The Progenitors of Gamma-Ray Bursts:

As we"ve discussed a lot recently, gamma ray bursts have the tendency to be just as spectacular as supernova blasts, with none of the glory. Yet comparatively, our amount of knowledge about them remains decidedly small. Especially so when dealing with how they form. The firsts of these high energy events were brought to our attention by the Vela-5B Satellite in the early 1970"s. At the time of their discovery, we had a difficult time pinpointing their origin, but over the course of the next few years, we were successful in determining that the events were non-local (meaning, they didn"t originated in, or around the sun). Eventually, it was thought that the detected gamma ray-bursts, or GRBs (what these events were eventually called) had a luminosity of about 10^39 ergs, we now know that this is ~13 magnitudes smaller than the actual intensity. Due to the much lower assumed intensity value, astronomers came to the conclusion that the GRB"s may take place in the accretion disk around a collapsing star.

It"s never THAT easy though. Is it? See how our views have changed over the years: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-progenitors-of-gamma-ray-bursts/

Image Credit: NASA (Unedited Version: http://ow.ly/rP9EY)

The Progenitors of Gamma-Ray Bursts:

As we"ve discussed a lot recently, gamma ray bursts have the tendency to be just as spectacular as supernova blasts, with none of the glory. Yet comparatively, our amount of knowledge about them remains decidedly small. Especially so when dealing with how they form. The firsts of these high energy events were brought to our attention by the Vela-5B Satellite in the early 1970"s. At the time of their discovery, we had a difficult time pinpointing their origin, but over the course of the next few years, we were successful in determining that the events were non-local (meaning, they didn"t originated in, or around the sun). Eventually, it was thought that the detected gamma ray-bursts, or GRBs (what these events were eventually called) had a luminosity of about 10^39 ergs, we now know that this is ~13 magnitudes smaller than the actual intensity. Due to the much lower assumed intensity value, astronomers came to the conclusion that the GRB"s may take place in the accretion disk around a collapsing star.

It"s never THAT easy though. Is it? See how our views have changed over the years: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/?p=11511

Image Credit: NASA (Unedited Version: http://ow.ly/rP9EY)

The Progenitors of Gamma-Ray Bursts:

As we"ve discussed a lot recently, gamma ray bursts have the tendency to be just as spectacular as supernova blasts, with none of the glory. Yet comparatively, our amount of knowledge about them remains decidedly small. Especially so when dealing with how they form. The firsts of these high energy events were brought to our attention by the Vela-5B Satellite in the early 1970"s. At the time of their discovery, we had a difficult time pinpointing their origin, but over the course of the next few years, we were successful in determining that the events were non-local (meaning, they didn"t originated in, or around the sun). Eventually, it was thought that the detected gamma ray-bursts, or GRBs (what these events were eventually called) had a luminosity of about 10^39 ergs, we now know that this is ~13 magnitudes smaller than the actual intensity. Due to the much lower assumed intensity value, astronomers came to the conclusion that the GRB"s may take place in the accretion disk around a collapsing star.

It"s never THAT easy though. Is it? See how our views have changed over the years: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/?p=11511

Image Credit: NASA (Unedited Version: http://ow.ly/rP9EY)

The Progenitors of Gamma-Ray Bursts:

As we"ve discussed a lot recently, gamma ray bursts have the tendency to be just as spectacular as supernova blasts, with none of the glory. Yet comparatively, our amount of knowledge about them remains decidedly small. Especially so when dealing with how they form. The firsts of these high energy events were brought to our attention by the Vela-5B Satellite in the early 1970"s. At the time of their discovery, we had a difficult time pinpointing their origin, but over the course of the next few years, we were successful in determining that the events were non-local (meaning, they didn"t originated in, or around the sun). Eventually, it was thought that the detected gamma ray-bursts, or GRBs (what these events were eventually called) had a luminosity of about 10^39 ergs, we now know that this is ~13 magnitudes smaller than the actual intensity. Due to the much lower assumed intensity value, astronomers came to the conclusion that the GRB"s may take place in the accretion disk around a collapsing star.

It"s never THAT easy though. Is it? See how our views have changed over the years: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/?p=11511

Image Credit: NASA (Unedited Version: http://ow.ly/rP9EY)

Pulsars: What are they? Why do they spin so fast?

Today, the nature of certain cosmic phenomena (like stars, supernovae and black holes) are well understood by those outside research physics, as they are not only written about extensively - due, in part, to how much funding is generated to further our knowledge of them - but because most of this information makes its way into the public domain of scientific literature. However, several flavors of wonder - like quasars, blazars and magnetars - are often looked over in favor of more well-known objects. Another one is neutron stars. They can be regarded as the objects that "didn"t quite make it" to become a black hole. As such, for many, they are skipped over as uninteresting and/or not worth the time. If you are one of those people, you have no idea what you are missing out on. Neutron stars are truly some of the most mind-bending objects in the universe.

See why here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/pulsars-what-are-they-why-do-they-spin-so-fast-2/

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The Study of Gamma Ray Bursts (part II)

In a previous article, we discussed the first two major telescopes that were used to study gamma ray bursts (GMBs). These two were the Vela satellites and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO). There was a significant gap between the creation of CRGO and the creation of its successor --BeppoSAX . Ultimately, two decades passed before BepooSAX was created, but despite the rather long time frame between these two observatories, both were an integral part of the future of space telescopes. Tsvi Piran, an astrophysicist who has been at the forefront of gamma-ray burst physics for several decades, describes CGRO as being the "First Revolution" and BeppoSAX as the "Second Revolution."

To learn all about these amazing telescopes and what they did for gamma ray astronomy, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/grb-part-2/

Image source:
NASA

Cassiopeia A; The Star That Flipped Inside Out

So we"ve seen stars that are literally the size of our solar system, stars that are a brilliant blueish-white color that live short lives and blowup brilliantly, vampire stars that stay young by siphoning material off of their companion, and now we"ve seen a star that turned inside out. Yes... you read that right. Astronomers have found a star that literally turned inside out when it was in its final throws of life. You couldn"t - pardon the french - make this shit up. And lets be honest.. why would you want to? The universe in general tends to surprise us with its abnormalities, and there is always something else to learn from each celestial object we point our telescopes toward.

To find out how this is possible, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-end-of-cassiopeia-as-life/

Image Credit: NASA/CXC

Life Beyond Earth: A Day on a Neutron Star:

Let’s talk about what it would be like to spend a day on a neutron star. I know that this might not seem like the best vacation spot; after all, neutron stars are rather small. However, these objects are remarkable, and also terribly bizarre (imagine our Sun being compressed to the size of Chicago, and you begin to understand just how remarkably bizarre neutron stars are). Even though they are tiny, typically only about 25 km (15 mi) in diameter, neutron stars are more massive than our sun.

And of course, a small diameter + a high mass = super high density.

In fact, aside from black holes, neutron stars are the densest objects in the universe. An average neutron star will have a density around 5 x 1017 kg/m3 (which is roughly the equivalent of all of humanity being squashed into a single sugar cube). But unfortunately, your vacation to this remarkably bizarre object will be a bit short. You see, most neutron stars rotate rather fast. Excessively fast, in fact. A typical neutron star rotates about 40,000 times a minute; since a “day” is determined by how long it takes an object to complete one rotation, a day on a neutron star whizzes by in just a fraction of a second.

So only plan on spending a day on a neutron star if you have super great time management skills; by the time you landed, you"d have to leave as your day would be over.

Another remarkably bizarre part of a neutron star is the crust. Although it’s not very thick, generally about 1km or .6miles, the crust is approximately 100 billion times stronger than steel. So you shouldn’t go to a neutron star if you hope to spend your day building fantastical sandcastles—the crust of the star is simply too strong for you to break through with your tiny ineffectual shovel. Alas, neutronstar-castles will never be a thing.

To learn more about neutron stars, and what a day on one would be like, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/life-beyond-earth-a-day-on-a-neutron-star/

Image source:
http://startswithabang.com/?p=1014