2001 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID |
Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| STELLAR APOCALYPSE YIELDS FIRST EVIDENCE OF
WATER-BEARING EXTRATERRESTRIAL WORLDS | G01-055A | 07/15/01 |
00:05:09 | An alien sun blazes through its death
throes and is apparently vaporizing a surrounding swarm of comets,
which are releasing a huge cloud of water vapor around the star.
This new observation comes from the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy
Satellite (SWAS). It provides the first evidence that extra-solar
planetary systems contain water, a molecule regarded by biologists as
an essential ingredient for known forms of life. These observations
suggest that other stars may be surrounded by planetary systems
similar to our own.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): An Aging Giant
Star - Animation - Towards the end of the life of a star,
the temperature near the core rises, causing the size of the star to
expand. For the first time, substantial concentrations of water vapor
have been discovered around a star. The star in question is
IRC+10216, also known as CW Leonis. The most plausible explanation is
that comets, composed primarily of water ice, are being vaporized.
Courtesy: NASA/JOHN HOPKINS
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| ITEM (2): Our Sun Becomes a
Red Giant - Animation - The SWAS observations also paint a
picture of the end of our solar system. Several billion years from
now, our own Sun will exhaust the supply of hydrogen fuel at its core
and will become a giant star. Detailed models indicate that the Sun
will expand, engulfing Mercury - then contract temporarily - and then
expand once again after the supply of helium is exhausted at its
center. The Sun's diameter will ultimately increase two hundred
fold, and its luminosity will increase five thousand fold. As the Sun
starts to gets brighter, a wave of water vaporization will spread
outwards through the solar system, starting with the Earth's oceans
and Saturn's rings and extending far beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Even icy bodies as large as Pluto will be largely vaporized, leaving
just a cinder of hot rock. So in very real sense, the observations
of water vapor around CW Leonis reported today are painting a picture
of the future of our own Solar System.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (3): SWAS
Animation - From its vantage point in orbit above Earth's
atmosphere, the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) is
capable of detecting the distinctive radiation emitted by water vapor
in space.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (4): Comets And Water
Vapor - n order to explain the water vapor concentration
that SWAS has detected, several hundred billion comets would be
needed at distances from the star between 75 and 300 times the
distance of the Earth from the Sun. In our own solar system, these
comets orbit the Sun quietly for the most part; occasionally a comet
comes in close to the Sun, starts to vaporize, and displays the
characteristic coma and tail that we are familiar with.
Courtesy: NASA
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Space Science Gallery