AEA Astronomy Club
Newsletter
September 2022
Contents
AEA Astronomy Club News & Calendar p.1
Video(s) & Picture(s) of the Month p. 2
Astronomy News p. 6
General Calendar p. 10
Colloquia, lectures, mtgs. p. 10
Observing p. 12
Useful
Links p. 13
About the Club p.
14
Club News &
Calendar.
Club Calendar
Club Meeting Schedule:
--
1 Sept AEA Astronomy Club Meeting TBD – Great Courses video Teams
6 Oct 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:
Nominations for club V.P. being taken – Sam is going off to grad school.
Mt.
Wilson – Confirmed reservation for the 60-inch Oct. 21 (Friday).
2024
Eclipse -- An update from the
2024 solar eclipse committee (Mark Clayson, Mai Lee, Melissa Jolliff, Nahum
Melamed, Judy Kerner, Marilee Wheaton):
We’ve heard from 2 Kerrville (on centerline, 1 hour
from San Antonio) hotels that think they can accommodate us (50 rooms for about
100 people anticipated) between them – Days Inn & Hampton Inn. We’re waiting for their contractual details,
and will continue to keep you informed.
But typical group contracts allow individual group members to make their
individual reservations and deposits directly with the hotel. And deposits may not be required until
month(s) before the stay. Still checking
other options just in case – some say they’ll require 3 or 4 day minimum stay –
we’ve been saying most of us will likely want 2 days (day before and of the
eclipse).
We have also made tentative arrangements for an
observing site at a local church in Kerrville 3 miles from the hotel. With adequate parking & restrooms. I believe they’ll also let us have our
pre-eclipse mtg. there the night before.
As courtesy, we’ll invite members of their congregation to join us.
Contact Jason Fields if interested in joining him for an observing
night with his 20” Dobs – per recent emails.
We need volunteers to help with:
·
Serving
as club Astronomical League representative
·
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:
4000 Exoplanets https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220814.html
Video Credit: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida); Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive
Explanation: Over 4000 planets are now known to exist
outside our Solar System. Known as exoplanets, this milestone was passed last month, as
recorded by NASA's Exoplanet Archive. The featured video highlights these exoplanets in sound
and light, starting chronologically from the first confirmed detection in 1992
and continuing into 2019. The entire night sky is first shown compressed with the central band of our Milky Way
Galaxy making
a giant U. Exoplanets
detected by
slight jiggles in their parents-star's colors (radial
velocity) appear
in pink, while those detected by slight dips in their parent star's brightness
(transit) are shown in purple. Further, those
exoplanets imaged
directly appear
in orange, while those detected by gravitationally
magnifying the
light of a background star (microlensing) are shown in green. The faster a planet
orbits its parent star, the higher the accompanying tone played. The retired Kepler satellite has discovered about
half of these first 4000 exoplanets in just one region of the sky, while the TESS mission is on track to find even more, all
over the sky, orbiting the brightest nearby stars. Finding exoplanets not only helps humanity to better
understand the potential prevalence
of life elsewhere
in the universe, but also how our Earth and Solar
System were
formed.
VIDEO: Earth's Recent Climate Spiral
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220822.html
Video Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization
Studio
Explanation: Is our Earth warming? Compared to the past
250 million years, the Earth is currently enduring a relative
cold spell,
possibly about four degrees Celsius below average. Over the past 120
years, though, data indicate that the average global temperature of the Earth
has increased by nearly one degree Celsius. The featured
visualization video
depicts Earth's recent global
warming in
graphic terms. The depicted temperatures are taken from the Goddard
Institute for Space Studies' Surface Temperature Analysis. Already noticeable by many, Earth's
recent warming trend is causing sea
levels to rise, precipitation
patterns to change,
and pole ice to melt. Few now disagree that recent global
warming is occurring, and the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
has concluded that we humans have created a warming surge that is likely to continue. A continuation could
impact many local
agricultures and even the global economy. Although there seems to be no
simple solutions, geoengineering projects that might help
include artificial cloud creation to reduce the amount of sunlight
heating the Earth's surface.
VIDEO:
Leaving Earth https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220809.html
Video Credit: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington
Explanation: What it would look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth in 2005 on its way in toward the planet Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft orbit around Mercury from 2011 to 2015 has conducted the first complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER has continued to peer back at its home world. MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that will never return. At the end of its mission MESSENGER crashed into Mercury's surface.
VIDEO: Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220828.html
Video Credit: License: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald
Eichstadt; Music: Moonlight
Sonata (Ludwig van Beethoven)
Explanation: Here comes Jupiter! NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest
planet. The featured video is from perijove 11 in early 2018, the eleventh
time Juno has passed near Jupiter since it
arrived in mid-2016. This time-lapse, color-enhanced movie covers about four
hours and morphs between 36 JunoCam images. The video begins 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. After the
perijove, Jupiter recedes into the distance, then
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.
Jupiter from the Webb Space Telescope
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter
ERS Team; Processing: Ricardo
Hueso (UPV/EHU) & Judy
Schmidt
Explanation: This new view of Jupiter is illuminating.
High-resolution infrared images of Jupiter from the new James Webb
Space Telescope (Webb)
reveal, for example, previously unknown differences between high-floating
bright clouds -- including the Great Red
Spot -- and
low-lying dark clouds. Also clearly visible in the featured
Webb image are Jupiter's dust ring, bright auroras at the poles, and Jupiter's moons Amalthea and Adrastea. Large volcanic moon Io's magnetic funneling of charged particles
onto Jupiter is also visible in the southern
aurora. Some objects are so bright that light noticeably diffracts around Webb's
optics creating streaks. Webb, which orbits the Sun near the Earth, has a mirror over
six meters across making it the largest
astronomical telescope ever launched -- with over six
times more light-collecting area than Hubble.
Saturn: 1993 - 2022
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc
Tezel (TWAN)
Explanation: Saturn is the most
distant planet of
the Solar System easily
visible to
the unaided eye. With this extraordinary, long-term astro-imaging project begun
in 1993, you can follow the ringed gas giant for one Saturn year as it wanders once around the ecliptic plane, finishing a single orbit around the Sun
by 2022. Constructed from individual images made over 29 Earth years, the split
panorama is centered along the ecliptic and crossed by the plane of our Milky
Way galaxy. Saturn's position in 1993 is at the right side, upper panel in the
constellation Capricornus and progresses toward the left. It returns to the
spot in Capricornus at left in the lower panel in 2022. The consistent imaging
shows Saturn appears slightly brighter during the years 2000-2005 and
2015-2019, periods when its beautiful rings were tilted more face-on to planet Earth.
Little Planet South Pole
Image Credit & Copyright: Aman Chokshi
Explanation: Lights play around the horizon of this
snowy little planet as it drifts through a starry night sky. Of course the
little planet is actually planet Earth. Recorded on August 21, the digitally
warped, nadir centered panorama covers nearly
360x180 degrees outside the Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station,
Antarctica. The southernmost research outpost is near the horizon at the top
where the light of dawn is approaching after nearly six months of darkness. Along
the bottom is the ceremonial pole marker surrounded by the 12 flags of the
original signatories of the Antarctic treaty, with a wild display of the aurora australis above.
Astronomy
News:
From
the Daily Breeze & ScienceNews.org
“Life
on Mars? This could be the place rover helps find it”
“Mars InSight craft captures
strikes by 4 meteoroids”
“Hawaii seeks end to strife
marring sacred mountain”
A protogalaxy in the Milky Way may be our galaxy’s original
nucleus
A population of stars at the galactic center is the oldest
known in the galaxy, a study finds
TERENCE DICKINSON/ESA
The Milky Way left its
“poor old heart” in and around the constellation Sagittarius, astronomers
report. New data from the Gaia spacecraft reveal the full extent of what seems
to be the galaxy’s original nucleus — the ancient stellar population that the rest
of the Milky Way grew around — which came together more than 12.5 billion years
ago.
“People have long speculated that such a vast population [of old stars] should exist in the center of our Milky Way, and Gaia now shows that there they are,” says astronomer Hans-Walter Rix of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.
The Milky Way’s ancient heart is a round protogalaxy that spans nearly 18,000 light-years and possesses roughly 100 million times the mass of the sun in stars, or about 0.2 percent of the Milky Way’s current stellar mass, Rix and colleagues report in a study posted September 7 at arXiv.org.
“This study really helps
to firm up our understanding of this very, very, very young stage in the Milky
Way’s life,” says Vasily Belokurov, an astronomer at the University of
Cambridge who was not involved in the work. “Not much is really known about
this period of the Milky Way’s life,” he says. “We’ve seen glimpses of this
population before,” but the new study gives “a bird’s-eye view of the whole
structure.”
Most stars in the Milky
Way’s central region abound with metals, because the stars originated in a
crowded metropolis that earlier stellar generations had enriched with those
metals through supernova explosions. But Rix and his colleagues wanted to find
the exceptions to the rule, stars so metal-poor they must have been born well
before the rest of the galaxy’s stellar denizens came along — what Rix calls “a
needle-in-a-haystack exercise.”
His team turned to data
from the Gaia spacecraft, which launched in 2013 on a mission to chart the Milky Way (SN: 6/13/22). The astronomers searched about 2 million
stars within a broad region around the galaxy’s center, which lies in the constellation
Sagittarius, looking for stars with metal-to-hydrogen ratios no more than 3
percent of the sun’s.
The astronomers then
examined how those stars move through space, retaining only the ones that don’t
dart off into the vast halo of metal-poor stars engulfing the Milky Way’s disk.
The end result: a sample of 18,000 ancient stars that represents the kernel
around which the entire galaxy blossomed, the researchers say. By accounting
for stars obscured by dust, Rix estimates that the protogalaxy is between 50
million and 200 million times as massive as the sun.
“That’s the original
core,” Rix says, and it harbors the Milky Way’s oldest stars, which he says
probably have ages exceeding 12.5 billion years. The protogalaxy formed when
several large clumps of stars and gas conglomerated long ago, before the Milky
Way’s first disk — the so-called thick disk — arose (SN: 3/23/22).
The protogalaxy is
compact, which means little has disturbed it since its formation. Smaller
galaxies have crashed into the Milky Way, augmenting its mass, but “we didn’t
have any later mergers that deeply penetrated into the core and shook it up,
because then the core would be larger now,” Rix says.
The new data on the
protogalaxy even capture the Milky Way’s initial spin-up — its transition from
an object that didn’t rotate into one that now does. The oldest stars in the
proto–Milky Way barely revolve around the galaxy’s center but dive in and out
of it instead, whereas slightly younger stars show more and more movement
around the galactic center. “This is the Milky Way trying to become a disk
galaxy,” says Belokurov, who saw the same spin-up in research that he and a colleague
reported in July.
Today, the Milky Way is a giant galaxy that
spins rapidly — each hour our solar system speeds through 900,000 kilometers of
space as we race around the galaxy’s center. But the new study shows that the
Milky Way got its start as a modest protogalaxy whose stars still shine today,
stars that astronomers can now scrutinize for further clues to the galaxy’s
birth and early evolution.
The James Webb telescope
spotted CO2 in an exoplanet’s
atmosphere
It’s the first definitive detection of the greenhouse gas
at a planet outside the solar system
NASA, ESA, CSA AND J. OLMSTED/STSCI
The James Webb Space
Telescope has gotten the first sniff of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a
planet in another solar system.
“It’s incontrovertible.
It’s there. It’s definitely there,” says planetary scientist and study coauthor
Peter Gao of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. “There
have been hints of carbon dioxide in previous observations, but never confirmed
to such an extent.”
The finding, submitted to arXiv.org on August 24, marks the first detailed scientific result published from the new telescope. It also points the way to finding the same greenhouse gas in the atmospheres of smaller, rockier planets that are more like Earth.
The planet, dubbed WASP-39b, is huge and puffy. It’s a bit wider than Jupiter and about as massive as Saturn. And it orbits its star every four Earth days, making it scorching hot. Those features make it a terrible place to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life (SN: 4/19/16). But that combination of puffy atmosphere and frequent passes in front of its star makes it easy to observe, a perfect planet to put the new telescope through its paces.
James Webb, or JWST,
launched in December 2021 and released its first images in July 2022 (SN: 7/11/22).
For about eight hours in July, the telescope observed starlight that filtered
through the planet’s thick atmosphere as the planet crossed between its star
and JWST. As it did, molecules of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere absorbed
specific wavelengths of that starlight.
Previous observations of
WASP-39b with NASA’s now-defunct Spitzer Space Telescope had detected just a whiff
of absorption at that same wavelength. But it wasn’t enough to convince
astronomers that carbon dioxide was really there.
“I would not have bet
more than a beer, at most a six pack, on that weird tentative hint of carbon
dioxide from Spitzer,” says astronomer Nicolas Cowan of McGill University in
Montreal, who was not involved with the new study. The JWST detection, on the
other hand, “is rock solid,” he says. “I wouldn’t bet my firstborn because I
love him too much. But I would bet a nice vacation.”
The JWST data also showed
an extra bit of absorption at wavelengths close to those absorbed by carbon
dioxide. “It’s a mystery molecule,” says astronomer Natalie Batalha of the
University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the team behind the observation. “We
have several suspects that we are interrogating.”
Carbon dioxide bump
The spectrum of light
that filtered through the atmosphere of exoplanet WASP-39 b shows strong
evidence for containing carbon dioxide. The large bump in the middle of the
spectrum shows that the planet’s atmosphere absorbed light with wavelengths
around 4.3 micrometers — a clear sign of CO2. A smaller bump (shown
as three dots above the best-fit line) to the left of the CO2, around 4 micrometers, could represent a
mystery molecule.
A spectrum of exoplanet
WASP-39b’s atmosphere
The amount of carbon
dioxide in an exoplanet’s atmosphere can reveal details about how the planet formed (SN: 5/11/18).
If the planet was bombarded with asteroids, that could have brought in more
carbon and enriched the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. If radiation from the
star stripped away some of the planet atmosphere’s lighter elements, that could
make it appear richer in carbon dioxide too.
Despite needing a
telescope as powerful as JWST to detect it, carbon dioxide might be in
atmospheres all over the galaxy, hiding in plain sight. “Carbon dioxide is one
of the few molecules that is present in the atmospheres of all solar system
planets that have atmospheres,” Batalha says. “It’s your front-line molecule.”
Eventually, astronomers
hope to use JWST to find carbon dioxide and other molecules in the atmospheres
of small rocky planets, like the ones orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 (SN: 12/13/17). Some of those planets, at just the right
distances from their star to sustain liquid water, might be good places to look
for signs of life. It’s yet to be seen whether JWST will detect those signs of
life, but it will be able to detect carbon dioxide.
“My first thought when I saw these data was,
‘Wow, this is gonna work,’” Batalha says.
General Calendar:
Colloquia,
Lectures, Seminars, Meetings, Open Houses & Tours:
Colloquia: Carnegie (Tues.
11am), UCLA, Caltech (Wed. 4pm), IPAC (Wed. 12:15pm) & other Pasadena
(daily
12-4pm): http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/seminars/
https://carnegiescience.edu/events/carnegie-digital-series
Carnegie Zoom Digital Series
Zoom Webinar Platform
Night Sky Network Clubs
& Events
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs-and-events.cfm
1 Sept AEA Astronomy Club Meeting TBD – Great Courses video Teams
16 Sept Friday Night 7:30 PM SBAS Monthly General
Meeting Topic: Space Exploration: A History in 33 Objects Speaker: Dr.
Steven Morris in the Planetarium at El Camino College (16007 Crenshaw
Bl. In Torrance)
12 Sept LAAS General Mtg. 7:30pm Griffith Observatory (private)
September
15 The von Kármán Lecture Series: 2022
Ocean Worlds Life
Surveyor (OWLS)
September 15
Time: 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT; 0300 UTC)
The Ocean Worlds Life
Surveyor (OWLS) is the first life detection suite to explore a wide range of
size scales, from single molecules to microscopic organisms, in a water sample.
OWLS is an integrated, portable, and autonomous life-detection instrument suite
designed to identify and characterize life on ocean worlds. In this talk, we'll
discuss why autonomy is important for this and future missions.
Speaker(s):
Mark Wronkiewicz, Research Data Scientist, NASA/JPL
Host:
Marc Razze, Public Services Office, NASA/JPL
Co-Host:
Brian White, Public Services Office, NASA/JPL
Webcast:
Click here
to watch the event live on YouTube
6 Oct 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 September:
Moon Sept 3 1st quarter, Sept 10 Full, Sept 17 last quarter, Sept 25 new
Planets:
Venus
is visible low at dawn all month. Mars rises in the evening and
is visible until dawn. Jupiter is
visible all night. Saturn is visible at dusk and sets before dawn. Mercury is lost in the sun’s glare all month.
Other
Events:
LAAS Event Calendar (incl.
various other virtual events):
https://www.laas.org/laas-bulletin/#calendar
|
Sept 7, 14, 21, 28 |
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 |
11 Sept Jupiter 1.8
deg N of Moon
14 Sept Uranus 0.8deg
S of Moon
16 Sept Neptune at
opposition
|
17 Sept |
SBAS In-town
observing session – In Town Dark Sky Observing Session at Ridgecrest
Middle School– 28915 North Bay 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 |
23 Sept Autumnal
equinox
26 Sept Jupiter at opposition
|
24 Sept |
LAAS Private dark
sky Star Party |
|
Cancelled |
LAAS Public
Star Party: Griffith Observatory Grounds 2-10pm See http://www.griffithobservatory.org/programs/publictelescopes.html#starparties for more information. |
|
24 Sept |
SBAS
out-of-town Dark Sky observing – contact Ken Munson to coordinate a location.
http://www.sbastro.net/. |
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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