Chapter+3

=  LOST IN THE COSMOS  =



Rev. Robert Evans a Australian astronomer who was an expert in the life of super novae stars. He was called an "supernovae" hunter by night and an minister by day. He was a Titan of the skies, he could pick up a grain of salt in a parking lot of black tables. He prior to 1980 was such an exceptional talent, according to Oliver Sacks, who devoted a passage to him.Bob Evans had a knack for memorizing star fields. Bob was interviewed by Bill Bryson and Bob said " I cant remember names but i can stars." His telescope about as big as an hot water heater he carries to kitchen deck in two trips then observes from there. There on His deck he hunts for supernovae. He is a all year round hunter, there’s no season for him he just looks and looks for the prized possession a super novae.
 * Clay**

Chapter 3 Sec. 2: By raider robby ZWICKY AND THE SUPERNOVAE

Fritz Zwicky was a astrophysicist who coined the term supernova. Zwicky was born in Bulgaria and raised in Switzerland. Zwicky came to the California Institute of Technologyin the 1920's. There he disguished himself by his abrasive personality and eratic talents. He was seemed as outstandingly bright and many of his colleagues considered him little more than and irritating buffon. Zwicky was notoriously agressive and his manner eventually becoming so intimidating that his closes collaborator which was Walter Baade refused to be left alone with Zwicky. Zwicky accused Baade of being German and a Nazi which he wasnt but Zwicky threatened to kill him. Zwicky was capable of insights of the startling brilliance. In the early 1930's he had had questioned that had troubled astronomes. The question was the appearance in the sky of occaional unexplained points of light, new stars. Then it occured to him if that if a star collapsed to the sort of densities found in the core of atoms, the result would be an unimaginably compacted core. Zwicky realized that after the collapse a huge amount of energy left over even enough to make the biggest bang in the universe. He called the explosions supervovae.

SUPERNOVAE = = = = =SUPERNOVAE= Supernovae are significant to us in one other decidedly central way. Without them we wouldn't be here. The Big Bang created lots of light and gases but no heavy elements. Those came later,but for a very long time nobody could figure out //how// they came later. The problem was that you needed something really hot-hotter even than the middle of the hottest stars- to forge carbon and iron and the other elements without which we would be distressing.
 * Jazmine**

Fred Hoyle- was described in an obituary in //Nature// as a "cosmologist"and "controversialist". He "embroiled in controversy for most of his life" and " put his name to much rubbish." He basically explained the who purpose of the big bang and the effects of it all, and that the universe was always creating more matter. He also came to the concluison that stars imploded and became very hot. Hoyle's theory was an exploding would star would generate enough heat to create all the new elements and spray them into the cosmos where they wouls form gaseous clouds.

__ ** Supernovae Through Telescopes ** **Eryn** When you look up to the sky from our planet Earth, you can see only about 2,000 stars! And that's not in the city. With help from binoculars, you can see about 50,000. The numbers keep rising as you switch to telescope, then increase the size of the telescope. With a sixteen-inch telescope like Evans's you see galaxies! Supernovae are the explosions of stars. All stars die, but only a few explode. They occur maybe once every two or three hundred years. Evans and his ten-inch telescope set out to find supernovae in 1980. From 1980 to 2003 Evans had 36 visuals!



Finding the supernovae were not as easy as you think. Though the frequency in which he found them ranged. Once he found three in fifteen days. While another instance he went three years without finding anything. Now, with new technology you can easiy find supernovae. Evans refuses to use the new way saying, "It took all the romance out of it." People sometimes wonder what it would be like if a star exploded nearby. Bill Bryson imagined if Alpha Centauri, our nearest star were to explode! Because it is 4.3 light-years away, we would have to watch it's light spill across the sky for 4.3 years then all be killed, right? No! Astronomer, John Thorstensen says we would die instantly but it will never happen. The star would have to be "ridiculously close". Plus, the star would have to be a certain kind to explode, much bigger than our local stars. Only a few recorded stars have exploded in Earth's vision. The most recent in 1987 was barely seen. Fortunately, it was 169,000 light-years away! Let's hope they'll stay far away!