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)

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

2020 January


AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter                         January 2020

Contents

AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 1
Astronomy News p. 6
General Calendar p. 7
    Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 7
    Observing p. 11
Useful Links p. 12
About the Club p. 13

Club News & Calendar.

Club Calendar

Club Meeting Schedule: --


9 Jan.
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting & Pizza Party
 Remote Astronomy, astrophotography – Jason Fields
(A1/1735)


AEA Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st  Thursdays at 11:45 am.  For 2020:  March 1 & April 2 in A1/2906 and for the rest of 2020 (Jan., Feb., April-Dec), the meeting room is A1/1735. 

Club News:  



We need volunteers to help with: 

·         Assembling our new 16-inch Hubble Optics Dobs
·         Installing our new software on our tablet & laptop
·         Populating our club Sharepoint site with material & links to the club’s Aerowiki & Aerolink materials – Kaly Rangarajan has volunteered to help with this
·         Arranging future club programs
·         Managing club equipment & library (Kelly Gov volunteered to help with the library)

Astronomy Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month
(generally from Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html)
VIDEO:  Places for OSIRIS-REx to Touch Asteroid Bennu 
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191223.html
Video Credit: NASA, GSFC, U. Arizona, SVS, OSIRIS-REx
Explanation: Where is the best place to collect a surface sample from asteroid Bennu? Launched in 2016, NASA sent the robotic Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) to investigate the 500-meter-across asteroid 101955 Bennu. After mapping the near-Earth asteroid's dark surface, OSIRIS-REx will next touch Bennu's surface in 2020 August to collect a surface sample. The featured 23-second time-lapse video shows four candidate locations for the touch, from which NASA chose just one earlier this month. NASA chose the Nightingale near Bennu's northern hemisphere as the primary touch-down spot because of its relative flatness, lack of boulders, and apparent abundance of fine-grained sand. Location Osprey is the backup. NASA plans to return soil samples from Bennu to Earth in 2023 for a detailed analysis.


VIDEO:  Looking Sideways from the Parker Solar Probe https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191209.html
Video Credit: NASA, JHUAPL, Naval Research Lab, Parker Solar Probe
Explanation: Everybody sees the Sun. Nobody's been there. Starting in 2018 though, NASA launched the robotic Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to investigate regions near to the Sun for the first time. The PSP's looping orbit brings it yet closer to the Sun each time around -- every few months. The featured time-lapse video shows the view looking sideways from behind PSP's Sun shield during its first approach to the Sun a year ago -- to about half the orbit of Mercury. The PSP's Wide Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) cameras took the images over nine days, but they are digitally compressed here into about 14 seconds. The waving solar corona is visible on the far left, with stars, planets, and even the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy streaming by in the background as the PSP orbits the Sun. PSP has found the solar neighborhood to be surprisingly complex and to include switchbacks -- times when the Sun's magnetic field briefly reverses itself. The Sun is not only Earth's dominant energy source, its variable solar wind compresses Earth's atmosphere, triggers auroras, affects power grids, and can even damage orbiting communication satellites.


Mercury Crosses a Quiet Sun https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191202.html
Video Credit: NASA, SDO, NASA's Science Visualization Studio; Music: Gustav Sting (Kevin MacLeod) via YouTube
Explanation: What's that black dot crossing the Sun? The planet Mercury. Mercury usually passes over or under the Sun, as seen from Earth, but last month the Solar System's innermost planet appeared to go just about straight across the middle. Although witnessed by planet admirers across the globe, a particularly clear view was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in Earth orbit. The featured video was captured by the SDO's HMI instrument in a broad range of visible light, and compresses the 5 1/2 hour transit into about 13 seconds. The background Sun was unusually quiet -- even for being near Solar Minimum -- and showed no sunspots. The next solar transit by Mercury will occur in 2032.


A Hotspot Map of Neutron Star J0030's Surface
Image Credit: NASA, NICER, GSFC's CI Lab
Explanation: What do neutron stars look like? Previously these city-sized stars were too small and too far away to resolve. Recently, however, the first maps of the locations and sizes of hotspots on a neutron star's surface have been made by carefully modeling how the rapid spin makes the star's X-ray brightness rise and fall. Based on a leading model, an illustrative map of pulsar J0030+0451's hotspots is pictured, with the rest of the star's surface filled in with a false patchy blue. J0030 spins once every 0.0049 seconds and is located about 1000 light years away. The map was computed from data taken by NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) X-ray telescope attached to the International Space Station. The computed locations of these hotspots is surprising and not well understood. Because the gravitational lensing effect of neutron stars is so strong, J0300 displays more than half of its surface toward the Earth. Studying the appearance of pulsars like J0030 allows accurate estimates of the neutron star's mass, radius, and the internal physics that keeps the star from imploding into a black hole. 

Starlink Satellite Trails over Brazil
Image Credit & Copyright: Egon Filter
Explanation: What are those streaks over the horizon? New Starlink satellites reflecting sunlight. SpaceX launched 60 Starlink communication satellites in May and 60 more in November. These satellites and thousands more are planned by communications companies in the next few years that may make streaks like these relatively common. Concern has been voiced by many in the astronomical community about how reflections from these satellites may affect future observations into space. In the pictured composite of 33 exposures, parallel streaks from Starlink satellites are visible over southern Brazil. Sunflowers dot the foreground, while a bright meteor was caught by chance on the upper right. Satellite reflections are not new -- the constellation of 66 first-generation Iridium satellites launched starting 20 years ago produced some flares so bright that they could be seen during the day. Most of these old Iridium satellites, however, have been de-orbited over the past few years. 


Starburst Galaxy M94 from Hubble
Image Credit & Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Explanation: Why does this galaxy have a ring of bright blue stars? Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici). A popular target for Earth-based astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad disk. But this Hubble Space Telescope field of view spans about 7,000 light-years across M94's central region. The featured close-up highlights the galaxy's compact, bright nucleus, prominent inner dust lanes, and the remarkable bluish ring of young massive stars. The ring stars are all likely less than 10 million years old, indicating that M94 is a starburst galaxy that is experiencing an epoch of rapid star formation from inspiraling gas. The circular ripple of blue stars is likely a wave propagating outward, having been triggered by the gravity and rotation of a oval matter distributions. Because M94 is relatively nearby, astronomers can better explore details of its starburst ring.

Astronomy News:

NASA maps inner Milky Way, sees cosmic 'candy cane'



Date:
December 18, 2019
Source:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Summary:
A feature resembling a candy cane highlights this colorful composite image of our Milky Way galaxy's central zone. But this is no cosmic confection. It's part of a set of radio-emitting filaments extending 190 light-years.


This image of the inner galaxy color codes different types of emission sources by merging microwave data (green) mapped by the Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO) instrument with infrared (850 micrometers, blue) and radio observations (19.5 centimeters, red). Where star formation is in its infancy, cold dust shows blue and cyan, such as in the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud complex. Yellow reveals more well-developed star factories, as in the Sagittarius B1 cloud. Red and orange show where high-energy electrons interact with magnetic fields, such as in the Radio Arc and Sagittarius A features. An area called the Sickle may supply the particles responsible for setting the Radio Arc aglow. Within the bright source Sagittarius A lies the Milky Way's monster black hole. The image spans a distance of 750 light-years.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
A feature resembling a candy cane appears at the center of this colorful composite image of our Milky Way galaxy's central zone. But this is no cosmic confection. It spans 190 light-years and is one of a set of long, thin strands of ionized gas called filaments that emit radio waves.
This image includes newly published observations using an instrument designed and built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Called the Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO), the instrument was used in concert with a 30-meter radio telescope located on Pico Veleta, Spain, operated by the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range headquartered in Grenoble, France.
"GISMO observes microwaves with a wavelength of 2 millimeters, allowing us to explore the galaxy in the transition zone between infrared light and longer radio wavelengths," said Johannes Staguhn, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who leads the GISMO team at Goddard. "Each of these portions of the spectrum is dominated by different types of emission, and GISMO shows us how they link together."
GISMO detected the most prominent radio filament in the galactic center, known as the Radio Arc, which forms the straight part of the cosmic candy cane. This is the shortest wavelength at which these curious structures have been observed. Scientists say the filaments delineate the edges of a large bubble produced by some energetic event at the galactic center, located within the bright region known as Sagittarius A about 27,000 light-years away from us. Additional red arcs in the image reveal other filaments.
"It was a real surprise to see the Radio Arc in the GISMO data," said Richard Arendt, a team member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Goddard. "Its emission comes from high-speed electrons spiraling in a magnetic field, a process called synchrotron emission. Another feature GISMO sees, called the Sickle, is associated with star formation and may be the source of these high-speed electrons."
Two papers describing the composite image, one led by Arendt and one led by Staguhn, were published on Nov. 1 in the Astrophysical Journal.
The image shows the inner part of our galaxy, which hosts the largest and densest collection of giant molecular clouds in the Milky Way. These vast, cool clouds contain enough dense gas and dust to form tens of millions of stars like the Sun. The view spans a part of the sky about 1.6 degrees across -- equivalent to roughly three times the apparent size of the Moon -- or about 750 light-years wide.
To make the image, the team acquired GISMO data, shown in green, in April and November 2012. They then used archival observations from the European Space Agency's Herschel satellite to model the far-infrared glow of cold dust, which they then subtracted from the GISMO data. Next, they added, in blue, existing 850-micrometer infrared data from the SCUBA-2 instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope near the summit of Maunakea, Hawaii. Finally, they added, in red, archival longer-wavelength 19.5-centimeter radio observations from the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, located near Socorro, New Mexico. The higher-resolution infrared and radio data were then processed to match the lower-resolution GISMO observations.
The resulting image essentially color codes different emission mechanisms.
Blue and cyan features reveal cold dust in molecular clouds where star formation is still in its infancy. Yellow features, such as the Arches filaments making up the candy cane's handle and the Sagittarius B1 molecular cloud, reveal the presence of ionized gas and show well-developed star factories; this light comes from electrons that are slowed but not captured by gas ions, a process also known as free-free emission. Red and orange regions show areas where synchrotron emission occurs, such as in the prominent Radio Arc and Sagittarius A, the bright source at the galaxy's center that hosts its supermassive black hole.

Story Source:
Materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Original written by Francis Reddy. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:
1.       Johannes Staguhn, Richard G. Arendt, Eli Dwek, Mark R. Morris, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, Dominic J. Benford, Attila Kovács, Junellie Gonzalez-Quiles. 2 mm GISMO Observations of the Galactic Center. II. A Nonthermal Filament in the Radio Arc and Compact Sources. The Astrophysical Journal, 2019; 885 (1): 72 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab451b


 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/ 

2020 Season

Monday evenings:  February 24, March 23, April 13 and May 18.
AT THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino
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.

This year's lineup of speakers and topics will be posted as soon as the schedule is finalized. Please check back later.
9 Jan.
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting & Pizza Party
 "Overview and Status of the Giant Magellan Telescope,” Breann Sitarsky of GMT Corp. &                 Aerospace casual (works on the design and specification of the telescope and its subsystems)
                       (A1/1735)








10 Jan.

Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS  Monthly General Meeting
in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw Bl. In Torrance)
Topic: “Star Hopping Under Urban Skies” Speaker: David Nakamoto

16 Dec. Monday, CalTech Astro: Astronomy on Tap Series
·         7:30PM Monday, January 20
Astronomy on Tap
·         7:00PM Friday, January 31
Lecture/Stargazing
TBA
·         7:30PM Monday, February 20
Astronomy on Tap
·         7:00PM Friday, February 28
Lecture/Stargazing
TBA
·         All events details for the Spring will be posted soon. Stay tuned!
For directions, weather updates, and more information, please visit: http://outreach.astro.caltech.edu



Jan. 23 & 24  The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2019


Spitzer: Final Voyage


The Spitzer Space Telescope has been observing the universe in infrared light for over 16 years. As the mission comes to a close, we’ll take a look at some of the amazing highlights and the lasting legacy of this incredible observatory
Host:
Brian White
Speaker(s):
Varoujan Gorjian, Spitzer Research Scientist, JPL
Robert Hurt, Spitzer Visualization Scientist, Caltech/IPAC
Suzanne Dodd, Former Spitzer Project Manager (2010-2016), JPL
Joseph Hunt, Spitzer Project Manager (Current), JPL

Location:
Thursday, Jan. 23, 2019, 7pm
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
› Directions

Friday, Jan. 24, 2019, 7pm
Caltech’s Ramo Auditorium
1200 E California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
› Directions

› Click here to watch the event live on Ustream
* Only the Thursday lectures are streamed live.
* Only the Thursday lectures are streamed live.
LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory (private)



Jan. 26

UCLA Meteorite Gallery

DR. PETER UTAS AND DR. ALAN RUBIN

A COMING OUT PARTY FOR A LARGE STONY METEORITE

Location: Geology Building - Slichter Room 3656
Time: 2:30PM
Large iron meteorites are common, big stones are rare. Our atmosphere presents a formidable barrier to large rocks, efficiently transforming boulders into pebbles. But a few survive the fiery plunge. Peter reviews the roster of these great intruders, with a short description of several, and introduces a rare survivor, the 15th largest surviving stone. Discovered five years ago, in Mali or Mauritania, this flight-marked 205-kilogram specimen was largely buried, the soil-line still clearly visible. Rubin describes the analysis and classification of chondritic stones; naked eye examination of hand specimens gives important clues, but quantitative techniques are needed to avoid being misled. Hand samples of chondrites will be available for examination by attendees.
6 Feb.
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
TBD
(A1/1735)
5 March
AEA
TBD
(A1/1735)
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting
"Overview and Status of the Giant Magellan Telescope,” Breann Sitarsky of GMT Corp. & Aerospace casual (works on the design and specification of the telescope and its subsystems)
A1/2906
Observing:

The following data are from the 2020 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s 2020 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 January:

   

Moon: Jan 3 1st quarter, Jan 10 Full, Jan 17 last quarter, Jan 24 new                   
Planets: Venus visible at dusk, sets in early evening.  Mars visible at dawn.  Mercury very low at dusk starting on the 27th.  Saturn hidden in the Sun’s glow all month. Jupiter very low at dawn starting on the 12th.
Other Events:

4 Jan. Quadrantid meteors peak  The Quadrantids are a January meteor shower. The Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of this shower can be as high as that of two other reliably rich meteor showers, the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December, yet Quadrantid meteors are not seen as often as meteors in these other two showers, because the peak intensity is exceedingly sharp, sometimes lasting only hours. Additionally, the meteors are quite faint (mean magnitude 3-6 mag).

4 Jan.
LAAS Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm See http://www.griffithobservatory.org/programs/publictelescopes.html#starparties  for more information.


8,15,22,29 Jan.
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


18 Jan.
SBAS In-town observing session – contact Greg Benecke to coordinate a location. http://www.sbastro.net/.  

20 Jan. Mars 2 deg south of Moon

23 Jan. Jupiter 0.4 deg N of Moon

25 Jan.
LAAS Private dark sky  Star Party


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


1 Feb.
LAAS Public  Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm See http://www.griffithobservatory.org/programs/publictelescopes.html#starparties  for more information.

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, Kelly Gov club Secretary (& librarian), or Alan Olson, Resource Committee Chairman (over equipment, and club Treasurer).

Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club President



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