The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image (see description on the right, below)

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image
(10,000 galaxies in an area 1% of the apparent size of the moon -- see description on the right, below)

Friday, March 8, 2019

2019 March


AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter                         March 2019

Contents

AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 1
Astronomy News p. 9
General Calendar p. 11
    Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 11
    Observing p. 13
Useful Links p. 15
About the Club p. 16

Club News & Calendar.

Club Calendar

Club Meeting Schedule:

7 March
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
TBD
(A1/1735)




AEA Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st  Thursdays at 11:45 am.  For 2018:  Jan. 4 in A1/1029 A/B, Feb. 1 & March 1 in A1/2906 and for the rest of 2018 (April-Dec), the meeting room is A1/1735. 

Club News:  


We have received our  FY19 AEA budget request for $4,000, to cover software for our new laptop (Starry Night Pro Plus 7 & Maxim DL Pro Suite), a new portable GoTo MCT (Meade ETX-90), an Android tablet & Sky Safari 5 Pro app, SkyFi III wireless scope controller, another Mt. Wilson night, quarterly pizza parties, Astronomical League group membership & Observer’s Handbook.

We need volunteers to help with: 

·         Populating our club Sharepoint site with material & links to the club’s Aerowiki & Aerolink materials
·         Arranging future club programs
·         Managing club equipment

Astronomy Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month
(from Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html


VIDEO: Simulation TNG50: A Galaxy Cluster Forms https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190226.html
Video Credit: IllustrisTNG Project; Visualization: Dylan Nelson (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics) et al. 
Music: Symphony No. 5 (Ludwig van Beethoven), via YouTube Audio Library
Explanation: How do clusters of galaxies form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. A recent effort is TNG50 from IllustrisTNG, an upgrade of the famous Illustris Simulation. The first part of the featured video tracks cosmic gas (mostly hydrogen) as it evolves into galaxies and galaxy clusters from the early universe to today, with brighter colors marking faster moving gas. As the universe matures, gas falls into gravitational wells, galaxies forms, galaxies spin, galaxies collide and merge, all while black holes form in galaxy centers and expel surrounding gas at high speeds. The second half of the video switches to tracking stars, showing a galaxy cluster coming together complete with tidal tails and stellar streams. The outflow from black holes in TNG50 is surprisingly complex and details are being compared with our real universe. Studying how gas coalesced in the early universe helps humanity better understand how our Earth, Sun, and Solar System originally formed.
VIDEO: The Expanding Echoes of Supernova 1987A https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190224.html
Video Credit & Copyright: David Malin, AAT
Explanation: Can you find supernova 1987A? It isn't hard -- it occurred at the center of the expanding bullseye pattern. Although this stellar detonation was first seen in 1987, light from SN 1987A continued to bounce off clumps of interstellar dust and be reflected to us even many years later. Light echoes recorded between 1988 and 1992 by the Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT) in Australia are shown moving out from the position of the supernova in the featured time-lapse sequence. These images were composed by subtracting an LMC image taken before the supernova light arrived from later LMC images that included the supernova echo. Other prominent light echo sequences include those taken by the EROS2 and SuperMACHO sky monitoring projects. Studies of expanding light echo rings around other supernovas have enabled more accurate determinations of the location, date, and symmetry of these tremendous stellar explosions. Yesterday marked the 32nd anniversary of SN 1987A: the last recorded supernova in or around our Milky Way Galaxy, and the last to be visible to the unaided eye.
VIDEO:  Perijove 16: Passing Jupiter https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190205.html
Video Credit & License: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald Eichstadt; 
Music: The Planets, IV. Jupiter (Gustav Holst); USAF Heritage of America Band (via Wikipedia)
Explanation: Watch Juno zoom past Jupiter again. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its 53-day, highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 16, the sixteenth time that Juno has passed near Jupiter since it arrived in mid-2016. Each perijove passes near a slightly different part of Jupiter's cloud tops. This color-enhanced video has been digitally composed from 21 JunoCam still images, resulting in a 125-fold time-lapse. The videobegins with Jupiter rising as Juno approaches from the north. As Juno reaches its closest view -- from about 3,500 kilometers over Jupiter's cloud tops -- the spacecraft captures the great planet in tremendous detail. Juno passes light zones and dark belt of clouds that circle the planet, as well as numerous swirling circular storms, many of which are larger than hurricanes on Earth. As Juno moves away, the remarkable dolphin-shaped cloud is visible. After the perijove, Jupiter recedes into the distance, now displaying the unusual clouds that appear over Jupiter's south. To get desired science data, Juno swoops so close to Jupiter that its instruments are exposed to very high levels of radiation.
Opportunity at Perseverance Valley 
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo
Explanation: Opportunity had already reached Perseverance Valley by June of 2018. Its view is reconstructed in a colorized mosaic of images taken by the Mars Exploration Rover's Navcam. In fact, Perseverance Valley is an appropriate name for the destination. Designed for a 90 day mission, Opportunity had traveled across Mars for over 5,000 sols (martian solar days) following a January 2004 landing in Eagle crater. Covering a total distance of over 45 kilometers (28 miles), its intrepid journey of exploration across the Martian landscape has come to a close here. On June 10, 2018, the last transmission from the solar-powered rover was received as a dust storm engulfed the Red Planet. Though the storm has subsided, eight months of attempts to contact Opportunity have not been successful and its trailblazing mission ended after almost 15 years of exploring the surface of Mars.


Solar System Family Portait 
Image Credit: Voyager Project, NASA
Explanation: On Valentine's Day in 1990, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back one last time to make this first ever Solar System family portrait. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In it, Voyager's wide angle camera frames sweep through the inner Solar System at the left, linking up with gas giant Neptune, the Solar System's outermost planet, at the far right. Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the bright spot near the center of the circle of frames. The inset frames for each of the planets are from Voyager's narrow field camera. Unseen in the portrait are Mercury, too close to the Sun to be detected, and Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight scattered in the camera's optical system. Closer to the Sun than Neptune at the time, small, faint Pluto's position was not covered.


Venus Unveiled 
Image Credit: Venus (left): NASA, JPL, Magellan Project; Earth (right): NASA, Apollo 17
Explanation: What does Venus look like beneath its thick clouds? These clouds keep the planet's surface hidden from even the powerful telescopic eyes of Earth-bound astronomers. In the early 1990s, though, using imaging radar, NASA's Venus-orbiting Magellan spacecraft was able to lift the veil from the face of Venus and produced spectacular high resolution images of the planet's surface. Colors used in this computer generated picture of Magellan radar data are based on color images from the surface of Venus transmitted by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 landers. The bright area running roughly across the middle represents the largest highland region of Venus known as Aphrodite Terra. Venus, on the left, is about the same size as our Earth, shown to the right for comparison.
Red Sprite Lightning over Kununurra 
Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Broady
Explanation: What are those red filaments in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 30 years ago: red sprites. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The featured image, taken just over a week ago in Kununurra, Western Australia, captured some red sprites while shooting a time-lapse sequence of a distant lightning storm. Pictured, green trees cover the foreground, dark mountains are seen on the horizon, ominous storm clouds hover over the distant land, while red spritesappear in front of stars far in the distance. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.


Astronomy News:
(from https://www.sciencedaily.com )

The Case of the Over-Tilting Planets

·         Press Release - Source: Yale University
·         Posted March 4, 2019 10:03 PM
·          

©NASA   extrasolar planets
For almost a decade, astronomers have tried to explain why so many pairs of planets outside our solar system have an odd configuration -- their orbits seem to have been pushed apart by a powerful unknown mechanism.
Yale researchers say they've found a possible answer, and it implies that the planets' poles are majorly tilted.
The finding could have a big impact on how researchers estimate the structure, climate, and habitability of exoplanets as they try to identify planets that are similar to Earth. The research appears in the March 4 online edition of the journal Nature Astronomy.
NASA's Kepler mission revealed that about 30% of stars similar to our Sun harbor "super-Earths." Their sizes are somewhere between that of Earth and Neptune; they have nearly circular and coplanar orbits; and it takes them fewer than 100 days to go around their star. Yet curiously, a great number of these planets exist in pairs with orbits that lie just outside natural points of stability.
That's where obliquity -- the amount of tilting between a planet's axis and its orbit -- comes in, according to Yale astronomers Sarah Millholland and Gregory Laughlin .
"When planets such as these have large axial tilts, as opposed to little or no tilt, their tides are exceedingly more efficient at draining orbital energy into heat in the planets," said first author Millholland, a graduate student at Yale. "This vigorous tidal dissipation pries the orbits apart."
A similar, but not identical, situation exists between Earth and its moon. The Moon's orbit is slowly growing due to dissipation from tides, but Earth's day is gradually lengthening.
Laughlin, who is a professor of astronomy at Yale, said there is a direct connection between the over-tilting of these exoplanets and their physical characteristics. "It impacts several of their physical features, such as their climate, weather, and global circulations," Laughlin said. "The seasons on a planet with a large axial tilt are much more extreme than those on a well-aligned planet, and their weather patterns are probably non-trivial."
Millholland said she and Laughlin already have started work on a follow-up study that will examine how these exoplanets' structures respond to large obliquities over time.
"Obliquity-Driven Sculpting of Exoplanetary Systems," Sarah Millholland & Gregory Laughlin, 2019 March 4, Nature Astronomy [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0701-7].
The NASA Astrobiology Institute and the National Science Foundation Research Fellowship Program supported the study.

Catalog of New K2 Exoplanet Candidates from Citizen Scientists

·         Press Release - Source: astro-ph.EP
·         Posted March 4, 2019 10:06 PM


Planet orbital period versus planet radius for our new candidate sample (filled circles) compared to previous K2 planet candidates (violet open circles) and confirmed planets (brown open circles) from the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Circle size indicates Kepler bandpass magnitude, and color of the new candidates indicates host star effective temperature.

We provide 28 new planet candidates that have been vetted by citizen scientists and expert astronomers.
This catalog contains 9 likely rocky candidates (Rpl<2.0R⊙) and 19 gaseous candidates (Rpl>2.0R⊙). Within this list we find one multi-planet system (EPIC 246042088). These two sub-Neptune (2.99±0.02R⊙ and 3.44±0.02R⊙) planets exist in a near 3:2 orbital resonance. The discovery of this multi-planet system is important in its addition to the list of known multi-planet systems within the K2 catalog, and more broadly in understanding the multiplicity distribution of the exoplanet population (Zink et al. 2019). The candidates on this list are anticipated to generate RV amplitudes of 0.2-18 m/s, many within the range accessible to current facilities.
Jon K. Zink, Kevin K. Hardegree-Ullman, Jessie L. Christiansen, Ian J. M. Crossfield, Erik A. Petigura, Chris J. Lintott, John H. Livingston, David R. Ciardi, Geert Barentsen, Courtney D. Dressing, Alexander Ye, Joshua E. Schlieder, Kevin Acres, Peter Ansorge, Dario Arienti, Elisabeth Baeten, Victoriano Canales Cerd, Itayi Chitsiga, Maxwell Daly, James Damboiu, Martin Ende, Adnan Erdag, Stiliyan Evstatiev, Joseph Henderson, David Hine, Tony Hoffman, Emmanuel Lambrou, Gabriel Murawski, Mark Nicholson, Mason Russell, Hans Martin Schwengeler, Alton Spencer, Aaron Tagliabue, Christopher Tanner, Melina Thévenot, Christine Unsworth, Jouni Uusi-Simola
(Submitted on 1 Mar 2019)
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1903.00474 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1903.00474v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Jon Zink
[v1] Fri, 1 Mar 2019 18:45:34 UTC (1,196 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.00474

 General Calendar:

Colloquia, Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:

Colloquia:  Carnegie (Tues. 4pm), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena (daily 12-4pm):  http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/ 

Carnegie 2019 Astronomy Lecture Series

Each year the Observatories organizes a series of public lectures on current astronomical topics.  These lectures are given by astronomers from the Carnegie Observatories as well as other research institutions.  The lectures are geared to the general public and are free.
– only 4 per year in the Spring www.obs.carnegiescience.edu.  For more information about the Carnegie Observatories or this lecture series, please contact Reed Haynie.  . Click here for more information.

2019 Season

Monday evenings:  March 18, April 1, April 15 and April 29.

All Lectures are in Rothenberg Auditorium. The simulcast room adjacent to the Auditorium will also accommodate overflow attendance. Directions can be found here.

The lectures are free. Because seating is limited, however, reservations are required for each lecture through Eventbrite (links below). Additionally, the lectures will be streamed live through Livestream and simultaneously on our Facebook CarnegieAstro page. For information, please call 626-304-0250.

Doors open at 6:45 p.m. Each Lecture will be preceded by a brief musical performance by students from The Colburn School starting at 7:00 p.m. Lectures start at 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be available.

Monday, March 18, 2019
Glimpses of the Cosmic Dawn

 Dr. Alexander Ji
Hubble Fellow, Carnegie Observatories
Astronomers have mapped almost the entire history of our Universe, from the Big Bang to the present day. One last frontier remains, an epoch known as Cosmic Dawn, when the first stars and galaxies are born and change the universe forever.  Dr. Ji will take us on a short tour of the early history of our Universe and the current glimpses we have of this era.
Tickets will be available starting February 25th at Eventbrite.

A New Tool to Map Entire Galaxies

Monday, April 1, 2019 - 6:45pm


 Dr. Rosalie McGurk
Fellow in Instrumentation, Carnegie Observatories
All the popular images of galaxies, while beautiful, do not provide the information that astronomers need to measure the galaxies’ inherent properties, like the dynamics and composition of their stars and gases.  Using the latest technological advances, Dr. McGurk is building a new, custom-designed instrument for Carnegie Observatories' Magellan Telescopes that will peer into the Universe with extreme detail – making it possible to efficiently make 3D maps of galaxies, nebulae, and more.
More information about our Spring Lecture Series is available here.

1 March
Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS  Monthly General Meeting
in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw Bl. In Torrance)
Topic: “Tipping the Scales” Speaker: David Nakomoto
7 March
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
TBD
(A1/1735)





11 March
LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory



March 14 & 15 The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2019

The Golden Age of Exoplanet Exploration


Since the discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star in 1995, several thousand more have been discovered. We’ve peered into the atmospheres of some, and we’ve found whole families of planets orbiting strange stars -- many in configurations starkly different from our own. We’ve learned a lot from NASA's Kepler mission, which launched 10 years ago and ceased operations in November 2018. A new NASA planet-hunting spacecraft called TESS, which began science operations as Kepler was winding down, will give us thousands of new discoveries in the coming years. And the Spitzer Space Telescope has provided us valuable insights into what these worlds might be like. This show will look at the state of exoplanet science and give us a view of what future discoveries may be around the corner.
Host:
Preston Dyches
Speaker:
Jessie Christiansen, Research Scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Caltech
Karl Stapelfeldt, Chief Scientist, NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program, JPL


Location:
Thursday, March 14, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA › Directions

Friday, March 15, 2019, 7pm
Caltech’s Ramo Auditorium
1200 E California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA › Directions

Webcast:
Thursday’s lecture will be shown live on Ustream and YouTube



None   in March

UCLA Meteorite Gallery Events

Location: Geology 3656
Time: 2:30PM

4 April
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
TBD
(A1/1735)

Observing:

The following data are from the 2019 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s 2019 Skygazer’s Almanac & monthly Sky at a Glance.

Current sun & moon rise/set/phase data for L.A.:  http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/usa/los-angeles

Sun, Moon & Planets for March:

  

Moon: March 6 new, March 14 1st quarter, March 21 Full, March 28 last quarter,     
          
Planets: Venus visible at dawn all month.  Mars visible at dusk, sets late evening.  Mercury visible at dusk through the 6th.  Saturn visible at dawn all month. Jupiter rises early morning, visible through dawn all month.
Other Events:

1 March Saturn 0.3 deg S of Moon

2 March Venus 1.2 deg N of Moon

2 March
SBAS out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Greg Benecke to coordinate a location. http://www.sbastro.net/.  

2 March
LAAS Private dark sky  Star Party

6, 13, 20, 27 March
LAAS The Garvey Ranch Observatory is open to the public every Wednesday evening from 7:30 PM to 10 PM. Go into the dome to use the 8 Inch Refractor or observe through one of our telescopes on the lawn. Visit our workshop to learn how you can build your own telescope, grind your own mirror, or sign up for our free seasonal astronomy classes.

Call 213-673-7355 for further information.
Time: 7:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Location: Garvey Ranch Obs. , 781 Orange Ave., Monterey Park, CA 91755

9 March International Day of Planetariums Find more information at: https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/IDP

10 March Daylight Savings Time begins

15 March Friday, 7 PM CalTech Astro: Stargazing and Lecture Series “Planet 9 From Outer Space” a lecture by Mike Brown. For directions, weather updates, and more information, please visit: http://outreach.astro.caltech.edu

16 March
LAAS Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm

20 March Vernal Equinox

23 March Saturday SBAS In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at Ridgecrest Middle School– 28915 NortbBay Rd. RPV, Weather Permitting: Please contact Ken Rossi or Ken Munson to confirm that the gate will be opened.

27 March Jupiter 1.9 deg S of Moon

29 March Saturn 0.05 deg N of Moon, occultation

30 March
SBAS out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Greg Benecke to coordinate a location. http://www.sbastro.net/.  

Internet Links:

Telescope, Binocular & Accessory Buying Guides


General


Regional (Southern California, Washington, D.C. & Colorado)
Southern California & Beyond Amateur Astronomy Organizations, Observatories & Planetaria
Mt. Wilson Observatory description, history, visiting


About the Club

Club Websites:  Internal (Aerospace): https://aeropedia.aero.org/aeropedia/index.php/Astronomy_Club  It is updated to reflect this newsletter, in addition to a listing of past club mtg. presentations, astronomy news, photos & events from prior newsletters, club equipment, membership & constitution.  We have linked some presentation materials from past mtgs.  Our club newsletters are also being posted to an external blog, “An Astronomical View” http://astronomicalview.blogspot.com/. 
 
Membership.  For information, current dues & application, contact Alan Olson, or see the club website (or Aerolink folder) where a form is also available (go to the membership link/folder & look at the bottom).  Benefits will include use of club telescope(s) & library/software, membership in The Astronomical League, discounts on Sky & Telescope magazine and Observer’s Handbook, field trips, great programs, having a say in club activities, acquisitions & elections, etc.

Committee Suggestions & Volunteers.  Feel free to contact:  Mark Clayson, President & Program Committee Chairman, Walt Sturrock, VP, TBD Activities Committee Chairman (& club Secretary), or Alan Olson, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment & library, and club Treasurer).

Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President


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