Astronomical Picture of the Day
Transcription
Astronomical Picture of the Day
8/29/2011 Objetos del Universo Curso “Introducción a las Ciencias de la Tierra y el Espacio II” Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias, UDELAR 1 Objetivos • Reconocer las distintas clases de objetos astronómicos. • Adquirir nociones acerca de las dimensiones y escalas de tiempo y de distancia que involucran a los objetos astronómicos. • Dar un avance de los temas que desarrollaremos a lo largo del curso. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 2 1 8/29/2011 Introducción • Universo o Cosmos: es la totalidad de espacio, tiempo, materia y energía. • Astronomía: es el estudio del Universo. Requiere un cambio profundo en nuestra visión del Cosmos, y considerar a la materia en escalas nada familiares a nuestra experiencia cotidiana. • La “Conexión Cósmica”: La mayoría de los elementos químicos que forman nuestros cuerpos fueron creados hace unos miles de millones de años en los núcleos calientes de estrellas que desaparecieron hace mucho tiempo. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 3 Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 4 Nuestro lugar en el Universo (En sentido antihorario: ) La Tierra es uno de los 8 planetas que orbitan al Sol en nuestro Sistema Solar. Nuestro Sistema Solar es uno más entre los cien mil millones de sistemas estelares que forman parte de nuestra galaxia, la Vía Láctea. Nuestra galaxia es una de las dos galaxias mayores de un conjunto de algunas decenas que forman el Grupo Local. El Grupo Local se encuentra cerca de los confines del Supercúmulo Local (en Virgo). El Supercúmulo Local es una pieza más de de una intrincada y compleja estructura a gran escala formada por galaxias a través del Universo. (Fig. 1.1, The Cosmic Perspective) 2 8/29/2011 Nuestro lugar en el Universo (De abajo hacia arriba:) Una estación espacial (y astronautas), la Tierra, el Sistema Solar, la vecindad local de estrellas, la Vía Láctea, y el cúmulo de galaxias más cercano. Los números indican el aumento sucesivo en la escala de la imagen. (Fig. 1.5, Astronomy Today) Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 5 Tiempo y Distancia • Las unidades de distancia utilizadas en Astronomía se eligen de acuerdo a la escala de los objetos: – Unidad Astronómica (Sistema Solar) – Año luz, PARSEC (pc) y sus múltiplos (Kpc, Mpc) para distancias interestelares y de objetos extragalácticos. • Ir más profundo en el espacio equivale a viajar más atrás en el tiempo. – Por ej., la estrella Sirio se encuentra a 8 años luz del Sol. Luego, hoy nos está llegando la luz que partió de la estrella hace 8 años. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 6 3 8/29/2011 El Cielo Nocturno Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 7 Constelaciones • • • • • • En una noche despejada podemos apreciar unas 3000 estrellas a simple vista (unas 6000 contando ambos hemisferios). Las culturas humanas tienen una tendencia natural a ver patrones en el cielo y relacionar objetos aún cuando no exista una conexión física o verdadera entre ellos. Las civilizaciones ancestrales agruparon las estrellas más brillantes en configuraciones llamadas constelaciones. Algunas constelaciones sirvieron como guías de navegación o como calendarios primitivos para predecir el comienzo de las estaciones, y saber cuando plantar o cosechar, etc. Actualmente constituyen una forma conveniente para los astrónomos de especificar grandes regiones de cielo. La UAI ha dividido al cielo en 88 constelaciones. El método más simple para localizar estrellas es especificar su constelación y luego ordenarlas de acuerdo a su brillo (Ej. Alfa de Orionis = Betelgeuse, Beta de orionis = Rigel). (Fig. 1.6, Astronomy Today) Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 8 4 8/29/2011 La constelación del Centauro es visible solamente desde latitudes tropicales y meridionales. Alfa Centauri es la estrella más próxima al Sol, distando unos 4.4 años-luz ( Fig. 1.10, The Cosmic Perspective). Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 9 La Esfera Celeste • Durante el transcurso de una noche las constelaciones parecen moverse lentamente por el cielo de Este a Oeste, manteniendo invariables las posiciones relativas de las estrellas, como si las mismas estuvieran “fijas” a una esfera inmensa que rodeara a la Tierra. • Dicho movimiento aparente es resultado de la rotación de la Tierra en torno a su eje. • La Esfera Celeste es entonces un artificio útil para describir las posiciones de los objetos astronómicos. La misma se define como una esfera imaginaria, de radio arbitrario, centrada en el Observador. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 10 5 8/29/2011 Movimiento General Diurno Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 11 Coordenadas Astronómicas • • • • • La Esfera Celeste permite definir un sistema de coordenadas celestes para mediciones precisas de la posición de los astros. Como se trata de un sistema de coordenadas esféricas, podemos describirlo como un análogo de las coordenadas terrestres más familiares longitud y latitud utilizados para ubicar una localidad sobre la superficie de la Tierra. El análogo de la longitud es la Ascención Recta (R.A.), y el de la latitud es la declinación (DEC). La primera coordenada se mide en unidades de tiempo (horas), y la segunda en unidades de arco (grados). Dado que la R.A. es relativa a la posición del Equinoccio Vernal (o de Aries), las coordenadas celestes no permanecen inmutables sino que varían lentamente debido a la precesión del eje de rotación terrestre. En consecuencia, en los catálogos astrométricos se especifican las coordenadas celestes para una época estándar convencional (por ej. El 1 de enero de 2000). Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 12 6 8/29/2011 Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 13 El Teorema de la Latitud • La latitud del lugar es igual a la altura del Polo Celeste visible (Fig. 2.7, Fundamental Astronomy, 5 Ed.). Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 14 7 8/29/2011 La Eclíptica El aspecto del cielo nocturno cambia a medida que la Tierra se mueve en su órbita en torno al Sol. Como ilustra la figura, el hemisferio nocturno de la Tierra ve diferentes series de constelaciones en diferentes épocas del año. (Fig 1.12, Astronomy Today). Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 15 El Sistema Solar Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 16 8 8/29/2011 Cometas • Imágenes de núcleos cometarios tomadas desde sondas espaciales a corta distancia: – NASA/EPOXI: Hartley 2 , 2010. – ESA/Giotto: 1P/Halley, 1986. – NASA/JPL/Deep Space 1: 19P/Borrelly, 2001. – NASA/JPL/Stardust : 81P/Wild 2, 2004. – NASA/JPL/Deep Impact: 9P/Tempel 1, 2005. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 17 Asteroides • Ceres – Visto por el Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Se ha realzado el contraste para distinguir detalles superficiales. – Descubierto por Giuseppe Piazzi el 1 de enero de 1801. – Designación MPC: 1 Ceres (clase MB) – Radio Equatorial: 487.3 ± 1.8 km – Radio Polar: 454.7 ± 1.6 km – Masa: 9.43 ± 0.07×1020 kg (0.00015 masas terrestres, 0.0128 masas lunares). – Catalogado como “Planeta enano”. • Itokawa – – – – – Visto por la sonda Hayabusa (2005). Designación MPC: 25143 Itokawa (clase Apollo). Descubierto en 1998 por LINEAR. Elipsoide 535 × 294 × 209 m. Las imágenes de Hayabusa revelaron una llamativa carencia de cráteres de impacto y una superficie bastante rugosa con rocas. La densidad es demasiado baja para un cuerpo monolítico, de roca sólida, por lo cual se considera una “pila de escombros”. Podría tratarse de un binario de contacto. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 18 9 8/29/2011 Objetos Transneptunianos (TNOs) Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 19 Nebulosas The Orion Nebula (a) is a giant cloud of gas and dust in which new stars and planets are forming. It is located about 1,500 light-years from Earth, which means the light recorded in the photograph took about 1,500 years to reach us. Thus, we see it as it was about 1,500 years ago. Photograph (b) shows the constellation Orion, with labels for several bright stars and the location of the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula is faintly visible to the naked eye, and you can see some detail with a good pair of binoculars. (Note: All stars are so far away that they appear as pinpoints of light. Brighter stars appear larger in the photograph only because they are overexposed. The crosses on the bright stars are an artifact of the telescope used to take the photo (The Cosmic Perspective). Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 20 10 8/29/2011 Composición del medio interestelar Gas y Partículas de Polvo Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 21 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • M45: The Pleiades Star Cluster Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a lightpolluted city. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and closest open clusters. The Pleiades contains over 3000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Quite evident in the above photograph are the blue reflection nebulae that surround the brighter cluster stars. Low mass, faint, brown dwarfs have also been found in the Pleiades. (Editors' note: The prominent diffraction spikes are caused by the telescope itself and may be either distracting or provide aesthetic enhancement, depending on your point of view.) Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 22 11 8/29/2011 Cúmulos Globulares • Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) – Tamaño aparente: 36 minutos de arco – Contiene millones de estrellas. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 23 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • M16: Stars from Eagle's EGGs Credit: J. Hester, P. Scowen (ASU), HST, NASA Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars. At each pillars' end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 24 12 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Brown Sun Bubbling Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler Our Sun may look like all soft and fluffy, but its not. Our Sun is an extremely large ball of bubbling hot gas, mostly hydrogen gas. The above picture was taken in a specific color of light emitted by hydrogen gas called Hydrogen-alpha. Granules cover the solar photosphere surface like shag carpet, interrupted by bright regions containing dark sunspots. Visible at the left edge is a solar prominence. Our Sun glows because it is hot, but it is not on fire. Fire is the rapid acquisition of oxygen, and there is very little oxygen on the Sun. The energy source of our Sun is the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium deep within its core. Astronomers are still working to understand, however, why so few neutrinos are measured from the Sun's core. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 25 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • A Sunspot Up Close Credit : Vacuum Tower Telescope, NSO, NOAO Why would a small part of the Sun appear slightly dark? Visible above is a close-up picture of a sunspot, a depression on the Sun's face that is slightly cooler and less luminous than the rest of the Sun. The Sun's complex magnetic field creates this cool region by inhibiting hot material from entering the spot. Sunspots can be larger than the Earth and typically last for only a few days. This high-resolution picture also shows clearly that the Sun's face is a bubbling sea of separate cells of hot gas. These cells are known as granules. A solar granule is about 1000 kilometers across and lasts about 10 minutes. After that, many granules end up exploding. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 26 13 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Galactic Collision in Cluster Abell 1185 Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT • Clusters of galaxies are sometimes packed so tight that the galaxies that compose them collide. A prominent example occurs on the left of the above image of the rich cluster of galaxies Abell 1185. There at least two galaxies, cataloged as Arp 105 and dubbed The Guitar for their familiar appearance, are pulling each other apart gravitationally. Most of Abell 1185's hundreds of galaxies are elliptical galaxies, although spiral, lenticular, and irregular galaxies are all clearly evident. Many of the spots on the above image are fully galaxies themselves containing billions of stars, but some spots are foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Recent observations of Abell 1185 have found unusual globular clusters of stars that appear to belong only to the galaxy cluster and not to any individual galaxy. Abell 1185 spans about one million light years and lies 400 million light years distant. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 27 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Hot Gas and Dark Matter Credit: Richard Mushotzky (GSFC/NASA), ROSAT, ESA, NASA Is the gravity of the galaxies seen in thiis image high enough to contain the glowing hot gas? Superposed on an optical picture of a group of galaxies is an image taken in X-ray light. This picture, taken by ROSAT, shows confined hot gas highlighted in false red color, and provides clear evidence that the gravity exerted in groups and clusters of galaxies exceeds all the individual component galaxies combined. The extra gravity is attributed to dark matter, the nature and abundance of which is one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy today. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 28 14 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Streams of Stars in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies Credit: C. Mihos (CWRU) et al., KPNO, NOAO, NSF How do huge clusters of galaxies evolve? To help find out, astronomers pointed the wideangle Burrell-Schmidt telescope on Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA at the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. After hundreds of 15-minute exposures taken over two months in early 2004, the result is a dramatically deep and wide angle image of Virgo, the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy. Bright foreground stars have been digitally removed from the image but are still represented by numerous unusual dark spots. Inspection of the above image shows unusually large halos for the brightest galaxies as well as unusual faint streams of stars connecting Virgo galaxies that previously appeared unrelated Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 29 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide Credit: P. Goudfrooij (STScI), Hubble Heritage Team, (STScI/AURA), ESA, NASA How did this strange-looking galaxy form? Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of unusual jumbles of stars, gas, and dust like NGC 1316. A preliminary inspection indicates that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that includes dark dust lanes usually found in a spiral. The above image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows details, however, that help in reconstructing the history of this gigantic jumble. Close inspection finds fewer low mass globular clusters of stars toward NGC 1316's center. Such an effect is expected in galaxies that have undergone collisions or merging with other galaxies in the past few billion years. After such collisions, many star clusters would be destroyed in the dense galactic center. The dark knots and lanes of dust indicate that one or more of the devoured galaxies were spiral galaxies. NGC 1316 spans about 60,000 light years and lies about 75 million light years away toward the constellation of the Furnace. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 30 15 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Spiral Galaxies in Collision Credit: Debra Meloy Elmegreen (Vassar College) et al., & the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/ STScI/ NASA) Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies will remain. Until then, spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams of cast-away stars. Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the left, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the right. In the most recent encounter that peaked 40 million years ago, the smaller galaxy is swinging around counter-clockwise, and is now slightly behind the larger galaxy. The space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in them usually do not collide. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 31 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4881 in Coma Credit: W. A. Baum (U. Washington), WFPC2, HST, NASA Elliptical galaxies are unlike spiral galaxies and hence unlike our own Milky Way Galaxy. The giant elliptical galaxy named NGC 4881 on the upper left lies at the edge of the giant Coma Cluster of Galaxies. Elliptical galaxies are ellipsoidal in shape, contain no spiral arms, contain little interstellar gas or dust, and are found mostly in rich clusters of galaxies. Elliptical galaxies appear typically yellow-red, as opposed to spirals which have spiral arms that appear quite blue. Much speculation continues on how each type of galaxy can form, on whether ellipticals can evolve from colliding spirals, or spirals can be created from colliding ellipticals, or both. Besides the spiral galaxy on the right, all other images in this picture are of galaxies that lie well behind the Coma Cluster. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 32 16 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Elliptical Galaxy M87 Credit & Copyright: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, J.-C. Cuillandre (CFHT), Coelum Elliptical galaxy M87 is a type of galaxy that looks much different than our own Milky Way Galaxy. Even for an elliptical galaxy, though, M87 is peculiar. M87 is much bigger than an average galaxy, appears near the center of a whole cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster, and shows an unusually high number of globular clusters. These globular clusters are visible as faint spots surrounding the bright center of M87. In general, elliptical galaxies contain similar numbers of stars as spiral galaxies, but are ellipsoidal in shape (spirals are mostly flat), have no spiral structure, and little gas and dust. The above image of M87 was taken recently by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on top of the dormant volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii, USA. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 33 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • M31: The Andromeda Galaxy Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler(robgendlerastropixs.com) Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier's list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. Although visible without aid, the above image of M31 is a digital mosaic of 20 frames taken with a small telescope. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 34 17 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Neighboring Galaxy: The Large Magellanic Cloud Credit & Copyright: AURA/NOAO/NSF The brightest galaxy visible from our own Milky Way Galaxy is the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Visible predominantly from Earth's Southern Hemisphere, the LMC is the second closest galaxy, neighbor to the Small Magellanic Cloud, and one of eleven known dwarf galaxies that orbit our Milky Way Galaxy. The LMC is an irregular galaxy composed of a bar of older red stars, clouds of younger blue stars, and a bright red star forming region visible near the top of the above image called the Tarantula Nebula. The brightest supernova of modern times, SN1987A, occurred in the LMC. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 35 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • The Milky Way in Stars and Dust Credit & Copyright: Serge Brunier The disk of our Milky Way Galaxy is home to hot nebulae, cold dust, and billions of stars. This disk can be seen from a dark location on Earth as a band of diffuse light across the sky. This band crosses the sky in dramatic fashion in the above series of wide angle sky exposures from Chile. The deepness of the exposures also brings to light a vast network of complex dust filaments. Dust is so plentiful that it obscures our Galaxy's center in visible light, hiding its true direction until discovered by other means early last century. The Galactic Center, though, is visible above as the thickest part of the disk. The diffuse glow comes from billions of older, fainter stars like our Sun, which are typically much older than the dust or any of the nebulae. One particularly photogenic area of darkness is the Pipe Nebula visible above the Galactic Center. Dark dust is not the dark matter than dominates our Galaxy -that dark matter remains in a form yet unknown. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 36 18 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • The Milky Way in Infrared Credit: E. L. Wright (UCLA), The COBE Project, DIRBE, NASA At night, from a dark location, part of the clear sky looks milky. This unusual swath of dim light is generally visible during any month and from any location. Until the invention of the telescope, nobody really knew what the "Milky Way" was. About 300 years ago telescopes caused a startling revelation: the Milky Way was made of stars. Only 70 years ago, more powerful telescopes brought the further revelation that the Milky Way is only one galaxy among many. Now telescopes in space allow yet deeper understanding. The above picture was taken by the COBE satellite and shows the plane of our Galaxy in infrared light. The thin disk of our home spiral galaxy is clearly apparent, with stars appearing white and interstellar dust appearing red. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 37 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT Why do many galaxies appear as spirals? A striking example is M101, shown above, whose relatively close distance of about 22 million light years allow it to be studied in some detail. Recent evidence indicates that a close gravitational interaction with a neighboring galaxy created waves of high mass and condensed gas which continue to orbit the galaxy center. These waves compress existing gas and cause star formation. One result is that M101, also called the Pinwheel Galaxy, has several extremely bright star-forming regions (called HII regions) spread across its spiral arms. M101 is so large that its immense gravity distorts smaller nearby galaxies. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 38 19 8/29/2011 Imágenes de objetos del Universo adquiridas desde el NASA/ESA HST • The large Whirlpool Galaxy (left) is known for its sharply defined spiral arms. Their prominence could be the result of the Whirlpool's gravitational tug-ofwar with its smaller companion galaxy (right). Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 39 Imágenes de objetos del Universo adquiridas desde el NASA/ESA HST • M81, a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way, is one of the brightest galaxies that can be seen from Earth. The spiral arms wind all the way down into the nucleus and are made up of young, bluish, hot stars formed in the past few million years, while the central bulge contains older, redder stars. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 40 20 8/29/2011 Imágenes de objetos del Universo adquiridas desde el NASA/ESA HST • The Majestic Sombrero Galaxy (M104) A brilliant white core is encircled by thick dust lanes in this spiral galaxy, seen edge-on. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light years from Earth. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 41 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • NGC 1365: A Nearby Barred Spiral Galaxy Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a bar, but perhaps not so prominent as the one in NGC 1365, shown above. The persistence and motion of the bar imply relatively massive spiral arms. The placements of bright young blue stars and dark dust lanes also indicate a strong rotating density wave of star formation. NGC 1365 is a member of the Fornax Cluster of Galaxies. Because NGC 1365 is relatively nearby, simultaneous measurements of its speed and distance are possible, which help astronomers estimate how fast our universe is expanding. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 42 21 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Andromeda Island Universe Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy some two million light-years away. But without a telescope, even this immense spiral galaxy - spanning over 200,000 light years appears as a faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda. In contrast, a bright yellow nucleus, dark winding dust lanes, gorgeous blue spiral arms and star clusters are recorded in this stunning telescopic digital mosaic with a cumulative exposure of over 90 hours. While even casual skygazers are now inspired by the knowledge that there are many distant galaxies like M31, astronomers seriously debated this fundamental concept only 80 years ago. Were these "spiral nebulae" simply outlying components of our own Milky Way Galaxy or were they instead "island universes" -distant systems of stars comparable to the Milky Way itself? This question was central to the famous Shapley-Curtis debate of 1920, which was later resolved by observations of M31 in favor of Andromeda, island universe. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 43 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Molecular Cloud Barnard 68 Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO Where did all the stars go? What used to be considered a hole in the sky is now known to astronomers as a dark molecular cloud. Here, a high concentration of dust and molecular gas absorb practically all the visible light emitted from background stars. The eerily dark surroundings help make the interiors of molecular clouds some of the coldest and most isolated places in the universe. One of the most notable of these dark absorption nebulae is a cloud toward the constellation Ophiuchus known as Barnard 68, pictured above. That no stars are visible in the center indicates that Barnard 68 is relatively nearby, with measurements placing it about 500 light-years away and half a light-year across. It is not known exactly how molecular clouds like Barnard 68 form, but it is known that these clouds are themselves likely places for new stars to form. It is possible to look right through the cloud in infrared light. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 44 22 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Snake in the Dark Credit & Copyright: Gary Stevens Dark nebulae snake across a gorgeous expanse of stars in this wide-field view toward the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. In fact, the central S-shape seen here is well known as the Snake Nebula. It is also listed as Barnard 72 (B72), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard. Unlike bright emission nebulae and star clusters, Barnard's nebulae are interstellar dark clouds of obscuring gas and dust. Their shapes are visible in cosmic silhouette only because they lie in the foreground along the line of sight to rich star fields and glowing stellar nurseries near the plane of our Galaxy. Many of Barnard's dark nebulae are themselves likely sites of future star formation. Barnard 72 is a few light years across and about 650 light years away. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 45 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • The Horsehead Nebula Credit & Copyright: Nigel Sharp (NOAO), KPNO, AURA, NSF One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light takes about 1500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. The above image was taken with the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 46 23 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • IC 1396 H-Alpha Close-Up Credit: Nick Wright (University College London), IPHAS Collaboration Clouds of glowing hydrogen gas mingle ominously with dark dust lanes in this close-up of IC 1396, an active star forming region some 2,000 light years away in the constellation Cepheus. In this and other similar emission nebulae, energetic ultraviolet light from a hot young star strips electrons from the surrounding hydrogen atoms. As the electrons and atoms recombine they emit longer wavelength, lower energy light in a well known characteristic pattern of bright spectral lines. At visible wavelengths, the strongest emission line in this pattern is in the red part of the spectrum and is known as "Hydrogen-alpha" or just Halpha. Part of IPHAS, a survey of H-alpha emission in our Milky Way Galaxy, this image spans about 20 light-years and highlights bright, dense regions within IC 1396, likely sites where massive new stars are born. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 47 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • An Orion Deep Field Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellations, the glowing Orion Nebula and the dark Horsehead Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. They both appear in this stunning composite digital image assembled from over 20 hours of data that includes exposures filtered to record emission from hydrogen atoms. The view reveals extensive nebulosities associated with the giant Orion Molecular Cloud complex, itself hundreds of light-years across. The magnificent emission region, the Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right of the picture. Immediately to its left are a cluster of of prominent bluish reflection nebulae sometimes called the Running Man. The Horsehead nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette notched against the long red glow at the lower left. Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and is seen as the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead. Below Alnitak is the Flame Nebula, with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes. Fainter tendrils of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced throughout the region in this Orion deep field. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 48 24 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula Credit: B. Balick (U. Washington) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die? Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die. In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and M2-9 pictured above, the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes. The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousand of years. M2-9, a butterfly planetary nebula 2100 light-years away shown in representative colors, has wings that tell a strange but incomplete tale. In the center, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times the orbit of Pluto. The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk creating the bipolar appearance. Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause planetary nebulae. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 49 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • The Planetary Nebula Show Credit: Courtesy Adam Block (KPNO Visitor Program), NOAO, NSF What do the Owl, the Cat's Eye, the Ghost of Jupiter, and Saturn have in common? They're all planetary nebulae of course, glowing gaseous shrouds shed by dying sun-like stars as they run out of nuclear fuel. Beautiful to look at, the symmetric, planet-like shapes of these cosmic clouds, typically 1,000 times the size of our solar system, evoke their popular names. Flipping through digital pictures made by participants in the Kitt Peak National Observatory Visitor Center's Advanced Observing Program, astronomer Adam Block created this delightful animation. Ten different planetary nebula images are presented, each registered on the central star. In order, their catalog designations are NGC 1535, NGC 3242 (Ghost of Jupiter), NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye), NGC 7009 (Saturn Nebula), NGC 2438, NGC 6772, Abell 39, NGC 7139, NGC 6781, and M97 (Owl Nebula). This glorious final phase in the life of a star lasts only about 10,000 years. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 50 25 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • NGC 6369: The Little Ghost Nebula Credit: Hubble Heritage Team, NASA This pretty planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 6369, was discovered by 18th century astronomer William Herschel as he used a telescope to explore the constellation Ophiucus. Round and planetshaped, the nebula is also relatively faint and has acquired the popular moniker of Little Ghost Nebula. Planetary nebulae in general are not at all related to planets, but instead are created at the end of a sun-like star's life as its outer layers expand into space while the star's core shrinks to become a white dwarf. The transformed white dwarf star, seen near the center, radiates strongly at ultraviolet wavelengths and powers the expanding nebula's glow. Surprisingly complex details and structures of NGC 6369 are revealed in this delightful color image composed from Hubble Space Telescope data. The nebula's main ring structure is about a light-year across and the glow from ionized oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms are colored blue, green, and red respectively. Over 2,000 light-years away, the Little Ghost Nebula offers a glimpse of the fate of our Sun, which should produce its own pretty planetary nebula only about 5 billion years from now. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 51 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • The Witch Head Nebula Credit: G. Greaney Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble ... Maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is associated with the bright star Rigel in the constellation Orion. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from Rigel. Rigel is located about one photo-width off the image to the right. Fine dust in the nebula reflects the light. The blue color is caused not only by Rigel's blue color but because the dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers here are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies about 1000 light-years away. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 52 26 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Reflection Nebula NGC 1435 Credit & Copyright: Yuugi Kitahara Reflection nebulae reflect light from a nearby star. Many small carbon grains in the nebula reflect the light. The blue color typical of reflection nebula is caused by blue light being more efficiently scattered by the carbon dust than red light. The brightness of the nebula is determined by the size and density of the reflecting grains, and by the color and brightness of the neighboring star(s). NGC 1435, pictured above, surrounds Merope (23 Tau), one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades (M45). The Pleiades nebulosity is caused by a chance encounter between an open cluster of stars and a molecular cloud. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 53 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • NGC 1999: Reflection Nebula in Orion Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI) and NASA A dusty bright nebula contrasts dramatically with a dusty dark nebula in this Hubble Space Telescope image recorded shortly after December's orbital servicing mission. The nebula, cataloged as NGC 1999, is a reflection nebula, which shines by reflecting light from a nearby star. Unlike emission nebulae, whose reddish glow comes from excited atoms of gas, reflection nebulae have a bluish cast as their interstellar dust grains preferentially reflect blue starlight. While perhaps the most famous reflection nebulae surround the bright young stars of the Pleiades star cluster, NGC 1999's stellar illumination is provided by the embedded variable star V380 Orionis, seen here just left of center. Extending right of center, the ominous dark nebula is actually a condensation of cold molecular gas and dust so thick and dense that it blocks light. From our perspective it lies in front of the bright nebula, silhouetted against the ghostly nebular glow. New stars will likely form within the dark cloud, called a Bok globule, as selfgravity continues to compress its dense gas and dust. Reflection nebula NGC 1999 lies about 1500 light-years away in the constellation Orion, just south of Orion's well known emission nebula, M42. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 54 27 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Supernova Remnant and Shock Wave Credit: Chandra: NASA / CXC / GSFC, U.Hwang et al.; ROSAT: NASA/GSFC/S.Snowden et al. • A massive star ends life as a supernova, blasting its outer layers back to interstellar space. The spectacular death explosion is initiated by the collapse of what has become an impossibly dense stellar core. Pictured is the expanding supernova remnant Puppis A - one of the brightest sources in the x-ray sky. Now seen to be about 10 lightyears in diameter, light from the initial stellar explosion first reached Earth a few thousand years ago. Recorded by the Chandra Observatory's x-ray cameras, the inset view shows striking details of the strong shock wave disrupting an interstellar cloud as the shock sweeps through preexisting material. The larger field ROSAT image also captures a pinpoint source of x-rays near the remnant's center. The source is a young neutron star, the remnant of the collapsed stellar core kicked out by the explosion and moving away at about 1,000 kilometers per second. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 55 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Crab Nebula Mosaic from HST Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (ASU) Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (Skyfactory) The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on Charles Messier's famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the cosmic Crab is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding cloud of debris from the death explosion of a massive star. Light from that stellar catastrophe was first witnessed by astronomers on planet Earth in the year 1054. Composed of 24 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000, this Hubble Space Telescope mosaic spans about twelve light years. Colors in the intricate filaments trace the light emitted from atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur in the debris cloud. The spooky blue interior glow is emitted by high-energy electrons accelerated by the Crab's central pulsar. One of the most exotic objects known to modern astronomers, the pulsar is a neutron star, the spinning remnant of the collapsed stellar core. The Crab Nebula lies about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 56 28 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • The Mysterious Rings of Supernova 1987A Credit: (ESA/ STScI), HST, NASA What's causing those odd rings in supernova 1987A? In 1987, the brightestsupernova in recent history occurred in the Large Magellanic Clouds. At the center of the picture is an object central to the remains of the violent stellar explosion. When the Hubble Space Telescope was pointed at the supernova remnant in 1994, however, the existence of curious rings was confirmed. The origins of these rings still remains a mystery. Speculation into the cause of the rings includes beamed jets emanating from a dense star left over from the supernova, and a superposition of two stellar winds ionized by the supernova explosion. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 57 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Tycho's Supernova Remnant in Xray Credit: ROSAT, MPE, NASA How often do stars explode? By looking at external galaxies, astronomers can guess that these events, known as a supernovae, should occur about once every 30 years in a typical spiral galaxy like our MilkyWay. However, the obscuring gas and dust in the disk of our galaxy probably prevents us from seeing many galactic supernovae -- making observations of these events in our own galaxy relatively rare. In fact, in 1572, the revered Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, witnessed one of the last to be seen. The remnant of this explosion is still visible today as the shockwave it generated continues to expand into the gas and dust between the stars.Above is an image of the X-rays emitted by this shockwave made by a telescope onboard the ROSAT spacecraft. The nebula is known as Tycho's Supernova Remnant. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 58 29 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • A Quasar Portrait Gallery Credit J. Bahcall (IAS, Princeton), M. Disney (Univ. Wales), NASA • Quasars (QUASi-stellAR objects) lie near the edge of the observable Universe. Discovered in 1963, astronomers were astounded that such objects could be visible across billions of light-years, as this implies they must emit prodigious amounts of energy. Where does the energy come from? Many believe the quasar's central engine is a giant black hole fueled by tremendous amounts of infalling gas, dust, and stars. This gallery of quasar portraits from the Hubble Space Telescope offers a look at their local neighborhoods: the quasars themselves appear as the bright starlike objects with diffraction spikes. The images in the center and right hand columns reveal quasars associated with disrupted colliding and merging galaxies which should provide plenty of debris to feed a hungry black hole. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 59 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Finding Dark Matter Credit & Copyright: A. J. Benson (Caltech) et al., U. Durham, PPARC Where is dark matter? Galaxies rotate and move in clusters as if a tremendous amount of unseen matter is present. But does dark matter exist in the greater universe too -- and if so, where? The answer can be found by comparing the distribution of galaxies observed with numerical simulations. This comparison became much more accurate recently when over 100,000 galaxy observations from the 2-Degree Field Galactic Redshift Survey were used. In the above frame from a computer simulation of our universe, a 300 million light-year slice shows dark matter in gray and galaxies as colored circles. The red box indicates the location of a rich cluster of galaxies, while the green box shows a more typical cross-section of our universe. Analyses indicate that the immense gravity of the pervasive dark matter pulls normal matter to it, so that light matter and dark matter actually cluster together. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 60 30 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Dark Matter Map Credit: J.-P. Kneib (Observatoire MidiPyrenees, Caltech) et al., ESA, NASA The total mass within giant galaxy cluster CL0025+1654, about 4.5 billion light-years away, produces a cosmic gravitational lens -bending light as predicted by Einstein's theory of gravity and forming detectable images of even more distant background galaxies. Of course, the total cluster mass is the sum of the galaxies themselves, seen as ordinary luminous matter, plus the cluster's invisible dark matter whose nature remains unknown. But by analyzing the distribution of luminous matter and the properties of the gravitational lensing due to total cluster mass, researchers have solved the problem of tracing the dark matter layout. Their resulting map shows the otherwise invisible dark matter in blue, and the positions of the cluster galaxies in yellow. The work, based on extensive Hubble Space Telescope observations, reveals that the cluster's dark matter is not evenly distributed, but follows the clumps of luminous matter closely. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 61 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • WMAP Resolves the Universe Credit: WMAP Science Team, NASA Analyses of a new high-resolution map of microwave light emitted only 380,000 years after the Big Bang appear to define our universe more precisely than ever before. The eagerly awaited results announced last year from the orbiting Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe resolve several longstanding disagreements in cosmology rooted in less precise data. Specifically, present analyses of above WMAP all-sky image indicate that the universe is 13.7 billion years old (accurate to 1 percent), composed of 73 percent dark energy, 23 percent cold dark matter, and only 4 percent atoms, is currently expanding at the rate of 71 km/sec/Mpc (accurate to 5 percent), underwent episodes of rapid expansion called inflation, and will expand forever. Astronomers will likely research the foundations and implications of these results for years to come. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 62 31 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Welcome to Planet Earth Credit: Apollo 17 Crew, NASA Welcome to Planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. The planet has a relatively thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Earth has a single large Moon that is about 1/4 of its diameter and, from the planet's surface, is seen to have almost exactly the same angular size as the Sun. With its abundance of liquid water, Earth supports a large variety of life forms, including potentially intelligent species such as dolphins and humans. Please enjoy your stay on Planet Earth. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 63 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Earth at Night Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 64 32 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Water World Credit: STS-45 Crew, NASA Water (Dihydrogen Oxide, H2O) is a truly remarkable chemical compound, fundamental to life on Earth. Earth is the only planet in the Solar System where the present surface temperature and pressure allow the three forms of water, solid (ice), liquid (ocean), and gas (water vapor condensing in clouds) to exist simultaneously. Water in one of these forms accounts for everything visible in this view of Earth from space looking north at the Bering Sea and the coast of Alaska, USA, around Bristol Bay. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 65 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • The Dust and Ion Tails of Comet Hale-Bopp Credit & Copyright: John Gleason (Celestial Images) In 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp's intrinsic brightness exceeded any comet since 1811. Since it peaked on the other side of the Earth's orbit, however, the comet appeared only brighter than any comet in two decades. Visible above are the two tails shed by Comet Hale-Bopp. The blue ion tail is composed of ionized gas molecules, of which carbon monoxide particularly glows blue when reacquiring electrons. This tail is created by the particles from the fast solar wind interacting with gas from the comet's head. The blue ion tail points directly away from the Sun. The light colored dust tail is created by bits of grit that have come off the comet's nucleus and are being pushed away by the pressure of light from the Sun. This tail points nearly away from the Sun. The above photograph was taken in March 1997. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 66 33 8/29/2011 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA • This asteroid has a moon! The robot spacecraft Galileo destined to explore the Jovian system, encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage to Jupiter. The second asteroid it photographed, Ida, was discovered to have a moon which appears as a small dot to the right of Ida in this image from 1993. The tiny moon, named Dactyl, is about one mile across, while the potato shaped Ida measures about 36 miles long and 14 miles wide. Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered. The names Ida and Dactyl are from Greek mythology. Many other asteroids are now known to have moons. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 67 NASA Astronomical Picture of the Day • Asteroids in the Distance Credit: R. Evans & K. Stapelfeldt (JPL), WFPC2, HST, NASA Rocks from space hit Earth every day. The larger the rock, though, the less often Earth is struck. Many kilograms of space dust pitter to Earth daily. Larger bits appear initially as a bright meteor. Baseball-sized rocks and ice-balls streak through our atmosphere daily, most evaporating quickly to nothing. Significant threats do exist for rocks near 100 meters in diameter, which strike the Earth roughly every 1000 years. An object this size could cause significant tsunamis were it to strike an ocean, potentially devastating even distant shores. A collision with a Massive asteroid, over 1 km across, is more rare, occurring typically millions of years apart, but could have truly global consequences. Many asteroids remain undiscovered. In fact, one was discovered in 1998 as the long blue streak in the above archival image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2002 June, the small 100-meter asteroid 2002 MN was discovered only after it whizzed by the Earth, passing well within the orbit of the Moon. 2002 MN passed closer than any asteroid since 1994 XM1, but not as close as 2004 MN4 will pass in 2029. A collision with a large asteroid would not affect Earth's orbit so much as raise dust that would affect Earth's climate. One likely result is a global extinction of many species of life, possibly dwarfing the ongoing extinction occurring now. Introducción a CTE II, Depto.de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias 68 34