Posts Tagged ‘astronomy’

Astronomy For Kids

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

The science of Astronomy is interesting and varied.  Many people get involved with it when they are very young.  There are a lot of resources for astronomy for kids who are interested in the planets, the solar system, the universe and everything else that’s part of this exciting science.  A number of astronomy subjects interest kids.  These include the moon, the stars and far distant galaxies.

The moon is Earth’s only satellite.  Its path around the Earth takes just over twenty seven days to complete.  Being so near, it has hosted the only human footsteps on a space object other than the Earth.  The moon is important for the Earth because it causes the tides through gravitational forces between the Earth and the moon.  It’s brightness in the night sky attracts many children to learn more about it and the overall subject of astronomy.

Let’s move to the sun.  The gap between our home and the sun is very large.  The distance varies between about 146 million kilometers and 152 million kilometers.  It’s not an inaccurate measurement, it’s because the Earth orbits in an uneven ellipse.  Without the sun there would be no life on Earth.  Important elements such as light and heat come from the sun.  Over 98% of the total stuff in our solar system is in the sun.  What a hog.

We live in the Milky Way Galaxy.  Like all other galaxies it’s a collection of gas, dust, stars and planets.  But most of the galaxy is empty nothingness.  That’s a lot of nothing because our galaxy is 100,000 light years across and 3,000 light years deep.  The center of our galaxy is about 30,000 light years from Earth.  The Milky Way contains something like 100 billion stars.  The galaxy’s name comes from the many stars near the center.  From Earth it looks like a Milky Way, a large pool of milk.  Our galaxy is called a spiral galaxy as opposed to the other three main types which are elliptical, lenticular and irregular.

Astronomy for kids is well covered online.  In fact there are so many star charts, charting programs, images, videos, and other resources that a kid would be a senior citizen before seeing all of it.

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Astronomy Picture Of The Day

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Astronomy is a study of outer space.  It’s important science, but for many people an enjoyable hobby.  That’s why when a web site or magazine offers an astronomy picture of the day it’s likely to garner a great deal of attention.  They’re all over the place.

NASA is a great source to find and astronomy picture of the day.  Their web site, nasa.gov, presents a new photo every day.  The multimedia section shows both images and videos.  This could be used to create your own image site.  Saturn’s moon Enceladus was featured on November 5, 2008.  It was taken by the Cassini space craft as it passed about 1,700 kilometers from the surface.  It gets down to details the size of the bus.  One interesting feature of the ice on Enceladus is that it  reflects 99% of the light that falls onto it.  Wear sunglasses.  Cassini is scheduled for more flybys during its mission.

NASA’s images of the day go all the way back to June 16, 1995.  It was a what if image of the Earth posing as a neutron star. Of course the image is a computer simulation.  One interesting element is that the constellation Orion in his visible twice.  The reason is that a Neutron star is so dense that light, even from behind the star, is visible as it is pulled around by the intense gravity.  That’s why some objects are seen twice.

September 8, 1995 brought a very interesting image of the central part of our own Milky Way galaxy from the NASA COBE Satellite.  This area is normally invisible because of the dust obscuring it.  But COBE scans in infrared, so produced the amazing image of our very symmetrical galaxy.

The astronomy picture of the day was the same on January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2001.  The reason both dates shared this image is that most people considered the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.  But in reality the new millennium started on January 1, 2001.  Instead of arguing NASA used both dates.  The image found at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html shows the progression of our picture of the universe from orbs that rotate around the Earth all the way to the big bang event creating an ever expanding cosmos. 

NASA has a lot more days with their own astronomy picture of the day.  Visit the web site, NASA.gov, to see them.

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Astronomy Henge Stone

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Most everyone has heard of Stonehenge, the stone circle in England that has been portrayed as an astronomers’ tool, a grave yard, a druidic sacrificial altar, and even in some movies and television programs as a portal to other dimensions and other worlds.  It’s the most well known, but not the only one.  The world is full of other similar circles, some with one astronomy henge stone, others with many.  As a matter of interest, the name Stonehenge comes from Henge, Old English for the structure it describes.  Henge doesn’t mean circle or stone or earthwork, it means hang.  It refers to the Stonehenge site specifically as horizontal stones were hung around the circle by placing them on top of vertical stone pillars.  Over time the hanging part of the concept was lost, so any such stone circle was referred to as a henge.  However the term henge necessitates an earthen circle.  If there’s no earthen circle there’s no henge.  It’s just a stone circle.

While many of these stone henges, including the famous Stonehenge, were used as burial grounds and sacrificial sites, almost all of them have some element related to astronomy.  Even today scientists marvel at the precision contained within these structures.  Many of these stones followed phases of the moons or marked the sunrise and sunset at certain key times of year.  There were even tiny openings that would direct the sunlight on key areas at the right time of the year.  Stonehenge has an amazing array of astronomical measures built into the circle.  Whether they were built in from the beginning or added at a future time is of little importance.  They’re still amazing.

A lesser known but no less spectacular henge is the Avebury Henge located in Wiltshire.  It encloses an entire town, Avebury, and is surrounded by a host of smaller stone circles.  Because so many of the now downed stones were in precise locations, it’s well known the henge was used for astronomy.  In addition the stones came in two types, tall female and squat male, possibly having to do with gender and ancestor worship.  Some archaeologists dispute this, however, claiming the stones were chosen for no other reason than their beauty and size.

Don’t even think about grabbing an astronomy henge stone for your personal use.  But they’re meaningless when removed from their earthen circles.  Try painting an image of one instead.

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Astronomy Magazine

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Astronomy is a serious science and a popular hobby all over the world.  As do other interests astronomy generates millions of words of information every month.  A lot of this information from the image is to how to use a telescope can be found in an astronomy magazine.  It’s even better now that so much of this is also on the web.

A top astronomy magazine in the UK is “Astronomy Now”.  It’s been around for 20 years and caters to both hobbyists and the pros.  In addition to standard articles there are focus features that give the whole scoop on certain aspects of astronomy.  Standard in every issue are star charts, book reviews and reader images.  the star charts presented on the site are far superior to those in the magazine.  Many variables can be set to view the star chart on a particular day or time.  It’s a real help to  anyone with a telescope.

Sky and Telescope is another excellent astronomy magazine.  It says it’s like having an astronomy professional by your side.  Imagine gazing up at the stars while Carl Sagan, rest his soul, stood ready to deliver important tips and information.  But information is only one aspect of this magazine, it also has tremendous images.  In November 2008 for example Sky and Telescope showed a stunning image of a planet orbiting a distance star.  This marks the first time a planet has been seen orbiting another star in visible light imagery.

Astronomy magazine’s website is probably the first website most people find when searching for magazines.  The latest information presented by this publication, online via its web site, is truly stunning.  The website for example carries images of the first ever solar system seen in visible light.  There is also a detailed verbal description of the faraway constellation Cassiopeia.  Astronomy also features guides for kids getting into astronomy, first time astronomers and people who want to see the night sky from a city setting.  Both the print magazine and website are top-notch.

Admitting to being cheap, the author admits to sticking to web sites instead of purchasing any astronomy magazine.  One way or another the information is at your fingertips.

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Astronomy Fun Facts

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

For many people astronomy is an interesting science filled with many astronomy fun facts.  Information such as though a planet’s orbit other stars, were the way galaxies are made up, is included.  Bees facts can be entertaining and enlightening.

The Sun is a great source of astronomy fun facts.  It’s somewhere between 91 and 94.5 million miles away from our home planet.  Scientists are not lazy.  Our orbit is elliptical. The distance between us grows larger and smaller throughout the year.

  Astronomy fun facts about our average sized sun’s size.  98% of all the matter in our solar system is inside the Sun.  Even with Jupiter on our side, we’re still a measly 2% of non “the sun” stuff.  About 100 Earths side to side would stretch across the face of the sun.  The sun blows its solar wind out to 50 times the distance between the star and our earth.

Are all astronomy fun facts about the sun?  What about the moon?  It’s the only other space object, besides the earth, over which man has walked.  And one human man actually traveled to the moon but never left it.  Dr. Eugene Shoemaker loved the moon but was rejected as an astronaut.  In 1999, after his death of course, his ashes were spread onto the moon.

There are more astronomy fun facts about the moon.  In a famous nursery rhyme a cow jumped over the moon.  In  1988 13% of people questioned believed the moon is made of cheese.  The astronauts who walked on the moon wore suits that weighed 180 pounds on earth but a mere 30 pounds on the lunar surface.  Talk about an instant diet.

There are astronomy fun facts about faraway objects too.  Stars bring the past to life.  We’re so far away that the light from the stars may take a million years to reach our eyes.  Some of those stars you see may really be images of stars a million years old that aren’t even there in the present.  The number of stars in the sky is expressed by a one with 22 zeros following it.  That is huge.

There are even more astronomy fun facts.  But this article can’t.  So get out there and learn about astronomy.

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Astronomy Today

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Astronomy today is a serious science as well as a hobby enjoyed by many people.  Every day something new happens in the world of astronomy to gather the attention of millions of fans worldwide.  It can also be a lot of fun.  So here are a few of the latest and greatest astronomy facts, figures and happenings.

Astronomy today on any given day might have news of meteors.  The last half of 2008 was no different as meteors were certainly on the menu.  Meteor swarms such as the Taurids in Leonids were quite active in November.  Into was a full moon in December washing out the Gemenids.  But people need not worry.  Meteor shower peaks may happen during full moons, but meteors are on display for up to two weeks both before and after the peaks.  So there’s a lot of clear time to view these falling chunks of space debris.

Astronomy today in 2008 was often a matter of discussing a return to the moon by 2015.  The talk is of this as a world wide effort rather something any one country or agency would endeavor to accomplish.  The goal may be to establish a moon base or even a colony on the moon.  Think of it.  Space 1999, a TV show from the 70s, may be about to become a reality.

2008 was a year of a lot of astronomy news.  For much of the year many astronomy today columns were filled with news of some space garbage – a colling ammonia tank from the space station.  Its long orbit had finally decayed to the point it would fall to Earth.  There was some worry that large chunks would fall, or that some parts would strike in populated areas.  The good news is that it all fell into the ocean.

The good old Hubble telescope made the biggest impact in astronomy today.  Bear was the saga of damage which took a month to repair.  Hubble then took the first visible light images of a planet orbiting another star.  What a busy year for one piece of technology.

Astronomy today is more vibrant than ever.  Keep up with everything on the Internet.

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Recent Astronomy Articles

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Recent astronomy articles appear all over the Internet and in magazines dedicated to the science and the hobby.  New photos of space objects result in articles.  People right when nations announce new missions into space.  There is a constant stream of conversation.  This article relates a few of them.

Something as simple as bumpy space dust generated a great deal of interest and a lot of the recent astronomy articles.  Why is this important?  Hydrogen is the most abundant element in creation.  But hydrogen has to bond to form the larger molecules observed in the universe.  In the cold of space it takes the right medium to complete the bond.  Scientists now realize that bumpy molecules may fit that bill.  Imagine that.

One of Saturn’s moons is known as the Death Star.  With its huge crater, it resembles the famous movie prop.  Recent astronomy articles focused on Cassini’s mission to this moon, called Mimas.  We gained a lot of compelling data from this mission, including stunning images.  It was a popular story.  One hope scientists have is that this new data will reveal information about the number of crater creating objects fly through the Saturn system.  This can give new insight into how busy our solar system is as far as impact capable objects, as well as reveal the true extent of how other planets, like Saturn, serve as object scrubbers in our solar system.

Dark matter is something scientists have known about for years.  It contributes to the expansion of the universe, but scientists don’t really know how.  Dark matter was a popular headline in recent astronomy articles.  The SuperNova Acceleration Probe was set to study dark matter.  It’s important because about 70% of the stuff in the universe is dark matter.

Before becoming a sun, our little yellow sun was just a proto-sun.  Many researchers, however wondered whether this proto-sun may have emitted useful heat or light or particles.  Yes it did, says recent astronomy articles.  New techniques have revealed that the proto-sun had a particle rich solar wind along with light and heat.  So the sun helped create life before it ever became a sun.

The Internet is a great source for learning about recent astronomy articles.

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Current Happenings In Astronomy

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Astronomy has been with the human race as long as we can remember.  Today it is a applied science based on carefully gathering and analyzing data, but there was a time it was little more than charlatan magic.  Astronomy is something too many people ignore, but those who keep their eyes on current happenings in astronomy find a wealth of interesting information.

In early November of 2008 NASA nearly bombed Australia with a 1400LB Ammonia tank jettisoned from the International Space Station.  It was tossed into space when it was deemed too dangerous to carry down to Earth on a shuttle.  By good luck most of the pieces, no larger than fifteen pounds, were expected to fall harmlessly into the ocean.  On the plus side the Ammonia vapor that might result would clean people’s windows.  Paul Hogan, the famous actor who played Crocodile Dundee, was unharmed.  Unfortunately, according to the Daily Mail in the UK, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, remained deceased after this incident.

In September of 2008 China sent up its third successful manned space mission that included the first space walk by Chinese astronauts in history.  Unfortunately for China it was revealed that “live video” of the successful launch and flight into orbit had actually been released before the craft left the ground.  The flight did take place.  It was just a case of overzealous PR people.

Near Beijing, a large telescope is being built.  The whole telescope doesn’t rotate to track through the sky.  Instead that’s left up to a pair of rotating mirrors.  As a result this telescope doesn’t look like others.  It’s not a dome but rather something like a an uneven arch or pi symbol.  The Chinese have a knack for making the simple complex.

November 2008 also saw the launch of a satellite, in Kazakhstan.  Astra-1M as it’s called is set to help with telecommunications.  The launch vehicle was called Proton-M.  The satellite was designed and built in Europe.

For computer users who enjoy astronomy, Worldwide Telescope is a must have program.  It was designed by Microsoft.  It’s a windows application that interfaces servers all over the world to deliver stunning images of the universe.  It brings an observatory and the universe right to the desktop.  It may even be possible to make new discoveries when millions of eyes pour over representations taken from old data.

So there are some of the current happenings in astronomy.

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Astronomy Facts

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

How many astronomy facts can you think of?  Consider that there are somewhere around 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe, that’s a one followed by 22 zeros.  Now realize that many of those stars are surrounded by plants.  Then consider the moons that surround the planets, the asteroids, the nebula, the galaxies, and all the other stuff the universe contains.  It’s a lot to consider.  Not every piece of information can be presented here.  Walked is here, however, is interesting.

Let’s take a look at this subset of astronomy facts – the brightest stars as seen from Earth.  That’s discounting the Sun which is about 250,000 times closer than the next nearest star.  It’s so bright as seen from Earth that it washes out all the other stars in the sky during a phenomenon called “daylight.”  Keep in mind that in the scale for the magnitudes given, lower numbers are brighter.  The son is approximately 26.73, with the full moon weighing in at -12.6.  With that in mind, here are the top 5.

#5 is the Arabic word for eagle or vulture, Vega. This star has a magnitude of .03, and is 25 light-years from Earth.  Just because a star looks brighter from Earth doesn’t mean it’s really brighter.  The sun is only a moderately bright star, but because of its proximity to the Earth it appears to be so bright.

#4 is the Arabic foot of the centaur, Rigel Kentaurus.  It’s about four light years from Earth with a magnitude of -.01.

At #3, by the known astronomy facts is Arcturus.  The name means guardian of the bear in Greek.  This star is 37 light years from us.

Canopus sits at number two.  Named for the pilots of Jason’s vessel in Jason and the Argonauts, this star is the brightest of all of these top five.  But because of its distance, 313 light-years from Earth, it only appears to be second brightest.  From earth its magnitude is -.62.

#1 is the Greek word for scorching, Sirius.  It’s also called the Dog Star because it’s the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog.).  Only 9 light-years separate Sirius and the earth, that’s the second nearest in this top five list.  But from Earth it has a magnitude of -1.44.  That makes it easily the brightest star as seen in the night sky.

Astronomy facts go way beyond this.  Think about magnitudes, however, next time you look up at the stars.

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Current Events In Astronomy

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Sometimes astronomy is like sports.  It’s fun to watch what’s going on day after day, reading the magazines and web sites for all the current events in astronomy.  Interesting stories hit the news each day.  That includes new images brought in from satellites and telescopes, new discoveries about the nature of planets and stars and other objects, as well as breakthroughs and just every day small progress in the tools and techniques used to make these discoveries.

A good place to find out about a lot of this is on NASA’s website.  NASA stays on top of all the latest events, and even makes a lot of the news itself.  Here are just some of the current events shown in mid November of 2008.

One of the most important current events in astronomy NASA discussed in November was the late month launch of the shuttle Endeavour.  Refueling the International Space Station was its goal.  The mission also included a number of spacewalks outside the station to perform routine maintenance.  Space walks are not just spacewalks they are also learning experiences that apply to future missions.  The space station is very important for furthering the science of astronomy.

Another of the current events in astronomy discussed by NASA in November was a staggering discovery made by the Hubble Telescope.  It took a historic visible light image of a planet circling another sun. The effort dates way back to the 1980’s when NASA’s IRAS, an infrared telescope, discovered dust around the star.  Scientists knew this was a sure sign that planets might circle the sun.

Current and events in astronomy can also be about what happened a long time ago.  Images of the moon taken in 1966 and 1967 are being restored in the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project.  Luckily much of this data had been removed from tape and stored in analog form.  NASA has already shown off some of these images. 

Astronomy is a huge field.  Current events in astronomy could cover volumes each day.  Always looked to the sky!

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