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BONUS: NEW MERCURY BUILDING THE NEXT- Mars: GUIDE TO OBSERVING GLOBALG MAP p. 39 GEN SUPERSCOPE p. 24 THE RED PLANET p. 50 & 54 THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ASTRONOMY Stellar Blackout over New York p. 30 See Quasars from Your Backyard p. 34 MARCH 2014 Planet Hunting Goes Public No scope, no sky, no problem! p. 18 Radically Different Telescope Mount p. 60 How the Web Saved the Webb p. 82 Visit SkyandTelescope.com Download Our Free SkyWeek App FC Mar2014.indd 1 12/23/13 11:51 AM Mercury Earth Meet the planet nearest our Sun Solid inner core The innermost planet has challenged astronomers for centuries. Its proximity to the Sun limits ground- Liquid Mercury outer core based telescopic observations, and when NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft made three close passes Mantle during the 1970s, the little planet appeared to have a Crust landscape that strongly resembled the Moon’s. But Mercury is no Moon. NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, in orbit around the Iron Planet since Solid inner core March 2011, has recently fi nished its initial global Moon survey. The work reveals that this wacky world has Liquid outer core a unique, complex history all its own. Mantle The survey images show a marvelous world of Solid ancient volcanic fl oods and mysteriously dark ter- inner core Crust rain (S&T: April 2012, page 26). Plains — mostly Liquid volcanic — cover about 30% of the surface. And outer core as radar images have long suggested, subsurface Mantle water ice lies tucked inside some polar craters. Crust Temperatures in the coldest craters never top 50° above absolute zero, making Mercury both one of the hottest and coldest bodies in the solar system. To celebrate Messenger’s completed Mercury survey, we’ve worked with the USGS to produce a labeled map of the innermost planet, which you’ll fi nd on the fl ip side of these pages. The labels on this map are a subset of those that appear on our new Mercury globe. Many names honor artists, writers, and musicians, including Bach and Cop- land. Even Disney and Seuss have craters. Prokofi ev Crater’s north-facing rim and interior remain in perpetual shadow, making it a safe haven for water ice. Watch an animation of how illumina- tion changes over the course of one Mercury day at skypub.com/prokofi ev. NASA GSFC / MIT JHU APL CIW 39 Gatefold March2014.indd 39 12/24/13 11:46 AM Mercury’s Strange Orbital Dance Day 176 Day 2 orbits Day Mercury 0 3 rotations 132 0.47 a.u. 0.31 a.u. Sun Day Day 88 44 1 orbit 1½ rotations Perihelion precesses 2° per century The perihelion of Mercury’s orbit precesses 2° per century. Astronomers could explain all but Mercury rotates three times for every two orbits around the Sun. This 43″ of that shift with classical mechanics; they 3:2 spin-orbit resonance means that for a hypothetical astronaut on the needed Einstein’s theory of gravity to explain surface (black dot), sunrise comes only once every 176 Earth days. At the rest. The orbit’s elongation and advance perihelion, dayside temperatures reach about 700 K; at aphelion, 500 K. are highly exaggerated to emphasize the eff ect. S&T Illustrations: Gregg Dinderman Globe map: USGS / NASA / JHU APL / CIW This Messenger image shows mysterious “low- refl ectance material” excavated by craters near the eastern edge of Caloris Basin. The reddish deposits appear to be volcanic in origin. The orbiter took this composite image using all 11 NASA / JHU APL CIW color fi lters of its wide-angle camera. Gatefold March2014.indd 40 12/23/13 12:03 PM Dj Di Di D D D D D D D Di Di D D D D D D D D Dij j j j j c 75°N 75°N 7 7 7 7 7 7 75 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 k k k k k k k k 5 5 5 N N N N N N N N V V V V V V V V V V V V V a n 180°W 1 1 1 1 1 80 8 8 8 8 0 W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W 180°E 1 180 1 1 18 8 8 a w Des Desp Des D Desp Desp Des Desp D D De Desp Desp Desp D D Desp Des Despréz a a a esp es k k k k k k k k k k k k k k C C C C C C C C C C sp s s s s n h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h e e e e e e e e e p es Bechet est y y s s s s sh s sh sh s sh sh k k ki ki k réz réz réz ré réz réz ré réz réz ré réz réz réz k 270°E e é é é é éz é é é é o o o o o o o 90°W oshik r r r r r o o o o o o o o o o o o o o olkie t o o o o W W W W W W W W W W W 7 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T h h h h h h h h h h n YingYiYinY °W Mercury’ QuiQQu 0 d dinsk W n 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 n 90°E v 270 K Ka e f P oofofi LaxnesLaxLaxnLaL ete í axaxn k x ronooniuoni o d nniniu r n iu ud GoetGoGGoethe ees u PrP audaua ss s oeto FulleFullFFu Gaud T ete uull Aristoxenus YüYüaY un e Due to Mercury’s unique 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, NASA’NASA’ss Messenger spacecraft took nearly two years to record the ü n t r a g heh n Va rma entire globe in daylight conditions. Mission scientists comcombinedb thousands of images to create a monochrome base RikR k yŗ map with a resolution of roughly 550 feet (170 m) per pixpixel.e Then they merged it with a second, less detailed mosaic North 0° — consisting of images taken through blue (430 nm), red (750 nm), and near-infrared (1000 nm) fi lters — to bring 75°NN Polar Region out subtle color diff erences. Note: regions poleward of 75° latitude appear only in the polar maps. No 180°W 150°W 120°W 90°W 60°W 30°W 75°N Verdi ° Botticelli 60 N Abedin Rubens Brahms Stravinsky Sholem Shakespeare Aleichem Monet S Brontë Larrocha Scarlatti SOBKOU Degas Gluck 30°N Heine PLANITIA Erté Praxiteles Catullus Proust Dŗrer Abu Nuwas Heming Lermontov Nureyev Vivaldi Balzac Aŋvaghosa Tyagaraja 0 ° West Waters Kuiper Murasaki Tolstoj Beethoven Matisse Bartók 30°S Lessing BashĿ Carducci Copley Sibelius Michelangelo Hawthorne Vincente 60°S Chopin Sei Rabelais Wagner Keats Pushkin Bach Dickens 75°S 180°E 210°E 240°E 270°E 300°E 330°E 41 So Gatefold March2014.indd 41 12/23/13 12:03 PM Due to Mercury’s unique 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft took nearly two years to record the entire globe in daylight conditions. Mission scientists combined thousands of images to create a monochrome base map with a resolution of roughly 550 feet (170 m) per pixel. — consisting of images taken through blue (430 nm), red (750 nm), and near-infrared (1000 nm) fi lters out subtle color diff erences. Note: regions poleward ’s Surface s Messenger spacecraft took nearly two years to record the of 75° latitude appearb only in the polar maps. e ined thousands of images to create a monochrome base l. Then they merged it with a second, less detailed mosaic Then they merged it with a second, less detailed mosaic (750 nm), and near-infrared (1000 nm) fi lters — latitude appear only in the polar maps. o rth 0 ° ousa Hokusai 330 ° W g way 300 — to bring ° to bring Petipa W Stieglitz Derain Seuss Debussy Rachmaninoff 270 Polar Region MagrMaMagMMagritteagaagrgrg r itteittiti ttettt ttee ° W South Rustaveli Copland 0 Joplin 0 o ° Mendelssohn 990°E W uth 0°W 270707 1180°E 180°W8 Kobro Kob Ko K K Kob Kob Ko K Kob Ko 77575°S o b b b b b b b r r SScopas o o o o o o o o 3HW3H3HWŃ33HWŃILH ccop Ictinus S oop c p MartíMMar a Gatefold March2014.indd 42 s aart r L’Engle L’E L L’En L’En L’E L’E L’ LE LE LE LE L L L L L L L L L L En E E E En 240 E n n n n gle gle gle gle gle gle g g g Meng-Fu le le l ° le e e e e e Fonteyn W e Chao Bernini ern e e e er er e G G Gog Go G G G G G Go G G Go G G G G G G G Gogh G G G G G G G G Gog G G Gogh rn rn rn r r r HurlHHurHurley r V V V V V Va Va V V V V V V V Van V Va V V V V V Van n n o o ogh ogh og ogh ogh o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o i a a a a a n n n n n n g g g g gh gh gh g g g g g 30 David g n n n n n n ey n h h h h h h h h h h h h h h ° y h C C Ce C Ce C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C E Cervantes vveecrafccrrrafraaaf e e e e e e e e LoLoveLLovLovecraftovo er r rv rv rv rv rv rv rv rv rv rv rv r v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v a a a a a a a a a a a e cchh a n n n n n n RRoRoerichooe n Belinskij Beli Be B Beli Be B B B S o o o o o o o o o o te te te te i i e e e e e e e e e e e c c c c c c c cci c c c c ° i i s s s s s s s a ac ac acci a a a a a a nsk ns 0 75°S 75 75 75 75° 7 75° 75°S 75° 7 75° 75 75 7 c s s s s s s c cc c c cc c c c k k k k k k k k k k occ oc occ o o B B Bocc B B Boccaccio j j j j j 90°W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W 270°E G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G 210 G DG DG D D D D D D D D D D 6DGĦ 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Chao C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C h h h h h h h h h h a o o o o o o o Li C C C C C C C C C C C C Li Li Li Li Li Li L Li L Li Li Li L L Li Li Li L L Li Li L Li L L L Li Ch'ing- Li i C C C iC i i i iC i i iC i i i Raditladi C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C h'in h h h'in h h h h'in h'in h h h h h h h h h h h h ° h'in 'in n n g- g g g- g g- g g g g- g- W g Oskison Rembrandt Eminescu 60 ° E Sander Navoi Kert Munch 180 é CALORISPoe ° Grainger sz W Becket Amaral PLANITIA 75 ° N 90 ° E 60 ° Disney N Atget Neruda 30 Mozart ° Magritte N 120 ° E 0 ° East 150 ° 30 E ° S © 2014 Sky & Telescope 60 ° S 180 ° 75 E ° S 12/23/13 12:03 PM.