Volume 14 • Issue 2 February 2015 ISSN 1712-4425 peterboroughastronomy.com twitter.com/PtbAstronomical The Reflector Newsletter of the Peterborough Astronomical Association Minor mergers have massive consequences for black holes

Images credit: NGC 3393 in the optical (L) by M. Malkan (UCLA), HST, NASA (L); NGC 3393 in the X-ray and optical (R), composite by NASA / CXC / SAO / G. Fabbiano et al. (X-ray) and NASA/STScI (optical).

Dr. Ethan Seigel hen you think of our of our sun or smaller, a rare but the Milky Way, houses a supermas- sun, the nearest star to significant fraction are ultra-mas- sive black hole that weighs in at Wour world, you think of sive, containing tens or even hun- about four million solar masses, an isolated entity, with more than dreds of times the mass our star while our big sister, Andromeda, four light years separating it from contains. When these stars run out has one nearly twenty times as its next nearest neighbor. But it of fuel in their cores, they explode massive. But even relatively iso- wasn’t always so: billions of years in a fantastic Type II supernova, lated didn’t simply form ago, when our sun was first creat- where the star’s core collapses. In from the monolithic collapse of an ed, it very likely formed in concert the most massive cases, this forms isolated clump of matter, but by hi- with thousands of other stars, a black hole. erarchical mergers of smaller gal- when a giant molecular cloud con- Over time, many generations axies over tremendous timescales. taining perhaps a million times the of stars — and hence, many black If galaxies with large amounts of mass of our solar system collapsed. holes — form, with the majority stars all have black holes at their While the vast majority of stars eventually migrating towards the centers, then we should be able to that the universe forms — some centres of their host galaxies and see some fraction of Milky Way- ninety-five percent — are the mass merging together. Our own , see “Chandra” on page 16 2 • peterboroughastronomy.com President’s Message Executive Meeting Results our executive met in January to ing “Bring your telescopes for a night of ob- discuss and act on a number of busi- serving” following a brief meeting indoors. ness related issues for the paa. A Ken Sunderland proposed the acquisi- Ysynopsis of the discussion is here. tion of lanyards to replace the strings used We plan to have “The President’s bbq” on on our badges. More on this at the February Saturday June 20th at the Robinson Road Meeting. Observatory. Details will follow in the com- There was discussion about the flow of ing weeks. information with ideas like Facebook tossed The website has been moved, Boyd will around. No decision made. fill us in at the February meeting. Rodger Forsyth The theme for the Library Display this PAA President year will be “Our Changing Solar System.” The date for the April meeting will be the 10th at Fairview Church with the focus be-

Letter from the Editor Commenting on e have something almost like a Our contributors were so productive last theme this month: comets. Yes, month that I’ve had to hold back some of W we have lots of photos of their submissions for next month and be- Lovejoy C/2014 Q2. Brian McGaffney and yond. So come back next time and we’ll see John Chumak took some fine photos of this what else our writers have penned for you. faintly visible dirty snowball in the sky. John Phillip Chee Crossen describes Brian’s photo in a short Editor, The Reflector article but also begins a much longer three- part series on the Rosetta mission, that, you guessed it, landed on a comet. Comet 67P to be precise and John is not lost for words as he also has an article on 67P itself. Rick Stankiewicz has been back from China awhile and has his second China The Reflector Travel Tour article, this time about the Great Wall of China. While back in Canada The Reflector is a publication of the Peterborough Astronomi- he also tried to observe last month’s triple cal Association (P.A.A.) Founded in 1970, the P.A.A. is your local group for in Peterborough and the Kawarthas. transit across Jupiter’s surface. Read on to www.peterboroughastronomy.com • [email protected] see how he fared. Phone: 705.292.0729 Club Mailing Address Ken Sunderland returns with another Rodger Forsyth, President Peterborough Astronomical Association book review, this one concerning Lee 536 Robinson Road RR #1 Billngs’s Five Billion Years of Solitude. Peterborough, ON K9J 6X2 Vol 14 • Issue no. 2 • February 2015 • 3 The Reflector The Rosetta Mission — Part 1 Catch a Comet by the Tail John Crossen he rosetta mission has seen Comet Halley. A number of countries sent more ups, downs and plot swaps probes to analyse the comet’s tail materials. than a bad murder mystery. For A few years later esa’s Giotto Probe of yet Tstarters the comet to catch was Comet another comet brought new knowledge of 47P Wirtanen. But launch delays caused the origin and composition of these cosmic scientists to switch targets to Comet 67P/ interlopers. The Giotto Probe also inspired Churyumov–Gerasimenko. For sanity’s interest in future missions to these messen- sake, let’s just refer to this snowball from gers from the outskirts of our solar system. outer space as Comet 67P. As originally proposed in the late 1980s, Unless you’ve spent the last 2 months the mission was to be a duet staring nasa watching the and the Sleep Network, European you know that Space Agen- the mission to cy — esa. reach Comet 67P The nasa was successful. version was What you prob- a simple fly- ably don’t know by mission is the intriguing called craf trail of events for Comet that unravelled Rendezvous during the Ro- Fly- setta Mission’s by. The esa decade-long version was a trek. more ambi- The mission tious mission takes its name calling for the from the Rosetta spacecraft Stone which to land on a was the key that comet and re- unlocked the turn samples translation and to Earth for understanding examination. of hieroglyphics. To minimize The similarity expenses the here is that land- two agen- ing on Comet ARIANE ROSETTA ROCKET LAUNCH. From its inception in 1984 the Rosetta cies would 67P will help Mission has overcome a myriad of near-fatal challenges. Pictured here is share design the Rosetta Mission aboard an Ariane 5 rocket as it finally launched from us understand French Guiana. Photo was taken by the Blue Planet Chanel. knowledge as more about how well as rock- our solar system formed. It will be our new etry. Rosetta Stone revealing the 4.5-billion-year- However nasa’s funding was drastically old secrets of our origins. cut, leaving esa to shoulder the whole load. The seeds of the Rosetta Mission were It also caused esa to do a lot of rethinking planted in 1984 during the close approach of See “Rosetta” on page 15 4 • peterboroughastronomy.com Can you see the Great Wall of China from the ?

Rick Stankiewicz

hat do you think? Let’s start height of 7.6 m (25’). The length of the Wall by explaining what the Great is also punctuated with watchtowers at ir- Wall is, before discussing what regular intervals. Through its connection to Wit isn’t. folklore, it is easy to see how the Great Wall The Great Wall of China (in Chinese might follow the track of a dragon up and means Long Wall) is a series of long forti- down the spiny ridges of the rugged terrain fications made of stone, brick, compacted it has now become part of. From what I saw earth, wood, and natural barriers, basically of this longest fortification structure in the along an east-to-west line across the histor- world, it is indeed an impressive sight. ical northern border of China and southern On my recent trip to China in the fall of border of Inner Mongolia. This was done 2014, I was fortunate to have had the oppor- in part to protect the Chinese Empire or tunity to walk on the Great Wall on a cool its states, against various military incur- sunny morning in November (see attached sions by warlike peoples (Mongols). The images). Declared a unesco World Heri- Great Wall construction was started be- tage Site in 1987 the Great Wall receives a tween 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of large daily dose of visitors and tens of mil- China, Qin Shi Huang (Qin — pronounced lions annually. “chin” — Dynasty). However, most of the Since as early as 1754 there has been a Great Wall seen today is from the Ming space-based urban myth about the Great Dynasty (1368-1644 ad). The length of the Wall of China being the only manmade Great Wall with all its various branches and structure you can see from the Moon. In segments (not a continuous structure) mea- 1932, Ripley’s Believe it or Not cemented this sures over 21,000 km (13,000+ mi). The Wall myth in our pop culture. Given my view averages a width of 9 m (30’) at the base and of the Great Wall as I flew from Beijing to 4.6m (15’) across the top, with an average continued on next page Vol 14 • Issue no. 2 • February 2015 • 5 The Reflector continued from previous page Luoyang, I was struck by the fact I could see it quite clearly (see attached image) from about 7,600 m (25,000’), but this is a long way from 350 km in space in a lower Earth orbit. According to nasa sources, astro- nauts have never reported seeing the Great Wall from low Earth orbit (e.g. iss) without optical aids. Routinely, astronauts see cities, large highways, bridges, dams, large land- forms and rivers, but not small roadways, unless they are illuminated at night. The Great Wall is smaller than most roadways I have ever travelled. It most certainly isn’t going to be visible from the Moon, at over ten times the distance of low Earth orbit (385,000 km). Even the Apollo astronauts documented that all they could see of Earth from the Moon was a round multi-coloured sphere with patches of white, blues, yel- lows and greens. The apparent width of the Great Wall from the Moon is the same as that of a human hair viewed from 3.2 km (2 mi) away. It has also been calculated that to see the Great Wall from the Moon it would require a resolution 17,000 times better than normal (20/20) vision. What say you now, Hawkeye? High Flying Traveler, Rick Stankiewicz 6 • peterboroughastronomy.com Local Astronomer Captures a Cosmic Interloper

Image taken by Peterborough Astronomical Association member Brian McGaffney with his “Travel Telescope”. The are about 440 light years distant and approximately 100 thousand years-old. John Crossen The comet was discovered by amateur rian McGaffney may be located astronomer , an astronomer near the small community of Aps- from Queensland, Australia. He discovered ley, Ontario, but his work is known the comet while imaging the night sky. worldwide.B Brian is an astro-imager which Lovejoy is a highly prolific comet hunter means he takes pictures of the night sky. and there are numerous others that bear his Star clusters, distant galaxies, complex name. In an age when most comets turn up and planets are all within the realm on massive sky surveys made by profession- of his experience. He has developed many als using sophisticated equipment, Comet techniques for processing the images that Lovejoy is a welcome reminder of the past. he takes during his travels and from his On January 7 the comet made its closest home — Nutwood Observatory. pass to Earth at a distance of about 70.2 mil- Brian tours North America giving semi- lion kilometres. So it was close enough to nars and lectures on the techniques he has be seen by the naked eye, but it did not pose developed. He is also an innovator who any threat of collision with our home planet. owned a computer company and does con- It’ll swing by again in the year 10,000. sulting. As the comet nears the Sun it begins to But important though Brian may be, he’s warm and gasses and water vapour spray not the focus of this article. It’s a melting out behind it forming the tail that comets ball of ice and rock and a misty clump of are famous for. In Comet Lovejoy’s case it stars that are the stars of this article. Let’s will loop around the Sun and begin its jour- begin with the cosmic interloper in Brian’s ney back into deep space until it is drawn image — Comet Lovejoy. See “Pleaides” on page 15 Vol 14 • Issue no. 2 • February 2015 • 7 The Reflector

Trying for the Triple Transit of Jupiter

Rick Stankiewicz he night of January 23/24, 2015, started out pretty clear with a light breeze, but it sure felt colder than Tthe -8 degrees it was. It was a frosty night indeed, but we can hardly pick the weather we get for observing, so when there is a big celestial event like a triple shadow transit across the disk of Jupiter I just had to bundle up and head out for a night of observing. I set-up my 12” Dob in my driveway and settled into following Jupiter across the sky from 10:00 p.m. on the 26th until 3:00 a.m. on the 27th. I found a fair bit of turbu- of Jupiter, it was lost to sight in the light co- lence at the eyepiece with seeing fluctuat- loured cloud tops of Jupiter’s central band. ing from “soft” to “sharp”, so some of my Then just after midnight a thin veil of times for shadow and moon “contacts” are clouds started to drift through. The fear of a little different than those charted on-line. being clouded out just before the climax of I used a Meade UWA 6.7 mm eyepiece for a this event did enter my mind, but positive 224 × magnified view of Jupiter and its four thoughts prevailed and the clouds posed no largest . Io and Callisto were almost real threat to viewing an object as bright as a disk width away from the planet and Jupiter. It must have been the humidity in Europa that far away again as my viewing the air that started the chill in my bones as started. Ganymede was much further from the night wore on. The exterior of my scope its sister moons and never really entered was frosting up, but my tube shroud and the picture during the upcoming shadow dew shield did their job. My biggest concern dance. was fogging up my eyepiece. Breath control At 10:12 p.m. I could finally see the can be very important at times like this. shadow of Callisto fully cut the edge the You might wonder what else do you do planetary disk though the actual moons when not looking through the eyepiece. Io and Callisto appeared parallel in their Making notes takes some of the time and distance from the disk. Then over a little taking in the solitude is another, but be- more than an hour this single shadow ing serenaded by packs of local coyotes at travelled down the central belt of the disk several points added a real beauty to the until it was joined by Io’s shadow at 11:35 atmosphere while sitting alone outside on a p.m. Then this double shadow transit was cold winter’s night. joined by the moon of Io as it contacted the Then at 12:43 a.m. the shadows of Io and disk as a small white spot. By this point Cal- Callisto appear to totally merge into one listo’s shadow was halfway across Jupiter’s shadow, as Io’s higher orbital speed was evi- disk and Io’s was more than a quarter way dent. How cool is that! At 1:14 a.m. Io’s shad- across. It was interesting to note that Cal- ow is racing away from Callisto’s and the listo’s shadow was twice the size of Io’s and moon Callisto appears like it is half cut into that once the moon Io fully entered the disk See “Jovian Moons” on page 13 8 • peterboroughastronomy.com PHOTO GALLERY Comet Lovejoy Up Close

Here are my images and video of comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 moving through the constellation of Eridanus at over 81,689 mph or 131,466 km/h rela- tive to the sun. Comet Lovejoy was at closest approach to Earth on 01-07-2015!!! The comet is 43.7 million miles from earth, and is now moving away from Earth at about 3 miles per second. No worries you still have time to see it, Comet Lovejoy is expected to get brighter as it is now heading toward the Sun and will reach Perihelion (closest to the Sun) on the 30th of January 2015. I captured all of these from my backyard observa- tory in the City of Dayton, Ohio USA on 01-07- 2014. Canon 6D DSLR & 10” SCT telescope, ISO 3200, 10 second exposures, +5 second delays, Tracking the comet’s nucleus for 35 minutes, after stacking all the images in Maxim DL and process- ing you can see the strong tails extending from the bright Nucleus in the final Still image! Here is my short video clip tracking the comet posted previously to my twitter feed or you can watch it on my YouTube channel!! Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 Moving at over 81,689 mph!!!! Closest Approach to Earth!: http://t. co/FrWUBjbSQ8 I created this animated Movie from all 130 images, and is played back at 15 fps. Not to mention the subzero temps while I was shooting, PC, camera, & telescope were sluggish, it got down to -2F that night with wind blowing into my dome!!! Just Brutal! Best Regards, John Chumack www.galacticimages.com Vol 14 • Issue no. 2 • February 2015 • 9 The Reflector

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2

This image was done here taken with the portable set up over about 3 hrs. It consists of L RGBs of about 3 hrs. I used my portable Tracker and a tak 140 with a reducer. The camera was an FLI 8300 set with filters. This is a portable set up which I take with me. The back ground is taken on about 30 minutes, and sup- per imposed on the resultant comet as it moved over about two and a half hours. There was some star burn out , but not bad in general. Hope you like it. Brian McGaffney 10 • peterboroughastronomy.com BOOK REVIEW The year-end issue of SkyNews contains Terence Dickinson’s picks for best new astronomy titles. His most recent choice for Best Astronomy Book of the Year was Five Billion Years of Solitude. Now, when Terence Dickenson makes a rec- ommendation, we should all try to pay attention! Lee Billings is not an astronomer who has written a popular science book. He is a science journalist with a fascination for astronomy. Here is the story of early exoplanet discoveries and the Holy Grail of finding an Earth-like planet, prefer- ably with life. The book begins with an inspiring introduction, and includes an extensive list of further readings. The stage is set in recounting the earliest days of the seti project from the 1960’s with a breezy account of the The Search for Life Among the Stars Drake equation. This is the book’s only Lee Billings equation. Billings recently interviewed Current (Penguin Group), 203, 294 pages Frank Drake who, with the benefit of ISBN 978-1-617-23006-6 $29.50 in Hardcover hindsight and advances in knowledge over the last 50 years, brings us up-to- The book’s middle chapter is a strange date. Bottom line? It’s still quiet out brew; begin with the α – Centauri star there. system, add in predictions from a time The story proper begins in recount- capsule booklet entitled 2063 ad, just a ing the discovery of the first exoplanets pinch of California Gold Rush, stir in a using radial-velocity spectroscopy in the planet formation model, season with the mid-1990’s. It is told in terms of human construction of the Lick Observatory, drama; the competition between scien- and top it off with the 2012 transit of tific teams, jealousies, tolls on friend- Venus. Somehow the author manages to ships, disputes over primacy, and so on. mix it all together and, well … it tastes ok. Billings likes to name names. We are in- The book veers toward geology and troduced to planet hunter Greg Laughlin we are given a pocket history of Earth and his whimsical formula which as- framed by the recent discovery of vast signs a dollar value to exoplanets. His methane reserves in Pennsylvania’s formula pegs Earth’s value at 5 quadril- Marcellus shale. Here the reader is made lion dollars. Comic relief for finance aware of geological time scales. This is geeks! This segues into the canonical the deep time first grasped by Charles history of astronomy beginning with the Lyell and used by Darwin. Here’s the Greeks and ending with the inflation magic: Given enough deep time, any- model of an expanding universe. See “5 Billion Years” on page 13 Vol 14 • Issue no. 2 • February 2015 • 11 The Reflector Is Comet 67P an Oddity or Have We Always Been Wrong?

John Crossen

ince I was a boy comets were known as dirty snowballs that orbit- ed the Sun. When they were close to Sthe Sun they began to melt and the vapour they gave off was what caused them to have a tail. It made sense to me. But that was then. In November 2014 we landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gera- simenko and it’s not quite what we thought it would be. Any of you who have seen the multitude of images flooding YouTube must wonder what’s up. How come a bolder the size of a 5-story building is sticking out of what is supposed Comet Close-Up. Comet 67P is black as asphalt. Spe- to be a ball of primordial ice and primitive cial filters must be used in a series of images to bring dirt? out the detail for human eyes. Image courtesy ESA. And what about that rubber ducky shape? If its rubber ducky shape comes from Was that sculpted by the solar wind? Did two separate comets touching and then two comets fuse together? If this really is a somehow bonding together, how come both comet it must be a very odd duck lobes share precisely the same minerals in I’m sure that the images of what appear the same proportions? When things meet in to be little sand dunes with ripples on them space it’s usually with a bang, not a gentle have you thinking of the Sahara Desert, not nudge. How did these two bits just “snuggle a comet. up” to each other? You’re in good company if you’re try- There appears to be some out gassing ing to make sense of all this new informa- from the ducks neck, maybe the resulting tion. Some scientists and astronomers are erosion is what causes its unusual duck-like thinking that they may have to change their shape. Close-up images taken by Rosetta minds about comets. At the moment most also show a crack running crosswise in of them are searching for new rationales our little ducky’s neck. Is it from flexing that will vindicate their old cometary theo- between the two lobes? When C67P comes ries. closer to the Sun will the crack widen? After all the Stardust Mission captured How come our images show what ap- and returned it to Earth. Deep pears to be towering rock cliffs on what was Impact blasted a big chunk out of Comet supposed to be an ice ball? Temple 1 and imaged it. And we’ve analysed If Comet 67P is a comet what about our the material from Comet Halley’s tail. All of cherished theories that comets are the which appeared to support our “then theo- building blocks of the solar system and the ries” about comets. But that changed now bringers of water and life to planet Earth? that we have touched down on Comet 67P. Let’s put everything on “hold” for a rethink. 12 • peterboroughastronomy.com 2014 Brought outer space closer to home Roger Forsythe eorge was an amazing man. As the Travel Correspondent for the Toronto Star he had travelled planet GEarth and hoisted a Scotch in countries with names long-since-lost in the tumultu- ous world of today. He was soft spoken and extremely affectionate of animals large and small. He was a writer by profession and a scholarly reader by choice. George also had a love and understand- ing of astronomy. George left us a few years ago but he left The paa a precious gift — his fully-computerized Meade LX 90 telescope. The scope survived a flood in George’s base- ment and thanks the restorative powers of Sean Dunne, Rodger Forsyth and John Crossen George’s scope is up, running and available to any paa member who would like to try it out. Our thanks go to George wherever he may be and Stella who rounded up all the bits and pieces for the scope. Now that it has been officially christened with a dedica- tion plaque please feel free to use it. Contact paa President, Rodger Forsyth ([email protected]) to arrange for a tutorial and to pick it up. With 8-inches of aperture, little is beyond its ability to see. Vol 14 • Issue no. 2 • February 2015 • 13 The Reflector continued from page 7 continued from page 10 Jovian Moons 5 Billion Years the edge of the planetary disk. Compared to thing is possible … even you and me on Io, the moon Callisto remains very visible this planet. The focus shifts to under- after sliding over the cloud tops of Jupiter. standing exoplanet atmospheres and the In fact, it is so dark on contrast that it looks biosignatures they may contain. What like another shadow, compared to Io. Then should we be looking for? Jim Kasting, comes the climax to this whole evening, an expert in climate modelling informs when at 1:35 a.m. I see the shadows of Io, Callisto and now Europa on the cloud tops. the discussion. Of relevance in our time, The whole exercise has been worth it. To the the negative feedback loop that main- uninitiated, it now would look like there are tains Earth’s co2 equilibrium over the four shadows on Jupiter, because the moon eons is described. Callisto is visibly so dark. Europa’s shadow The author returns us to the practical is small and faint, but clearly there and by matter of telescopes. Everyone agrees 1:52 a.m. Io’s shadow is projected off the that hst data has ushered-in a Golden disk and lost in space as the moon Europa Age of discovery. The deployment of a prepares to make contact with the limb of next generation space-based telescope the disk at the opposite end. About 2:11 a.m. capable of resolving exoplanets is dis- Europa enters the disk as Io leaves and I am cussed. Along the way the Space Shuttle left watching two moons and two shadows program is critiqued, the cancelled (Callisto and Europa) above Jupiter’s cloud tops. By this point I felt so invested in the Constellation program mentioned, and enterprise I figure I will stay long enough to funding woes described. We are intro- at least see Callisto’s shadow leave Jupiter, duced to mit’s celebrated planet hunter which it did at 2:59 a.m. Now I was back to a Sara Seager who hosted a 2011 confer- single shadow transit of Europa. ence about the fate of the space-based The attached photo is what the DOB and Terrestrial Planet Finder telescope. I looked like after 5 ½ hours outside. Fro- Here, the author chooses to describe zen, but functional. I figured I better do a specific technical challenge in some this while I can because I will have to wait detail. The point? It’s a very complex 17 years before the moons align to give such project. All this takes place with nasa in a rare and unique celestial treat like this a muddled state and astronomers them- again and on that night maybe it will be too selves in disagreement. cloudy? In the final chapter we get up close and personal to Sara Seager. She pio- neered techniques to characterize the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets and is an acknowledged leader in the field. Her rise to academic stardom is told in parallel with unexpected events in her private life. Here Billings writes at his most poetic in describing one human being’s quest to understand our place in the universe. (btw: Seager penned the guest editorial for the 2015 Observer’s Handbook.) See “Gliese 581g” on page 15 14 • peterboroughastronomy.com

The Sky this Month

Mercury is well placed in the morn- ing sky from the 6th to the 28th. Reach- es greatest elongation west (27°) on the 24th. Venus is in the WSW evening twilight. Has close conjunction with Moon and Mars on the 20/21 with Mars only 0.5° away on the 21st. Mars is low in the SW evening sky and moving eastward from Aquarius into Pisces on the 10th. Jupiter rises after sunset and visible all night. Reaches opposition on Febru- ary 6th. Saturn is well placed in the dawn sky in . Zodiacal Light visible in W after evening twilight for the next two weeks from the 6th.

Moon Phases Full Moon 6:09 PM February 3 Last Quarter 9:50 PM Februrary 11 New Moon 6:47 PM February 18 First Quarter 2:14 PM February 25 Vol 14 • Issue no. 2 • February 2015 • 15 The Reflector continued from page 3 continued from page 6 Rosetta Pleiades as to how the mission could proceed with- back into our solar system by the Sun’s out the help of nasa. Eventually the mis- gravitational tug. sion was reduced to a close approximation The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades is the of nasa’s original craf components. With misty clump of stars. It is about the size of these modifications, the Rosetta Mission your thumb when stuck out at arms length. just squeaked through a maze of penny- It may not sound like much, but it’s a winter pinchers and the mission was alive again. showpiece that can be seen with the naked The next obstacle for the Rosetta Mis- eye. sion came just a month before its scheduled “The girls” are visible to the right and launch on January 12 of 2004. The rocket of up from the three stars that form the line choice was the Ariane 5. But just one month known as Orion’s belt. Through binocu- prior to the Rosetta Mission’s January lars they look like a mini version of the launch an Ariane 5 had malfunctioned after Big Dipper, but they’re definitely not the lift off. So Rosetta would have to wait until Little Dipper. That’s a constellation onto the cause of the failure was identified and a itself. Instead our girly group is called a fix was in place. That moved the launch date after who to February 26, 2004. catalogued it in the early 1800s. It was the But this wasn’t the last of the setbacks for 45th object in his catalogue and is therefore the mission. Just prior to Rosetta’s February known as M45. launch it was discovered that a large piece The Seven Sisters are three maidens said of insulation material was missing from to have been cast into the heavens so that one of the rockets fuel tanks. Would this they could escape the lascivious clutches bird ever fly? of Orion who, in addition to being a great Finally on March 2, 2004 the Rosetta Mis- hunter, also had some not-so-admirable sion launched from French Guiana on its traits. The great god Zeus was the girls’ decade-long trek to Comet 67P. But there savoir and his strategy seems to have are more “nail-nibbling” moments to come. worked for Orion will forever be chasing We’ll explore them in the next thrilling epi- them, but he’ll never catch the girls. All of sode — The Big Sleep. which might lead one to believe they are fast women, but with Mom and Dad being part of the cluster, that’s not likely.

continued from page 13 Gliese 581g Exoplanet Gliese 581g, described in Although I found myself longing for Chapter 3, illustrates how Five Billion some illustrations, Billings succeeds in Years of Solitude was put together. Bill- relating the thrilling story of exoplanet ings had previously written an article discovery and its leading players. In about this exoplanet for Seed Magazine using the narrative techniques of a in 2010. Similarly, the genesis of every journalist, he has produced a real page- chapter is almost certainly a report turner. Historic times, folks. based on interviews with acknowledged Ken Sunderland experts, and published elsewhere first. It explains why each chapter is largely self-contained. This book is the sum of years of collected work from a journal- ist’s notebook. 16 • peterboroughastronomy.com continued from page 1 Chandra sized galaxies with not just one, but multi- ple supermassive black holes at their centre! Articles It was only in the early 2000s that nasa’s Submissions for The Reflector must be received by the date listed below. E-mail submissions Chandra X-ray Observatory was able to find are preferred (Microsoft Word, OpenDoc, ASCII the first binary supermassive black hole in and most common graphic formats are accept- a galaxy, and that was in an ultra-luminous able). If your article contains photso or graphics, galaxy with a double core. Many other please provide a separate file for each. Typed or examples were discovered since, but for a hand-written submissions are acceptable pro- vided they are legible (and not too long.) Copy- decade they were all in ultra-massive, active righted materials will not be published without galaxies. That all changed in 2011, with the written permission from the copyright holder. discovery of two active, massive black holes Submissions may be edited for grammar, brev- at the center of the regular spiral galaxy ity, or clarity. Submissions will be published at ngc 3393, a galaxy that must have under- the editor’s sole discretion. Depending on the volume of submissions, some articles may be gone only minor mergers no less than a published at a later date. Please submit any ar- billion years ago, where the black hole pair ticles, thoughts, or ideas to: is separated by only 490 light years! It’s only [email protected] in the cores of active, X-ray emitting galax- Next submission deadline: ies that we can detect binary black holes like February 26, 2015 this. Examples like ngc 3393 and ic 4970 are not only confirming our picture of galaxy growth and formation, but are teaching us that supermassive relics from ancient, minor mergers might persist as standalone entities for longer than we ever thought! Check ousat some cool images and artist reconstructions of black holes from Chan- dra: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/ category/blackholes.html Kids can learn all about Black Holes from this cool animation at nasa’s Space Place: http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/black-holes.

Meetings The Peterborough Astronomical Association meets every first Friday of each month, except July and August, at the Peter- borough Zoo Orientation Centre (Next to the PUC Water Treatment Plant) at 7 p.m. P.A.A. general annoucements will begin each meeting with the guest speaker starting at 7:30 p.m.