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Charlottesville Astronomical Society
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| CAS News - Dave's Headlines |
Brought to you by CAS Member David Miller's Relentless Pursuit
of the Knowledge of All Things Astronomical...
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| Headlines From 09/23/2004 |
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Collection of Cassini Photos of
Saturn
The Website of the Space Science
Institute at Boulder, Colorado, features photos of Saturn taken by spacecraft
Cassini.
Venus Transit
Photos/Videos
Website VT-2004 is still very active,
presenting photos and videos of the transit, submitted by many observers of
the event. The current news on the site is that the deadline for
entries for the best transit video has now passed. They plan to
announce winners by 15 October.
NASA Selects Contractor
for First Prometheus Mission to Jupiter
NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory selected Northrop Grumman Space Technology as the contractor for
co-designing the proposed Prometheus Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. (Note:
the Space Technology Division was part of TRW Inc., which was
bought by NGC a few years ago.)
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/sep/HQ_c04x_jimo.html
Kodak Technical Pan,
1977-2004
Kodak has officially announced that it is
discontinuing production of its
Technical Pan film, which is arguably the
finest commercial black-and-white ever made for
astrophotography.
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1353_1.asp
The Closest Whiz-by
of Toutatis An asteroid several kilometers wide
will brighten to 9th magnitude and be
visible in small telescopes as it
passes Earth in late September. When at
its closest on the 29th, Toutatis
will race across the Southern Hemisphere
sky at 30 degrees per day! Two
charts in this article cover September 21st
through 25th Universal Time
(including the evenings of September 20th
through 24th in the Americas), when
the asteroid is moving more slowly and
is still visible from most of the
world. The orbital calculations for Toutatis are continuing to be updated with the use
of radar data and it is predicted that
this is the closest approach for
several centuries.
In my previous report on 4179
Toutatis, I passed on the information that Toutatis was discovered by an
astronomer in 1989 in France and named for the ancient Gallic/Celtic god by whom
characters swear loud oaths in the French Astérix le Gaulois cartoons and
comic books. I speculated that the next asteroid discovered by the
French might be named Barbarella.
Autumnal
Equinox
While I was assembling this
report, the Autumnal Equinox occurred. The September equinox was today at
12:30 pm EST. Did anyone notice that the sun rose exactly due east
today? (Please give me a little latitude on the definition
of "exactly").
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| Headlines From 08/28/2004 |
How Old is the Milky Way ?
Observations by an
international team of astronomers with the UVES spectrometer on ESO's
Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory have thrown new light on the earliest epoch of the Milky Way galaxy. The first-ever
measurement
of
the Beryllium content in two stars in a globular cluster (NGC 6397) - pushing current astronomical technology towards the limit - has made it possible
to study the
early phase between the formation of the first generation of stars in the Milky
Way
and that of this stellar cluster. This time interval was found to amount to 200 -
300 million years. The age of the stars in NGC 6397, as determined by means
of stellar evolution models, is 13,400 +/- 800 million years. Adding the
two
time intervals gives the age of the Milky Way, 13,600 +/- 800 million
years.
Small Asteroid Gives Earth its Closest
Shave
A rock measuring less than 10 meters (33
feet) across zipped past the Earth at the closest distance ever detected, but it
would not have posed any threat if it had struck our
planet.
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| Headlines From 08/02/2004 |
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Close-up of Comet NEAT from Kitt Peak
Observatory
This color image of comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) was
taken at the WIYN 0.9-meter
telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near
Tucson, Ariz., on May 7, 2004.
The image was captured with the Mosaic I
camera, which has a one-square
degree field of view, or about five times the
size of the Moon. Even with this large
field, only the comet's coma and the
inner portion of its tail are visible. A small star
cluster (C0736-105, or Melotte 72) is
visible in the lower right of the image,
between the head of the comet and the
bright red star in the lower-right corner.
This image was assembled by
combining images taken by Travis Rector (University
of Alaska, Anchorage), Zolt
Levay and Lisa Frattare (STScI/OPO) through blue,
green and red filters.
Zolt Levay will
be one of the speakers at the Virginia Association of Astronomical
Societies Conference in
Charlottesville, Virginia, on 16 October this fall.
Messenger Launch
Postponed
Messenger's launch has been postponed to no later than
August 3, 2004 at
ESO's Very Large
Telescope Obtains Unique Spectrum of a Meteor
While observing a
supernova in a distant galaxy with ESO's Very Large Telescope
at the Paranal
Observatory (Chile), astronomers accidentally obtained a high quality
A Day in the Lives of
Galaxies
In taking this picture during September 2003, Hubble's
Advanced Camera for
Surveys was not looking at any
particular target. The camera was taking a picture
of a typical patch of sky, while
Hubble's infrared camera was viewing a target in an
adjacent galaxy-rich region. The most
peculiar-looking galaxy in the image-- the
dramatic blue arc in the center -- is
actually an optical illusion. The blue arc is an
image of a distant galaxy that has been
smeared into the odd shape by a phenomenon
called gravitational
lensing.
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| Headlines From 07/20/2004 |
BIG Sunspots
The sunspot number soared this weekend when sunspot 652 and its companion ‘spot 653 emerged over the sun’s eastern limb. Sunspot 652 is big, about the size of the planet Jupiter and easily seen from
Earth.
http://spaceweather.com/
Warning: Don’t look directly at the sun! For safe solar observing techniques, see:
http://spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html
Hawking Cracks Black Hole Paradox
After nearly thirty years of arguing that a black hole destroys everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking is saying that he was wrong.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/jsp?id=ns99996151
Amateur California Observatory
Tom and Daphne Hallas of Foresthill, California, have a fine Website with many photos of astronomical objects, taken with both film and CCD cameras. Currently, they are using a 14.5" f/8 Astrographic Cassegrain mounted on a 12" Schaefer mount and an SBIG USB ST-10E CCD camera.
http://www.astrophoto.com/index.htm
Some of their photos include:NGC 7331 - beautiful black and white shot. Many, many galaxies in this photo!
http://www.astrophoto.com/7331B&W.jpg
Best picture I’ve ever seen of the radiant of a meteor shower.
http://astrophoto.com/LeonidRadiant.htm
And, check out their backyard observatory.
http://astrophoto.com/personal.htm
Dave M.
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| Headlines From 07/11/2004 |
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| Headlines From 07/05/2004 |
Cassini Exposes Puzzles About Ingredients In Saturn's
Rings Just two days after the Cassini spacecraft entered Saturn
orbit, preliminary science results are already beginning to show a complex
and fascinating planetary system. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2004-170
Dark Matter and Dark Energy May be Different Aspects of a Single
ForceIn the last few decades, scientists have discovered that
there is a lot more to the universe than meets the eye: the cosmos appears to
be filled with not just one, but two invisible constituents -dark matter and
dark energy. http://exploration.vanderbilt.edu/news/news_k_essence.htm
Dave M.
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| Headlines From 06/19/2004 |
Phoebe's Surface Reveals
Clues to Its Origin
Images collected during Cassini's close
flyby of Saturn's moon, Phoebe, have
yielded strong evidence that the tiny
object may contain ice-rich material,
overlain with a thin layer of darker
material perhaps 300 to 500 meters thick.
Based on the images, the view that has
been promoted recently is that Phoebe
is probably ice- rich and may be an
object originating in the outer solar system,
more related to comets and Kuiper Belt
objects than to asteroids. Asteroids
seen up close, like Ida, Mathilde, and
Eros, and the small Martian satellites don't
Photos of Phoebe taken by
Cassini:
Weighing Ultra-Cool Stars
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope at
Paranal and a suite of ground- and space-
based telescopes in a four-year long
study, an international team of astronomers
has measured for the first time the
mass of an ultra-cool star and its companion
brown dwarf. The two stars form a
binary system and orbit each other in about
10 years. These observations
represent a decisive step towards the still missing
calibration of stellar evolution models
for very-low mass stars.
To see and read more, please
visit:
Will the June Bootids
Return in 2004?
Earth is heading for a cloud of dust shed by
Comet Pons-Winnecke in the 19th
century. An encounter with the cloud
might produce a pleasing meteor shower
before sunrise on Wednesday, June
23rd. Or not. Forecasters aren't sure. If a
shower materializes, sky watchers in
western North America and across the
Pacific Ocean are favored to see
it. Six years ago, during the final weekend of
June 1998, skywatchers worldwide were
surprised by an unexpected bevy of
bright meteors and fireballs. Meteor
astronomers soon realized that after a
dormancy of more than 70 years, the
June Bootid shower had returned to life.
What might we see in 2004?
Transit of
Venus
Some of the photographs of the 8
June Transit of Venus are unlike any in the
history of astronomy. There's the X-ray
transit of Venus, recorded by an Earth-
orbiting satellite; pictures of jet
aircraft and the International Space Station
transiting Venus while Venus transited
the Sun; pictures of Venus' atmosphere
glowing like a fiery-red ring; pictures
of Brood X cicadas themselves watching
the transit! Visit
SpaceWeather.com and browse a gallery of such images from
all six continents where the event was
visible.
The Ring of
Fire
A beautiful photo showing the "ring of
fire" around the trailing edge of Venus
between first and second
contact was taken near Milan, Italy by Lorenzo Canolli.
Sunspot
Watch
If you learned how to safely look at
the Sun last week to view the transit of
Venus, look again. Two big sunspot
groups, each larger than Venus, have just
emerged over the Sun's eastern limb.
This could signal a period of increased
solar activity in the days
ahead.
Dave M.
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| Headlines From 06/13/2004 |
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Where Was the Black
Drop?
CAS members (including myself) observing the transit of Venus on 8
June
from Flattop Mountain in central Virginia had an excellent view
of the last
90 minutes of the event, but didn't see the "black drop" effect at third
contact,
but did see the "ring of fire" as Venus' leading edge began to move past
the
limb of the sun. As reports on the Venus transit come in from around
the
world, the burning question in the observational community surrounds the
Cassini Makes Close Observations of Phoebe
With its
flyby of Phoebe, the Cassini spacecraft has completed the first
satellite
flyby in its four-year tour of the Saturn system. First images from
the flyby reveal Phoebe to be a scarred, cratered outpost with a very
old
surface and a mysterious past, and a great deal of variation in surface
brightness.
Opportunity Enters Endurance Crater
After spending
a month driving around the rim of the 130-meter-wide
Endurance Crater, NASA's
Opportunity rover rolled cautiously down its
slope on Wednesday.
Top Quark Measurements Give 'God
Particle' New Lease On Life
Researchers from the University of
Rochester have helped measure the elusive top
quark with unparalleled
precision, and the surprising results affect everything
from the Higgs boson,
nicknamed the "God particle," to the makeup of the dark
matter that comprises
90 percent of the universe. The Higgs boson is the particle
Gemini Mirror is First with Silver
Lining
A silver coating newly applied to the 8-metre mirror of
the Gemini South
telescope is set to make it the most powerful infrared
telescope on Earth,
allowing UK astronomers and their international partners to
study in detail
Dave
M.
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| Headlines From 06/05/2004 |
Venus
Transit
On Tuesday, June 8th, the planet Venus
will glide directly across the face
of the Sun. No one alive today has seen
Venus "transit" the Sun -- it last
happened in 1882 -- and astronomers around
the world are eagerly awaiting
the event. Only one other transit of Venus
will occur this century, eight
years from now on June 6,
2012.
Transits of Venus are rare, but this is unprecedented: The
International
Space Station (ISS) is going to cross
the Sun four times during the 6+
hour transit of Venus on June
8th. Advanced observers in parts of
Europe, Africa and Asia might be able
to record the double transit.
Visit Spaceweather.com and
SkyandTelescope.com for observing tips
and links to live webcasts from
around the world.
New Hubble Image Reveals
Details in the Heart of the Trifid Nebula
This new image from the Hubble Space
Telescope offers a close-up view
of the center of the Trifid Nebula,
near the intersection of the dust bands,
where a group of recently formed,
massive, bright stars is easily visible.
Historic Space Launch
Attempt Scheduled for June 21
A privately-developed rocket plane
will launch into history on June 21 on a
mission to become the world's first
commercial manned space vehicle.
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/New_Index/news/062104.htm
Cassini Will Unlock Saturn's
Secrets
The Cassini spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit
around Saturn at 8:30 p.m.
MDT, June 30, 2004.
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/jun/HQ_04166_cassini.html
Meteor Wakes Up Pacific
Northwest
A meteor flashed across the Northwest sky early
Thursday, setting off booms that
stunned witnesses.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/03/tech/main620845.shtml
Meteorite Crash Turned Earth
Inside Out: Study
New research paints a picture of what happened
billions of years ago when a
devastating meteorite crashed into the
Earth.
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/040603-92.asp
Hubble Refines Distance To
Pleiades Star Cluster
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope have helped settle a mystery
that has puzzled scientists concerning
the exact distance to the famous nearby
star cluster known as the
Pleiades.
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/20/text/
New Constraints on Dark Matter
Largest census of
X-ray galaxy clusters provides new constraints on dark
matter
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-15-04.html
Double Stars Emerge As New Heavyweight
Champions
About 20,000 light-years from Earth, two massive stars
grapple with each other
like sumo wrestlers locked in combat. Both giants,
each weighing in at around 80
times the mass of our Sun, are the heaviest
stars ever. They orbit each other
every 3.7 days, nearly touching as they
spin on the celestial stage.
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0418.html
Spitzer Reveals What Edwin Hubble Missed
For
centuries, biologists and paleontologists have classified animal
species
based solely on their appearance and anatomical differences.
Astronomers do the
same thing when they look at photographs and classify
galaxies into the
elliptical, lenticular, spiral, and irregular classes.
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/press/pr0419.html
Dave
M.
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| Headlines From 05/24/2004 |
Peering Closer at
Titan
The Cassini orbiter continues its observations of Saturn's
mysterious moon
Titan, stealing another early peek at the haze-enshrouded
surface.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA05392.jpg&type=image
LONEOS Discovers Asteroid With The Smallest
Orbit
Flagstaff, AZ-The ongoing search for near-Earth asteroids
at Lowell Observatory
has yielded another interesting object. Designated 2004
JG6, this asteroid was
found in the course of LONEOS on the evening of May
10.
http://www.lowell.edu/press_room/releases/recent_releases/2004JG6_rls.html
Hayabusa Spacecraft Rounds Earth And Heads For Near-Earth
Asteroid
On May 19, the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft
successfully made a close Earth
approach (altitude = 3725 km), thereby
gaining the velocity it needs to reach the
near-Earth asteroid
Itokawa.
http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/snews/2004/0519.shtml
The Universe Seems Older Than
Expected
Some nuclear fusion reactions inside stars occur more
slowly than we thought
and, as a consequence, stars themselves, as well as
galaxies and the entire
universe are a bit older than
expected.
http://www.infn.it/comunicati/detaileng.php?id=331
Satellite Image of National World War II
Memorial
In honor of the official dedication of the National
World War II Memorial in
Washington, D.C., Space Imaging collected a new
satellite image of the monument
on May 14, 2004.
http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/spacepics/WWII_memorial_05_14_04.jpg
Dave
M.
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| Headlines From 05/12/2004 |
Deep Faults And Disrupted Crater At Acheron
Fossae
These images were taken by the High Resolution Stereo
Camera on board ESA's Mars Express of the Acheron Fossae region, an area of
intensive tectonic activity in the past. http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMMDS77ESD_index_0.html
XMM-Newton Detects X-Ray 'Solar Cycle' In
Distant Star
For years, astronomers have wondered whether stars
similar to the Sun go through periodic cycles of enhanced X-ray activity,
like those often causing troubles to telephone and power lines here on
Earth. http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=35041
Giant Galaxy's Violent Past
Long-exposure images of
the giant elliptical galaxy M87 by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, together
with radio observations, have provided spectacular evidence of repetitive
outbursts from the vicinity of the galaxy's supermassive black
hole. http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/news/releases/2004/04-135.html
Spitzer Shares The
Wealth
Like a philanthropist donating a prized collection to a
museum, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has opened a virtual vault rich with
scientific data. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2004/121.cfm
Dave M.
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| Headlines From 05/06/2004 |
Town-Sized Asteroid To Hurtle Past Earth In
September
An asteroid, the size of a small town, will hurtle
past the Earth this September following a path that scientists say will
probably be the closest route for its kind to fly past our planet for the
next 100 years. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_730465,00040005.htm
The Monster Black Hole In NGC 1068
Fulfilling
an old dream of astronomers, observations with the Very Large Telescope
Interferometer at the ESO Paranal Observatory have now made it possible to
obtain a clear picture of the immediate surroundings of the black hole at the
center of an active galaxy. http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-10-04.html
Watch For Comet NEAT
Northern Hemisphere stargazers
should start using binoculars to look for Comet
NEAT emerging low in the southwest at dusk. Currently, the comet
appears less
New Rover Images from the Surface of
Mars
Spirit and Opportunity continue their successful sojourn on
Martian soil and
both rovers are well on their way to exciting science targets. Spirit has
traveled
more than 700 meters since its January 3rd landing in the middle of Gusev
Crater.
The rover is now just 2 kilometers from the Columbia Hills Complex, a
destination
it could reach in mid to late June. As Spirit approaches the hills, its
cameras and
spectrometers will be looking for signs of shorelines, layering, or other
indicators
Dave M.
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| Headlines From 03/05/2004 |
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Hubble Photo of V838 in Monoceros
The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged V838 Mon and its light echo several
times since the star's outburst in January 2002, in order to follow the
constantly changing appearance of the dust as the pulse of illumination
continues to expand away from the star at the speed of light. During the
outburst event, the normally faint star suddenly brightened, becoming 600 000
times more luminous than our Sun. It was thus one of the most luminous stars in
the entire Milky Way, until it faded away again in April 2002. The star has some
similarities to a class of objects called "novae", which suddenly increase in
brightness due to thermonuclear explosions at their surfaces; however, the
detailed behavior of V838 Mon, in particular its extremely red color, has been
completely different from any previously known nova.
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| Headlines From 03/04/2004 |
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Earth Almost Put On Impact
Alert
Astronomers have revealed how, in January, they came
within minutes
Another advanced astronomical telescope has
just been installed at the
Paranal Observatory, located in the heart of
the Chilean Atacama Desert
and home of the ESO Very Large Telescope
(VLT). This is the first of
four movable auxiliary telescopes that will be
installed in 2004-2006.
These compact, high-tech telescopes are built
by the AMOS company
in Liège (Belgium). When placed in different
configurations on the tracks,
they will enable the VLTI (VLT
Interferometer) to operate with great
flexibility and to obtain extremely sharp
images of celestial objects -
ultimately with a resolution that corresponds
to seeing an astronaut on the Moon.
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-01-04.html
VLT Smashes the Record of the Farthest
Known Galaxy
Using the ISAAC near-infrared instrument on
ESO's Very Large Telescope, and the magnification effect of a gravitational
lens, a team of French and Swiss astronomers has found several faint
galaxies believed to be the most remote known. Named Abell 1835 IR1916, the newly
discovered galaxy has a redshift of 10 and is located about 13,230
million light-years away. It is therefore seen at a time when the Universe
was merely 470 million years young, that is, barely 3 percent of its
current age.
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-04-04.html
New Image of Saturn from NASA's Cassini
Spacecraft
A new glorious image of Saturn from NASA's Cassini
spacecraft provides
just a hint of what is to come. Cassini ventures closer
and closer to the
ringed planet each day as it heads for its July 1st
rendezvous, meaning
images in the coming weeks and months will exhibit ever
more detail. The
spacecraft's narrow-angle camera acquired this picture on
February 9th....
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgibin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/saturn/images/PIA05380.jpg&type=image
A Close Encounter with Jupiter This week, Earth and Jupiter
are only 400 million miles apart--the nearest
the two worlds will be all
year. The giant planet is easy to see, and
even a small telescope will
reveal its rust-colored cloud belts and its
four largest
moons.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/03mar_jupiter.htm?list971680
Researchers Report
Bubble Fusion Results Replicated
Physical Review E has announced
the publication of an article stating that they
have replicated and extended
previous experimental results that indicated the
occurrence of nuclear fusion
using a novel approach for plasma confinement.
http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/press_releases/2004/lahey.htm
Study: Asteroid Couldn't Have Wiped Out
Dinos
A Mexican crater, caused by an asteroid crash that many
scientists thought led
to the extinction of dinosaurs has just been dated to
three hundred thousand
years before dinosaurs disappeared off the face of the
Earth.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040301/dinos.html
ISS And STS Pass
Predictions
NASA offers a service that will e-mail you when the
ISS or shuttle will be
visible from your area.
http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/PassGenerator
Meridiani Planum: "Drenched"
On March 2, scientists presented
strong evidence that NASA's Mars rover
Opportunity landed in a place that was
once drenched in liquid water.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/02mar_meridianiwater.htm?list971680
Dave M. |
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| Headlines From 02/25/2004 |
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Big
Sunspot
There's a big spot on the sun today,
sunspot 564. It first appeared only
a few days ago, tiny and unremarkable.
Since then it has grown wider than
eight planet Earths. Click on the
video strip on SpaceWeather's home page
to download a larger image of the sun's
full disk. You get to see the group
develop from Feb 21st through
25th.
Astroanimations
Antonio Cidadao's "Lunar and Planetary
Observation" page has several
animations of the moon, sun, planets,
etc. on his Website (as well as a lot of
great still images). On
his home page, click on the image of Jupiter that has
the caption "Time-lapse ANIMATIONS"
under it to access them. Most
are truly amazing. I particularly
liked the one of the moon going through a
lunar month's time period. It's
the first item on the animations page. Click
on it to download a larger
image. This film clip clearly shows the moon
shrinking and enlarging as it varies in
distance from the Earth. You also
get a good perspective of the
interaction of libration and nutation as it rocks
and rolls around. And don't miss
the clip of the motion of Jupiter's satellites.
Six Killed as
Fire Rips Through India's Space Center
Six people were killed
and three others seriously injured when fuel being
loaded for tests on a
satellite launch rocket exploded, sparking a huge fire
at India's main space
center Monday.
Mt. Stromlo a Year
Later
A year after the fire, demolition and
rebuilding have yet to commence. The
ruins are being colonized by local
wildlife. Progress has been slowed by red
tape and the lack of funding.
Dave M.
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