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)

Monday, January 10, 2022

2022 January

 

AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter                        January 2022

 

Contents


AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 1
Astronomy News p. 8
General Calendar p. 12

    Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 12
    Observing p. 15

Useful Links p. 16
About the Club p. 17

Club News & Calendar.

Club Calendar

 

Club Meeting Schedule: --

6 Jan

AEA

TBD

(A1/1735)

AEA Astronomy Club Meeting

TBD -- Great Courses video

Teams

3 Feb

AEA

TBD

(A1/1735)

AEA Astronomy Club Meeting

TBD -- Great Courses video

Teams

 

AEA Astronomy Club meetings are now on 1st  Thursdays at 11:30 am.  Virtual meetings on Teams until further notice.  When live meetings resume, our preferred room has been A1/1735, when we can reserve it. 

 

Club News:  

 

 Contact Jason Fields if interested in joining him for an observing night with his 20” Dobs.

We need volunteers to help with:

·         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, Sam has a fair chunk of the equipment)

 

Astronomy Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month

(generally from Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html)

 

VIDEO: Sun Halo over Sweden  https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211228.html
Video Credit & Copyright: Håkan Hammar (Vemdalen Ski ResortSkiStar)

Explanation: What's happened to the Sun? Sometimes it looks like the Sun is being viewed through a giant lens. In the featured video, however, there are actually millions of tiny lenses: ice crystals. Water may freeze in the atmosphere into small, flat, six-sided, ice crystals. As these crystals flutter to the ground, much time is spent with their faces flat and parallel to the ground. An observer may find themselves in the same plane as many of the falling ice crystals near sunrise or sunset. During this alignment, each crystal can act like a miniature lens, refracting sunlight into our view and creating phenomena like parhelia, the technical term for sundogs. The featured video was taken in late 2017 on the side of a ski hill at the Vemdalen Ski Resort in central Sweden. Visible in the center is the most direct image of the Sun, while two bright sundogs glow prominently from both the left and the right. Also visible is the bright 22 degree halo -- as well as the rarer and much fainter 46 degree halo -- also created by sunlight refracting through atmospheric ice crystals.


Comet Leonard behind JWST Launch Plume
Image Credit & Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham (NARIT)

Explanation: Which one of these two streaks is a comet? Although they both have comet-like features, the lower streak is the only real comet. This lower streak shows the coma and tail of Comet Leonard, a city-sized block of rocky ice that is passing through the inner Solar System as it continues its looping orbit around the Sun. Comet Leonard has recently passed its closest to both the Earth and Venus and will round the Sun next week. The comet, still visible to the unaided eye, has developed a long and changing tail in recent weeks. In contrast, the upper streak is the launch plume of the Ariane V rocket that lifted the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) off the Earth two days ago. The featured single-exposure image was taken from Thailand, and the foreground spire is atop a pagoda in Doi Inthanon National ParkJWST, NASA's largest and most powerful space telescope so far, will orbit the Sun near the Earth-Sun L2 point and is scheduled to start science observations in the summer of 2022.

James Webb Space Telescope over Earth
Image Credit: ArianespaceESANASACSACNES

Explanation: There's a big new telescope in space. This one, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), not only has a mirror over five times larger than Hubble's in area, but can see better in infrared light. The featured picture shows JWST high above the Earth just after being released by the upper stage of an Ariane V rocket, launched yesterday from French Guiana. Over the next month, JWST will move out near the Sun-Earth L2 point where it will co-orbit the Sun with the Earth. During this time and for the next five months, JWST will unravel its segmented mirror and an array of sophisticated scientific instruments -- and test them. If all goes well, JWST will start examining galaxies across the universe and planets orbiting stars across our Milky Way Galaxy in the summer of 2022.

HH 666: Carina Dust Pillar with Jet
Image Credit: NASAESAHubbleProcessing & Copyright: Mehmet Hakan Özsaraç

Explanation: To some, it may look like a beehive. In reality, the featured image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures a cosmic pillar of dust, over two-light years long, inside of which is Herbig-Haro 666 -- a young star emitting powerful jets. The structure lies within one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions, the Carina Nebula, shining in southern skies at a distance of about 7,500 light-years. The pillar's layered outline are shaped by the winds and radiation of Carina's young, hot, massive stars, some of which are still forming inside the nebula. A dust-penetrating view in infrared light better shows the two, narrow, energetic jets blasting outward from a still hidden infant star.

Postcard from the South Pole
Image Credit & Copyright: Aman Chokshi

Explanation: From this vantage point about three quarters of a mile from planet Earth's geographic South Pole, the December 4 eclipse of the Sun was seen as a partial eclipse. At maximum the New Moon blocked 90 percent of the solar disk. Of course, crews at the South Pole Telescope (left) and BICEP telescope (right) climbed to the roof of Amundsen-Scott station's Dark Sector Laboratory to watch. Centered near the local eclipse maximum, the composite timelapse view features an image of the Sun traversing cold antarctic skies taken every four minutes. Left to right along the roof line it also features the raised arms of Brandon Amat, Aman Chokshi, Cheng Zhang, James Bevington and Allen Foster.

Ninety Gravitational Wave Spectrograms and Counting
Image Credit: NSFLIGOVIRGOKAGRAGeorgia TechVanderbilt U.Graphic Sudarshan Ghonge & Karan Jani

Explanation: Every time two massive black holes collide, a loud chirping sound is broadcast out into the universe in gravitational waves. Humanity has only had the technology to hear these unusual chirps for the past seven years, but since then we have heard about 90 -- during the first three observing runs. Featured above are the spectrograms -- plots of gravitational-wave frequency versus time -- of these 90 as detected by the giant detectors of LIGO (in the USA), VIRGO (in Europe), and KAGRA (in Japan). The more energy received on Earth from a collision, the brighter it appears on the graphic. Among many science firsts, these gravitational-radiation chirps are giving humanity an unprecedented inventory of black holes and neutron stars, and a new way to measure the expansion rate of our universe. A fourth gravitational wave observing run with increased sensitivity is currently planned to begin in 2022 December.

Giant Storms and High Clouds on Jupiter
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing & LicenseKevin M. Gill

Explanation: What and where are these large ovals? They are rotating storm clouds on Jupiter imaged last month by NASA's Juno spacecraft. In general, higher clouds are lighter in color, and the lightest clouds visible are the relatively small clouds that dot the lower oval. At 50 kilometers across, however, even these light clouds are not small. They are so high up that they cast shadows on the swirling oval below. The featured image has been processed to enhance color and contrast. Large ovals are usually regions of high pressure that span over 1000 kilometers and can last for years. The largest oval on Jupiter is the Great Red Spot (not pictured), which has lasted for at least hundreds of years. Studying cloud dynamics on Jupiter with Juno images enables a better understanding of dangerous typhoons and hurricanes on Earth.


Astronomy News:

From ScienceNews.org

 

A supernova’s delayed reappearance could pin down

 how fast the universe expands

The catch: We have to wait until about 2037 for an answer

This cluster of galaxies, seen in a Hubble telescope image, contorts the light of a galaxy far behind it into arcs (orange).

A. NEWMAN, M. AKHSHIK, K. WHITAKER, HUBBLE/NASA, ESA

A meandering trek taken by light from a remote supernova in the constellation Cetus may help researchers pin down how fast the universe expands — in another couple of decades.

About 10 billion years ago, a star exploded in a far-off galaxy named MRG-M0138. Some of the light from that explosion later encountered a gravitational lens, a cluster of galaxies whose gravity bent the light so that we see multiple images. In 2016, the supernova appeared in Earth’s sky as three distinct points of light, each marking three different paths the light took to get here.

Now, researchers predict that the supernova will appear again in the late 2030s. The time delay — the longest ever seen from a gravitationally lensed supernova — could provide a more precise estimate for the distance to the supernova’s host galaxy, the team reports September 13 in Nature Astronomy. And that, in turn, may let astronomers refine estimates of the Hubble constant, the parameter that describes how fast the universe expands.

The original three points of light appeared in images from the Hubble Space Telescope. “It was purely an accident,” says astronomer Steve Rodney of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Three years later, when Hubble reobserved the galaxy, astronomer Gabriel Brammer at the University of Copenhagen discovered that all three points of light had vanished, indicating a supernova.

By calculating how the intervening cluster’s gravity alters the path the supernova’s light rays take, Rodney and his colleagues predict that the supernova will appear again in 2037, give or take a couple of years. Around that time, Hubble may burn up in the atmosphere, so Rodney’s team dubs the supernova “SN Requiem.”

“It’s a requiem for a dying star and a sort of elegy to the Hubble Space Telescope itself,” Rodney says. A fifth point of light, too faint to be seen, may also arrive around 2042, the team calculates.

In another Hubble image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0138.0-2155, the cluster split the light from a supernova into three points, SN1, SN2 and SN3. The other two points, SN4 and SN5, are predictions of where the light from the supernova will appear in future years.S. RODNEY ET AL/NATURE ASTRONOMY 2021

The predicted 21-year time delay — from 2016 to 2037 — is a record for a supernova. In contrast, the first gravitational lens ever found — twin images of a quasar spotted in 1979  — has a time delay of only 1.1 years (SN: 11/10/1979).

Not everyone agrees with Rodney’s forecast. “It is very difficult to predict what the time delay will be,” says Rudolph Schild, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who was the first to measure the double quasar’s time delay. The distribution of dark matter in the galaxy hosting the supernova and the cluster splitting the supernova’s light is so uncertain, Schild says, that the next image of SN Requiem could come outside the years Rodney’s team has specified.

In any case, when the supernova image does appear, “that would be a phenomenally precise measurement” of the time delay, says Patrick Kelly, an astronomer at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis who was not involved with the new work. That’s because the uncertainty in the time delay will be tiny compared with the tremendous length of the time delay itself.

That delay, coupled with an accurate description of how light rays weave through the galaxy cluster, could affect the debate over the Hubble constant. Numerically, the Hubble constant is the speed a distant galaxy recedes from us divided by the distance to that galaxy. For a given galaxy with a known speed, a larger estimated distance therefore leads to a lower number for the Hubble constant.

This number was once in dispute by a factor of two. Today the range is much tighter, from 67 to 73 kilometers per second per megaparsec. But that spread still leaves the universe’s age uncertain. The frequently quoted age of 13.8 billion years corresponds to a Hubble constant of 67.4. But if the Hubble constant is higher, then the universe could be about a billion years younger.

The longer it takes for SN Requiem to reappear, the farther from Earth the host galaxy is — which means a lower Hubble constant and an older universe. So if the debate over the Hubble constant persists into the 2030s, the exact date the supernova springs back to life could help resolve the dispute and nail down a fundamental cosmological parameter.

Editor's Note:

 

This story was updated Sept. 17, 2021 to clarify how the gravitational lens affected the light from the supernova.

A version of this article appears in the October 9, 2021 issue of Science News.

CITATIONS

S.A. Rodney et al. A gravitationally lensed supernova with an observable two-decade time delayNature Astronomy. Published online September 13, 2021. doi: 10.1038/s41550-021-01450-9.  

About Ken Croswell

Ken Croswell has a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University and is the author of eight books, including The Alchemy of the Heavens: Searching for Meaning in the Milky Way and The Lives of Stars.

Related Stories

1.       

Stars go kaboom, spilling cosmic secrets

By Ron CowenJuly 31, 2009

2.       

Explosive Tales

By Ron CowenDecember 5, 2004

3.     

A rush to watch a supernova exposed its last gasp before exploding

 

 

 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 Zoom Digital Series

Register to Join Us!

Zoom Webinar Platform

 

January Night Sky Network Clubs & Events   https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs-and-events.cfm  

 

6 Jan

AEA

TBD

(A1/1735)

AEA Astronomy Club Meeting

TBD -- Great Courses video

Teams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cancelled for now

 

Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS  Monthly General Meeting

in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw Bl. In Torrance)

 

 

Jan. 20  The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2022

SWOT: Looking at the Earth’s Water

At this year’s American Geophysical Union meeting, NASA scientists will provide updates on a range of Earth and space science topics, including an overview of the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, an upcoming Earth science mission that will measure the height of Earth’s fresh and saltwater. This illustration shows the SWOT satellite in orbit. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

SWOT: Looking at the Earth’s Water

Jan. 20

Time: 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST; 0300 UTC)

Earth is our home. SWOT will give us a better understanding of the world’s oceans and its terrestrial surface waters while showing why these resources are so important.

Speaker(s):
Dr. Cedric David, Supervisor of JPL's Water & Ecosystems Group, NASA/JPL

Host:
Brian White, Public Services Office, NASA/JPL

Co-Host:
Jocelyn Argueta, Public Outreach Specialist, NASA/JPL

Webcast:
Click here to watch the event live on YouTube

 

10 Jan

LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory (private)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 16 2022

DR. HILARY DOWNES; UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

UREILITE METEORITES AND THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM

Location: https://ucla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqduyupj0vGd3S0_52FsbHTbPjYr0sZQUj
Time: 2:30PM

Ureilite meteorites, such as those that arrived on Earth via the impact of asteroid 2008 TC3 in Sudan, are thought to be derived from a small planetary body (“planetesimal”) which formed early in Solar System history. The story of the parent body of ureilites reflects the history of accretion, differentiation and impact disruption that were widespread processes around 4.5 billion years ago. The abundant fresh samples provided by asteroid 2008 TC3 are collectively known as “Almahata Sitta”. They provide evidence of how the ureilite planetesimal was formed, how it differentiated into a core, mantle and crust, and how it was disrupted by a major impact while it was still hot, and then re-formed to make a jumble-pile asteroid containing many different rock-types. Reconstructing the history of the parent body of ureilite meteorites is rather like solving a Sherlock Holmes mystery – it is what is missing that is important!

 

3 Feb

AEA Astronomy Club Meeting

 TBD -- Great Courses video

(Teams)

 

Observing:

 

The following data are from the 2022 Observer’s Handbook, and Sky & Telescope’s 2022 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 2 new, Jan 9 1st quarter, Jan 17 Full, Jan 25 last quarter         

Planets: Venus is visible at dusk until the 5th and then at dawn starting on the 10th.  Mars visible at dawn all month. Jupiter visible at dusk all month.  Saturn visible at dusk until the 19th.  Mercury is visible at dusk until the 15th.

Other Events:

 

LAAS Event Calendar (incl. various other virtual events):  

https://www.laas.org/laas-bulletin/#calendar

 

 

Cancelled

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

 

3 January Quadrantids Meteor Shower Peak The Quadrantids radiate from a point in the sky off the northern edge of Bootes, not far from the Big Dipper. The ZHr can be 120/hour, comparable to the Perseids and Geminids.

 

?

LAAS Private dark sky  Star Party   

 

 

25 Jan

SBAS In-town observing session – In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at Ridgecrest Middle School– 28915 NortbBay Rd. RPV, Weather Permitting: Please contact Ken Munson to confirm that the gate will be opened. http://www.sbastro.net/.   Only if we get permission to use the school grounds again and CDC guidelines are reduced

 

29 Jan

LAAS Private dark sky  Star Party   

 

1 Feb

SBAS out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Ken Munson to coordinate a location. http://www.sbastro.net/.  

 

Cancelled

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

Sky & Telescope Magazine -- Choosing Your Equipment

Orion Telescopes & Binoculars -- Buying Guides

Telescopes.com -- Telescopes 101

 

General

 

Getting Started in Astronomy & Observing

The Astronomical League

 e! Science News Astronomy & Space

NASA Gallery

Astronomical Society of the Pacific (educational, amateur & professional)

Amateur Online Tools, Journals, Vendors, Societies, Databases

The Astronomy White Pages (U.S. & International Amateur Clubs & Societies)

American Astronomical Society (professional)

More...

 

Regional (Southern California, Washington, D.C. & Colorado)

Southern California & Beyond Amateur Astronomy Organizations, Observatories & Planetaria

Mt. Wilson Observatory description, history, visiting

Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS)

South Bay Astronomical Society (SBAS)

Orange County Astronomers

The Local Group Astronomy Club (Santa Clarita)

Ventura County Astronomical Society

The Astronomical Society of Greenbelt

National Capital Astronomers

Northern Virginia Astronomy Club

Colorado Springs Astronomical Society

Denver Astronomical Society

 

 

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 Kaly Rengarajan, 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:  Jason Fields, President & Program Committee Chairman, Sam Andrews, VP, Kelly Gov club Secretary (& librarian), or Kaly Rangarajan, (Treasurer).

Mark Clayson,
AEA Astronomy Club Newsletter Editor

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