Biography Sources

Works Cited

"Allan Sandage - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph Online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/8150004/Allan-Sandage.html>.

"Allan Sandage, 1926-2010." Astronomy Now Online. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1011/16Sandage/>.

"Allan Sandage." Wikipedia. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Sandage>.

Overbye, Dennis. "Allan Sandage, Astronomer, Dies at 84 - Charted Cosmos’s Age and Expansion - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/science/space/17sandage.html>.

APOD 4.4

16 April 2011 - The Tadpoles of IC 410
This false color image shows an emission nebula known eloquently as IC 410. It's so incredible how two tadpoles can randomly form out of cosmic dust and look so beautiful. A narrow band filter traces atoms and makes sulfur red, hydrogen atoms green, and oxygen blue. The cluster NGC 1983 energizes the gas of IC 410. The "tadpoles" are an enormous 10 light years in length. The trails lead away from the center, caused by cosmic "wind."

Zooniverse

I have been doing the bubble drawing experiment in Zooniverse for several weeks. It is sometimes difficult to determine where the bubbles are because they are so vaguely defined. I have found many fuzzy red objects and galaxies as well.

APOD 4.2

6 April 2011 - The Perfect Spiral
M74 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces that offers an almost perfect head-on view. It contains about 100 billion stars and is 32 million light years away. Considering that the picture is half the width of the full moon, it actually covers quite a large surface area of the sky. It's compelling to think that this majestic structure is right in front of our eyes, but we can't see it because of the long exposure times required to reveal most of the stars. M74 has multiple blue clusters and cosmic dust lanes. Some exposure in the infrared revealed a part of the hydrogen emission spectra.

APOD 4.1

1 April 2011 - It's Raining On Titan
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has been experiencing rainstorms of methane near its equator. The rains were visible from space as a dark band around the moon. Ironically, this deluge occurred at the same time as Earth's April showers and the geographical distribution of precipitation is similar to that of Earth. Methane on Titan behaves almost like water does on Earth, with lakes evaporating to form clouds which release methane rain.

APOD 3.8

27 March 2011 - Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Mars' main valley, the largest in the solar system, extends for 3000 km and is up to 600 km wide and 8 km deep. It's hard to believe it is almost a quarter of the planet's circumference! Valles Marineris is a large tectonic crack that occurred when the Martian crust was rising in the west. Over time, it was widened by erosion. Some channels have formation characteristics indicative of water or carbon dioxide. There is another theory that it was formed by subsurface magma. Regardless, it is clear that Valles Marineris is a gold mine for potential research on martian geology.

APOD 3.7

13 March 2011 - A Mars Panorama from the Phoenix Lander

The Phoenix lander was designed to study the history of water and habitability potential of Mars.This panoramic, 360 degree image combines 100 distinct photos.The probe used solar panels to maintain energy levels and dug trenches to analyze the soil. The lander descended near the North Pole to search for signs of life. The existence of subterranean ice and perchlorate salts has been confirmed. This is a very exciting time as we attempt to delve deeper into the history of Mars.