umumnya katalog tersebut mempergunakan notasi NGC atau IC diikuti dengan nomor obyek dalam daftar. Sebagai contoh, galaksi Andro-meda diberi nomor katalogus NGC 224.

Ada banyak galaksi-galaksi dengan berbagai ragam bentuknya. Hubble mengklasifikasikan galaksi-galaksi berdasarkan bentuknya ke dalam 3 kelompok utama, yakni:

1. Galaksi spiral (S)
Populasi galaksi berbentuk spiral ini yang terbanyak (80%). Galaksi ini memiliki struktur yang paling teratur dengan pusat, selubung bulat dan piringan dengan lengan spiral yang mengelilingi ekuator galaksi. Variasi dari galaksi spiral adalah galaksi spiral berbatang (SB), dengan bentuk cerutu yang melintasi pusat dan di kedua ujungnya pola spiral menjuntai.

2. Galaksi eliptik (E)
Galaksi dengan bentuk ini meliputi 17% dari seluruh populasi galaksi di alam semesta. Bentuknya lebih sederhana dibandingkan dengan galaksi spiral, karena hanya terdiri dari pusat dan selubung pipih. Kerapatan bintang lebih tinggi di pusat dibanding di tepiannya.

3. Galaksi tidak beraturan
Sebanyak 3% dari galaksi yang teramati sejauh ini menunjukkan bentuk yang tidak beraturan. Bentuknya lebih merupakan onggokan bintang dengan batas yang kurang jelas. Berbagai contoh nyata galaksi ini antara lain Awan Magellan kecil dan besar, tetangga galaksi kita, Bima Sakti.
Pola galaksi yang dirangkum dan diklasifikasikan oleh Hubble ditafsirkannya sebagai perjalanan evolusi galaksi di alam semesta dari bentuk yang awalnya sangat teratur menuju bentuk yang tidak beraturan.

Soal - soal Latihan

1. Bulan memerlukan waktu paling tidak 2 menit untuk terbit dilihat dari Bumi. Berapa lama Bumi memerlukan waktu untuk terbit dilihat oleh seorang pengamat dari Bulan?
a. 2 menit
b. 4 menit
c. 6 menit
d. 8 menit
e. Bumi tidak terbit dan tidak tenggelam

2. On the sunlit side of the Moon the sky appears …
A. white because of the extreme brilliance of the sunlight
B. black because the Earth blocks the light
C. blue due to the Moons' atmosphere
D. black because the Moon lacks an atmosphere
E. black because the Moon has a dense atmosphere

3. You are adrift at sea, and you see a star directly overhead. You remember from your astronomy lab at N.C. State that this star has a declination of 42 degrees South, and a Right Ascension of 8 hours. From this information alone, you know that …
A) You are adrift at a point north latitude 42 degrees.
B) You are adrift at a point south latitude 42 degrees.
C) You are adrift at a point west longitude 8 degrees.
D) You are adrift at a point south latitude 48 degrees.
E) A and C

4. If you lived on the Moon, would the motion of the planets appear any different than from Earth?
A. The motion of the planets would not appear significantly different than on the Earth.
B. The planets would not appear to go around the Moon.
C. The planets would not appear to go around the Earth.
D. The planets would not appear to go around the Sun.
E. None of the above

5. You are carried away by an alien spacecraft to a different star planetary system. You are set down on a planet with cloudless skies. After some time, you notice five planets in the sky. Three retrograde after greatest eastern elongation with the "sun"; two at opposition. From this observation, you infer that, in a heliocentric model, you are on the _____ planet outward from the "sun".
A. first
B. second
C. third
D. fourth
E. fifth

6. When Venus sets after sunset …
a. Venus is west of the sun
b. Venus is east of the sun
c. Venus could be either east or west of the sun depending on the month.
d. it is a mistake because Venus never sets after sunset
e. it must be moving retrograde

7. Pernyataan tentang gerak planet yang tepat adalah ...
A. Planet Venus mungkin saja terlihat saat tengah malam
B. Planet Jupiter tidak mungkin tertutup oleh bulan Purnama
C. Planet Mars selalu nampak berdekatan dengan Matahari
D. Planet Merkurius tidak mungkin nampak melintas di depan piringan Matahari
E. Planet Saturnus bisa mengalami gerak retrogade

8. Peristiwa yang tidak tepat berhubungan dengan pengamat yang ada tepat di kutub utara adalah ...
A. Matahari paling tinggi ada di 23,50 di atas horizon
B. Pada bulan Desember, Matahari tidak terbit
C. Semua arah adalah arah selatan
D. Bisa mengamati rasi Centaurus di bulan-bulan tertentu
E. Bintang Polaris menjadi bintang sirkumpolar

Selamat Belajar

Solar System

A couple videos related to the solar system:






Source: youtube

Latihan Soal: Gerak Benda Langit

1. Tentukan perbandingan gaya pasang surut antara Bumi-Bulan dan Bumi-Matahari bila diketahui jarak pusat ke pusat antara Bumi-Matahari 400 kali jarak pusat ke pusat Bumi-Bulan, diameter Bumi 4 kali diameter Bulan, dan massa Bumi 80 kali massa Bulan!

2. Sebuah satelit mempunyai orbit polar dengan ketinggian 5,49 x 10^6 m di atas permukaan Bumi. Setelah melewati di atas London, tentukan posisi satelit saat menyelesaikan satu kali orbit!

3. Mengapa objek langit yang besar (misalkan Matahari, Bintang, Planet, dll) bentuknya mendekati bola sedangkan objek langit yang relatif kecil (misalkan Asteroid, Komet, dll) bentuknya irregular?

4. Certain neutron stars are believed to be rotating at about 1 revolution/second. If such a star has a radius of 20 km, what must be its minimum mass so that material on its surface remains in place during the rapid rotation?

5. Planet imajiner mempunyai jarak rata-rata 120 satuan astronomi dari matahari. Berapa lama waktu yang diperlukan planet ini untuk mengorbit matahari? Berapa periode sinodisnya?


Selamat Belajar.

Introducing Lomba Rancang Pabrik Tingkat Nasional

Memperkenalkan website www.lrptn.com sebagai sumber informasi bagi acara Lomba rancang Pabrik Tingkat Nasional.

Sekilas mengenai LRPTN (Source: www.lrptn.com)

Perkembangan industri kimia saat ini tidak lepas dari kemampuan dan kreativitas para insinyurnya, yang selalu memberikan ide-ide baru sehingga dapat memenuhi kebutuhan masyarakat. Kecakapan seorang insinyur tentunya tidak diperoleh secara instan, namun perlu dibentuk semenjak duduk di bangku kuliah. Untuk meningkatkan kemampuan dan kreativitas para calon insinyur teknik kimia, Himpunan Mahasiswa Teknik Kimia (HIMATEK) ITB bekerjasama dengan Program Studi Teknik Kimia ITB mengadakan Lomba Rancang Pabrik Tingkat Nasional (LRPTN). LRPTN merupakan sebuah kompetisi rancang pabrik yang mengangkat tema-tema yang berkaitan dengan isu-isu aktual dalam dunia industri. Sampai sekarang, LRPTN telah berhasil diselenggarakan sebanyak 11 kali sejak tahun 1996.

LRPTN yang pertama kali diadakan diikuti oleh 8 kelompok peserta dari berbagai perguruan tinggi di Indonesia dengan dewan juri terpillih, yang memiliki kompetensi dalam menilai rancangan suatu pabrik dari sudut pandang keilmuan, khususnya Teknik Kimia. Rangkaian acara LRPTN diisi oleh pembicara-pembicara yang secara khusus diundang untuk berbagi pengetahuan dan pengalaman menarik mereka berkaitan dengan tema dari tiap LRPTN. Semenjak LRPTN IV pada tahun 2000, kompetisi ini dikategorikan menjadi 2, yaitu kategori perancangan pabrik dan problem solving. Kategori perancangan pabrik ini dilombakan dengan pembatasan berdasarkan subtema utama dari LRPTN, sedangkan untuk kategori problem solving dilombakan untuk memfasilitasi ide-ide solutif dan inovatif dari mahasiswa dalam memecahkan masalah nyata yang sedang terjadi dalam suatu pabrik tertentu.

Selanjutnya, pada LRPTN V yang diselenggarakan pada tahun 2001, kategori LRPTN diubah menjadi 3 kategori, yaitu Lomba Rancang Pabrik Kategori A, Lomba Rancang Pabrik Kategori B, dan problem solving. “ Format kompetisi LRPTN dengan 3 kategori tersebut dianggap mampu memfasilitasi ide-ide solutif dan inovatif dari mahasiswa sehingga penyelenggaraan LRPTN berikutnya, mulai dari LRPTN VII hingga LRPTN XI mengikuti format yang hampir sama dengan LRPTN V. Banyak pihak memandang LRPTN merupakan suatu kegiatan yang memberi dampak positif bagi perkembangan mahasiswa Teknik Kimia di Indonesia dalam meningkatkan kemampuan aplikatif mahasiswa dalam melakukan suatu pra rancangan pabrik. Hal ini ditunjukkan dengan peningkatan jumlah peserta yang turut bergabung untuk mengikuti LRPTN ini tiap tahunnya.

Penyelenggaraan LRPTN diharapkan dapat menjadi suatu wadah berkarya bagi mahasiswa se-Indonesia dalam lingkup keilmuan Teknik Kimia. Selain itu, LRPTN ini juga diharapkan dapat memberikan kontribusi nyata bagi perkembangan industri nasional.

Hubble 20 years of Space-Shattering Discoveries

A nice video from NASA to celebrate 20 years of Hubble Telescope.



Source: youtube.com