Monday, January 4, 2016

Emmanuel Conseil: Suspicion and Discovery

An amateur astronomer named Emmanuel Conseil discovered a "new star" or nova in the Triangulum Galaxy on Christmas Day. I was immediately suspicious. Emmanuel? Christmas?
Emmanuel is from the Hebrew name עִמָּנוּאֵל ('Immanu'el) meaning "God is with us". This was the foretold name of the Messiah in the Old Testament. It has been used in England since the 16th century in the spellings Emmanuel and Immanuel, though it has not been widespread.
"Conseil" means....."a council."
So....
Apparently this is all true. Mr. Conseil made the discovery using the online Slooh observatory, whose telescopes are located in the Canary Islands. It was the second time Conseil had discovered a nova this way. Some guy created a business renting telescope access.
It is all rather amazing.
Slooh is a robotic telescope service that can be viewed live through a web browser with Flash plug-in; that is it is an online astronomy platform with live-views and telescope rental for a fee. They use telescope feeds from all over the world.
The name Slooh comes from the word "slew" to indicate the movement of a telescope, modified with "ooh" to express pleasure and surprise.
A nova or "new star" is basically a gigantic nuclear explosion that occurs when a white dwarf star steals material — mostly hydrogen — from its stellar neighbor. When it gathers enough material, it causes a runaway nuclear fusion reaction, which blasts the material out into space. The nova is usually visible for several months afterward.
The Triangulum Galaxy, where the nova was discovered, is a spiral galaxy — a flat, rotating disc of stars, gas, and dust with a central bulge of stars. At 2.7 million light-years away, it's the most distant object you can see with the naked eye, according to "EarthSky."

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