APOD 1.5

This major solar flare sprouted from one of the most active sunspot clusters in the past few years. The flare was so large that it could be seen without a telescope. This particular flare was an X-class flare which are big, and they are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms. Although another X-class flare occurred Saturday, none have been directly aimed at Earth.

Sources for Biography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Hevelius

http://www.nndb.com/people/649/000096361/

http://www.johannes-hevelius.com/

http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Hevelius_Johannes.html

Book:
Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3: 1450 to 1699. Detroit: Gale, 2001. p373.

Science and Its Times. Ed. Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer. Vol. 3: 1450 to 1699. Detroit: Gale, 2001. p339-342.

APOD 1.4

This is a picture of the Orion Nebula; it is located 1,500 light years away. The incredible coloration of the nebula spreads over 40 light years in space. The brightest portion of the nebula is centered around Orion's young hot stars, known as the Trapezium Cluster.The Trapezium Cluster is one of the most famous multiple star clusters in the night sky. The red areas are thought to be raining green crystals into the center of a developing star. One of these stars may be the embryonic star, HOPS-68. This data was constructed by the Spitzer Space Telescope. 

AstronomyCast Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Some of his biggest contributions to the field of astronomy include the discovery that Jupiter is orbited by more than one moon, the phases of Venus, and he was one of the first to observe sunspots. Galileo observed through a telescope what he thought to be fixed stars around Jupiter, but on the next night they had all changed positions, which led him to the discovery of three of the four largest satellites orbiting Jupiter. From September 1610, Galileo observed that Venus exhibited a full set of phases similar to that of the Moon. Lastly, Galileo was one of the first Europeans to observe sunspots, although Kepler had unwittingly observed one in 1607, but mistook it for a transit of Mercury. Galileo Galilei was one of the most influential astronomers in our history, and his observations led to many future conclusions.

AstronomyCast Johannes Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion

Johannes Kepler was born one month premature, and in 1571 that was much more serious than it is now. Because of his early birth, physical ailments plagued him for most of his life. It is believed that because of this his eyesight was poor, which was why he did not make many of the observations he used himself. Instead he worked with Tycho Brahe until the two had a falling out. Once Brahe died, Kepler managed to get his hands on some of Brahe's great observations and data logs. With the data from Brahe and through the use of mathematics Kepler was able to make three laws of planetary motion.

• The path of the planets about the sun is elliptical in shape, with the center of the sun being located at one focus. (The Law of Ellipses)
• An imaginary line drawn from the center of the sun to the center of the planet will sweep out equal areas in equal intervals of time. (The Law of Equal Areas)
• The ratio of the squares of the periods of any two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their average distances from the sun. (The Law of Harmonies)

APOD 1.3

This is one of the clearest pictures taken of our Sun. It was taken in 2002 from the Swedish Solar Telescope operating on the Canary Island of La Palma. The top of the picture contains mostly boiling granules while across the bottom a large sunspot appears. Some scientists believe sunspots are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature.

APOD 1.2

This picture of the surface of the moon depicts the landing point of the Apollo 17. It shows the lunar module, Challenger, the lunar rover, and the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). All of these things were left on the moon. The ALSEP was left to monitor the moon's environment and interior. If you look closely you can see tracks left by the lunar rover as well as some faint footprints from Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, the last men to walk on the moon. The men spent 75 hours on the moon bringing back large amounts of samples. With the manned missions cancelled, it could be quite a while before another man walks on the moon.

APOD 1.1

On August 30th, 2011, NASA used the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to take an image of distant stars and galaxies. The green light in the middle of the image is a brown dwarf- the coldest brown dwarf currently known. Although brown dwarves start like stars with a gravitational collapse of gas and dust, they don't have enough mass to achieve the temperatures that trigger hydrogen fusion. This brown dwarf is approximately the size of Jupiter and will continue to cool and change color.