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Volume 58 No. 6 June 01, 2021

June 7th, 2021 CLAS Meeting

Dennis Kidder is a retired aerospace engineer, having worked for Hughes Aircraft/Raytheon for nearly 30 years. He has worked on many different programs, ranging from designing and building ground equipment used to fly to battlefield radio systems. Dennis was the Chief Telecom Engineer during construction of the new International Airport in Hong Kong. He is also an Amateur Radio Operator, holding an Extra Class license, W6DQ.

His interest in astronomy and radio astronomy goes back to his pre-teen days when he was given his first telescope as well as a book on building a radio telescope. He has had many telescopes over the years and even had an image of Halley's Comet published in National Geographic in December of 1997. Today he has a permanent observatory with a Meade 12" LX-200R as well as several portable instruments and is working towards having a proper radio telescope, which will double for use for amateur radio, bouncing signals of the , also know as Moonbounce or 'EME.' Between 2003 and 2005, Dennis and a group of amateur radio operators were allowed to use the 30 meter dish at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory to perform Moonbounce. The results of that were nothing short of amazing.

Dennis retired in 2012 and moved to Inyokern in 2015 to enjoy the quiet life and dark skies with his wife, Lisa.

The topic:

Amateur Radio Astronomy

This talk covers a little history of radio astronomy and discusses things that an amateur can accomplish with minimum expense (and even for free!). What is a radio telescope? What do radio telescopes actually receive and how does this help us understand the nature of the Universe?

China Lake Astronomical Society June meeting When Mon Jun 7, 2021 7:30pm – 9pm Pacific Time - Los Angeles Where https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83383244748?pwd=bHI2UVRHbG1tbUp1c3UwN0ZEMWlLZz09 (map) Joining info Join with Google Meet

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Keith W3ISZ is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Lake Astronomical Society June meeting Time: Jun 7, 2021 07:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83383244748?pwd=bHI2UVRHbG1tbUp1c3UwN0ZEMWlLZz09

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First evidence of cell membrane molecules in space All cells on are made of phospholipid membranes. Now astronomers have found the component molecules in interstellar space.

By The Physics arXiv Blog | Published: Friday, May 28, 2021

The origin of life is one the great unanswered questions in science. One piece of this puzzle is that life started on Earth 4.5 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the formation of the Solar System, and involved numerous critical molecular components. How did all these components come to be available so quickly? One potential explanation is that the Earth was seeded from space with the building blocks for life. The idea is that space is filled with clouds of gas and dust that contain all the organic molecules necessary for life.

Indeed, astronomers have observed these buildings blocks in interstellar gas clouds. They can see amino acids, the precursors of proteins and the machinery of life. They can also see the precursors of ribonucleotides, molecules that can store information in the form of DNA.

But there is another crucial component for life – molecules that can form membranes capable of encapsulating and protecting the molecules of life in compartments called protocells. On Earth, the membranes of all cells are made of molecules called phospholipids. But these have never been observed in space. Until now.

Precursors of life Víctor Rivilla at the Spanish Centre in Madrid and colleagues, have made the first detection in space of ethanolamine, a crucial component of the simplest phospholipid. The discovery suggests that the interstellar medium is brimming will all the precursors for life. “This has important implications not only for theories of the origin of life on Earth, but also on other habitable planets and satellites anywhere in the Universe,” say the team. The group made their discovery by analyzing light from an interstellar cloud of gas and dust called Sagittarius B2, just 390 light years from the center of the Milky Way. Astronomers have long known of this region as a rich reservoir of organic molecules, ices and dust particles.

Ethanolamine has the chemical formula NH2CH2CH2OH. The team simulated the spectrum that this molecule ought to produce at the cold temperatures thought to exist in the cloud. They then looked for, and found, clear evidence of this spectrum in light that had passed through the cloud.

Although never before spotted in space, astronomers have found ethanolamine in meteorites. How it got there has been an issue of some debate with some researchers arguing it could only have formed through an unusual set of reactions on a parent asteroid.

The new discovery suggests ethanolamine is much more widespread. On Earth, it forms the hydrophilic head of phospholipid molecules that self-assemble into cell membranes. Rivilla and colleagues say its discovery in interstellar clouds suggests “ethanolamine could have been transferred from the proto-Solar nebula to planetesimals and minor bodies of the Solar System, and thereafter to our planet.” That could have led to the formation of cells in the prebiotic soup from which our earliest ancestors emerged.

Radical idea

A more radical idea is that ethanolamine might allow the formation of protocells in the interstellar medium itself. This is rich in other prebiotic components such as water and amino acids, which these protocells would have naturally encapsulated. The result would then be ready-made melting pots of prebiotic goop ready to seed the Earth, or any other body that passes by. Of course, none of this ultimately answers the question of how life began on Earth. But the work does show that there is no longer any mystery about where the building blocks of life might have come from. “These results indicate that ethanolamine forms efficiently in space and, if delivered onto early Earth, it could have contributed to the assembling and early evolution of primitive membranes.,” say Rivilla and co. The question now is: what happened next?

Virgin Galactic Completes Third Successful

Virgin Galactic completed its third successful launch into outer space Saturday in New Mexico, according to the company, which aspires to become the first-ever commercial space line. The , named VSS Unity, was the first completed flight from Virgin Galactic in over two years. "Space travel is a bold and adventurous endeavor," Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Galactic Michael Colglazier said in a statement. "I am incredibly proud of our talented team for making the dream of private space travel a reality." VSS Unity — which carried astronauts CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay — was brought up to an altitude of 55.45 miles by aircraft VMS Eve, which was piloted by Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci. Saturday's trip made Sturckow the first person to ever have flown to space from three different states and made New Mexico the third U.S. state to launch humans into outer space. "After so many years and so much hard work, New Mexico has finally reached the stars," said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. "Our state's scientific legacy has been honored by this important achievement, one that took guts and faith and an unwavering belief in what New Mexico can achieve — and indeed is destined to achieve."

During the flight, Virgin Galactic completed a number of "test objectives," the company said, carrying scientific research experiments as part of NASA's Flight Opportunities Program and collecting data to be used in reports required for spacecraft operator licensing. The successful launch comes after a number of setbacks the company has experienced throughout its 17-year history. In December, an electromagnetic interference issue with VSS Unity resulted in a premature landing and failure to reach space, which delayed the company's testing schedule by months. "After being released from its mothership, the spaceship's onboard computer that monitors the rocket motor lost connection," Colglazier said in a statement at the time. "As designed, this triggered a fail- safe scenario that intentionally halted ignition of the rocket motor. "And in 2014, Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two exploded and crashed in California's Mojave desert during a test flight, ultimately killing one of the two crew members aboard and severely injuring the other. An investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board found that co-pilot Michael Alsbury deployed the spacecraft's feathering system too early which resulted in its explosion. "It was an incredibly sad day," the company's founder Richard Branson told CBSN in 2014. "It can never happen again."

According to the company's financial results, Virgin Galactic has approximately 600 reservations for future flights. Source: Virgin Galactic completes third successful spaceflight - CBS News First published on May 22, 2021 / 5:47 PM James Webb Space Telescope launch delay “likely,” says government report For once, the delay isn’t due to a problem with the telescope — but with the Ariane 5 rocket it’s scheduled to fly on. Editors Note: This is some interesting news and follow up on May’s CLAS meeting featuring Scott Cameron’s discussion on the James Webb Telescope.

NASA officials have acknowledged that the scheduled October launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could be pushed back yet again, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released May 13. But this time, the issue isn’t with the telescope. Instead, it's with the usually reliable, European-produced Ariane 5 rocket, which is slated to carry JWST aloft on October 31 from Kourou, French Guiana. “According to NASA project officials, the JWST launch date will likely be delayed beyond October 2021 due to anomalies discovered in the JWST ,” says the report. The issue lies with the Ariane 5's fairing, the nose cone that protects its payload as it accelerates up through the atmosphere. Once the vehicle reaches space, the fairing separates from the rocket in two pieces and falls away. But in two recent launches, the rocket experienced “unexpected vehicle accelerations” during fairing separation, according to the GAO report. As a result, Ariane 5 launches have been postponed while the European Space Agency and Arianespace, the rocket's manufacturer, investigate the issue.

The bright side

The good news is that any potential delay may only be a matter of weeks, rather than months or years. The JWST launch will not go ahead until an Ariane 5 has flown and successfully demonstrated a fix to the issue, says the report. But there are two Ariane 5 launches — planned for June and August of 2021— ahead of JWST's scheduled October flight. Although NASA has not officially announced any revision to JWST's current October 31 launch date, recent public comments reported by Space News indicate officials expect it will take roughly four months to prepare JWST after Ariane 5 is again approved for flight. So, if the June launch shows the fairing issue is resolved, JWST could be set to fly in November. A delay of a few weeks — or even a few months — would be far from the worst delay James Webb has faced so far. As the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST is already seven years behind its initial launch target of June 2014. Furthermore, its budget has nearly doubled, from $5 billion to an estimated $9.7 billion. In July 2020, when NASA pushed back JWST's launch from March 2021 to October 2021, it cited the COVID-19 pandemic, “as well as technical challenges.” Encouragingly, the GAO report found that work on JWST is still steadily moving forward, and “has made significant technical progress” since the most recent launch delay. For instance, earlier this week, the telescope passed a milestone as workers commanded it to unfurl its golden, 6.5-meter primary mirror — the last time it will do so on Earth. The test was the final preflight check of the intricate deployment process it will undergo when it reaches space. “The completion of this last test on its mirrors is especially exciting because of how close we are to launch later this year,” said Ritva Keski-Kuha, JWST's deputy optical telescope element manager, in a news release. Considering the latest issues with the Ariane 5, though, it seems the JWST team may have to wait just a little bit longer than they would like. Source: James Webb Space Telescope launch delay “ likely,” says government report | Astronomy.com

Zhurong is Rolling on

On May 22nd, 2021, the rover – part of Tianwen-1, China’s first mission to Mars – descended from its and drove on the for the first time. According to the mission’s official social media account, the rover drove down its descent ramp from the Tianwen-1 lander at 10:40 a.m. Beijing time (07:40 p.m. PDT; 10:40 p.m. EDT) and placed its wheels upon the surface of Mars. Mission controllers were treated to a video taken by the rover shortly thereafter, which showed the empty landing platform with its descent ramp extended. This comes about a week after the first images were taken by the rover (released on May 19th) that showed surface from the lander and the descent ramp deployed in front of it. The rover has now commenced science operations, which currently involve exploring its landing site. This is the second milestone achieved by the China National Space Agency (CNSA) in recent weeks, the first being the successful landing of the Tianwen-1 lander on May 14th. This made China the third nation to send a robotic mission to the surface of Mars, the others being the United States and the former . The Soviets were the first to land with the mission (1971), but communications were lost with the lander seconds later. On top of that, China is now the first nation to orbit, land, and deploy a rover as part of its first mission to Mars. Whereas all other nations – the US, , the EU, and India – began by sending orbiters, then landers, then orbiters, landers, and rovers, China has pulled off all three with its very first mission. Equipped with a suite of six scientific instruments, Zurong will spend a total of 90 days gathering data on the Martian surface. These include:

 Multi-Spectrum Camera (MSCam) – a radiometer that will capture different wavelengths of radiation on the surface

 Navigation and Topography Cameras (NaTeCam) – high-resolution cameras for mapping out the Martian surface

 Rover ground-Penetrating Radar (RoPeR) – for imaging features about 100 m (330 ft) beneath the Martian surface

 Mars Surface Magnetic Field Detector (RoMAG) for surveying Mars’ variable magnetic field

 Mars Meteorological Measurement Instrument (MMMI) – aka. Mars Climate Station (MCS), this instrument includes a thermometer, anemometer, and pressure sensor

 Mars Surface Compound Detector (MarsSCoDe) – a spectrometer capable of conducting infrared and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy The objectives of the Tianwen-1 mission include characterizing the internal structure of Mars, the composition of its surface material, its climate and environment, the distribution of water ice, the planet’s morphology and geology, the planet’s variable magnetic field, ionosphere, and other key characteristics. In essence, Zhurong will be joining the three NASA surface missions to learn more about what Mars once looked like. This includes studying features that formed in the presence of water and searching for possible indications of past life. It is for these very reasons that the Zhurong and its lander set down in , a plains region in the Northern Lowlands that was once covered by an ocean that enclosed much of the northern hemisphere. Utopia Planitia is also where NASA’s lander set down on September 3rd, 1976, to search for . The rover will also be looking for indications of what happened to Mars’ surface water, which scientists now theorize may have escaped underground. Finding existing caches of water and ice underground will also help pave the way for human exploration, as well as the creation of long-term habitats on the surface. The orbiter will monitor Zhurong and operate as a relay to provide a steady information conduit to the mission controllers back on Earth. According to China Space News (quoted by ), Zhurong has spent its first three days away from the lander exploring the surface in slow and small intervals – never venturing more than 10 m (33 ft) at a time. “The slow progress of the rover was due to the limited understanding of the Martian environment, so a relatively conservative working mode was specially designed,” said Jia Yang, an engineer and member of the mission team. Jia added that the pace may increase as the mission continues.

Zhurong is currently one of four missions exploring the Martian surface, the others being NASA’s rover, rover, and Insight lander. Next year, they will be joined by the ExoMars 2022 mission that will consist of ’ lander and the ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover. By 2027-8, the elements that make up the Mars Sample Return are scheduled to arrive (a lander, rover, ascent vehicle, and Earth-return orbiter). Back in February, the (aka. Hope) probe arrived in orbit, becoming the first mission sent by an Arab (or Muslim majority) nation to the Red Planet. It is now one of six orbiter missions, which include NASA’s , Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), MAVEN, and the ESA’s and ExoMars 2016 (TGO). These missions will carry on in the quest to learn more about Mars’ past and potential habitability. They will also help pave the way for crewed missions to the Red Planet, which are expected to begin sometime in the 2030s. The data obtained from all surface, orbiter, robotic, and crewed missions to Mars will also contribute to our overall understanding of how the rocky planets of our Solar System formed and evolved over the course of billions of years. With any luck, we might even learn a thing or two about when and how life first emerged in our little corner of the cosmos. That slice of knowledge could also go a long way toward helping us find life beyond the Solar System someday. Source: Zhurong is Rolling on Mars - Universe Today

Dark Energy Survey Catalogs millions of Galaxies, mapping the history of Galaxy Clustering across Space and Time

The latest release from the Dark Energy Survey catalogs millions of galaxies, mapping the history of galaxy clustering across space and time.

The Dark Energy Survey camera in the cleanroom. DOE / FNAL / DECam / R. Hahn / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF /

In one of the biggest sky surveys ever, astronomers have captured 226 million galaxies up to 7 billion light- years away in an area covering about one-eighth of the entire sky. This treasure trove of data provides scientists with the best-ever probe of cosmic evolution and illuminates the role of dark matter and dark energy in shaping the large-scale structure of the universe.

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) started back in August 2013. On May 27th, the international collaboration published its second data release, covering the first three years of observations. The results are described in 30 scientific papers, available on the DES website. “It’s a beautiful dataset,” says René Laureijs, project scientist of the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission.

The new results support the popular ΛCDM model, in which the universe is governed by 68.5% dark energy (or lambda, Λ) and 26.6% cold dark matter – mysterious ingredients that vastly overshadow the remaining 4.9% of “normal” matter in galaxies, stars, planets, and people. There’s one nagging discrepancy, though: just like other surveys, DES found that the current universe is a few percent less “clumpy” than the ΛCDM model would predict. Nobody knows why.

The real star of the survey is the massive 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera, built by the Department of Energy at Fermilab in Chicago, and mounted at the prime focus of the 4-meter Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Night after night, it has captured hundreds of 90-second exposures, each as wide as four full . Over the years, the whole 5,000-square-degree survey area was imaged at least 10 times down to a limiting magnitude of 23.3, while ten deep were studied repeatedly in even more detail.

Based on a galaxy’s brightness in five wavelength bands in visible and near-infrared light, the DES team can determine its “photometric redshift,” which yields a rough but reliable distance estimate. Thus, astronomers are able to discern the evolution of galaxy clustering across the history of the universe, which sheds light on the actions of dark matter and dark energy. Estimates of so-called cosmic shear — minute shape distortions due to weak gravitational lensing — provide additional information on the distribution of dark matter. The elaborate data analysis was carried out at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications at the University of Illinois.

Although the Dark Energy Survey was completed in early 2019, the last three years of data are still being processed; results may not be published until a few years from now. Meanwhile, an equally impressive spectroscopic galaxy survey officially took off a few weeks ago at the 4-meter Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The similarly named Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument aims to capture real spectra of tens of millions of galaxies and quasars over the next five years.

Slated for launch in late 2022, the Euclid space mission will carry out an even larger and deeper survey with similar cosmological goals. According to project scientist Laureijs, Euclid will study about 15 times more galaxies than the Dark Energy Survey has done, out to distances of 10 billion light-years, both by measuring their brightness (focusing on the infrared) and by taking their spectrum. “We really need a higher precision to definitely validate the ΛCDM model,” he says.

Ten areas in the sky were selected as “deep fields” that the Dark Energy Camera imaged several times during the survey, providing a glimpse of distant galaxies and helping determine their 3D distribution in the cosmos. The image is teeming with galaxies — in fact, nearly every single object in this image is a galaxy. Some exceptions include a couple of dozen asteroids as well as a few handfuls of foreground stars in our own Milky Way. Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA; Acknowledgments: T.A. Rector / M. Zamani / D. de Martin Source: Dark Energy Survey Catalogs 226 million Galaxies - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org)

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JUNE CELESTIAL CALENDAR:

1. Jupiter and Saturn remain in the morning sky this month. Saturn rises in the east soon after midnight and Jupiter rises about one hour later.

2. Mars can be seen in the west soon after sunset.

3. Venus also remains in the evening sky look for it in the west soon after sunset.

4. Mercury moves to the morning sky this month but can only be seen in the east the last few days of the month.

5. An annular eclipse of the occurs in the early morning of the 10th. However it will only be visible in the very northeast of the US, Canada and the Artic.

INFORMATION:

Please visit us at our website ChinaLakeAstro.org.

For more information, contact the China Lake Astronomical Society at 760-446-0454 or 760-384-8666.

Roger Brower

Upcoming Perseid Meteor Shower in August and Possible Observing Session at Red Rock State Park.

This August the Perseid Meteor Shower will peak this year on August 12th 1900 hrs. This is ~ 4 days after the New Moon. If Red Rock State Park is opened we plan on having a club get together either August 11-12 or 12- 13. Hopefully we will have more information next month.

INFORMATION:

Please visit us at our new website ChinaLakeAstro.org.

For more information, contact the China Lake Astronomical Society at 760-446-0454 or 760-384-8666.

Roger Brower

Basic CLAS dues are $25.00 per year - due in January. Students and Skywatchers Newsletter are FREE.

Members also receive discounted rates for Astronomy Magazine and /or Sky and Telescope Magazine.

The fee schedule is as follows: Verify current magazine prices with Roger!

Basic membership $25.00 per year. Membership with Astronomy magazine is $59.00 per year. Membership with Sky and Telescope magazine is $58.00 per year. Membership with both S & T and Astronomy is $92.00 per year.

Send your Check or Money Order to:

Roger Brower, Treasurer, China Lake Astronomical Society, P.O. Box 1783, Ridgecrest, CA 93556.

PRESIDENT – Paonessa – 760-384-8666 (email [email protected])

VICE-PRESIDENT – Keith Weisz – 760-375-9114 (email [email protected])

SECRETARY – Ted Hodgkinson - 661-754-0561 (email [email protected])

TREASURER – Roger Brower - 760-446-0454 (email [email protected])

NEWSLETTER EDITOR – Ted Hodgkinson – 661-754-0561 (email [email protected])

Meetings of the China Lake Astronomical Society are held at the Maturango Museum at 7:30 p.m. on the first Monday evening of each month, except when the first Monday is a holiday.

WESTERN AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS WEB SITE http://www.waa.av.org/ New! CHINA LAKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY WEB SITE http://chinalakeastro.org/