I went to NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day and found that today’s is a video of the Asteroid Lutitea taken by a flyby of ESA’s robotic spacecraft, Rosetta. We talked extensively in class about the shape and features of asteroids, and this video gives a great representation. You can see by the potato shape that it does not have the internal gravity to be pulled into a sphere. This asteroid is 100 km across, which is the biggest asteroid or comet to be approached by a human-launched spacecraft. It orbits in the main asteroid belt, and as can be seen by its cratered face, it has been heavily bombarded. What is especially amazing to me is the color and smoothness of the surface aside from its craters. It looks like it’s computer generated because of its immense smoothness. Overall, this video is very cool because it is not often that spacecrafts cross paths with asteroids because the asteroids are so spread out in the immense area of the asteroid belt.
Kepler Mission Awarded Extension
We 
talked briefly in class along with reading articles that discussed SETI and the Kepler Mission, but I wanted to learn more. Kepler is a mission designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of their planetary system. In this zone, liquid water can exist. Despite budget cuts of NASA in the recent months, the Kepler Mission has been awarded an extension of four more years until 2016 so that it can find these planets. The Kepler Mission has already made some great discoveries: first unquestionably rocky planet; the first multiple-transiting planet system; the first small planet in the habitable zone; the first Earth-size planets; the smallest Mars-size planets; and the confirmation of a new class of double-star planetary systems. It is no wonder it received the extension. If you’d like to learn more specifics, I recommend you visit http://www.nasa.gov/kepler. This mission is certainly making progress in the search for extraterrestrial life.
NASA Budget Cuts
NASA has been prevalent in the news for most of early 2012, but not for the reasons they would like. A weak but recovering economy is making interplanetary missions seem less necessary. What I didn’t know is that NASA’s overall budget will likely remain near its former 17.8 billion dollar budget. The resources are just being reallocated. Planetary exploration will be scaled back to likely to help fund the James Webb Space telescope, an 8.8 billion dollar telescope designed to replace the Hubble telescope.
The real losers in the budget cutting are those working on missions to Mars. Two joint efforts with the European Space Agency to visit and study the red planety have been cut with budget change. Just this year, President Obama is looking to cut NASA funding for planetary science 20%, and cuts will continue through 2017.
This has outraged many at NASA. Edward Weiler even quit his job as the head of NASA’s science program. He is quoted in Science Magazine saying “The Mars program is one of the crown jewels of NASA, “In what irrational, Homer Simpson world would we single it out for disproportionate cuts?” Clearly, many are upset by the budget cuts, and I am disappointed that we are cutting down on planetary exploration. I understand that the economy is fragile, but there is still so much to be learned in space that I do not want to wait to find out. I guess this is why I am not the president making these decisions.
Naming the Planets
I had noticed before that some of the planets had names from mythology, but I didn’t know that all of the planets aside from Earth along with the well known moons were all named after Greek or Roman mythological characters. To keep them straight in my head and also to suggest why these planets are named as such, I will list them now.
Mercury is the Roman mythological god of commerce, travel, and thievery. Nasa suggests that this name most likely came about because Mercury moves so quickly across the sky. Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, has its name because it is the brightest object in the sky aside from the Sun and Moon. Earth is the only planet not named from mythology. Its roots are in Old English and Germanic languages. Mars is the Roman mythological god of War, and it probably got its name from its red color, the color of blood. Jupiter is the king of the gods in Roman mythology and received its name because it is the largest planet in our solar system. Saturn is the Roman god of agriculture. Nasa gives no explanation of its name on its website. Uranus is the ancient Greek deity of the Heavens, which is the earliest supreme god. Neptune, the Roman god of the sea is aptly named for its blue color. Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld. Pluto is so far from the Sun that it is darker, so the name is fitting.
The Greek/Roman names do not end with the planets. Most of the moons are named in a similar fashion. What I didn’t know is that the newly discovered moons do not get their final name when they are first discovered. They are first given a provisional name (boring scientific name) until the moon’s existence is verified and its orbit is determined. Once the moon checks out, the discoverer gets to suggest its name, but they are usually encouraged to follow tradition. Uranus is the only planet that is unique in regard to the names of its moons because they are named after literary characters from Shakespeare and Pope.
Overall, I learned a lot that I never knew about the origin of the names of planets and moons. Hopefully now that I know the story behind them, I will be able to always remember their names.
Life On Europa Video
JEO (Jupiter Europa Orbiter) is the NASA aircraft I speak of in this post.
I recently watched a really cool video from Discover magazine’s website that goes into the possibility of life on Europa and new evidence that suggests that such life is out in the universe somewhere. Fairly recently, NASA announced that its Stardust spacecraft completed a flyby mission to a comet in which it collected samples of glycine from the tail of the comet. Glycine is an amino acid that’s used by living organisms to make proteins, supporting the idea that the main components of life are common throughout the universe instead of just on Earth. The video goes on to suggest that maybe the life that exists on Earth is a result of these components hitching a ride on meteorites and comets.
The only place near enough for us to send a probe that may have life is Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Europa is an icy moon that is thought to have deep beneath its ice a relatively warm ocean. There is currently a lab in California planning a journey out to Jupiter. The Europa orbiter is planned to be launched in 2020. It will take 6 years to get there, and once it does it will do two years of flybys. It will then go to Europa. The orbiter will have ice penetrating radar, which will help it see what is below the icy surface. It’s too bad we will have to wait at least 16 years for this happen. I’ve posted the timeline for what they are calling the EJSM (Europa Jupiter System Mission). I really hope that it remains funded and happens so we can have a better idea if there is a possibility of extraterrestrial life.
This is the astronomy picture of the day for January 22 of this year. At first, this shape dumbfounded me, and I had no idea what it was except that it was Saturn from the title. This is the North Pole of Saturn where a hexagonal cloud system surrounds the pole. It is unclear how it was created, how it keeps its shape, or how long it will last. It was first discovered by the Voyager in the 1980s, but it became fully illuminated by the sun for the first time in 2009 as viewed by the Cassini spacecraft that orbits Saturn. The Cassini has imaged the rotating hexagon enough times to create a time-lapse movie that is very interesting to watch. It shows many unexpected cloud motions, such as waves emanating from the corners of the hexagon. This cloud system hasn’t ever been seen anywhere else in the universe, so it is definitely worth scientists studying and observing.
Distant Suns iPhone App
I was looking through applications on my phone today and decided to see if there was anything related to astronomy. I found a wealth of apps, but the best free one seemed to be the Distant Suns (lite) app. I downloaded the app, and within a few minutes I could look at the night sky and find the names of all the stars I was looking at along with constellations and their mythology, and information about all of the bodies. Not only is there a wealth of information, the layout of the app is extremely easy to navigate and very fun to play around with. I’m sure that by the end of Astronomy 201 I will be able to identify some of these bodies (Venus and Jupiter already), but if I ever forget or see something that I want more information on, I can just tap into Distant Suns and learn all I want to know. I recommend downloading this app if you are interested in astronomy and have an iPhone.
New Landform on Mars
According to Science Daily, Geologists have discovered a new type of landform on Mars. They call the landform structures periodic bedrock ridges. They look just like sand dunes but, rather than being made from material piled up by the wind, the ridges actually form from wind erosion of bedrock. Another strange fact about these structures is their creation. They were formed by an unusual form of wind erosion that occurs perpendicular to the prevailing wind instead of in the same direction.
The importance of the discover of these structures is that if the ridges were actually created by wind depositing material into dunes, we won’t be able to get information information from any prior history of the material that is exposed at the surface. These structures are unique to Mars structure because Earth does not have many places where bedrock is exposed with wind as the main source of erosion.
Jupiter’s moons
I decided today to learn a little bit about Jupiter and its moons. I haven’t studied Jupiter since elementary school, so I remembered very little aside from it being the most massive planet and fifth from our Sun, and that it has many moons.
What I did not realize is that Jupiter has dozens of moons. Because I do not have the time or the will to talk about all of these moons, I would like to focus on what I consider the two most interesting, Io and Europa. These moons are called the Galilean satellites, after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who observed them in 1610.
I think that Io is the most interesting of the four. It is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Because of Jupiter’s ridiculous amount of gravitational pull, as Io travels in its slightly elliptical orbit, the gravity causes tides in the solid surface that rise 300 ft, generating enough heat for volcanic activity and to drive off any water. These tides are similar to those seen on Earth’s oceans but it is with solid ground. For gravity to pull so hard that the solid ground of the moon is changed so drastically really impresses me.
Europa is quite the opposite of Io. Europa’s surface is mostly water ice. There is evidence that the ice may even be covering an ocean of water or slushy ice beneath. Scientists believe that this moon has twice the amount of water that Earth does. But what really makes this moon interesting is that astrobiologists think it potentially could have a habitable zone, meaning that there may be areas on this moon where life forms could be. They hypothesize this through the findings of life forms found living near subterranean volcanoes on Earth that may be similar to areas that may exist on Europa.
I had learned some about Jupiter before, but I had never really delved into the subject of its moons. I found Io and Europa to be extremely interesting, and I hope to have time to study the rest of Jupiter’s moon and study Jupiter itself more deeply at another point. I encourage everyone to read about Jupiter and its moons on NASA’s website.
The Hard Work of Chankillo
I remembered looking at a really cool structure that stands in Chankillo, Peru when we talked about archaeoastronomy in class. I was interested in its beginnings and uses, so I decided to read more about it. It is currently identified as the oldest ancient solar observatory in the Americas. Its alignments cover the entire solar year, which by looking at the structure is hard to conceive doing correctly. Scientists have found recorded accounts from the that depict practices of state-regulated sun worship during, which is why this structure would have such importance. Also in these accounts, it is mentioned that the towers were used to mark the rising or setting position of the sun at certain times of year.
The most impressive aspect of this site is that it was constructed in approximately the 4th century B.C.. For that civilization to have the means to construct such a structure by building 13 towers on a hillside that precisely match the position of the sun is extremely impressive.
This accomplishment of such an early civilization leads me to think about the current state of our civilization. We, like these early civilizations, are constantly innovating, but our society has become completely dependent upon technology. This technology has led to many great discoveries and achievements, but I believe we have lost some of the determination that these early societies possessed. Structures like the Chankillo observatory probably took years and years to construct with tedious observation and back breaking work. It saddens me to think that if we stumbled upon a project like this, there are not many people who would take on the task. I am not belittling the scientists of today because many of them are doing the hard tedious work I before mentioned, but I am more impressed with the will and drive shown by these early civilizations who did not have the luxury of modern technology.
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