The All-Sky Monitor Movies |
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the Quick-Time version of the full ASM Movie (44 MB). | ||||
the Quick-Time version of the press-release Movie (17 MB). | ||||
a streaming Quick-Time Interview with Prof. Hale Bradt (21.2 MB). | ||||
a streaming Quick-Time Interview with Dr. Ed Morgan (4.5 MB). | ||||
The amination displays the entire sky (above) and the central part of
our Milky Way Galaxy (below). Each "frame" of the Quick-Time movie
displays the X-ray sky at twelve hour intervals, at a rate of 4 days
per second. A circle is plotted for each X-ray source observed by the
All-Sky Monitor. The area of the circle is proportional to the
intensity of the source. The color of the circle is indicative of the
ratio of hard photons to soft photons: blue indicates higher
temperatures and red cooler.
The track of the sun through the sky is shown, but its X-ray brightness is not shown. The brightest X-ray star (above center) is Scorpius X-1. The most prominent objects shown are binary stellar systems containing a normal gaseous star and a black hole or neutron star. The latter two are called ``compact stellar objects''. The X-rays arise from gas being accreted from the normal gaseous star to the compact object. The gases gain great energy during their infall in the extremely strong gravity, becoming very hot (10 to 100 million degrees), and hence they emit copiously in X-rays rather than in normal light like our sun. Other objects shown include supernove remnants and the active central regions of galaxies outside our Milky-Way system, known as Active Galactic Nuclei. The latter are believed to be massive black holes with masses millions of times more than the Sun. The following three frames illustrate the content of the ASM Movie.
Feedback and suggestions are welcome. |