ASSA Bulletin August 2017

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

ASSA Bulletin August 2017 The Volume 126 No. 8 August 2017 Bullen Monthly newsleer of the Astronomical Society of South Australia Inc In this issue: ♦ ASSA 125th Anniversary Dinner a great success ♦ Discoveries during ASSA’s 5th decade ♦ Mary’s first trip to the Alpana AstroCamp ♦ A dark night out with the serpent VicSouth bookings now open. www.vicsouth.info/ 2017.htm Registered by Australia Post Visit us on the web: Bullen of the ASSA Inc 1 August 2017 Print Post Approved PP 100000605 www.assa.org.au In this issue: ASSA Acvies 3-4 Details of general meengs, viewing nights etc History 5-7 ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY of Astronomical discoveries during ASSA 5th decade SOUTH AUSTRALIA Inc Alpana Astrocamp 8-9 GPO Box 199, Adelaide SA 5001 Mary Marnias tells of her first Alpana AstroCamp The Society (ASSA) can be contacted by post to the Astro News 10 address above, or by e-mail to [email protected]. Latest astronomical discoveries and reports Membership of the Society is open to all, with the only prerequisite being an interest in Astronomy. The Sky this month 11-14 Solar System, Comets, Variable Stars, Deep Sky Membership fees are: Full Member $75 ASSA Contact Informaon 15 Concessional Member $60 Subscribe e-Bullen only; discount $20 Members’ Image Gallery 16 Concession informaon and membership brochures can A gallery of members’ astrophotos be obtained from the ASSA web site at: hp://www.assa.org.au or by contacng The Secretary (see contacts page). Member Submissions Sister Society relaonships with: Submissions for inclusion in The Bullen are welcome Orange County Astronomers from all members; submissions may be held over for later edions. www.ocastronomers.org Colorado Springs Astronomical Society Wherever possible, text submissions should be sent via e- www.csastro.org mail or posted on CD-ROM in almost any word processing Central Arkansas Astronomical Society format and may sll be submied handwrien or typed. www.caasastro.org Your name may be withheld only if requested at the me Arkansas-Oklohoma Astronomical Society of subming. Images should be high resoluon and www.aoas.org uncompressed, e.g. TIFF file formats, although high Gruppo Astrofili di Piacenza (Italy) resoluon JPEGs are acceptable. Your full name and www.astrofilipc.it object designaon must be provided with each image and will be published. Equipment/exposure etc details are welcome but oponal. HAVE YOU GOT YOUR COPY YET? Adversing & Classifieds Available at the Small adverts and classifieds are free for members (space General Meengs, or by perming). Commercial adversing is available at a cost mail order of $50.00 per quarter page per issue. All enquiries and submissions should be addressed to The $25 + $4 p&h Editor and preferably sent by e-mail to: [email protected] Email: [email protected] For large files (e.g. on CD) or hardcopy items, post to: Joe Grida Editor, The Bullen PO Box 682, Cover photo: A 3 panel vercal panorama of the Milky Way Mylor SA 5153 taken by Trevor Green at Armagh, South Australia @10 p.m. on 05/08/2016. Canon 6d DSLR with a Tamron 15-30 mm f2.8 Contribuons should reach the Editor no later than lens @f2.8 and 20 mm on a Ioptron Star Tracker. ISO 800 x 60 the 7th of each month, for publicaon in the following sec exposure. month’s issue of The Bullen Bullen of the ASSA Inc 2 August 2017 Acvies August 2017 - the month at a glance Happy Birthday, ASSA Celebrang 125 years in 2017! General Meeng Stellar Evoluon Wednesday, 2 August, 2017 Stars live an incredibly long me. Some will live longer than the current @ 8:00pm age of the universe but all will eventually run out of fuel and die. Tonight Kerr Grant Lecture Theatre we will explore the life cycles of the stars. How they are born from vast 2nd Floor, Physics Blg clouds of dust and gas and evolve throughout their long lives as their University of Adelaide fuel is consumed. The life cycles of stars are directly linked to their mass. North Terrace, Adelaide Massive stars live fast and die young exploding as supernovae and seeding the universe with heavy elements. Less massive stars like the Sun will end their lives as beauful planetary nebulae. Guest Speaker: Colin Hill Beginners’ Councillor ASSA Planning on going August 2017 Calendar observing? Day Time Acvity Wed 2 7:00pm Beginners’ Meeng, Adelaide Save yourself unnecessary travel and me. If Wed 2 8:00pm General Meeng, Adelaide the weather looks doubul where you are, Thu 3 7:30pm Whyalla Members’ Meeng check with the following people to see if the Fri 18 8:00pm Public & Members’ Viewing, NYP event is sll on (or see www.assa.org.au aer Sat 19 8:00pm Members’ Viewing Night, Stockport 5pm). Sat 19 8:00pm Members’ Viewing Night, Tooperang Stockport Observatory (DO 3-13) Fri 25 7:30pm Astro-imaging Group, Modbury Fri 25 8:00pm Public Viewing Night, The Heights Observatory 8528 2284 Sat 26 8:00pm Winter Star Party, Stockport Tue 29 7:30pm ASSA Council Meeng Lyn Grida 8391 5377 Tony Beresford 8338 1231 Note: Times shown above and throughout this document are: 2 Oct 2016 to 1 Apr 2017 : South Australia Summer Time (UTC+10:30) Heights Observatory (DO 3-34) 2 Apr 2017 to 1 Oct 2017 : South Australia Standard Time (UTC+ 9:30) Robert Bronca 8266 7504 Whyalla Astronomy Educaon Peter Mayfield 0405 410 895 Wednesday, 2 August 2017 @ 7:00pm Tooperang Kerr Grant Lecture Theatre Jeff Lowrey 0429 690 610 Digital Astrophotography Northern Yorke Peninsula The ability to take stunning digital photographs of Tony “Hendy” Henderson 0429 352 382 the heavens has revoluonised amateur Riverland astrophotography. Tim Vivian 0407 800 225 How do digital cameras work and how are those wonderful images created and processed? Bullen of the ASSA Inc 3 August 2017 Reports and Noces Reports on recent ASSA acvies, and noces of upcoming events Guest Speaker Biography Astro-Imaging Group Meeng Friday 25 August 2017 @ 7:30PM Colin Hill University Of The Third Age, Beginners’ Councillor, ASSA 22 Golden Grove Rd, Modbury North Colin is a biomedical technician Enter via Gold Court to access Car Park 1 working at St. Andrew’s Hospital with past experience in defence Astro-Imaging Internet Resources electronics. He has been a member of ASSA since 1997 and has been on The Internet has become one of the most popular ASSA Council for most of that me and has held the posion mediums for special interest groups to share informaon of Beginner’s Councillor for the past 7 years. and experiences in their field of interest. This months meeng will be a discussion on what Forums, News Groups He has conducted the ever popular Beginners’ Educaon and Video Channels that members have found useful for courses prior to the General Meeng for the last 7 years. informaon on Astro-Imaging, so bring along a list of your favourite imaging Websites to share with the members. He also presents talks to school and special interest groups, and was a guest panellist discussing Black Holes at Science in A 4G WiFi Internet connecon and PC will be provided to the Pub. He also delivers astronomy presentaons at the display the Websites. Please bring any recent images that Stockport Star Pares. you would like to share with the group on a USB memory sck. He has a keen interest in astro-imaging, and operates Iris Observatory in his backyard at Gawler. Any quesons, contact the Group Co-ordinator, Jeff Lusher: [email protected] ASSA 125th Anniversary dinner a great success! Held on a wet and cold Saturday night, July 8 at the Belair Country Club, the party atmosphere inside was full of fun. More than 100 members, family and friends packed the venue. Our special guest, Dr David Malin, seen cung the 125th birthday cake at right, was also inducted into the ASSA Hall of Fame. Service Awards were also presented to Robert Bronca, Peter McKeough and Alan Brinkworth for their devoted service to the ASSA over many years. Joe Grida also presented a short history of the Adamson Orrery, made in 1870, which is in the care of the ASSA. Thanks to Lyn Grida for the overall organisaon of the night, Cate Parkinson for the invitaons and door prizes, Jan Doherty for the wonderful astro- themed tea towels and hand towels, and to John Hisco for the slide show. Bullen of the ASSA Inc 4 August 2017 History Andrew Collings reviews some of the astronomical discoveries since ASSA was formed 1932-1941: In this decade, more members are added to the sub atomic family tree, the periodic table grows a bit and Einstein and Bohr take the occasional pot-shot at each other. For the most part though, physics takes a backseat to the mathemacians and engineers who are busy craing the foundaons of the computer age. Helicopters, radar and jet engines for aircra make a showing in me for World War 2. 1932: properes of the universe are the same for all Invesgang sources of stac that might interfere with Bell observers.” Sixty years later philosopher of science Karl Telephone Laboratories radio transmissions Karl Guthe Popper has this to say, “And the ‘cosmological principles’ Jansky discovers the first radio signal from space. The faint were, I fear, dogmas that should not have been proposed.” steady hiss most intense in the direcon of the centre of the And his reason, “Because I dislike making of our lack of Milky Way. knowledge a principle of knowing something.” The Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge has a remarkable The Brish Interplanetary Society is year.
Recommended publications
  • Unique Sky Survey Brings New Objects Into Focus 15 June 2009
    Unique sky survey brings new objects into focus 15 June 2009 human intervention. The Palomar Transient Factory is a collaboration of scientists and engineers from institutions around the world, including the California Institute of Technology (Caltech); the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Columbia University; Las Cumbres Observatory; the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel; and Oxford University. During the PTF process, the automated wide-angle 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory scans the skies using a 100-megapixel camera. The flood of images, more than 100 gigabytes This is the Andromeda galaxy, as seen with the new every night, is then beamed off of the mountain via PTF camera on the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the High Performance Wireless Research and Palomar Observatory. This image covers 3 square Education Network¬-a high-speed microwave data degrees of sky, more than 15 times the size of the full connection to the Internet-and then to the LBNL's moon. Credit: Nugent & Poznanski (LBNL), PTF National Energy Scientific Computing Center. collaboration There, computers analyze the data and compare it to images previously obtained at Palomar. More computers using a type of artificial intelligence software sift through the results to identify the most An innovative sky survey has begun returning interesting "transient" sources-those that vary in images that will be used to detect unprecedented brightness or position. numbers of powerful cosmic explosions-called supernovae-in distant galaxies, and variable Within minutes of a candidate transient's discovery, brightness stars in our own Milky Way.
    [Show full text]
  • Printer Friendly
    Printer Friendly - - science news articles online technology magazine articles Printer Friendly Beyond Pluto We are only beginning to discover how vast and strange our solar system truly is By Kathy A. Svitil Illustrations by Don Foley DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 11 | November 2004 | Astronomy & Physics As a child, Mike Brown had all the trappings of an astronomer-in-the-making, with space books, rocket drawings, and a poster of the planets on his bedroom wall. On it, Pluto was depicted as “this crazy and very eccentric planet,” he says. “It was everyone’s favorite crazy planet.” Brown still recalls the mnemonic he learned for the names of the planets: Martha visits every Monday and—a for asteroids—just stays until noon, period. “The ‘period,’ for Pluto, was always suspicious,” Brown says with a laugh. “It didn’t seem to fit. So maybe that was when I first got the idea that Pluto didn’t belong.” Nowadays Brown, a planetary astronomer at Caltech, has no doubt about Pluto’s place in the solar system: “Pluto is not a planet. There is no logical reason to call Pluto a planet.” Like a growing number of his colleagues, Brown believes Pluto is best understood as the largest known member of the Kuiper belt, a band of rocky, icy miniplanets that orbit the sun in a swath stretching from beyond Neptune to a distance of nearly 5 billion miles. “I don’t think it denigrates Pluto at all to say that it is not a planet. I think Pluto is a fascinating and interesting world, and being the largest Kuiper belt object is an honorable thing to be.” No longer is Pluto a lonely outpost in an otherwise empty frontier.
    [Show full text]
  • Spitzer to Size up Newly Found Planet
    I n s i d e August 12, 2005 Volume 35 Number 16 News Briefs . 2 The story behind ‘JPL Stories’ . 3 Special Events Calendar . 2 Passings . 4 MRO launch postponed . 2 Letters, Classifieds . 4 Jet Propulsion Laborator y However, the object was so far away Spitzer that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months, to size up the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and newly its motions. “It's definitely bigger than Pluto,” said found Brown, a professor of planetary astrono- my at Caltech. Scientists can infer the size of a solar planet system object by its brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if one knows its wattage. The re- Artist’s concept of the flectance of the planet is not yet known. planet catalogued as Scientists cannot yet tell how much 2003UB313 at the light from the Sun is reflected away, lonely outer fringes of but the amount of light the planet re- our solar system. Later this month, the Spitzer Space Telescope flects puts a lower limit on its size. “Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would Our Sun can be seen will look toward the recently discovered planet in the outlying regions of the solar system. The observation will still be as big as Pluto,” says Brown. “I'd say it’s probably one and a in the distance. bring new information on the size of the 10th planet, which lies half times the size of Pluto, but we’re not sure yet of the final size.
    [Show full text]
  • The Big Eye Vol 2 No 1
    Friends of Palomar Observatory P.O. Box 200 Palomar Mountain, CA 92060-0200 The Big Eye The Newsletter of the Friends of Palomar Observatory Vol. 2, No. 1 Solar System Now Palomar’s Astronomical Has Eight Planets Bandwidth The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a “dwarf plan- For the past three years, astronomers at the et,” a designation that will also be applied to the spheri- California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Obser- cal body discovered last year by California Institute of vatory in Southern California have been using the Technology planetary scientist Mike Brown and his col- High Performance Wireless Research and Education leagues. The decision means that only the rocky worlds Network (HPWREN) as the data transfer cyberin- of the inner solar system and the gas giants of the outer frastructure to further our understanding of the uni- system will hereafter be designated as planets. verse. Recent applications include the study of some The ruling effectively settles a year-long controversy of the most cataclysmic explosions in the universe, about whether the spherical body announced last year and the hunt for extrasolar planets, and the discovery informally named “Xena” would rise to planetary status. of our solar system’s tenth planet. The data for all Somewhat larger than Pluto, the body has been informally this research is transferred via HPWREN from the known as Xena since the formal announcement of its remote mountain observatory to college campuses discovery on July 29, 2005, by Brown and his co-discov- hundreds of miles away.
    [Show full text]
  • More Than a One-Hit Wonder. Falk, Dan Astronomy. Feb2006, Vol. 34 Issue 2, P40-45
    More than a one-hit wonder. Falk, Dan Astronomy. Feb2006, Vol. 34 Issue 2, p40-45 Famous for discovering Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh reached far beyond the planets Clyde Tombaugh's life instantly changed when he discovered Pluto in 1930. Just 24 years old, and with only a high-school diploma, Tombaugh spotted the missing "Planet X." Shortly thereafter, he was awarded a scholarship for his scientific work and returned to school to earn bachelor's and master's degrees in astronomy. Now, 100 years after his birth, both amateur and professional astronomers celebrate this astronomy great. The day he discovered Pluto began like any other during the previous few months. Tombaugh had not been able to observe the night before because of the Moon's glare. So on February 18, 1930, he "blinked" two photographic plates from January 23 and 29. He would work for a half hour, then rest his eyes and brain for the same time, and return to blinking. The task required intense concentration. And at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon on a cold, wintry day in Flagstaff, Arizona, he found it. For 45 minutes, he checked his plates and examined another from January 21. Once Tombaugh was 100-percent positive he had found it, he reported the news to his boss. Twenty- five years of astronomers' searching was over. Finding a path Clyde William Tombaugh (1906-1997) was born in Streator, Illinois, and moved to Kansas at the age of 16 when his parents began farming in the small town of Burdett. Tombaugh would have been the quintessential American farm boy were it not for his fascination -- one might say, obsession -- with astronomy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ephemeris March 2016 Volume 27 Number 01 - the Official Publication of the San Jose Astronomical Association
    The Ephemeris March 2016 Volume 27 Number 01 - The Official Publication of the San Jose Astronomical Association Mar - May 2016 Events Board & General Meetings Saturday 3/19, 4/23, 5/21 Board Meetings: 6 -7:30pm General Meetings: 7:30-9:30pm Fix-It Day (2-4pm) Sunday 3/6, 4/3, 5/1 Solar Observing (locations differ) Sunday 3/6, 4/3 & Saturday 4/30 Intro to the Night Sky Class Rob Chapman and Rob Jaworski display the new SJAA banner Houge Park 1st Qtr In-Town Star Party Friday 3/11, 4/15, 5/13 Elections, Annual Awards & Pot Luck Dinner Astronomy 101 Class From Tom Piller & Rob Jaworski Houge Park 3rd Qtr In-Town Star Par- ty This year at the February 20th annual meeting, elections were held, food served, and a Friday 4/1, 4/29, 5/27 few members were recognized for making SJAA shine. It was a great meeting. Dave Ittner and Teruo Utsumi did an outstanding job of noting all that our clubs does and RCDO Starry Nights Star Party presenting the awards. Featured above is the new SJAA banner, championed by Rob Saturday 3/26, 4/30, 5/28 Jaworski, which is to be mounted permanently on the fence at Houge Park. Binocular Star Gazing Service Award recipients were: Saturday, May 28th Greg Claytor for significant contributions, participation, and service while Imaging SIG Mtg serving on the board of directors Tuesday 3/15, 4/19, 5/17 Michael Packer for significant contributions, participation, and service while serving on the board of directors Astro Imaging Workshops (at Houge Park) Marilyn Perry for being the “Bright Star” of the club Saturday 4/30, 5/28 Wolf Witt for significant participation and service in the solar program Quick STARt (by appointment) David Grover for Creation of and running of the “Intro to Night sky talks” Friday 4/8, 6/11 Glenn Newell for significant participation of numerous public outreach events Unless noted above, please refer to the SJAA Web page for specific event times Paul Colby and Marion Barker for significant participation of numerous & locations.
    [Show full text]
  • Jjmonl 1706.Pmd
    alactic Observer GJohn J. McCarthy Observatory Volume 10, No. 6 June 2017 Escaping a Black Hole and Telling a Story About it See inside, page 16 The John J. McCarthy Observatory Galactic Observer New Milford High School Editorial Committee 388 Danbury Road Managing Editor New Milford, CT 06776 Bill Cloutier Phone/Voice: (860) 210-4117 Production & Design Phone/Fax: (860) 354-1595 www.mccarthyobservatory.org Allan Ostergren Website Development JJMO Staff Marc Polansky Technical Support It is through their efforts that the McCarthy Observatory Bob Lambert has established itself as a significant educational and recreational resource within the western Connecticut Dr. Parker Moreland community. Steve Barone Jim Johnstone Colin Campbell Carly KleinStern Dennis Cartolano Bob Lambert Route Mike Chiarella Roger Moore Jeff Chodak Parker Moreland, PhD Bill Cloutier Allan Ostergren Doug Delisle Marc Polansky Cecilia Detrich Joe Privitera Dirk Feather Monty Robson Randy Fender Don Ross Louise Gagnon Gene Schilling John Gebauer Katie Shusdock Elaine Green Paul Woodell Tina Hartzell Amy Ziffer In This Issue OUT THE WINDOW ON YOUR LEFT .................................... 4 SUMMER NIGHTS ........................................................... 12 MARE NECTARIS AND BOHNENBERGER CRATER .................. 4 ASTRONOMICAL AND HISTORICAL EVENTS ......................... 12 FIRST ENCOUNTER .......................................................... 5 REFERENCES ON DISTANCES ............................................ 15 OPPORTUNITY RETROSPECTIVE ........................................
    [Show full text]
  • Rosette Gazette
    The Rosette Gazette Volume 27,, IssueIssue 01 Newsletter of the Rose City Astronomers January, 2014 Discovering Astronomy through DSLR Photography Ben Canales The surge of DSLR photography has brought a unique opportunity to the world of astronomy. Ben Canales will speak about the ability of this growing night photography interest to connect newcomers to the expansive world of traditional astronomy. Ben will also share photos and timelapse videos of our night skies above the landscapes of our Pacific Northwest. Ben would like to end the talk with a short "workshop" on the settings and details of using a DSLR for star shots to be a "go forth" moment for anyone interested in trying it out. In This Issue: 1….General Meeting 2….Message From The President 3….Special Interest Groups 4….Club Contacts 5.....The Observers Corner 9….An Image and Reality 11...Planck: Revising the Based out of Portland, also be featured in an Universe Oregon, Ben Canales' night upcoming show in OMSI's 12...GOES-R and the photography of the stars has Kendall Planetarium. Ben Advanced Baseline been featured on OPB's specializes in landscape Imager Oregon Field Guide, NASA's photography at night, under the 13...2014 Star Party Astronomy Picture of the Day, stars. His style pulls back the Calendar National Geographic Travel focus from traditional deep 14...Calendars Photo of the Year, and is a space astronomy, instead winner of the contest The showcasing the expansive night World At Night. Additionally, Ben's work will sky from a human eye perspective. His website: www.theStarTrail.com Facebook: www.Facebook.com/thestartrail Everyone Welcome! Monday January 16th New Members Meeting Begins: 6:30 pm.
    [Show full text]
  • THE ASTEROIDS and THEIR DISCOVERERS Rock Legends
    PAUL MURDIN THE ASTEROIDS AND THEIR DISCOVERERS Rock Legends The Asteroids and Their Discoverers More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/4097 Paul Murdin Rock Legends The Asteroids and Their Discoverers Paul Murdin Institute of Astronomy University of Cambridge Cambridge , UK Springer Praxis Books ISBN 978-3-319-31835-6 ISBN 978-3-319-31836-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31836-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016938526 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover design: Frido at studio escalamar Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland Acknowledgments I am grateful to Alan Fitzsimmons for taking and supplying the picture in Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Issue 34, June 2007
    June2007 June2007 In This Issue: Director’s Viewpoint 4 Doug Simons 6 New Instrumentation for Gemini Telescopes Joseph Jensen 37 Recent Science Highlights Jean-René Roy & Scott Fisher On The Cover: Gemini laser guide star adaptive optics image Science of Seeing: of the “bullets” region 46 of the Orion Nebula An International in the near infrared. For more details see the Symposium center section of this issue, page 29. Peter Michaud & François Rigaut 2 Gemini Observatory www.gemini.edu GeminiFocus 14 New Views of Neptune Heidi B. Hammel 18 18 O & Origin of Two Types of Rare Carbon Stars Thomas R. Geballe & Geoffrey C. Clayton Tightening the 22 (Asteroid) Belt Around Comet McNaught captured by Marie-Claire Hainaut Zeta Leporis Margaret Moerchen Chad Trujillo 25 Flows and Jets in 52 H II Regions Profile John Lacy Carolyn Collins Petersen Sophía Páez 28 Understanding 55 Gamma-ray Bursts Profile Alicia Soderberg & Edo Berger Carolyn Collins Petersen The Delicate Trails of AstroDay Chile 29 57 María Antonieta Garcia Starbirth Poster/Pictorial 59 Hawaii’s “Journey Through the Universe” 35 Rapid Target of Opportunity Mode 2007 Katherine Roth A Photo Montage 42 Gemini’s Dataflow Project Dennis Crabtree, Paul Hirst, Managing Editor, Peter Michaud Kathleen Labrie & Kim Gillies Science Editor, Scott Fisher 49 Earthquake Recovery Associate Editor, Carolyn Collins Petersen & Workshop Designer, Kirk Pu‘uohau-Pummill Michael Sheehan 3 Gemini Observatory www.gemini.edu June2007 by Doug Simons Director, Gemini Observatory Planning Gemini’s Future ustainability–this is a word I find myself asking also left with a staff that, in many respects, retains a about a lot around Gemini Observatory lately.
    [Show full text]
  • Orbital Evolution of Trans-Neptunian Bodies
    Babes Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science Orbital Evolution of Trans-Neptunian Bodies Ph.D Thesis -Abstract- OVIDIU C. FURDUI SCIENTIFIC SUPERVISOR:: Prof. Dr. VASILE URECHE - 2011 – 1 …in memory of my grandmothers Anna and Maria. “ 2 Abbreviations CCD – (instrumentation) Charge Coupled Device; Celestial object – a category that contains acronyms for natural objects in space; Cis-Neptunian object – any astronomical body found within the orbit of Neptune; Cubewano – is a Kuiper belt object (KBO) that orbits beyond Neptune; Detached object – are a dynamical class of bodies in the outer Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune; Kuiper belt – is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 55 AU from the Sun; KBO – (celestial object) Kuiper Belt object; MPC – (publication) Minor Planets and Comets; RTNO – Resonant trans-Neptunian object; SDO – (celestial object) scattered disc object; TNO – (celestial object) Trans-Neptunian Object; Trans-Neptunian Object –a celestial object in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater distance on average than Neptune; Neptune trojans – a celestial object which is in the same orbit as the planet Neptune ; 3 Physical Constants 4 Chapter 1 Introduction In 1987, astronomer David Jewitt, then at MIT, became increasingly puzzled by ”the apparent emptiness of the outer Solar System.” He encouraged then-graduate student Jane Luu to aid him in his endeavour to locate another object beyond Pluto’s orbit, because, as he told her, ”If we don’t, nobody will.” Using telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, Jewitt and Luu conducted their search in much the same way as Clyde Tombaugh and Charles Kowal had, with a blink comparator.
    [Show full text]
  • Space Exploration with James Paradise Sept, 2006
    Space Exploration with James Paradise Sept, 2006 Solar System Quiz 1. What is the closest star to Earth? 2. How many planets are there in our solar system? 3. What is the smallest planet in our solar system? 4. What is the most distant planet from the Sun? 5. In what galaxy is our solar system located? 13.Other than Earth, where else might life exist in our solar system? 1. What is the closest star to Earth? 1. What is the closest star to Earth? The nearest star to Earth is the one we see every day - our Sun. At a mere 93 million miles distant, it takes light from the Sun only eight minutes to arrive on Earth. The next closest are three members of Alpha Centauri and are just over 4 light years from Earth. There are 10 star systems located within 12 light years of E arth. 2. How many planets are there in our solar system? 1. How many planets are there in our solar system? Currently: 8 planets Since 1930, we have been looking for Planet X More recent Pluto news: • 1978: Pluto’s moon Charon discovered • 2005: Two more Pluto moons? (Charon, Nix and Hydra) • 2006: Pluto demoted from planet to Dwarf Planet Quaoar 2000 - 2002: Varuna, Ixion, and Quaoar discovered Astronomers have discovered super-size balls of ice and rock — half the size of the planet Pluto — lurking roughly 4 billion miles from the Sun at the edge of our solar system. A year on Quaoar takes 286 Earth years. It follows a circular orbit around the sun and has a temperature of minus 381 degrees Fahrenheit.
    [Show full text]