Greetings and welcome to the
Introduction to Astronomy.
One of the things
that I like to do
in each of my introductory
astronomy classes
is to begin the class with the
Astronomy Picture of the Day.
From the NASA website that
is APOD.NASA.GOV/APOD.
And today's picture for
August the 31st of 2020
well it is titled SS 433:
Binary Star Micro Quasar.
So what do we see here?
Well, this is a star
first cataloged as SS 433
and named after the catalog
of the two astronomers.
Stephenson and Sanduleak
who cataloged this
back in the 1970s.
And this was star number 433
in their catalog of stars that
had unusual emission lines.
So it was an unusual
star to start out with.
And as we've studied
it more and more.
We have found out more about it.
And it's actually a
very unusual object.
And in fact, we
now know that it is
a binary system with
an ordinary star
and a compact object a
neutron star or black hole.
And what we're going to see
here is a simulation of this
and the orbit of
these two objects.
So when two objects orbit very
close to each other a mass
can be transferred
from one to the other.
And can therefore cause
energy to be produced.
And as we play the
video what we'll see
is matter being
torn from one star.
And then spiraling into a
disk around the compact object
with some material beaming
out in jets now because
of the procession of
the object those jets
will come out in a helix
or a spiral pattern.
And we can see that from
several different locations
here as we look around.
Now, this is also
this object is also
at the center of a supernova
remnants over this star
is likely one that was
a supernova long ago.
And the compact remnant be left
behind is still present there.
So we call it a micro
quasar because this
is the same type of process that
we believe goes on in a quasar
except in a quasar it
is a much larger scale.
So within the quasar we
would see a large amount
of material going onto a
supermassive black hole
something many millions of
times the mass of our sun.
And then is the same, but
the same process would occur,
it would spiral into the
accretion disk jets of material
would come out and the
tremendous amounts of energy
would be produced.
So what is a chance to look
at something much closer
than a quasar which are all many
billions of light years away.
But to study the same process.
And in fact, at the end
you see kind of a beacon
up towards the top of the
supernova which is actually
a very strong gamma ray source.
Now this is still something
surprising to astronomers
because it seems to be
related to SS 433 itself
near the center.
However, it is actually
quite a ways away.
But it does have
a pulsation period
that matches the procession
period of the jet.
And this is something that
astronomers do not yet
understand exactly what,
if any, the relationship is
between these two.
So studying SS 433
is a chance to look
at an example of the
process that forms
a quasar at a much closer
scale closer distance
than the quasars that
we see that are really
out at the edges
of the universe.
So that was our picture of
the day for August the 31st
of to 2020.
It was titled SS 433
Binary Star Micro Quasar.
We'll be back again tomorrow
for the next picture preview
to be Salted Asteroid.
So we'll see what that
is about tomorrow.
And until then, have
a great day, everyone,
and I will see you in class.
