ASTRONOMY NEWS
May 2013 - Space News
 A Social Media Star in SpaceSocial media has reached new heights, with the new Commander of the International Space Station Facebooking, You Tubeing and Tweeting about his experiences and creating an online storm.
At 53 years of age, Commander Chris Hadfield of Canada readily admits he hasn’t always been internet savvy. But before launching in December 2012, his sons Kyle and Evan suggested he tweet from space - today, @Cmdr_Hadfield has 706,000 Twitter followers, while Evan spends up to 16 hours of each day managing his father's various social media sites, including Facebook, Tumblr and Google+.
Among the phenomenal photographs he takes of remote locations and bustling metropolises around the world (and video photography lessons on how he does it!), he posts videos on a range of topics that capture the imaginations of young and old.
Of his experiments and video diaries, ‘Chris Hadfield’s Space Kitchen’, where he shows how astronauts make peanut butter sandwiches in space, ‘Chris Hadfield Brushes his Teeth in Space’ and 'Wringing out Water on the ISS' have been amongst the most popular…showing just what piques his audience’s interest.
With the school holidays in full swing, make sure any bored kids are sent straight to http://www.facebook.com/AstronautChrisHadfield for fun educational videos while Commander Hadfield remains on his mission.
Image credit: Canadian Space Agency/NASA
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Really, really big telescope planned
What telescope is going to be bigger than the Very Large Telescope? This one, planned for the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
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Soviet Mars spacecraft spotted?
Images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show objects that may be parts of a Soviet spacecraft that landed on Mars in 1971.
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NASA wants to capture an asteroid
Could NASA capture an asteroid and put it into orbit around the Moon? Would they even want to? Apparently so.
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10 MAY 2013 - Partial eclipse of the Sun 11.30 am NZ time
An annular eclipse will take place, and Auckland viewers can expect to see a very small bite taken out of the Sun.
IMPORTANT - PRACTICE SAFE SOLAR VIEWING. Do not look directly at the Sun without a certified pair of solar glasses. These can be purchased from Stardome. Read more about the eclipse here
26 APRIL 2013 - Partial eclipse of the Moon, 6am NZ time
This eclipse is impossible to see from NZ. The moon only just enters the penumbra when it is 10 degrees above the horizon, and this is timed just as the sun is nearly rising on the eastern horizon so the dawn twilight will prevent a chance of seeing anything of the eclipse.
For more information on times and the geographical areas around the world that the eclipse is visible in, we recommend taking a look at the Royal Astronomical Society’s website.
15 APRIL 2013 - April Meteor Showers
There are two upcoming meteor showers this month.
The first, called the pi-Puppids, are seen emanating in a fan-shaped pattern from the constellation Puppis, which is high in the southern sky after sunset. As the Earth turns, Puppis moves clockwise down towards the southwestern horizon, setting around 2am. The meteor shower occurs between April 15th and 28th, with the peak on 23rd April.
For further information, see the RASNZ website: NZ Meteor Showers
The other meteor shower, called the Lyrids, is more difficult for us observers in the Southern Hemisphere. These meteors appear to emanate from the constellation of Lyra, which is low down in the north before sunrise. Best viewing will be from a dark site around 3-5am on the morning of 22 April, with a best expected peak rate of 10-20 meteors per hour (lower rate observing from the city because of the bright light-polluted sky).
Unfortunately, these showers coincide with a waxing Moon, with Full Moon on the 26th/27th. Hopefully, they will be active enough, and have bright events with trails, so the Moon doesn’t spoil the show too much!
The first, called the pi-Puppids, are seen emanating in a fan-shaped pattern from the constellation Puppis, which is high in the southern sky after sunset. As the Earth turns, Puppis moves clockwise down towards the southwestern horizon, setting around 2am. The meteor shower occurs between April 15th and 28th, with the peak on 23rd April.
For further information, see the RASNZ website: NZ Meteor Showers
The other meteor shower, called the Lyrids, is more difficult for us observers in the Southern Hemisphere. These meteors appear to emanate from the constellation of Lyra, which is low down in the north before sunrise. Best viewing will be from a dark site around 3-5am on the morning of 22 April, with a best expected peak rate of 10-20 meteors per hour (lower rate observing from the city because of the bright light-polluted sky).
Unfortunately, these showers coincide with a waxing Moon, with Full Moon on the 26th/27th. Hopefully, they will be active enough, and have bright events with trails, so the Moon doesn’t spoil the show too much!
APRIL 2013 - SPACE NEWS
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HOW OLD ARE WE AGAIN?
 Most people aren’t impressed when they realise they’re actually older than they thought they were - but astronomers are excited by new information from the European Space Agency’s Planck space telescope that shows the Universe to be 80 million years older than previously thought. The Planck telescope has been mapping the sky for the past 16 months, examining distant light and sound from as close to the time of the Big Bang as possible. The telescope’s findings mapped radiation at some 13.8 billion years old – so while that addition of 80 million years may not seem to be an enormous percentage change in the age of the universe, according to Planck scientist Martin White: "100 million years here and there really start to add up."
The results also suggested that the expansion of the universe is around 3% slower than thought before, and offered a slightly different makeup of the universe's composition, with less mysterious dark energy than astronomers had figured and a little more ‘’normal’ matter.
Planck is offering scientists exciting data that promises more interesting results that will help us understand the nature and history of our universe – and with the space telescope expected to continue transmitting until the end of this year, ESA, NASA and the rest of the scientific community will be keeping their eyes on the early universe.
IMAGE CAPTION: The detailed map of cosmic microwave background by Planck space telescope.
Image credit: AP Photo/ESAPlanck Collaboration
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SPEEDY SOYUZ DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft became the fastest manned mission to leave the surface of the Earth and dock with the International Space Station last month, using a new trajectory that cut travel time from two days to just under six hours. |
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EYES ON ISON
A distant comet with the potential to be one of the brightest seen in 100 years has been observed by NASA's Swift spacecraft, showing it to be on course for a show in November - but how bright will it be?
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DO ASTRONAUTS CELEBRATE EASTER IN SPACE?
If they're Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield they do! He packed aboard eggs for the International Space Station crew to find and enjoy on Easter Sunday.
http://www.universetoday.com/101124/happy-easter-sunday-from-the-iss-crew-hunts-easter-eggs-goodies/
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MARCH 2013 - SPACE NEWS
A Radio New Zealand Interview about the ATLAS programme from March 6th 2013.
Asteroid warning systems in the spotlight after explosion above Russia With Professor John Tonry - from the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy is building an asteroid-hunting telescope called ATLAS with funding from Nasa.
 WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT?
The eyes of the world turned to the remote city of Chelyabinsk in mid-february, when a meteor streaked across the sky above it, exploding in the lower atmosphere and creating a flash brighter than the Sun.
The rock is thought to have measured only 17 metres across, but because of its speed of around 20 kilometres per second, it is estimated to have released up to 500 kilotons of energy - making the force of the explosion around 30 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
More than 1200 people were reported hurt, mostly as a consequence of rushing to their windows for a closer look before the sonic boom hit and blew out the glass. Some 4000 buildings sustained substantial damage from the shockwave. With so much at stake from an almost entirely undetectable danger, should we be more worried? Meteor strikes are not rare (it is thought 10 metric tons of space material hits Earth daily in small pieces), but explosions of this size that occur over land – and are captured by so many cameras – are rare.
An event of this magnitude is expected to occur every 100 years. This is the largest reported since 1908, when a meteor hit Tunguska, Siberia; so in theory Earth was due for a visit… but surely the Russians will be hoping they aren’t in for three in a row.
Image Credit & Copyright: Marat Ahmetvaleev
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Cooking in the International Space Kitchen Have you ever wondered how you’d make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in space? It’s not as straightforward as you might think! Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield hosts his own space cooking channel on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/canadianspaceagency |
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A mosaic of Mercury NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft has sent through a new array of images showing the planet closest to the Sun in a completely new light. http://www.space.com/19863-spinning-mercury-map-from-orbiter-snaps-video.html |
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Meteorite discoveries in Russia
The first meteorites from the Russian explosion have been found and are now being analysed by European Universities as well as NASA – take a close up look at them here:
http://www.universetoday.com/100192/russian-fireball-inspires-journey-into-the-world-of-meteorites/ |
20 MARCH 2013 - Comet ISON [Comet C/2012 S1]
Comet ISON is expected to provide a spectacular show later in 2013. Unfortunately, it is not favourably positioned for viewing from the Southern Hemisphere. It should be visible with binoculars by about mid-September, when it will be low in the east in the morning sky before sunrise.
It will become gradually brighter during October each day. Although brightest in November, it will move closer to the glare of the Sun all the time, making observation difficult.
Closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is on 29th November, when only special space-based solar telescopes such as SOHO will be able to observe it.
The comet will pass just 1.1 million km from the surface of the Sun. Such a close pass may be sufficient to break the comet up into a number of pieces, or even destroy it completely.
After passing behind the Sun, and retreating from its glare, the comet will be in the daytime sky during January when viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, so will not be visible from Auckland.
If the comet survives its close encounter with the Sun, the Earth is expected to pass through its orbit after perihelion. This may produce a meteor shower around 14-16 January 2014.
Here is the Wikipedia link for further details, which are bound to be updated as the comet gets closer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2012_S1
It will become gradually brighter during October each day. Although brightest in November, it will move closer to the glare of the Sun all the time, making observation difficult.
Closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is on 29th November, when only special space-based solar telescopes such as SOHO will be able to observe it.
The comet will pass just 1.1 million km from the surface of the Sun. Such a close pass may be sufficient to break the comet up into a number of pieces, or even destroy it completely.
After passing behind the Sun, and retreating from its glare, the comet will be in the daytime sky during January when viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, so will not be visible from Auckland.
If the comet survives its close encounter with the Sun, the Earth is expected to pass through its orbit after perihelion. This may produce a meteor shower around 14-16 January 2014.
Here is the Wikipedia link for further details, which are bound to be updated as the comet gets closer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2012_S1
Updated 12 March - Comets in the News
Comet Panstarrs
This comet (C/2011 L4) has featured in the media recently, mostly because it is brighter than astronomers originally predicted it would become. However, it was not positioned favourably for viewers in the Southern Hemisphere. Comet Panstarrs has now moved into the northern sky, and has disappeared from Auckland skies (and the rest of NZ).
Comet Lemmon
Comet Lemmon (C/2012 F6) is much fainter than Comet Panstarrs, but it can be located from city skies using binoculars. Observing with a modest sized telescope will reveal a fuzzy coma around the head of the comet, and a small tail (pointing away from the Sun). This faint comet can be seen unaided from dark rural skies, but it is a modest object to view at best. It is currently about 14 degrees above the southwestern horizon, and about 20 degrees below and to the right of the bright star Achernar.Links
March evening star chart:
http://www.stardome.org.nz/uploads///Mar-west.pdf
http://www.stardome.org.nz/uploads///Mar-west.pdf
Images of the two comets:
http://spaceweather.com/gallery/index.php?title=comet
http://spaceweather.com/gallery/index.php?title=comet
FEBRUARY 2013 - SPACE NEWS
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Not Such a Close Shave
Apophis is a meteorite approximately 250 metre in diameter, and when it was discovered in 2004 was estimated to have a 2.7% chance of impacting the Earth in 2029. Subsequent calculations by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico ruled out any danger in 2029, but suggested a small chance of impact on 13 April 2036 – a chance of less than 1 in 45,000. But the new data from the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory and observatories in New Mexico and Hawaii just released should cancel any concerns about the rock in 2036 completely. Scientists using the Herschel telescope made new observations of asteroid Apophis as it passed near Earth on 9 January, and the manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Don Yeomans, says all fears should be alleviated: “The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an Earth impact in 2036. Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be for its scientific interest for the foreseeable future." IMAGE: An artist's illustration of asteroid Apophis near Earth. Credit: Dan Durda – FIAAA (http://www.3dimpact.com/)
Mining in Space (Again) Another new space mining company has launched, with aims to harvest metals and water from near-Earth asteroids within the next 10 years.
Hedgehogs to be Sent to Phobos? NASA eyes up a new spacecraft design for exploring one of Mars’ two moons.
Kepler in Safe Mode The amazing planet hunting telescope Kepler has hit some technical problems and been effectively shut down while the issues are resolved. |
15-16 February - Updated 19 February - Asteroid Close Flyby
Stardome astronomer Dr Grant Christie was at Stardome overnight on 15th /16th February 2013, poised and ready to track the Asteroid through our research telescope. Clouds over Auckland that night sadly meant that no footage was gathered from our location, but the amazing footage below was taken by Colin Legg in Perth, Australia.
Earth and Sky have voted Colin's footage the best theyve seen, saying "Here’s our vote for the best video from the February 15, 2013 passage of asteroid 2012 DA14. Geologist and astrophotographer Colin Legg in Australia captured the wonderful video below, in which he caught a decaying meteor train plus the asteroid 2012 DA14 moving in the same frame. He said it was “luck,” but if you’ve seen any of Colin’s other work in astrophotography, you know there was huge skill involved, too. He wrote:
Earth and Sky have voted Colin's footage the best theyve seen, saying "Here’s our vote for the best video from the February 15, 2013 passage of asteroid 2012 DA14. Geologist and astrophotographer Colin Legg in Australia captured the wonderful video below, in which he caught a decaying meteor train plus the asteroid 2012 DA14 moving in the same frame. He said it was “luck,” but if you’ve seen any of Colin’s other work in astrophotography, you know there was huge skill involved, too. He wrote:
I captured this footage starting 3.24 am from a dark sky site 350 km east of Perth. Just after camera rolling, a beautiful meteor burned across the sky, and amazingly, passed right through my camera’s field of view, lingering while the debris train swept up and out of view. In addition, the sky was also very busy swarming with countless man made satellites. The asteroid is the bright object at left moving down the screen".
Small Asteroid to Miss Earth – Just!
Small Asteroid to Miss Earth – Just!
A large conglomerate of rocks and minerals about 40-45km in size will whizz past Earth at 7.8 km/sec (~28,000 kph) on 16 February. This Near Earth Object is designated Asteroid 2012 DA14, and was discovered a year ago by Spanish astronomers in February 2012.
The asteroid will pass just 27,700km above the surface. This is closer than the band of geosynchronous satellites that orbit 36,000km above us – e.g. television, weather and communications satellites. .
After sunset on 15 February, DA14 will be in the southern sky close to the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). It should be visible in binoculars, and certainly in small telescopes. During the night the asteroid will track away from the SMC towards and above the LMC. Unfortunately, it will be lost in morning daylight viewed from New Zealand as it makes its closest approach. As it leaves our vicinity it will be in the northern sky and not visible from New Zealand.
The Earth’s gravity will change the trajectory of the asteroid during this flyby, but the next close approach is not expected for at least 30 years. It is not thought to put the object on a future collision course with our planet, but astronomers will make careful observations to ensure we are not in danger.
Further details can be found on the internet (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_DA14).
Here's a cool animation of the asteroid’s trajectory.
Here's a cool animation of the asteroid’s trajectory.
A list of Near Earth Objects can be perused at:
http://www.brera.mi.astro.it/sormano/teca.html
Viewing Asteroid DA14 at Closest Approach
15-16 February 2013
15-16 February 2013
Animation of close approach uploaded on Facebook:
The movie (a Quicktime file) opens at sunset on 15 February viewing from Auckland looking south.
The Southern Cross lies on its side at top left, with The Pointers (Rigil Kentaurus [Alpha Centauri] and Hadar) below. The bright star Achernar is at middle right.
Between these, the sky rotates around the point in the sky marked with the red cross, called the South Celestial Pole (SCP).
Asteroid 2012 DA14 is above and to the right of the SCP, and its orbit is shown arcing from bottom left to top right.
After sunset, when the sky is dark, a fuzzy cloud can be seen to the right of Asteroid 2012 DA14. This is the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), which is a dwarf galaxy orbiting our own galaxy – the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) – about 200,000 light-years away.
Just below the SMC is a small fuzzy ball. A telescope will reveal this to be the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, comprising millions of ancient stars, which orbits the MWG at a distance of 16,700 light-years.
This should not be confused with the much fainter Comet Lemmon C/2012 F6, which appears further below the cluster. The comet’s orbit goes from the southwestern horizon to top left, and during the night it edges slowly nearer and past 47 Tucanae.
The whole southern sky slowly circles clockwise around the SCP during the night. But because Asteroid 2012 DA14 is so close to us, you will notice the asteroid initially moving towards the SCP and then veering off to the right as dawn approaches.
As the Sun rises in the East, the asteroid plunges ever faster towards the southwest horizon. Unfortunately, the asteroid won't be visible from Auckland as it whizzes quickly past Earth in our daytime just 27,000 km above us.
JANUARY 2013 - SPACE NEWS
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A HUGE YEAR AHEAD FOR ASTRONOMY As if 2012 hadn’t delivered enough exciting astronomical events and discoveries … the Transit of Venus, partial Solar Eclipse seen from New Zealand, Curiosity’s amazing landing on Mars, the Higgs Boson announcement … there may be as many if not more in 2013! Here are a couple of events to pencil in on the astronomical calendar:  For cosmology enthusiasts, the European Space Agency is expected to launch its Gaia spacecraft in August 2013, which is designed to create the largest and most precise three-dimensional chart of the Milky Way galaxy and nearby groups. The sun will reach solar maximum at some stage in 2013, most probably between September and November. At present it is predicted that this period of increased activity will be relatively small; however, aurorae - causing solar storms will be possible. Perhaps the greatest astronomical highlight of 2013 will be Comet ISON, also known as C/2012 S1). On 29 November (NZT) the comet will come within 1.2 million km of the sun’s surface and could evolve into a bright object up to magnitude -16 and bright enough to be visible during the day. However, as astronomers know all too well, comets’ varying compositions can make it nearly impossible to tell how bright they will be – so fingers crossed for a spectacular sight! SPACE NEWS
A SUCCESSFUL CRASH LANDING Twin satellites orbiting the moon have crash landed into a lunar mountain this month, having successfully completed their mission to map the moon’s gravitation field.
http://news.discovery.com/space/short-productive-life-of-nasa-moon-probes-over-121217.html BLACK HOLE PUZZLE Do we need to rethink our understanding of black holes? Or are there other types that haven’t been documented? The discovery of a huge super massive black hole is causing new questions new to be asked. http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/8018759/Monster-black-hole-shakes-thinking THE BEST OF 2012 It’s time for those ‘best of’ galleries to see the amazing images taken throughout the year that was. |
DECEMBER 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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21 December 2012 … nothing to see here
You may have heard about predictions that the world will end on 21 December 2012 (22nd December in New Zealand) …either due to a collision of the Earth with a rogue planet, a comet, the end of the Mayan calendar, or because of a planetary alignment with the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. Here we explain why theres really no need to panic. One of the most common rumours is that a rogue planet (sometimes named as Planet X or Nibiru) will collide with Earth, which is the easiest to refute - any object that close to Earth would be extremely bright by now and be distorting Earth’s gravity. Another rumour is that the Earth’s magnetic poles are due to change suddenly, causing widespread devestation. While magnetic polarity does change, scientists believe a magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia – and it wouldn’t cause harm to any life on Earth in any case. As for the Mayan calendar, their system ends no more on 21 December this year than the rest of us think that the world will be over because our calendars run out of pages each December … we just buy a new calendar for the new year! While the very idea will raise suspicions for anyone with a bit of scientific knowledge, concerns are widespread enough for NASA to have produced a factsheet reviewing the assorted arguments and the simplest explanations against them. If your Chrstmas party discussions happen to turn to the 2012 phenomenon and you need a succint counterpoint to the most common myths, the full NASA fact sheet can be downloaded from their website here
Nearby 'Orphan' Alien Planet Found Rogue planets are a relatively new discovery, but some astronomers believe there are up to 100,000 times more free-floating planets than stars in our Milky Way! A newly dicovered rogue planet named CFBDSIR2149 has been found just 100 light years away. .. still not close enough to collide with Earth! Read more here
What are the Europeans Doing in Space? Some member states of the European Spce Agency (ESA) believe that investment in spaceflight technologies could help them out of tough economic times. A meeting of ESA members has just given the green light for an exciting new programme. Find out more here |
NOVEMBER 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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Solar Eclipse above New Zealand
 Make sure November 14 is blocked out in the calendar now, because one of the most exciting astronomical events of the year is about to take place above New Zealand!
A partial solar eclipse of up to 91% coverage will be seen from all parts of the country from around 9.18am depending on your location (see the chart below for the times and percentage cover for the four main centres). A total eclipse will be seen by viewers in some parts of north-eastern Australia. In Cairns, totality will last two minutes, plunging the city into shade.
So make sure you have a pair of solar viewing glasses - you can pick them up from the Stardome shop - and scope out a good viewing place to see the crescent Sun.
IMAGE CREDIT: NASA
Auckland Time 10:28am 87.0%
Wellington Time 10:34am 76.4% Christchurch Time 10:35am 68.9% Dunedin Time 10:36am 61.5% |
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One Giant Leap You may have already heard, but the video footage is spectacular enough for a second (or third) view - Felix Baumgartner successfully jumped from the stratosphere in October, reaching an estimated speed of 1,342.8 km/h, and delivering valuable data for future space exploration on the way. |
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Martian Science Validates Work On Earth The successful forecast of weather conditions on Mars shows that the models used on Earth are correct, says new research out this month. Those same computer programs also show the global warming of Earth, lending more weight to the argument by some scientists that the Earth’s climate is changing. http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7827151/Martian-proof-climate-modelling-works |
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Earth-Size Alien Planet Close to Home!
Our understanding of planets – and Earth sized ones, particularly – has come a long way in the past five years. And now, contrary to previous beliefs, it has been discovered that the closest solar system to our own has an earth-sized world orbiting one of its triple star set! http://www.space.com/18089-earth-size-alien-planet-alpha-centauri.html |
OCTOBER 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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The Dawn of Our Solar System
 The search for water outside of Earth is usually associated with Mars, but a mission to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has recently made surprising discoveries.The Dawn spacecraft is on a mission to contrast the formation and evolution of the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, and investigate the role of size and water in determining the evolution of the planets.
Dawn is effectively journeying back in time over 4.5 billion years to the beginning of our solar system by examining the asteroids which formed at the same time as the larger bodies that eventually became Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These asteroids may contain clues about the conditions and processes that shaped the solar system and gave us the varied array of bodies we now have.
A few weeks ago, images of Vesta from Dawn’s low-altitude mapping showed pothole-like features where material - likely to be water - boiled off. While Dawn did not find actual water-ice at Vesta, there are signs of hydrated minerals delivered by meteorites and dust, evident in the giant asteroid's chemistry and geology.
This unexpected find was announced just as Dawn left Vesta en route to Ceres, where it is thought there may be active hydrological processes leading to seasonal polar caps of water frost, altering scientists’ understanding to the interior of these bodies and leading to even more interest in the possible make up of our solar system and others in the universe.
IMAGE CAPTION: This image is from the last sequence of images NASA's Dawn spacecraft looking down at Vesta's north pole as it was departing. Image Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/ UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
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An oldie but a goodie The Hubble Space telescope just keeps on giving! A newly released image shows a galaxy 500 million years old - quite probably the furthest object ever observed. |
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MRIs on the Moon? A new compact MRI scanner design may be able to fit into the International Space Station, allowing scientists to improve studies of human health in space and even use it for medical examinations of astronauts on long term missions to the Moon or Mars. |
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Endeavour goes to Hollywood
Late last week, the Space Shuttle Endeavour made a voyage captured by thousands of Californians on their cameras and phones when it flew on the back of its carrier from Cape Canaveral to Los Angeles. The shuttle will remain there on permanent display at the California Science Center. |
SEPTEMBER 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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Nasa's Curiosity Running Hot Few stories managed to break through the hype of the Olympics early last month. But one – a science story, no less – captured imaginations as much as the gold medals and fanfare of the opening and closing ceremonies. |
 NASA’s remote controlled rover Curiosity survived the so called “seven minutes of terror” needed for such a spacecraft to successfully pass through the Martian atmosphere at high speeds and land using one of the most complicated landing devices ever attempted.
Minutes later, the rover beamed back its first images in black and white, confirming the rover’s safe landing in Gale Crater, before sending back low resolution colour images, and then its first 360 degree colour panorama 48 hours later. Over the next two years, Curiosity will explore the nearby mountain rising from the crater floor, excavate rocks and scoop up rusty, dusty soil to see if the region ever had the right environment for microscopic organisms to survive. With the most difficult part of the mission over, the team is now focused on finding intriguing information about Mars – in the words of President Barack Obama on the news of Curiosity’s successful landing: “Really what makes us best as a species is this curiosity that we have and this yearning to discover and know more, and push the boundaries of knowledge.”
Follow the best of Curiosity’s images at NASA’s website here: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/ IMAGE: Full-resolution self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover taken 24 hours after landing. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Hypersonic Missile Crashes to Earth
Imagine travelling at five times the speed of sound – fast enough to travel from London to New York in under an hour. A United States Air Force jet designed to do just that fell short and crashed into the Pacific Ocean in a test flight last month.
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What Shape is the Sun?
Turns out, it’s rounder than previously thought ... and flatter! NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has revealed new information that poses as many questions as it answers.
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Keeping Tabs on Curiosity
Think you’re a fan of Curiosity? It’s one thing to follow the space craft online ... and another altogether to live on Mars time to make sure you’re awake when it is! One California family is taking out all the stops in their Martian adventure. |
AUGUST 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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Finding the Higgs Boson
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 There’s no denying that the big news in space this month was the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson particle by scientists at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research).CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful machine on Earth, has been colliding particles in a 27 kilometre loop underneath Switzerland and France with the aim of finding a 'building block' that helps to explain how fundamental particles gain mass: that is, allows them to bind or 'glue' together to form stars and planets rather than speeding around the universe at the speed of light. This particle - the Higgs boson - was first proposed 45 years ago by Peter Higgs and six other theoretical physicists as part of ‘the Standard Model’ – a guide used to understand particle physics. To make the Standard Model work, the Higgs Boson has been a key piece assumed to be there, but never been proven to exist ... until now. The particle announced this month seems to match the characteristics expected, suggesting scientists’ understanding of the basic workings of the universe is correct. Now attention can turn to looking at how the Higgs boson works and what kind of particle it is – potentially opening up the world of particle physics to new and exciting theories over the next few years.
IMAGE CAPTION: Real CMS proton-proton collisions events at the Large Hadron Collider. The event shows characteristics expected from the decay of a Higgs boson but is also consistent with background Standard Model physics processes. (CERN/CMS/Taylor, L; McCauley, T) |
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Close Encounter of the Asteroid Kind
You might not have felt it, but an asteroid the size of a city block brushed past Earth last week at a distance of just 5 million kilometres!
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Space Smells
We’ve all heard there’s no sound in space, but what about smell? Apparently it has quite a distinct odour, according to some NASA astronauts.
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2696-space-smell.html |
JULY 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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Dark Southern Skies Celebrated
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 A large part of the South Island has been announced as the newest and largest International Dark Sky Reserve - confirming what locals already knew: that it is one of the best places in the world to view the night sky. After six years of intense lobbying by the Tekapo-based Starlight Working Party, the announcement was made at the recent International Starlight Conference. The Aoraki Mackenzie Dark-Sky Reserve, more than 4,000 square kilometres in size, is the only international site with 'Gold' level status, meaning it is almost completely free from light pollution. The darkness is in part due to the efforts of locals and regional by-laws, which prevent night lighting spreading upwards, and outside lighting between 11pm and sunrise ... making it perfect for amateur astronomers and the nearby Mt. John Observatory. The International Dark-Sky Association's executive director Bob Parks said in a statement, "to put it simply, it is one of the best stargazing sites on Earth." Canterbury Tourism is hoping the site will draw star-gazers from New Zealand and around the world to see the dark skies, boosting tourism in the area. It is hoped that the site may one day be also considered for UNESCO World Heritage status, further enhanceing the profile of the region. Aoraki Mackenzie Dark-Sky Reserve is the fourth International Dark Sky Reserve, following on from Mont Megantic in Canada, Exmoor National Park in the United Kingdom, and the NamibRand Nature Reserve, in Namibia. |
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Catch up on the Transit of Venus Did you manage to glimpse the last transit of Venus in our life time? If not, check out this range of images snapped around the world. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2012/jun/06/venus-astronomy |
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Picturing a Galactic Collision
Scientists have long believed our Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy ... but what would that look like? Take a look at an artist's new impression of the two billion year long event here. http://www.universetoday.com/95557/its-inevitable-milky-way-andromeda-galaxy-heading-for-collision/ |
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NuSTAR Takes Off ...and we have liftoff! NASA's X-ray space telescope, he Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (or NuStar for short) is on its way to peer through gas and dust in search of supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-readying-to-launch-newest-x-ray-telescope-from-remote-pacific-island/2012/06/13/gJQA9WPFZV_story.html |
JUNE 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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The transit approaches!  Astronomers are preparing for a special celestial occasion next month, when Venus will appear to cross in front of the Sun in an event called the transit of Venus. On 6 June, from around 10.15am to around 4.45pm (as seen from New Zealand), the planet will appear as a small black dot travelling slowly across the face of the Sun – observers will need eye to use protection such as solar viewing glasses, or a projection method to view it indirectly.
This event has not been seen in New Zealand in our lifetime and will not occur again until 2117, so fingers are crossed for clear weather!
As well as being a rare astronomical spectacle, the event has historical significance – a transit of Venus was the reason why Captain James Cook first explored the South Pacific in 1769. Measurements taken by Cook during that transit and others measured since have helped astronomers calculate the size of our solar system.
England's Royal Academy sponsored Cook’s voyage with 38 crew to note the start and stop times of the transit from Tahiti. By comparing these with the measurements taken in Europe and the known distance between Europe and the South Pacific, astronomers used the principles of parallax to calculate the distance to Venus.
Today, Cook is probably better known for continuing on to New Zealand and Australia, but the transit was a crucial event on his journey, and something we can experience ourselves with this rare opportunity.
IMAGE: The transit of Venus, as seen in 2004 from the Northern Hemisphere. |
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Groceries launched to the International Space Station The first commercial spacecraft to be sent to the International Space Station has launched successfully from Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9 was unmanned, but contains provisions for the six crew on board the station.
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The Sun as a Ring of Fire Viewers in some parts of the Northern Hemisphere were treated to an annular solar eclipse last week, which means that at its peak the Moon appears to have a “Ring of Fire” – check out some of the best photos here. http://www.space.com/15780-photos-annular-solar-eclipse-may20-2012.html |
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Why are astronauts weightless in space? It’s because there is no gravity in space and they don’t weigh anything… right? Actually, there is gravity in space, and the astronauts are falling, but not down. Confused? Check out this video from the International Space Station which explains what’s going on.
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MAY 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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What's Mine is Yours
 Debate over mining natural resources has been hot in New Zealand for several years – but now the discussion is spreading into space.A company called Planetary Resources (backed by filmmaker James Cameron, amongst others) has announced plans to mine some of the 9,000 known near Earth asteroids, starting off with telescopes that will survey and analyse potential targets. The ultimate goal is to design and build robotic ships capable of extracting valuable minerals from the rock – perhaps as soon as 2020. Many critics deem the plan ‘difficult’ at best. Even if the technology can be developed, it doesn’t seem commercially viable ... a forthcoming NASA mission to return just 60 grams of an asteroid to Earth is expected to cost around $1 billion. Technology issues notwithstanding, questions remain over the ethics and even legalities of space mining. The Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967 states that no nation may claim sovereignty over space, the moon or celestial bodies... but what about corporations? No doubt, as the technology develops, we can expect the debate to heat up. Planetary Resources’ progress can be followed at their website here: |
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Pilot Mistakes Venus for an Oncoming Plane Its a mistake many of us have made from the ground, but in the air, a pilot injured sixteen passengers when he mistook Venus for another plane's headlights and took swift evasive action. http://travel.msn.co.nz/travelnews/8454120/sleepy-pilot-mistakes-venus-for-another-plane Cassini Space Craft Takes a Short Cut Through the Spray of an Icy Geyser The Cassini space craft visited a tiny moon of Saturn called Enceladus this month, and got close enough (74 km) to go through the spray of one of its active geysers. http://www.universetoday.com/94613/cassini-slips-through-enceladus-spray/ Boldly Growing Where no Man has Grown Before A zucchini plant growing on the International Space Station is embarking on its own mission ... and even blogging about it. http://www.space.com/15280-space-zucchini-orbit-astronaut-pettit.html |
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APRIL 2012 - SPACE NEWS
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Earth Based Telescopes Take Off in 2012
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 Huge steps forward in the design of Earth based telescopes have fuelled new and exciting projects, several of which begin in earnest this year. Work started on construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) this month, as 85,000 cubic metres of rock was blasted away from a mountain peak in Chile for a 24 metre observatory designed to scan the universe with approximately 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Once completed, it is hoped the GMT will provide new information on the birth of the first galaxies and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
In April, a decision is expected on the location for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope, which will be able to examine signals from the universe made 12 billion years ago. South Africa and Australia (with New Zealand) have hosting right bids being considered – fingers crossed for our trans-Tasman cousins!
Yet, both these will be dwarfed by another telescope planned for Chile in 2012, called the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The E-ELT is planned to have a primary mirror 42 metres in diameter and focus on Earth-like planets around other stars where life could exist, amongst other projects.
With many of these projects taking less than 10 years to construct, it’s only a matter of time until we start unlocking more mysteries of the Universe, all without leaving our home planet!
IMAGE CAPTION: An artist's impression of the Giant Magellan, with a semitrailer-truck parked alongside for a size comparison.
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Venus and Jupiter put on a show
Throughout most of March, the two bright planets Jupiter and Venus put on a display in the early evening for skywatchers. Astrophotographers and amateurs alike have been capturing images of the two around the world - and some of the best have been compiled here. http://www.universetoday.com/94119/astrophotos-venus-and-jupiter-conjunction/ Space Station astronauts take cover from space junk
There are many dangers faced by astronauts in space ...and one of these is the 20,000+ known pieces of space debris left from past missions. This week, six astronauts on board the International Space Station were forced to take refuge when a piece of junk came within 25 kilometres of the station. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17497766 Can galaxies can be rectangular? ...Apparently so, according to a new image captured by a team at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. The pictures shows LEDA 074886, a dwarf galaxy located 70 million light-years away. http://www.universetoday.com/94241/rare-rectangle-galaxy-discovered/ |
MARCH 2012 - SPACE NEWS
Far Out! The Spectacular Distance to Stars
One of the most common questions we are asked at Stardome is how far it is to the stars... followed quickly by “how do you know?"
There are several methods, but one usually used to find the distance to relatively nearby stars using parallax - the effect seen when you hold a pencil still in front of your face and close one eye, and then swap eyes, it will seem as though the pencil has moved.
For stars, the two measurement points need to be as far apart as possible. This is often done by taking one measurement, then waiting six months until the Earth travels half way around the Sun (a distance we know is almost 300,000,000km) and using trigonometry to calculate the distance.
Earth orbiting telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope have helped to make these vast measurements more accurate.
The closest star to our Sun is 4.24 light years away, or 39,900,000,000,000 kilometres away, while the brightest, Sirius, is 8.6 light years (81 trillion kilometres).
So while we know where they are, we aren’t much closer to actually ever going there – at least for now!
More Moons for Jupiter
A Chilean telescope has found two more moons orbiting the giant planet Jupiter, bringing its total to 66.
Tidy Swiss to Clean Up Their Mess
A Swiss space craft called CleanSpaceOne has been designed to ‘grab’ two defunct Swiss satellites and bring them back towards the Earth’s atmosphere to burn up on re-entry.
A Blue Crater Photographed on Mercury
A 52 kilometre wide crater named Degas has been snapped by the MESSENGER spacecraft in a pretty blue hue.
http://www.universetoday.com/93684/degas-a-crater-painted-blue/FEBRUARY 2012 - SPACE NEWS
ACTIVITY ON THE SUN HEATS UP
The Sun has been busy this week, with a solar flare eruption that has sent billions of tonnes of matter streaming toward Earth.
The 'coronal mass ejection' is a sudden release of magnetic energy stored in the Sun's atmosphere.
The current storm is likely to create more frequent and intense displays of aurora, the beautiful Northern Lights or Southern Lights of charged particles in the atmosphere that look like eerie, dancing neon lights in the sky.
There are also concerns the flare will disrupt satellite communications and global positioning systems, and some airlines have rerouted aircraft away from polar regions – however, it seems the effects this time around will be mild to moderate.
Solar activity goes through an 11-year cycle, waxing and waning in periods marked by varying intensity of ‘sunspots’.
At present, our Sun is moving from a period of sunspot minimum to the more intense and frequent magnetic storms, expected to peak in 2013.
AURORAS AROUND THE WORLD
The extra solar activity has already produced some of the most spectacular aurora ever seen – here’s a gallery of some of the best photos to date.
SPACE ROCKS
A freezing cold mission to the Antarctic for nine meteorite hunters has returned more than 300 specimens of rocks from other worlds.
COSTA CONCORDIA FROM SPACE
The Costa Concordia shipwreck has made headlines around the world … but for a completely different perspective, it has been captured in an amazing image from space.
JANUARY 2012 - SPACE NEWS
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME – OR IS THERE?
Since NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope was launched in 2009, it has found 2,326 potential planets and has helped to show that planets are not all that rare in the universe. Most of the early planets to be discovered by Kepler and other instruments were large gaseous worlds, without sufficient solid surface to be anything like Earth or sustain life as we know it. But this month, the Kepler team announced the discovery of a pair of planets around a star not unlike our Sun - one about as big as Earth and the other slightly smaller than Venus. These are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a sun-like star.
Both appear to be rocky, like Earth, but are exceptionally hot, with calculated temperatures of about 760 Celsius and 425 Celsius. That puts both outside the “Goldilocks Zone” of potential habitation, but marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The next step – finding one of that size at a similar orbital distance as Earth is from the Sun.
Could it happen in 2012? Watch this space!
IS SANTA BRINGING A CHRISTMAS COMET?
The unexpected survival of Comet Lovejoy around the Sun this month means there could be a spectacular sight for astronomers just after Christmas, low in the eastern sky in the morning.
http://www.universetoday.com/91957/surprising-comet-lovejoy-now-becoming-merry-and-bright/
CASSINI STILL PRODUCING TOP PICS
Cassini started making headlines with its mission to Saturn years ago, but today is still making close passes of the Saturninan moons Dione and Titan and sending back the photos to prove it. The beautiful new series of raw images are available from this NASA story.
TOP TEN ASTRONOMY DISCOVERIES OF 2011
It’s been a huge year for astronomy. Take a look back at the biggest finds of 2011 with these summaries.
