alactic Observer John J. McCarthy Observatory G Volume 11, No. 2 February 2018 A porpoise or a penguin or a puppet on a string? — Find out on page 19 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 REFERENCES ON DISTANCES ............................................ 18 VALENTINE DOME .......................................................... 4 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION/IRIDIUM SATELLITES .......... 18 PASSING OF ASTRONAUT JOHN YOUNG ............................... 5 SOLAR ACTIVITY ........................................................... 19 FALCON HEAVY DEBUT ................................................... 5 LAGRANGE POINTS ........................................................ 19 CERES UPDATE .............................................................. 6 IMAGE CREDITS ............................................................ 19 NEW FRONTIERS MISSIONS - FINALISTS ............................. 7 FRONT PAGE GRAPHIC ................................................... 19 HARNESSING THE ATOM FOR SPACE EXPLORATION .............. 7 SECOND SATURDAY STARS ............................................... 20 MARTIAN WATER ICE ..................................................... 9 FEBRUARY GRAPHIC CALENDAR ...................................... 21 ORION NEBULA IN 3D ..................................................... 9 SOLAR POWER .............................................................. 10 TITAN, PAST AND FUTURE ............................................... 11 AMAZONIAN VOLCANISM ................................................ 12 SUPERNOVA ................................................................... 12 SOVIET MOON PROGRAM ............................................... 13 JOHN GLENN AND THE FLIGHT OF FREEDOM 7 ................... 14 SUNRISE AND SUNSET ...................................................... 15 ASTRONOMICAL AND HISTORICAL EVENTS ......................... 15 COMMONLY USED TERMS ............................................... 18 February Astronomy Calendar and Space Exploration Almanac The Earth's orbit, like all planets that are bound to the Sun, is elliptical although its eccentricity (amount by which the orbit deviates from a perfect circle) is small. At its closest point to the Sun (perihelion), around January 3rd, the Earth is approximately 91.7 million miles (147 km) from the Sun while at the furthest, around July 4th, the Earth is approximately 94.8 million miles (152 km) from the Sun (a 3.1 million mile difference). The images (above) were taken in early July 2017 and January 2018 with the same camera and identical settings. While the difference in the diameter of the Sun is small (with the 3.5% difference in the max/min distance), it is still noticeable. The sunlight falling on the Earth is slightly more intense in January but with the northern hemisphere tilted away from the Sun and the Sun lower in the sky, the days are shorter and colder. Photos: Bill Cloutier Out the Window on feet (122 meters) above the adja- biter. Older peaks poke through Your Left" cent mare. The dome's north- the surface of the dome -- sev- It's been more than 45 years since south profile (shown below) was eral are visible in the photo on we left the last footprint on the generated from data collected by the following page, as well as a dusty lunar surface. Sadly, as a na- the Lunar ReconnaissanceMare Serenitatis Or- faint rille (fissure) that traverses tion founded on exploration and the conquest of new frontiers, we appear to have lost our will to lead as a space-faring nation. But, what if the average citizen had the means to visit our only natural satellite; LROC ACT-REACT-QuickMap http://target.lroc.asu.edu/q3/ Valentine Dome Lunar seas are actually expansive low- lying plains formed by ancient lava flows what would they see out the window of their spacecraft as they entered orbit around the Moon? This column may provide some thoughts to ponder when planning your visit (if only in your imagination). A broad, low-profile lava dome is visible as the waxing Moon achieves first quarter phase on Feb- ruary 23rd and the Sun is low in the lunar sky. Valentine Dome is located along the northwestern shore of Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity), along the Caucasus Mountains and just north of the breech into the Imbrium basin (30.9° latitude, 10.1° longitude). It is one of the largest domes visible on the lunar surface, measuring ap- proximately 18.6 miles (30 km) across its heart-shaped surface. Lava domes are volcanic pro- trusions created by an upwelling of magma. On average, the top of the Valentine dome rises 400 4 • Feb 2018 JJMO http://www.mccarthyobservatory.org the dome in an east-west direc- For scale, crater Linné is 1.5 Linné brightens as the Moon tion. A second, much smaller miles (2.4 km) across. Craters F waxes, becoming a bright white dome, lies just to the north of and B are 3 miles (4.8 km) in spot under the sunlight of a Full Valentine. diameter. Despite its small size, Moon. Passing of Astronaut John Young NASA astronaut John Young passed away on January 5th at the age of 87. He was one of NASA's most experienced astronauts and the first to fly in space six times, with two Gemini missions (3 and 10), as command module pilot on Apollo 10, commander and moonwalker on Apollo 16, com- mander of Columbia on the space shuttle's maiden flight (STS-1), and as commander of STS-9, the first space shuttle Spacelab mission. John Young joined NASA in 1962 after serving in the Navy and Fighter Squadron 103, and a 3 year assignment at the Naval Air Test Center where he set world time- to-climb records in the F-4 Phan- tom supersonic jet. He served in several capacities at NASA, in- cluding Chief of the Astronaut Office for 13 years. He retired from NASA in 2004 but remained a strong and vocal advocate of hu- man space exploration. Falcon Heavy Debut SpaceX's new heavy-lift Falcon Heavy rocket made its launch pad debut on December 28, 2017. Its appear- ance on Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for a "fit test" was short with the rocket lowered to a horizontal position and returned to its hanger on the following day. Its maiden flight, scheduled for early February, was conditional on the test firing of the rocket's 27 first stage engines which produce more than 5 million pounds of thrust at lift off, second only to the Saturn V in raw power. The static firing took place just after noon on the 24th. According to Elon Musk, the "hold-down firing … was good…Launching in a week or so." If the launch is successful, SpaceX will attempt to recover the first stage, returning the two side boosters to landing pads at the Kennedy Space Center and the core booster to its automated ocean barge. Always the show- man, Musk decided to forego a traditional payload bal- last. Instead, the rocket will attempt to place Musk's http://www.mccarthyobservatory.org JJMO Feb 2018 • 5 cherry red roadster into heliocentric orbit while David Bowie's "Space Oddity" plays on the car's radio. Ceres Update The complexity of the dwarf planet Ceres continues to surprise more than three years after the Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around the diminutive world in January 2015. New studies, pub- lished in Earth and Planetary Sci- ence Letters, the Journal of Geo- physical Research: Planets and the journal Icarus, describe a geologi- Gravity measurements overlaid on Dawn's mapping of the dwarf plant cally active world and one that may (right). Red colors indicate a stronger gravity fields, while blue colors have had a global ocean. show weaker fields. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA In the first study, tiny changes in the spacecraft's orbit as it flew over the frozen landscape - as mea- sured by NASA's Deep Space Net- work radio antennas, were used to create a gravity map of Ceres. From the gravity map, the compo- sition and interior structure of the planet, as well as the density of its crust, can be deduced. For ex- ample, large craters such as Occator, Kerwan and Yalode, and Ceres' solitary 2.8 mile (4.5 km) high mountain Ahuna Mons appear The bright areas of Occator Crater - Image Credit: as mass anomalies (either a negative NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI free-air gravity anomaly for craters or a positive free-air gravity posed primarily of water ice. The recently geologically active and anomaly for mountains). The number of craters in the surround- may still be evolving. The 57-mile- discrepancies between what is ing area suggests that the moun- wide (92-km) crater Occator observed by Dawn visually and tain is relatively young, possibly contains several