The Night Sky Guy

Last Nighttime Shuttle Launch

For those of you who missed the 4:14 am EST  launch of shuttle Endeavour this morning here is the video of the  thunderous event. Mission STS-130 is taking up a habitat module ‘Tranquility’ to the space station and a giant bay window called a cupola where a robotic console will be installed aboard the ISS.

Bookmark

Sky Show: Mars and its Rival

Click image to enlarge

Tonight take a look at the Red Planet climbing up the eastern horizon – you can’t miss it as  the brightest star in the region of sky.  It makes a conveninet guidepost to finding a great open star cluster that is a favourite amongst backyard astronomers. Known affectionately as the Beehive (see telescope image below) and more officially as M44,  it is a loose grouping of what looks like about 40 stars buzzing around together through binoculars, but really explodes into a much larger group of a couple hundred stars in a small telescope under low magnifiation.  It is fairly eas to spot with the naked eye from a dark location and has been known since ancient times – astronomers Hipparchos and Ptolemy made notes of the cluster as the ‘Little Mist’ 2000 years ago!

click image to enlarge

For those early birds out there tomorrow (Sunday) morning at dawn a striking crescent Moon will pay a quick visit to Mars’ rival – the orange hued, stellar giant called Antares. This 600 light year distant star’s name means ‘against Mars’ since it reminded ancients of the planet’s similar colour in the sky. Antares also is the lead member of the constellation Scorpius which is a favourite destinatino for stargazers when it sits in the southern sky in the late summer evenings.

The cosmic pair will look stunning together hanging low in the eastern horizon as the glow of the rising sun slowly washes over the morning sky. Definitely worth a look see even through your bedroom window.

Bookmark

New Night Sky episode

Tonight we talk about this weekend’s Mars and Moon duets visible to the unaided eyes.

Bookmark

Mars Buzzes Beehive

Mars and Beehive Pair-up; Click image to enlarge

Early this Saturday evening skywatchers get a two for one deal with a planet and star cluster huddling  next to each other. For this show you get to see Mars and the famous Beehive star cluster rising in the southeastern sky in the constellation Cancer – the crab – just after local suppertime.

Look for the distinct, bright orange hue of star-like Mars first. Then just to it lower right is a faint fuzzy path of light, the Beehive.  The two celestial targets will be separated by only 3 degrees – that is equal to 6 full Moon disks. So this makes the cosmic odd couple visible easily even in an ordinary pair of binoculars. While the Red Planet lies about 99 million km away from Earth, the Beehive is a respectable 580 light years distant.

Bookmark

Inside the Brewing NASA Storm

Veteran space reporter Miles O’Brien talks with various stakeholders in the human spaceflight debate just now heating up thanks to the new NASA budget proposal.

This Week in Space with Miles O’Brien. Special Report from Washington DC on NASA’s Change of Direction

Bookmark

Hubble Unveils Pluto

NASA has released the most detailed and dramatic images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto. The images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show an icy, mottled, dark molasses-colored world undergoing seasonal surface color and brightness changes. Pluto has become significantly redder, while its illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter.

These changes are most likely consequences of surface ice melting on the sunlit pole and then refreezing on the other pole, as the dwarf planet heads into the next phase of its 248-year-long seasonal cycle. Analysis shows the dramatic change in color took place from 2000 to 2002. The Hubble pictures confirm Pluto is a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes, not simply a ball of ice and rock. These dynamic seasonal changes are as much propelled by the planet’s 248-year elliptical orbit as by its axial tilt. Pluto is unlike Earth, where the planet’s tilt alone drives seasons. Pluto’s seasons area symmetric because of its elliptical orbit. Spring transitions to polar summer quickly in the northern hemisphere, because Pluto ismoving faster along its orbit when it is closer to the Sun. Ground-based observations, taken in 1988 and 2002 show the mass of the atmosphere doubled during that time. This may be because of warming and melting nitrogen ice.

Hubble Maps Pluto's Changing Surface (courtesy of NASA)

The new Hubble images are giving astronomers essential clues about the seasons on Pluto and the fate of its atmosphere. When the Hubble pictures taken in 1994 are compared to those of 2002 and 2003, astronomers see evidence that the northern polar region has gotten brighter, while the southern hemisphere darkened. These changes hint at very complex processes affecting the visible surface. The images will help planetary astronomers interpret more than three decades of Pluto observations from other telescopes.

“The Hubble observations are the key to tying together these otherdiverse constraints on Pluto and showing how it all makes sense by providing a context based on weather and seasonal changes, which opens other new lines of investigation,” says principal investigator MarcBuie of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

New horizons at Pluto

These Hubble images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, will remain the sharpest view of Pluto until NASA’s New Horizons probe is within six months of its flyby during 2015. The Hubble images are invaluable for picking the planet’s most interesting hemisphere for imaging by the New Horizons probe. New Horizons will pass by Pluto so quickly that only one hemisphere will be photographed in detail. Particularly noticeable in the Hubble images is a bright spot that has been independently noted to be unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. It is a prime target for NewHorizons. “Everybody is puzzled by this feature,” Buie said. New Horizons will get an excellent look at the boundary between this bright feature and a nearby region covered in pitch-black surface material. “The Hubble images also will help New Horizons scientists better calculate the exposure time for each Pluto snapshot which is important for taking the most detailed pictures possible,” Buie said. With no chance for re-exposures, accurate models for the surface of Pluto are essential for properly exposed images. The Hubble images surface variations a few hundred miles across that are too coarse for understanding surface geology. But in terms of surface color and brightness, Hubble reveals a complex-looking world with white, dark-orange, and charcoal-black terrain. The overall color is believed to be a result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant Sun breaking up methane present on Pluto’s surface, leaving behind a dark and red carbon-rich residue.

Bookmark

New Mars Flyover Video

Check out this amazing computer animation that simulates a flyover of the old Mars Pathfinder landing site. Tip of the hat to StarStryder for this find.

Bookmark

Tonight: Luna and Lord of the Rings

Moon and Saturn together tonight;click image to enlarge

Bookmark

NASA Reboot?

The White House is giving NASA new marching orders, and questions and concerns loom. Seems like NASA is pulling the plug on its ‘back to the Moon by 2020′ vision and instead refocusing on creating new technologies and new alliances with private companies to get them into space. The new NASA 2011 budget request released yesterday actually gives an increase to their coffers to the tune of $19 billion. And the agency is saying that they will have at their disposal $6 billion over the next 5 years just to pump into development of new space technologies. The agency will now be concentrating on creating a brand new system of hardware that will make human space exploration faster and sustainable. Ideas talked about include developing orbital fuel depots where rockets could tank up,  making automated factories that could convert lunar soil into water and rocket fuel, and new rocket propulsion systems using nuclear and ion engines that could get humans to destinations like asteroids and Mars much quicker than with conventional rockets we now use.

“Imagine trips to Mars that take weeks instead of nearly a year; people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of firsts’; and imagine all this being done collaboratively with nations around the world,” said NASA chief Charles Bolden yesterday at a news conference.

Constellation's rockets, human space capsule, and lunar landers cancelled

Where is this money coming from? Mostly from the retirement of the space shuttle fleet this year and the immediate cancellation of the Constellation program which included a new human vehicle, lunar lander and heavy cargo lifter rocket. NASA is betting on that private companies being able to take over the businessof sending astronauts into low Earth orbit (LEO).  But the big question is when will these companies have a safe, human-rated spacecraft? There are a handful that are in pretty good shape to truck cargo to the space station but many experts are concerned when and if these private rockets will be ready. Some industry insiders say it will be at least 4 to 6 years before the first ride will be ready to take Americans back to LEO. That means until that happens everyone will be hitching a ride with the Russians on their Soyuz at about $30 million a seat.

There is quite a buzz on the blogosphere and online media with ’space buffs’ pontificating what all this means but maybe we should reserve judgement until there are more details released on NASA’s new direction. When will the first private rockets be ready to take humans to LEO? What destinations beyond LEO are humans going to? What new technologies are we developing? What flagship missions do they have in mind?

All this may take a while as this controversial vision will have to pass the US Congress before anything of substance can begin.  The facts are though that this is indeed a ‘game changer’ for the American human space program and it will take a lot of convincing to get all the stakeholders to buy into it. International partners like Canada may actually benefit and see more projects sent their way as NASA looks for new collaborations and new focus on basic research.

On paper, the vision looks promising but is a risky one. Can they put it into practice? Does NASA have the resilience to see it through?  Will they get the support they need? Only time will tell…

Bookmark

Cold Moon Rising

If you missed the show yesterday, Friday night, then  check out the near full Moon at its largest for the year this evening. Face towards the eastern horizon just after sunset and watch the silvery orb rise into the sky. Here is a quick snapshot I took yesterday of the full Moon with a star-like sidekick – Mars – you can see it to the left of the Moon. If you look carefully you will also notice the distinctive orange hue of Mars – that’s the iron-oxide rich sand dunes that covers the planet.

Mars and the full moon, Friday, Jan.29,2010

Bookmark