Universe Today

February 4, 2008December 26, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Centaurid Meteor Shower Delights Southern Hemisphere…

While normally our friends in the Southern Hemisphere get left out of most major meteor showers, now is the time to keep alert for the Alpha Centaurids which are active during the entire month of February. While the Alpha Centaurids are considered a minor meteor shower, they do create some interesting viewing during the summer nights south of the equator. The peak (time of most activity) should occur around the universal date of Februrary 6/7, but don’t wait until then to start your observations!

According to the American Meteor Society:

“The Alpha Centaurids (ACE) are active from a radiant located at 13:44 (206) -58. This area of the sky is located in southeastern Centaurus, four degrees northwest of the brilliant star Hadar (beta Centauri). Current rates would be near one shower member per hour. These meteors are best seen near 0500 local standard time when the radiant lies highest above the horizon. This shower is not visible north of 32 degrees north latitude and also poorly seen in the northern tropics. The southern hemisphere offers a much better view of this activity as the radiant lies much higher in the southern sky. Those located at high southern latitudes will actually encounter morning twilight before the radiant reaches culmination. At 56 km/sec. the Alpha Centaurids will usually produce meteors of swift velocity.

Sporadic rates are now slowly falling no matter your location. One would expect to see approximately twelve random meteors during the last hour before dawn from rural observing sites in the northern hemisphere and fifteen from the southern hemisphere. During the first dark hour after the end of evening twilight, perhaps two random meteors can be seen per hour, no matter your location.”

While you’re out, take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy Centaurus! As one of the most inspiring constellations of the Southern Hemisphere, it also ranks as the ninth largest constellation and contains two of the ten brightest stars in the night sky – including the closest star to our own Sun. While the stargazers in the north rarely get an opportunity to explore the “Centaur”, nearly 2000 years ago precession allowed the ancient Greeks to observe the constellation during the spring. Even though they weren’t able to explore as we can today, they were still able to see Alpha and Beta Centauri, the third and tenth brightest stars in the sky. While many lists call Betelgeuse in Orion the tenth brightest star, remember… Betelgeuse is a variable!

Be sure to observe Alpha Centauri. One of the reasons it is so bright is not luminosity… but because it’s only 4.3 light years away. Rigel Kentaurius is a triple star system and a real beauty to binoculars and telescopes! Beta Centauri – Hadar – is a star on the move and in about 4000 years it will be close enough to Alpha to appear as a double star. While they won’t be gravitationally bound, a separation of 300 light years will make them a magnificent sight! Centaurus also contains Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), the largest and richest globular cluster in the sky. Centaurus also contains 20 open clusters and several galaxies including Centaurus A (NGC 5128), one of the brightest radio objects in the sky. While you’re there, be on the lookout because the a large portion of our own galaxy is also visible in Centaurus and there are over 100 easily visible stars.

Because you’re in for a moonless night and the days around the Centaurid Meteor shower peak will be of little moon-interference, this will be one of the best for Southern Hemsiphere SkyWatchers. If you live in the north? It never hurts to try. Even from my high latitude, I still get an occasional peek at some of Centaurus’ stars. Long noted for extremely bright meteors with persistent trails and flurries of high activity, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the incredible Centauri meteor shower!

February 4, 2008December 26, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Solar Eclipse – Moon Takes a Bite Out of the Sun On February 7….

While the penguins in Antartica will be putting on their formal wear for the annular solar eclipse, a few lucky SkyWatchers in New Zealand and southeast Australia will still have a chance to see the Moon take a bite out of the solar disc roughly between 01:38:29 and 06:11:55 a.m. GMT. The best place to be is Auckland, New Zealand, where the partial eclipse begins at about 4:48 p.m. (Pacific/Auckland) local time (3:48 a.m. GMT) and ends at about 6:51 p.m. (5:51 a.m. GMT), a little more than two hours later.

The first eclipse of 2008 will travel over Antarctica and the waters surrounding the continent – not a hospitable area for visitors! While there are no permanent human residents in these areas, that won’t stop some travelers from heading towards the barren southern pole to take a look at the annular event. Unlike a total solar eclipse, the New Moon won’t completely cover the solar disc at maximum and a thin ring of the outer fringes of the Sun will still be visible – the annulus. If you were to be in the direct path, you’d enjoy the incredible view of the annular phase from 03:19:43 to 04:30:55 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Fortunately for those of us who aren’t wearing a permanent tuxedo, the best place to observe will be in Auckland, where the Sun will be covered about 47% at around 5:52 p.m. local time. Considering they’re still enjoying more summer-like weather, it’s time to party! According to Fred Espenak:

“The most unusual characteristic of this eclipse is that it begins and ends along Earth’s sunset terminator. Most eclipse paths that travel from west to east. However, the 2008 annular eclipse path begins by running east to west and slowly turns north before curving west to east near its terminus. The annular path begins in Antarctica at 03:20 UT when the Moon’s antumbral shadow meets Earth and forms a 581 kilometre wide corridor near the base of the continent’s peninsula region. Traveling westward, the shadow quickly crosses Antarctica and turns north as it heads into the Pacific. Greatest eclipse takes place at 03:55:05 UT when the eclipse magnitude will reach 0.9650. At this instant, the annular duration is 2 minutes 12 seconds, the path width is 444 kilometres and the Sun is 16Â° above the featureless horizon of the open ocean. The central track continues north before gradually curving to the east where it ends at local sunset at 04:31 UT. During its 1 hour 10 minute flight across our planet, the Moon’s antumbra travels approximately 5,600 kilometres and covers 0.59% of Earth’s surface area.”

Remember when viewing a solar eclipse, to always do so safely. If you do not have a proper solar filter, use the projection method with your binoculars or telescopes. Safely cover one side of your binoculars or telescope’s finderscope and aim towards the Sun by aligning the shadow. Project the light onto a surface such as a paper plate or piece of cardboard and adjust the focus until you see a clear circle of light. If you do not have optics, simply punch a pinhole into a dark piece of cardboard and project it onto a makeshift screen. You won’t see solar details like sunspots, but you’ll easily see the progress of the shadow!

Wishing you all clear skies… And share your photos!

February 2, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Get a Better View of Saturn from Cassini, in 3D

Ever wondered what one of our robotic explorers can see right now? What can Cassini see as it orbits Saturn, continuing to explore the ringed gas giant? Now, in 3D, you can explore the probe yourself, seeing what Cassini sees with a neat 3D interactive viewer, imaging Saturn and her moons, accurately calculating where the probe was, is or will be. The best thing about this little online gadget is that you can speed through time, from the spaceship’s point of view, orbiting Saturn and working out when the next moon or ring flyby will be… A cool toy to waste some time playing with, especially when I really should be doing some work…

This gadget on the Cassini mission website really took me back to my childhood. For those of you who were addicted to the space exploration computer games Elite and Frontier: Elite 2 back in the early ’90s should be able to relate to this too. The Elite games were a groundbreaking series, using polygons to represent 3D objects, flying through space, trading, fighting and interacting with a basic, but engrossing, Universe. Based not on some mystical cosmos, Elite could be played in our solar system, allowing us for the first time to see an interactive 3D view of the Earth, Mars, Moon and the rest of the planets. I also remember zooming through Saturn’s blocky rings and wondered what that would really look like.

Of course, we now know what that does look like, in fact, Cassini is still out there, orbiting Saturn and analyzing Saturn’s moons: Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan and Iapetus (inner to outer). The Cassini mission, launched in 1997, comprised of the NASA Cassini orbiter and ESA Huygens probe. After a long seven year journey, the pair arrived in Saturn orbit on July 1st, 2004 and on December 25th, 2004 the pair separated to send Huygens to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Huygens then made an exciting decent through Titan’s atmosphere and relayed vital information about the mysterious planet to the Cassini orbiter.

After all this excitement, Cassini carried on orbiting around Saturn and continues to this day transmitting amazing images and detailed information about Saturn’s interaction with the interplanetary medium, moons, atmosphere and magnetic field. Now, any online user can see what the historic orbiter is doing this very minute. Using NASA’s Cassini at Saturn Interactive Explorer (CASSIE), we can fast-forward or rewind to see Cassini’s most recent encounter with Titan, or see the probe pass through Saturn’s rings at our leisure. Not only is it fun, it helps us visualize where the craft is when we want to know.

Now thinking back to all those hundreds of hours I spent playing computer games, and comparing the graphics with this online gadget, I realize things have come a long way as far as 3D visualization is concerned. But I still get the same childish sense ofÂ awe about exploring the vastness of space, only this time I know I am seeing a 3D representation of the real view from Cassini.

Interestingly, on the box art of the Frontier: Elite 2 game (pictured left), Saturn is featured very boldly…

News source: SpaceRef.com

February 2, 2008December 26, 2015 by Ian O'Neill

Poland “agrees” to host controversial US missile defence system

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In a controversial move likely to enflame tensions between Russia, Europe and the US, Poland has agreed (in principal) to host bases for the “Star Wars” US missile shield intended to protect against any future missile attack from rogue nations. Russia totally opposes plans, stating that a European missile system, so close to the Russian border, is akin to the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s where the US and Soviet Union went to the brink of nuclear war…

Any space missile system intended to neutralize the threat of a nuclear attack from rogue states was bound to cause controversy and anger. As predicted, the future development of a European US missile shield has caused very loud opposition from Russian President Vladimir Putin, directly highlighting that such a move would cause another arms race and could create a nuclear standoff between Russia, US and Europe in between.

The Czech Republic is currently drawing up plans for involvement in the US project and now Poland, a country that directly borders Russia, has agreed to more discussions about installing ten interceptor missiles. The missile shield plans are in a direct response to the ongoing threat from “rogue states”, principally Iran and North Korea, from their nuclear arms development programs the US believes they are still pursuing, but understandably, Russia is suspicious that the US is attempting to gain strategic strength in Eastern Europe. Mr Putin has hinted strongly that although Russia is not planning to begin wholesale targeting of Europe, any “new targets” in the future would be connected to the “strategic nuclear potential of the United States… in Europe” (see BBC article “New era of discord for Russia and West” for full information on the new political unrest). Scary.

“We understand that there is a desire for defence modernisation in Poland and particularly for air defence modernisation in Poland. This is something that we support because it will make our ally, Poland, more capable,” – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, supporting the missile defence plan in Poland.

The US missile shield concept depends on European fast response missiles to be launched as soon as the threat of imminent attack is detected from aggressors in the Middle East and beyond. By detecting possible nuclear missiles clearing cloud cover and entering space, radar bases within the EU can track and then guide conventional missiles from the shield network to intercept. Tests of such a system have so far had a mix of success and failure, but with improvement of the “Star Wars” technology (a name first coined in 1983 after announcement by US President Ronald Reagan for the commencement of the “Strategic Defence Initiative”) and rocket engineering, rates of successful interception are bound to increase.

Source: BBC

February 1, 2008December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Astronaut Treadmills are on the Wall

If you’re hoping to be an astronaut, I hope you like exercise. When they aren’t sleeping or doing a range of scientific activities, astronauts are exercising – upwards of 2 hours a day. This is to prevent bone mass and muscle atrophy caused by microgravity. This isn’t a perfect solution, so NASA researchers have developed a vertical treadmill that will let them imitate the conditions of space here on Earth. Now even the astronauts on the ground will have to run, run, run.

The new device, developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is called the Standalone Zero Gravity Locomotion Simulator. Instead of a regular treadmill, this is mounted to the wall. The runners are then suspended horizontally and pulled towards the treadmill to let them actually run without pushing away from the treadmill.

With this setup, astronauts are essentially getting the same workout they get in space; they no longer have to support the weight of the body over top of them. The equipment can simulate microgravity, or conditions on the Moon, where an astronaut will experience 1/6th the force of gravity. Scientists can then study the long term effects on the human body, and see what techniques will prevent bone loss and muscle atrophy.

“These studies are a key component of our research into how we can better protect astronauts,” said Linda Loerch, project manager for the Exercise Countermeasures Project at Johnson. “The focus of our work is to understand how to maintain astronaut health and performance at the highest possible levels, both on our current flights aboard the International Space Station and for future exploration beyond Earth orbit.”

There’s another advantage too. The treadmill will help give training astronauts a sense of what walking in space will be like. Combine this training with the underwater simulations, and astronauts will be much better prepared for when they step outside the space station for the first time.

Original Source: NASA News Release

February 1, 2008April 26, 2016 by Fraser Cain

Microbes Make the Best Climate Engineers

With the rising threat of global warming, you’d think humans are the best (or worst) climate engineers to arrive on planet Earth. But you’d be wrong. Tiny microbes have been modifying our climate for billions of years, and unless we learn how to work with them, we could be fighting a losing battle to get our greenhouse emissions under control.

For example, humans release tremendous amounts of methane into the atmosphere. But we do this indirectly through our livestock, rice fields and landfill. In each of these situations, it’s actually microbes producing the methane that makes such a potent greenhouse gas. We just give the microbes the environment they need to make the stuff.

In fact, unless we deeply understand how these microbes do their work, we might be fighting a losing battle to control climate change. This is based on a commentary published in the February 2008 issue of Microbiology Today. The article was written by Dr Dave Reay from the University of Edinburgh.

Much of the carbon cycle in the world involves the oceans, which breath carbon dioxide in and out of the atmosphere. But once again, it’s microbes which are taking in carbon from the atmosphere and releasing it again.

The trick, of course, is to learn how to work with them. If scientists can better understand the processes that go on, they could encourage microbes to pull more carbon out of the atmosphere, or break up methane generated in landfills. Plankton are already being used as feedstock for some biofuels, and cyanobacteria could provide hydrogen fuel.

For example, the wetlands of the Earth dump 100 million tonnes of methane into the atmosphere every year. This number would be much higher, but a significant amount is used by methanotropic bacteria before it can escape into the atmosphere. Compare this to the 150 million tonnes delivered directly to the atmosphere by human methods, like rice cultivation.

As we warm the planet, we don’t know what impact microbes might play to slow, or maybe even accelerate our actions.

“The impact of these microbially-controlled cycles on future climate warming is potentially huge,” says Dr Reay. “Microbes will continue as climate engineers long after humans have burned that final barrel of oil. Whether they help us to avoid dangerous climate change in the 21st century or push us even faster towards it depends on just how well we understand them.”

Original Source: Microbiology Today

February 1, 2008December 26, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Memorial Service Honors Columbia Astronauts

Five years ago, family members of the STS-107 space shuttle crew were waiting at the Kennedy Space Center to hear the double sonic boom that would announce the arrival of the Columbia shuttle returning home from its mission to space. But the sonic booms never came; there was only silence. Today, at the Space Mirror Memorial at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, NASA officials, astronauts and families of the Columbia crew paid tribute to all astronauts who have lost their lives, and called for NASA to continue to learn from the tragedies.

Evelyn Husband Thompson, wife of STS-107 commander Rick Husband said that each of the families are recalling what they went through five years ago in public or private ways. Families of Ilan Ramon and Willie McCool are in Israel for a memorial service there, while the families of Dave Brown, Laurel Clark, Mike Anderson and Kalpana Chawla are privately remembering the accident.

The astronauts were returning home from a successful flight when the shuttle broke up on re-entry.

Husband-Thompson, who remarried just three weeks ago said, “Life does go on, and even though we never know what life is going to bring us, there is hope for tomorrow.”

Eileen Collins, who commanded the STS-114 return to flight mission two years after the Columbia accident said that, personally, this was a difficult day for her, and that it was hard to describe the experiences of the past five years.

“I can’t properly put it into words, but our purpose here today is to honor and respect, remember and learn,” she said. Collins said that she has changed because of the accident, and now realizes that spaceflight is even more difficult and hazardous than she originally believed.

“Everyday requires constant attention to detail,” she said.

Remembering the crews of Columbia, Challenger, and Apollo 1, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said, “All astronauts who have sacrificed their lives are pioneers and role models who refused to shy away from seemingly impossible challenges.”

Gerstenmaier spoke frankly about loss and NASA’s mistakes.

“This is a tough time of year for our agency as we pause and remember the loss of our co-workers and friends, and the failure of our engineering design. We feel the deep ache of regret,” he said. “Our memories serve to dedicate ourselves to reducing the risks associated with the hostile environment in which we fly. We must continually challenge our assumptions and test our designs. Only with this attitude can we hope to not be surprised by another tragedy.”

NASA Adminstrator Mike Griffin said, “American’s don’t quit. We’ll never quit. But today we remind ourselves that not quiting can have high costs. Today, we celebrate the people who bore those costs and the people who remain behind them. We don’t forget, we never forget, we can’t forget, we won’t forget.”

Original News Source: NASA TV

February 1, 2008December 26, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Night Lights – Astronomy For Kids – Discovering Orion

Do you have children or grandchildren? Perhaps a younger brother or sister? Then, there is no greater gift which you can give them than to pass on the love of the starry skies. Right now, one of the easiest constellations to recognize – Orion – is a cinch to find for both the northern and southern hemisphere. Let’s take advantage of the weekend’s early moon-free skies as we take the young folks out to look for Night Lights and practice some astronomy for kids!

To begin learning about our Universe, all you have to do is look up at the night sky. After all, that’s how astronomy began! When humans first began to notice the stars, the saw patterns they could easily remember. These patterns are called asterisms. In ancient times, there was no television or video games – so people began to make up stories about the asterisms they saw in the stars. Just like a game of “connect the dots”, asterisms represented legendary people – or even animals! One of the most famous of all is Orion the Hunter. All the old stories tell that Orion was an excellent hunter whose memory is captured in the stars. If you look above his bow you will see stars of Taurus the Bull and underneath his feet are the stars of Lepus the Rabbit. Both of these asterisms were animals he chased! But no hunter is complete without his faithful hunting dogs. The bright star following behind Orion is Sirius – a star which is part of an asterism that represents a big dog.

As time passed, astronomers began to make maps of the asterisms they recognized and the names on the maps became constellations. The night sky soon began to be filled with constellations and many even shared the same stars! To keep things in an understandable order, a group called the International Astronomical Union made a rule that only 88 asterisms could be called a constellation. This doesn’t mean the stars of a constellation are easy to see or what they are supposed to look like makes sense! Don’t worry if it is harder to see some constellations than others, because what we see here on Earth isn’t how the star patterns would look from a different place in our galaxy.

Now, let’s take an imaginary journey into space…

The asterisms we see in the stars might look close together from our point of view, but if we could fly by them or see them from from another solar system they would all appear very far apart. If we were able to journey past the stars in Orion, we would see they really aren’t even connected to each other – or even close! If you take a look at this illustration you can get an idea of how far apart the stars of Orion really are looking at them from Earth. While they make a pattern in the sky, they are very far apart in space!

If you live in the city, you will probably be able to see many of the stars that make up the constellation of Orion – but if you drive to the country you will be amazed at all the stars you can see with just your eyes. Practice finding Orion the Hunter and see how many of its stars you can see. In just a few weeks, you can take part in a very exciting science study where you will become a Star Hunter!

February 1, 2008December 26, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Cassini Finds Patterns and Rhythm in Saturn’s Rings

Cassini has been orbiting around Saturn for almost four years, and amazingly, the spacecraft keeps discovering new and unexpected features about this world and its system of rings and moons. Recently, in two of Saturn’s rings, Cassini found orderly lines of densely grouped, boulder-size icy particles that extend outward across the rings like ripples from a rock dropped in a calm pond. Surprisingly, the distances between these ring particles stay relatively equal even though their velocities may change. This type of pattern is completely new, as normally, the distances between particles change with their velocity.

The pattern was detected when Cassini sent out three signals toward Earth. The signals crossed Saturn’s rings, and the frequencies were scattered from the passing ring particles. Once the signals were captured by Earth-based antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network, Cassini scientists saw a regular pattern in the received signal frequencies.

“This particular feature is the smallest and most detailed of anything seen in Saturn’s rings so far,” said Cassini radio science team member Essam Marouf. “In the chaotic environment of the rings, to find such regularity in the most cramped areas is nothing short of amazing.” The regular structure can only be found in locations where particles are densely packed together, such as the B ring and the innermost part of the A ring. The signals were sent to capture a complete view of the rings.

The unexpected pattern within Saturn’s rings may give scientists some new ideas of what to expect from other similar planets and solar systems.

Scientists call this pattern of particles “enormously extended natural diffraction grating.” A diffraction grating has parallel lines like a picket fence; when light hits this fence, it separates according to wavelength, from ultraviolet to infrared light.

“The signals showed that the particle groups were arranged in an unexpectedly regular formation that had rhythm within the rings of Saturn,'” said Marouf. “Each particle is in its own orbit, and sometimes they collide and move apart as their velocities change. As a result, you have particles bunched together into dense groups that extend across the ring in harmony with each other.”

Original News Source: Cassini Press Release

February 1, 2008December 26, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

“Across the Universe” Day for NASA and Beatles Fans

NASA will use its Deep Space Network to transmit a song across the universe. And fittingly, the song is “Across the Universe” by the Beatles. On Feb. 4 at 7 pm EST, the song will be beamed towards the North Star, Polaris, located 431 light years away from Earth, and will travel across the universe at 186,000 miles per second.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney thinks this is a great idea. “Send my love to the aliens,” he said in a message to NASA.

If there are any beings near Polaris, they’ll hear the song in about 431 years.

The song’s transmission will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of both NASA’s founding and the beginning days of the Beatles. Two other anniversaries also are being honored: The launch 50 years ago this week of Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, and the founding 45 years ago of the Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe.

Feb. 4 has been declared “Across The Universe Day” by Beatles fans to commemorate the anniversaries. As part of the celebration, the public around the world has been invited to participate in the event by simultaneously playing the song at the same time as the transmission by NASA.

John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, characterized the song’s transmission as a significant event. “I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe,” she said.

Even though radio and television signals on Earth ‘leak’ out into space all the time, hopefully NASA can use this event to generate enthusiasm and promote awareness of its history, as well as its plans for future missions.

Additionally, this is a chance for the public to learn more about the Deep Space Network, NASA’s incredibly reliable system of radio antennas that is critical in supporting lunar and planetary exploration. The DSN is used for tracking of spacecraft, sending telemetry and commands, and for deep space navigation. Learn more about the DSN here.

Original News Source: NASA Press Release