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Second Years: Lesson Five; *Archived* Gryffindor and Hufflepuff: Y29 | S1
Topic Started: Sep 4 2017, 07:46 PM (66 Views)
Michelle Castor
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Astronomy Professor 1-4
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Astronomy,2,5Happy mode. That's exactly what Michelle was in today, and it felt great. She had her second years today again and couldn't wait to get started on the lesson, stars had always fascinated her and to Michelle, they were the most important part of astronomy, well all of its importance, but the stars are what people normally associate with it. She was sitting at her desk eating a muggle nutri-grain bar, that tasted like cardboard with blueberries, she hadn't gotten the time to go down for breakfast, she was up stargazing all night anyhow. Not to mention, exams were quickly approaching in the next few weeks, so Michelle had been extra prepared for them. She waited on her desk, just for anyone to come by and enter the classroom.

Which eventually they did, and before Michelle knew it everyone was seated. "Well well well, hello folks." she grinned. "Today we're going to have a discussion on types of star, so get out your note pages and ya' quills and ink pots, and make sure your keeping up with the pace I will be going at, which won't be terribly fast, neither will it be excruciatingly slow, so were going at 'medium' pace." She beckoned. "So without further ado, let us begin eh?" She said, getting comfortable on her chair, motioning to the students to do so too.

"There are many types of star and today we're going to looking into each of them and finding out what they truly are, ok?" Michelle paused there and rubbed her stomach for the past few weeks it had been acting up and she had been unable to keep anything down. The moment passed and Michelle started her lecture.


STARS
 
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This is a binary star. Most of the stars you look at in the sky aren't single points of light like our Sun. On closer inspection through a telescope, you can see that they are two or more stars that live very close together. Unlike our own Sun, most stars are part of binary or multiple stars systems. If our largest planetary neighbor, Jupiter had been a bit larger then it would have exploded into a stellar companion to the Sun.

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This is a protostar. This is a baby star at the earliest observable stage of formation. Although the star is forming from interstellar gas, it is not yet hot enough for nuclear reactions to start in its core.

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These are dwarf stars (brown [on the right] and white [on the left]). Our Sun is a dwarf star. Throughout their lives, stars go through many phases of expansion and contraction. When they are a normal size for their weight they are called 'dwarfs'.

  • Brown dwarfs are failed stars that never heated up enough to explode into a normal star.
  • White dwarfs are dying stars that are slowly burning away the last of their fuel. The term 'white' is a bit of a lie though, as they range in colour from hot white through to cool red.
  • Eventually, they will all become black dwarfs which are basically non-luminous dead stars.


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These stars are supergiants. Supergiant stars have watts (light measurement) reaching 1000 times that of the Sun and are up to 200 times as wide. Again, they can be all sorts of colours according to their temperature. The largest stars are called supergiants. The biggest ever found is 10 million times as bright as the Sun. If it were in the same position as the Sun it would tower the Earth and stretch even further beyond.

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This remarkable phenomena is a supernova. When an old massive star has run out of all its fuel, it collapses amidst a catastrophic explosion called a supernova. This releases so much light that it can outshine a whole galaxy of stars put together. So just to translate that for you all, a supernova is a giant, exploding star that explodes with the force of 1,000,000,000,000,000 (1,000 billion) atom bombs.

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This is a neutron star. After exploding as a supernova, a star about twice as big as the Sun would form a neutron star. They have collapsed so much that their atoms have been crushed, squashing the protons and electrons together until they merge to leave only neutrons (tada). This makes them very dense. If we could transport a teaspoon of material from a neutron star to Earth, it would weigh as much as a mountain. It also makes them spin at high speeds.

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Pulsar Stars are awesome stars. Pulsars are a special kind of neutron star that emits radio waves in regular bursts, that doesn't mean you can stop by and listen to BBC Radio 1. They do this by spinning like the beam on the top of a lighthouse. But rather than emitting light, they sweep a beam of radio waves across the Universe as they spin.

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These are amongst the most distant things ever seen in space, living at the heart of energetic 'active' galaxies billions of light years away from us. A quasar is powered by the central supermassive black hole, which lies at their centre. Friction from matter spiralling into the black hole produces their brilliant glow. You will learn more about black holes in the next few years of astronomy.


Once Michelle had finished, she what seemed like, never ending lecture, she cleared her throat and sat on her desk waiting for her students to finish writing their notes. "When you have completed your notes, you may leave." She smiled, She couldn't wait to get to bed now, her throat was hurting like crazy and she felt like someone was punching her in the stomach. So she stood up and walked into her office when all the children had left the classroom and sat down on her red armchair in her office, which was right by the fire, it was so peaceful, tranquil and calm, the only thing she could hear was the crowd of the ravens outside. Perfect.

Homework:
Roleplay the lesson and take some notes
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Geovanna Volt
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Metamorphmagus • Chaser Ambitious • Menagerie Assistant

The more the lessons went on, the seemingly more tired Professor Castor was looking. Today, she was sat at her desk eating her breakfast when Geo and her friends arrived, and taking a seat with Elizabeth she got out her parchment once more, ready to talk notes over the lesson. It wouldn't be long until the semester was coming to an end and they'd be taking their exams for the subjects, and it was important Geo did the best she could when that time came.

She listened closely, and tried to write down the most important points that would pop up in an exam. She knew she'd be spending her revision week reading regardless, but any notes from the lessons could be helpful too. As she finished her notes, she tucked them into her textbook and headed out the classroom. She had plenty to do today, with many people to see. Astronomy was no longer a class she dreaded, although it wasn't her favourite, she was putting her mind to it, and she was glad it was working.

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B I O G R A P H Y V I S U A L S F R I E N D S T H E M E S P O T L I G H TB A N N E R S
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