Greetings from Palmia Observatory
Well, this week I attended the CSULB physics colloquium and had interesting presentation on binary system evolution and mergers by Professor Margaret Lazzarini, CSULA.
The title of her presentation was: Learning about Massive Binary Stellar Evolution from High Mass X-ray Binaries in Local Group Galaxies. She used a combination of x-ray images from Chandra and spectroscopic data from the Keck telescope in Hawaii.
I found this chart with different stellar evolution pathways interesting.
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| CSULB Colloquium and Stellar Evolution Pathways (Source: M. Lazzarini, CSULA) |
Binary evolution is important because a large majority of stars occur as binary systems. If we look at the screenshot slide below, we see that the massive OB stars most are found in binary or triple systems.
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| CSULB Colloquium and binary/triple systems of stars (Source: M. Lazzarini, CSULA) |
Binary systems where one of the stars is a compact object like a neutron star or black hole it is often the case that the infall of matter onto the compact object results in x-ray emission. Studying the x-rays and spectroscopic images can tell much about the nature of the binary system and the age and distribution of stars in the galaxies.
Another source of information is the gravitational waves formed during the merger process.
Anyway, it was an interesting presentation, but it is getting harder to maintain enough interest n making the drive, parking, etc., especially now that the student union is closed for renovation and there are not any sit-down places for lunch anymore. Ok, enough of colloquium talk, so later the next evening we chose to look up at the moon. The next full moon is upon us and this image was taken on November 4 with DSLR on flimsy tripod.
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| One day till full moon, DSLR, 300mm, 1/1000 second (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
We also received an email from OCA Scott, who let us in the SEN video camera on the ISS which makes images along the ground track of the ISS in real time. Check out the image below showing the ISS just approaching the coast of Chile.
You can access the live images of the Earth from the ISS at: Live 4K video of Earth and space: 24/7 Livestream of Earth by Sen’s 4K video cameras on the ISS
Thanks for sharing, Scott!
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| Live Image from ISS as it approaches Chile (Source: SEN 4k Camera onboard the ISS) |
Finally, as we continue moving into the month of November, we had some visitors show up on the observatory patio. Look out now and report what should up on your patio?
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| Thanksgiving blow up visitors on the patio (Source: Palmia Observatory) |
Until next time,
Resident Astronomer George
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