What does studying astronomy do for society?

We study astronomy because it is not a stand-alone profession. The study of astronomy combines many other fields such as mathematics, chemistry, geology, biology and physics. When astronomers study the universe, they study everything because the universe is made up of everything, including us. By studying the universe, we can understand where we came from, where we are going, and how things in outer space work. We have to study everything in outer space because it is impossible to recreate the same conditions that are up there, down here on Earth. We also study astronomy because since the beginning of time we have used things like the constellations for navigation, and the sun which provides us the necessary energy to live. Because of the study of astronomy we know that the Earth’s spin gives us day and night, the axial tilt gives us the seasons, and the Earth’s orbit provides us with our annual calendar. Without astronomers, astronauts, and scientists to study and interpret all the data we have accrued over the years, many other fields of study may not be as advanced as they are. After all, we are the most advanced planet as we know of; we might as well do something with our knowledge.

Why do science and pseudoscience overlap as we get closer to the begining of the big bang?

As we get closer to the beginning of the big bang, science and pseudoscience come closer to overlapping. They begin to overlap because some of the details from science and religion coincide with each other. For example, when God said, “Let there be light”, he could have really meant to create the sun and moon to give us light. In addition, there could have been a “big bang”, which also would have created an enormous amount of light. In Genesis 1, it also says that the earth expanded. The earth could have expanded because he created things like vegetation, animals, water, land, and human beings or it could have expanded because of the heating and cooling of the earth. There are many different explanations and theories of how the universe came about, but no one know for sure. This is why we look to science and religion for the answers. They only help us with some of the answers, the rest is up to us and what we believe really happened.

Difference between quasars, pulsars, and black holes.

Quasars: The word quasar is short for "quasi-stellar radio source", which means star-like emitters of radio waves. Quasars also emit visible light, ultraviolet rays, infrared waves, X-rays, and gamma-rays. Quasars give off more energy than 100 normal galaxies combined. They are believed to be the most distant object detected in the universe to date. The amount of energy they give off can be up to a trillion times brighter than the sun! Quasars are located in black holes in the center of the galaxy. They are so bright their light drowns out the light from other stars. A quasar is approximately 1 kiloparsec in width and most of them are larger than our solar system.
Pulsars: A pulsar is formed when a massive star collapses and exhausts its supply of fuel. It then creates a giant explosion known as a supernova. A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which also has a powerful magnetic field. The magnetic field causes the neutron star to emit strong radio waves and radioactive particles from its north and south poles. Pulsars appear to be blinking as their rotating poles sweep past the Earth. The pulse rate depends on the size and mass of the neutron star. If a pulsar has a binary companion, the pulsar may begin to pick up matter from this companion. This can cause the pulsar to rotate even faster-up to well over one hundred times a second!
Black Hole: A black hole is a collapsed star. Its gravity is so strong that its escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. Since nothing is known to exceed the speed of light, nothing can escape from a black hole. Jets of hot gas are occasionally found streaming out of the region surrounding a black hole. There is an imaginary sphere around the black hole; it is known as the event horizon. Once matter reaches the inside of the event horizon, it is crushed into a single point and reaches infinite destiny-meaning it can never escape. There are three types of black holes: miniature black holes, supermassive black holes, and stellar black holes.

Life Cycle of A Star

Stars come from the stellar nursery.
Sun-like stars turn into red giants while,
Huge stars and giant stars alter into red supergiants.
Each of these stars transform into,
Pretty planetary nebulae or sparkly supernovas.
A planetary nebula shrinks to a white dwarf,
Then shrivels up and stays a tiny black dwarf.
Supernovas that were once huge stars,
Minimize to almost nothing and become neutron stars.
Supernovas of a giant star completely disappear,
Leaving a massive black hole in its place.

My passion and how it relates to the work of Annie Cannon

My passion is accounting. I am currently taking an accounting class and I put every effort into it-sometimes too much. Accounting is fairly easy, but if you make one mistake it can take hours to find it and correct it. I have done this countless times and it frustrates me to the point where I begin to think about changing my major. When I get to this point I want to give up and do something easier, but I’ve been told things in life don’t come easy. This is also true for the theorist Annie Jump Cannon. She was very intelligent for a woman of her time, but because she was a woman, she was not treated fairly and people continued to discriminate against her. She continued to take classes and study astronomy to help her gain knowledge and respect from her well known peers. Though it took her years to get a worthy job, she never gave up. All her hard work eventually paid off; in 1896 she was hired as Edward C. Pickering’s assistant at the Harvard observatory. By 1907 she had received an M.A. from Wellesley. Through all her hardships and difficult times, Annie never gave up and continued to do what she loved, not because she wanted to be recognized for it, but because she had such a passion for it that she knew someday people would appreciate her work. It may seem that accountants sit at their desk all day and play around with numbers, but there is much more work to it than that. I am only beginning to realize how much effort I am going to have to put into the beginning stage of my career, but thankfully I can look to my godfather for advice and guidance later in life.

Observations of moon, stars, and light pollution over 2 week period.

The weather has been rainy for many nights in the past two weeks. When it is raining at night or has just recently rained, it is hard to see the moon or stars because the sky is cloudy. When the sky is cloudy there is a thicker atmosphere. With a thick atmosphere, not much light from the moon can get through. There was not much light pollution at all. The sky is still fairly dark this time of year, which is all the better for stargazing. The stars were not twinkling or shining nearly as bright as they do in the summer. The moon was also not at its brightest on these nights either. One night I thought I saw a ring in the form of a light around the moon. It appeared almost as a halo, but maybe I was just seeing things. I think it would be amazing to stargaze while looking through a telescope. It would really put things in perspective, plus it would look like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Likelihood of world ending in 2012.

The Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012, but this date is just the end of the Mayan period. As any other calendar, another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar on January 1. A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. The continents slowly move, but that has nothing to do with claims of pole reversal; therefore, magnetic pole reversal is unlikely and would not cause any harm to life on Earth. Solar activity peaks every 11 years. Around the end of 11 years, solar flares can interfere with satellite communications, but some electronic devices have been produced to avoid major conflict against most solar storms. The next solar maximum will not occur in 2012 anyway and is predicted to be no different than previous cycles. The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids since the beginning of time, but impacts big enough to do tremendous damage are unlikely. As we all know, the last big impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs over 65 million years ago. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs so we are in no real danger. As far as we know, the world will go on as it usually does. The only way we can find out is to wait for December 21, 2012 to come and go and see if were alive on December 22, 2012.