The 'bad guy'

Bwog’s resident Star Gazer Zach Kagan writes in with tidbits of information from Hugh Crowl‘s lecture, “When Bad Things Happen to Good Galaxies,” on doom and gloom for major galaxies. Behold the cosmic drama!

The Audience at the most recent Public Lecture and Stargazing, held in the bowels of Pupin (correctly pronounced “pew-PEEN”) Hall, spanned ages 8 to 88. The turn out was surprisingly high for 8 pm on a Friday. Assembled were families with kids, high school students scribbling down answers on their worksheets, bored NYU students, and a hodgepodge of NYC space lovers. The lecture, given by a cheery Columbia post-doc, was entertaining and not too technical, and enlivened with beautiful images and nifty 3D animations.

The bad things Dr. Crowl refers to in the title of his lecture are galactic collisions that send stable, disc-shaped galaxies into utter chaos. M82, a galaxy tucked away in the Ursa Major constellation, is one of those unfortunate galaxies, influenced by its larger neighbor, M81. The shape of the galaxy has been deformed and gasses have been forced through M82’s core creating a large quantity of baby stars. But there’s a bigger problem—larger galaxies don’t just bully smaller ones into making more stars, they eat them, too. The gravitational force of the larger galaxy rips the smaller one apart and then absorbs its stars. The black holes that lie at the center of most galaxies collide and combine, making a bigger galaxy. It has happened to our closest neighbor, Andromeda, as well as our own Milky Way several times, and one day these two galaxies will duke it out. Of course this is on the time scale of hundreds of millions of years, so don’t worry too much about it.

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Update, 2:25am: Cowabunga, you can start to see it now! Send in any photos you take of the eclipse, people gazing skywards, eclipse parties… or whatever you crazy kids do during a lunar eclipse to tips@bwog.com!

You should definitely go out tonight! In an educational way duh! Take a break from napping studying in Butler and join redShift and the Columbia Astronomy Department on college walk to watch the total lunar eclipse from 1:30-4am! It could be an evil omen, or it could just mean free hot chocolate and telescopes to watch the sky with.

To all you intrepid explorers, head to the roof of SIPA for sweeping views. A couple months ago they starting locking the doors (womp womp), but we trust you’re stealth enough to find a way. Plus, it’s one more thing to check off your bucket list. Now go forth and bask in the glory of the heavens!

Astronomers, gather ’round! Although you may not be able to view the stars from Pupin anymore,  you can do the next best thing at the “From Earth to the Universe” exhibit on the Butler lawns, running for a week starting this Monday.

Besides a showcase of celestial pictures that lines the lawns, the exhibit features live Columbian astronomers available to answer questions you may have about the mysteries of the universe, a telescope for stargazing, and best of all, free NASA stuff. 

 
The May issue of the Blue and White is imminent! For the last issue of the year, Lydia DePillis investigates the skies with Columbia’s Rutherford Conservatory. Or tries to.

In Venice in 1609, Galileo created the first known telescope. It was a great leap outward in man’s expanding sphere of knowledge. Four hundred years later, on a rooftop at Columbia, his invention is embattled by—of all threats—a science building.

Not that the Rutherford Observatory, in place since the early 1930s, is exactly cutting edge; recently, its telescope was sold to a museum in South Carolina, to be replaced with more up-to-date equipment. Nor is Manhattan a particularly great place for observing. The light pollution and air disturbances alone make the night sky less accessible than it is in, say, Arizona. Read more…

God knows its finals season. This afternoon from around 2 PM to 6 PM, the juxtaposition of the moon, Venus and Jupiter will form a frowny face in the south-south-western sky.

Bwogger and astronomy-tipster Hans Hyttinen believes that optimal viewing time will be after the sun sets at 4:20 PM. Fiddle around with the stars and planets to get a better sense of this planetary optical illusion here, and read about yesterday’s heavenly smiley face, which proved rather feeble due to misalignment and weather problems.

Also: We want your sky portraiture! If you get a good shot of the sad face this afternoon, send it to bwgossip@columbia.edu. 

More photos after the jump.

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Last night’s eclipse was widely watched around campus. Bwog was there, too, tucked in Pupin Hall’s cozy rooftop telescope, along with half the Columbia staff and their children. Bwog took the time to interview two eight-year olds on their opinions of the eclipse.

Eight year old #1 (lisping audibly and shrieking): Oh my gosh!

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Tipster Rick Betita directed Bwog’s attention to Gothamist, whose attention was focused on The New Yorker‘s Letters to the Editor section. Specifically the letter in which Michael Allison, adjunct professor of astronomy at Columbia, had written about January 28th’s cover (see right). 

Allison insists that due to the certain conditions (namely,”the angle of the long axis of the concourse, following that of Manhattan’s east-west streets, is not 90° but 119° east of north, and aligns with the sun through its “west” windows only from late May to early July, and then only at an elevation of less than 3°”), the scene must have been deliberately revered. Allison continues, “But aren’t those the south-side ticket windows at the left of the picture, with the tracks and trains therefore on the right? And doesn’t the clock seem to read three-fifty, hardly a time for the morning sun?”

You can read the full letter here, in all its wonky glory.