PF+Logbook+Week+of+November+12

November 12, 2007 Today, I read "Nature's Most Powerful Monsters" about starburst galaxies. They are galaxies that have incredibly high star "birth rates." Often times, these rapid star formations are induced by gravitational interaction or collision with another galaxy. Newly formed massive stars heat up gas in the space around them and produce narrow, but strong, emission lines. They also have much more blue light than normal galaxies. Like radio galaxies, starburst galaxies have very narrow emission lines. It is very difficult to distinguish between the two. One thing that does distinguish the two is that the Hß and [OIII] emission lines are about the same strength in starburst galaxies. I also checked out the [|wikipedia page] and [|this site] for more reading.

November 13, 2007 I read more in NMPM. Active galaxies are referred to as active because they emit huge amounts of energy in the form of radio waves and x-rays. It is commonly believed black holes in the center of these galaxies are the source of this energy. The black hole and the material surrounding it are referred to as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). The galaxy in which the AGN resides is called the "host galaxy." The black hole sucks all matter towards it forming an acretion disk. As the matter falls towards it, it is compressed causing it to accelerate and heat up. The matter in the disk can get so hot (~1,000,000 K) that it emits x-rays. All of this energy comes from a source that is about the size of our solar system.

November 14, 2007 Today I talked to KH about what he did last year with this project. I also discussed with him what his goals for the project were this year and what we needed to do to advance the project. We talked about the graphical analysis program, but we didn't really do anything with that.

November 15, 2007 Today I spent time with KH talking about emission lines and spectroscopy. I feel a little more confident about my knowledge of emission lines but I think that I just need to spent more time working on graphical analysis to really understand it. I also encountered a problem with the identification of emission lines while I was looking at NMPM. I think I'll ask Dr. Loughran about this when he gets back tomorrow.

November 16, 2007 Today Dr. Loughran was back in class and explained to me how to identify emission and absorption lines using the graphical analysis program. Basically, emission lines are upward spikes and absorption lines are downward spikes. However, I need to familiarize myself with the different elements that create emission and absorption lines at certain points on the graph. I think that once I get more experience using and observing these graphs I will be able to recognize these lines and distinguish them from the normal variations of the graphs.