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Notes
- 1.
Fomalhaut does indeed have a planetary system, along with several dust discs. It is significant in that it was the first system having an extrasolar planet, Fomalhaut b that was imaged at visible wavelengths. Recent research now suggests that instead of being a fully-formed planet, it may instead be a tightly grouped collection of rubble and dust, all bound by gravity, surrounded by even more dust and debris.
- 2.
A possible date for an upcoming Mira maximum is 2016 – April 20–30.
- 3.
Messier 77 (NGC 1068) is one of the most studied of all active galaxies, and all the data suggest that there is a massive black hole at its heart.
- 4.
There is a, as yet unconfirmed, report of a possible planetary candidate that may be a Uranus-sized planet.
- 5.
The emphasis here is on “clearly” visible. There are, of course, much more distant objects that will need exceptionally clear and light pollution-free conditions, and even then will only appear as a speck of light, such as Messier 81, at 12 million light years.
- 6.
The latest estimate of M31’s distance is 2.54 ± 0.11 million light years.
- 7.
Another way to compare the mass of M31 is to think of it as 1.5 trillion times that of the Sun’s mass.
- 8.
As mentioned earlier (October 25), the S prefix indicates that the galaxy is disk shaped, with prominent arms of gas and dusts that spiral out from the nucleus. The A is indicates the nucleus lacks a bar-shaped structure, The American astronomer Allan Sandage’s “(s)” notation indicates the spiral arms emerge directly from the nucleus, and finally, the cd suffix represents relatively loosely wound arms.
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Inglis, M. (2015). October. In: Inglis, M. (eds) Patrick Moore’s Observer’s Year: 366 Nights of the Universe. The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18678-8_10
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