Monday/Tuesday, October 25/26th.

There's a lot of information about the universe and stars, and the great thing (or bad thing, depending on your perspective) is we're learning more and more every day as the technology gets better and better.  I could probably go on for a few more weeks talking about the universe and all the crazy things we'll find in it class, but alas, we must go on to new material.

Today we dove in a talked specifically about Stars and their life cycle. Cool stuff.  We learned that our sun isn't all that special when talking about stars.  It's rather small and it's life will be relatively un-eventful until the end, when it balloons up into a red giant destroying Earth. It will then shrink and heat up to a white dwarf, where it will slowly cool to black.

The exciting stars are the big ones.  Those like Betelguise, Rigel and Canis Majoris.  These guys burn bright, hot and fast.  Then, they end their lives in an awesome explosion, a supernova, followed by either becoming a neutron star or black hole.

Of course, astronomers haven't witnessed a single star going through all of these stages, that would take too long, but they've found countless stars in various stages, so we're pretty darn sure this is how it happens.

Here are the notes from the day to help yourself review: Star Life Cycle Notes.

STUDY THE NOTES!!!  We will have a mini-quiz over these on Wednesday/Thursday.

Also, don't forget the EXTRA CREDIT: Using poster board or photoshop or a film, show the age or size of the universe in terms that the average person can understand.

Also, if you haven't do so yet, I need your Science Article Summary.

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Monegan