Supernova Remnant E0102-72 (APOD 2009 September 5)

[neufer]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090905.html
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Explanation: Not all stars form a big Q after they explode. The shape of supernova remnant E0102-72, however, is giving astronomers a clue about how tremendous explosions disperse elements and interact with surrounded gas. The above image is a composite of three different photographs in three different types of light. Radio waves, shown in red, trace high-energy electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines in the shock wave expanding out from the detonated star. Optical light, shown in green, traces clumps of relatively cool gas that includes oxygen. X-rays, shown in blue, show relatively hot gas that has been heated to millions of degrees. This gas has been heated by an inward moving shock wave that has rebounded from a collision with existing or slower moving gas. This big Q currently measures 40 light-years across and was found in our neighboring SMC galaxy. Perhaps we would know even more if we could buy a vowel.

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Explanation: The Q-shaped cloud seen in this false-color X-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory is big ... about 40 light-years across. It's hot too, as its X-ray glow is produced by multi-million degree gas. Cataloged as E0102-72, this cosmic Q is likely a several thousand year old supernova remnant, the result of the death explosion of a massive star. A supernova can dramatically affect its galactic environment, triggering star formation and enriching the local interstellar medium with newly synthesized elements. This supernova remnant is located about 210,000 light-years away in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), so the detailed Chandra X-ray image is impressive - particularly as it reveals what appear to be strange spoke-like structures radiating from the remnant's center.

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• The Mouse That Roared

<<The Duchy of Grand Fenwick, a miniscule nation covering about 15 and 3/4 square miles located somewhere in the French Alps remains prosperous thanks to its sole export, Pinot Grand Fenwick wine. When a Californian imitation forces Pinot Grand Fenwick out of the American market and the tiny Ruritania's complaints to the American government go unanswered, the Duchy government decide that the only course of action is to declare war on the United States — after Grand Fenwick's inevitable defeat, the Americans, being a very strange people, will pour in massive amounts of reconstruction aid, solving all of the Duchy's problems. The Duchess of Fenwick, Gloriana XII (Peter Sellers), the Hereditary Prime Minister, Sir Rupert of Mountjoy (also Peter Sellers), and the Head of the Loyal Opposition send an invasion force of twenty longbowmen in chainmail to invade America under the command of the Hereditary Forest Ranger and Hereditary Field Marshal and Grand Constable of the Army, Tully Bascombe (Peter Sellers again).

When the Grand Fenwick invaders arrive in New York, they find the streets deserted — the city is in the middle of an air raid drill after America's announcement of the invention of the Q-Bomb, an ultimate weapon that makes that "makes the H-Bomb look like a firecracker." After the invasion force tries taking a shortcut through Central Park to get to the Armory (hoping to find someone there to surrender to), a pair of civilian decontamination workers mistake the chainmail-clad Fenwickians for extraterrestrials and flee, leaving behind their truck, which the invaders borrow. The invaders, taking a wrong turn, end up at the New York Institute of Physics by mistake, where they encounter and capture the Q-Bomb's inventor, Dr. Kokintz (David Kossof), his daughter Helen (Jean Seberg), and a working model of the Q-Bomb (a Blinkenlights-covered, over-sized football that buzzes frighteningly as a warning if jostled, since it can go off on a hair-trigger), followed by a general and four New York policemen sent to investigate rumors of the "alien" invaders.

Returning home, the invasion force dismays the Duchy (which had been gearing up to welcome the victorious Americans) with the news that Grand Fenwick has defeated the United States and captured the most destructive weapon in the world.

• .......................................................
  Tully Bascombe (Peter Sellers): "Well, Your Grace, we're home. Actually, there's been a slight change of plan. Ah, I know it'll come as a surprise, a pleasant one I hope, but we ... sort of won."
  
  Sir Rupert of Mountjoy (Peter Sellers): "You sort of what?"
  
  Tully Bascombe (Peter Sellers): "Well sir, it's a long story, but we captured the Q-Bomb, the most destructive weapon in the world. And we got some prisoners too. Ah, this is Doctor Kokintz, who invented the bomb, this is his daughter, Helen, this is General Snippet, and these are New York policemen. Oh, and, ah, this is the bomb."
  
  Sir Rupert of Mountjoy (Peter Sellers): "Blithering idiot!"
  .......................................................

Stress mounts worldwide and among the Duchy government as every country in the world offers to help defend Grand Fenwick (and take possession of the Q-Bomb) from America and America struggles to figure out what to do (ultimately deciding to surrender). After Sir Rupert and the Opposition Leader resign and make a failed attempt to return the Q-Bomb to the Americans, Tully becomes Prime Minister, negotiates a peace treaty with the United States (the terms of which include an end to the manufacture of the "Pinot Grand Enwick" imitation wine, a million dollars, and a worldwide nuclear disarmament enforced by a new League of Little Nations), and marries Helen.

At the end of the movie, Dr. Kokintz insists on checking up on the Q-Bomb, which has been jostled quite a bit over the last few days. Accompanied by Helen and Tully, he discovers that the bomb was a dud all along. The three leave the room, agreeing amongst themselves to tell no one.>>

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[bystander]

HEAPOW: Forwards and Backwards (E0102) (2009 August 10)

[orin stepanek]

Do you suppose that the Q-bomb blew up EO-102; Or did it take a bigger bomb? Now the aliens that blew that star system up have no where to go.

Orin

[zbvhs]

The thing doesn't look like a cylinder to me - more like a hollowed-out oblate spheroid (a football perhaps) with the ends blown out. Curious how these things always seem to be pointed our way. If some thing blasted out the ends and we had been close by, we would have been toast.

[Chris Peterson]

The thing doesn't look like a cylinder to me - more like a hollowed-out oblate spheroid (a football perhaps) with the ends blown out. Curious how these things always seem to be pointed our way.

There are lots of images of such structures seen from other angles (a number of which have been past APODs). It's the ones seen right on end that are rare- as you would expect.

[neufer]

The thing doesn't look like a cylinder to me - more like a hollowed-out oblate spheroid (a football perhaps) with the ends blown out.

A "Blinkenlights-covered, over-sized football?"

Curious how these things always seem to be pointed our way.

We're just standing in the Queue.

[kovil]

Nice, they got that part right anyway, we are seeing a cylinder shaped structure viewed from the end.

However, million degree gasses is incorrect, and besides anything millions of degrees in temperature isn't a 'gas' it's a plasma ! Don't these 'scientists' even know their own science ? The x-ray emissions are from electric currents causing synchrotron emission in the electrons as the energy passes thru them. There is no 'millions of degrees of heat', it's synchrotron radiation, and that does not take any 'heat' to cause it. These so called 'astronomers' better take a class in electrical engineering soon or they'll be getting laughed out of their profession.

*correction, it was a different days APOD (in Nufer's quotes) that talked about millions of degrees of heat, not today's. sorry for the diatribe !

But, what exploded was not the star itself, it was the star's electric double layer that surrounds it, that 'exploded' ! due to an interruption in its electic current supply ! As the the current flow goes to zero, the resulting demand goes to infinity ! that instability results in a double layer explosion, a well documented event right here on earth ! Amp it up to stellar or galactic size and you get planetary nebulas and AGN's.
Plasma events are scalable over huge magnitudes of sizes and still look exactly the same in structure.

[Chris Peterson]

However, million degree gasses is incorrect, and besides anything millions of degrees in temperature isn't a 'gas' it's a plasma!

By definition, plasma is a form of gas, where some of the atoms are ionized, resulting in free electrons. "Gas" and "plasma" are not mutually exclusive. The temperatures are reliably measured by looking at the x-ray emission spectrum.

The x-ray emissions are from electric currents causing synchrotron emission in the electrons as the energy passes thru them. There is no 'millions of degrees of heat', it's synchrotron radiation, and that does not take any 'heat' to cause it.

Synchrotron radiation is produced by electrons moving in a magnetic field, not by electrons as "the energy passes thru them". And if this is synchrotron radiation, it will have distinct and obvious polarization characteristics. Have you seen the some data about this observation that suggests such polarization was seen? I haven't (I'd welcome a link, though). However, there is no doubt that supernovas release a huge amount of energy and that the surrounding gases are very hot- millions of degrees- so I don't see much reason to doubt that we are observing thermal emissions in this case.

[Pete]

These so called 'astronomers' better take a class in electrical engineering soon

what exploded was not the star itself, it was the star's electric double layer that surrounds it, that 'exploded' ! due to an interruption in its electic current supply ! As the the current flow goes to zero, the resulting demand goes to infinity ! that instability results in a double layer explosion, a well documented event right here on earth ! Amp it up to stellar or galactic size and you get planetary nebulas and AGN's.
Plasma events are scalable over huge magnitudes of sizes and still look exactly the same in structure.

When all one has is a hammer (i.e. EE training), anything, including this planetary nebula, looks like a nail

[neufer]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090905.html
----------------------------------------

Explanation: Not all stars form a big Q after they explode. This big Q currently measures 40 light-years across and was found in our neighboring SMC galaxy. Perhaps we would know even more if we could buy a vowel.

----------------------------------------

Explanation: The Q-shaped cloud seen in this false-color X-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory is big ... about 40 light-years across. It's hot too, as its X-ray glow is produced by multi-million degree gas. Cataloged as E0102-72, this cosmic Q is likely a several thousand year old supernova remnant, the result of the death explosion of a massive star.

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<<Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. Q (standing for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch (or later Q Division), the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service. The character actually appears only fleetingly in Ian Fleming's novels, but comes into his own in the Bond film series. The character, Q (although he is not always identified by that title), has appeared in every 007 film in the original EON continuity except Live and Let Die. Q has not appeared in the films in the rebooted continuity, Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (as there was no place for Q in the script). Casino Royale showcases a number of gadgets and sophisticated tools used by Bond; however, the film does not indicate whether a Q Branch exists per se in the rebooted Bond universe.

The ancestry of the Q character is rather complicated. In the Fleming novels there are frequent references to Q and 'Q Branch' with phrases like "see Q for any equipment you need" (Casino Royale) and "Q Branch would handle all of that" (Diamonds are Forever), with a reference to "Q's craftsmen" in From Russia with Love. In the sixth novel, Dr. No, the service armourer Major Boothroyd appears for the first time. In the films, Major Boothroyd first appears in Dr. No and later in From Russia with Love, although played by different actors. Beginning in Goldfinger and in each film thereafter Major Boothroyd is most often referred to as Q; however, in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) he is referred once again as Major Boothroyd in dialogue.>>

• --------------------------------------------
  Inside Q's Lab - The Gadgets of 007
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Q is the 17th letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

<<The Semitic sound value of Qôp (perhaps originally qaw, "cord of wool", and possibly based on an Egyptian hieroglyph) was /q/ (voiceless uvular plosive), a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones. In Greek, this sign as Qoppa Ϙ probably came to represent several labialized velar plosives, among them /kʷ/ and /kʷʰ/. The Greek Qoppa was transformed into two letters: Qoppa, which stood for a number only, and Phi Φ which stood for the aspirated sound /pʰ/ that came to be pronounced /f/ in Modern Greek. In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters C, K and Q were all used to represent the sounds /k/ and /g/ (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, Q was used to represent /k/ or /g/ before a rounded vowel (e.g. "EQO" = ego), K before /a/, and C elsewhere. Later, the use of C (and its variant G) replaced most usages of K and Q: Q survived only to represent /k/ when immediately followed by a /w/ sound.>>

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[Case]

Q is ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(Star_Trek)
<<The character Q is a mischievous, seemingly omnipotent being who has taken an interest in humans. Q's power is limited only in that he cannot overcome others in the Q Continuum, the peer group to which he belongs, and he is never seen being able to actually change a persons' mind or make them take any specific action. Otherwise, he can do more or less whatever he wants, which most commonly leads to him annoying others (with or without intent).>>
<<Gene Roddenberry chose the letter "Q" for the character and species in honor of his friend, Janet Quarton.>>