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:
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting |
TBD -- Great Courses video |
Teams |
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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 Resort, SkiStar)
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 Park. JWST, 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: Arianespace, ESA, NASA, CSA, CNES
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: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & 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: NSF, LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt 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 & License: Kevin 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.
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 delay. Nature 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
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
Zoom Webinar Platform
January Night Sky
Network Clubs & Events https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs-and-events.cfm
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AEA Astronomy Club Meeting |
TBD -- Great Courses video |
Teams |
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Cancelled
for now |
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Friday Night 7:30PM SBAS Monthly General Meeting in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw
Bl. In Torrance) |
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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
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10 Jan |
LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory
(private) |
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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 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! |
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3 Feb |
AEA Astronomy Club Meeting |
TBD -- Great Courses video |
(Teams) |
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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
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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. 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.
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LAAS Private dark
sky Star Party |
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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 |
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29 Jan |
LAAS Private dark
sky Star Party |
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1 Feb |
SBAS
out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Ken Munson to coordinate a location.
http://www.sbastro.net/. |
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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
e! Science News Astronomy & Space
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)
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)
The Local Group Astronomy Club
(Santa Clarita)
Ventura County Astronomical
Society
The
Astronomical Society of Greenbelt
Northern
Virginia Astronomy Club
Colorado
Springs 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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