August 2023 Meeting Notes
Bartlesville Astronomical Society
August 7, 2023
• Opening and Welcome
• Thank you to Denise Gregg for Zoom setup
• 19 in attendance this evening in person and via Zoom—11 members and 8 guests
• Announcements
• Anyone planning to go somewhere for the solar eclipses?
• Craig talked with Blair Ellis at the Education Service Center. The Bartlesville Schools aren’t planning an event of their own on October 14 for the annular eclipse.
• Should we do something at Sooner Park? Denise has looked up information about planning events that could be large at city parks and 6 weeks’ advance notice is needed. Craig will talk to Mike Bailey as we wouldn’t think that anything we do would be a large-scale event.
• https://icarusshades.com - Andrew Oleson
• Annular - October 14, 2023
• Total - April 8, 2024
• Tonight’s Program
• Jonathan Fussell
• “The Stellar Nucleosynthesis of Phosphorus as a Biosignature for Life in the Universe”
• Jonathan is a graduate of Oral Roberts University. He is interested in interdisciplinary scientific fields that study the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.
• Phosphorus is a rare element. Hydrogen and helium forming from the Big Bang laid the groundwork for heavier elements like phosphorus. Of the elements needed for life—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur, phosphorus is the least abundant. Yet for us, phosphorus is important for our ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), DNA, bones and teeth, and needed for cellular storage and transfer of free energy using energy molecules.
• Jonathan reviewed the stages of star formation, beginning with the Big Bang, which produced hydrogen and helium in large dense clouds swarming together; the dense clouds collapsing under their own gravity and their gases concentrating; temperature of proto stars rising; our solar system forming and proto stars’ diameters shrinking; stars’ internal chemistry shifting away from burning hydrogen and helium; supernovae occurring, stars’ temperature reaching 100 billion degrees during recoil and rapid expansion; and new chemical isotopes forming as a result.
• The APOGEE (Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment) catalogs over 1000 stars for their habitability. The interstellar medium is the space between stars, filled with gas and dust, and the origin of dust grains is in the material ejected by stars. Scientists look at optimistic habitable zones, conservative habitable zones and galactic habitability. There is an abundance of heavier elements in a galactic bulge as opposed to at the edge of a galaxy, and these heavier elements are needed to support life.
• Jonathan discussed the composition of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Contents of comets have changed little since the formation of our solar system and this comet contains the amino acid glycine as well as phosphorus.
• He discussed Drake’s Equation, N = R∗ * fp * ne * fl * fi * fc *L, where--
• N = the number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy with which communication might be possible
• R∗ = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
• fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
• ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
• fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point
• fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (i.e. civilizations)
• fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
• L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space
• But what if other life out there is based on different chemistry? (We are carbon-based, requiring carbon for all morphology through to enzymatic functions.
• How do you define life? What if you see extraterrestrial bacteria or viruses?
• The absorption of phosphorus lies outside the optical band usually associated with spectroscopy, but there is no direct evidence for the presence of living organisms as a result of detecting phosphorus.
• There is the possibility of organic molecules on asteroids such as carbonaceous chondrites, a class of stony meteorites with high carbon content.
· Observing and Imaging Reports:
• Star Party – Friday August 11, weather permitting, for Perseids?
• Perseids - Look tonight - Peak on August 12, 100/hour
• Northern Lights – Craig and Denise checked out the Hulah Lake and Copan Lake campground areas. The road into Hulah Lake closes at 11 p.m. and the one into Copan Lake closes at 10 p.m., so these locations wouldn’t work for Northern Lights observations unless you were actually camping overnight in these areas.
• Astronomical News and Events
• Okie-Tex September 8-16, Register by August 19
• Anyone going?
• Virgil Reese - Astronomy news—Virgil was not in attendance this evening
• Brian May of Queen helped on 3D images of Pluto and selecting a sampling site for OSIRIS-REX. Sample will return on September 24
• Meg Greenwood discussed Kamo’oalewa, Earth’s second moon?
Kama'oalewa was discovered in 2016 in a repeating orbit, located far out past the Moon's 239,000-mile distance from Earth. It’s a rocky chunk about 164 feet in diameter and has a very distant corkscrew-shaped orbit around our planet. The wobbly orbit makes it findable anywhere from 40 to 100 times the distance from Earth to the Moon! The tremendous distance makes it more influenced by the Sun's gravity than the Earth's, but it’s been out there for an incalculable number of years. Its name comes from a Hawaiian word that refers to a moving celestial object and is more correctly identified as a quasi-moon.
What is it made of? Where did it come from? How long will it be with us and when did it attach itself to the Earth? We now know that it originated from the Moon itself! Testing in Hawaii, where it was first seen through a NASA run telescope, found that NASA’s usual study results for asteroids made it harder to analyze Kama’oalewa, as it did not follow composition and infrared findings for other asteroids studied. When compared to data from studies of lunar rock samples brought back by the 1971 Apollo lunar mission, it matched perfectly! This orbiting moon bit is a weathered silicate chunk that's been exposed for eons to space environment and micro-meteorite impacts. Like Earth, the Moon has been bombarded by space rocks for billions of years. Most of the debris is ejected forever out into space and some bits enter our own atmosphere, seen as moon debris. Finding that this rocky chunk came from our Moon explained why it did not react the same as an asteroid when hit with reflective infrared rays - it perfectly matched the Moon chunk's glow!
Kamo'oalewa is a rare lunar-bit that found itself in a very far orbit around our planet. It won't last there forever; predictions are it will stay with us only about another 300 years, when it will break free of its current gravitational chains and fire off into the cosmos leaving us with only our familiar moon as our space-companion.
• Business
• Minutes of previous meeting are posted online by Denise Gregg - Approved
• Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn
• Ending balance June 30, 2023: $13721.10
• Dues received $25.00
• Additional donation $200.00
• Purchase of adapter $36.33
• Ending balance July 31, 2023: $13909.77
• Our State Farm liability and property insurance is coming due in September. The cost is increasing from $338.00 to $411.00. It’s an increase due to inflation and the normal cost of doing business. Evan asked that we vote to renew our insurance as a Club, and we all voted in favor of it.
• Request for Night Sky Network-NASA speaker:
• We haven’t been notified of a speaker yet for September (our first choice month), October or November. Lauren Herrington has offered to present if the Night Sky Network-NASA speaker doesn’t come through.
• http://www.universe-of-learning.org
• Committee Reports
• Astronomical League news and activities - Denise Gregg Denise’s main update was about the NSN-NASA speaker.
• Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant – Rick was not in attendance this evening.
• Will probably restart meetings in September
• How do we get new participants?
• Library Display
• We have August booked for next year. Denise suggests highlighting meteor showers in the display, as August will be the start of the late summer/fall/early winter meteor shower season.
• Any other ideas?
• FCC - Evan Zorn
• Should we find alternate storage?
• John Grismore mentioned possible storage at the City Court House.
• Gary Nealis suggested contacting Washington Park Mall.
• It was also suggested that we could contact Bartlesville schools for possible storage.
• Denise has contacted her church about storage and nothing is available there.
• If we donate documents, we should scan them first.
• New Business
• FCC rental
• Signed lease through August
• We need a long-term solution!
• Climate controlled storage is $120/month for a 10 ft. by 10 ft. unit, and non-climate-controlled is $90.00/month for a 10 ft. by 10 ft. unit, at Rice Creek Storage. We could get a 7% discount since there are Club members over age 65. We could go month-to-month at Rice Creek Storage.
• Library Telescope—Denise has filled out an application to get this.
• Binocular purchase program from Vortex Optics
• 50% of MSRP
• Youth group?
• Club - interest in loaning to members
• Library?
• OHSP?
• Girl Scouts?
• OHSP telescope?
• OHSP dark sky
• Club telescopes
• Do we want to have a loaner scope or binoculars?
• TASM Planetarium?
• Adjournment
• Next meeting September 7 at library
• Ice cream at Braum’s!!!
• Motion to adjourn