Wednesday, June 1, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
31
Stars over Sisters
By Alex Burroughs
and Holland Hartman
The Realm of Galaxies is
a huge highlight of the spring
sky. Large numbers of galax-
ies can be found in the south-
ern sky between the constel-
lations Leo, Virgo and Coma
Berenices. This large group
of galaxies is known as the
Coma/Virgo Supercluster.
Galaxies, which are groups
of particles of dust and gas,
are where stars are born and
where they will die. The
force of gravity pulls dust
and other particles together,
forming galaxies. Gravity can
also cause galaxies to group
together to form clusters and
superclusters, such as the
Coma/Virgo Supercluster,
which is also home to the
Local Group (where the Milky
Way and Andromeda galaxies
are located). Since the galax-
ies in the Local Group are so
close to us, they can be found
in many places around the
sky, though most are within
the same general area in the
southern sky.
The Realm of Galaxies
contains at least 3,000 ellipti-
cal and spiral galaxies, twenty
of which can be viewed eas-
ily with amateur equipment.
Sixteen of those are Messier
objects, labeled with an “M”,
including M64 and M87. M87
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is one of the largest elliptical
galaxies in our part of the
universe. Its mass is nearly
2.7 trillion times the mass of
our sun, meaning that 2.7 tril-
lion of our suns could fit in it.
The galaxy is unable to create
more stars as there is hardly
any dust and gas left over, so
it appears featureless. M87
does have a super-massive
black hole in its core that is
responsible for an energetic
jet of plasma that shoots out a
distance of nearly 5,000 light-
years. This galaxy lies at a
distance of about 53 million
light-years from the earth.
NGC 4565 is a spiral gal-
axy that we view edge-on. It is
also called the Needle Galaxy
because of its long, thin shape.
This galaxy is often studied in
order to learn more about the
Milky Way as they are very
similar. NGC 4565 is about 40
million light-years away from
Earth and is about 100,000
light-years in length.
The summer solstice in
June is the longest day of the
year and usually occurs on
either June 20, 21, or 22. This
year the solstice falls on June
20 at 3:34 p.m. PDT. At this
time the Sun will be directly
overhead at latitude of 23.5
degrees north. The line of this
latitude that circles the earth
is also known as the Tropic
of Cancer and marks the
northerly-most position the
sun reaches in its annual jour-
ney across the sky. The Tropic
of Cancer passes through
Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, India and
Southern China. The summer
solstice does not result in the
hottest day of the year, how-
ever, because of the time it
takes for the land and oceans
to heat up, so the warmest day
of the year is later on in the
summer.
Located in the constel-
lation of Ophiuchus, Saturn
will be at opposition on June
3, meaning that the sun,
the earth and Saturn lie in a
straight line. Rising at about
8:30 p.m. local time in the
southeast, the Ringed Planet
is ideally placed for viewing
the entire night.
Mars can also be found in
the southeastern sky, between
Libra and Scorpius. Mars will
spend the entire month ret-
rograding — moving from
photo by ken craWford rancho del sol observatory
Located in the constellation of Coma Berenices, NGC 4565 is the best
example of an edge-on galaxy visible from the earth.
east to west — back towards night sky, come out to a
Libra. Jupiter is in Leo and starwatch put on by Sisters
continues to shine brightly in Astronomy Club on Saturday,
the southwestern sky.
July 30. The event is free
The month of June will and it starts at 9 p.m. at the
start off with a waning moon SPRD building located at
and then the sky will become 1750 McKinney Butte Rd.
dark with the new moon Following a brief presenta-
on Saturday June 4. Then tion, all who attend will have
Monday June 20 the night sky the opportunity to observe
will be lit up again by a full the night sky through tele-
moon.
scopes provided by local
To learn more about the astronomers.
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