End of semester approaches

I am sure my students do not like it, but something about the end of semester makes me want to fly through chapter sections at warp speed. While it takes almost 2 weeks to get through chapter 1, I am planning to go through chapter 6 in 1 - 1.5 classes. I hope they are awake tomorrow.

Summer Physics Camp for Girls!

If you are a young lady interested in physics you might consider applying to the University of Maryland's "Summer Girls" program. The Physics Department at UMCP has a program for rising 9th graders and rising 11th graders. Deadlines are in April and May. It is a day camp, so most participants have been from the Maryland/DC/Virginia area. Sounds cool though! Where was this kind of stuff when I was in high school?

Pulsar looks like cosmic hand

X-ray image credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/P. Slane et al

I'm always amazed by the objects in our universe. The x-ray nebula imaged by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory looks like a big hand reaching out towards a ring of knots above it. The color is of course fake - the lowest energy x-rays are red, while the highest energy x-rays are blue.

The bright blue spot at the center is a spinning neutron star, or a pulsar, PSR B1509-58. Neutrons are collapsed massive stars, in their dying phases as they have run out of fuel. They have huge magnetic fields and rapidly rotate causing them to generate fantabulous electromagnetic storms, driving away particles like electrons and ions.