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December Astronomy News

December 29, 2011 – The astronomical event of 2010 is sure to be the total lunar eclipse observed on the solstice by people in North America and Hawaii for the first time this millennium This total lunar eclipse is just the kind of astronomical event that inspired the sacrifice-loving Mayans to cut the heart out of their most annoying acquaintances. We suggest you check local ordinances around your region and country before sacrificing any relatives.

At midnight December 20/21, people across North America and in Hawaii witnessed the first total lunar eclipse of the millennium. Astronomers in Key West were able to see the Moon right above them, only 1/2 degree from the Zenith. People in Eastern time zones able to see the total lunar eclipse had to wait until 1:32 A.M., for the total eclipse to begin.

Astronomers viewing the total lunar eclipse from a spot distant from the light pollution of the big city witnessed the full glory of the Milky Way once the Moon became a coppery phantom. The number of stars visible after the total lunar eclipse was full were in the thousands. Earth’s shadow is normally reddish in hue, so the Moon appears copper in hue once fully eclipsed. At the start of the total lunar eclipse the moon appears inky black. As a total lunar eclipse progresses the colour of the moon slowly turns reddish in hue about half way through the process.

An eclipsed moon doesn’t have to appear reddish in hue. It can in fact appear pinkish, beige, and even seemingly disappear into darkness. The final colour of an eclipsed moon depends on factors like cloud cover and dust around the viewing edge, or limb, of the Earth at the time of a total lunar eclipse.

The Moon played a very important role on the night of December 20/21 and occupied a very significant location in the heavens above us. At this moment in Astronomy and Earth history an implausible three-way alignment between the total lunar eclipse, the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, and the centerline of our solar system occurred. Our Mayan brothers would probably have interpreted this as a sign to sacrifice a few more unwanted acquaintances and family members.

At the time of the total lunar eclipse on December 20/21 these three lines in the sky above us intersected in a triangle encompassing only a few degrees of arc. The triangle managed to totally surround NGC-2129, an open cluster 7,000 light-years away.

What about the possibility of a eclipse or conjunction occurring on December 21, 2012? You’ll be happy to hear that the expected event isn’t going to happen. The one good thing about astronomy is we can predict the future path of all of the stellar objects in the sky above us. You can always make a few extra goat sacrifices, just in case.

"The Snowman" craters on Vesta

Dawn is falling toward Vesta today as NASA’s spacecraft is currently circling one of the largest asteroids in the solar system and preparing to take a closer look at an asteroid first viewed by German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29, 1807. The picture on the bottom above is one of the latest images taken by Dawn of three craters on the surface of Vesta called “Snowman”that are located in Vesta’s northern hemisphere. The associated picture below is of craters visible in the southern equatorial region of the giant asteroid taken at a height of around 3,200 miles above Vesta. Currently, astronomers indicate Dawn is about 1,800 miles above Vesta, and is slowly getting closer to the giant asteroid, while it takes additional pictures we expect to be released in a few days.

The soutern equatorial regions of Vesta look just as unhospitable as the rest of the place

The real work begins once Dawn begins orbiting Vesta at a height of around 1,700 miles, this orbital height will provide astronomers with an in depth view of the surface of the giant asteroid they can use to begin unravelling the current mystery surrounding the birth of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Planetary astronomers looking into the birth of our solar system believe Vesta and similar large asteroids in the asteroid belt could be the source of the large number of meteorites that fell on Earth in the past. Vesta and similar large asteroids in the asteroid belt could also be potential planet-killers we here on Earth need to be aware of if we want to possibly avoid future collisions.

Mar's surface looks weather here

Dawn is currently circling closer to Vesta at a distance of around 114 million miles from Earth and has travelled a total distance of around 1.7 billion miles during its journey through the inner solar system. All of this work has been done in order to give the human journey to the beginning of the universe a closer look at Mars, Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn will travel to Ceres after it has finished taking a closer look at Vesta and use its on board instruments to detect subtle changes in the gravity field of Ceres. The data on the subtle changes occurring in the gravity field of Ceres can help astronomers determine some of the internal structure of Ceres by studying the mass distributed in the gravity field of each large body close to the dwarf planet.

Dawn will orbit Vesta for one year and then depart for Ceres, where it will arrive sometime in 2015. The present view we have of Vesta shows a dark world that has been bombarded by other asteroids throughout its history, the study of which could provide clues to the formation of the early inner solar system and the Earth. Future images and analysis of data collected by Dawn, once it reaches Ceres, could also provide the human journey to the beginning of the universe with clues to the reasons why life exists on Earth.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Other scientific partners include Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz.; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany; DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin; Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome; and the Italian Space Agency. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.

More information on Dawn and its mission to Mars, Vesta and Ceres can be found by visiting www.nasa.gov/dawn.

Alan Scot and the Guardians of the Universe continue to battle the forces of evil in the universe

Visitors from the stars have often been the main characters in myths, legends, comic book adventures and books and movies created by humans throughout the ages of mankind. Considering the diminutive knowledge humans have of space and time this choice provides the perfect context for adventure and the unknown. The Green Lantern is one of the most popular and beloved DC Comics heroes of all time and more recently a full length feature film starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively and Peter Sarsgaard. The original Green Lantern Alan Scott was created by writer Bill Finger and commercial artist Martin Nodell for All American Comics #16 (July 1940) edition. Since this time the Green Lantern alias has been shared by several DC Comics superheroes and fictional characters that have all contributed to the popularity of this timeless character.

Astronomers on the leading edge of the human journey to the beginning of time and space recently glimpsed this emerald nebula using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Reminiscent of the emerald ring wielded by the Green Lantern, this emerald ring wasn’t forged by the Guardians of the Universe as the power rings of the Green Lantern Corps were in the original Green Lantern adventures. Astronomers viewing scenes like the one in the picture above believe emerald nebula like the one seen here are in fact born in the fire of the most massive stars astronomers have viewed on the human journey to the beginning of the universe O type stars. This particular emerald nebula lies deep within clouds of hot gas and glowing dust in the constellation Scorpius and has been given the name RCW 120 by astronomers. The green ring we see is in fact glowing in infrared colours our eyes aren’t designed to view, but using the infrared detectors of the Spitzer Space Telescope astronomers can produce images like this one.

The green ring viewed here was actually carved out by the intense ultraviolet radiation of a couple of giant stars near the centre of the nebula. The giant stars will be obscured by the light from the other stars nearby, when viewed by the infrared detectors of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Ring nebula like this one have actually been a common sight on the human journey to the beginning of space and time, so common that professional astronomers have asked amateur astronomers to take part in the search for ring nebula. People interested in taking part in the search for ring nebula should contact the people in charge of The Milky Way Project, at http://www.milkywayproject.org/.

Curiosity is being prepared for her journey to the Red Planet, sometime in 2011

The human journey to the beginning of space and time will get a detailed view of Mars using the Mast Camera on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, once Curiosity lands on the surface of Mars, sometime around August 2012, according to the latest estimates by NASA. Space travel is by necessity extremely well planned and every detail must be worked out to a set time table if the Curiosity is to accomplish its mission. All aspects of the mission parameters must be analysed and reanalysed to ensure everything works as expected and the mission sticks to the timetable set by engineers and scientists working to get Curiosity ready to journey to Mars, sometime between November 25 and December 18, 2011. The Mast Camera on Curiosity is in fact two digital color cameras riding high on the mast, each capable of recording high-definition video at about 8 frames per second, and taking and storing thousands of full-color images of the Red Planet in an eight-gigabyte flash memory. Once they combine the information taken by both cameras scientists and engineers will get detailed 3-D images of Mars as good as or better than any taken before.

This sensor head is a critical instrument to the success of Curiosity's mission

NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity will also have onboard a “chemical element reader” to measure the different chemical ingredients making up the soil and rocks of Mars. This particular instrument, along with nine others on board Curiosity will be looking at the present and past ability habitability of a specific spot on the Red Planet. The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument viewed here was designed by physics professor Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. This instrument uses alpha particles, or helium nuclei, and X-rays to bombard the Martian soil or a rock, which will cause the target to emit its own characteristic alpha particles and X-ray radiation. This emitted radiation will be detected by an X-ray detector inside the sensor head, which will be analysed by Mars scientists to see which elements are within the soil or rock. The exact identification of the elements that make up the Martian soil and rocks will help planet scientists determine the building blocks of the Martian crust, and any possible weathering of the soil or rock since it was formed.

The Mars Science Laboratory is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl . You can follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity and on Twitter @marscuriosity . A full listing of JPL social media accounts is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/social .

The services provided by AL-Razaq Computing Services will include operational and administrative support to the Office of Procurement, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and other Marshall Space Flight Center offices and directorates. The contract awarded to AL-Razaq Computing Services will start April 1 and continue for one year, with an option for four one-year extensions of services.

Life on planets near this binary system could be over!

Planets circling twin stars close in proximity could be a real tough place for life to begin, according to the conclusions of a study conducted using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Space scientists using NASA’s infrared observatory recently found what they believe to be clouds of possible dust around three mature, close orbiting binary stars. Dust that scientists think is possibly the result of the planets orbiting these twin stars colliding, which could make living on these planets difficult for any life forms that might have arisen on these planets.

Planetary collisions are possible real-life science fiction in action, as the reasons for the dust clouds are certainly a matter of conjecture, and something that any science fiction writer is going to be able to spin a tale of annihilation around. Life forms evolving under the environmental conditions that possibly exist on planets orbiting binary stars of the particular class studied would certainly be something beyond the imagination of any human writer. It’s unlikely that anything we humans create using our imaginations could ever match the possibilities that exist in space and time. The finite imaginations of humans is limited by our senses, experiences and of course the limits of what we refer to as our human perception or intelligence to some.

Life forms evolving on these planets would have to survive possible planetary collisions at regular intervals, if space scientists conclusions are correct? If they have the ability to sense the world beyond their normal lives? Life forms existing on these planets could be non-sentient and unable to perceive the annihilation above them. They could be looking up at annihilation coming toward them in the form of another planets, asteroid, or other celestial body orbiting the binary star systems in question. They may have been destroyed in a recent collision between planets and are space dust, once again. The view would be a spectacular one though, with two huge suns that would exceed anything we experienced viewing the double stars systems in the Star Wars Saga.

Life evolving on planets circling binary stars like the ones in question would have a limited time to evolve into a space traveling sentient race as well. The suns in the binary star system they have evolved on are slowly circling closer and closer, according to astronomers, which could possibly make surviving and evolving on these planets a lot more difficult. Life forms surviving and thriving on these planets would likely be a survivor beyond human imagination, so we should probably thank our lucky stars that they aren’t likely to be stopping by for a visit, anytime soon.

The second largest of the solar systems planetary satellites, Titan spins upon a canvas of blackness and is only surpassed by Jupiter’s moon Ganymede in massiveness.  In fact, Titan at 3,700 miles is larger in girth than the planets Mercury and Pluto, which should give you an idea of the scope of Saturn. In terms of its geophysics Titan because of its size and internal density is probably composed of a rocky core encased in a layer of dirty ice water, but we’ll have to wait until we can physically test the geology of Titan to be sure. The layer of ice is due to Titan’s surface temperature, which was recorded by passing satellites to be minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit. At this extreme temperature no liquid water would stay liquid long.

The only recorded satellite in the solar system that has an existing atmosphere, so far, Titan’s size is one of the main determinants of a solar body’s ability to sustain an atmosphere. Density, rate of rotation, composition, and even the distance of Titan in relation to Saturn is going are going to be some of the other factors. Titan’s atmosphere pushes down on the surface of Titan, producing a surface pressure of about 1.6 times that existing on Earth, currently. Hidden by a thick, encompassing atmosphere of red vapor that resembles the atmospheric pollution (smog) found covering Earth’s major cities.

Tests done by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in the 1980s, and Cassini in the last few years, indicate Titan’s atmosphere is about 95 percent nitrogen, with 3 percent methane (a hydrocarbon of hydrogen and carbon), and a sprinkling of 2 percent hydrogen, hydrocarbons and maybe a pinch of argon. Further analysis will obviously have to be conducted to determine the exact composition and in the future additional missions to Saturn, should help us get a better look at Titan and reveal more of her secrets.