COOL- Click a language Link above and then click ASTRO LINKS and all the links will be translated into your chosen language
ASTRONOMY FOR ALL - UPDATED SKY EVENTS
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION PASS UPDATES
RECENT DISCOVERIES ABOUT THE UNIVERSE
GREAT ASTROPHOTOS (ON 3 WEB PAGES)
MANNED AND UNMANNED SPACE MISSIONS
LATEST NEW SPACE TELESCOPES
SELECT FROM A LARGE MENU OF MANY PAGES at Left AVAILABLE TO GIVE POWERPOINT ASTRONOMY LECTURES ON LONG ISLAND
MY LAST ASTRONOMY TALK WAS AT THE BETHPAGE PUBLIC LIBRARY ON 2016 NOV 14.
MY NEXT TALK (FREE) WILL BE AT THE LONG BEACH MEMORIAL LIBRARY ON TUESDAY 2017 JULY 18 - 2:00 PM.
THE MAIN TOPICS COVERED WILL BE:THE GREAT AMERICAN TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OCCURRING ON
MONDAY, AUGUST 21 -- THE TOTAL ECLIPSE PATH GOES FROM OREGON TO SOUTH CAROLINA
and
THE BEST SKY EVENTS AND SPACE MISSIONS FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS
NOTE >YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PLANETARIUM PROGRAM "STELLARIUM" FOR FREE - SEE BELOW: STELLARIUM - FREE DOWNLOAD OF A PLANETARIUM SKY ONTO YOUR COMPUTER at: http://www.stellarium.org
NOTE -- IF ANY TEXT ON THIS WEBSITE OR ANY OTHER GOES BEYOND THE RIGHT EDGE OF THE PAGE HOLD THE CONTROL BUTTON DOWN AND PRESS THE - BUTTON DOWN A FEW TIMES TIMES IF NECESSARY PRESSING THE + BUTTON WHILE HOLDING THE CONTROL BUTTON WILL RESTORE THE ORIGINAL SIZE OR GO LARGER IF YOU WANT WITH MULTIPLE PRESSES OF THE + BUTTON.
OCCURRED ON TUESDAY MORNING MARCH 27 - STARTING AT 4:58 AM SEE SOME PHOTOS BELOW OF THIS MISSION View a NASA video about this ATREX Mission from Wallops
Island:
Photo credit: AP | This photo provided by NASA
shows chemical tracers that were released from five rockets launched
from NASA's Wallops Island test flight facility in Atlantic, Va.,
Tuesday morning March 27, 2012. The tracers form white clouds that
allowed scientists and the public to visualize upper level jet stream
winds. (AP Photo/NASA)
(AP) -- Milky white chemical clouds were briefly visible
in much of the night sky along the Eastern seaboard on Tuesday after
NASA launched a series of rockets to study the jet stream at the edge of
the earth's atmosphere.
The five sounding rockets began blasting
off just before 5 a.m. from NASA's Wallops Island facility on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia. Each of the rockets was fired about...
LAUNCH WINDOWS EXPLAINED BY NASA's KEITH KOHLER OF THE WALLOPS FACILITY:
The launch window is being driven by two main things:
1. In order to view the tracer clouds we need as dark skies as
possible. So the window is driven by sunlight and moonlight conditions.
2. We have to negotiate when we want to launch with both the FAA,
because of air traffic on the east coast and military activity off the
coast. For this mission, We have approval for launch for midnight to
6:30 AM EDT.
All five rockets will be launched over
a time span of just over 5-minutes at precise 80 second intervals! When released into the upper
atmosphere,
TMA initially glows with a reddish
color, but quickly changes to white.
It is expected that
the associated cloud trails will be persist for as long as 20 minutes before
completely fading away.
ROCKET #1 -- Will be
launched on the highest and longest trajectory, reaching an apogee altitude of
250 miles (405 km), approximately 185 miles (300 km) east-southeast of Wallops
Island. The TMA will be released as the rocket descends down through its
"release regime" from 85 to 55 miles (135 to 88 km), approximately 340 to 360
miles (550 to 580 km) downrange from Wallops Island.
Viewers should look
toward the SSE. The TMA cloud should first appear at about 14-degrees
above the horizon and moving downward, tracing a streak approximately 5-degrees
in length.
ROCKET #2
-- Will climb to an altitude of 112 miles (180 km) at a
similar distance downrange from Wallops Island. Like the first
rocket, this one too will release TMA only on the downleg of its suborbital
arc.
Look almost due south. This cloud should first appear
about 19-degrees above the horizon, tracing a downward streak roughly 7-degrees
in length.
ROCKET #3 -- Will go
almost straight up to an altitude of 87 miles (140 km), about 28 miles (45
miles) from Wallops Island. The TMA from this rocket will be released
on both the upleg and downleg of the suborbital arc and
will be released in the form of "puffs" creating a curved, dashed line
in the sky. The cloud will first appear toward the SSW
about 13-degrees above the horizon,
reaching a maximum altitude of
20-degrees, then dropping back down again to about
13-degrees.
ROCKET #4
-- Will travel on the second highest and farthest path,
reaching a maximum altitude of 155 miles (250 km), about 125 miles (200 km)
downrange from Wallops Island.
As was the case with Rocket #3, the
TMA payload will again be released as "puffs" creating a curved, dashed
arc. For the upleg puff, look SSW as the cloud makes a broken
trail roughly 13 to 20-degrees.
The downleg puff will appear toward
the south, descending from 20 to 13-degrees.
ROCKET #5 -- Will
head up to an altitude of 105 miles (170 km), at a distance of about 40
miles (65 km) downrange from Wallops Island. A final series
of TMA "puffs" only on the downleg
of the suborbital arc will be
created in the SSW, starting at about 20-degrees and descending
downward for about 7 or 8-degrees.
The rockets themselves might also
be glimpsed as "stars" moving rapidly upward before their engines shut down
as they near the top part of their respective arcs.
For the rockets to be launched, clear
skies are needed at three different sites where NASA has set up cameras: South
Jersey, Wallops Island and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
------------------
THIS IS WHAT IT COULD LOOK LIKE:
Pictured Above: A rocket experiment
similar to the one planned from Wallops Island, released the chemical
trimethyl
aluminum (TMA) into the atmosphere from a launch site near Poker Flats, Alaska. The
diffusion and distortion of the cloud trail are evident.
Up to seven
(7) trails are to be created high above the Eastern Seaboard by five
rockets during the predawn hours of Tuesday
morning.
BELOW IS A MAP OF THE FIVE ATREX ROCKET LAUNCH TRAJECTORIES >>
IF THE MAP BELOW IS TOO LARGE FOR YOUR SCREEN, HOLD THE CONTROL BUTTON DOWN WHILE YOU PRESS THE - KEY ONCE OR MORE TIMES. IT IS TO THE RIGHT OF THE ZERO KEY. CONTROL + WILL ENLARGE THE SCREEN AND CONTROL 0 WILL RESTORE THE ORIGINAL SIZE.
The map of the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. shows the projected area
where the rockets may be visible while the motors are burning through
flight. It also shows the flight profile of each of the five rockets.
Credit: NASA/Wallops
DIAGRAM BELOW SHOWS WHERE THE THREE CAMERA SITES ARE. THE WEATHER MUST BE IDEAL IN ALL THREE LOCATIONS FOR A GO FOR LAUNCH. LONG ISLAND IS AT THE TOP MIDDLE, THEN GOES OUT OF RANGE Launch madness will hit
the east coast in March as NASA launches five rockets in approximately
five minutes to study the high-altitude jet stream from its Wallops
Flight Facility in Virginia.
The Anomalous Transport Rocket
Experiment (ATREX) is a Heliophysics sounding rocket mission that will
gather information needed to better understand the process responsible
for the high-altitude jet stream located 60 to 65 miles above the
surface of the Earth.
The high-altitude jet stream is higher
than the one commonly reported in weather forecasts. The winds found in
this upper jet stream typically have speeds of 200 to well over 300 mph
and create rapid transport from the Earth's mid latitudes to the polar
regions. This jet stream is located in the same region where strong
electrical currents occur in the ionosphere. It is therefore a region
with a lot of electrical turbulence, of the type that can adversely
affect satellite and radio communications.
› View larger
Four trimethyl aluminum (TMA) trails from a prior mission flown from
Poker Flat, Alaska, in February 2009. Credit: Miguel Larsen/Clemson
Univ. The five rockets will release a chemical tracer that will
form milky, white tracer clouds that allow scientists and the public to
"see" the winds in space. In addition, two of the rockets will have
instrumented payloads, to measure the pressure and temperature in the
atmosphere at the height of the high-speed winds.
Explanation:
What's that in the sky?
An aurora.
A large
coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun five days ago,
throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions
toward the Earth.
Although most of this
cloud passed above the Earth,
some of it impacted our Earth's
magnetosphere
and resulted in
spectacular auroras being seen at high northern latitudes.
Pictured above is a particularly photogenic
auroral corona captured last night above
Grotfjord,
Norway.
To some, this
shimmering green glow of
recombining atmospheric
oxygen
might appear as a large
eagle, but feel free to
share what it looks like to you.
This round of solar activity is not yet over --
a new and even more powerful solar flare occurred
yesterday
that might provide more
amazing aurora as soon as tonight -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMET LOVEJOY PUT ON A SPECTACULAR SHOW FOR SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE VIEWERS AND THE ISS
IMAGES OF COMET LOVEJOY
SPIRAL
COMET TAIL: As Comet Lovejoy recedes
intact from its Dec. 16th close encounter with the
sun, researchers are pondering a mystery: What made
the comet's tail wiggle so wildly in transit through
the sun's atmosphere? The effect is clear in this
sequence of extreme UV images recorded by NASA's
STEREO-B spacecraft:
"Why the wiggles?" wonders
Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab. "We're
not sure. There might be some kind of helical motion
going on. Perhaps we're seeing material in the tail
magnetically 'clinging' to coronal loops and moving
with them. [Coronal loops are huge loops of magnetism
that emerge from the sun's surface and thread the
sun's atmosphere.] There are other possibilities
too, and we will certainly investigate those!"
Battams notes that these images can
be combined with similar images from STEREO-A on
the other side of the sun to produce a three dimensional
picture. "When we pair these together, and
throw in the SDO images too, we should be able to
get an incredibly unique 3-D picture of how this
comet is reacting the the intense coronal heat and
magnetic loops. We are going to learn a lot."
AMATEUR
ASTRONOMERS TRACK LOVEJOY: Amateur
astronomers are finding themselves able to photograph
Comet Lovejoy as it emerges from the glare of the
sun. A team led by Czech astronomer Jan Ebr captured
this image at dawn on Dec. 17th:
Credit: Jakub Cerny,
Jan Ebr, Martin Jelinek, Petr Kubanek, Michael Prouza,
Michal Ringes
"We used a remotely-controlled
12-inch telescope in Malargue, Argentina,"
says Ebr. "The sun was below horizon at the
time we took the picture, but just barely. There
was only a 30 minute window between the rise of
the comet and that of the sun "
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the
Nov. 26 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a car-sized
rover named Curiosity.
Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST (7:02 a.m. PST).
"We are very excited about sending the world's most advanced scientific
laboratory to Mars," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "MSL will
tell us critical things we need to know about Mars, and while it
advances science, we'll be working on the capabilities for a human
mission to the Red Planet and to other destinations where we've never
been."
The mission will pioneer precision landing technology and a sky-crane
touchdown to place Curiosity near the foot of a mountain inside Gale
Crater on Aug. 6, 2012. During a nearly two-year prime mission after
landing, the rover will investigate whether the region has ever offered
conditions favorable for microbial life, including the chemical
ingredients for life.
"The launch vehicle has given us a great injection into our trajectory,
and we're on our way to Mars," said Mars Science Laboratory Project
Manager Peter Theisinger of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif. "The spacecraft is in communication, thermally stable
and power positive."
The Atlas V initially lofted the spacecraft into Earth orbit and then,
with a second burst from the vehicle's upper stage, pushed it out of
Earth orbit into a 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) journey to
Mars.
"Our first trajectory correction maneuver will be in about two weeks,"
Theisinger said. "We'll do instrument checkouts in the next several
weeks and continue with thorough preparations for the landing on Mars
and operations on the surface."
Curiosity's ambitious science goals are among the mission's many
differences from earlier Mars rovers. It will use a drill and scoop at
the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of rock
interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into analytical
laboratory instruments inside the rover. Curiosity carries 10 science
instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the
science-instrument payloads on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Some of the tools are the first of their kind on Mars, such as a
laser-firing instrument for checking the elemental composition of rocks
from a distance, and an X-ray diffraction instrument for definitive
identification of minerals in powdered samples.
To haul and wield its science payload, Curiosity is twice as long and
five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. Because of its one-ton
mass, Curiosity is too heavy to employ airbags to cushion its landing as
previous Mars rovers could. Part of the Mars Science Laboratory
spacecraft is a rocket-powered descent stage that will lower the rover
on tethers as the rocket engines control the speed of descent.
The mission's landing site offers Curiosity access for driving to layers
of the mountain inside Gale Crater. Observations from orbit have
identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a
wet history.
Precision landing maneuvers as the spacecraft flies through the Martian
atmosphere before opening its parachute make Gale a safe target for the
first time. This innovation shrinks the target area to less than
one-fourth the size of earlier Mars landing targets. Without it, rough
terrain at the edges of Curiosity's target would make the site
unacceptably hazardous.
The innovations for landing a heavier spacecraft with greater precision
are steps in technology development for human Mars missions. In
addition, Curiosity carries an instrument for monitoring the natural
radiation environment on Mars, important information for designing human
Mars missions that protect astronauts' health.
The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
managed the launch. NASA's Space Network provided space communication
services for the launch vehicle. NASA's Deep Space Network will provide
spacecraft acquisition and mission communication.
A region on the rim of Endeavour Crater on
Mars that has been named 'Turkey Haven,' Credit: NASA/JPL, colorization
by Stu Atkinson.
What does a Mars Rover do for the Thanksgiving holiday? While one
rover will be sitting on the launchpad, preparing to head to the Red
Planet (MSL/ Curiosity) the Opportunity rover has now trekked to an
enticing outcrop near the summit of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour
Crater. This summit or ridge has been named “Turkey Haven” by the MER
science team, as this is where Oppy will conduct scientific studies over
the four-day-long US holiday. The image above was taken a few days ago,
showing the Turkey Haven ridge. Our pal Stu Atkinson has provided a
beautiful color rendering, and you can see all the rocks that the rover
will be looking at more closely with its suite of instruments and
cameras. You can see more images of this area, including 3-D versions
on Stu’s site, Road to Endeavour.
SEE THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AND MORE GREAT PHOTOS ON MY MARS PAGE AT LEFT MENU --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SUN NOW HAS MANY SPOTS PHOTO TAKEN BY JOHN BLIEX OF THE AOS ON 2011 NOV 8 WITH A 500mm MIRROR LENS CANON DSLR
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Spaceweather.com
ASTEROID
PARALLAX:"On November 9th,
asteroid 2005 YU55 passed so close to Earth that
viewers at separate locations saw the interloper
appear in slightly different spots against the background
star field," says amateur astronomer Mike Harms
of San Francisco. To illustrate this parallax
effect, he combined his own observations with
those of
Dennis di Cicco across the country in Boston:
At the time of the flyby, the 400m-wide
space rock was only 324,600 kilometers away, about
85% the distance from Earth to the Moon. This allowed
amateur and professional astronomers alike to study
the asteroid in unprecedented
detail.
In Australia, where the Boston vs.
Brisbane parallax effect was even greater, Dennis
Simmons video-recorded the
flyby: "It was quite sobering to be able
to view the almost full Moon some 20 degrees away,
knowing that this lump of rock was now nearer to
me than our Moon," he says. "I was astonished
at how bright the Near Earth Asteroid (NEO) appeared,
having read that
results from the Arecibo radar indicated it to be
a very dark, nearly spherical object some 400 meters
in diameter."
Asteroid 2005 YU55 Gets Closer to Earth; “No Chance of an Impact”
by Jason Major on November 4, 2011
Radar image of 2005 YU55, acquired in April 2010. Credit: NASA/Cornell/Arecibo.
Yes, it’s coming. Yes, it’s big. Yes, it will be even closer than the Moon. And yes… we’re completely safe.
The 400-meter-wide asteroid 2005 YU55 is currently zipping through
the inner Solar System at over 13 km (8 miles) a second. On Tuesday,
November 8, at 6:28 p.m. EST, it will pass Earth, coming within 325,000
km (202,000 miles). This is indeed within the Moon’s orbit (although
YU55′s trajectory puts it a bit above the exact plane of the Earth-Moon
alignment.) Still, it is the closest pass by such a large object since 1976… yet, NASA scientists aren’t concerned. Why?
Because its orbit has been well studied, there’s nothing in its way, and frankly there’s simply nothing it will do to affect Earth.
Animation of 2005 YU55's trajectory on Nov. 8. (NASA/JPL) Click to play.
Period.
2005 YU55′s miniscule gravity will not cause earthquakes. It has no
magnetic field. It will not strike another object, or the Moon, or the
Earth. It will not come into contact with cometary debris, Elenin, a
black dwarf, Planet X, or Nibiru. (Not that those last three even
exist.) No, YU55 will do exactly what it’s doing right now:
passing through the Solar System. It will come, it will go, and
hopefully NASA scientists – as well as many amateur astronomers
worldwide – will have a chance to get a good look at it as it passes.
Scientists with NASA’s Near-Earth Objects Observation Program will
begin tracking YU55 on Friday, November 4 using the 70-meter radar
telescope at the Deep Space Network in Goldstone, California , as well as with the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico beginning November 8. These facilities will continue to track it until the 10th.
This close pass will offer a great opportunity to get detailed radar
imaging of YU55, an ancient C-type asteroid literally darker than coal.
Since these objects can be difficult to observe using visible light,
radar mapping can better reveal details about their surface and
composition.
To help inform the public about YU55 NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena recently hosted a live Q&A session on Ustream
featuring specialists Marina Brozovic, a Goldstone Radar Team
scientist, and Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program.
They fielded questions sent in via chat and Twitter… a recording of the
event in its entirety can be seen below:
Brief Summary of Asteroid Approach
Fact Sheets & Animations of 2005 YU55's Orbital Motions
Undoubtedly there will still be those who continue to spread
misinformation about 2005 YU55. After all, they did the same with the
now-disintegrated comet Elenin. But the truth is out there… and the truth is that there’s no danger, no cover-ups, no “plots”, and simply no cause for concern.
Although classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55
poses no threat of an Earth collision over at least the next 100 years.
However, this will be the closest approach to date by an object this
large that we know about in advance and an event of this type will not
happen again until 2028 when asteroid (153814) 2001 WN5 will pass to
within 0.6 lunar distances. – Near-Earth Object Program, JPL
Jason
is a graphic artist from Rhode Island now living and working in Dallas,
Texas. He writes about astronomy and space exploration on his blog Lights In The Dark, here on Universe Today and also on Discovery News.
THE DAWN MISSION HAS BEEN IN ORBIT AROUND ASTEROID VESTA SINCE JULY 16 AND WILL ORBIT DWARF PLANET CERES NEXT SUMMER . HERE IS A CLOSE UP PHOTO OF VESTA TAKEN JULY 18. MORE ON VESTA ON MY VESTA PAGE AT LEFT MENU.
July 21, 2011 - PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft
obtained this image with its framing camera on July 18, 2011. It was
taken from a distance of about 6,500 miles (10,500 kilometers) away
from the protoplanet Vesta. The smallest detail visible is about 1.2
miles (2.0 km).
Explanation:
In the final move of its kind, NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis
was photographed earlier this month slowly advancing toward
Launch
Pad 39A, where it is currently scheduled for a July 8th launch to the
International Space Station.
The mission, designated
STS-135,
is the 135th and last mission for a
NASA space shuttle.
Atlantis and its four-person crew will be carrying, among other things,
the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
Raffaello to bring key components and supplies to the ISS.
Pictured above, the large
Shuttle Crawler Transporter rolls the powerful orbiter along the five-kilometer long road at less than two kilometers per hour.
Over 15,000 spectators, some visible on the right, were on hand for the
historic roll out.
CLOSEST AND LARGEST LOOKING FULL MOON SINCE 2008 Dec 12 OCCURRED ON SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 19
THE NEXT REALLY CLOSE FULL MOON OCCURS IN THE EVENING OF 2012 MAY 5 AT 221,801 MILES AWAY
On 2008 DEC 12 at 4:39 PM EST, the moon was at a distance of 221,559.7 miles away. Before that one, the closest full moon was on 1993 March 8. Now see more about the cycle that the current full moon this month and the one in March, 1993 are part of.
The Saros Cycle of about 18 years and a third of a month is generally associated with recurring eclipses.
LOOK HOW THE SAROS CYCLE APPLIES TO THE FOLLOWING LIST OF FULL MOONS AT A SAROS INTERVAL:
PERIGEE FULL MOON DISTANCES IN MILES FOR SIX SAROS CYCLES
1957 FEB 14 - 6:13 AM EST ----- 221,548.40 - FULL MOON on FEB 14 at 11:38 AM EST
1975 FEB 25 - 4:55 PM EST ----- 221,529.45 - FULL MOON on FEB 25 at 8:15 PM EST - THE CLOSEST FULL MOON IN THIS CYCLE
1993 MARCH 8 - 3:33-4 AM EST -- 221,536.34 - FULL MOON on MARCH 8 at 4:46 AM EST
2011 MARCH 19 - 3:08-9 PM EDT - 221,565.41 - FULL MOON on MARCH 19 at 2:10 PM EDT -THIS MONTH'S FULL MOON VISIBLE AFTER PERIGEE IN THE EVENING AT A SLIGHTLY GREATER DISTANCE FROM THE EARTH'S CENTER, BUT CLOSER FOR YOU AS THE MOON RISES UNTIL TRANSIT AT 1:19 AM EDT MARCH 20 SINCE THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH IS CLOSER TO THE MOON THAN ITS CENTER.
2029 MARCH 30 - 1:39-40 AM EDT- 221,620.18 - FULL MOON on MARCH 29 at 10:26 PM EDT
2047 APRIL 10 - 12:08 PM EDT -- 221,696.61 - FULL MOON on APRIL 10 at 6:35 AM EDT
The chart could be extended into both the past and the future at saros intervals - but the distances would be greater.
OTHER FULL MOONS WHICH ARE CLOSE OR EVEN CLOSER WILL OCCUR AS PART OF DIFFERENT SAROS CYCLES -
THE NEXT CLOSER FULL MOON - PART OF A DIFFERENT SAROS - WILL HAPPEN ON THE MORNING OF 2016 NOVEMBER 16 - 221,524 MILES AWAY
MORE ON EVEN CLOSER FULL MOONS ON MY MOON PAGE AT LEFT MENU
NASA's Stardust-NExT mission took this image of comet Tempel 1 at 11:39 PM EST on Feb 14, 2011. The comet was first visited by
NASA's Deep Impact mission in 2005.
Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that will expand the investigation of comet Tempel 1
initiated by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. JPL, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages Stardust-NExT for the NASA Science Mission Directorate,
Washington, D.C. Joe Veverka of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is the mission's
principal investigator. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and
manages day-to-day mission operations.
For more information about Stardust-NExT, please visit http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov.
"Jupiter is getting more difficult now," writes imager Christopher Go
in the Philippines. He caught this view of the re-formed South
Equatorial Belt - SEB - (above center) in twilight on February 11th just before
Jupiter disappeared behind his building's roof.
The Great Red Spot is at left. "The SEB is already red in this area and
it is also very turbulent," he notes. "The NEB is dark red, and note the
dark and white ovals on the NEBn." South is up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA' SOLAR STEREO - A & STEREO - B SATELLITES IN SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ORBITS AROUND THE SUN HAVE SEPARATED TO BE PRECISELY OPPOSITE THE SUN ON 2011 FEB 6 ABOUT 7:30 PM EST - NEAR SUPERBOWL HALF-TIME. NASA WILL THEN RELEASE TO THE WORLD THE FIRST PICTURE EVER TAKEN OF THE ENTIRE SUN 360 DEGREES AROUND (from these two satellites) - THE STORY (from UNIVERSETODAY.COM ) IS ON MY SPECIAL NEWS 2PAGE AT UPPERLEFT MENU HERE ARE THE EARLY PHOTOS FOR 2011 FEB 6 FROM SEVERAL SPACECRAFT - STEREO A & B AND FROM SDO & SOHO
This figure plots the current positions of the STEREO A - Ahead (red) and STEREO B - Behind
(blue) spacecraft relative to the SUN (yellow) andEARTH(green)
for 2011 February 6 at 6 AM EST.
The dotted
lines show the angular displacement from the Sun. The Numbers on the X & Y axes are in Astronomical Units (AU).
1 AU = 92,955,807 Miles = The Average Earth-Sun Distance.
Very Small Asteroid Makes Close Earth Approach on February 4, 2011
Don Yeomans and Paul Chodas
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
February 4, 2011
Trajectory of Asteroid 2011 CQ1 - February 4, 2011
Asteroid 2011 CQ1 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on February 4 and
made a record close Earth approach 14 hours later on February 4 at 19:39 UT
(14:39 EST). It passed to within 0.85 Earth radii (5480 km) of the Earth's
surface over a region in the mid-Pacific. This object, only about one meter
in diameter, is the closest non-impacting object in our asteroid catalog to
date. Prior to the Earth close approach, this object was in a so-called
Apollo-class orbit that was mostly outside the Earth's orbit. Following
the close approach, the Earth's gravitational attraction modified the object's
orbit to an Aten-class orbit where the asteroid spends almost all of its time
inside the Earth's orbit.
As is evident from the diagram, the close Earth approach changed the asteroid's
flight path by about 60 degrees. Because of their small size, object's of
this size are difficult to discover but there is likely to be nearly a billion
objects of this size and larger in near-Earth space and one would expect one
to strike Earth's atmosphere every few weeks on average. Upon striking the
atmosphere, small objects of this size create visually impressive fireball
events but only rarely do even a few small fragments reach the ground.
January 26, 2011 - Pasadena, CA--NASA's Stardust spacecraft has
downlinked its first images of Comet Tempel 1, the target of a flyby
planned for Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. The images were taken on Jan. 18
and 19 from a distance of 26.3 million kilometers (16.3 million
miles), and 25.4 million kilometers (15.8 million miles) respectively.
On Feb. 14, Stardust will fly within about 200 kilometers (125 miles)
of the comet's nucleus.
The first image of Comet
Tempel 1 taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft is a composite made from
observations on Jan. 18 and 19, 2011. The panel on the right
highlights the location of Comet Tempel 1 in the frame. At 11:42 PM EST on Valentine's
Day (Feb. 14 in U.S. time zones), Stardust will fly within about 200
kilometers (125 miles) of the comet's nucleus. Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
"This is the first of many images to come of Comet Tempel 1," said Joe Veverka, principal investigator of NASA's
Stardust-NExT mission from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
"Encountering something as small and fast as a comet in the vastness
of space is always a challenge, but we are very pleased with how
things are setting up for our Valentine's Day flyby."
The composite image is a combination of several images taken
by Stardust's navigation camera. Future images will be used to help
mission navigators refine Stardust's trajectory, or flight path, as it
closes the distance between comet and spacecraft at a rate of about
950,000 kilometers (590,000 miles) a day. On the night of encounter,
the navigation camera will be used to acquire 72 high-resolution
images of the comet's surface features. Stardust-NExT mission
scientists will use these images to see how surface features on comet
Tempel 1 have changed over the past five-and-a-half years. (Tempel 1
had previously been visited and imaged in July of 2005 by NASA's Deep
Impact mission).
Launched on Feb. 7, 1999, Stardust became the first spacecraft
in history to collect samples from a comet (comet Wild 2), and return
them to Earth for study. While its sample return capsule parachuted to
Earth in January 2006, mission controllers were placing the
still-viable spacecraft on a path that would allow NASA the
opportunity to re-use the already-proven flight system if a target of
opportunity presented itself. In January 2007, NASA re-christened the
mission "Stardust-NExT" (New Exploration of Tempel), and the Stardust
team began a four-and-a-half year journey for the spacecraft to comet
Tempel 1. This will be the second exploration of Tempel 1 by a
spacecraft (Deep Impact).
Along with the high-resolution images of the comet's surface,
Stardust-NExT will also measure the composition, size distribution and
flux of dust emitted into the coma, and provide important new
information on how Jupiter-family comets evolve and how they formed
4.6 billion years ago.
Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that will expand the
investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA's Deep Impact
spacecraft. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, manages Stardust-NExT for the NASA Science Mission
Directorate, Washington, D.C. Joe Veverka of Cornell University,
Ithaca, N.Y., is the mission's principal investigator. Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day
mission operations.
NORTHERN
LIGHTS: On Jan 14th in Tromsø, Norway,
the solar wind combined with moonlight and snow
to produce a scene that had onlookers asking themselves,
can it get any better than this? One of
those onlookers was Thilo Bubek, and he took this
picture:
"The whole evening was a perfect show with
strong auroras in many colors," says Bubek.
"We were able to capture some fantastic images."
But can it get any better? Maybe later today: A
solar wind stream is due to hit Earth's magnetic
field on 2011 Jan. 14-15, possibly sparking even stronger
displays
. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance
of high-latitude geomagnetic activity when the solar
wind stream arrives.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINE JUST BELOW FOR MANY AMAZING RECENT AURORAL PHOTOS
PHOTO OF 2010 DEC 21 LUNAR ECLIPSE JUST BEFORE TOTALITY BY NASA's BILL INGALLS IN VIRGINIA NEAR WASH DC
RARE TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OCCURRED EARLY TUESDAY MORNING 2010 DECEMBER 21st - THE WINTER SOLSTICE
PARTIAL PHASES STARTED AT 1:33 AM EST AND TOTALITY BEGAN AT 2:40 WHICH LASTED UNTIL 3:53 AM EST
THE LAST WINTER SOLSTICE TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OCCURRED IN THE YEAR 1638 AND WILL NOT RECUR UNTIL THE YEAR 2094.
ALSO WITH THE MOON BEING OPPOSITE THE SUN AT ITS LOWEST POINT AND THE MOON PASSING THROUGH THE UPPER PART OF THE EARTH'S UMBRA MEANS THAT THIS WILL BE THE FARTHEST NORTH TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE UNTIL THE YEAR 2485 WHICH WILL ALSO OCCUR ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE.
SEE MORE ABOUT THIS ECLIPSE AND OTHER ONES TOO ON MY LUNAR ECLIPSES PAGE UNDER THE MOON AT LEFT MENU
This image shows
a three and a half hour (0000 - 0330 UT) time lapse movie of the flare
and filament event on 2010 Nov 12. Credit: NASA/SDO
An active sunspot (1123) erupted early on the
morning of Nov. 12th, producing a C4-class solar flare and
apparently hurling a filament of material in the general
direction of Earth. Coronagraph
images from the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) and NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft show a faint
coronal mass ejection
emerging from the blast site and heading off in a direction just south
of the sun-Earth line. The
cloud could deliver a glancing blow to Earth’s magnetic field
sometime on Nov. 14th or 15th. High latitude sky watchers could see auroras on those dates. Click to continue…
PHOTOS BELOW SHOW THE AURORAS CAUSED BY THE SOLAR FLARE MENTIONED ABOVE
SUNDIVING
COMET: The solar system
has one
less comet today after one of the dirty
snowballs
swung past the sun--a little too
close--and
did not survive. Click on the image to
view a movie
of the death plunge:
Japanese comet hunter Masanori Uchina
first noticed
the sundiver in coronagraph
images from the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory
(SOHO) on Nov. 13th. At the time it was a
dim and
distant speck, but it rapidly brightened
on Nov.
14th as it approached the hot sun. Now it
just a
dissipating haze of vapor and comet dust.
The comet was likely a member of the
Kreutz sungrazer
family. Named after a 19th century German
astronomer
who studied them in detail, Kreutz
sungrazers are
fragments from the breakup of a giant
comet at least
2000 years ago. Several of these fragments
are thought
to pass by the sun and disintegrate every
day. Most
are too small to see but occasionally a
bigger fragment
like this one attracts attention.
EPOXI MISSION 2010 OCT 20th UPDATE ABOUT THE FLYBY OF COMET HARTLEY 2 BY ONLY 700 KM ON NOV 4th
The spacecraft went through a cool-down period at the end of September
to optimize the capabilities of the near-IR spectrometer and to carry
out a Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM). This maneuver changed our
target point based on our improved knowledge of the position of the
comet relative to the spacecraft. We think that the new target point
will be within 100-200 km of the desired flyby point (which is 700 km
from the nucleus). We expect our next and final TCM to be on October 27.
We have a contingency plan for a TCM on November 2 in case the previous
TCM does not perform as expected.
We have been receiving Hartley 2 data from a variety of other
spacecraft and collaborators. The WISE mission
released data acquired in May. Those data will be useful in
understanding the onset of activity by the comet as it approaches the
sun in its orbit. Weaver et al.
released Hubble Space Telescope images acquired on September 25. The
HST images are particularly valuable because they allowed us to confirm
that the cometary nucleus is separable from the coma. Eventually, we
will be able to separate the nucleus from the coma within our own data.
For now, HST has a huge advantage over our own cameras in this respect
due to the much larger aperture of HST coupled with the fact that Earth
and HST were much closer to the comet than was our spacecraft. These
data are consistent with earlier determinations of the size of the
nucleus.
We have also been receiving widespread reports of jets in the
coma of the comet. The first such report was from Matthew
Knight and colleagues at Lowell Observatory who found jets in the
gas (the unstable radical CN) but not in the dust during an August
observing run . Since then, we have had more recent reports of jets from
both professional and amateur observers.
Since the Deep Impact spacecraft has its cameras dedicated to
monitoring Hartley 2 during this phase of the mission, we now have an
advantage over other observatories and telescopes because we have nearly
continuous coverage (16 out of every 24 hours). We too see fluctuations
and jet-like structures in our data that are presumed to be due to
variations in the release of dust and gas as the nucleus rotates. More
excitingly, we have discovered a new cometary
phenomenon! In September, outgassing from CN, as detected by the
MRI, increased slowly by a factor of 5 and then slowly decreased while
the dust showed no dramatic change. This activity took place over the
course of 16 days. We are unaware of any other instances of this type of
activity in any other comets and it is very different from the dust
outbursts observed with the same instrument at Tempel 1. (Reported in CBET 2512,
which requires a subscription to view.)
EPOXI TIMELINE: :
02 November 2010: Malcolm Hartley, Hartley 2's discover, will be giving a lecture in the von Kármán Auditorium at JPL at 7 pm PDT (10 pm EDT, 02:00 UT 3 Nov). (www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures_archive.cfm?year=2010&month=11#myComet) At 22:00 UT (6 pm EDT, 3 pm PDT), the TCM-22 burn will occur if needed. The spacecraft is now 1.8 million km from the comet.
03 November 2010: Final preparation begins for the start of the critical sequence. The last pre-encounter data download will occur today. A decision will be made by the management team as to whether a pointing update or commanded time offset needs to be executed prior to closest approach while the spacecraft is still 1 million km from the comet. The E-18 hour to E+30 minute high resolution encounter observation sequence will commence at 20:50 UT (3:50 pm EDT, 12:50 pm PDT) with all data of the encounter stored onboard the spacecraft because the high gain antenna (HGA) is pointed away from the Earth and not capable of downlinking data during the encounter sequence.
04 November 2010: AutoNav is expected to be enabled at E-50 minutes and fly the spacecraft through closest approach. The cometary nucleus will be resolved ~1 hour out with the spacecraft 45,000 km away from its target. **Closest approach of comet Hartley 2 is expected to occur at ~ 13:50 UT (9:50 AM EDT, 6:50 am PDT) at a distance of 700 km.** Hartley 2 will be 1.064 AU from the Sun and 0.156 AU from the Earth at this time. The spacecraft will be approaching the comet at a phase angle of 86 degrees. The MRI pixel scale at closest approach will be 7 m/pixel, giving a nuclear diameter of ~170 pixels in the highest resolution images. NASA TV will be covering the EPOXI Flight and Science Teams at JPL from 13:30 - 15:15 UT (9:30- 11:15am EDT, 6:30 - 8:15 am PDT). The first data downlink after encounter is scheduled to start at E+30 minutes, once the spacecraft's HGA is pointed to the Earth. The data will continue to download from the spacecraft through 06 November 2010. A post-encounter live press briefing is scheduled for 20:00 UT (4 pm EDT, 1 pm PDT) at JPL and will include members from the Flight and Science Teams as well as a NASA HQ representative. Prior to the press conference, 5 raw images from closest approach will be released on the EPOXI website, epoxi.umd.edu, as soon as they are available from the spacecraft. Processed versions of these images will be presented during the press conference. The press conference is scheduled to air on one of NASA's TV channels; however, space shuttle coverage may preempt EPOXI coverage on the main NASA TV channel, so check the education and outreach channels, as well as the web.
06 November 2010: The encounter data downlink will have completed and the E+2 to E+12 day post-encounter observations will begin with continuous imaging and downlink. Imaging will occur every 2 minutes and spectral scans will be collected every 15 minutes.
16 November 2010: The E+12 to E+21 day sequence is kicked off. These observations have a reduced acquisition frequency, with both imaging and spectra collected every 30 minutes.
30 November 2010: The last EPOXI observations will take place with a post-encounter cruise calibration. The EPOXI Science Team will continue to analyze data from Hartley 2 for several months. Key science results will be posted to the EPOXI website,epoxi.umd.edu, as they are released.
Explanation:
An alluring Comet Hartley 2
cruised through
planet Earth's night sky on October 8,
passing within about a Full Moon's
width of the famous double star cluster in Perseus.
The much anticipated
celestial photo-op
was recorded here
in a 3 frame mosaic with greenish comet and the
clusters h and Chi
Persei
placed at the left.
The well-chosen, wide field of view spans about 7 degrees.
It extends across the constellation boundary into Cassiopeia,
all the way to the Heart
Nebula (IC 1805)
at the far right.
To capture the cosmic moment, a relatively short 5 minute exposure
was used to freeze the moving comet in place, but
a longer exposure with a narrow-band filter was included in the
central and right hand frames.
The narrow-band exposure brings out the fainter
reddish glow
of the nebula's atomic hydrogen gas, in contrast
to the cometary
coma's
kryptonite
green.
In the past few days,
comet
watchers have reported that Hartley 2
has become just visible to the unaided eye for experienced observers
from dark, clear sites.
On October 20, the
comet
will
make its closest approach to Earth,
passing within about 17 million kilometer
: Green Comet 103P/Hartley
2 approached Earth for a close
encounter
on Oct. 20th. At that time, the comet was only
11 million miles from Earth and is not easily
visible to the naked eye even from dark sky
sites. It looks OK through backyard
telescopes.
Italian amateur astronomer Toni Scarmato
took this
picture on Sept. 29th using a 10-inch
reflector:
He caught the comet gliding by lambda
Cassiopeia,
a 6th magnitude double star. "In 7x50
binoculars,
the comet is diffuse and very large," says
Scarmato. "I estimate its size around
20-arcminutes
and brightness at magnitude +7.5."
Two weeks after Comet Hartley 2 has its
close encounter
with Earth, NASA will have a close
encounter with
the comet. The EPOXIspacecraft (formerly known as Deep Impact)
is hurtling
toward Comet Hartley now, and on Nov. 4th
it will
fly 435 miles from the comet's active icy
nucleus.
The encounter will mark only the fifth
time in history
that a spacecraft has been close enough to
image
a comet's core.
Until then, amateur astronomers can
monitor the
comet as it glides through the
constellation Cassiopeia
in the evening sky. A finder
chart from Sky
and Telescope shows the comet passing
by a variety
of stars and deep-sky objects, offering
many photo-ops
in the nights ahead.
JUPITER WAS CLOSEST TO THE EARTH ON SEPT 10 SINCE 1963 AND UNTIL 2022
HOWEVER THERE STILL IS A VERY CLOSE APPROACH OF JUPITER THIS YEAR
2011 OCTOBER 27 - 1:45 PM EDT - 369,011,859 MILES
2010 SEPT 20 - 5:19 PM EDT - 367,540,642 MILES FROM EARTH - 49.861 ARC SECONDS WIDE
1963 OCT 6 - 8:10 PM EDT - 367,403,113 MILES FROM EARTH
2022 SEPT 25 - 10:17 PM EDT - 367,413,706 MILES FROM EARTH 1951 OCT 2 - 2:21 AM EST - 367,055,443 MILES FROM EARTH - 49.927 ARC SECONDS WIDE
2129 OCT 5 - 11:50 PM EDT - 367,009,957 MILES FROM EARTH - 49.933 ARC SECONDS WIDE NOTE THAT JUPITER'S FARTHEST CLOSE APPROACHES (NEAR OPPOSITION) CAN BE OVER 414 MILLION MILES BECAUSE OF ITS ELLIPTICAL ORBIT
Explanation: Chances
are the brightest star you've
seen lately is actually planet Jupiter.
Jupiter
rules the sky in this
labeled view of a starry
September night
from the Alborz mountains in Iran, complete with
the trail of a red flashlight illuminating the mountain road.
On September 21st
(Universal
Time)
Jupiter will be at opposition,
the point
opposite
the Sun along its orbit, rising just as the Sun sets.
For
this opposition,
Jupiter will be slightly brighter and
closer to planet Earth than in any year since 1963.
Much fainter and also approaching its own opposition
on September 21st, is the distant planet Uranus.
Very near Jupiter on the sky, the fainter planet is easy to
spot in binoculars (similar to the inset view),
well above and right of brilliant Jupiter and
about as bright as one of Jupiter's own
Galilean moons.
Remarkably close to the opposition of both planets,
the point on the sky exactly opposite the Sun on September
23rd is marked the
Vernal Equinox.
On that date, a Full Moon will join the celestial scene.
Of
course, any Full Moon
is also
at opposition.
EQUINOX
AURORAS: On 2010 Sept 14 the
sun's
magnetic field near Earth tipped south.
This opened
a
crack in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar
wind poured
in and fueled a magnificent display of
arctic Northern
Lights:
Thilo Bubek took the picture not far from
Tromsø,
Norway. "We had some nice auroras," he
says, with what can only be described as
Norwegian
understatement. "The clouds and calm sea
contributed
to a photogenic scene."
This is the time of year
when south-pointing
magnetic fields from the sun frequently
puncture
our bubble of protection against the solar
wind.
High latitude sky watchers should be alert
for equinox
auroras.
2010 RF12 is a near-Earth asteroid (type called anAten - See more on this at Left Menu on my Apophis page under Asteroids - the First 1000) that passed between the
Earth
and the Moon
on September 8, 2010 at 5:12 pm EDT (2112 GMT), approaching within 49,326miles from the earth above Antarctica.[1]
NASA estimated its size to be between 20 and 46 feet (10 +/- 4 meters) in diameter.[2]
EARTH
DODGES ANOTHER BULLET:
Just as
sunspot 1105 was turning away from Earth
on Sept.
8th, the active region erupted, producing a
C3-class
solar flare (peak @ 2330 UT = 7:30 PM EDT) and a
fantastic prominence.
Here is a snapshot from the Solar Dynamics
Observatory:
The eruption also hurled a bright coronal
mass
ejection (CME) into space: SOHO
movie. The expanding cloud is heading
into a
part of the solar system not currently
occupied
by any planet--it's going to miss
everything, including
Earth. If such a CME did hit Earth's
magnetic field,
it would probably trigger strong
geomagnetic storms.
Maybe next time...
Update #1: Two new
movies of the
eruption are available from the Solar
Dynamics Observatory--a
big
picture
view in black-and-white and a spectacular
close-up in three extreme ultraviolet
colors.
Update #2: NASA's
STEREO-Ahead
spacecraft is stationed almost directly
above sunspot
1105. A first-look
movie shows a shadowy "solar tsunami"
wave racing away from the blast site.
PURPLE
AURORAS: Auroras are
dancing around
the Arctic Circle and some of them are
purple. This
is how the sky looked on Sept. 8th over
Bø, Norway:
"It's not often I get to
see
purple auroras," says photographer Øystein
Lunde Ingvaldsen. "This was truly a
fantastic
sight!"
Auroras get their
colors from specific atoms and
molecules in
Earth's atmosphere. Green comes from
oxygen molecules
excited by geomagnetic activity. Purple,
on the
other hand, is usually a mixture of red
and blue
emissions from molecular nitrogen. O2
and N2 were both revved up in
Norway
last night!
More purple is possible
tonight as
a solar wind stream continues to buffet
Earth's
magnetic field. High-latitude sky watchers
should
remain alert
for auroras.
Astronomers have found unexpected rings and arcs
of ultraviolet light around a selection of galaxies, four of which are
shown here as viewed by NASA's and the European Space Agency's Hubble
Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA/ESA /JPL-Caltech/STScI/UCLA
Title
this 'Zombie Galaxies' or 'Night of
the Living Galaxies.' Astronomers have found mysterious, giant loops of
ultraviolet light
around old, massive galaxies, which were presumed to be "dead," and
these galaxies seem to have come back to life. Somehow these
"over-the-hill galaxies" have been infused with fresh gas to form new stars that power these truly gargantuan
rings, some of which could encircle several Milky Way galaxies.
The discovery of these rings implies
that old bloated galaxies that were once devoid of star-making can be reignited with star
birth, and that galaxy evolution does
not proceed straight from the cradle to the grave.
"In a galaxy's
lifetime, it must make the transition from an active, star-forming
galaxy to a quiescent galaxy that does not form stars," said Samir
Salim, lead author of a recent study and a research scientist in the
department of astronomy at Indiana
University, Bloomington. "But it is possible this process goes the other
way, too, and that old galaxies can be rejuvenated."
Using two
orbiting observatories, NASA's Galaxy Evolution
Explorer and Hubble SpaceTelescope, the
astronomers surveyed a vast region of the sky in ultraviolet light.
GALEX picked out 30 elliptical and lens-shaped "early" galaxies with
puzzlingly strong ultraviolet emissions but no signs of visible star formation, and
Hubble was used to take a closer look.
What Hubble showed shocked
the astronomers. Three-quarters of the galaxies were spanned by great,
shining rings of ultraviolet light, with some ripples stretching 250,000
light-years. A few galaxies even had spiral-shaped ultraviolet
features.
"We haven't seen anything quite like these rings
before," said Michael Rich, co-author of the paper and a research
astronomer at UCLA. "These beautiful and very unusual objects might be
telling us something very important about the evolution of galaxies."
But
astronomers are unsure where the gas for this galactic resurrection came from and how it
has created rings. One possibility is that a smaller galaxy merged
with a big, old one, bringing in fresh gas to spawn hordes of new stars,
and could in rare instances give rise to the ring structures as well.
But
the researchers have their doubts about this origin scenario. "To
create a density shock wave that forms rings like those we've seen, a
small galaxy has to hit a larger galaxy pretty much straight in the
center," said Salim. "You have to have a dead-on collision, and that's
very uncommon."
Another option that the astronomers like better is
that the rejuvenating spark could have come from a gradual sopping-up
of the gas in the so-called intergalactic medium,
the thin soup of material between galaxies. This external gas could
generate these rings, especially in the presence of bar-like structures
that span some galaxies' centers.
Ultimately, more observations
will be needed to show how these galaxies began growing younger and lit
up with humongous halos. Salim and Rich plan to search for more evidence
of bars, as well as faint structures that might be the remnants of
stellar blooms that occurred in the galaxies' pasts. Rather like
recurring seasons, it may be that
galaxies stirred from winter can breed stars again and then bask in
another vibrant, ultraviolet-soaked summer.
The study detailing
the findings appeared in the 2010 April 21 issue of the
MORE
AURORAS IN THE OFFING? Earth's
magnetic field
is still reverberating from the CME impact of August
3rd,
which sparked auroras as far south as Wisconsin
and Iowa
in the United States. Analysts believe a second CME
is right
behind it, due to arrive on August 5th. A second
impact could
re-energize the fading geomagnetic storm and spark a
new round
of Northern Lights. High-latitude sky watchers
should remain
alert for auroras.
At the height of the August 3rd display "the whole
sky
over northern Quebec filled with green and purple,"
says
photographer Michel Tournay. "I couldn't decide
where
to point my camera!" Fortunately, he had a
wide-angle
lens:
Meanwhile in Ringsaker, Norway, the auroras were so
bright
"we could see them through clouds, moonlight and
midnight
sunlight," says Ragnar Johnskås. "It was a
lovely show."
The Goddard Space Flight Center has a Flickr account showcasing a series of images of our own home planet. Called "Blue Marble," these spectacular images are the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations in 2001 of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. Your tax dollars at work, these images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public. This record includes preview images and links to full resolution versions up to 21,600 pixels across.
Our Blue Marble. Credit: NASA
Compare these new images to the original "Blue Marble" photograph, taken BELOW by the Apollo 17 crew in 1968.
It's a fact: You're more likely to see a Sun Halo if the sun is up 24 hours a day. Such is the case at the South Pole where Cody Lee Meyer took this picture on 2010 Feb. 26th: "The autumnal equinox is coming up for folks living at the South Pole Station (90 S latitude)," says Meyer. "We are blessed to witness sun shows nearly every day as the sun hangs around 9.3 degrees above the horizon and ice lingers in the sky."
NORTHERN LIGHTS: All week long, the Arctic Circle has been aglow with auroras. "The lights have
"This has been a very nice month for auroras," agrees Wioleta Zarzycka of Iceland, where coastal waters have been turning green in reflection of the sky above. The lights have even descended as far south as Scotland. "On Monday night, we had the first auroras I have seen here in years," reports Gordon Mackay of Campsie Fells.
All this activity is a sign that the sun is coming back to life after a long, deep solar minimum. Sunspots have returned crackling with solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are once again buffeting Earth's magnetic field. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% to 30% chance of more geomagnetic activity tonight.
From Spaceweather.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IT'S MARS! In a coincidence of celestial proportions, the Moon and Mars are having close encounters with Earth at the same time. Moreover, the two will spend Friday night gliding across the sky side-by-side. It's a must-see event: sky map.
Readers with backyard telescopes should train their optics on Mars. It looks bigger through a telescope now than at any time between 2008 and 2014.
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK, photographed the Red Planet on JAN 26th using his 14-inch Celestron:
"I photographed Mars at 10 minute intervals for more than three hours," says Lawrence. "Here is the animation. It shows a lot of surface markings including the dramatic 'Eye of Mars,' Solis Lacus."
This ANIMATION above includes FIVE images spanning 90 minutes of Mars's rotation, taken by Sky&Telescope's Sean Walker on the evening of January 26, 2010. The Solis Lacus/ Tithonius Lacus complex is rotating away at upper left, and dark, narrow Mare Sirenum is coming into view at top right. Note the small, extra-bright white patch in the north polar cap. SOUTH IS UP.
Walker used a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a DMK21AU04.AS camera to take stacked-video still images. These can show detail on a planet much more clearly than the eye can see through the same telescope.
Explanation: Mars is at opposition on Jan 29, opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. Of course, it will be easy to spot because Mars appears close to tonight's Full Moon, also opposite the Sun in Earth's night sky in the constellation Cancer. For this opposition, Mars remains just over 99 million kilometers away, not a particularly close approach for the Red Planet. Still, this sharp view of Mars recorded on January 21st at 11:43 PM EST is an example of the telescopic images possible in the coming days. The planet's whitish NORTH POLAR ICE CAP is at the upper right. Mars' tiny red disk is 14 .1 arcseconds in angular diameter, less than 1 percent the diameter of the Full Moon.
MARS WAS CLOSEST TO THE EARTH IN 2010 ON JAN 27 - 2:02 PM EST AT a DISTANCE of 61,720,695 MILES - MARS WILL BE OPPOSITE TO THE SUN - A PHENOMENON KNOWN AS OPPOSITION AT 2:43 PM EST ON JANUARY 29.
ALSO NOTE THAT BECAUSE MARS WAS AT OPPOSITION NEARLY AT THE SAME TIME AS THE FULL MOON - THE TWO BODIES WERE NEAR EACH OTHER IN OUR SKY AND FOR AN AMAZING BONUS, MARS AND THE MOON WILL STRADDLE THE STAR CLUSTER CALLED M44 ALSO KNOWN AS THE BEEHIVE IN THE CONSTELLATION CANCER. EARLY EVENING VIEWS ON JAN 29 WILL SHOW ALL 3 OBJECTS ALMOST IN A STRAIGHT LINE. TOWARDS MIDNIGHT AND LATER INTO THE MORNING OF JAN 30 SHOWED A TRIANGULAR CONFIGURATION DUE TO THE MOON'S MOVEMENT WHICH IS ABOUT ONE LUNAR DIAMETER PER HOUR. NOTE THAT DUE TO THE EXTRA BRILLIANCE OF THE FULL MOON, THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MARS: ON JAN 27, a few hours after sunset, go outside and look east.
That bright orange star hanging halfway up the sky is Mars having a close encounter with Earth.
The Red Planet is only 99 million km away and looks bigger through a telescope than at anytime
between 2008 and 2014. Here it is posing for Doug Zubenel's 12.5-inch "PlanetCatcher" in Kansas:
"The view through the eyepiece was very nice," says Zubenel. "The northern polar cap and Aurorae Sinus (a dark feature in the southern hemisphere of Mars) were easily seen at 488X magnification."
Browse the links for more views through the eyepiece: from Mike Hood of Kathleen, Georgia;
NORTHERN LIGHTS: As predicted, a solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on 2010 Jan. 20th
and sparked bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. "There were fast-moving streamers and
stunning coronas," says Petter Hamnes of Mo i Rana, Norway. "It was one of the best displays I've
seen in a long time." He took this picture using his Nikon D300:
The solar wind's impact caused a geomagnetic storm registering 5 on the 0-to-9 K-index scale of magnetic disturbances. It was the first geomagnetic storm of the year--but probably not the last.
With active sunspot 1041 turning toward Earth, there could be more in the offing. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.
BELOW IS A NON-FILTERED 800 MM TELEPHOTO VIEW THROUGH CLOUDS IN INDIA OF THE LONG ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 2010 JAN 15 BY SOLAR EXPERT DR. JAY PASACHOFF OF WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY. HE HAS WITNESSED OVER 40 SOLAR ECLIPSES - MOST OF THEM BEING TOTALS
THIS 11 MINUTE 8 SECOND ECLIPSE WAS THE LONGEST ONE UNTIL 3043DEC 23 - OVER 1000 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE !!!
AMONG THE FACTORS MAKING THIS ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE LAST SO LONG ARE:
1) THE
MOON WAS VERY DISTANT MAKING IT LOOK SMALL 2)
THE DISTANT MOON MOVES SLOWER IN ITS ORBIT 3) THE SUN WAS VERY CLOSE MAKING IT LOOK
BIG 4) THE CENTRAL ECLIPSE
PATH WAS NOT THAT FAR FROM THE EQUATOR WHERE THE EARTH ROTATES FASTER KEEPING UP WITH THE MOON A
LITTLE BETTER
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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
The MSL spacecraft separates and heads on its way to Mars.
