After thinking about joining AAAP for about 5 years, I finally made my decision on December 31, 2022. I have been interested in Astronomy since reading Issac Asimov’s 1968 book, “The Universe from Flat Earth to Quasar’s”. I wanted to go to University after High School but finances were tight, so I enlisted in the US Navy. While stationed at Pearl Harbor circa 1975-1977, I enjoyed a few astronomy classes at the University of Hawaii. My favorite course was given by, if I recall his name correctly, Dr. William Hickox, our textbook was by Shipman “Black Holes Quasars & the Universe”. After enlistment, life got in the way and I worked various jobs finally working in Information Technology mainly as a Network Engineer and retired in 2019. In retirement, I have renewed the goal of my youth and have been self-studying Astronomy, spending time on GalaxyZoo, observing and devoting a lot of time to Astrophotography.
In the century following Albert Einstein’s General theory of relativity, the term “Black holes” entered our lexicon. In addition to a greater understanding, Black holes have been confirmed via indirect means and also photographed in the last few ears. Greater understanding resulted from relating Black holes to a thermodynamic concept called Entropy, and also relating to information theory or quantum computing.
Albert Einstein did not come up with the idea of Black holes. It came up as a solution to the equations of Einstein’s General theory of relativity. Solved by a German Physicist Karl Schwarzschild. A Black hole is a very compact and dense, a few miles to a few hundred miles in diameter and weighing millions of solar masses, an object which sucks in all the matter in its vicinity. It warps space and time to a great extent that the time literally stops at the singularity within the Black hole. Super massive Black holes are at the center of all galaxies including our own Milky way. Our Black hole is known as Sagittarius A*. It probably started off as a graveyard of a massive star or a huge lump of coalescing gas, heavier than 1.4 solar masses which is known as Chandrasekhar limit. It probably grew by sucking in matter in its neighborhood. Like a corporation growing using the mergers and acquisitions route.
It was presumed that the Black holes live forever and accumulate matter as they go along. Steven Hawking found that Black holes do emit radiation. They are not at absolute zero cold temperatures. The temperature of a Black hole is inversely proportional to its mass. Heavier Black holes are colder while lighter ones are hotter. As per laws of Physics, any object which is hotter than absolute zero, known as a black body, produces radiation. This radiation is known as Hawking radiation. The formula for the temperature of a Black hole is engraved on the floor of Westminster Abbey where Hawking is buried. The following link points to details and picture of the formula:
As the Black holes “evaporate”, they become lighter and hotter and more radiation they emit. Becoming hotter and shrinking in size until they disappear. But they accumulate mass as well and become heavy. This dynamics plays out over billions of years, closer to the age of the Universe. Entropy is a pretty abstract concept. I struggled with understanding it for several years. I don’t pretend to understand it fully. Basically, it is a measure of disorder in a system. Things being scattered around a house or molecules being in different energy levels in a closed surrounding etc. It also involves the number of combinations in which things can be arranged, like a deck of cards. Thermodynamics is an area which deals with energy associated with heat. Two of the three laws of Thermodynamics are relevant to our discussion. One is the familiar law that energy is conserved – neither created nor destroyed but just converted from one form to another.
The second law states that the overall entropy in the Universe keeps increasing over time. The Universe started with zero Entropy and will keep increasing with its age. Rudolph Clausius, the Physicist who came up with the idea of Entropy, summarized by saying “the energy of the world is constant, the entropy strives for a maximum”. Entropy is what prevents heat from flowing from cold to hot or for time to go back into the past, although neither of them would violate the principle of energy conservation. The famous equation quantifying Entropy is engraved on the tomb of Ludwig Boltzmann, the Austrian Physicist. The picture below, courtesy Wikipedia, has his bust with the formula on the top of his tombstone.
The Black holes do have entropy by the virtue of having a temperature. Neither the entropy nor the temperature of a Black hole are zero. Information is represented as bits in computers. The number of bits required to store information is closely related to the Boltzman equation for Entropy. Information does share something with Entropy.
The basis for Hawking radiation is the generation of a virtual pair of submicroscopic particles close to the Event horizon. Event horizon is the point of no return for matter falling into a Black hole. Quantum mechanics tells us that these particles are “entangled”, which means that by studying one particle we can predict what the other particle would look like. For example, their spins are interrelated even after they leave their origin and travel vast distances. Even if one of the particles falls into the Black hole and another escapes in the form of Hawking radiation.
In normal circumstances such virtual pairs are created and destroyed all the time contributing to the vacuum energy of space. Such “entangled” particles near the Event horizon of the Black hole ensure that the information on matter which gets sucked into a Black hole is not lost, as was perceived earlier. It is stored in the Hawking radiation which emanates from the Black hole. In the book “Einstein’s shadow’”, Seth Fletcher writes “The idea that all the information about the interior of a black hole is engraved on a surface just outside the event horizon is called the holographic principle. Entanglement holds no matter how much distance separates the two particles-even if they are separated by the event horizon of a black hole. Entanglement plays an important factor in black hole evaporation. In quantum theory, a vacuum is never entirely empty. Spontaneous creation and annihilation of pairs of virtual particles. Near the event horizon, gravity rips a pair of virtual particles, one could fall into the black hole and other could escape. The escaping one becomes a real particle of Hawking radiation”.
The recent book titled “Black Holes” by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw summarizes thus “Entangled systems have a rich structure that encodes information in the correlations across the system. The information is lost if the entanglements are broken”. The behavior of particles at quantum levels is the basis of modern day Quantum computing. Entanglement is one of the key features which is exploited by the Quantum computers.
The notion that the Black holes and Quantum computers share commonality is an interesting one. Cross pollination of ideas not just to understand the abstract, but put to use to the benefit of humanity.
It’s the End of a World as We Know It Astronomers have witnessed a star gobbling up a planet, offering the first direct glimpse of a gnarly process called planetary engulfment that most likely awaits Earth in the deep future. Scientists serendipitously spotted a gas planet — like Jupiter but possibly larger…more
-NYT
This Is Not an Extraterrestrial Signal. This Is Just a Test. In the 1997 movie “Contact,” Jodie Foster plays an astronomer, Ellie Arroway, who detects an alien radio signal from outer space. Eventually the fictional Dr. Arroway goes on a trip through hyperspace to commune with an alien presence appearing in the form of her dead father…more
-NYT
The United Arab Emirates Is Heading for the Asteroid Belt Building off the success of its Hope spacecraft, which is still circling and studying Mars, the United Arab Emirates announced on Monday plans for an ambitious follow-up mission: a grand tour of the asteroid belt…more
Comet Tempel
NASA’s Webb Finds Water, and a New Mystery, in Rare Main Belt Comet NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has enabled another long-sought scientific breakthrough, this time for solar system scientists studying the origins of Earth’s abundant water. Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, astronomers have confirmed gas – specifically water vapor…more
-NASA
Webb, DART Missions Win AIAA 2023 Premier Awards The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) honored NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) missions and contractors as three of the 2023 recipients of its most prestigious awards, the AIAA Premier Awards. The awards recognize the individuals in aerospace AIAA deems as most influential and inspiring…more
-NYT
NASA Picks Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Lander for Artemis V Mission On their second try, Jeff Bezos and his rocket company have won a contract to take NASA astronauts to the moon. NASA announced on Friday that it had awarded a contract to Mr. Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, to provide a lunar lander for a moon mission that is scheduled to launch in 2029…more
-BBC
Scientist makes alien weather forecast for distant planet A scientist’s “alien weather forecast” for a distant planet has helped a NASA-coordinated team gain a new understanding of it. Dr Michael Roman, from the University of Leicester, made the observations about the atmospheric conditions on the planet GJ 1214b, which was discovered in 2009…more
-Nature
NASA Sees ‘Otherworldly’ Wreckage on Mars With Ingenuity Helicopter The object resembles a flying saucer that crashed on Mars. And indeed it is. But it doesn’t belong to aliens. Instead, the wreckage is the work of NASA, a component called a backshell that detached during the landing of the Perseverance rover on the surface of the red planet in February 2021….more
-BBC
James Webb telescope: Icy moon Enceladus spews massive water plume Astronomers have detected a huge plume of water vapour spurting out into space from Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn. The 504km-wide (313 miles) moon is well known for its geysers, but this is a particularly big one. The water stream spans some…more
-BBC
Welsh space firm devises ‘shuttlecock’ heatshield A Welsh space start-up has developed a novel heatshield to enable it to re-use satellites brought back to Earth. It’s a large flexible sheet that can be folded tightly for launch but then spring out like a shuttlecock to protect a spacecraft when it returns. Cardiff-based Space Forge…more
-BBC
Meteosat-12: Europe’s new weather satellite takes first photos The first images from Europe’s new weather satellite, Meteosat-12, have just been released. The spacecraft, which sits 36,000km above the equator, was launched in December and is currently in a testing phase that will last most of this year…more
-NASA
NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Peers Behind Bars A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The bright tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image – a composite from two of Webb’s instruments…more
by Rex Parker, PhD director@princetonastronomers.org
May 9 Meeting – Election of Officers. Through our 60-year history we have elected officers (the Board of Trustees) for new 1-year terms at the May meeting as provided in the by-laws. Nominations committee chair Lee Sandberg has reported that each of the current officers is willing to serve again, forming a slate for the election. The 7 candidates for the Board positions are Rex Parker (Director), Larry Kane (Assistant Director), Michael Mitrano (Treasurer), Gene Allen (secretary), Victor Davis (Program Chair), Dave Skitt (Observatory Chair), and Bill Murray (Outreach Chair). For your information, the constitution, by-laws, and position descriptions are on the website https://www.princetonastronomy.org/club_by_laws.html.
After the Break. The tradition each month is for a member to give an Unjournal Club, a ~10 minute excursion into astro thoughts and activities, to begin the second half of the meeting. I call upon you to consider doing an Unjournal Club presentation to help the club as well as yourself get a little more involved in the flow of astronomy in AAAP. You can use PowerPoint slides, JPEG’s, astro-images, travel pictures, book reviews — your imagination is the limit (note: no need to bring a laptop computer, simply bring a USB memory stick). To get onto the schedule for an upcoming meeting, please contact me or the program chair.
Insects Share a Big Problem with Astronomers. Excess night lighting is as damaging to small flying creatures as it is for astronomers. As the stars fade from view we are blinded from seeing ourselves in relation to the cosmos, losing our perspective — just as moths are trapped in the glare of lamps. Entomologists are reporting that the decline of insect populations around the world is related to excess outdoor lighting at night. Why are insects drawn to light to their demise? This question becomes highly relevant amid recent increases in light pollution and the decline of insect populations, which threatens to crash entire ecosystems for which insects are an essential major component.
The underlying biological mechanism for nocturnal insects’ attraction and rapid flying around flames and lamps, often to their demise, has been difficult to determine. The 3-D tracking of small moving objects in low light is technically difficult (a challenge well-shared by astro-imagers), and necessary tools did not exist before. Previous theories include lunar navigation, escaping towards light as if it were a “gap” in the foliage, and blinding of sensitive eyes. All flying animals need a reliable way to determine orientation to the external world, especially with reference to the direction of gravity. Throughout insects long evolutionary history, the sky has been the brightest part of the visual field, making it a robust indicator of “up”. This is true also at night, especially at short wavelengths.
A new report (posted April 12, 2023) on BioRxiv, the preprint server for biology, provides novel insight to how this happens (Fabian et al., Why flying insects gather at artificial light | bioRxiv). This paper caught my eye upon return from a nature tour of Costa Rica – the authors’ field studies were conducted at Monteverde in Costa Rica. Fabian and colleagues used high-speed (500 fps) and high-resolution imaging in the field and lab to study the kinematics of insect flights around artificial light. They show that artificial point light source induces abnormal flight behavior in insects. But contrary to expectations of attraction, insects do not steer directly toward the light. Rather, they turn their backsides toward the light and fly perpendicular to the light source. They consistently fly orthogonal to the light source. Under natural sky light this dorsal tilting maintains proper flight attitude and control. But near artificial lamps, the dorsal light response causes steering around the light and traps the insect in endless loops.
The authors conclude that the dorsal tilting causes the erratic flight paths of insects near lights, providing the most plausible model for why flying insects gather and become entrapped at artificial lights. They suggest that light entrapment of insects at a local scale is due to a corruption of the insect’s attitude control rather than navigation. Bright nearby lights disrupt this mechanism and cause unintentional course alterations in insect flight. Reducing bright, unshielded, and upward facing lights will mitigate the impact on flying insects, simultaneously helping restore the sky to our own eyes and telescopes.
Welcome to Peyton Hall The May, 2023 meeting of the AAAP will take place IN PERSON on Tuesday, May 9th at 7:30 PM. As usual, the meeting is open to AAAP members and the public.
Options for Attending the April Meeting You may choose to attend the meeting in person or participate via Zoom or YouTube as we’ve been doing for the past few years. (See How to Participate below for details). This evening’s guest speaker is Alain Maury, discoverer of asteroids and operator and tour guide of a visual observatory in the pristine skies of Chile. He and his wife will join us for a “Meet the Speaker” dinner at La Mezzaluna restaurant in Princeton’s Palmer Square, then join us in Peyton Hall for his presentation “The Hunt for Near Earth Asteroids.”
Here’s the anticipated agenda for May’s monthly meeting of the AAAP:
(Times are approximate)
Getting to Peyton Hall The parking lots across the street (Ivy Lane) from Peyton Hall are now construction sites, unavailable for parking. We’ve been advised by the administration of the astrophysics department that we should park in the new enclosed parking garage off Fitzrandolph street and walk around the stadium and athletic fields. Here’s a map of the campus and walking routes from the parking garage to Peyton Hall. The map shows the recently completed East Garage. Not shown is an access road Sweet Gum that connects from Faculty Road to an entrance at the lower left corner of the garage. Stadium Road connects from Fitzrandolph Road to another entrance at the opposite corner (and higher level) of the garage. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk from the parking garage to Peyton Hall.
Featured Speaker: Alain Maury Asteroid Discoverer and Observatory Operator and Guide amaury2020@spaceobs.com
The Hunt for Near Earth Asteroids Astronomers, admittedly not reputed for their robust sense of humor, sometimes joke that the world would be a very different place if the dinosaurs had in place a space program sixty-five million years ago. The dinosaurs’ demise, along with seventy percent of all species of life on Earth, plus more recent harbingers such as Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 at Jupiter a few decades ago, motivated several apocalyptic (and abysmally bad) movies and an interest in discovering and characterizing Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs). Astronomers believe that with enough lead-time, perhaps measured in decades or centuries, potentially catastrophic impacts could be avoided by nudging dangerous objects away from Earth-intersecting trajectories. At the dawn of the space age, 20 Near Earth Asteroids were known; in 1980, the number reached 50. In 2000 we reached 1000 known NEAs. In 2022, we passed the 30000 mark, and counting… Mr. Maury will describe his own experience of how this revolution occurred, and why discovering more and smaller near earth asteroids is important.
Alain Maury Alain Maury started as an amateur astronomer. The first asteroid he observed with his 3-inch telescope convinced him that asteroids were the most boring things in the sky. He later changed opinion, discovered his first Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) in 1983 and has followed the field ever since. He has worked in several observatories (Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Palomar Mountain Observatory, European Southern Observatory). In 2003 he left the professional world to open a touristic observatory in Chile’s Atacama desert. SPACE (San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations) receives about 15,000 tourists per year who can discover the beauty of the universe through several large telescopes. The largest has an aperture of 45 inches. This activity allows him to finance his own research with a group of friends. The MAP project (Maury, Attard, Parrott) is the 4th most successful asteroid search program in the world, after the 3 largest, NASA financed programs.
Thanks to Gene Allen for suggesting and following up with this month’s guest speaker.
This Month’s “Meet the Speaker” Dinner……will take place at La Mezzaluna restaurant. 25 Witherspoon Street (in Palmer Square) Princeton, NJ. (609) 688-8515
La Mezzaluna is an Italian restaurant that features outdoor dining under a canopy. We’ll be honoring recent guest speakers John Church and Ira Polans as well as Mr. Maury. Please take note of the new location. Our club’s reservation is for 5:45 pm Tuesday, May 9th.
Please contact me to reserve a spot if you’re planning to attend.
AAAP webcast: This month’s AAAP meeting, beginning with Rex’s opening remarks and ending at the beginning of the business meeting, will be webcast live on YouTube and recorded for subsequent public access on AAAP’s YouTube channel. Be aware that your interactions during this segment, including questions to our guest speaker, may be recorded for posterity.
Join YouTube Live to listen to the speaker Ira Polans using the link below –
This session will be recorded and saved on YouTube. Send me an email at program@princetonastronomy.org if you have any concerns.
Using Zoom: While we are social distancing, the AAAP Board has chosen to use Zoom for our meetings, based on our belief that many members have already used Zoom and have found it easy to use. One of its great features is you can choose whether you want to install the software on your computer or use it within your browser.
Please make sure you have Zoom installed on your computer. You do not need a Zoom account or to create one to join the meeting. Nor are you required to use a webcam.
Please see below for the link to the meeting, or visit our website.
There is no “Unjournal Club” presentation scheduled this month. As you may know, guest speakers receive a baseball cap with the AAAP logo embroidered upon it as a “thank you” for making a presentation to us. We’re expanding the hat giveaway to members who contribute an “Unjournal Club” presentation to encourage participation.
We hope to make these short presentations a regular feature of our monthly meetings. We’d like to know what members are doing or what members are thinking about in the broad range of topics encompassed by astronomy. A brief ten-minute (or so) presentation is a good way to introduce yourself and the topics you care about to other club members. If you are interested in presenting a topic of interest, please contact either director@princetonastronomy.org or program@princetonastronomy.org.
A look ahead at future guest speakers:
June 13, 2023
Bill Murray, AAAP’s Outreach Director and staffer at NJ State Museum planetarium Bill will give his traditional planetarium show at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.
Summer Hiatus
Later this fall
Gary Rendsburg, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Rutgers Prof. Rendsburg will talk about “The Jewish Calendar,” with emphasis on its astronomical connections to lunar months, intercalated month to adjust to the solar year, festival days, and new moon observances.
As always, members’ comments and suggestions are gratefully accepted and much appreciated.
The meeting was opened in Peyton Hall at 1931 by Director Rex Parker. There were 27 attending in person and 18 logged in on Zoom. After a brief summary of his agenda items, Rex invited Program Chair Victor Davis to introduce our speaker, Member Ira Polans. His presentation centered on a film about the archeoastronomy of the ancient residents of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. He offered background on the Four Corners region and a thumbnail history of the early peoples. A DVD entitled The Sun Dagger was presented. Zooming of the in-person video was prohibited by copyright protections so home viewers were invited to rent a streaming version. The film ran from 1955 until 2055 and was followed by a ten minute break.
At 2105 we resumed with more comments then questions, with 16 attending and 14 on Zoom.
Rex convened the business meeting at 2125, opening with Nominations Chair Lee Sandberg reporting that all incumbent officers are willing to stand for reelection except Treasurer Michael Mitrano who has yet to respond. Nominations remain open until our May 9 meeting when the election will be held.
Assistant Director Larry Kane reported on Eclipse Trip April 8, 2024. We had a Zoom meeting of some 19 interested members but there was no consensus on going to any one location. From available climate data Texas will have the best prospect of cloudless skies. One member has a reservation in what is likely the best location at the cost of thousands just for accommodations. Three will search for accommodations and viewing opportunities and report back promptly. Since we may be scattered at different locations it was suggested that we set up a Zoom connection to share the experience in real time and afford those who get clouded out some idea of what they are missing.
Rex invited members to participate in observatory public nights and bring their scopes. He wants to set a record for the number of scopes on the field. He expressed appreciation for Debbie Mayes, newly designated our Promotions Chair, and her continuing work managing our social media presence and greeting the public at the observatory.
The current status of the threatened Holmdel Horn is unknown; maybe make it a field trip.
Visitor Pat Marcattilio read several vintage reports of UFOs seen in this area and noted that the US Navy has recently changed its policy and will start to take UFO reports seriously. Given the incredible number of planetary systems that exist in just our own galaxy, he recommends keeping an open mind.
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton 