Many don't know it, but Saturn is the planet that has the most moons in our solar system. 62, in fact, and 53 of them have names. While some of these are considered "normal" moons (such as Titan or Enceladus), 24 others are considered "regular satellites." These satellites are as small as 1 kilometer across, while Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is larger than the planet Mercury. The rings of Saturn are made up of objects ranging in size from
microscopic to hundreds of meters, each of which is on its own orbit
about the planet. There is
no real boundary between the countless small objects that
form Saturn's rings and the larger objects that have been named
as moons. Because of the objects in Saturn's rings, it is impossible to know exactly how many moons the planet has orbiting it.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Quasars
A quasar is a supermassive black hole surrounded by an
accretion disk. An accretion disk is a flat, disk-like structure of gas
that spirals around a black hole, a new
star, a white dwarf, etc. A quasar attracts this gas and
sometimes other stars or small galaxies with their superstrong
gravity, sucking them into the black hole. When a galaxy,
star or gas is absorbed into a quasar, a
massive collision of matter occurs that causes an explosive output of
radiation energy and light. This great burst of energy results in a
flare, a distinct characteristic of quasars. Because of these collisions, quasars are believed to be the brightest objects in the universe.
| The jet of light being emitted by the quasar is the flare. |
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