Mercury Transit

Tomorrow May 9 is the Mercury Transit. A Mercury Transit occurs when Mercury passes directly between the Sun and the Earth. And that takes place approximately once every ten years or so.

To observe the transit you must use proper equipment (otherwise you might damage your equipment or your eyes).

For more information:
universalworkshop.com/guysblog/2016/05/07/link-to-the-transit-of-mercury/#more-1903

New Horizon approaches Pluto

The  New Horizons spacecraft is nearing its encounter with Pluto. New Horizon is a spacecraft with the primary mission to flyby Pluto and collect photographs and other data. The closest approach is expected to occur on Tuesday.

I've discussed the issue of whether Pluto is a planet elsewhere and I don't have much to add except that Alan Stern (the principle investigator of the New Horizons mission) argues that Pluto should be considered a planet. There are differences of opinion on the matter.

If you consider Pluto a planet, Pluto is the only planet which has never been visited by a planet (either landing or flyby). That is until New Horizons.

If you don't, Pluto is still an interesting place. We know very little about Pluto and New Horizons should give us a lot of new data. If fact it already has, and unless there is a major failure it will continue to do so. It will take time to analyze the data, but it is very likely we will have a new understanding of Pluto in the near future.

For more information...

Alan Stern talked about New Horizon and Pluto on NPR's Science Friday (July 10th), see http://www.sciencefriday.com/

Dr Stern gave a talk at the University of Michigan in February 2009. This talk discussed Pluto and the solar system; for a description of this talk see http://www.lowbrows.org/reflections/2009/dwarshow.5.html .

See also see this page from NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/latest-images-of-pluto-from-new-horizons

Rosetta Update and Nature's 10 People who mattered this year.

Update to earlier blog post http://lowbrows.blogspot.com/2014/11/rosetta-spacecraft-expected-to-land-on.html ...

The magazine Nature published "365 days: Nature's 10, Ten People who mattered this year." The first of these 10 people was Andrea Accomazzo "A former test pilot steered the Rosetta mission to an icy world in deep space."

The Rosetta mission was the first successful attempt to place a lander on a comet. Some media reports described the mission as a failure. Any media reports of a "failure" completely miss the point.

After bouncing a few times, the lander was firmly on Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko's surface, but in a position where its solar panels will not get any light. So the lander cannot operate as expected. Nevertheless the entire mission has been mostly successful, already resulting in new insights about comets.

The Rosetta spacecraft itself has operated fine, and the lander was able to collect data for a few hours on batteries before it shut itself off due to insufficient power. Mishaps like this happen, and don't necessarily turn a mission into a "failure." Besides there is still a real possibility that the lander will be able to get power over the next few months as the angle of the sun changes.

http://www.nature.com/news/365-days-nature-s-10-1.16562

Among other things the mission returned some beautiful photos. This picture is of the high cliffs on
Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko taken by the Rosetta spacecraft

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141223.html

Curiosity Detects Methane Spike on Mars

Last week the following was posted by NASA....

Dec. 16, 2014: NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill.

"This temporary increase in methane -- sharply up and then back down -- tells us there must be some relatively localized source," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Curiosity rover science team. "There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock."

Traces of Methane have been seen on Mars in the past. While it is possible that this Methane and the other organic molecules are indications of the presence of bacteria on or near the surface of Mars, there are non-biological explanations as well. Scientists are continually analyzing data in an attempt to determine the source of this Methane. For the full NASA post go to....

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/16dec_methanespike/

Also see this post from the University of Michigan....

http://www.engin.umich.edu/college/about/news/stories/2014/december/curiosity-rover-finds-organics-on-mars

Rosetta spacecraft expected to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

This Wednesday Morning (November 12) at 10:30AM Eastern Standard Time the Rosetta spacecraft is expected to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. If successful, this will be the first time any spacecraft has landed on a comet.

See these links for more information...

www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Frequently_asked_questions

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/science/space/landing-on-a-comet-inside-rosetta-orbiters-philae-landing-mission.html?_r=0

blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/11/tracking-philaes-descent-with-magnetic-data/

To watch the landing on streaming video, go to either of these sites (note there is a 30 minute delay, if the landing occurs at 10:30AM, we will see the landing at 11:00AM).

new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding

www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2471982,00.asp

The size of the solar system.

Many people don't realize how spread out the solar system is. There is a lot of distance between the Earth and other objects like Venus and Mars. Here are two pages which demonstrate this in two different ways...

1) you'll need to scroll to the right to explore. You'll need a lot of scrolling to the right...
http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

2) this should be more or less self explanatory...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE2w_JBGEwk

A snow line in an infant solar system: Astronomers take first images.

This is from the University of Michigan News Service:

Published on Jul 18, 2013

ANN ARBOR—Like the elevation in the Rocky Mountains where the snow caps begin, a snow line in a solar system is the point where falling temperatures freeze and clump together water or other chemical compounds that would otherwise be vapor. Astronomers believe snow lines in space serve a vital role in forming planets because frozen moisture can help dust grains stick together. 

Astronomers have, for the first time, directly imaged a snow line at another star.

For the full article see...

http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/21595-a-snow-line-in-an-infant-solar-system-astronomers-take-first-images

Asteroid 1998 QE2 approaches the earth today (May 31, 2013)

The latest asteroid to approach the earth (1998 QE2) has its own moon.

The asteroid will be visible in an amateur telescope (except for the smallest ones), the moon will not be. The closest approach will be about 5PM Eastern Time (US/Canada) today (May 31, 2013). It will keep a healthy distance from the earth of about 6 million kilometers, so a collision will not occur.

NASA released this article yesterday....

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/30may_asteroidmoon/

U-M Astronomy Stories

Here are some recent astronomy stories from the University of Michigan news service....

December 11, 2012: An older Vega: New insights about the star all others are measured by.

February 17, 2013:  Water on the moon: It’s been there all along.

March 15, 2013:  Young supernova remains found by U-M astronomer.

April 3, 2013:  Green Pea galaxies could help astronomers understand early universe.

April 8, 2013: Mars Science Lab update: What remains of Mars’ atmosphere is still dynamic.

Comet 168P Hergenrother

Comet 168P Hergenrother is breaking up check this link for more information go to this link http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/m/news/index.cfm?release=2012-349
You can also see images of the comet spliting and read additional information on the comet at
http://remanzacco.blogspot.it/2012/10/splitting-event-in-comet.html?m=1

Where Did Water on the Moon Come From?

In 2009, the LCROSS satellite determined that there is a surprising amount of water ice located on earth's moon (or at least within one particular crater that LCROSS was designed to investigate).

So the question is: where did this water come from? First of all this crater is permanently shielded from the Sun's light, so any liquid water that might find its way to the the crater would freeze and remain in a frozen state. Liquid water finding its way to other locations would probably be lost as liquid water is not stable at those locations.

Of course that only explains why there is ice in the crater, we still need to know how water got to the moon in the first place. A well known theory is that this water came from comets. A less well known theory is that hydrogen ions from the solar wind combined with oxygen to form water as well as other related compounds. (There is oxygen bound up in compounds within the moon's regolith; Regolith is the material on and near the surface of the moon roughly equivalent to soil on the earth, though regolith has a very different composition than soil).

A recent article published in the online version of Nature Geoscience support the theory that water on the moon was formed from the solar wind plus oxygen in the regolith. The article also suggests that water ice could be located on mercury and other solar system objects.

For more details, see "Solar wind particles likely source of water locked inside lunar soils" Published on Oct 15, 2012.