What's In a Name?

Xena.  2003 UB313.  Eris.

These names all refer to the same astronomical body - a dwarf planet located out near Pluto.  "Xena" was the nickname given to the little world by its discoverer, Mike Brown.  2003 UB313 was its official designation until an official name, Eris, was given to it in  2006. Okay, well...technically, the body's official official name is 136199 Eris.

Eris and its moon Dysnomia, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.  Courtesy Wikipedia.

Why all the fuss over a name?

In the astronomical community, names are important things.  For many of the same reasons they are important beyond the astronomical community too.  We need names to know what we're talking about.  If everyone had a different set of names for all the different objects in the solar system, well, it would make doing a live planetarium show a lot tougher, let me tell you.  Scientists around the world need a consistent set of names for things so they can share information with colleagues around the world. 

Names can also be used to honor different groups of people as well.  We like a certain consistency in that.  For example, all of the features on Venus are named for women.  Mostly goddess from various mythologies around the world, but also for famous women, and even some just commonly used women's names.  Of course, any convention just begs for exceptions.  Venus has three - all features that were named before the naming convention was put into use.  Two regions on Venus, Alpha Regio and Beta Regio, are simply named for the first two letters in the Greek alphabet.  There is only one feature on Venus named for a man - Maxwell Montes, named for physicist James Clerk Maxwell.

A radar image of Maxwell Montes on Venus - the only feature there named for a man.  Courtesy Wikipedia

Scientists are by nature organizers...we like to sort things into categories and name them all the same.  For example, the naming convention for moons of Uranus is to name them for Shakespearean sprites and fairies.  Thus the planet has moons like Puck, Oberon, Titania, and Ariel. 

Uranus and its 6 largest moons - from left to right, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.  Courtesy Wikipedia.

So who comes up with all this?

The governing body for astronomical science, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), puts together all the rules and regulations for how to name things, and gives official approval to the names of new objects. The IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) handles things within our solar system.  Names can be submitted to the WGPSN, and then they recommend them for approval by the General Assembly or reject them.  A name is not official until it has been approved by the General Assembly.

In general, the working rules for submitting a name to the WGPSN are:

1. Nomenclature is a tool and the first consideration should be to make it simple, clear, and unambiguous.
2. Features whose longest dimension is less than 100 meters are not assigned official names unless they have exceptional scientific interest.
3. The number of names chosen for each body should be kept to a minimum, and their placement governed by the requirements of the scientific community.
4. Duplication of the same name on two or more bodies is to be avoided.
5. Individual names chosen for each body should be expressed in the language of origin. Transliteration for various alphabets should be given, but there will be no translation from one language to another.
6. Where possible, the themes established in early solar system nomenclature should be used and expanded on.
7. Solar system nomenclature should be international in its choice of names. Recommendations submitted to the IAU national committees will be considered, but final selection of the names is the responsibility of the International Astronomical Union. The WGPSN strongly supports equitable selection of names from ethnic groups/countries on each map; however, a higher percentage of names from the country planning a landing is allowed on landing site maps.
8. No names having political, military or religious significance may be used, except for names of political figures prior to the 19th century. (Note: Apparently this only goes for religions that are widely practiced today, since gods and goddesses of ancient religions are obviously acceptable to the IAU.)
9. Commemoration of persons on planetary bodies should not be a goal in itself but should be reserved for persons of high and enduring international standing. Persons being so honored must have been deceased for at least three years.
10. When more than one spelling of a name is extant, the spelling preferred by the person, or used in an authoritative reference, should be used. Diacritical marks are a necessary part of a name and will be used.
11. Ring and ring-gap nomenclature and names for newly discovered satellites are developed in joint deliberation between WGPSN and IAU Commission 20. Names will not be assigned to satellites until their orbital elements are reasonably well known or definite features have been identified on them.

Pretty intense, just to give something out there a name, huh?

The IAU has come under fire for a very big renaming - the recelassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet.  The IAU is also responsible for the definitions of things...like the word "planet."  It's a work in progress, and many people think the IAU's definition of planet is still not right.  Pluto got moved into the dwarf planet category because the IAU defined a planet as having cleared its orbital area of similarly-sized bodies.   Pluto has several other objects of similar size (some of which are now dwarf planets, too) orbiting nearby, so it couldn't pass that part of the definition.  This same definition also places a requirement on a planet that it orbits the Sun.  That might seem like a no-brainer...until we remember that many other stars besides the Sun have big worlds going around them too.  Are these worlds not planets, simply because they orbit around another star?  Clearly, the definition of planet still needs a bit of tweaking. 

But that's why the IAU is there...and that's what science is all about.  As our understanding grows and changes, so also must our definitions, names and descriptions.  It's all part of the messy process of learning we call science.

When I first started working in the astronomy group at the Virginia Living Museum, I was young, and still working on my Ph.D.  The guys in the astronomy group called me "Astrogirl" - a nickname I still frequently use.  But I've been with the museum over 20 years now, volunteer to Astronomy Curator, and I'm probably getting a bit old for a nickname that prominently features the word "girl."  I think I might move up to a new one, bestowed upon me by one of the herpetologists here at the museum.

More from the cosmos in two weeks...until then...
Carpe Noctem!
Kelly, The Sky Doctor

I'm Sorry I'm Confused...

Well, hello!

Sorry about the lack of a post two weeks ago...I wrote one, but for some reason Blogger never posted it.  I've gotten so used to this thing working so well, I never thought to check to see if the scheduled post properly popped up!  I'll have to be more diligent with this thing in future.

I am smack dab in the middle of summer camps this week.  I'm currently teaching rising first and second graders about the planets - and it's TONS of fun!  I love working with kids...they always seem to know way more than I think they will.  It's awesome.

Anyway, since I've got planets on the brain, I thought I'd share a few tidbits about planets that my kids know...but maybe some of our grownups out there don't!  Enjoy!

Did you know...

...Mercury has a thin "borrowed" atmosphere of solar wind surrounding it.  The gases streaming away from the Sun will wrap around Mercury for a little while before continuing their journey through space.  It's not a very nice hug, however...the impact of the gaseous material can blast sodium ions off the surface of the planet!

...Venus rotates backward.  Something quite traumatic must have happened to our neighbor in its early history, as the planet appears to have been tipped completely over by a massive impact.  This same event massively slowed Venus' rotation as well, leaving it with a day which is longer than its year!

...Earth has been visited by spacecraft more times than any other planet.  Indeed, the majority of the spacecraft launched by the various space agencies around the world have been placed in orbit around our home planet for a wide variety of purposes, including scientific study.

...Mars is only half the diameter of Earth.  The much-maligned Red Planet - long considered the home of aliens bent on taking over the Earth to gain its vast supply of precious water - actually boasts several geologic superlatives despite its small size.  Mars is home to one of the largest canyons in the solar system (the Valles Marineris - large enough to stretch from New York City to Los Angeles if placed here on Earth!) as well as the largest volcano in the solar system (Olympus Mons - standing two and a half times the height of Mt. Everest and with a base as large as the state of Virginia!).

...Jupiter has the longest-lived cyclonic storm ever seen.  The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is actually a storm that has been raging in the atmosphere of the giant planet for more than 400 years - at a minimum!  Galileo Galilei first noted the presence of the storm in 1609 when he observed the giant planet through his simple telescope...but of course, since he was the first person ever to see Jupiter in that way, we have no idea how long the storm had been there before he saw it.  The Great Red Spot continues to fascinate amateur and professional astronomers alike to this day.

...Saturn has such a low density that you could float it in a bathtub...if you could find one big enough!  Though the second largest planet in the solar system, Saturn is less dense than water.  So if we could get enough water together, Saturn could float in it.

...Uranus rotates on its side!  Like Venus, it appears this planet also suffered a major whack early on...resulting in an orbital tilt of 98 degrees.  So the moons and rings of Uranus appear vertically around the planet, rather than the horizontal aspect we might expect.

Uranus - the Sideways Planet!  Courtesy NASA.

...Neptune used to have an enormous hurricane too...but now it's gone!  When seen by the Voyager spacecraft in 1989, Neptune boasted the Great Dark Spot, an atmospheric storm of some kind that appeared as a darker blue splotch on the planet.  In 1995, Hubble was aimed at the 8th planet, hoping to get a another look at the dark spot - but it was nowhere to be seen.  Unlike Jupiter, Neptune's storms seem to be short-lived things.

And we really can't finish out a post about planets without mentioning the dwarf planets!  There are officially five dwarf planets in the solar system these days - Ceres, the largest of the asteroids, and 4 Kuiper Belt objects - Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.

Pluto now boasts five moons of its own - and they all finally have official names!  Recently, the International Astronomical Union officially named the two moons discovered in 2011 and 2012...so Pluto is now attended by Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos, and Styx.  Not bad for the premiere dwarf planet of the solar system!

Pluto, now a virtual mini solar system of its own.  Courtesy NASA.

Well, that's about all I have time for just now.  Hope you discovered a little something new about the solar system in which you live!  See you in two weeks...assuming Blogger doesn't go crazy on me again.

Until then...Carpe Noctem!
Kelly

UFOs and All That

Greetings, fellow Earthlings!

So, have you been watching television lately?  There seems to be a new fascination with UFO hunting and finding and proving and conspiracy theorizing out there of late.  So I thought I'd write a little about UFOs and what they do...and don't...mean.

When most of us hear the term "UFO" we think aliens!  Spaceships!  Take me to your leader!  Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here!  But actually, UFO stands for something specific: Unidentified Flying Object.  A UFO is nothing more than something flying in the sky that has not yet been positively identified.  It does not mean the purple pod people have come to eat our brains.  Most of what these shows tout as "aliens" are MFOs - Misidentified Flying Objects (thanks, Phil Plait!).  Someone sees something in the sky and misinterprets it as an alien spacecraft.

So what are the most common MFOs?  Here are the top three:

Believe it or not, I get those phone calls here.  Very nice, normal, not crazy people who call me up and explain they saw something very bright, low to the horizon, which appeared to shift and wiggle around, and change color every so often.  Don't panic, I tell them, you've just seen the most common MFO in the world: the planet Venus.  Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon - it's quite impressive, even in a sky that is not yet dark.  Since Venus orbits the Sun closer in than we do, the planet can never been seen in the skies of Earth more than 45 degrees away from the Sun.  So Venus is frequently seen low to the horizon.  When you look at an object low on the horizon, the light coming from that object has to pass through a lot more air to reach your eyes than a similar object directly overhead.  Well, the moving air of Earth is what causes twinkling - the phenomenon of stars (or planets!) seeming to flash, move, and change color.  So all in all, Venus makes a perfect faux alien spacecraft.

Surely that bright light is an approaching spacecraft!  See the reflection of it in the water!  It can't be a planet!  But it is. It's Venus, seen here in the pre-dawn skies of Earth.  And yes, Venus is so bright, it often shows reflections and casts shadows.  Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

It's not just Venus either.  The second brightest planet in the sky, Jupiter, can also fool people into thinking they've seen aliens.  Since Jupiter is an outer planet, it is more likely to be seen high in the sky, mostly eliminating the twinkling effect.  So why do people think it's a spacecraft?  Well, imagine seeing a bright light in the sky.  You don't know what it is, so you grab a pair of binoculars to get a better look.  Suddenly, that single light becomes 5 lights - one big one in the center surrounded by 4 small ones...and it seems to be moving!  Yep, this happens a lot.  Jupiter is surrounded by moons - and the four largest are easily visible in a pair of binoculars...or with modern high-powered TV cameras.  The motion effect is caused by difficulties in holding the binocs or camera steady while viewing.  Sure enough, TV crews sent to check out reports of a UFO have often "confirmed" it with their cameras...only to be told later by local astronomers they were viewing Jupiter.  Oops.

Surely this one is aliens!  Look at the symmetry!  They must be lights on a spacecraft!  Nope, the center bright light is Jupiter and the 4 smaller lights are the giant planet's largest moons, seen here through a powerful camera.  Image courtesy Satellite Imagination.

Last, but certainly not least, is one that most people can't believe could be true.  One of the more common MFOs is...birds.  Really!  Birds!  Especially when seen close to sunset or sunrise flying in formation.  Lighting can really do funny things to your perception of objects in the sky...and a flock of birds flying in formation eerily lit by the Sun and artificial lights can rapidly convince you you're watching the aliens come in for a landing.  Trust me...I've seen the effect.  I was almost convinced...until my "spacecraft" started honking...they were geese.

Okay, this one HAS to be a spacecraft!  Just look at it!  Or...

...is it a bird?  Yeah, it's a blurry bird picture.  Images by Rob S.

So the next time you see something in the sky you can't identify, don't call the guys from the History Channel show - call me.  Or post a comment here on my blog.  I'm only too glad to help turn UFOs into IFOs (Identified Flying Objects).  And if ever we do make contact, it will almost certainly be by radio.  Any alien civilization capable of talking to us must located very far away - too far for a spacecraft to be of any help - or we'd have met them by now.

But we can still hope, right?
Until next time,
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

Keep Looking Up

Greetings all!

I know, I know, I'm a day late again.  Once again, the internets refused to let me in to my blog if I'm not at work.  I'm not sure what's broken, but I think I'm going to stop trying to fix it.

Things are still a little shaken up here at the museum as we work on recovering from the flood, but overall, we're trying to get everything settled down into something resembling a routine.  So I thought I'd go back to a routine here as well and just talk about what's visible in the sky right now.  Sometimes doing the "normal" things helps the most when things are decidedly not normal.

We're getting ready to make the transition into fall, with longer nights and cooler temperatures, thank goodness.  It's a pleasure to be outside in the evenings now...you might even find you need a light jacket if you plan to stay outside for any length of time.  What a wonderful thing!

It will still be a couple of months before the brilliant stars of winter begin to grace the evening skies, but until then you can enjoy the last hurrah of summer - The Summer Triangle.  Three bright stars form a brilliant triangle that sits high overhead just after sunset and descends towards the west as the evening passes on.  To the East, you'll find the familiar Great Square of Pegasus - four stars in an almost perfect square dominate the eastern sky and mark the location of the legendary winged horse.  Two simple bright shapes that are pretty tough to miss.

The Summer Triangle and its surrounds.  Courtesy the University of Illinois.  Note that the Milky Way passes directly through the center of the triangle.

Looking westward at sunset might allow you a final quick glimpse of the planets Mars and Saturn, both sinking rapidly towards the Sun.  By the end of the month, both planets will be lost to our view.  Mars will still be in the news regularly however, as Curiosity really gets rolling on its mission to explore the Red Planet.  Sadly, with Mars and Saturn so low, and both relatively dim, you might miss them if you have anything other than a totally clear flat western horizon...hard to come by on the east coast of the United States.

However, don't get too downcast just yet.  If you can stand an early morning wake up call, you can see a pair of beautifully brilliant planets in the early morning sky.  Head outside around 5am and look to the east to see Venus and Jupiter dominate the pre-dawn sky.  Jupiter stands high in the east (almost to the south) with Venus lower but still plenty high enough to be seen quite easily.  These two are the brightest of the planets visible to the unaided eye, and make a stunning pair.  Well worth the effort of rising before the Sun to enjoy them.

Venus, The Moon and Jupiter in the early morning sky.  Photograph by Alan Dyer.  The Moon is the brightest object in the field, with Venus slightly up and to the left.  Jupiter stands up towards the top of the image to the right of the Moon and Venus.

Ah.  Just talking about the beautiful skies of fall helps me feel a bit better.  There's plenty of work still to be done, but taking the time to enjoy the simple things in life really does renew your spirit.

See you in two weeks...and until then...
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

Listen...Do you smell that?

But more importantly...did you see it?

Wow, the transit of Venus was amazing!  Weather locally here at the museum almost killed us...but just at the eleventh hour, the clouds parted a bit, and we got a decent view of the Sun.  We had 5 telescopes trained on it and got views of Venus in all five.  Plus we had the live stream from Mauna Kea in Hawai'i thanks to NASA.  It was an amazing evening, and I think our sold-out crowd really enjoyed themselves!

It's been a crazy day here at the Abbitt Planetarium, trying to recover from our big event, but I wanted to share a few photos with you all.  All of these shots were taken by one of our wonderful volunteers, Eric Hedden.

First, some of our telescopes:

In this image, you can see our 8" Celestron, our Coronado Personal Solar Telescope, and our Sunspotter Keplerian telescope.  We also had our 4.5" Orion refractor in use, plus another couple of our great volunteers brought their double-stacked solar scope for a truly excellent view.

Some images taken quickly through our 4.5" using nothing more than a cellphone:

These were taken with a white-light filter on the 4.5".  If you look closely, you can see not only wisps of clouds going by, but also one or two tiny sunspots in the images.

Finally, a shot through the PST:

This image is red because the PST uses a hydrogen-alpha filter, meaning that only red light is passed through the telescope.  Note that although the image is smaller, the dot of Venus is still quite clear.  It's also mirror reversed compared to the images from the 4.5".  This too was taken simply by holding up a cellphone camera to the eyepiece of the PST.

Aren't they amazing shots!  Just you guys wait until we get our new cameras from Orion up and working!

We might be ready to do some testing with them at the upcoming Star Party and Laser Light Night this Saturday!  Join us for solar viewing early (weather permitting) and evening viewing after sunset (probably starting around 9pm).  Observing is FREE!  Come and enjoy!

We'll also have a great selection of laser and planetarium shows for you.  For summer, we're adding an extra early family laser show so even the little ones can get in on the fun!  At 6:30pm enjoy Laser Beatles, at 7:30pm we'll run Saturn: The Ringworld, at 8:30pm you can rock to Laseropolis, at 10pm get psychedelic with Laser Doors and keep the mood going at 11:30pm with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  Hope we'll see you then!

Until next time,
Carpe Noctem!
Kelly

COSMIC STRINGS ALERT: Transit of Venus!

Red alert!  Red alert!  All hands to battle stations!

Hee hee, I've always wanted to say that.

Okay, seriously...I'm posting a special update to make sure all of you out there in internet land are aware of the incredible astronomical event taking place next Tuesday.  On the late afternoon/early evening of June 5, we have our last opportunity to witness Venus cross directly in front of the Sun.  Such events are called transits of a planet, and this will be the last one Venus will consent to do in our lifetimes...unless any of us plan on living 105 more years (Adam Savage excepted, of course).

So what is it we are going to see on June 5th?

The 2004 Transit of Venus.  Photo by Jay M. Pasachoff.

Venus orbits the Sun closer in than we do.  It's the second planet from the Sun...we're the third.  So on June 5th everything is going to line up just right to allow us from here on Earth to see Venus silhouetted against the solar surface.  Normally, this doesn't happen.  The solar system is not perfectly aligned - everybody is just slightly off kilter - and so usually Venus passes above or below the visible surface of the Sun from our perspective.  Mercury can do this too - it's the closest planet to the Sun, and moves faster than Venus, so the alignment works more often.  But Mercury is much smaller than Venus (and in fact, smaller than several of the larger moons of the solar system), making it much more difficult to see against the solar surface.  Venus is bigger and closer to us, so the perfectly round black dot of Venus will visible to the unaided (BUT NOT UNPROTECTED!!!) eye.

Notice the yelling up there?  Please, please, do not attempt to Venus the transit of Venus without proper eye protection.  This can result in PERMANENT eye damage.  Sunglasses are not enough, nor is it safe to look at the solar surface during sunset when the Sun is red.  The only safe ways to view the transit are by projecting an image of the Sun, protecting your eyes with solar eclipse glasses or shade #14 arc welder's glass, or using an endcap solar filter on your telescope.  Any other method can be terribly dangerous, so please don't attempt it.  If you're not sure if you have the right equipment to safely view the Sun, contact us at the museum.  We can help.

Okay, so what's the big deal?  A dot on the solar surface.  So what?

So what!!!???!  It's AWESOME!  You're watching a planet cross in front of its star!  WOOT!  That would be the geek explanation of why this is so cool.

Historically, transits of Venus gave us a yardstick by which to measure the sizes and distances of our own solar system.  If you can measure the size of the disk of Venus against the size of the disk of the Sun, and measure how long it takes for Venus to cross the disk of the Sun, you can use that information to calculate a whole bunch of things...most importantly, the distance between the Earth and the Sun.  Since getting out your tape measure and walking to the Sun is...well...highly problematic...transits of Venus gave us the best way of measuring distances in the solar system prior to spaceflight capabilities.

In the 21st century, we've become very interested in planet transits...around other stars.  The Kepler telescope looks for the tell-tale drop in brightness from stars that have planets crossing in front of them, as the planet prevents some of the light from the star from reaching the telescope.  The transit method has allowed us to discover numerous other solar systems in our galaxy...and perhaps one day will aid in us finding another Earth-like planet somewhere out there.

NASA's Kepler Mission.  Courtesy NASA.

If you're looking for some help in viewing the transit, we've got you covered.  We're hosting a special "Dinner with Venus" event, as the transit will begin around 6pm and continue well past sunset (of course, we won't be able to see the Sun after that, so our viewing will be over).  Tickets are $30 per person and include an all-you-can-eat dinner buffet at the Wild Side Cafe, eclipse glasses, telescope viewing of the transit (or internet viewing if the weather goes bad), prize drawings and more.  Space is limited, so contact us today to reserve your spot.  And if you can't get here - get outside on June 5 and watch the sunset with PROTECTED eyes - you'll get a bit more than you bargained for!

Carpe diem et noctem!
Kelly

Mars Attacks!

Well, actually, when you get right down to it...we're the ones attacking Mars.

Even as I write, the latest in a long series of robotic explorers is on its way to the Red Planet.  The Mars Science Laboratory, with its already-famous rover, Curiosity, launched toward Mars on November 26 of last year and is expected to touch down on the Martian soil in the wee morning hours of August 6, 2012.  If you're a devotee of Mars-exploring robots, you can sit up and watch the landing at the Virginia Air & Space Center, NASA Langley's Visitor Center.  Some folks from the Virginia Living Museum will be on hand too, discussing the ever-popular question of whether life ever got a foothold on Mars.

Mars is a tough planet to land on.

The road to Mars is a hard one, and landing on the surface is an even greater challenge.  Kind of like the superstitions surrounding the Scottish Play in the theater world, there's a long-held fear of Mars in the space exploration community.  It is definitely picky about what probes it chooses to welcome.  Half of all the missions ever sent to the Red Planet have ended in failure.

Russia's Phobos (meaning fear; also the name of one of Mars' two moons) 1 and 2 both suffered from the "Mars Curse."  Phobos 1 died of a software glitch - it lost its lock on the Sun, and since it was running on solar power, that was the end of that.  Phobos 2 seems to have suffered a similar fate - after a successful Mars orbit insertion and just prior to the scheduled release of two landing probes, contact was lost and never regained.  While the official explanation is an onboard computer failure...the subject of alien tampering was raised, and has never really been silenced.

The last image taken by the Phobos 2 spacecraft.  The dark object is often claimed to be a UFO responsible for the loss of the craft, but is most likely a distorted shadow of the craft itself on the surface of Mars.

The U.S. craft Mars Observer was also mysteriously lost.  Three days before a planned Mars orbit insertion, engineers lost contact with the spacecraft.  We'll never know exactly what happened, but the most likely cause seems to have been a ruptured fuel tank which sent the craft into a massive tailspin.

Russia tried again with Mars 96, with disastrous results.  The fourth stage of the rocket failed to ignite, and the whole kit and caboodle came crashing back down to Earth.  The bulk of the craft seems to have landed in Chile, though no pieces of it were ever recovered.  Russian telemetry on the rocket was severely limited, and no specific cause for the crash was ever identified.

The Japanese tried reaching Mars with the Nozomi (meaning Wish or Hope) spacecraft, but a malfunctioning valve resulted in a loss of fuel so great that the poor craft was left with insufficient fuel to reach Mars orbit.  Some science did come out of the mission though - Nozomi was able to make 2 successful fly-bys of Earth and one of Mars.

Probably the most embarrassing loss of a spacecraft goes to the United States and Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO).  MCO was lost when it traveled out of communications by passing behind Mars 49 seconds earlier than expected.  Contact with the spacecraft was never re-established.  Turns out that while the spacecraft software was written expecting flight data in metric units, engineers on the ground were uploading the data in English units.  The spacecraft ended up flying too close to Mars, and likely disintegrated in the Martian atmosphere.  Oops.

We didn't do much better with Mars Polar Lander (MPL).  Contact with the spacecraft was lost during the descent phase as MPL tried to land at the Martian South Pole.  We never heard from the spacecraft again.  No trace of the craft was ever found, but the official explanation for the loss states that vibrations during the descent phase may have tricked the lander into thinking it was on the ground, and it shut off its thrusters, causing it to plummet the last 130 feet or so to a very hard, fatal landing.

Even the British have had trouble with Mars, losing a lander, Beagle 2 (named for the HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his famous voyages).  No explanation or cause has ever been agreed upon - the little lander simply disappeared and never made contact after descending towards the surface of the Red Planet.

Clearly, entry, descent and landing (EDL) is a tough time for a Mars-bound spacecraft.  NASA engineers often call the EDL phase the "7 minutes of terror."  This Saturday, we here at the Virginia Living Museum are going to be celebrating Mars with our monthly star party and laser light night...and we've got a special guest planned - NASA!  Exhibits all about Mars and Earth will be available, and Jill Prince, NASA's Mars EDL expert, will be giving a special talk about the 7 minutes of terror.  If the weather holds, we'll be looking at Mars with our telescopes all evening (plus peeking at Venus and Saturn too, I'm sure!), and there will even be a bit of Mars-themed music in the planetarium with Laser Mania!

So come join us for some Mars Mania this Saturday!  Mars activities and exhibits open at 5:30pm, Jill Prince speaks in the planetarium at 6pm, and observing begins after sunset.  All are FREE!  In the planetarium: at 7:30pm enjoy Virginia Skies (with a focus on Mars); 8:30pm see Laser Mania featuring "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars" by Weird Al Yankovic; finish the night with a Laser Pink Floyd double feature: The Wall at 10pm and Dark Side of the Moon at 11:30pm.  All planetarium shows are $6, $10 for any two.  Members are always half price!

Don't forget to watch the news for information on the Mars Science Laboratory landing in August...and let's hope the Great Galactic Ghoul keeps his mitts off this one.

Carpe noctem!
Kelly

The Planets Will Go On

Hey everyone!

So I am already excited for this Saturday's Star Party and Laser Light Night here at the Virginia Living Museum.  It's going to be awesome, for two reasons.  Number one is that we'll be enjoying a Titanic theme!  This Saturday, April 14, 2012, is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  We'll be adding a Titanic flair to the night with a special showing of "Night of the Titanic" at 6:30pm.  Then at 7:30pm, we'll have our regularly scheduled "Virginia Skies" but we'll examine the stars of the Northern Atlantic as well and compare them to what we see here in Virginia.  Finally, at 8:30pm, "Laser Magic" features the theme from James Cameron's "Titanic" - Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On."  The punned out version of that title which heads up my post tells you the other reason I'm super excited about this Saturday.

Have you looked up in the early evening sky recently?  There are four - count 'em, FOUR! - planets visible to the unaided eye gracing the sky just after sunset.  It's incredible!  If the weather holds and things cooperate, you've got the chance to see all four of these planets through telescopes at the museum this weekend.  And it's free to boot!  How can you beat that?

Looking to the west in the early evening, you can still see Venus and Jupiter decorating the sky after sunset.  Venus is now substantially higher in the sky than Jupiter - the two have been moving apart steadily since their close encounter in March.  Jupiter is lower and fainter than Venus, so look carefully at the western horizon.  Venus will pop right out at you (it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon, after all), but look down below Venus for the brilliant jewel of the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter.

Venus above and Jupiter below. Credit: Kevin Jung.

Turning your attention to the East will show you two more planets!  Mars is high in the south-southeast just after sunset, and is a distinctive orange color.  If you turn and compare colors between Mars and Venus, the decidedly orange tinge of Mars becomes very clear.  Mars' unique color comes from rust - the soil on Mars is rich in iron, and over time that iron has combined with oxygen to form rust.  The legendary windstorms of Mars have carried that rusty dust all over the planet, resulting the The Red Planet's characteristic hue.

Look low to the eastern horizon to see the fourth and final planet - golden-yellow Saturn.  If you can join us this Saturday, it will be well worth hanging around until Saturn climbs above our treetops so you can see it through a telescope.  It is quite possibly one of the most amazing things you will ever see!  Even at a distance of roughly a billion miles, the rings are quite distinctive, and with our larger scopes, you might even glimpse a few details in the cloud layers.

Saturn through a moderate-sized telescope.

We'll start setting up our telescopes around sunset (about 7:30-8pm these days) and will continue to observe until about 11:30pm or so.  Observing is free!  Planetarium programs begin at 6:30pm and are $6 for one, $10 for two (members are always half price!).  Make an evening of it and grab dinner in the Wild Side Cafe beginning at 6pm - they'll remain open until 10pm for food, snacks and drinks (both kid-friendly and adult).  It's going to be a "Titanic" night - so come join us!

See you then...
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

Sorry, I Was Looking at the Planets

Holy cow, if you haven't been outside lately, get out there tonight.  It's amazing.

I should have updated yesterday, but circumstances beyond my control kept me away from my computer most of the day.  But no matter, one day late doesn't really make a big difference right now.  We've got a planet-palooza underway out there tonight, and there's more to come.

If you've been outside on any clear night in the early evening over the past month or so, you've likely seen two brilliant objects shining in the west.  They are well visible even before the Sun fully sets.  Two bright white shining "stars."  Guess what - those two stars are Venus and Jupiter.  Venus is the brighter of the two.  In fact, it's the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon.  Jupiter may be the biggest planet in the solar system, but it's much further away (about half a billion miles) and so it looks fainter than our lovely next door planetary neighbor.  These two gorgeous planets have reached their closest approach to one another in our sky, and will now begin steadily moving away from one another.  Keep watching...it's going to be a phenomenal sight to watch these planets part from one another night after night.

Venus and Jupiter in the skies of Pennsylvania in February 2012.  Photo by Jack Fusco.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

To see our other planetary neighbor, the red planet Mars, simply turn around 180 degrees from where you see Venus and Jupiter.  Mars is shining a beautiful deep orange on the eastern side of the sky, again, easily visible well before the sky is truly dark.  A bit dimmer yet again than Jupiter, it is still an impressive sight, especially since the color of Mars is so very obvious.  Past its brightest and slowly fading, Mars will gently, and later more rapidly, dim from our view over the next few months or so.  Enjoy it while it lasts!

Still not enough?  Wait a while, until Venus and Jupiter have set.  By late evening, golden yellow Saturn will rise and join Mars on the eastern side of the sky.  The color difference is lovely between Mars and Saturn.  Break out your telescope and you'll be treated to an delightful view of Saturn's majestic rings.  Breathtaking!

Did you miss our March star party?  It was a fabulous night of clear crisp skies and brilliant planets.  But don't worry, we'll be doing it again on April 14.  Jupiter will have sunk too close to the Sun for good viewing by then, but Saturn will consent to rise earlier, joining Venus and Mars to maintain a powerful trifecta of planets in the early evening skies.  Plus we'll be marking the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic with special shows in the planetairum.  You can get more information on our website.  See you in April!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta get back to those planets.  :-)
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

2012: A Year of Astronomical Proportions

Happy New Year everyone!  Once again, I shall ride the current bandwagon, and this post will feature a list of things coming in 2012 that, if at all possible, you should not miss.  Mark these five dates on your calendar now!

March 3, 2012: The Opposition of Mars
No, this has nothing to do with us declaring war on the Martians.  A planetary opposition occurs when a planet is seen exactly opposite the Sun from the Earth, meaning that the planet will rise at sunset and set at sunrise, remaining visible in the sky all night long.  This also means the planet is generally closer to the Earth, as it is on the same side of the solar system as we are.  For Mars, this is a wonderful thing.  Mars has a highly elliptical orbit, and that means that opposition brings our little red neighbor (Mars is only half the diameter of Earth) close enough that details can be seen on the surface with a good telescope.  With a really big telescope...well...you can just imagine.

Mars during the 1997 opposition.  Courtesy NASA, HST & STSci.

This year's opposition is a poor one - even at close approach, Mars will not be as close as it has been in years past - and future oppositions will be better than this one too.  But it's worth seeing the planet nonetheless, even if you don't have a telescope.  Mars is usually a dull orange-ish star in our sky, and not very noteworthy.  But during opposition, Mars will rival Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, in brightness - a stirring sight for sure.  Right now, Mars rises late in the evening and is visible high in the south around sunrise.  As the year progress, watch for it to rise earlier and earlier in the evening, making viewing this beautiful planet a pretty simple feat even for those who don't like staying up late.  Want to see Mars through a telescope?  Come visit us for our monthly Star Party & Laser Light Night on March 10th.  Mars will be a week past opposition, but still looking great!  Don't miss it!

May 20, 2012: An Annular Solar Eclipse
This one is especially for any readers I might have in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.  On May 20th, as the Sun is setting across those states, the Moon will glide in front of the Sun.  But the Moon will be too far away to cover the entire disk of the Sun, resulting in what is called an annular solar eclipse.  Most of the Sun's disk will be covered, with only a ring of solar surface visible around the Moon.

The Sun during the annular solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 by Mikael Svalgaard.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT attempt to view the eclipse without proper eye protection!  Doing so can result in serious damage to your eyes, even blindness.  The Sun's surface, even only a small portion of it, is incredibly bright.  Never look at the Sun with unprotected eyes.  GOOD NEWS: You don't need a telescope to view this amazing event!  The best thing to get is a pair of eclipse glasses - they'll likely be available at your .local science center as the eclipses gets closer, or you can order them online.  Or, for a quick, inexpensive solution - buy a piece of Shade #14 Arc Welder's Glass from a local hardware store, and look at the Sun through that.  Make sure you get Shade #14 - no other shade will work.  Once you've protected your eyes - go outside about an hour before sunset (check your local paper for exact times for your area!) and watch the Sun as it goes down.  It will be an amazing view.

June 5, 2012: The Transit of Venus
Okay folks, this is the big one.  If you see no other astronomical event this year - see this one.  Why?  Because, quite literally, you will not have another chance to do so in your lifetime.  There will not be another transit of Venus for 105 years - so this is your one and only chance.

A transit is kind of the opposite of opposition - in this case, a planet is crossing in front of the disk of the Sun as seen from the Earth.  Naturally, we can only see transits of Mercury and Venus - the only two planets which lie closer to the Sun than we are.  You'd think these would happen all the time, but like eclipses, the geometry doesn't always work out.  Most times a planet passes above or below the Sun from our perspective.  But every so often the geometry is perfect, and we get to see a planet silhouetted against the brilliant face of the Sun.

The 2004 Transit of Venus photographed by Stefan Seip.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

The transit of Venus this June will occur close to sunset for us, and you can bet we'll be watching here at the Virginia Living Museum!  Stay tuned for more information on our Transit of Venus event.  While the transit will be visible unmagnified with suitable eye protection (remember the warning above!), it will be better through a telescope.  If you're local to Hampton Roads, plan to come join us!

December 13, 2012: The Geminid Meteor Shower
Meteor showers are always fun, and there are usually a couple good ones each year.  But if you're only going to bundle up and sit outside for several hours once in 2012, wait until the December Geminids.  The Moon will be new, making this a perfect night for stargazing in general.  The shower will peak around 7pm local time, meaning you don't have to go outside in the middle of the night to enjoy a good view.  Simply find a dark location (the fewer lights the better!), set up a comfortable lawn chair (laying back so you can see a lot of the sky without straining your neck is best), pile on some blankets and enjoy the show.  The meteors will seem to come from the constellation Gemini the Twins, so if you can place those stars at your back, so much the better.  You can watch until the wee hours of the morning if you like...2am is often a good time to see meteors as our part of the Earth will be turning into our direction of motion, making for good meteors!

A 2011 Geminid meteor over Iran photographed by Arman Golestaneh.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.

December 21, 2012: The End of the World
Okay, this one really isn't an astronomical event.  In fact, it's not really an event at all.  Well, it is the Winter Solstice, but you can't really "watch" that event unless you plan on setting up a camera and waiting a year.

 The Analemma over the Porch of Maidens in Athens, Greece as photographed by Anthony Ayiomamitis.  Courtesy Astronomy Picture of the Day.  The Winter Solstice is the Sun's lowest point in the sky. 

But you're probably aware of the numerous predictions of doom and gloom for our planet surrounding this date.  I always love it when such things come up, because it gives us a great opportunity to educate folks about science and how it works...and how it doesn't.  Want a primer on what all the fuss is about?  Join us for 2012: The End of the World? NOT!, a brand-new planetarium show which will be featured all year at the Abbitt Planetarium.  And stay tuned for more information about our End of the World Party, currently in the planning stages. 

So there it is - what not to miss in 2012.  May it be a year of astronomical proportions for all of us!
Carpe noctem!
Kelly

The Month They Call November

My friends, if you know the song that the title references...you know some obscure music.

But I confess November is my favorite month.  I can't help it.  I love the fall, with cool temperatures and beautifully colored leaves.  I love the early sunsets and long dark nights, growing ever longer as the month progresses.  I love the holiday season, with Thanksgiving leading right into Christmas.

Okay, you got me.  I also love November because I was born in it!  ;D  So let's talk a little about what you can expect to see in the skies during this wonderful month.

You've got some great opportunities for planet watching this month.  Mercury and Venus are putting on a lovely show in the early evening sky, just after sunset.  The trick is you need a super-flat western horizon to see them.  But oh boy, the view is worth it!  If you can get outside on the evening of the 13th or 14th, Mercury and Venus will be very close to one another, and about as far from the Sun as Mercury is going to get for a while.  Give it a try - seeing Mercury even with the unaided eye is something most people have never done!  Let brilliant Venus guide your eye (it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon).  Mercury will be a smaller star-like object within 2 degrees (about 2 fingers-width) of the bright planet, closer even than in the image below.

Venus and Mercury at sunset on April 5, 2010 by Manu Arregi Biziola.  Image from Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Jupiter also graces the evening skies, looking like a stunning bright white star.  The largest planet in the solar system is rising near sunset, and so it is visible nearly all night long.  You've probably seen Jupiter in the evening sky already - it's pretty darn hard to miss!  It's hovering around between the constellations Aries, Pisces and Cetus...and none of those constellations have any bright stars in them.  So Jupiter is shining all alone in a fairly dark area of sky, which only makes it look that much more impressive.  To give you a sense of how bright Jupiter is, check out the picture below. 

Jupiter seen with the Full Moon in 2009 by Jens Hackman.  Image from Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Even with a Full Moon ablaze in the sky, Jupiter stands out quite nicely.  Imagine how amazing it will look when all alone!  We'll be observing Jupiter for sure at our star party this weekend.  You haven't really seen Jupiter until you've seen it through a telescope!  Observing begins at sunset on November 12th here at the Abbitt Observatory, and as always, it's free!  Here's hoping for clear skies!

If you're hoping to see Saturn or Mars, you'll need to go outside during the pre-dawn hours...and now that we've changed back to Eastern Standard Time, that means being outside in the very early morning...perhaps around 4:30AM.  Your reward for bring an early riser will be a view of the Red Planet shining in the south, and the golden-yellow "star" of Saturn appearing low on the eastern horizon just before the Sun.  It's interesting to see these two planets in the same sky, since they both exhibit such distinct colors.  Towards the end of the month, they'll even be about the same brightness, so see if you can notice the color difference between Mars and Saturn.  Even if you can't, they will both be quite beautiful, as you can tell from the image below.

Saturn (left) and Mars (right)  flank the Beehive Cluster in June of 2006 by Tunc Tezel.  
Image from Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Maybe you prefer something more showy than just planets hanging around in the sky.  Well November can oblige.  The annual Leonid meteor shower peaks on November 17th every year, and this year is no exception.  You may remember the Leonids from the meteor storms of the early 2000s.  While no storm is predicted for this year, we will still pass through a stream of debris left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, resulting in a higher-than-normal rate of meteors being visible all coming from the direction of the constellation Leo.  Since Leo rises around midnight at this time of the year, put the East at your back and watch for shooting stars any time after sunset on November 17th.  Your best view is likely to be had during the wee morning hours of November 18th.  Since the Moon will be on the wane, it too will rise late, giving you some time to see the meteors against the backdrop of a dark sky.  No telescope required for this event - you want to be able to see as much of the sky as possible.  Patience is the key with meteor showers - set up a lawn chair and watch the sky.  The longer you watch the more meteors you will see as your eyes adjust to the darkness.  Enjoy!

The 1999 peak of the Leonid meteor shower by Juan Carlos Casado.
The image is a 20 minute exposure and captured several meteors.

Image from Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Until next time...
Carpe noctem!
Kelly