Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 in a new light, Courtesy NASA/SWIFT/XRT/U.Leicester/Richard Willingdale.

As Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 continues what may be its final trip around the Sun(breaking up along the way), astronomers are turning everything they have toward it. While it isn’t as bright to the naked eye as Hyakutake or Hale-Bopp were a few years back, S-W3 is turning out to be dazzler in other wavelengths, most notably x-rays. In fact, it’s the brightest x-ray comet ever. The folks using the Chandra Observatory, the XMM-Newton satellite, and the Suzaku satellite (all three in orbit around Earth) are all getting ready to study the x-rays streaming off the comet.

The image above is what the comet looks like in x-ray wavelengths. It was taken using the NASA Swift satellite, which studied the comet recently. The data showed that the comet is about 20 times brighter in x-ray wavelengths of light.

How can a comet produce x-rays? It seems somewhat counterintuitive that such a cold, icy object would glow in wavelengths more commonly associated with hot, active events and objects. Astronomers are still characterizing the interactions that occur that cause cometary x-rays, but the basic story is this: as the comet plows through the solar wind, something called “charge exchange” occurs. Okay, that sounds appropriately mysterious, but what does it mean?

The solar wind is a stream of particles (electrons and protons). The comet is a lump of ices and dust. As it moves through the solar wind, those particles and gases fly away from the comet, particularly as the ices are warmed by the Sun. Those cometary bits are usually particles of molecules of water, methane, and carbon dioxide. When they the high-speed, high-energy particles from the solar wind encounter these lower-energy particles from the comet, electrons get “stolen” from the cometary chemical particles. In the process, a tiny bit of charge is exchanged and the result is a spark of energy, which results in an x-ray. So, it’s a collisional process that depends on an interaction between the comet and the solar wind. It’s not just from something the comet itself is generating.

Now, if you know enough about the x-ray energies that are given off in these collisions, you can make some deductions about the content of the solar wind and the makeup of the gases and materials being emitted by the comet. And this is one of the results of studying x-rays (and other high-energy emisssions) from such events as comets plowing through the solar wind.

Edgy Galaxy

One of the most fascinating things about astronomy is the incredibly rich diversity of objects we can study in the universe. Take galaxies, for example. These collections of stars fall into so many types, based on the shapes they have, that astronomers are continually sorting them into ever-finer “bins.” When I was first in school, we learned there were three basic galaxy types: spirals, ellipticals, and irregulars. Today, as we study more and more galaxies, we find that these gross distinctions do hold up, but within each category there are many variations, and what appear to be some transitional states between different types.

The galaxy M101, courtesy NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Spirals are pretty much what their name sounds like: roughly circular-shaped collections of stars, gas, and dust with arms spiraling in to a central core. We live in a spiral galaxy, and more than half of all galaxies observed are spirals. One of the most notable things (among many) about spirals is that they are studded with stellar birthplaces. Some spirals, including our Milky Way, also have black holes at their hearts.

When you look at a spiral galaxy in a full view, you can see the arm structure. In this image of M101, a spiral that lies about 26 million light-years away from us, you can also see soft, fuzzy looking regions in the spiral arms. These are clouds of gas and dust where stars form.

The other main type of galaxy is the elliptical. These are the ones that don’t have spiral arms and not a lot of other structure.They are simply large, oblong collections of stars with densely packed central bulges. Some have supermassive black holes at their hearts.

The big question, which does not have a simple answer, is how do galaxies get to be spirals or ellipticals? (We’ll leave out irregulars for now. They need their own entry sometime.) Does one type become another type in a sort of galactic evolution scenario? Is there a kind of galaxy that is somewhere between spirals and ellipticals?

The answers are far from complete. One scenario has spirals merging over billions of years to become ellipticals. It’s a complex one, and observations are giving support to the idea, because astronomers are finding galaxies in many stages of merger, and some of the resulting interactions seem to be making galaxies that look just like ellipticals. And, mergers are an important way that galaxies are assembled. Our own Milky Way is still “collecting” other galaxies smaller than itself in a case of cosmic cannibalism.

There ARE galaxies that look like they’re stuck somewhere between being a spiral or an elliptical. These are the lenticulars. They have disks like spirals, but their central bulges are more like ellipticals. If you view one edge-on, as we see in this Hubble Space Telescope image, it looks like a spiral viewed from the edge.

An edge-on galaxy: NGC 5866

There is an intriguing element to this galaxy, and that’s the dust lane that seems to divide it in half. NGC 5866 also has a substantial collection of young blue stars in its disk, with older, redder stars at its heart. The only thing it doesn’t seem to have is spiral arms. But, those blue stars tell us that the galaxy has recently undergone episodes of star birth. Coupled with the fact that the disk is slightly warped, we have the possibility that this galaxy might have had some sort of gravitational interaction with another one (or more) a long time ago. That would explain the bursts of starbirth and the warped disk.

But why no arms? Did it once have them, along with rich regions of starbirth? If so, what happened to the gas and stars that used to be in the galaxy disk? If an interaction is the culprit, then it would have stripped out the gas and stars and somehow affected the structure of the galaxy. And that would give us with the edgy galaxy we see today. Stay tuned!

Solstice Thoughts

Here in the northern hemisphere the most northerly point of the Sun’s path across the sky is rapidly approaching. June 21 marks the longest day and the shortest night of the year. This same day brings the shortest day of winter for you folks in the southern hemisphere, with the longest night to follow. I’ve noticed the change of the day length more directly lately, since the sunset point is now almost directly aligned with one of the windows in my office and if I’m working after dinner (which I almost always am), it’s shining right in my eyes.

So, solstice is the latin word for “sun still.” It doesn’t mean the Sun literally stops in the sky. It couldn’t, since the Sun’s apparent motion across the sky is caused by the Earth’s turning on its axis. It only LOOKS like the Sun is crossing from East to West each day.

If you watch the sunrise and sunset points each day for a year, you’ll notice that the Sun rises and sets farther and farther north from December 21 to June 21, and then rises and sets farther and farther north from June 21 to December 21 (if you’re in the northern hemisphere). On December 21 and June 21, the Sun seems to pause in its southern and northern migrations. Those are the solstice times.

Why the north-south migration? Again, it’s the motion of the Earth that makes it look like the Sun is wandering north-south. There’s a cool little movie here that shows how the tilt of our planet’s equatorial plane with respect to the Sun is responsible for the change of seasons. It also affects which part of the Earth is tilted toward the Sun throughout the year.

Now, it’s no coincidence that some of the best parties of the year are held around the solstices. In ancient times, the winter solstice was the darkest, coldest time of year, and people held parties (or performed ceremonies) to mark the time and hope for a new year to begin (with its promise of warmth and life). At the summer solstice, people partied because the weather was good, crops were growing, food was plentiful. We still celebrate at both solstices today (and some religions have ceremonies and rituals at these times, too). I like to think of these times as celebrations of motion in the universe—motions of our planet around the Sun and on its axis. And every planet does this, so every planet has solstices, each in its own way.

Modern folks aren’t so tuned to the change of seasons as the ancients were. But, we can still go outside each day and make notes of sunrise and sunset positions throughout the year. And, there’s still time to party at summer and winter solstice, just like our ancestors did. So, if you’re in the northern hemisphere, take time out on the 21st of June to celebrate the longest day of the year. If you’re south of the equator, here’s hoping you’re warm, safe, and looking forward to the spring and summertime weather you’ll be enjoying while we have autumn and winter later this year.