Hello, astro-nuts!

Another chilly morning here in central PA! Did anyone catch any Taurid fireballs this morning? As I mentioned Tuesday, the shower is active and at its maximum through the 12th. You may not see very many but what you could see may be a few bright fireballs. Meanwhile, a new astronomy video has been mosted, and more data from the most recent MESSENGER flyby of Mercury has revealed some interesting information, while Spitzer and Chandra have both been kept busy with new observations.

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The Cassini spacecraft on Monday made a pass through one of those infamous Enceladus plumes. The craft had made close approaches before, but this was the first time it had taken such a close look at one. These plumes are thought to contribute some of the particles in Saturn's ring system, and are thought to originate from a liquid ocean under the surface of Enceladus. Cassini came within about sixty miles of the moon's surface on Monday as it flew through the plume. Since 2005, astronomers have been trying to find out as much as possible about these plumes; thus far we know they contain water vapor, sodium and organic molecules. More information was needed to find out the source of the plumes and potentially whether Enceladus can support lifeforms.

Speaking of "firsts", the "first light" celebration for the 32-inch reflecting telescope at the University of Utah's Willard L. Eccles Observatory is being planned for November 11th. A symposium and reception will be held on campus at the James Fletcher Building beginning at 4pm. The telescope captured its first image on October 15th; spiral galaxy NGC 891in the constellation Andromeda. Because of the 250 mile distance between the campus and the telescope, the hope is that a grant request for remotely controlling the telescope will be approved.

Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 4 has captured some beautiful images of spiral galaxy M83. Check out the story at the Hubble website.

Astronews!

The MESSENGER spacecraft recently made its third flyby of Mercury (September 29), during which it completed a gravity assist in order to remain on course for entering orbit around Mercury in 2011. Not only that, but more images were captured that allowed astronomers to see another six percent of the planet's surface. All told, around 98 percent of Mercury's surface is now imaged, just from efforts by MESSENGER! The only places that haven't been imaged are the polar regions, and that will be handled once MESSENGER goes into orbit. During each flyby, some new surprises were discovered; the third flyby revealed an odd depression that was thought to be volcanic, a double-ring impact basin about 180 miles across. The "inner floor" of the basin appears to be the youngest feature, differing in color from the rest of the area. It is thought that this material could be the youngest volcanic material on the planet. MESSENGER's instruments conducted studies on the exophere of the planet, while some scans of the poles were conducted. Additional information gathered from the flyby was that iron and titanium are abundant at Mercury's surface, contrary to earlier observations that iron levels were low. MESSENGER will have made 15 trips around the sun by the time it enters Mercury's orbit; to date is has traveled about 75% of its 4.9-billion mile trip.

Prior to beginning its "warm" mission, the Spitzer Space Telescope had been keeping an eye on a planetary system that still has a bit of organizing to do. Similar to times long ago when our solar system was young, the planets had not yet made their way into their current stable orbits, and were quite wobbly. The central star, HR 8799, is about 125 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, and has what appears to be three wobbly young planets orbiting it. These "crazy kids" seem to be colliding with smaller objects, which of course stirs up cosmic dust. These objects are thought to be similar to comets or the same objects we have in our own Kuiper Belt. Around the same time these were discovered, a planet was found to be orbiting the star Formalhaut, which is in the constellation Pisces. Spitzer had been used to image the planetary debris around Fomalhaut, and astronomers were not sure whether Spitzer could "see" a distance five times further. However it appears that Spitzer was successful and snagged an image of HR 8799 and the cloud of dust being kicked up by the wobbly planets. It is thought that Jupiter and Saturn were quite wobbly before becoming established in their orbits and may have thrown all kinds of objects towards Earth, including comets or other icy objects. During the period called "late heavy bombardment", there could have been several of those objects crashing into Earth, which may be where the planet got its initial water supply.

The Chandra X-ray telescope has also been recently noted for a big discovery; it would seem that the neutron star in the Casseiopeia A supernovae remnant has a thin carbon atmosphere. This marks the very first time the composition of a neutron star's atmosphere has been identified. When Cas A was first imaged by Chandra ten years ago, the object at the center appeared to be an average neutron star; however, it did not emit any X-ray or rado signals. Several computer models of different scenarios were run, and it wasn't until the model featuring the carbon atmosphere was applied that the team realized the star was behaving the same way as the star in the model; it was unable to display any changes in its brightness as it rotated. The atmosphere was only estimated to be about four inches thick, and most neutron starts average around fourteen or fifteen miles across. That may seem like a puny atmosphere but you have to remember that it has been compressed by gravity that is about 100 billion times stronger than that of Earth's. The relatively young age of Cas A brings up more questions, including some surrounding its currently weak magnetic field. Astronomers now wonder if, as neutron stars age, their magnetic fields become stronger or if stars like Cas A will have a weak magnetic field the rest of their lives and never become radio pulsars. Dare to be different, Cas A! :)

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com

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Hello, astro-nuts!

I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween weekend and that some of you were able to catch a glimpse of all the Halloween treats in the sky! It is of course now November, and the night sky will not cease to amaze this month with performances by Jupiter's Galilean moons, not to mention a fabulous meteor shower. Today's news features stories about the VERITAS and Fermi telescopes, and some information about the parachute problems from the Ares I-X test launch.

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For observers from the southern U.S. on south, the Moon will pass by the southeastern edge of the Pleiades star cluster starting around 10pm EST tonight (Nov. 3). The Taurid meteor shower peaks this week, too. Although this shower, which is at its maximum from the 5th-12th, only averages about 5 meteors per hour, most are usually fireballs, so in this case its about quality, not quantity. Many of the night sky events this month involve the Moon, including close encounters with Mars, Saturn and Venus. Then of course we have the Leonid Meteor shower, which peaks the morning of the 17th, and this year's show is expected to be half-decent. Jupiter fans should keep an eye on the Galilean moons this month; Sky & Telescope has a schedule of the transits, eclipses and occultations that involve the moons throughout the month. Io and Ganymede are performing tonight, while Io and Europa put on a show Wednesday night. Enjoy November!

The winners of the NASA/X Prize lunar lander challenge have been announced! 1.65 million dollars will be given to two aerospace companies that were successful in simulating lunar landings and take-offs. Masten Space Systems of Mojave, California will receive 1 million dollars, while $500,000 will be awarded to Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas. An official aweard ceremony is being held November 5th in Washington DC. The lunar challenge involved building a rocket powered vehicle and simulating its flight on the Moon. The lander needs to take off and then travel horizontally before being able to land at another spot. The vehicle must then take off again and travel horizontally back to its original takeoff point and land again. This process must fall within a two-hour-and-fifteen-minute time period. It must demonstrate control and navigation ability. First and second prizes are awarded at levels 1 and 2. At the first level, the vehicle must fly for at least 90 seconds for each flight. The second level involves flight of at least 180 seconds, and one of the attempts must be made on simulated lunar terrain.

The shuttle flight readiness review was held on October 29th for the upcoming launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. November 16th was chosen as a possible date for the launch of the STS-129 mission, which focuses on storing hardware outside of the International Space Station. Three spacewalks are planned during the mission and will involve delivery and installation of platforms on the station's truss. These platforms will hold the additional hardware that may be required to maintain the station after the shuttle fleet is retired next fall. STS-129 will be commanded by Charlie Hobaugh; joining him will be Pilot Barry Wilmore, astronauts Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher. Also during the mission, Nicole Stott, who is currently living aboard the station, will return home with the Atlantis crew after a two-month stay. It will be the last time a shuttle is used to rotate space station crew members. Wow.

Astronews!

About a century ago, scientists first detected hints of cosmic rays, which are essentially protons that travel through space close to the speed of light. Although very small, these particles slam into things with the same force as a well-thrown fastball. The question has been what force in space has been accelerating them? Thanks to the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) telescope array, evidence has been found that suggests the cosmic rays get a boost of acceleration from exploding stars and stellar winds. Up until recently, there hasn't been an instrument sensitive enough to actually detect these particles. The particles that hit our atmosphere of course can be detected, but the problem has been picking up traces of those that are actually at a distance out in space. VERITAS has detected evidence of cosmic rays in Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy), approximately 12 million light-years from Earth in Ursa Major. The observations seem to uphold the idea of what accelerates the cosmic rays. Galaxies with areas of star birth, such as M82, are thought to contain many supernovae and huge stars. If that is the case, similar galaxies (starburst galaxies) should contain many more cosmic rays than your average galaxy. VERITAS has in fact confirmed that the cosmic ray density in M82 is about 500 times that of our own galaxy. One of the biggest clues as to the presence of cosmic rays is in fact the presence of gamma rays, which are much more powerful than x-rays or ultraviolet light. The same type of project is being undertaken using the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope; Fermi actually captured an image of a huge star-forming region called 30 Doradus in the southern hemisphere's Large Magellanic Cloud. Much like M82, 30 Doradus has a high level of gamma ray emissions, and contains several huge stars which of course explode into supernovae.

NASA on Monday released footage of the Ares I-X test launch taken by an aircraft near the splashdown point. This footage shows the liftoff, separation and splashdown of the rocket. However, it also shows the parachute problem which occurred as the spent booster headed for the Atlantic Ocean. During the parachute deployment, it looks as if all the chutes deployed, however, two of the three chutes seemed to fail at that point. Some suspension lines for one of the chutes seemed to have snapped, causing the chute to act more like a streamer. A second chute seemed to partially deflate shortly thereafter. Not surprisingly, diver teams discovered damage along the booster casing and a partially opened joint between rocket segments that was caused as the rocket slammed into the surface of the water instead of touching down vertically as it would have done were the chutes functioning properly. High speed cameras and data recorders have been recovered from the rocket and hopefully by studying this footage, more information about the parachute failure may be discovered.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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Hello, astro-nuts!

The last few days haven't been too great for observing here in central PA, but I hope some of you elsewhere have been able to do some stargazing. Is anyone going to be observing on Halloween? There are going to be some nice treats for you in the sky, and then if you're in a "clock-changing time zone" you get an extra hour of observing time in as well (you COULD have an extra hour of sleep, but....;) ). Don't forget that a new Astronomy video was posted on Wednesday. In the news, quasars are being used to pinpoint Earth's location in space, and the Ares I-X test launch was a success on Wednesday.

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Some of you may have heard about the small asteroid which exploded over Indonesia earlier this month. Not a whole lot of buzz was heard in this part of the world until now, but it was big news to the people of South Sulawesi, Indonesia on October 8th. It was estimated that the asteroid was about 30 feet across and it exploded at an altitude between 10 and 12 miles above the ground so there wasn't any damage at ground level, but the explosion had the force of about 50,000 tons of TNT, so it was certainly audible. Sensors around the world that "listen" for nuclear explosions picked up the sound wave from the exploding asteroid. Astronomers are mainly focused on the bigger asteroids, so only a handful of the asteroids smaller than about 300 feet have actually been discovered; so this one slipped by. Unfortunately, a worldwide survey to focus on finding small asteroids is a costly project; however it should be obvious that such a survey is necessary, especially since an asteroid just 65 feet across could cause damage at ground level. If done smartly, such a project would be worthwhile but if not it could be a huge waste of time and money. Your thoughts on this?

On a lighter note, this weekend will be a great time for stargazing, assuming the weather cooperates of course. Early Saturday morning Mars will be traveling through the Beehive Cluster in the constellation Cancer and will emerge on the outskirts of the object the morning of November 1st. While enjoying your Halloween candy treats (mmmm, Almond Joy and Kit Kats....) Saturday night, look for Jupiter near Iota Capricorni; the two will be separated by about 1/3 of a degree. Friday and Saturday night, Saturn can be seen about 20 degrees higher than Venus In the southeastern sky. Venus, meanwhile, will be close to the star Spica In the constellation Virgo. Mercury will then be below Venus...whew. Sunday morning at 2am of course, don't forget about changing your clocks back one hour if you live within a time zone that participates (in the U.S. that would be pretty much everywhere except Hawaii and Arizona-check out the worldtimezone website for other locations).

Another treat for you...an interactive panorama of the Milky Way! Check this out!

Astronews!

Many of us use a GPS to help us navigate while we are traveling. You may know that a GPS works by a satellite in orbit essentially "telling" your GPS where you are so you remain oriented as to your location. Very precise calculations of a satellite in its orbit are needed for this but it can be difficult because the satellites are moving. Astronomers wanted to be able to calculate the Earth's orientation in space in much the same way; however, stars cannot be used since their motion is obvious, so other objects much more remote had to be used. These objects are in fact so distant that their motion cannot be so easily detected and it's as if they are sitting still. These objects are quasars, which can be over a billion light-years distant but intensely bright because of gases trapped in black holes becoming superheated. These quasars have been more precisely mapped and in 1991, a collection of more than 600 of them helped astronomers create a sort of celestial map with which to orient Earth's position. This map was called the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) and took until 1995 to complete. Since then, an effort has been made to update the map since many more quasars have been discovered and more precise measurements of their locations has been taken.
This was thanks to the International Very Long Baseline Interferometer, which provides the ability to pick up the radio signals emitted by quasars (a traditional visible light telescope cannot detect them). There are several VLBIs within a worldwide network, some larger than others, and these of course help resolve the quasars in better detail. Imagine a telescope thousands of miles in diameter; that is what the entire network resembles! As a result, the newest map, ICRF2, now contains around 3,000 quasar reference points. The VLBI observations helped to decrease mathematical uncertainties about location to the width of one of those mechanical pencil leads (less than 1mm) "in Los Angeles when viewed from Washington". This is about five times better than the original ICRF. Wow.

The Ares 1-X test rocket was finally launched on Wednesday at 11:30am EDT from Kennedy Space Center. The flight itself only lasted about two minutes, but the entire event took around six minutes from launch to splashdown. The rocket was launched to a height of about 150,000 feet after the stages separated; they then splashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The 327-foot rocket consisted of four segments and two stages. Only the first stage where the motor was located, was "real". The second stage and Orion capsule within it were mockups. The rocket reached nearly 3 g's and Mach 4.76, which is nearly hypersonic speed (Mach 5 is 5 times the speed of sound and is considered hypersonic). Following splashdown, only the booster and solid rocket motor were recovered for later inspection. The rest of the mocked up rocket were not recovered.
Around 700 sensors around the rocket were collecting data about the rocket and its environment during the test flight. The sensors also tested flight engineering data, assembly and launch operations, separation of the stages, and of course control and aerodynamics. It also was a test for hardware, facilities and ground operations. Additional testing of the rocket and its components are scheduled over the next year or so, just in time for the shuttle fleet to be retired later in 2010. The Ares rocket test was part of the Constellation program, which is expected to replace the space shuttle fleet by the middle of the next decade. More information can be found at the Ares 1-X website.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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Hello, astro-nuts!

First I just wanted to say happy 40th anniversary to the show Monty Python's Flying Circus...that really doesn't have much to do with astronomy, other than the fact that all the main cast members have asteroids named after them, but I love the show and just wanted to mention it :). It has been awhile since the last entry but there's a lot going on to talk about today, like the test launch of the Ares I-X rocket, and the discovery of over thirty new exoplanets!

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Tonight after dark, be sure to grab your cameras and take some shots of Jupiter pairing up with the Moon. You should be able to see Jupiter as a bright point of light in the south-southwest at sunset that will get brighter as the sky gets darker. Enjoy!

Solar observers! Head outside with your Coronados and check out sunspot 1029! This little beauty (or rather, big beauty) showed up this past weekend and is still growing. Class B and C flares have been observed from the sunspot, which could be the largest sunspot of 2009 at the rate it has been growing. Watch this animation from the SOHO spacecraft to see how it has grown since the weekend. Please remember to only view the sun through a really good solar filter on your scope OR better yet, use an actual solar telescope like a Coronado. Do not attempt to look at the sun through a telescope as you would normal deep-sky objects, EVER.

The phrase "There's an app for that" has become quite familiar to those of us who have seen those Iphone/ITouch commercials. There are thousands, if not millions of applications available for the IPhone/ITouch now, and NASA has recently added their own creation to the mix. According to NASA, "The NASA App collects, customizes and delivers an extensive selection of dynamically updated information, images and videos from various online NASA sources. Users can access NASA countdown clocks, the NASA Image of the Day, Astronomy Image of the Day, online videos, NASA's many Twitter feeds and other information in a convenient mobile package....The NASA App also allows users to track the current positions of the International Space Station and other spacecraft currently orbiting Earth in three views: a map with borders and labels, visible satellite imagery, or satellite overlaid with country borders and labels."If you have tried this app, leave some comments and tell me what you think about it!

The Chandra X-ray telescope has confirmed the existence of the most distant galaxy cluster yet. Cluster JKCS041is estimated to be about 10.2 billion light years away. It was actually first spotted in 2006 with optical and infrared instruments from Earth that revealed the presence of old red stars within the galaxy members of the cluster. The use of infrared instruments in observing galaxy clusters is crucial because the optical light from distant galaxies tends to "shift" into the infrared spectrum as the universe expands. The observations from the Chandra X-ray telescope shows the classic signature of hot gases between the galaxies in the cluster that revealed it as such, rather than a single galaxy that was forming.

Astronews!

Weather pending, the Ares I-X rocket is a "go" for launch on Tuesday at 8am eastern time, weather pending of course. Right now it looks like a 40 percent chance for favorable conditions, which means that rain or thunderstorms could delay the launch until Wednesday if the weather does not improve by noon on Tuesday. The same time window is available for Wednesday if this is the case. The 327-foot (largest in the world right now), two-stage Ares I-X rocket will be launched to an altitude of 150,000 feet before plunging into the Atlantic Ocean; only about 3 minutes will pass between launch and the plunge into the ocean. This is a full-scale version in appearance only. Only the first stage of Ares I-X is "real"; it is essentially a solid-fuel motor.The upper stage and "capsule" are lighter mockups. More than 700 sensors spread across the rocket will be collecting all kinds of flight and environment data to be used for additional tests in the near future. All of this testing will hopefully build up to the launch of the Constellation program by 2017. Within that program, the Orion crew capsule would be used as a replacement for the soon-to-be-retired space shuttle fleet and set atop the Ares I-X rocket, just like what was done in the early days of the space program. However, as I reported awhile ago, the funding for the program has been cut by 3 billion dollars annually, which may not terminate the Constellation program, but it would affect the flow of the missions. Planned manned missions to land on Mars, the Moon and asteroids may not work out, but less costly orbiting/observational missions may still be possible. It will be interesting to see how the future of the space program pans out over the next decade.
**Tuesday AM Update** The test launch is being delayed by high clouds and high winds. High clouds are a problem because they are made of ice crystals with which there could be friction after launch. Attempts at 8:29am and 9:24am have thus far been scrubbed. The 9:44am launch was possible, but a cargo ship in the set range of the launch area caused another delay. The 9:49am launch was scrubbed because of more high clouds around the launch area.

Some of you may have already heard about the discovery of more than thirty new extrasolar planets (exoplanets) in part by the ESO High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS). HARPS is credited with assisting the discovery of 75 of the now 400+ known exoplanets across 30 planetary systems. Twenty-four of these have found to be "super-Earths" but are smaller than 20 times the mass of Earth. The precision of HARPS is the main reason that many of these "smaller super-Earths" have been discovered. HARPS is basically a spectrograph on steroids that is used in conjunction with ESO's 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile. It is able to measure the motions of stars by detecting changes in a star's radial velocity, including changes as subtle as a normal walking pace for a human. Changes like this are important because a star's radial velocity does actually "wobble" a bit under the slight gravitational pull of a possibly hidden exoplanet in orbit around the star, so high precision detection of these changes is crucial. During its five-year initial phase, HARPS has aided the discovery of the first "Super Earth", the first "Super Earth" in a habitable zone of a small star, the lightest exoplanet, and what appears to be a partially lava-covered world. More discoveries based on data from HARPS can be expected in the coming months, and some of the data will also be used to investigate the possible existence of planets around M dwarf stars and stars like our sun.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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Hello, astro-nuts!

Just a short entry today about tonight's Orionid Meteor Shower...

Whether you stay up late or get up early, don't miss tonight's sky show! The Orionid Meteor Shower will be peaking after midnight into early Wednesday morning. The shower itself usually runs from October 17-25th. The usual rate for the shower is about 20 meteors per hour; however, according to NASA, the past three years have brought unusually high rates for the shower and this year could be no different. Depending on your location, you could see around 30+ per hour, and if you're really lucky, upwards of 50 meteors could streak across the sky, so head for those dark sky sites! (ahem, Cherry Springs...:)).
The reason for this is the source of the meteor shower, good ol' Halley's Comet. Earth will again be passing through a rather dense debris field left from the comet as it passed through Earth's orbit. Computer models suggest that the field is still pretty rich and is still right in our path, which could not only mean more meteors, but some especially bright ones, too! This cycle of higher shower activity has been found to run in 12-year cycles, and we're still within that period. The best place to look, as the name of the shower suggests, is towards the constellation Orion the Hunter. Specifically, the radiant (point where the meteors seem to come from) will be to the left of the bright red star, Betelgeuse (above and to the left of Orion's belt in the "hunter's shoulder"). Enjoy the show, and if you're going to be doing some astrophotography or videography of the skies tonight, feel free to upload your footage to the AccuWeather.com photo gallery, and I can post some here on the blog!

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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