2016NoCoAstro

NEW DISCOVERY MAY HELP SCIENTISTS RECONSTRUCT EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM HISTORY | OSTERPLANA 65 Researchers discover unknown type of meteorite June NoCoAstro Download NASA’s Eyes app Questions, comments, submissions, photos or just to say ‘hello’: OUR JOURNEYCONTINUES ObjView ObjView at NoCoAstro dot org CONTACT to explore the solar system and beyond. Amanda Bell EDITOR

June ) ), 9pm ), parkreq’d fee ), 8:30pm ), parkreq’d fee parkreq’d fee Boyd Lake SP ( SP Lake Boyd ( Festival Sky Night RMNP Jackson Lake, 9pm Lake, Jackson 9pm Backbone, Devil’s ( RMNP 9pm Reservoir, Creek Fossil : Thursday July 7th, 6:15 pm 6:15 Thursday7th, July : : Fort MuseumofDiscovery Collins : Date Location NOCOASTRO MEETING NOCOASTRO OUTREACH Join us for our monthly awesomely-nerdy astro talk: astro awesomely-nerdy ourmonthly for Joinus : Aarne Haas, Construction & start-up of the Keck I Telescope Construction &start-up AarneHaas, I Keck ofthe : Just stop by the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. Discovery. oftheFort Museum Collins by stop Just

2nd, Saturday 2nd, Sunday 3rd, Friday 8th, Saturday 9th, Saturday 23rd, Thu-Sat 28th-30th,

Speaker DID YOU KNOW…? All meetings are FREE & open to the public! toopenthepublic! & FREE meetingsAll are KNOW…? YOU DID JULY JULY S O MANY ASTEROIDS!

HOW ASTEROIDS GET THEIR NAMES: The International Astronomical Union’s Committee on Small Body Nomenclature is a little less strict than other IAU naming committees. Asteroid names range from Mr. Spock (though named after a cat named after Star Trek’s Spock), Frank Zappa (for the musician) to seven asteroids named for the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia crew killed in 2003. Other are simply given numbers. Over 7000 asteroids are named or numbered! DISCOVERY: In 1766 Johann Titius noted an apparent mathematical layout of the planets: start a sequence at 0 and include 3, 6, 12, 24, etc, then add 4 to each number and lastly, divide each by 10. This sequence was remarkably close to the radii of the orbits of the six planets known in Titius’ day. The pattern also hinted that a planet was missing between Mars and Jupiter. “But should the Lord Architect have left that space empty? Not at all,” Titius wrote. Later called the Titius-Bode Law, this pattern encouraged scientists to look for other planets in our solar system based on the law’s Fun Fact: predictions, including in the space between Mars and Jupiter as well as beyond Saturn, the farthest known planet. When William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, in the position predicted by We want to turn an Titius, this pushed astronomers to find the missing 5th planet. Amazingly, in 1801, the Celestial Police asteroid into a discovered the main asteroid belt in this predicted location, giving further credence to the Titius-Bode space ship Law. However, 80 years later (in 1846) and upon the discovery of Neptune, this ‘law’ was officially discredited and to date there is no scientific explanation for it; it was simply an amazing coincidence! FORMATION: A year after the discovery of Ceres and Pallas, which occurred in 1801, it was suggested that they were remnants of a larger planet that exploded or were the result of a past collision. However, the belt’s combined low mass (only 1% of its original mass and equal to less than 4% of our moon’s mass) and the significant chemical differences between the asteroids made this unlikely. Today, it is generally accepted that accretion never actually happened in the belt… but how? COMPOSITION: There are three main categories (though more exist). S-TYPE: siliceous but mixed with metallic iron; found in the inner region; high albedo. (17% known asteroids). M-TYPE: metallic; found in the middle region; relatively bright, albedo approaching S-types. (Remaining known asteroids). C-TYPE: carbonaceous; found in the outer regions of the belt; low albedo. (75% known asteroids). June NoCoAstro June

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IGNIFICANT S asteroid family; smaller clusters of asteroids are called groups. clusters smaller groups. called are ofasteroids family; asteroid nomenclaturesystems belt. withinthe inclination. Groups are defined in a more general sense, having only very broad similarities. About 20-30 About very only having similarities. broad generalmore a in defined Groupsare sense, inclination. certainly almost are part belt, inthe asteroids ofthe third a about or ofan ofasteroids, associations F characteristics shared asteroids some that of groups and families defining Hebegan parameters. or eccentricity orbital and elements, orbital similar share Families onobservations. based asteroids A O UR CONSTANT A STEROID A STEROID C OMPANION: H UNTERS: R EDIRECT Small asteroid is Earth’s constant Asteroid hunter reveals how she M ISSION (ARM): companion. finds the space rocks that could destroy Earth. What is it? Who discovered the satellite? “We refer NASA is developing a first-ever to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth,” said Nugent works with a team of scientists at Caltech that studies asteroids using robotic mission to collect a multi-ton Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s boulder from a large near-Earth Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) NASA’s Earth-orbiting NEOWISE infrared telescope. asteroid and redirect it into a stable Studies at the Jet Propulsion orbit around the moon. Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Every 11 seconds, NEOWISE takes an image and sends it back to Earth. That's Yes, you read that right! For asteroid news and updates, follow when the real fun begins. This is part of NASA’s plan to gain the AsteroidWatch on Twitter: https:// technologies and experience necessary twitter.com/AsteroidWatch for a human mission to Mars in the 2030s.

June June . Always Always Explore . An Explore the evolution of Explore the evolution . . Open2Study is waiting for you for Open2Study is waiting Study relationships between Study relationships Click here for this edX course for Click here Learn contemporary from astrophysics Where did the universe come from? How KEEP LEARNING LEARNING KEEP Click here for Coursera Click here for . Archaeoastronomy: and the sky to gain a better ancient monuments understandinghuman religion and symbolism. of the free Cosmology: nature of space and time?. What is the will it end? theories behind modern cosmology here introduction to modernintroduction most important astronomy’s questions. the Universe: Discovering of future of astronomy & the role the the universe, discoveries. technology in new Astrophysics: the leaders the field. in of ModernHighlights Astronomy: June NoCoAstro Paul Fleming: web-edit at NoCoAstro dot org web-edit Paul Fleming: Amanda Bell: ObjView at NoCoAstro dot org Trevor presMoriarty: at NoCoAstro dot org TREASURER &OUTREACH Greg Halac: treas at NoCoAstro dot org Bob Michael: vp at NoCoAstro dot org Dave Karp: sec at NoCoAstro dot org NEWSLETTER EDITOR VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY PRESIDENT

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WANT WANT WE WE What does this have to do with the asteroid belt? January June

Zodiacal light before dawn | NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Photo credit: Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Inst) June WWW.NOCOASTRO.ORG

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