Astronomy

Almost two years after introducing the category of dwarf planets, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly now decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. The name “plutoid” was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III, by the […]

Popularity: 14%

Astronomers made classification for stars based on its spectra. This aimed to water down the perception and analysis to the stars. In the year 1863, this classification is made for the first time by astronomer Angelo Secchi. Later, his works developed again by a commission from Harvard observatory leaded by Annie J. Cannon.
Initially this spectral […]

Popularity: 27%

Seen at a glance with naked eye, all stars in the night sky have the same color. All looked to be like small white dot. Though, if we observe more accurately with the telescope, we can see that each star have its own color. It can be seen red, blue, or even yellow. Bluer star […]

Popularity: 30%

Do astronomy pictures look like the objects as if we saw them ourselves? First of all, astronomy picture itself not intended to be an artwork, since it created to reveal a lot of information needed by astronomer for their scientific work.
Taking astronomy picture with ground-based or space-based telescope is much more complex than […]

Popularity: 31%

The story begins with Vesto Slipher, an astronomer from Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, who finds that far nebula shows more red spectra than it should be. Astronomer Edwin Hubble and his colleague, Milton Humason, which have know the way to calculate galactic distance discovered that the redshift in light coming from distant galaxies is proportional […]

Popularity: 34%

There is famous paradox in astronomy and cosmology: If this universe has unlimited broadness, we ought to will see the star in every sky corner, and thereby the whole skies should be bright. Then, why is dark area among the stars?
This paradox is conceived as the Olbers’ paradox, named after German astronomer and physics, Wilhelm […]

Popularity: 34%

A Cepheid variable star is class of variable stars that brighten and dim in an extremely regular fashion. The periods of the fluctuations (the time to complete one cycle from bright to dim and back to bright) last several days, although they range from 1 to 50 days.
These stars are important because the period […]

Popularity: 37%

Traditionally, stars and planets are differentiated based on two properties:
(i) Whether or not they undergo nuclear reactions that burn hydrogen in their cores. Stars do this; planets don’t. In order to have high enough temperatures in the core to burn hydrogen, an object needs to have a mass of at least 75 or so […]

Popularity: 53%

Astronomer uses genitive forms of the names of constellations, preceded by a Greek letter, to designate about 1300 bright stars. The system was introduded by Johannes Bayer around the year 1600 to name the brighter stars. The basic rule was to name them in order of brightness, but the rule is more often violated than […]

Popularity: 32%

The oldest known drawings of constellations are motifs on seals, vases, and gaming boards from the Sumerians, indicating that constellations may have been developed as early as 4000 BC. The constellation Aquarius was named by the Sumerians after their god of heaven An, who pours the waters of immortality upon the earth. The division of […]

Popularity: 59%