Lake Berryessa black hole

The Glory Hole... Freaky
Originally uploaded by PC Ward.

Astronomy 10 learning goal Q10.1

This glory hole is fed by overflow water at Lake Berryessa, west of Woodland, CA.   There is something to be said about a possible primal fear of black holes and similar phenomena, as some children find watching the water going into this glory hole very disturbing.   A University of California at Davis graduate student fell into this glory hole in the mid-1990's.

The black hole of Sacramento

IMGP5235.JPG
Originally uploaded by Waifer X.

"Untitled" by Alice Aycock, 1996
Suspended aluminum and Plexiglas(R) sculpture
Downtown Convention Center, Sacramento, CA

Astronomy 10 learning goal Q10.1

Artistic interpretation of the spacetime warped by a black hole?

The garbage disposal effect

http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/html/heic0211d.html
NASA/European Space Agency, and Felix Mirabel (French Atomic Energy Commission, and the Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)

Astronomy 10 learning goal Q10.3

Short movie clip dramatizing the behavior of the black hole and companion star that comprise "microquasar" GRO J1655-40.   The "garbage disposal effect" is where material will fly up and out of the drain of a garbage disposal while operating, and is a crude analog of the bipolar jets emitted by the black hole.

We like the stars, the stars that go boom!

http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/html/heic0415b.html
NASA/European Space Agency, and P. Ruiz-Lapuente (University of Barcelona)

Astronomy 10 learning goal Q10.3

Short movie clip dramatizing the type Ia supernova documented by Tycho Brahe in 1572.   A white dwarf of degenerate carbon steals hydrogen from its companion star.   When enough material has accumulated on the surface of the white dwarf, it undergoes runaway fusion, annihilating itself, and freeing its companion to roam the Milky Way alone.

Stellar obscuratae

http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/html/mov/320px/astro_an.html
European Space Agency/Hubble Space Telescope, and Robert Gendler (http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/)

Astronomy 10 learning goal Q11.1

Short movie clip showing stars and nebulae (dark, reflection, and emission) in space.   The result is that it is not possible to see more than a tiny fraction of the stars in our own Milky Way.

It's not delivery...it's a diminished image!

Papa John's Pizza ad, from thecoolhunter.net/ads

Physics 8B learning goal Q2.4

For any object distance in front of a diverging lens, an upright, diminished virtual image will result.

Type II supernova simulators

Double Ball Bounce, North Carolina State University Physics Demo Room

Astronomy 10 learning goal M3.4

Basketball represents the imploding core, and the golf ball represents the diffuse outer layers.   The core implodes during neutronization, and then slightly rebounds outwards, colliding with the outer layers as they begin to fall inwards, resulting in the outer layers rebounding outwards at a much faster speed.   Watch frame-by-frame as the basketball falls down, bounces upwards as it hits the golf ball as it is still falling downwards, resulting in the golf ball flying upwards.



AstroBlaster(TM), Fascinations.com

A toy version of the two-ball supernova simulator...packaged with its own safety goggles, as explained here.

There is a spoon...image!

"The Matrix" (Warner Bros., 1999)
Excerpt from http://www.slate.com/id/2145696/

Physics 8B learning goal Q2.3

Depending on whether the convex or concave side of the spoon is viewed (and for the concave side, whether the object is inside of or outside of the focal point), an upright virtual image or an inverted real image is seen.