PHYS 1412: Lab 28

Yes! Progress, recovery, humanity being restored... I finished Lab 28. It took a long time. I couldn't think of why the seventh sister wouldn't be visible to the naked eye now. At least 30 minutes of research reassured me that no one else is very certain why either. (So then I was lamenting that the dust cloud theory I'd come up with on my own had been echoed elsewhere. Which is fine, and to be expected, I'm just pleased to have come up with it myself and wouldn't want it to appear otherwise.)

I really like clusters. (This lab was on Open Clusters.) I'm glad to be getting some of my strength and concentration back because this class was beginning to feel like Cultural Anthropology. Professor X had to make several minor corrections/elaborations to my Chapter 16 answers. I think it was obvious that my brain was really fumbling. Partially because I ended up misunderstanding the main sequence. Stars do not move from big and blue to small and red. Well, I don't think they do. So I'm not entirely confident, but right now I don't see how it's possible, or everything would end as a white dwarf.

Best not to use up my energy blogging.

Conclusion for Lab 28
"Open clusters feature young, bright blue stars, surrounded by gas and dust which will eventually dissipate away from the center due to the energy of these stars. As these stars age they will be just as luminous but cooler and therefore redder. (Orange/red stars in the photographs looked at today are stars in the cluster that already reached that point.) Nebulae where new stars are still being born are often found near open clusters. Open clusters are useful because the stars are relatively the same age so the aging process of stars can be better studied."