Which targets should we observe?

A) Brown DwarfB) Tau CetiC) RigelD) BetelgeuseE) ESO 0133F) NGC 2440G) NGC 6302F) Crab PulsarG) Comet GalaxyH) RX J1131-1231I) Markarian 231

pictured: the Capitol Radically All-spectral Telescope

Assume a half-day to full day for each, revisiting once/month to observe.

PICK 4, potentially justify a 5th.

Brown Dwarf (B.R.)http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/Coldest/

ii) How bright it is, and what wavelength is it best seen in?Brown dwarves have no internal energy source and therefore don’t have very much visible life. Infrared telescopes are used to get a better look at the failed stars.

iii) How often does it change, on what timescale? a) How long do you need to stare at it to see any changes, and/or b) How often would you need to reobserve it to get useful info?

Brown dwarves are very hard to find in space, most have to be fairly close to detect and even then they are hard to observe. To see any changes one would have to study the brown dwarves most likely for many years to see changes or at least come back after a good period of time.

iv)Is it a common or uncommon thing?Brown dwarves appear to be a common thing, the number of failed stars might end up being around the same number as regular stars. This would make since depending on the vastness and numbers of stars, one would think there would be failed stars.

Tau Ceti (S.S.)Here's my proposal for studying the star Tau Ceti (a very close star quite like the Sun):

i) Image came from http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/userimages/index/2013-08-29_1.html (the second image created 2013-08-29 22:20:07)

ii) The apparent visual magnitude of this star is +3.50, while the absolute visual magnitude is +5.69. It is best seen in the visual spectrum with a color index of B-V= +0.72 (close to the Sun's own B-V= +0.65).

iii) Since it's a main sequence star, Tau Ceti itself does not change very much or very quickly. However, the planets around Tau Ceti do change, and can be observed orbiting the star through a powerful telescope (like the hypothetical CapTech telescope).a) You would probably have to monitor the star for months to be able to notice planets traversing the star and dimming its brightness.b) One would need to re-observe the star probably at least two to four times a week to get data updates and notice traversing planets.

iv) Tau Ceti itself is pretty typical for a main sequence star, and is in fact very similar to our Sun. What makes it uncommon is its proximity to Earth (only 11.90 light years away from Sol), its similarity to our own sun, and the planetary system around it. Specifically, there are 2 planets that are in or are near the "habitable zone," and one in particular could possibly support life.

I may be way off on the estimates of how frequent observations should be, but I tried to guess how often one would need to look at it to see traversing planets and measure them.

Source for star data: http://www.stellar-database.com/Scripts/search_star.exe?Name=Tau+CetiSource for info on planets: http://www.space.com/29191-exoplanets-tau-ceti-alien-life.html

Rigel (S.B.)

1. Blue Stars are extremely hot and bright, with surface temperatures of between 20,000 - 50,000 degrees Celsius. The best known example is Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation of Orion.

2. I see no information on a blue star changing but i found that the hotter(or bluer) a star is while its on the main sequence the faster it burns its hydrogen and the quicker it dies. So if you see a blue star on the main sequence you know it must be pretty young otherwise it would have burnt out already.

Betelgeuse (A.L.)Betelgeuse is easily viewed as an orange-reddish star. Wavelength_peak_at_3500 K = 828.57 nm. If observing through an infrared telescope, Betelgeuse is best seen at 828.57 nm because the surface temperature is what is most easily seen in infrared telescopes.

Timescale of Betelgeuse: Betelgeuse’s magnitude varies from 0.2 to 1.2 over 400 days. Its varying magnitude varies the brightness of Betelgeuse, where at its maximum brightness it is the seventh brightest star in the visible sky. Betelgeuse’s pulsation cycles can last anywhere from 150 to 300 days to longer cycles of 5.4 years. To see changes in its apparent brightness from Earth in the visible sky, one would have to keep track of Betelgeuse in the Orion Nebula for a little over a year.0

Studying Betelgeuse’s apparent diameter tells us if the star is getting smaller. If Betelgeuse is getting smaller, it means it may near the end of its life. Currently that is exactly what is happening, with Betelgeuse expected to explode into a supernova in 1,000,000 years. Betelgeuse is 643 light-years away, and thus blowing up into a supernova would not harm us on Earth. This wavelength range of 923.57 nm – 796.48 nm can be used to track Betelgeuse’s change of diameter behavior.

Betelgeuse’s change in color can also be observed and studied using the color visible spectrum of 597 nm – 700 nm. Change in color can tell us if Betelgeuse’s apparent temperature change of increasing or decreasing, where red is the lowest temperature range 2000 – 3500 K, and blue is 28000 – 50000 K (hottest).

This image of Betelgeuse was taken by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile in July 2009. The image reveals Betelgeuse’s plume and surrounding gas, a result of its ejected mass. This picture is certainly an unconventional picture of Betelgeuse, compared to the typical red-orangish star image generally depicting the red giant star. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090805.html

ESO0133 ADONIS (L.S.)A binary star pair, both normal stars:

i. RXJ 0529.4+0041: a low-mass pre-main sequence eclipsing-spectroscopic binaryAKA eso0133 ADONIS More Info: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0133/

ii. The star that is eclipsed during the primary eclipse(the "primary") is the more massive and also the hotter and brighter of the two stars.

PrimaryMass = 1.3 times that of our Sun, (about 2.6 10 30 kg)Diameter = 1.6 times larger than that of our Sun (~ 2.2 million km)Surface temp = a little more than 5000 °C (cooler than the Sun. )SecondaryMass = slightly lighter than our Sun. (about 90% of that of the Sun)Diameter is 20% larger (about 1.7 million km), Surface Temp = 4000 degrees.

iii. The entire orbital period of the binaray star is 3 days. Distance between bodies: 12 solar radii (8 million km)

I assume that for the most active event which would require the highest reobserving rate is the orbital period during eclipse which last about 6 hours

iv. Young stars are not so easy to find,

In fact, " these two stars are still so young that most of their energy comes from the contraction process - the first phase during which they are formed from an interstellar cloud by this process is not yet over and they are still getting smaller. It is by this process that collapsing stars heat up enough to start nuclear burning. When infant stars in RXJ 0529.4+0041 eventually reach middle-age, their sizes will most likely also be quite similar to that of theSun. "

NGC 2440 (S.M.)The subject is Planetary Nebula to be process is NGG 2440 , this is one of many in are galaxy. It also has one of the larges white dwarfs in the Puppis constellation. This was also found by William Herschel.This is with color Planetary Nebula. NGC 2440. Courtesy NASA, ESA, and K. Noll

Evan Snider, “The Eye of the Hubble: Framing Astronomical Images,” Frame 1, no. 1 (2011): 3-21. 2/ 7/2016)

This is the same image without the added color

Butterfly Nebula/NGC 6302 (R.S.)Topic: An expanding cloud around a supernovaCelestial Body: Butterfly Nebula (NGC 6302)

II) This celestial body is best seen in ultraviolet light. It has a visual magnitude of 7.1 B, and an absolute magnitude of -3.0 B

III) The current image shows the effect of the event after 2200 years, and is said to be about 2 light yearsacross currently. The two wings are expanding fasterthan 600,000 miles per hour currently.

IV) This is a common thing, in that there are more nebulas in our own galaxy, but the NGC 6302 is the largest nebula in the Milky Way, and therefore is distinguished amongst the other nebuli.

Crab Pulsar (C.M.)I want to study the Crab Pulsar. (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=Crab)1.2. The luminosity is unknown. The crab pulsar has an apparent magnitude 16.5(v).3. This pulsar beams rotate once every 33ms or 30 times each second. The pulsar is losingmost of its energy, and changing to gravitational waves. You can see the pulsar best inthe X-ray wavelength and bands.a. Visualizing the pulsar using an X-ray telescope, you could examine it in less than a second.b. The observations could be taken place as long as you are in range, and direct line with the crab pulsar. The pulsar flashes often enough to study for long periods of time.4. The beams of rays occur fairly often. There are a few like the crab pulsar, but there is alot to study the energy loss within the pulsar.

Comet Galaxy (S.B.)The large red object is the Comet Galaxy, a unique spiral galaxy observed by NASA’s Spitzer SpaceTelescope in infrared.It is in the middle of a collision with the Abell 2667 galaxy currently moving at 3.5 million km/h. Its tailhas a length of over 600,000 light years. The collision is estimated to take a billion years and the imageswe have seen are about 200 million years into that process.

Quasar RX J1131-1231 (E.R.)2a. The luminosity of this quasar is 2-3 * 10^43 watts in X-ray.

2b. This quasar is best seen in X-ray wavelengths through a quadruple gravitational lens. 3. A quasar can change in any amount of time from hours to months but this one specifically has a steady source of incoming debris from a giant elliptical galaxy and a line of several other galaxies so would best be studied over longer periods of time such as once a month for several years. 4. Quasars were much more common in the early universe and have become rarer as time passes, it is theorized that there is not enough matter to feed into supermassive black holes and therefore quasars have become much less common.

Markarian 231 (D.S.)Topic: Binary Black Hole Quasar in the Markarian 231 Galaxy (http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/hubble-finds-that-the-nearest-quasar-is-powered-by-a-double-black-hole)

The galaxy from what I understand is best seen in the Far-Infrared band (7.5 x 1012 – 1 x 1012 Hz) and has the following characteristics. Spectral Region: Far-InfraredBand: 63 microns (ISO)Apparent Mag: 42.9 +/- 4.0 JyAbsolute Mag: 8.01E+38 +/- 1.77E+38[W]

Luminosity Class: ULIRGThe observations that were made to discover the binary black hole system was in the Ultraviolet range.

The galaxy has a Heliocentric Radial Velocity of ~12642 km/s and due to it being a Quasar most likely has a very short time scale relative to the galactic time scale for seeing changes. Further, about every 1.2 years the two black holes complete orbits around each other. We also expect in the next couple 100,000 years to see the black holes collide.It has been theorized that it is common due to our singular data point.

Data found at https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/objsearch?objname=UGC+8058&extend=no&hconst=73&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1&out_csys=Equatorial&out_equinox=J2000.0&obj_sort=RA+or+Longitude&of=pre_text&zv_breaker=30000.0&list_limit=5&img_stamp=YES for the Galaxy.