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Meeting Announcement Upcoming Star Parties Special Recognition the President's Corner by Dell Vance, CVAS President
CVAS Executive Committee Pres – Dell Vance - (435) 938-8328 Loaner Scope Coordinator/NSN Coordinator – [email protected] Garrett Smith – [email protected] Vice Pres- Bruce Horrocks Past President, Webmaster, Librarian – [email protected] Tom Westre – (435) 787-6380 [email protected] Treasurer- Brad Kropp - (435) 755-0877 Public Relations – Lyle Johnson - [email protected] Secretary – Wendell Waters (435) 213-9230 [email protected] Vol. 6 Number 6 February 2019 www.cvas-utahskies.org Meeting Announcement The President’s Corner By Dell Vance, CVAS President Our February meeting will be held Wednesday, th February 27 at 7 pm in Room 840 of the main BTC Campus. Enter on the east side of the building located at 1301 North 600 West. Dr. Paul Ricket of U of U will be discussing Black Holes. Upcoming Star Parties There are no “official” star parties scheduled for the month of January (but that doesn’t mean you can’t put one together on your own!!). Special Recognition President’s Corner Several CVAS members received “Recognition of By Dell Vance Exceptional Outreach” awards at our meeting in January. Janice Bradshaw, Gary Bradshaw, Harvey You “gotta love” winter skies in Cache Brown, Bonnie Schenk-Darrington, Alannah Valley! Most nights in January have been cloudy or Darrington, Blaine Dickey, Dale Hooper, Bruce foggy. The few nights that it was clear it was 12˚ F Horrocks, Lyle Johnson, Mark Kohler, Brad Kropp, or lower. I was sure that the Lunar Eclipse would Byron N Ray, Clark Salisbury, Garrett Smith, James be a wash out this year like it was last year. -
Winter Constellations
Winter Constellations *Orion *Canis Major *Monoceros *Canis Minor *Gemini *Auriga *Taurus *Eradinus *Lepus *Monoceros *Cancer *Lynx *Ursa Major *Ursa Minor *Draco *Camelopardalis *Cassiopeia *Cepheus *Andromeda *Perseus *Lacerta *Pegasus *Triangulum *Aries *Pisces *Cetus *Leo (rising) *Hydra (rising) *Canes Venatici (rising) Orion--Myth: Orion, the great hunter. In one myth, Orion boasted he would kill all the wild animals on the earth. But, the earth goddess Gaia, who was the protector of all animals, produced a gigantic scorpion, whose body was so heavily encased that Orion was unable to pierce through the armour, and was himself stung to death. His companion Artemis was greatly saddened and arranged for Orion to be immortalised among the stars. Scorpius, the scorpion, was placed on the opposite side of the sky so that Orion would never be hurt by it again. To this day, Orion is never seen in the sky at the same time as Scorpius. DSO’s ● ***M42 “Orion Nebula” (Neb) with Trapezium A stellar nursery where new stars are being born, perhaps a thousand stars. These are immense clouds of interstellar gas and dust collapse inward to form stars, mainly of ionized hydrogen which gives off the red glow so dominant, and also ionized greenish oxygen gas. The youngest stars may be less than 300,000 years old, even as young as 10,000 years old (compared to the Sun, 4.6 billion years old). 1300 ly. 1 ● *M43--(Neb) “De Marin’s Nebula” The star-forming “comma-shaped” region connected to the Orion Nebula. ● *M78--(Neb) Hard to see. A star-forming region connected to the Orion Nebula. -
CAPTURE of TRANS-NEPTUNIAN PLANETESIMALS in the MAIN ASTEROID BELT David Vokrouhlický1, William F
The Astronomical Journal, 152:39 (20pp), 2016 August doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/2/39 © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. CAPTURE OF TRANS-NEPTUNIAN PLANETESIMALS IN THE MAIN ASTEROID BELT David Vokrouhlický1, William F. Bottke2, and David Nesvorný2 1 Institute of Astronomy, Charles University, V Holešovičkách 2, CZ–18000 Prague 8, Czech Republic; [email protected] 2 Department of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302; [email protected], [email protected] Received 2016 February 9; accepted 2016 April 21; published 2016 July 26 ABSTRACT The orbital evolution of the giant planets after nebular gas was eliminated from the Solar System but before the planets reached their final configuration was driven by interactions with a vast sea of leftover planetesimals. Several variants of planetary migration with this kind of system architecture have been proposed. Here, we focus on a highly successful case, which assumes that there were once five planets in the outer Solar System in a stable configuration: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and a Neptune-like body. Beyond these planets existed a primordial disk containing thousands of Pluto-sized bodies, ∼50 million D > 100 km bodies, and a multitude of smaller bodies. This system eventually went through a dynamical instability that scattered the planetesimals and allowed the planets to encounter one another. The extra Neptune-like body was ejected via a Jupiter encounter, but not before it helped to populate stable niches with disk planetesimals across the Solar System. Here, we investigate how interactions between the fifth giant planet, Jupiter, and disk planetesimals helped to capture disk planetesimals into both the asteroid belt and first-order mean-motion resonances with Jupiter. -
Observations from Orbiting Platforms 219
Dotto et al.: Observations from Orbiting Platforms 219 Observations from Orbiting Platforms E. Dotto Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino M. A. Barucci Observatoire de Paris T. G. Müller Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik and ISO Data Centre A. D. Storrs Towson University P. Tanga Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino and Observatoire de Nice Orbiting platforms provide the opportunity to observe asteroids without limitation by Earth’s atmosphere. Several Earth-orbiting observatories have been successfully operated in the last decade, obtaining unique results on asteroid physical properties. These include the high-resolu- tion mapping of the surface of 4 Vesta and the first spectra of asteroids in the far-infrared wave- length range. In the near future other space platforms and orbiting observatories are planned. Some of them are particularly promising for asteroid science and should considerably improve our knowledge of the dynamical and physical properties of asteroids. 1. INTRODUCTION 1800 asteroids. The results have been widely presented and discussed in the IRAS Minor Planet Survey (Tedesco et al., In the last few decades the use of space platforms has 1992) and the Supplemental IRAS Minor Planet Survey opened up new frontiers in the study of physical properties (Tedesco et al., 2002). This survey has been very important of asteroids by overcoming the limits imposed by Earth’s in the new assessment of the asteroid population: The aster- atmosphere and taking advantage of the use of new tech- oid taxonomy by Barucci et al. (1987), its recent extension nologies. (Fulchignoni et al., 2000), and an extended study of the size Earth-orbiting satellites have the advantage of observing distribution of main-belt asteroids (Cellino et al., 1991) are out of the terrestrial atmosphere; this allows them to be in just a few examples of the impact factor of this survey. -
CURRICULUM VITAE, ALAN W. HARRIS Personal: Born
CURRICULUM VITAE, ALAN W. HARRIS Personal: Born: August 3, 1944, Portland, OR Married: August 22, 1970, Rose Marie Children: W. Donald (b. 1974), David (b. 1976), Catherine (b 1981) Education: B.S. (1966) Caltech, Geophysics M.S. (1967) UCLA, Earth and Space Science PhD. (1975) UCLA, Earth and Space Science Dissertation: Dynamical Studies of Satellite Origin. Advisor: W.M. Kaula Employment: 1966-1967 Graduate Research Assistant, UCLA 1968-1970 Member of Tech. Staff, Space Division Rockwell International 1970-1971 Physics instructor, Santa Monica College 1970-1973 Physics Teacher, Immaculate Heart High School, Hollywood, CA 1973-1975 Graduate Research Assistant, UCLA 1974-1991 Member of Technical Staff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1991-1998 Senior Member of Technical Staff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1998-2002 Senior Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2002-present Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute Appointments: 1976 Member of Faculty of NATO Advanced Study Institute on Origin of the Solar System, Newcastle upon Tyne 1977-1978 Guest Investigator, Hale Observatories 1978 Visiting Assoc. Prof. of Physics, University of Calif. at Santa Barbara 1978-1980 Executive Committee, Division on Dynamical Astronomy of AAS 1979 Visiting Assoc. Prof. of Earth and Space Science, UCLA 1980 Guest Investigator, Hale Observatories 1983-1984 Guest Investigator, Lowell Observatory 1983-1985 Lunar and Planetary Review Panel (NASA) 1983-1992 Supervisor, Earth and Planetary Physics Group, JPL 1984 Science W.G. for Voyager II Uranus/Neptune Encounters (JPL/NASA) 1984-present Advisor of students in Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program 1984-1985 ESA/NASA Science Advisory Group for Primitive Bodies Missions 1985-1993 ESA/NASA Comet Nucleus Sample Return Science Definition Team (Deputy Chairman, U.S. -
Aqueous Alteration on Main Belt Primitive Asteroids: Results from Visible Spectroscopy1
Aqueous alteration on main belt primitive asteroids: results from visible spectroscopy1 S. Fornasier1,2, C. Lantz1,2, M.A. Barucci1, M. Lazzarin3 1 LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Univ. Paris Diderot, 5 Place J. Janssen, 92195 Meudon Pricipal Cedex, France 2 Univ. Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cit´e, 4 rue Elsa Morante, 75205 Paris Cedex 13 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Padova, Via Marzolo 8 35131 Padova, Italy Submitted to Icarus: November 2013, accepted on 28 January 2014 e-mail: [email protected]; fax: +33145077144; phone: +33145077746 Manuscript pages: 38; Figures: 13 ; Tables: 5 Running head: Aqueous alteration on primitive asteroids Send correspondence to: Sonia Fornasier LESIA-Observatoire de Paris arXiv:1402.0175v1 [astro-ph.EP] 2 Feb 2014 Batiment 17 5, Place Jules Janssen 92195 Meudon Cedex France e-mail: [email protected] 1Based on observations carried out at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), La Silla, Chile, ESO proposals 062.S-0173 and 064.S-0205 (PI M. Lazzarin) Preprint submitted to Elsevier September 27, 2018 fax: +33145077144 phone: +33145077746 2 Aqueous alteration on main belt primitive asteroids: results from visible spectroscopy1 S. Fornasier1,2, C. Lantz1,2, M.A. Barucci1, M. Lazzarin3 Abstract This work focuses on the study of the aqueous alteration process which acted in the main belt and produced hydrated minerals on the altered asteroids. Hydrated minerals have been found mainly on Mars surface, on main belt primitive asteroids and possibly also on few TNOs. These materials have been produced by hydration of pristine anhydrous silicates during the aqueous alteration process, that, to be active, needed the presence of liquid water under low temperature conditions (below 320 K) to chemically alter the minerals. -
Iso and Asteroids
r bulletin 108 Figure 1. Asteroid Ida and its moon Dactyl in enhanced colour. This colour picture is made from images taken by the Galileo spacecraft just before its closest approach to asteroid 243 Ida on 28 August 1993. The moon Dactyl is visible to the right of the asteroid. The colour is ‘enhanced’ in the sense that the CCD camera is sensitive to near-infrared wavelengths of light beyond human vision; a ‘natural’ colour picture of this asteroid would appear mostly grey. Shadings in the image indicate changes in illumination angle on the many steep slopes of this irregular body, as well as subtle colour variations due to differences in the physical state and composition of the soil (regolith). There are brighter areas, appearing bluish in the picture, around craters on the upper left end of Ida, around the small bright crater near the centre of the asteroid, and near the upper right-hand edge (the limb). This is a combination of more reflected blue light and greater absorption of near-infrared light, suggesting a difference Figure 2. This image mosaic of asteroid 253 Mathilde is in the abundance or constructed from four images acquired by the NEAR spacecraft composition of iron-bearing on 27 June 1997. The part of the asteroid shown is about 59 km minerals in these areas. Ida’s by 47 km. Details as small as 380 m can be discerned. The moon also has a deeper near- surface exhibits many large craters, including the deeply infrared absorption and a shadowed one at the centre, which is estimated to be more than different colour in the violet than any 10 km deep. -
IRTF Spectra for 17 Asteroids from the C and X Complexes: a Discussion of Continuum Slopes and Their Relationships to C Chondrites and Phyllosilicates ⇑ Daniel R
Icarus 212 (2011) 682–696 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/icarus IRTF spectra for 17 asteroids from the C and X complexes: A discussion of continuum slopes and their relationships to C chondrites and phyllosilicates ⇑ Daniel R. Ostrowski a, Claud H.S. Lacy a,b, Katherine M. Gietzen a, Derek W.G. Sears a,c, a Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, United States b Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, United States c Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, United States article info abstract Article history: In order to gain further insight into their surface compositions and relationships with meteorites, we Received 23 April 2009 have obtained spectra for 17 C and X complex asteroids using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility and SpeX Revised 20 January 2011 infrared spectrometer. We augment these spectra with data in the visible region taken from the on-line Accepted 25 January 2011 databases. Only one of the 17 asteroids showed the three features usually associated with water, the UV Available online 1 February 2011 slope, a 0.7 lm feature and a 3 lm feature, while five show no evidence for water and 11 had one or two of these features. According to DeMeo et al. (2009), whose asteroid classification scheme we use here, 88% Keywords: of the variance in asteroid spectra is explained by continuum slope so that asteroids can also be charac- Asteroids, composition terized by the slopes of their continua. -
IRAS LOW RESOLUTION SPECTRA of ASTEROIDS Russell G. Walker
IRAS LOW RESOLUTION SPECTRA OF ASTEROIDS Russell G. Walker and Martin Cohen Astronomy and Astrophysics Vanguard Research, Inc. Scotts Valley, California Final Technical Report on Contract NASW-99025 April 16, 2002 Vanguard Research, Inc. 5321 Scotts Valley Drive Suite 204 Scotts Valley, California 95066 UNCLASSIFIED Abstract Optical/near-infrared studies of asteroids are based on reflected sunlight and surface albedo variations create broad spectral features, suggestive of families of materials. There is a significant literature on these features, but there is very little work in the thermal infrared that directly probes the materials emitting on the surfaces of asteroids. We have searched for and extracted 534 thermal spectra of 245 asteroids from the original Dutch (Groningen) archive of spectra observed by the IRAS Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS). We find that, in general, the observed shapes of the spectral continua are inconsistent with that predicted by the standard thermal model used by IRAS (Lebofsky et al., 1986). Thermal models such as proposed by Harris (1998) and Harris et a1.(1998) for the near-earth asteroids with the "beaming parameter" in the range of 1.0 to 1.2 best represent the observed spectral shapes. This implies that the IRAS Minor Planet Survey (IMPS, Tedesco, 1992) and the Supplementary IMPS (SIMPS, Tedesco, et al., 2002) derived asteroid diameters are systematically underestimated, and the albedos are overestimated. We have tentatively identified several spectral features that appear to be diagnostic of at least families of materials. The variation of spectral features with taxonomic class hints that thermal infrared spectra can be a valuable tool for taxonomic classification of asteroids. -
RASNZ Occultation Section Circular CN2009/1 April 2013 NOTICES
ISSN 11765038 (Print) RASNZ ISSN 23241853 (Online) OCCULTATION CIRCULAR CN2009/1 April 2013 SECTION Lunar limb Profile produced by Dave Herald's Occult program showing 63 events for the lunar graze of a bright, multiple star ZC2349 (aka Al Niyat, sigma Scorpi) on 31 July 2009 by two teams of observers from Wellington and Christchurch. The lunar profile is drawn using data from the Kaguya lunar surveyor, which became available after this event. The path the star followed across the lunar landscape is shown for one set of observers (Murray Forbes and Frank Andrews) by the trail of white circles. There are several instances where a stepped event was seen, due to the two brightest components disappearing or reappearing. See page 61 for more details. Visit the Occultation Section website at http://www.occultations.org.nz/ Newsletter of the Occultation Section of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand Table of Contents From the Director.............................................................................................................................. 2 Notices................................................................................................................................................. 3 Seventh TransTasman Symposium on Occultations............................................................3 Important Notice re Report File Naming...............................................................................4 Observing Occultations using Video: A Beginner's Guide.................................................. -
(52) Europa Q ⇑ W.J
Icarus 225 (2013) 794–805 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/icarus The Resolved Asteroid Program – Size, shape, and pole of (52) Europa q ⇑ W.J. Merline a, , J.D. Drummond b, B. Carry c,d, A. Conrad e,f, P.M. Tamblyn a, C. Dumas g, M. Kaasalainen h, A. Erikson i, S. Mottola i,J.Dˇ urech j, G. Rousseau k, R. Behrend k,l, G.B. Casalnuovo k,m, B. Chinaglia k,m, J.C. Christou n, C.R. Chapman a, C. Neyman f a Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut St., #300, Boulder, CO 80302, USA b Starfire Optical Range, Directed Energy Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117, USA c IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, 77 Av. Denfert Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France d European Space Astronomy Centre, ESA, P.O. Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain e Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl, 17 Heidelberg, Germany f W.M. Keck Observatory, 65-1120 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA g ESO, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 19001, Santiago de Chile, Chile h Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 553, 33101 Tampere, Finland i Institute of Planetary Research, DLR, Rutherfordstrasse 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany j Astronomical Institute, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, V Holešovicˇkách 2, 18000 Prague, Czech Republic k CdR & CdL Group: Lightcurves of Minor Planets and Variable Stars, Switzerland l Geneva Observatory, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland m Eurac Observatory, Bolzano, Italy n Gemini Observatory, 670 N. Aohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA article info abstract Article history: With the adaptive optics (AO) system on the 10 m Keck-II telescope, we acquired a high quality set of 84 Received 1 June 2012 images at 14 epochs of asteroid (52) Europa on 2005 January 20, when it was near opposition. -
(2000) Forging Asteroid-Meteorite Relationships Through Reflectance
Forging Asteroid-Meteorite Relationships through Reflectance Spectroscopy by Thomas H. Burbine Jr. B.S. Physics Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1988 M.S. Geology and Planetary Science University of Pittsburgh, 1991 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC, AND PLANETARY SCIENCES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PLANETARY SCIENCES AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2000 © 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Signature of Author: Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences December 30, 1999 Certified by: Richard P. Binzel Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Thesis Supervisor Accepted by: Ronald G. Prinn MASSACHUSES INSTMUTE Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department Head JA N 0 1 2000 ARCHIVES LIBRARIES I 3 Forging Asteroid-Meteorite Relationships through Reflectance Spectroscopy by Thomas H. Burbine Jr. Submitted to the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences on December 30, 1999 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Planetary Sciences ABSTRACT Near-infrared spectra (-0.90 to ~1.65 microns) were obtained for 196 main-belt and near-Earth asteroids to determine plausible meteorite parent bodies. These spectra, when coupled with previously obtained visible data, allow for a better determination of asteroid mineralogies. Over half of the observed objects have estimated diameters less than 20 k-m. Many important results were obtained concerning the compositional structure of the asteroid belt. A number of small objects near asteroid 4 Vesta were found to have near-infrared spectra similar to the eucrite and howardite meteorites, which are believed to be derived from Vesta.