Author Archives: briannagalgano

The Lonely Giant – NGC 1600

Posted on April 10, 2016 by briannagalgano

Astronomers have discovered an enormously massive galaxy, NGC 1600, 209 light years away. NGC 1600 is an elliptical galaxy that is 17,000,000,000 billion solar masses. There are many massive black holes in the Universe (Source). In fact, there is a black hole at the center of every galaxy. It is thought that perhaps black holes […] Continue reading →

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The Power of a Black Hole Merger

Posted on March 15, 2016 by briannagalgano

  An article by Christopher Crockett in ScienceNews came out 5 days ago that stated the amount of power output by the merging of two black holes. This was the same event detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, the first detection of observational gravitational waves. The power of merger was apparently 3.6 x 10^49 watts! […] Continue reading →

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Many Different Milky Ways

Posted on February 16, 2016 by briannagalgano

We know that there are many different types of light in the Universe. Each type gives us unique information about the object we are studying. The above picture from NASA contrasts the same celestial object, the Milky Way, in different wavelengths. Note that the further we deviate on either side (longer or shorter wavelength), the […] Continue reading →

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Spectra Across Spectral Types

Posted on February 16, 2016 by briannagalgano

One of the beautiful aspects of the universe is that not every celestial object is exactly the same. The majority of stars spend their lives on the “main sequence” in which they have stable volume and continuously undergo hydrogen fusion. Astronomers use a classification system based solely upon the temperature of a star, assigning each […] Continue reading →

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Tycho and His Universe

Posted on February 9, 2016 by briannagalgano

Tycho Brahe made many important contributions to astronomy in a variety of ways. He made regular observations of the heavens and tabulated that information so that other scientists (like Kepler) could use them. He engineered and calibrated his own instruments. Brahe also theorized–he made his own solar system model that incorporated both Copernicus’ and Ptolemy’s […] Continue reading →

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Blog #2 | Zodiacs and Precession

Posted on January 26, 2016 by briannagalgano

I am never one to really pry much life into zodiac signs, or how they should tell about my personality or future. However, the zodiac constellations have some real hard science about them. Zodiacs signs corresponding to the constellation that the Sun is located in front of from our perspective on Earth. There is usually […] Continue reading →

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Blog #1 |Discovering Scale of the Universe

Posted on January 25, 2016 by briannagalgano

It is hard to imagine the actual scale of the universe from a human perspective. Humans have personally witnessed the vastness of space only as far as the Moon and Earth orbit (International Space Station, as one vehicle). Instead, computer stimulations can help us get an idea of exactly how far the universe, as we […] Continue reading →

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Hello, ASTR 2110

Posted on January 21, 2016 by briannagalgano

My name is Brianna and I love food and astronomy. This is a picture of the most amazing dish I’ve had so far in my life. I think one way to get to know a person is to know the things that they like, so I would say that my perception of this meal is […] Continue reading →

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