AstroTalk Episode July 19, 2018

Proton Proton Chain. A Planet Devouring Star. Red Nugget Galaxies.

2:02pm - 2:57pm

The Proton Proton chain takes place in the center of the Sun. This makes 2 neutrinos, those little ghost particles. The neutrinos leave the Sun right away and some of them head to Earth. 6 billion neutrinos go through your thumb every second. This is just one source of neutrinos. Last week, we talked about n black hole producing neutrinos. Today, our first topic is Chandra sees first evidence of star devouring a planet. RW Aur A is star that is located in the Taurus-Auriga Dark Clouds, which has stellar nurseries containing thousands of infant stars. Scientists believe that planetesimals colliding close to the star are producing gas and dust that obscure or dim the light from the star, that can be seen from Earth. Since the last decade, astronomers are observing dense, distant galaxies they have called Red Nugget Galaxies. The RNG have masses that are similar to giant elliptical galaxies, but have only 1/5 of the mass of the giant galaxies. Most red nuggets merged with other galaxies billions of years, but a small number slipped through a long history untouched. These unscathed red nuggets givea golden opportunity to study how the galaxies, and the supermassive black hole at their centers, act over billions of years of isolation.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/chandra-may-have-first-evidence-of-a-young-star-devouring-a-planet.htmleutrinos coming from black holes.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/red-nuggets-are-galactic-gold-for-astronomers.html