#AstroMiniBR: The brightest object in the universe!

Selected some unusual astronomical curiosities produced by TecMundo and #AstroMiniBR collaborators profile in x, last week to share with you the mysteries of the incredible world of astronomy. Check it out below!

#1: Dawn at Pico dos Dias Observatory

Witnessing the aurora and dawn is an incredible sight anywhere in the world, but up on a mountain, in an astronomical observatory, the experience is even more unique! The picture you see below shows exactly this, Sunrise over the Pico dos Dias Observatory (OPD) in the majestic mountains of Minas Gerais.

The jewel of national astronomy research, OPD is equipped with a variety of state-of-the-art instruments and is a center of excellence for astrophysical research. Its main instruments include the Boller & Chivens telescope (TBC), which is used to observe ultraviolet and visible rays, and the Zeiss Telescope, which stands out in photometry and spectroscopy research. Additionally, the Observatory is home to the Schmidt Telescope, an instrument that specializes in scanning the sky on a large scale to identify celestial objects.

The centerpiece of the OPD is the magnificent south dome, one of the largest domes in the Southern Hemisphere. More than 8 meters in diameter, this structure houses the 1.6-meter Ritchey-Chrétien telescope, the observatory’s main telescope. This dome is an impressive structure not only with its size. but also in terms of the sensitivity with which it can be adjusted to follow celestial movements.It allows detailed and accurate observations on a variety of astronomical objects.

#2: The brightest object in the cosmos!

An international team of astronomers published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy in February this year: a black hole surrounded by the largest and brightest disk of matter ever discovered. The object called J0529-4351 is therefore also the brightest object found so far in the Universe.

Astronomers have already found about a million fast-growing supermassive black holes throughout the Universe, the kind that lie at the centers of galaxies and have millions or billions of solar masses.

To grow rapidly, they pull stars and gas clouds from their stable orbits, dragging them into a ring of orbiting material called an accretion disk. Once there, very little material escapes; The disk is merely a retention pattern of material that will soon be swallowed by the black hole.

The accretion disk of J0529-4351 emits light 500 trillion times more intense than the light from our Sun. Such an impressive amount of energy could only be released if the black hole consumed approximately as much matter as the Sun every day. The mass of this cosmic titan is estimated to be approximately 15 to 20 billion times the mass of our Sun..

#3: The sun is in intense activity!

Active regions on the Sun are points marked by intense magnetic activity on the sun’s surface, which play a fundamental role in our solar system. These dynamic areas Where magnetic field lines emerge from the surface, they often lead to explosive events known as solar flares..

Flares, on the other hand, are sudden releases of magnetic energy and manifest themselves as intense bursts of light and radiation that can significantly affect our space environment. The frequency and intensity of active regions and solar flares vary throughout the solar activity cycle, which has an average duration of approximately 11 years.

During solar maximum periods, activity is more pronounced, with multiple flares and coronal mass ejections occurring more frequently. On the other hand, activity decreases during solar minimum. the cyclical nature of these phenomena responsible for the production of auroras at the poles of our planet.

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