Just days after sharing the western evening sky with Venus in 2007, the Moon moved on to Saturn - actually passing in front of the ringed planet Saturn when viewed in skies over Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. Because the Moon and bright planets wander through the sky near the ecliptic plane, such occultation events are not uncommon, but they are dramatic, especially in telescopic views. For example, in this sharp image Saturn is captured emerging from behind the Moon, giving the illusion that it lies just beyond the Moon’s bright edge. Of course, the Moon is a mere 400 thousand kilometers away, compared to Saturn’s distance of 1.4 billion kilometers. Taken with a digital camera and 20 inch diameter telescope at the Weikersheim Observatory in southern Germany, the picture is a single exposure adjusted to reduce the difference in brightness between Saturn and the cratered lunar surface.
Posts tagged Science
The following is the closing of a letter from International Space Station Commander Frank L. Culbertson, the only American not on Earth on September 11th, 2001, reflecting on the events of that morning. (the entire text can be found here)
Tears don’t flow the same in space…
It’s difficult to describe how it feels to be the only American completely off the planet at a time such as this. The feeling that I should be there with all of you, dealing with this, helping in some way, is overwhelming. I know that we are on the threshold (or beyond) of a terrible shift in the history of the world. Many things will never be the same again after September 11, 2001. Not just for the thousands and thousands of people directly affected by these horrendous acts of terrorism, but probably for all of us. We will find ourselves feeling differently about dozens of things, including probably space exploration, unfortunately.
It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are. And the knowledge that everything will be different than when we launched by the time we land is a little disconcerting. I have confidence in our country and in our leadership that we will do everything possible to better defend her and our families, and to bring justice for what has been done. I have confidence that the good people at NASA will do everything necessary to continue our mission safely and return us safely at the right time. And I miss all of you very much. I can’t be there with you in person, and we have a long way to go to complete our mission, but be certain that my heart is with you, and know you are in my prayers.
Humbly,
Frank
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
— Neil Armstrong
Rest In Peace
August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012
A Flight Through the Universe, by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (by BerkeleyLab)
What would it be like to fly through the universe? Possibly the best simulated video of this yet has been composed from recently-released galaxy data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Every spot in the above video is a galaxy containing billions of stars. Many galaxies are part of huge clusters, long filaments, or small groups, while expansive voids nearly absent of galaxies also exist. The movie starts by flying right through a large nearby cluster of galaxies and later circles the SDSS-captured universe at about 2 billion light years (a redshift of about 0.15) from Earth. Analyses of galaxy positions and movements continues to bolster the case that our universe contains not only the bright matter seen, like galaxies, but also a significant amount of unseen dark matter and dark energy.
As its June 6 2012 transit begins Earth’s sister planet crosses the edge of the Sun in this stunning view from the Hinode spacecraft. The timing of limb crossings during the rare transits was used historically to triangulate the distance to Venus and determine a value for the Earth-Sun distance called the astronomical unit. Still, modern space-based views like this one show the event against an evocative backdrop of the turbulent solar surface with prominences lofted above the Sun’s edge by twisting magnetic fields. Remarkably, the thin ring of light seen surrounding the planet’s dark silhouette is sunlight refracted by Venus’ thick atmosphere.
Jaw-dropping video of the 2012 Transit of Venus, courtesy of NASA | SDO’s Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit
(Source: youtube.com)
Juno Spacecraft to Carry LEGOs to Jupiter Orbit - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
LEGO MINIFIGS ARE GOING TO JUPITER!
Wut.
Wow. It’s choppy (I expect more soon, Dawn!) but awesome. You know there might be an ocean on Ceres? Can’t wait to get there.
Why don’t we have about a hundred robotic explorers like this out there? Cost about as much as a few bombers or aircraft carriers…
In this movie, strung together from a series of images provided by the framing camera on NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, we see a full rotation of Vesta, which occurs over the course of roughly five hours. These images were obtained on July 24, 2011, from a distance of about 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers).
Video: NASA
Another interesting segment this week from Dean Regas. I’m beginning to wonder if he’ll end up the standing host (or the sitting-and-flying-around-the-planets host, to be more exact). That announcement’s supposed to be made this Summer. A little digging around on the internet just taught me that Dean has been writing his own segments this month, which is outstanding, because there have been some neat facts and tie-ins lately, like last week’s Omar Khayyam reference and the Zodiacal Light information.
This week he shares the one-day old Moon’s trick of showing Earthshine. This really is beautiful, and usually easy to see, especially from a vantage in the northern hemisphere in the Spring. Here’s a breathtaking image, courtesy of NASA’s “Astronomy Picture of the Day” (which you should all check out daily … there’s an amazing image of Mars up today):
In the copy there, you can read that Earthshine is strongly influenced by cloud cover, and albedo studies indicate that it’s more pronounced during April and May. Another interesting fact there: a description of Earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth’s oceans illuminating the Moon’s surface, was written 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. Of course, old Leo was wrong, the Earth’s oceans are actually much less reflective than the clouds, and he also thought the surface of the Moon was itself covered with oceans, but hey, it was 500 years ago. Everyone believed the Sun went around the Earth, and no one knew about a little place called Australia.
Here’s a bonus Earthshine pic I couldn’t pass up, of a lunar occultation of Venus:
The origin of that poetic phrase “The Old Moon in the New Moon’s Arms” is obscure, but seems to have first appeared in a centuries-old poem called “The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens”. It’s Scottish, and from the 13th century, so bear with the weirdo English here, but the line is:
“Laie late yestreen I saw the new moone,
Wi the auld moone in her arme”
If you can make sense of that, go ahead and follow the link above; it’s really a beautiful piece, with a certain sense of modernity that makes it feel almost relevant today. The ballad was sung and revised for hundreds of year before being written down in the 18th century, but the story is based on two 13th century voyages that Scottish noblemen made to conduct their princesses to royal marriages in Norway, during which many members of the royal families were shipwrecked and drowned.
I particularly like the moral here about the limits of wealth. It’s good to remember that fine shoes and fancy hats are no insulation when seas are rough. There’s also a lesson here regarding subjects’ powerlessness in the face of their kings, as Sir Patrick first laughs, then weeps openly when asked to sail seas deadly at that time of year, because he knows he has no choice. When Buffy Saint-Marie covered this on 1968’s Little Wheel Spin and Spin, I’m sure she felt something similar, tied then to the Vietnam War and the draft.
There’s a pretty little love poem by 19th century poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox called “The Old Moon in the New Moon’s Arms’ that came up in a Google search for me. You might like it:
Let me leave you with one last thought, and image, before this post gets entirely too long. Dean points out that in the beginning of April, particularly on the 6th, the Pleiades appear right around the crescent moon. The Pleiades star cluster is also called The Seven Sisters, for the Greek myth of the seven daughters of Atlas. Strangely, there are actually just six bright stars, not seven. In fact, this star-forming region is home to more than 3,000, but only six are easily visible to the naked eye. The connection to the cluster and the number seven exists across many cultures, leading some to believe that a “lost Pleiad” once shown brighter in ancient skies. That, or there’s something particularly appealing to all of us about the number seven - which is entirely possible.
One more APOD link for you here, of the sisters hidden behind their blue veil of interstellar dust:
It’s beautiful, and you can usually see it even from our horribly light-polluted skies. You should check it out next week if you can. A fun fact for you, as a reward for reading down this far: Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, and alludes to the six companies that merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company whose automobile arm is Subaru. Maybe you’ll notice the stars on their logo a little differently now.
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
