Portal:Radiation astronomy

Radiation astronomy
This image is a composite of several types of radiation astronomy: radio, infrared, visual, ultraviolet, soft and hard X-ray. Credit: NASA.

Radiation astronomy is astronomy applied to the various extraterrestrial sources of radiation, especially at night. It is also conducted above the Earth's atmosphere and at locations away from the Earth, by satellites and space probes, as a part of explorational (or exploratory) radiation astronomy.

Seeing the Sun and feeling the warmth of its rays is probably a student's first encounter with an astronomical radiation source. This will happen from a very early age, but a first understanding of the concepts of radiation may occur at a secondary educational level.

Radiation is all around us on top of the Earth's crust, regolith, and soil, where we live. The study of radiation, including radiation astronomy, usually intensifies at the university undergraduate level.

And, generally, radiation becomes hazardous, when a student embarks on graduate study.

Cautionary speculation may be introduced unexpectedly to stimulate the imagination and open a small crack in a few doors that may appear closed at present. As such, this learning resource incorporates some state-of-the-art results from the scholarly literature.

The laboratories of radiation astronomy are limited to the radiation observatories themselves and the computers and other instruments (sometimes off site) used to analyze the results.

Selected radiation astronomy
Page 'Radiation astronomy/Oranges' not found
Selected lecture

Radiation astronomy entities

This is an image of Johannes Vermeer's The astronomer. Credit: www.essentialvermeer.com : Home : Info : Pic.

Radiation astronomy entities, radiation entities, are any astronomical persons or things that have separate and distinct existences in empirical, objective or conceptual reality.

Some of them, like the astronomers of today, or at any time in the past, are relatively known. But there are many entities that are far less known or understood, such as the observers of ancient times who suggested that deities occupied the sky or the heavens. Likewise, these alleged deities may be entities, or perhaps something a whole lot less.

Astronomical X-ray entities are often discriminated further into sources or objects when more information becomes available, including that from other radiation astronomies.

A researcher who turns on an X-ray generator to study the X-ray emissions in a laboratory so as to understand an apparent astronomical X-ray source is an astronomical X-ray entity. So is one who writes an article about such efforts or a computer simulation to possibly represent such a source.

"The X-ray luminosity of the dominant group [an entity] is an order of magnitude fainter than that of the X-ray jet."[1]

References

  1. A. Finoguenov, M.G. Watson, M. Tanaka, C.Simpson, M. Cirasuolo, J.S. Dunlop, J.A. Peacock, D. Farrah, M. Akiyama, Y. Ueda, V. Smolčič, G. Stewart, S. Rawlings, C.vanBreukelen, O. Almaini, L.Clewley, D.G. Bonfield, M.J. Jarvis, J.M. Barr, S. Foucaud, R.J. McLure, K. Sekiguchi, E. Egami (April 2010). "X-ray groups and clusters of galaxies in the Subaru-XMM Deep Field". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 403 (4): 2063-76. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16256.x. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16256.x/full. Retrieved 2011-12-09. 
Selected theory

Cosmogony

This is an image of the painting about Urknall. Credit: Hans Breinlinger.

Cosmogony is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence, or origin, of the cosmos or universe, or about how what sentient beings perceive as "reality" came to be.

Usually, the philosophy of cause and effect needs a beginning, a first cause. Modal logic may only require a probability rather than a sequence of events. The concept of uncountable suggests an unknown somewhere between a finite number of likely rationales and an infinite number of possibilities.

From a sense of time as moving forward from yesterday to today and onward to tomorrow, there is again a suggestion of a prehistoric time before the first hominins.

The use of any system of thought or emotion to perceive reality suggests that some existences may precede others.

When more detail becomes available an existence may be transformed into something, an entity, a source, an object, a rocky object, or out of existence.

As a topic in astronomy, cosmogony deals with the origin of each astronomical entity.

Observation, for example, using radiation astronomy may provide some details.

Theoretical astronomy may provide some understanding, or at least some perspective.

In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in reference to the origin of the solar system.[1][2]

References

  1. Ian Ridpath (2012). A Dictionary of Astronomy. Oxford University Press. 
  2. M. M. Woolfson (1979). "Cosmogony Today". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 20 (2): 97-114. 
Selected topic

Bands

File:Saturn H2On.jpg
This is Saturn imaged with the Stockholm Infrared Camera (SIRCA) in the H2O band. Credit: M. Gålfalk, G. Olofsson and H.-G. Florén, Nordic Optical Telescope.

At the right is Saturn imaged by the Stockholm Infrared Camera (SIRCA) in the H2O infrared band to show the presence of water vapor. The image is cut off near the top due to the presence of Saturn's rings.

The Sun's emission in the lowest UV bands, the UVA, UVB, and UVC bands, are of interest, as these are the UV bands commonly encountered from artificial sources on Earth. The shorter bands of UVC, as well as even more energetic radiation as produced by the Sun, generate the ozone in the ozone layer when single oxygen atoms produced by UV photolysis of dioxygen react with more dioxygen. The ozone layer is especially important in blocking UVB and part of UVC, since the shortest wavelengths of UVC (and those even shorter) are blocked by ordinary air.

Selected X-ray astronomy article
File:Rcw86 420-1.jpg
The combined image from the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories of RCW 86 shows the expanding ring of debris that was created after a massive star in the Milky Way collapsed onto itself and exploded. Credit: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al. XMM-Newton: ESA/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al.{{fairuse}}

SN 185 was a supernova which appeared in the year 185, near the direction of Alpha Centauri, between the constellations Circinus and Centaurus, centered at Right ascension (RA) 14h 43m Declination (Dec) -62° 30', in Circinus. This "guest star" was observed by Chinese astronomers in the Book of Later Han.

On the right is a "combined image from the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories of RCW 86 [in the constellation Circinus showing] the expanding ring of debris that was created after a massive star in the Milky Way collapsed onto itself and exploded. Both the Chandra and XMM images show low energy X-rays in red, medium energies in green and high energies in blue. The Chandra observations focused on the northeast (left-hand) side of RCW 86, and show that X-ray radiation is produced both by high-energy electrons accelerated in a magnetic field (blue) as well as heat from the blast itself (red)."[1]

"Properties of the shell in the Chandra image, along with the remnant's size and a basic understanding of how supernovas expand, were used to help determine the age of RCW 86. The new data revealed that RCW 86 was created by a star that exploded about 2,000 years ago. This age matches observations of a new bright star by Chinese astronomers in 185 A.D. (and possibly Romans as well) and may be the oldest known recordings of a supernova. Supernova explosions in galaxies like ours are rare, and none have been recorded in hundreds of years."[1]

Objects
Selected image

The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, Swift XRT, contains a grazing incidence Wolter I telescope to focus X-rays onto a state-of-the-art CCD. The complete mirror module for the XRT consists of the X-ray mirrors, thermal baffle, a mirror collar, and an electron deflector. To prevent on-orbit degradation of the mirror module's performance, it is maintained at 20 ± 5 °C, with gradients of <1 °C by an actively controlled thermal baffle (purple, in the schematic) similar to the one used for JET-X. A composite telescope tube holds the focal plane camera (red), containing a single CCD-22 detector. Credit: Swift PI: Neil Gehrels, Responsible NASA Official: Phil Newman, Web Curator: J.D. Myers, PAO Contact: Francis Reddy.

Selected lesson

First radio source in Pisces

The image shows 54 Piscium, its red dwarf companion and a Saturn-sized planet. One of these may be a radio source. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyle (SSC).

The first radio source in Pisces is unknown.

The field of radio astronomy is the result of observations and theories about radio sources detected in the sky above.

The first astronomical radio source discovered may have been the Sun.

But, radio waves from the Sun are intermingled with other radiation so that the Sun may appear as other than a primary source for radio waves.

The early use of sounding rockets and balloons to carry radio detectors high enough may have detected radio waves from the Sun as early as the 1940s.

This is a lesson in map reading, coordinate matching, and researching. It is also a research project in the history of radio astronomy looking for the first astronomical radio source discovered in the constellation of Pisces.

Nearly all the background you need to participate and learn by doing you've probably already been introduced to at a secondary level and perhaps even a primary education level.

Some of the material and information is at the college or university level, and as you progress in finding radio sources, you'll run into concepts and experimental tests that are actual research.

If stellar flares have origins similar to solar flares, then flare stars produce radio waves.

Selected quiz

Color astronomy quiz

Gases above Io's surface produced a ghostly glow that could be seen at visible wavelengths (red, green, and violet). Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Color astronomy is a lecture as part of the radiation astronomy department course development of principles of radiation astronomy.

You are free to take this quiz based on color astronomy at any time.

To improve your scores, read and study the lecture, the links contained within, and listed under See also, External links and the {{radiation astronomy resources}} and {{principles of radiation astronomy}} templates. This should give you adequate background to get 100 %.

As a "learning by doing" resource, this quiz helps you to assess your knowledge and understanding of the information, and it is a quiz you may take over and over as a learning resource to improve your knowledge, understanding, test-taking skills, and your score.

This quiz may need up to an hour to take and is equivalent to an hourly.

Suggestion: Have the lecture available in a separate window.

Enjoy learning by doing!

Selected laboratory

Electric orbits

Electrons in a beam are moving in a circle in a magnetic field (cyclotron motion). Lighting is caused by excitation of atoms of gas in a bulb. Credit: Marcin Białek.

This laboratory is an activity for you to calculate an electric or magnetic orbit of an astronomical object. While it is part of the astronomy course principles of radiation astronomy, it is also independent.

Some suggested entities to consider are electric fields, magnetic fields, mass, charge, Euclidean space, Non-Euclidean space, or spacetime.

Okay, this is an astronomy orbits laboratory, specifically to try out electric/magnetic orbits and where possible compare them to those calculated using gravity.

Yes, this laboratory is structured.

I will provide an example of an electric/magnetic orbit. The rest is up to you.

Please put any questions you may have, and your laboratory results, you'd like evaluated, on the laboratory's discussion page.

Enjoy learning by doing!

Selected problems

Angular momentum and energy

This diagram describes the relationship between force (F), torque (τ), momentum (p), and angular momentum (L) vectors in a rotating system. 'r' is the radius. Credit: Yawe.

Angular momentum and energy are concepts developed to try to understand everyday reality.

An angular momentum L of a particle about an origin is given by

where r is the radius vector of the particle relative to the origin, p is the linear momentum of the particle, and × denotes the cross product (r · p sin θ). Theta is the angle between r and p.

Please put any questions you may have, and your results, you'd like evaluated, on the problem set's discussion page.

Enjoy learning by doing!

Selected X-ray astronomy pictures

Using the orbiting Chandra X-ray telescope, astronomers have imaged the center of our near-twin island universe, finding evidence for a bizarre object. Like the Milky Way, Andromeda's galactic center appears to harbor an X-ray source characteristic of a black hole of a million or more solar masses. Seen above, the false-color X-ray picture shows a number of X-ray sources, likely X-ray binary stars, within Andromeda's central region as yellowish dots. The blue source located right at the galaxy's center is coincident with the position of the suspected massive black hole. While the X-rays are produced as material falls into the black hole and heats up, estimates from the X-ray data show Andromeda's central source to be very cold - only about million degrees, compared to the tens of millions of degrees indicated for Andromeda's X-ray binaries.

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  1. 1.0 1.1 J. Vink (15 June 2004). RCW 86: New Evidence Links Stellar Remains to Oldest Recorded Supernova. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/rcw86/. Retrieved 2016-02-12.