Essay Sample on Stars and Star Clusters

The stars and the solar system are an extensive field that has attracted a large number of researchers over the years. Many theories have been put forward over the years about the formation of different stars and other parts of the solar system. The challenge associated with this research is that there is a lot of inconsistency that surrounds the research and theories. Efforts have been made to move from planet earth to the other parts of the solar system. However, there is still more effort required to find out more about the solar system. There are many different types of stars and they all have different features. They include Alpha Cassiopeiae, bain nard's star, Capella star, pollux star, and the captain's star among others. The theories that support the presence and existence of these stars are different in the way they explain the formation and existence of the stars and they are similar in the way they state the location and movement of the stars.

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Alpha Cassiopeiae

The Alpha Cassiopeiae is a constellation that is located in the northern sky and its name comes from the vain queen in Greek history, Cassiopeia. The queen is known for having boasted about an unrivaled beauty and this star is associated with beauty. The star is one of the 48 castellations in the second century Greek astronomy. Currently, there are about 88 stars in the castellation and there is a possibility that more will be discovered in the future (Ridpath, 2018). The star is also called Schedar which means "breast" due to its location on the chest of the mythological Greek queen, Cassiopeia. The star can be seen from the Northern hemisphere due to its location. The life cycle of the star shows that it rotates at a speed of 21km/s and that means it takes up to102 days to make one revolution. At that speed, the star is considered to be among the slow stars because most of them make a faster revolution at a higher speed (Rey, 2016). The speed of the stars can be used to predict the time when they can be seen from the earth.

At a declination of 56 degrees and 32 minutes north, the star is located at a place that people from the northern hemisphere can see it with a naked eye. However, it is likely to be confused with several other similar starts in the milk way that are in the same location. It requires deep analysis to determine the specific characteristics that define it. From some cities like Moscow, Copenhagen, and Edinburgh, the star can be seen during certain periods of the year. Such times are when the star is at its Zenith moments. The photometric variations of the star depending on the accuracy and clarity of the instruments used to make the observations. For example, some equipment shows a brighter image than others (Rey, 2016). The star can be seen using the instruments used in the new technology.

Connection with Emission Nebulae

When ionized gases from a nearby hit star form together and emit light at different wavelengths, they are known as emission nebulae. Nebula refers to that emission from the stars. The hot star releases hot rays and photons that lead to the ionization of the rays. The ionization of the clouds usually occurs when the stars formed from the same cloud produce the ionization effects. However, it requires the energy of a large star to ionize a cloud fully. Therefore, in most cases, an entire cluster of stars ionizes a cloud. The degree of ionization and the chemical composition determines the color of the clouds (Vucetic et al., 2019). The relationship between the emission nebulae and the star is that it is associated with the brightness of the star. In the castellation, this star remains the brightest throughout the year as compared to the nearby stars. The radiations from the star are bright because it is close to the emitting stars.

Formation and Characteristics of Clusters

The formation of clusters is associated with the large clouds of molecular gas that are ionized to form the star clusters. The solar system has hundreds of solar material masses and forms the clusters. The clusters are made up of stars of similar characteristics. For instance, the globular clusters are made up of the very old stars and these are hundreds of thousands in number. The open clusters are made up of fewer usually young members. When giant molecular clouds collapsed, they formed the globular clusters (Bastian & Lardo, 2018). The star clusters are defined by their numbers and brightness.

The Local Cluster

Eridanus II

The local galaxy is made up of several clusters and they are determined by their sizes. Some of the galaxies have a large number of stars as compared to the others. One of the local stars is the Eridanus II which is also known as the Eridanus II Dwarf. The data from the Dark Energy Survey collected in 2015 led to the discovery of this group of stars in the local galaxy and the data was used to analyze and determine its properties. It is made up of two globular clusters and it is also the smallest of all the clusters in the luminous galaxy. The Lambda CDM cosmology is used to explain the features associated with the stars in this cluster and this is one of the reasons why it is a relevant reference in the local galaxy. The globular clusters in it are stable and this makes it a generally stable cluster (Crnojevic et al., 2016). In other words, the stars in the cluster are on the same movement trend and their movement can be predicted effectively.

The stars in this cluster are associated with a common theory known as the big bang theory. It states that a large cloud collapsed and led to the formation of some of the bodies in the solar system. The stars are located deep in the southern sky and it spreads to several arc minutes in the sky. The velocity of the stars is estimated to be at 75.6 km/sec and its temperature is similar to many of the members of the galaxy. The stars are mainly the old globular stars that are millions of years old and they are small in size. The Eridanus II does not have a spherical shape and its diameter is about 4.6 arcmin. The observations of the star help determine its formation and the way it moves (Crnojevic et al., 2016). When it dies, it is expected that the parts that form it will lead to the formation of other smaller stars.

References

Bastian, N., & Lardo, C. (2018). Multiple stellar populations in globular clusters. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 56, 83-136. Retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-astro-081817-051839

Crnojevic, D., Sand, D. J., Zaritsky, D., Spekkens, K., Willman, B., & Hargis, J. R. (2016). Deep imaging of Eridanus II and its lone star cluster. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 824(1), L14. Retrieved from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8205/824/1/L14/meta

Rey, H. A. (2016). The Stars. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Ridpath, I. (2018). Star Tales: Expanded Edition. Lutterworth Press.

Vucetic, M. M., Ilic, D., Egorov, O. V., Moiseev, A., Onic, D., Pannuti, T. G., ... & Urosevic, D. (2019). Revealing the nature of central emission nebulae in the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 185. arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.02468. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.02468.pdf

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