At this point during the week, students have been given adequate time by Dave to work on their group projects. Each student yesterday was told by Dave to form groups. Each group must select a paticular topic relating to Astronomy and Astrophysics. During preparation for their projects Dave showed the class the picture of the day. Through Photoshop, Dave showed a diagram of how the path of stars are affected by large bodies of matter like planets.
The first group that presented discussed the concept of black holes. The two presenters were Zach and Elliot. According to Elliot and Zach, black holes are mysterious objects. Black holes occur due collapsed stars. When nuclear fission wears out, gravity collapses the star. According to their presentation, black holes sucking everything is a big misconception. Another misconception Zach and Elliot introduced was the belief that wormholes are capable for traveling in time. Evidence of black holes have been proven by X-ray detection through satellites.
Nadia and Jessica discussed the life cycle of stars. According to Jessica and Nadia, nebulaes are the birth place of stars. According to their presentation, their are two types of main sequence, stars like the sun or big stars like Sirus. They went on to discuss the difference between an average star and a massive star. According to these students, average stars live for 10 billion yrs. Massive stars on the other hand tend to live shorter than average stars. Massive stars burn hydrogen more than average stars. Through their presentation the two girls discussed Red Giants can get 8 times as big as the sun. Planetary Nebulae occurs when the outer layer of Red giant stars disappear. Supernovas eventually create Pulsars and Blackholes.
Azariah and Mary discussed the idea behind the concept Nebulae. The term nebulae is used to describe galxies and is often referred to as the birth place of stars. The term Nebulae originated from Greek mythology about a female character name Nephele who is the wife of King Athamas. According to Azariah and Mary, nebulaes are composed of hydrogen and helium. There are various type of nebulaes such as the reflection nebulaes, the planetary nebulae and the Supernova Remnant.
Mathew, David, Trokon, and Cameron did a power point presentation on galaxy collisions. The group had pictures of head-on collisions of various galaxies.