Snippets

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ST Editors

compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

-BBC

-BBC

Google Doodle celebrates scientist Mary Somerville
Mary Fairfax Somerville was a mathematician, geographer and astronomer, who was born in 1780 in Jedburgh but her childhood home was at Burntisland in Fife. Mary carried out detailed and highly-accurate studies of the solar system. Mary was also a huge advocate of women’s rights…
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Solar Orbiter. Sun mission blasts off!

-BBC

Solar Orbiter: Sun mission blasts off
Europe’s audacious Solar Orbiter probe has lifted off on its quest to study the Sun from close quarters. The spacecraft launched aboard an Atlas rocket, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 04:03 GMT. Researchers hope the knowledge gained from Solar Orbiter (SolO) will improve the models used to forecast the worst of the outbursts…more

Allen Observatory

-BBC

Astronomers want public funds for intelligent life search
The director of the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville in Virginia said that it was now “time for Seti to come in from the cold and be properly integrated to all other areas of astronomy”. Dr. Anthony Beasley told the BBC that there should be greater government support…more

Two space objects fusing together. The genesis of a small planetoid.

-BBC

New Horizons spacecraft ‘alters theory of planet formation’
The established view is that material violently crashed together to form ever larger clumps until they became worlds. New results suggest the process was less catastrophic – with matter gently clumping together instead. The study’s lead researcher, Dr Alan Stern, said that…more

Crater on Lunar Surface

-BBC

Open University scientists testing ‘Moon dust’ for water
Ms Sergeant said: “The production of water, either from frozen deposits at the lunar poles or generating water from the rocks themselves, will be the first step to enable such long-term space exploration missions.”…more

Posted in March 2020, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

From the Director

Posted on February 2, 2020 by ST Editors

Rex

 

 

 

by Rex Parker, Phd director@princetonastronomy.org

What’s Happening in AAAP
This month’s lecture on Feb 11 at Peyton Hall will deepen our look at our own favorite star, the sun, from the incredibly close perspective of NASA’s Parker Solar probe. Recent updates from Parker’s NASA blog on Jan. 29 indicated that in its latest (fourth) solar orbit the probe came closer than 12 million miles from the Sun’s surface and reached a speed of 244,000 miles per hour. These are unprecedented achievements in the history of science. See Ira’s section below for more on the speaker and specifics about the talk.

Meanwhile here in our local corner of the planet we patiently await clear nights, especially on weekends, for the opportunity to gather at AAAP’s Observatory in Washington Crossing Park for member training/refresher sessions with the astronomy equipment and software. Due to the challenges of weather this time of year, announcements for these sessions are likely to come on short notice – so please keep your eyes on the e-mail when signs of a clearing sky appear. I hope to see you out there over the next couple of months.

We are also aiming for a special observing outreach session on Feb 29 at the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space headquarters at the mansion (on the patio) at the Ted Stiles Preserve on Baldate Mountain in Hopewell Township (https://www.fohvos.info/events/). To participate with your telescope go to the Calendar on our website and send a note to outreach@princetonastronomy.org.

Princeton Legacy of the Space Telescopes
Here among the ivy-trailed towers and steeply slanting lecture halls across our benefactor university, many tales intertwine to speak of deeds worthy of our remembering. So many bright stars of astronomy have called Princeton University home through the decades.

The Spitzer Space Telescope has gone out with a flare of news and publicity recently as it concluded its scientific career on January 30, 2020. It made numerous discoveries from exoplanetary to galactic research in its nearly 18 year life, longer than ever expected. The Spitzer telescope’s earth-trailing solar orbit was the first among spacecraft. Rather than circling Earth as Hubble does, Spitzer orbits the Sun but moves more slowly and drifts farther away from earth each year. Spitzer was one of NASA’s four orbiting Great Observatories which spanned the wavelengths and together enabled concomitant observations of deep space across the spectrum: Spitzer (infrared), Hubble (visible), Compton (gamma ray), and Chandra (X-ray). Each wears the name of a luminary of astronomy and astrophysics. Did you realize that the Spizter was named for a Princeton University icon?

An earlier chapter in this story begins with Spitzer’s mentor at Princeton, professor Henry Norris Russell (also director of the Princeton University Observatory). In the early 1910’s, Russell’s trail-blazing work and intellectual abilities led him to deep insights about the fundamental relationships between temperature, size, distance, and luminosity of stars. He developed a profoundly elegant formulation which today is known by students and amateurs alike as the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram. Independently established by Russell and the Danish astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung, the H-R diagram can be used to directly infer a wide range of stellar astrophysical properties. As Russell continued his work at Princeton he mentored several young PhD students, one of the brightest being Lyman Spitzer, who received his doctorate in 1938 and went on to astrophysics fame. Spitzer made big contributions in stellar dynamics and plasma physics over many decades at Princeton. He became one of the main drivers of thermonuclear fusion research in the 1950s, culminating in Project Matterhorn which in 1961 became the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Today Spitzer’s stellarator fusion design prototype can still be seen in the main lobby at PPPL. He is acknowledged as the first to seriously conceive and promote development of space-based telescopes, and was a force in the creation of the Hubble Space telescope.

It is this legacy which NASA honored by naming the Spitzer Space Telescope back in the early 2000’s. Over the next millennium, this reminder of the incomparable history of great astronomers at Princeton will continue its now lonely journey watching over the planets and stars, a sentinel for the remarkable scientific achievements of its namesake and lineage.

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From the Program Chair

Posted on February 2, 2020 by ST Editors

by Ira Polans, Program Chair

Featured Speaker The February meeting of the AAAP will be held on the 11th at 7:30 PM in the auditorium of Peyton Hall on the Princeton University campus. The talk is on Parker Solar Probe’s Historic First Passages by the Sun by David J. McComas, Princeton University Vice President for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission launched 12 August 2018 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The mission design required the nation’s largest launce vehicle – a Delta IV-Heavy with an additional Upper Stage – and seven Venus flybys to progressively lower its orbit’s perihelion down to within 9 solar radii of the Sun’s surface. After the initial Venus flyby, the first two perihelia pierced within ~35 solar radii, nearly twice as close to the Sun as the planet Mercury or any prior spacecraft. Parker Solar Probe carries four instrument suites to measure 1) the surrounding density structures from scattered white light and in situ observations of 2) plasma ions and electrons, 3) magnetic and electric fields, and 4) solar energetic particles; this last suite, the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS☉IS), is led by Princeton University. This talk summarizes the Parker mission and highlights early results from these various measurements over the first two orbits.

Speaker Biography David J. McComas is Princeton University Vice President (VP) for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, and Associated Faculty in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. As VP, he also serves on the Princeton University President’s Cabinet, President’s Council, and Executive Compliance Committee. Previously he was Assistant VP of the Space Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas, and an Adjoint Professor in the joint University of Texas, San Antonio – SwRI graduate program in Physics, which he helped to establish in 2004. From 1998 through 2000 Dr. McComas served as the founding Director of the Center for Space Science and Exploration (CSSE) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Prior to that, he was concurrently the NASA Program Manager at Los Alamos Group Leader for Space and Atmospheric Sciences (NIS-1). Dr. McComas received his B.S. Degree in Physics from MIT in 1980 and Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA in 1986.

Dr. McComas is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has received numerous awards and accolades including the AGU’s 2018 Eugene Parker Lecture, the COSPAR Space Science Award in 2014, NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal in 2015, and AGU’s James B. Macelwane Award in 1993.

Dr. McComas is the Principal Investigator for NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP, Boundary Explorer (IBEX) Mission, the Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers (TWINS) Explorer Mission-of-Opportunity, the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISʘIS) on Solar Probe Plus and the Ulysses Solar Wind Observations Over the Poles of the Sun (SWOOPS) Experiment; he is also the lead Co-Investigator for the Solar Wind Electron Proton Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) instrument on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), the solar wind analyzer for the New Horizons mission to Pluto (SWAP), and the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) on the Juno spacecraft that will orbit over Jupiter’s poles. At Los Alamos he was also the Principal Investigator for DOE’s series of 10 Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer (MPA) instruments at geosynchronous orbit. Dr. McComas is Co-Investigator on NASA’s Medium Energy Neutral Atom (MENA) instrument on the IMAGE Midsized Explorer, the plasma instrument for the Cassini mission to Saturn (CAPS), the GENESIS Discovery mission, ISTP Polar spacecraft’s Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment (TIDE), the Cluster plasma electron instrument (PEACE), and is a team member on the New Millennium Plasma Experiment for Planetary Exploration (PEPE).

10-Minute Member Talk After the break Bill Murray will give a talk on The Past and Future of Astronomy. If you’re interested in giving a future 10 minute talk please either email me at program@princetonastonomy.org or speak with me during an upcoming meeting.

Meet-the-Speaker Dinner There will be a meet the speaker dinner at 6 PM at Winberie’s in Palmer Square prior to the meeting. If you are interested in attending please email me by noon on February 11 at program@princetonastonomy.org.

Posted in February 2020, Sidereal Times | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Minutes of the January 14, 2020 AAAP General Meeting

Posted on February 2, 2020 by ST Editors

by John Miller, Secretary

  • Director Rex Parker opened the meeting, 7:30PM. He reviewed several current items on the club’s agenda (Keyholder and Member observatory training). It was announced that member Ted Frimet has volunteered as co-editor of Sidereal Times, taking the place of Prasad Ganti.
  • Ira Polans introduced guest speaker, Associate Professor of Physics, Bin Chen of NJIT. His presentation centered on solar atmospheric dynamics. There were approximately 50 attendees.
  • It was announced that the AAAP has joined the NASA Night Sky Network. Contact Rex Parker or David Skitt for details regarding participation by AAAP members.
  • A general discussion addressing the pending project to refurbish the observatory support columns was revisited. Outstanding issues remain contractor availability and costs and necessary permits. Rebuild design was also discussed.
  • The current club financial balance is reported at $15,100.
  • The meeting adjourned about 10 P.M.
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Let’s be naughty!

Posted on February 2, 2020 by ST Editors

by Theodore R Frimet

look under the bonnet

Thank you all for allowing me to step up to the plate and learn how to co-edit Sidereal Times. From studying the banner pages, I’ve identified many good souls that have contributed their talents, throughout the years. The one consistent astronomical find is our present Editor-in-Chief, Surabhi Agarwal.

Let’s all tip our proverbial hat to Editor Agarwal, as we peer into the observatory lens of journalism, and find not less than 11,753 views, complemented by 6,102 visitors in 2019.

Your contributions, and Surabhi’s adeptness to flawlessly edit, have provided eons of images and text for all to see and learn from.

Clear Skies,
Ted Frimet

View count for countries visiting Sidereal Times in 2019. A total of 11,753 views, with the United States leading at 8,518.

Sidereal Times has 11,753 total views for 2019 with the United States leading at 8,518.

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Orion the Hunter

Posted on February 2, 2020 by ST Editors

by Theodore R Frimet

neither slumber nor sleep

The night sky is truly wonderful. I find it sometimes hard to explain. I have been searching for an explanation ever since. What, you ask? Orion the Hunter appears on his side, early evening at the horizon, and then stands tall, at the upper meridian later at night. That is the question.

I have observed, at Washington Crossing Park, as well as at Jenny Jump, that constellations appear larger or smaller, depending on the time of night. I’ve read this is due to an illusion. Perhaps the same type where we see a Large Moon, or a Small Moon. The moon size, however, depends on its relationship to our view thru the trees, or over the top of an apartment building, or house. It is in fact, an illusion.

I’d take it with a grain of salt, that the astronomers’ constellation view appears bigger or smaller. There are no trees in space. Apartment complexes and houses do not obstruct the wide field of view from the soccer field. I await the commentary of our readers to educate me and set the record straight.

For now, I will trust my eyes. The horizon at Washington Crossing Park is wonderful! Orion becomes my subject anew:

At the horizon’s far distance I spy the Hunter. He is virtually on his side. Hours later, I look up, and find him upright! I share my freshman opine with other seasoned amateurs. Of course they say, “happens all the time”. And yet, you and I must transcend Einstein, look past Newton, kick Galileo to the curb, and toss Kepler with Tycho Brahe in his pocket, too. Copernicus, shall we stare back at early cosmology of Ptolemy and Aristotle? Do I dare say, circles upon circles?

Oh, all right. Before I toss out the greats, and invoke the hostility of Astrology everywhere, I’ll remand myself to the Sixth Circle of Hell. Therein too heretics once burned before the eyes of Virgil and Dante.

In an all out effort to be brave, I crack open my toughest read ever recommended to me by another amateur. W. M. Smart’s Textbook on Spherical Astronomy, Sixth Edition, revised by R.M. Green, Cambridge University Press Edition, 1997, page 34, figure 17, to be precise. I’ll spare you the imagery, and make quick of the description, below:

The celestial equator is on a different visual angle than our horizon. And with the earth’s rotation, we observe not only the rise, and setting of Orion, we see his rotation as well. Further, our Southern observers “below” our equator see things a little differently. As we in the Northern Hemisphere witness The Great Hunter’s feet dipping below the line of site, our Southern partners would see Orion appear, feet first, and upside down!

Ah, the celestial sphere! A convenient construct that flattens out the three dimensions of space onto an imaginary plane. It is a brotherly view as if curved like the earth itself. Once again, it is we that are moved thru the night sky. From our observers fixed position on Earth, we rotate about our axis, giving the illusion that the hunter first sleeps, then awakens anew, standing upright.

This great heavenly envelope, or celestial sphere, is only a construct. There is no such thing. The motion of the heavenly bodies is an apparent one caused by Earths rotation. And with our axis tilt, as the stars follow the path of the celestial equator, Orion the Hunter neither sleeps, nor slumbers. Awake always, he remains my trusted friend thru the Winter night.

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