Sunday, January 28, 2007
Full Moon, India
The full moon will be Mar 3; we will be in Bombay. there will also be a lunar eclipse that night. And, most interesting, it will be Holi the Hindu festival where people throw colors at each other. Last time we saw people covered in purple, so awesome, purple people and cows. Should be fun!


I look for a red giant tonight.
A star late in its stellar evolution.
In a cloud that’s not a cloud.
How old we are. How we want
a supernova ending. How difficult is dying.
Sirius is looking straight up at Orion,
wondering why he’s not in the hunt.
He wants to run the ice and snow.
He wants to please the heroic hunter,
and leave this underworld above the Earth.
Beautiful, yes, but also arrogant and vain,
boasting that she and her daughter Andromeda
were more beautiful than the Nereids nymph-daughters.
Tonight, the Lady of the Chair reigns
not over Ethiopia but the North Star.
Poseidon’s punishment to Cassiopea for saying she and Andromeda were more beautiful than the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus was for her to be put in a constellation sitting in the heavens tied to a chair. (from Hyginus, Poeticon Astronomicon. “U.S. Naval Observatory Library”)
Orion’s belt is three sparkling blue-white stars.
I still can’t see the constellating images
of the ancients, but for that belt.
His shield a vague curve, his knee,
Rigel, blue supergiant anonymously leading his lunge.
Orion’s two brightest stars – Betelgeuse and Rigel – are about at an equal distance above and below Orion’s Belt. Betelgeuse achieved popular fame in the misspelled Beetlejuice film character, but Rigel is pretty much unknown.
So, here’s to Rigel, who despite being 775 light-years away (which none of us can really grasp) shines very brightly. What a star you must be! If you were as close as our sun, you would outshine it by 40,000 times!
Rigel is blue-white because of its surface temperature. Rigel is hot (over 10,000 K) and still a youthful star. The more famous Betelgeuse is a red star – “cool” (only 2,000 to 3,500 Kelvin) and already in his autumn years.
New Moon. No moon. There, but not.
Starting place without glamour, without the romance
of fullness and light, even if only
reflected from a daytime star that hides,
shuns the night dome of its kind.


Congress Wants NASA To Develop A Deep Space Habitat For Mars Mission By 2018
NASA has received $55 million from Congress to develop living quarters no later than 2018 that can take astronauts future deep space missions. Earlier this month, the omnibus spending bill that was passed by lawmakers has increased the space agency’s funding in 2016 by $1.3 billion. The money would come from the Advanced Exploration Systems program, part of the Exploration Research and Development line item in the budget that received $350 million in the bill.
The agency has not explained how it will use that funding. Sam Scimemi, International Space Station director at NASA Headquarters, speaking at a Space Transportation Association luncheon on December 16, said he was not immediately aware of any specific plans for that funding.
The omnibus bill that specifies how much NASA gets in the following year actually reads: “NASA shall develop a prototype deep space habitation module within the advanced exploration systems program no later than 2018.” It also says that NASA needs to provide Congress a report within the first 180 days of 2016 detailing how those funds are being used to create the habitation module.
The Orion spacecraft that will drive astronauts to Mars has a diameter that’s about the length of a pickup truck. Considering that the astronauts’ journey to Mars will take at least 6 months, that’s not a lot of space.
Mars-bound astronauts will need a larger place to live, complete with private quarters and exercise equipment. NASA envisions the Orion capsule could link up to a habitation module in space, but right now they have no idea what that module could look like.
Over the last several months, NASA has increasingly stressed on the development of a habitation module that could be tested in cislunar space in the 2020s before sending it to Mars in the 2030s.
Scimemi envisions testing out the habitation module and other key technologies to take place during what he calls a “shakedown cruise” in cislunar space. This extensive testing, he hopes, should provide enough proof NASA is able to develop a proficient model for long-duration, human-led missions to Mars. “That is our big objective for cislunar space for human spaceflight,” he said.
NASA has resisted providing details about how it will develop that habitation module, or even its requirements. “It’s much too early for that,” Scimemi said. “As soon as I put a picture up there, somebody is going to assume what the configuration is.” However, whether NASA could have something ready by 2018 seems debatable. Shielding astronauts from space radiation while also maintaining a light weight will be one of the major challenges.
So far, Bigelow Aerospace’s inflatable habitat stands out as a frontrunner–a test version of the habitat will soon be deployed on the International Space Station (ISS). Under its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships, or NextSTEP, program, NASA has also awarded study contracts to Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Orbital ATK, and other companies to study into potential habitat designs. It also awarded contracts to Dynetics, Hamilton Sundstrand and Orbital Technologies Corp. for specific module technologies, such as life support systems.
The NextSTEP contracts, valued at up to $1 million each and lasting for one year, will inform NASA’s plans for later habitat development work. “We plan to leverage the output of those studies to shape our plan and then go to a next round,” Scimemi said, adding that NASA hadn’t settled on the details of that next phase.
It looks like NASA will have speed up its game, and fast. The report requires NASA to revert with a status update about how it has allocated funds within 180 days of the bill becoming law, which happened on December 18.


NOVEMBER 23, 2022 – INAUGURATION OF THE QUBIC INTERNATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF COSMOLOGY
With the presence of national (MINCYT), provincial (Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology of Salta), municipal authorities, the presidents of the CNEA and CONICET, members of the community of San Antonio de los Cobres and the International Collaboration at QUBIC, the QUBIC Observatory was inaugurated with great success. November 23 was a day of great emotion for all those present
QUBIC Observatory: Aerial view during the inauguration (Credit: MINCyT)
QUBIC INSTALLED AND IN OPERATION
October 26th, 2022
After an intense week of work to integrate and test the instrument and its subsystems in Alto Chorrillos, QUBIC was installed on the observation mount, inside its shelter.
A day of work in Alto Chorrillos, San Antonio de los Cobres
QUBIC ARRIVED IN ALTO CHORRILLOS
On October 16, 2022, after a trip in which all precautions were taken and the recommendations for transporting the equipment to Alto Chorrillos were followed, the instrument arrived at its final destination. As of October 17, the integration of the mount and the instrument in its shelter will begin.
QUBIC is ready for the installation in Alto Chorrillos
The tests of the instrument performance in the Laboratory of Integration in CNEA-RNO, Salta, between July and August 2022 were very successful
In the video, QUBIC on the testing mount, observing the sky
The first astronomical object observed by QUBIC was the Moon. A predicted FWHM of 1 degree was confirmed, as can be seen in the image. A great achievement for the Collaboration!
After several months of hard work, the shelter and dome for QUBIC are ready to receive the instrument in Alto Chorrillos
The inauguration of QUBIC Observatory will be
in November 23, 2022 (Agenda)
QUBIC (Q-U Bolometric Interferometer for Cosmology) is an international project of experimental cosmology that aims to measure the B-mode in the polarization of microwave background radiation (CMB, for Cosmic Microwave Background), in order to discover what happened in the first moments after the birth of the Universe. Mode B of polarization would be related to primordial gravitational waves, predicted by the Inflationary Theory, a modification of the Big Bang Theory, which predicts an exponential expansion in the first moments of life of the Universe.
The project is carried out by an international collaboration that involves institutions from France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States and the Argentine Republic. Our country was chosen as the site of the first instrument, which will be located in the Alto Chorrillos area, Salta Province, at 4,900 meters above sea level – a site that will also house the Argentine-Brazilian radio telescope LLAMA (Large Latin American Millimiter Array) -. In this way, the Argentine Northwest will become a center of scientific attraction at a national, regional and global level.


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Researchers say Earth may soon have Saturn-like rings made of space debris
- The amount of
space debrishas been on the rise over the past few decades.
- Space debris can harm orbital missions, spaceflights and pilots taking the flight.
- To clear up the space debris, researchers are developing a magnetic technology that can clear it and move it into a decaying orbit like a ring.
AdvertisementAccording to researchers,
The total amount of space debris
The European Space Agency claims that there are more than 170 million space debris objects in Earth orbit. While most of them are small, there are some 29,000 of them with a size of more than 10cm.
The objects of all sizes can collide and disrupt orbital missions and space flights as well as the International Space Station (ISS) in different capacities. The junk has grown rapidly since 1957 and currently amounts to 7,500 metric tons. It is projected to grow exponentially in the future.
Harms of space debris
Earlier today, the crew of ISS was forced to take shelter in their evacuation spacecraft as potentially dangerous debris appeared near it. Eventually, the space station moved away from the object, however, it is worth noting that these objects have the potential to injure or even kill astronauts.
In a similar incident last week, the ISS had to be moved by 1240m to dodge
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that a lot of this debris also falls on Earth but most of it is usually broken in the atmosphere. The report also informs that according to Jake Abbott, a professor and researcher at the University of Utah, the Earth is on course to have its own rings but they’ll just be made of junk. The professor and his team of engineers are working to clean up the junk by using magnets.
According to the researchers, they now know how to rapidly spin magnets and create magnetic fields that can manipulate space objects even if they are not made of magnetic material. Once developed, this technology can be used to make robots move the debris into a decaying orbit that in turn will look like a ring.
SpaceX Inspiration4 tourists share stunning photos of the earth
The longest lunar eclipse this century will happen early Friday morning. Here's how to see it.
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The end of summer is the fourteenth of the twenty-four solar terms.
Douzhiwu (southwest); the ecliptic longitude of the sun reaches 150°;
it meets on August 22-24 of the Gregorian calendar every year. To end
the summer heat, that is, "exiting the summer heat", means leaving from
the heat. When it comes to the end of summer, the direct sunlight continues
to move southward, the solar radiation weakens, the subtropical high also
retreats southward, the temperature gradually drops, and the summer heat
gradually disappears. The end of summer means the end of the sweltering
heat, which is still hot, but on a downward trend.
Contact Person: Mr. Felix Ho


To help you learn about the southern night sky, Sydney Observatory provides an audio guide/podcast, transcript of that audio, and a sky map or chart each month. This month’s guide is presented by Melissa Hulbert, an Astronomy Educator at Sydney Observatory.
Mel points out constellations to look out for this month (Orion the Hunter, Scorpius the Scorpion, and Crux or the Southern Cross), planets (Venus, Saturn, Mars and Mercury) and tells us about the Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower which should be visible until 27 May, with the peak on 5 May.
Mel also gives a preview of the rare astronomical event on 6 June this year – the transit of Venus. The following one won’t be until 2117! You can buy the book, ‘Transit of Venus: 1631 to the present’, by Dr Nick Lomb, which is beautifully designed and full of fascinating information about this historically important astronomical event. Also, keep posted for news about our iPad version of the book which will be available in the iTunes store soon. We’ll let you know when it’s available and we also provide more information about the transit of Venus on our web pages.
All this and more in the audio and transcript below.
SEE THE SKY CHART
We provide an embedded sky map (below) and a May 2012 night sky chart (PDF) which shows the stars, constellations and planets visible in the night sky from anywhere in Australia. To view PDF star charts you will need to download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader if it’s not on your computer already.
BUY THE BOOK
Our annual book, ‘The 2012 Australasian sky guide’, by Dr Nick Lomb has more information and star maps for months from December 2011 until December 2012 inclusive, plus information about the Sun, twilight, the Moon and tides, and a host of other fascinating astronomical information. You can purchase it ($16.95) at Sydney Observatory and Powerhouse Museum shops or other good bookshops, or online through Powerhouse Publishing (additional packing/postage costs apply).
READ THE TRANSCRIPT (after the jump)
Transcript of the May 2012 monthly sky guide audio
Hello and welcome to the night sky guide for May. My name is Melissa Hulbert and I’m an Astronomy Educator at Sydney Observatory.
Before we start our night sky tour, make sure you download the May sky map from our website at www.sydneyobservatory.com.au. Click on the Astronomy tab and look for ‘monthly sky guides’.
Armed with your sky map and a small torch with some red cellophane covering it, find a nice dark place away from the glare of the street lights and make sure you know your cardinal directions – that’s north, south, east and west. Remember that the Sun rises in the east, moves through the northern sky during the day and sets in the west; or a small compass will also point you in the right direction. Pick a comfortable spot either on a rug or a deck chair that you can lay back in. Wait about 5-10 minutes and allow your eyes to adapt to the darkness.
Now turn towards the west. Low in the western sky is the familiar constellation of Orion, the Hunter. In Greek mythology, Orion was a hunter of great skill and boasted that he could kill all living animals. Gaea, the Earth goddess, was alarmed by his statement and fearing for all the animals on Earth she sent a scorpion to kill him. Orion was stung on the shoulder but was revived and placed in the stars along with the scorpion. This entire myth is played out in the stars each year. As Scorpius the Scorpion rises in the east, Orion sets in the west, defeated. When Scorpius sets in the west the healer Ophiuchus crushes the Scorpion into the Earth and revives Orion so that he can rise in the east again. Orion appears in many cultures, even the ancient Egyptians saw Orion as Osiris, god of the underworld and of regeneration.
If you’re having difficultly picking out the Hunter then look for ‘the Saucepan’. This is a familiar group of stars for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere and is Orion’s belt and sword. Orion is now on his side as he sets below the western horizon.
Now turn to face the east and there is Scorpius rising in triumph as Orion sets defeated for another season.
The Scorpion is one of the easiest constellations to pick out as it is one of the few that does look like what it’s supposed to represent. It covers about 30 degrees in the sky. Working out degrees in the sky is quite easy. Hold your arm out towards the sky and make a fist. From one side of your fist to the other, this is 10 degrees. Hold your other arm out and spread your hand out as wide as you comfortably can (so the opposite of a fist), from your little finger to your thumb is 20 degrees. Put your hands side-by-side and you now have 30 degrees, the size the Scorpion covers in the sky. This does work for everyone, as your arm length is proportional to your hand size.
Now, look for the Scorpion’s heart, Antares, a red supergiant that is 400 times the diameter of our Sun. Antares means ‘rival of Mars’, and when they are close together in the sky they certainly do look very similar.
If you have a pair of binoculars, then near Antares is a small globular star cluster, M4, which is a group of old stars that lies about 7,000 light years away, making it one of the closest globular clusters to us. Below the sting of the Scorpion are two open star clusters, M7 and M6, which are also worth a look. See if you can see the butterfly in M6. These names I’m giving the clusters are catalog names. M stands for Messier and is named after Charles Messier, an 18th century French comet chaser. He made a catalog of 103 fuzzy objects that were not comets so that he didn’t waste his time looking at them. Other astronomers later added a few more objects to the catalog bringing the total to 110.
Time to turn and look towards the south. High in the southern sky is the constellation Crux, better known to us as the Southern Cross. Crux is Latin for cross. The Southern Cross, like the Scorpion, is another constellation that does look like what it’s supposed to represent. It is surrounded on three sides by the constellation Centaurus, and the two brightest stars in Centaurus make up the Pointers which point to the Southern Cross and this is one way to check you have the right cross as there are many stars in the southern sky that look like crosses. During May the Pointers are to the east and slightly south of the Southern Cross.
The second brightest star in Crux is a marker for a wonderful binocular and telescope object. To find the 2nd brightest star, whose name is Mimosa, look for the star in Crux closest to the Pointers. Now just nearby – at about 7 o’clock if you imagine a clock face over Mimosa, is a wonderful open star cluster called the Jewel Box. It looks like a sideways ‘A’. In a telescope, wonderful colours can be seen with white stars and a red supergiant. Sometimes even green appears but of course there are no green stars – this is just an illusion. The famous 18th century astronomer John Herschel gave the cluster its name as he likened it to a piece of multi-coloured jewellery.
Crux sits within one of the arms of our Milky Way and if you are away from the city lights you will see this arm and notice a dark patch between the brightest and second brightest stars of this constellation. This dark patch is called the Coalsack and is a dark nebula – lots of gas and dust that are blocking out the background stars.
In the dreaming of the Indigenous people, the Coalsack formed the head of the Emu and if you follow the dark dust lanes of the Milky Way east towards the Scorpion, you will see the Emu’s body and legs. There are lots of stories about Crux and the Pointers. Some say that Crux is the Eagle’s foot and the Pointers are the throwing stick used to hunt with. Others see the Milky Way as a river with Crux as a fish or stingray and the Pointers as two white cockatoos sitting in a tree.
Centaurus is a mythical half-man, half-horse and in Greek mythology represents the scholarly centaur Chiron, who tutored many of the Greek gods and heroes. He was put among the stars after he was accidentally struck by a poisoned arrow fired by Hercules.
The brightest star in Centaurus is Alpha Centauri which is one of the Pointers. It is the Pointer which is more distant from the Southern Cross or the brighter of the two stars.
In telescopes, Alpha Centauri appears as two stars, and both these stars orbit around each other once every 80 years and are starting to move closer together; by 2037-2038 only medium aperture telescopes will be able to distinguish the two stars. There is also a third member of this group called Proxima Centauri and it is the closest star to us after our own Sun at about 4.2 light years away or 42 million million kilometres. It takes Proxima about one million years to orbit its two companions and it is a red dwarf star, making it a challenge to see – it is not even in the same field of view as its companions.
So what else can we look forward to seeing in the sky in May 2012?
This month just after sunset look towards the north-west. Venus spends the month in the western twilight sky before becoming lost in the Sun’s glare as it moves towards inferior conjunction (when an inferior planet, Mercury or Venus, passes between the Earth and the Sun) and towards a rare Transit if Venus next month on the 6th June. Remember that you cannot look directly at the Sun. You need to use a telescope with a special filter over it or a pair of eclipse glasses to safely view the transit. More details about this can be found on our website, in the ‘2012 Australasian Sky Guide’ and in upcoming podcasts. If you miss it this time, you will have to wait until 2117.
Mars is high in the northern sky in the constellation of Leo during May. The first half of the month will be the best time for viewing as its magnitude starts to drop making it at its faintest since the beginning of the year. Mars will have close encounters with the Moon twice this month. The 9-day old Moon will form a triangle with Mars and the brightest star in Leo, Regulus, on the 1st. The 8-day old Moon will be above Mars on the 29th.
Saturn is still gracing our skies and is rising in the eastern twilight sky in the constellation Virgo. The Full Moon will be above Saturn on the 4th along with the bright star Spica. If observing Saturn through a telescope be careful of the star HD 118129 which will be in the field of view between the 4th and the 6th and could be mistaken for the planet’s largest moon Titan. On these nights, Titan will be closer to the planet.
May is again not one of the best months for all you early-birds! Though if you love early mornings then Mercury will be low in the eastern pre-twilight sky. However make sure you catch it early in the month as it will start to move closer to the Sun and by the 27th it is at superior conjunction (this is when Earth and Mercury are on opposite sides of the Sun).
I do have one wildcard for all you daredevils this month which is the Eta-Aquarid meteor shower. This shower is linked to Halley’s Comet and is one of the most popular in the southern hemisphere. When comets pass by us and pass close to the Sun they leave a trail of small particles and dust behind. When the Earth passes through this trail we see lots of meteors appearing to come from the one area of the sky. This is called the radiant and each shower is named after the constellation or bright star near which the radiant appears. In this case it’s the constellation of Aquarius and the star is Eta Aquarii. The shower runs between the 18th April and the 27th May, with the peak on 5th May. But the rate of meteors per hour is generally above 30 from about the 3rd-10th of this month. At its peak, the rate will often be around 70 per hour. The Eta Aquarids are usually very swift and are a striking yellow colour. They are also known for their trains with about 25% of these meteors leaving a train behind. The best time to observe any meteor shower is after midnight, usually a few hours before dawn.
The Eta-Aquarids have a history of good performance. In 1975 there was an hourly rate of 95 and in 1980, an hourly rate of 110! There will be a Full Moon during the early hours of the 5th May which is not ideal as the light from the Moon will interfere with observations of fainter meteors. Best observing conditions for this event will be away from the city lights.
There is still time to purchase a copy of Nick Lomb’s book on the Transit of Venus. It has been meticulously researched and is full of lavish photographs. A real must if you’re interested in this rare astronomical event.
It is available from Sydney Observatory and Powerhouse Museum shops or you can purchase it online through Powerhouse Publishing.
You can also subscribe for free to our Sydney Observatory monthly sky guide podcasts through iTunes.
I leave you now with a quote from Galileo Galilei “I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
Wishing you clear skies and see you next month under the stars!
This has been Melissa Hulbert from Sydney Observatory with the May monthly sky guide podcast.


Filaments are dark, thread-like features seen in the red light of hydrogen (H-alpha). These are dense, somewhat cooler, clouds of material that are suspended above the solar surface by loops of magnetic field. Plage, the French word for beach, are bright patches surrounding sunspots that are best seen in H-alpha. Plage are also associated with concentrations of magnetic fields and form a part of the network of bright emissions that characterize the chromosphere.
Image and caption courtesy of NASA/MSFC Solar Physics.


Thanks to a mission extension, NASA’s Juno probe continues to orbit Jupiter, being only the second spacecraft in history to do so. Since it arrived around the gas giant on July 5th, 2016, Juno has managed to gather a great deal of information on Jupiter’s atmosphere, magnetic and gravity environment, and its interior structure.
In the early 1960s, scientists developed the gravity-assist method, where a spacecraft would conduct a flyby of a major body in order to increase its speed. Many notable missions have used this technique, including the Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, and New Horizons missions. In the course of many of these flybys, scientists have noted an anomaly where the increase in the spacecraft’s speed did not accord with orbital models.
Ten months after its nerve-wracking arrival at Jupiter, NASA’s Juno mission has started to deliver – forcing scientists to reevaluate what they thought they knew about the giant planet. The first findings from Juno, published in Science, indicate that many aspects of Jupiter have defied expectation – including the strength of its magnetic field, the shape of its core, the distribution of ammonia gas and the weather at its poles. It certainly makes this an exciting time to be a Jupiter scientist.
On July 4th, 2016, the Juno mission established orbit around Jupiter, becoming the second spacecraft in history to do so (after the Galileo probe). Since then, the probe has been in a regular 53.4-day orbit (known as perijove), moving between the poles to avoid the worst of its radiation belts. Originally, Juno’s mission scientists had been hoping to reduce its orbit to a 14-day cycle so the probe could make more passes to gather more data.
Jupiter may be the largest planet in the Solar System with a diameter 11 times that of Earth, but it pales in comparison to its own magnetosphere. The planet’s magnetic domain extends sunward at least 3 million miles (5 million km) and on the back side all the way to Saturn for a total of 407 million miles or more than 400 times the size of the Sun.
The Juno spacecraft made history on July 4th, 2016, when it became the second spacecraft in history to achieve orbit around Jupiter for the sake of a long-term mission. Following in the footsteps of the Galileo mission, the probe will spend the next 20 months gathering data on Jupiter’s atmosphere, clouds, interior and gravitational and magnetic fields, before purposefully crashing into the planet.
Five years after departing Earth, and a month after slipping into orbit around Jupiter, NASA's Juno spacecraft is nearing a turning point. On July 31 at 12:41 p.m. PDT (3:41 p.m. EDT), Juno will reach the farthest point in its orbit of Jupiter for the first time, known as “apojove,” 5 million miles (8.1 million kilometers) from the giant planet. After that point, Jupiter's gravitational grip on Juno will cause the spacecraft to begin falling back toward the planet for another pass, this time with its scientific eyes wide open.
This year is shaping up to be another exciting one for space after a bonanza of discoveries and celestial events in 2015. One of my hoped-for highlights of 2016, NASA’s Insight mission, has unfortunately been scrubbed due to a serious leak in last stage testing. But here are three of my particular favourite space missions to watch out for as well as some key night sky events to try and experience throughout 2016.


For millennia, humans have turned their attention and thoughts to the skies in late December as the daily period of sunlight grew shorter and shorter, then started getting longer again. In the Northern Hemisphere, ancient peoples of many cultures began observing the Winter Solstice – the shortest day of the year, on or around Dec. 21 – with hopeful celebrations of light and harvest.
On Dec. 21 this year, there was another reason to look skyward. Jupiter and Saturn appeared to be so near to one another that they seemed like a double planet. It was the closest such “conjunction” since 1226.
December has also been a time when American astronauts looked homeward toward Earth during their journeys in space, taking photographs that helped create and reinforce understanding of our planet’s fragility and the need to protect it.
In December 2015, for example, International Space Station Commander Scott Kelly tweeted one such awe-inspiring photo. In the accompanying text, he congratulated the negotiators of 195 nations who had just agreed to attack manmade climate disruption in the historic Paris Climate Agreement.
“Earth thanks you,” Kelly wrote, “and so do I.”
Almost a half-century before Kelly sent that message, astronaut Bill Anders snapped a picture of Earth as he and his fellow crew members aboard NASA’s Apollo 8 spacecraft made humans’ first-ever orbit around the moon. Anders’ photo on Christmas Eve 1968 became immensely famous and influential as Earthrise.
Published below are two related articles by TCN editor Bill Dawson from our archives. The first one marked the 50th anniversary of the Earthrise image in 2018, discussing that photo and another famous portrait of the planet, The Blue Marble, taken in December 1972. The second article reported astronaut Michael Collins’ 2019 reflections about his view of Earth from the Apollo 11 spacecraft in July 1969.
50 years ago, an image of a blue planet inspired environmental awareness
First published Dec. 24, 2018
The breathtaking image of a beautiful blue world, set against the black background of space and the gray, lifeless foreground of the moon, is called Earthrise.
It was taken 50 years ago today – Christmas Eve 1968 – by astronaut Bill Anders as he and two Apollo 8 crew mates orbited the moon, marking the first time humans had made that journey.
Unplanned, in contrast to the crew’s scheduled shots of the lunar surface, Earthrise is one of the most famous photographs ever taken.
For many, it captured a sense of the planet’s preciousness and precariousness and is credited with playing a crucial role in catalyzing the modern environmental movement – and therefore with today’s growing concern about man-made disruption of the planet’s climate system.
Robert Poole, a British historian, wrote in a 2008 book, “Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth,” that the iconic photo “marked the tipping point, the moment when the sense of the space age flipped from what it meant for space to what it means for Earth.”
The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. On Dec. 7, 1972, another photo of Earth was taken from Apollo 17, the last mission of NASA’s Apollo program, which also became famous and reinforced the new spirit and political force of environmental consciousness.
While Earthrise showed only part of the planet, the 1972 photo captured an almost completely illuminated globe because the sun was behind the astronauts aboard the Apollo spacecraft. Dubbed The Blue Marble, this image became another influential symbol of, and motivator for, the environmental movement.
Gregory A. Petsko, a biochemist at Weill Cornell Medical College, wrote about The Blue Marble in an essay in 2011:
Our whole planet suddenly, in this image, seemed tiny, vulnerable, and incredibly lonely against the vast blackness of the cosmos. It also seemed whole in a way that no map could illustrate. Regional conflict and petty differences could be dismissed as trivial compared with environmental dangers that threatened all of humanity, traveling together through the void on this fragile-looking marble.
The connection between whole-planet environmental consciousness and U.S. astronauts in space was evident again in December 2015. Commander Scott Kelly, aboard the International Space Station, tweeted a photo of the earth that he had just taken.
With it, Kelly sent a message of congratulations to delegates of nearly 200 nations convened in France.
In the Paris Climate Agreement, the negotiators at the U.N.-sponsored conference called COP21 had just launched a historic effort to turn humanity away from fossil fuels in a bid to avoid the most devastating impacts of pollution-caused climate change.
“Congratulations COP21 delegates on your historic agreement!” Kelly exulted. “Earth thanks you and so do I!”
Earlier this month, participants in a celebration of the Apollo 8 mission at Washington National Cathedral explicitly linked the Earthrise image to the climate awareness that looms large in environmental concerns a half-century later.
Randy Hollerith, dean of the cathedral, reflected on the lasting impact of the moon-orbiting mission and the new perspectives it afforded to humankind:
This amazing mission that I would call a pilgrimage revealed not only the dark side of the moon, but it gave us the most powerful images of our small and fragile world – God’s precious gift, awash in an unimaginably large universe. I think of it as a holy journey not only for what it accomplished, but for what it revealed to us about our place in God’s grand creation.
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, said the sense of awe inspired by images from the astronauts’ vantage in space can also inspire activism on Earth. He urged those assembled for the Apollo 8 commemoration to help fight climate change.
“Deep in the fabric of this creation,” Curry said, “we are a part of it – not the sum total of it.”
Image credits: NASA
For Apollo 11’s Michael Collins, view from the moon showed Earth’s fragility
First published July 21, 2019
Christmas Eve last year was the 50th anniversary of one of history’s most famous photographs, Earthrise. Captured by astronaut Bill Anders as he and his two Apollo 8 crew mates orbited the moon, the image helped create a new environmental consciousness.
As TCN noted last December: “For many, it captured a sense of the planet’s preciousness and precariousness and is credited with playing a crucial role in catalyzing the modern environmental movement – and therefore with today’s growing concern about man-made disruption of the planet’s climate system.”
In an interview marking this weekend’s 50th anniversary of a far more momentous space flight – Apollo 11 – former astronaut Michael Collins said his view of Earth on that mission had a similar outlook-altering impact on him.
Collins, now 88 years old, piloted Apollo 11’s command module in lunar orbit while fellow voyagers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended aboard its lunar module to become the first humans to walk on the moon.
Collins recently told BBC’s Stephen Sackur how seeing Earth from that vantage point had transformed his outlook.
Sackur: “Did you find it changed your view of humanity, of our place in the universe?”
Collins: “Yes, I believe it did. If there is any part of the flight of Apollo 11 that sticks in my memory, it is the memory of a little tiny thing that you could obscure with your thumbnail, blue and white. The white clouds and blue of the ocean. Just a trace of land. Gorgeous, very shiny, bright. Background totally black. I will remember that all my life and it leaves one to consider, well, is it so pretty? Is it so quiet? Is it so pristine? For some reason, the word fragile came up out of the murk somehow. I know not how. But I thought, God it’s a fragile little thing, isn’t it?”
Sackur: “Well, in the 50 years since you had that special view of our planet, do you think we human beings have respected and understood that fragility?”
Collins: “No, no, I don’t think so. When we flew to the moon, the population of the earth was about two billion and it’s sneaking up now on eight billion. And that growth is willy-nilly, without any consideration for the support that that additional number of people requires from the resources of the earth. No, I don’t think we ever considered that.”
Image credit: Michael Collins / Twitter
Bill Dawson is the founder and editor of Texas Climate News. He remembers watching the live television broadcast of Apollo 11 astronauts walking on the moon with his family in their Houston home.


Photometry and model of near-Earth asteroid 2021 DW1 from one apparition
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Aims. Very small asteroids (VSAs, objects with diameters smaller than about 150 m) can be spun up by the YORP effect to rotation periods as short as tens of seconds. This effect has been observed for many of them. It is also hypothesised, that in the same process their spin axes are asymptotically drawn to the position perpendicular to the orbital plane. So far this effect has been observed only for one VSA and needs further verification. For that, spin axes of several other VSAs should be
... mined by observing their brightness variations at many different positions on the sky. Methods. On 4 March 2021 at 9 UTC a 30-m in diameter near-Earth asteroid 2021 DW1 passed the Earth at a distance of 570 000 km, reaching the maximum brightness of V = 14.6 mag. We observed it photometrically from 2 March, when it was visible at V = 16.5 mag, until 7 March (V = 18.2 mag). During that time 2021 DW1 swept a 170° long arc in the northern sky, spanning solar phase angles in the range from 36° to 86°. This made it an excellent target for physical characterisation, including spin axis and shape derivation. Results. Convex inversion of the asteroid lightcurves gives a sidereal period of rotation Psid = 0.013760 ± 0.000001 h, and two solutions for the spin axis ecliptic coordinates: (A) λ1 = 57° ± 10°, β1 = 29° ± 10° and (B) λ2 = 67° ± 10°, β2 = −40° ± 10°. The magnitude-phase curve can be fitted with a standard H, G function with H = 24.8 ± 0.5 mag and an assumed G = 0.24. The asteroid colour indices are g − i = 0.79 ± 0.01 mag, and i − z = 0.01 ± 0.02 mag which indicates an S taxonomic class, with an average geometric albedo pV = 0.23 ± 0.02. The asteroid effective diameter, derived from H and pV, is Deff = 30 ± 10 m. Conclusions. It was found that the inclination of the spin axis of 2021 DW1 is not perpendicular to the orbital plane (obliquity ϵ = 54° ± 10° or ϵ = 123° ± 10°). More spin axes of VSAs should be determined to check, if 2021 DW1 is an exception or a typical case.


What are your views on the big bang theory?
i think its a great show lol
I watch that show daily. How come I didn’t think of posting that.
I think he might be referring to the actual theory here…
I that case I believe it.
If it’s the show, I’ve never seen it.
Well, I’ve never heard of any proof against it, but theres lots of evidence of it. Is the expanding universe a part of the big bang?
Its expanding because of it
Yea but why is it expanding? Is it because the big bang is still happening or something like that? Uses baby logic
no the big bang theory is that in the blank absolute zero area of space something happened where a HUGE violent eruption happened sending gases and micro particles shooting every where and when by the laws of gravity if two particles attach then those particles have a greater pull pulling more particles making different composites until it become so dense it either becomes a planet or a sun depending on the different particles this is also how solar systems are created a sun pulls smaller planets in but other planets pull each other making orbits so the don’t all go smashing into the sun with the heat of the sun an atmosphere is crated on the planet so different element are created but most of then originate from basics like carbon (i think). So no the big bang happened long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long time ago but the force of it is still pushing particles into the null void the is even less than space as we know it … I think lol
wow you lost me there for a second
lol i got into it
The Big Bang Theory :
The universe was filled homogeneously and isotropically with an incredibly high energy density, huge temperatures and pressures, and was very rapidly expanding and cooling. Approximately 10−37 seconds into the expansion, a phase transition caused a cosmic inflation, during which the universe grew exponentially. After inflation stopped, the universe consisted of a quark-gluon plasma, as well as all other elementary particles. Temperatures were so high that the random motions of particles were at relativistic speeds, and particle-antiparticle pairs of all kinds were being continuously created and destroyed in collisions. At some point an unknown reaction called baryogenesis violated the conservation of baryon number, leading to a very small excess of quarks and leptons over antiquarks and anti-leptons—of the order of 1 part in 30 million. This resulted in the predominance of matter over antimatter in the present universe.
The universe continued to grow in size and fall in temperature, hence the typical energy of each particle was decreasing.After about 10−11 seconds, the picture becomes less speculative, since particle energies drop to values that can be attained in particle physics experiments. At about 10−6 seconds, quarks and gluons combined to form baryons such as protons and neutrons. The small excess of quarks over antiquarks led to a small excess of baryons over antibaryons. The temperature was now no longer high enough to create new proton-antiproton pairs (similarly for neutrons-antineutrons), so a mass annihilation immediately followed, leaving just one in 1010 of the original protons and neutrons, and none of their antiparticles. A similar process happened at about 1 second for electrons and positrons. After these annihilations, the remaining protons, neutrons and electrons were no longer moving relativistically and the energy density of the universe was dominated by photons(negatively charged protons).
Over a long period of time, the slightly denser regions of the nearly uniformly distributed matter gravitationally attracted nearby matter and thus grew even denser, forming gas clouds, stars, galaxies, and the other astronomical structures observable today. The details of this process depend on the amount and type of matter in the universe. The three possible types of matter are known as cold dark matter, hot dark matter and baryonic matter. Measurements available show that the dominant form of matter in the universe is cold dark matter. The other two types of matter make up less than 18% of the matter in the universe.
Lol, directly lifted from wikipedia, PLAEY-JAAR-ISUM!!! Jk ;D
No, it is not DIRECTLY lifted from wikipedia. I simpliflted some stuff!!! :-\
I only got ideas from wikipedia.
Fine, this is the more simplified version:
high temperatures------>rapid expansion -----> universe grow bigger------> Anti-matter and matter rapidly collided and was destroyed(boom!!!) ;D ---------> A reaction called baryogenesis violated the conservation of baryon number, ---------->small excess of matter over anti-matter—of the order of 1 part in 30 million-------->more matter than antimatter in the present universe
Size of universe : goes up, Temperature : down--------->energy---->down ----------->not big enough------>create new proton-antiproton pairs ------>mass annihilation(yay!!!)-------> After long long time------>Gravity------>attract each other----->form many many many many many things(yeah!!!)
I think that the most simplified version could be that a really really really tiny speck exploded a waaayyy long time ago. The explosion created everything we know and love and the force from the explosion is still pushing all the stars and rocks and whatnot away from each other.
But anyway, I saw this show on TV once that said that there are 5 “ages” of the universe. The first is the Primordial Age where the Big Bang occurred(lasted about 300,000 or so years I think). We’re currently in the 2nd age, which will last a few trillion years(I think). Then the 3rd Age will be when all the stars start to burn out. The 4th age will be when the black holes(dead stars with extreme gravitational pull: not even light escapes) will remain. The last age is when all that’s left of the universe are tiny particles that have low energy.
What do you think of this?
How’s this for interesting? (and I don’t care if you buy into it or not because it’s not my theory)
Another question is what started the big bang? Some of our top physicists believe that there are 11 dimensions. We can perceive three, and comprehend the fourth, time. But there are 11. They think it’s possible that among these dimensions our universe is just one of an infinite number of universes floating around almost like water molecules in the ocean. And possibly when two such universes collided it provided the energy to spark our big bang.
And like I said, it’s not my theory so I don’t care if you believe any of it or not. I just find it interesting.
Can you please explain this theory? I don’t really understand it, especially about the part about the infinite number of universes. Can you please elaborate?
I can only explain so far. Most of it goes well beyond what I can get my head wrapped around.
What they think is that it’s possible that there isn’t just this universe. It’s possible that there are actually several (as in an infinite number) other universes out there existing at the same time. These aren’t places we can see or go visit, but they are supposed to exist.
If I remember right they came up with this idea for a few different reasons. One is that mathematically there are 11 dimensions. Another is that, again mathematically, electrons do some super squirrelly stuff that can only be explained by there being these 11 dimensions and other universes. This is stuff like (if I remember right) electrons appear to sometimes be two places at the same time, and at other times are gone - as in not existing anywhere. So they may be slipping between dimensions and in and out of other universes.
So what I wonder is, does that mean that the electrons that make up the molecules that make up the cells in our bodies - that they are slipping into and out of this universe and into another? And if so does that mean a few of my electrons may make up another living thing somewhere else, a rock, a potato sack or who knows what?
And then another reason for the infinite universe theory is that gravity doesn’t behave as it should on paper. Mathematically it’s wrong. But yet there it is. Evidently it should be much much stronger than what it is. It’s actually a very weak force. So some believe it’s actually a force that is leaking into our universe from elsewhere.
So again, I’m not making any of these claims myself. I tried to keep my stuff straight here as best as I can remember it. If anyone is working on their PHD in physics, feel free to elaborate or fix something I said wrong.
It’s mostly over my head but I found it all to be fascinating just the same.
And instead of clarifying what I had said earlier, I probably just dug a deeper hole here.
But I teach history not theoretical physics.
If you would like to read something written by someone who is actually qualified to talk about stuff like this check out The Theory of Everything.
I never have really gotten this completely…who cares? honestly


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Updated April 15, 2021 at 8:53 pm.
- Astronomers provided the first image of the black hole just two years ago.
- A total of 19 observatories have now examined the object in more detail.
- The observations exceed experts’ expectations.
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) – a global network of radio telescopes – is exceeding astronomers’ expectations. Especially in combination with observations in other wavelength bands, the EHT provides detailed insight into the surrounding regions. A supermassive black hole In the center of the galaxy M87.
The data now available to scientists around the world will not only be able to provide new insights into the complex physical processes involved in matter falling into a black hole. As the researchers reported in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the observations provided by EHT also allow close verification of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
A supermassive black hole under a magnifying glass
The “Event Horizon Telescope” collects radio antenna measurements around the world, thus achieving the accuracy of a telescope the size of Earth. In April 2019, EHT made headlines when it was first with the Telescope Network A “photograph” of a supermassive black hole Succeeded.
The image recorded in the radio band shows the hot disk of matter around 6.6 billion solar masses from the black hole at the center of galaxy M87, 55 million light-years away.
Scientists then examined this supermassive black hole not only with EHT, but also with many other telescopes observing at other wavelengths: in the range of visible light, infrared, high-energy X-rays and gamma rays.
A total of 19 observatories and nearly 200 research institutes with 760 scientists participated in the observations. It is the largest simultaneous observation campaign ever conducted of a supermassive black hole.
This dataset is unique
“This unique data set is essential for our understanding of physical conditions in the immediate vicinity of one of the most massive black holes in our cosmic neighborhood,” explains Stephanie Comosa of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn. At EHT.
Thanks to their enormous gravity, black holes attract matter from their environment, which collects and heats up in an extremely fast spinning disk. From there, only a portion of the matter flows into the black hole.
Strong magnetic fields ensure that matter is ejected from the rotating disk into powerful bundles of matter called “jets” by astronomers – at nearly the speed of light away into space.
“These jets were able to transmit the energy released by the black hole at scales larger than the host galaxy,” explains EHT astronomer Serra Markov of the University of Amsterdam. “The obtained results will help us in calculating the amount of energy transmitted and the effect of black hole jets on its surroundings.”
Accurate tests of general relativity
With publication, EHT network scientists are launching the huge dataset of their observations for the M87 center. This means that any interested astrophysicist can analyze the data on their own and use them in their own investigations.
Several research groups around the world are working hard to see if their models match the enriching observations of EHT.
Additionally, some scientists are planning to run high-resolution tests of general relativity on the data.
Meanwhile, observations continue with the “Event Horizon Telescope”: This week, astronomers will target EHT M87 as well as the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way and several distant black holes for six nights. (ff / dpa)
Stunning exoplanets with two suns, protoplanetary disks around young stars, and a black hole eating planets: Artists regularly create impressions from space for NASA that no telescope in the world can capture.
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The SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology 1) is an ESA mission consisting of a lunar orbiter designed to test spacecraft technologies, primarily a solar-powered ion thruster, for use on future missions. SMART 1 is scheduled to launch on 3 September 2003 and study the Moon from lunar polar orbit.
NSSDCA Planetary Science Home Page
NSSDCA Home Page
To search for information on another mission enter the spacecraft name in the box below.


Why do stars twinkle?
What makes stars appear to twinkle in the night sky, as seen from Earth? And why is it that stars twinkle, but planets do not?
If you look up at the stars on a dark night, you might notice that these bright points of light appear to twinkle. In actual fact, stars do not actually twinkle: they just appear to do so from our perspective on Earth.
Our atmosphere reaches about 10,000km up from the surface of the Earth, and within the atmosphere air gets blown around, while hot air rises and mixes with cooler air.
Stars appear to twinkle because as light from those stars passes through our atmosphere, it is bent and distorted by varying temperatures and densities of air.
There is even a scientific term for stars' twinkling, and that's 'atmospheric scintillation'. This is the astronomical term for those quick changes in the apparent brightness of a star (more on this in our guide to stellar magnitude) or even the colour of a star produced by the aforementioned atmospheric irregularities.
Similar effects are seen in the way our view of an object might be distorted by heat rising from a hot radiator or roaring fire, for example.
It is possible to capture these effects of atmospheric distortion in an image, by photographing the changing colours of a twinkling star. For more basic stellar astrophotography, read our guide on how to photograph the stars.
For most people, the concept of a twinkling star is quite romantic, and conjures up memories of one of the most famous nursery rhymes of all time.
But for astronomers, the effect of twinkling stars can be a nuisance as it can cause the image seen through a telescope to shake and jump around.
The extent to which astronomical objects appear to shake and jump around is known by astronomers as 'seeing'.
You will often hear practical astronomers complain about 'bad seeing' or praising 'good seeing', for example. For more on this, read our guide to astronomical seeing.
Why do stars twinkle, but planets don't?
Stars twinkle while planets don't because stars are so much further away from Earth. This makes them appear as concentrated points of light, and that light is more easily disturbed by the effects of Earth's atmosphere.
Planets, on the other hand, are much closer, and the sunlight reflected off them comes back through Earth's atmosphere in a much thicker beam of light than starlight, so it is not as noticeably affected by the distorting effects of the atmosphere.
The fact that planets don't twinkle, and the fact that they are found along the ecliptic, are worth remembering if you are looking up at the night sky and trying to work out whether that bright dot is a star or a planet. For more on this, read our guide on how to find planets in the night sky.
Iain Todd is BBC Sky at Night Magazine's Staff Writer.
Iain Todd is BBC Sky at Night Magazine's Content Editor. He fell in love with the night sky when he caught his first glimpse of Orion, aged 10.


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Fastest-growing black hole ever seen is devouring the equivalent of 1 Earth per second
The fastest-growing black hole ever seen is swallowing the mass equivalent of an entire Earth every second.
This gargantuan black hole has a mass 3 billion times that of the sun, and its rapid consumption is causing the behemoth to grow rapidly, an international research team found. The black hole gorges via a process called accretion, in which it siphons matter from a thin disk of gas and dust rotating around the massive object.


Please join me to get this done so we can send in something awesome! Checking for people to sign up now so we can set up the story and process of achieving it. Come on Kamloops!
ENTRIES DUE AUGUST 2018
NASA is leading the next steps of human space exploration in the vicinity of the Moon and on toward Mars. When astronauts venture to Mars, what will they see? How will they feel? What will they experience? What will they do? Project Mars invites college students and early career professionals to learn about NASA's deep space endeavors, including the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System rocket and deep space gateway concept, and create their visualization of what this expedition may look like.
SHOOT A FILM
Bring your interpretation of NASA's work to send humans to Mars to life through breathtaking cinematography, amazing animations and state-of-the-art special effects. You have up to 5 minutes to tell an inspiring story about a 9-month trek to the Red Planet, so captivating creativity is a must! The winning short film will be selected by a team of film and graphic design industry judges including Gareth Edwards, director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
TELL OUR STORY OF NASA'S PLANS FOR MARS!
In collaboration with NASA, SciArt Exchange presents Project Mars Competition: our chance to tell the story of human exploration of deep space.
NASA's exploration missions will help build a flexible, reusable and sustainable infrastructure that will last multiple decades and support missions of increasing complexity to enable missions to Mars. Orion is NASA's new spacecraft that will take astronauts to the Moon and beyond to make new discoveries about our solar system and unlock the mysteries of our own planet Earth.
Orion will launch from a modernized Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA's new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket in the world, capable of launching and carrying habitation, propulsion and logistics modules for a proposed deep space gateway, as well as landers, rovers and other surface systems that will be needed for a Martian voyage.
Videos can be submitted as private Vimeo or YouTube links. Winning entries will need to be provided at the following settings: