Observing the 2010 Geminid meteor shower
Over the coming week the 2010 Geminid meteor shower gets underway, building up to a peak which is expected on the morning of 14 December. I thought now would be an ideal time to repost a few excerpts from the blog post I wrote about the shower last year.
The position of the Geminid meteor shower radiant (see text below), in relation to the surrounding constellations. Click the image for a larger version. Credit: StarDate magazine. Used with permission from The University of Texas McDonald Observatory
The best time to look for the meteors will be on the night of the 13/14 December. How many you’ll see depends on several factors, such as your local light pollution levels and the cloud cover. Steve Owens has a great post about this here, where he explains how to calculate the number of Geminids you can expect to spot from your viewing location. Meanwhile, here’s what I had to say about the Geminids this time last year:
“Meteors are produced when tiny pieces of space dust enter our atmosphere at enormous speeds. As they do the air ahead of them is compressed violently causing it to heat up. This tremendous heat in turn makes the meteor glow as it streaks across the sky. It’s amazing to think that the average meteor is created by a piece of celestial detritus no bigger than a grain of sand.
Ordinarily on a clear dark night you might see a handful of meteors every hour. These are known as ‘sporadic’ meteors as they don’t belong to a particular shower. However when a meteor shower is underway there’s a good chance you’ll see many more, as the shower is supplementing the handful of sporadic ‘shooting stars’.
A meteor from the 2009 Geminid meteor shower darts through the constellation of Hydra, close to the star Alphard, as captured by Pete Lawrence. Credit: Pete Lawrence
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through a trail of debris left by a comet as it passes through the Solar System. The particular object that creates the Geminid meteors measures around 5km in diameter and is known as 3200 Phaethon. It was found in the early 1980s and is in fact designated as an asteroid, though it certainly has some cometary traits. Perhaps, some have argued, it is a ‘dormant’ comet.
If you go out over the next few nights and see any meteors you’ll know you’ve spotted a Geminid if it appears to come from a point in the constellation of Gemini. This point is known as the ‘radiant’. The constellation that the radiant is located in gives the meteor shower its name; so the Geminids come from Gemini, the Orionids come from Orion etc.
In terms of where to look, my advice would simply be to look up. Gemini is high in the sky over the next few nights at around 1:30am, and with the Moon out of the way later on in the evening, we’ve got some good observing conditions for this year’s shower. Wrap up warm and sit back in a sun-lounger if you can, as this should stop your neck from getting tired and give you a better, more comfortable, view of the sky.
Meteor showers like the Geminids are a great chance to get together with friends to observe too, as the more eyes the better. You can join in with the special Geminid ‘Meteorwatch’ event on Twitter by tagging any Geminid meteor observations you tweet with the hashtag #meteorwatch.”
Clear skies and good luck meteor watching!
A video guide to buying your first telescope
If you’re thinking about buying your first telescope – or are perhaps thinking of getting one for a friend or relative – you might be interested in the latest episode of the Sky at Night Magazine vodcast. It addresses a few of the basic questions you may have about telescopes, their various designs and how to use them.
I’ve embedded the video below, but if you have any more questions (after all, there’s only so much we could fit in one vodcast) leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to get back to you.
For best quality playback select the 720p HD button.
Video credit: Sky at Night Magazine Top telescope image credit: WillGater.com
New EPOXI images of Comet Hartley 2
This afternoon, 21 million kilometres from the Earth, NASA’s EPOXI mission flew by Comet Hartley 2. In the process, it captured some of the most stunning close-up pictures of an active comet ever seen.
Hartley 2 as seen by the EPOXI mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Hartley 2 has been visible in the night sky for many weeks now, and there have been some stunning images, taken by amateur astronomers, of its visit into the inner Solar System. While they have their own beauty, none can compare to the remarkable pictures sent back today by EPOXI. They show the 2.2km wide nucleus of the comet, from a distance of around 700km, covered in what look like boulders and effervescing with great jets of material erupting from its surface.
Jets erupting from Comet Hartley 2′s surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Some might think of the Solar System we live in as a rather quiet unchanging place, where nothing happens for eons. Well, these stunning images help refute that idea very easily. This is partly why I particularly like the image below, showing the jets bursting into sunlight. It really shows how dynamic these fascinating objects can be.
Comet Hartley 2: an active comet up close. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Tomorrow night we’ll be celebrating Bonfire Night here in the UK, where tradition dictates that we let off fireworks and light bonfires. For me though, that manmade spectacle won’t be anywhere near as impressive as the truly awesome natural one we witnessed today.
Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards video
My video report, for Sky at Night Magazine, from the 2010 Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards is now online and I’ve embedded it below.
If you’re in London over the next few months, it’s really worth popping into the Royal Observatory, Greenwich to see the pictures. The exhibition is free and open until February 2011.
Be sure to click the 720p HD button for the best quality playback.
Video credit: Sky at Night Magazine
&w=320&h=240Spot Comet Hartley 2 as it passes Earth
Comet Hartley 2 can be seen with binoculars from dark skies. Credit: WillGater.com
Comet Hartley 2 is making its way through our neck of the planetary woods over the coming weeks, so now’s your chance to go out and see it.
I took the above picture of the comet last weekend. The comet itself is the green/grey smudge at the centre of the frame. The stars are trailed because the image has been processed in such a way that the comet remains stationary in the view. It’s a nice illustration of how the comet itself is zipping across the sky, against the background stars.
If you’re thinking of looking for the comet yourself, you’ll need a good pair of binoculars (or a small telescope) and some relatively dark skies. There’s a handy locator chart, showing you where to look, on Heavens-Above.com here. Don’t expect to see anything as impressive as Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) or Comet 17P/Holmes, from 2007, though. It appears as a faint grey smudge.
If you’re into astrophotography, the comet will also be passing close to the Double Cluster (NGC 884 & 869) on the 8 and 9 October, providing a superb celestial photo-op. Good luck, clear skies and happy comet hunting!
Update 10/10/10: Pete Lawrence caught this wonderful image of Comet Hartley 2 & the Double Cluster on the 7th October.
5 tips for sketching the stars
The star fields of the Milky Way contain many great sketching targets. Credit: Will Gater
After all the excitement of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year results, I spent several evenings earlier this week enjoying a completely different way of recording the night sky. Sketching is an aspect of amateur astronomy that doesn’t always get a lot of coverage, but it’s a superb way to train your eyes to see detail at the eyepiece of a telescope; indeed sketching was, once, an important part of astronomical research. Whatever equipment you use, a simple sketch showing what can be seen through the eyepiece can be both a personal memento of a night’s observing and, if drawn carefully, a useful reference to other observers.
A sketch of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). Credit Will Gater
Above and below are a few of the sketches I made, while on holiday at a dark sky site, earlier in the week. They’ve been inverted in Photoshop Elements and the background sky has been tinted to more closely match the view through the eyepiece. I was observing with a 66mm refractor on a photographic tripod. The sketches were done on a standard artist’s sketchpad (135gsm) with 2B and 3B pencils. If you’re thinking about having a go yourself here are a few tips.
- Use two or three pencils of varying softness to depict different objects. I find a sharp 2B is ideal for drawing on stars while a softer, slightly blunt, 3B is better suited to sketching diffuse nebulae, galaxies and clusters.
- Always start by drawing a few of the brightest stars. If you can find clear patterns/shapes of stars in the field of view add them in early on. This way you’ll gradually build a framework of stars which you can add to, aiding the placement of other fainter objects.
- With a gentle rub, use your little finger or a tortillion to create the smooth diffuse appearance of objects like galaxies or nebulae.
- Take your time. Be sure to constantly go back and forth, between the eyepiece and the sketchpad, to check your sketch with what you can see.
- Always record the date, time, equipment, location and observing conditions along with the object’s name, on your sketch.
A sketch of the Andromeda Galaxy, M32 & NGC 205. Credit Will Gater
A sketch of the globular cluster M22. Credit Will Gater
Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2010 – the results!
Tom Lowe’s stunning winning image ‘Blazing Bristlecone’. Credit: Tom Lowe
Last night the results of the 2010 Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards were announced at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. You’ll have probably seen some of the amazing images in today’s press, including this great audio slideshow from BBC News and an impressive centre spread, of the overall winning image, in the Guardian.
All the prize winning images are now on show, until February 2011, in a stunning (and free!) exhibition at the observatory. They’re wonderfully displayed in a dimly lit room, on backlit plastic, which really brings out their rich colours and incredible details.
Also on show in the exhibition space are four superb mini-documentaries. They tell the story of some of the images in the exhibition and the photographers who took them. In the process they reveal the, often unseen, human element behind astroimaging. The videos are all on Vimeo and I’ve embedded two of them below.
If you’re suitably enthused by this year’s winning images, and would like to have a go at astroimaging, there are some great guides on the ROG website to get you started. Who knows, by this time next year, it might well be your images we’re admiring on the walls in the 2011 exhibition.
Video credits: Buzz Films & the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Vodcast from the Salisbury Star Party 2010
Last Friday I visited the Salisbury Star Party, in Wiltshire, to film a report for an episode of the Sky at Night Magazine vodcast. It was a great day of filming (despite the occasional rain shower) and everyone I talked to was really friendly and enthusiastic. The video is now online and I’ve embedded it below. Hopefully it gives a flavour of what the event is all about.
Be sure to click the 720p HD button for the best quality playback.
Video credit: Sky at Night Magazine
5 tips for making the most of the Perseids
The Perseid meteor shower is currently putting on a show in the night sky, as the Earth passes through the trail of debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. The shower is expected to reach a peak sometime between the evening of the 12 of August and the morning of the 13 August. Even so, it’s worth looking out for Perseid meteors a few nights before and after this time; on Saturday night I managed to spot 13 Perseids, including a spectacular fireball, during a roughly two-hour period of clear sky.
With the Moon out of the way, this year, we should have a fairly good view of the peak of the shower. With this in mind, I’ve put together my top five tips for making the most of the Perseids.
- The best time to look out for the Perseids will be between the evening of the 12 of August and the pre-dawn hours of the 13 August, around the time when the peak of the shower is anticipated. After midnight is a good time to look, as the patch of sky the meteors appear to come from will be higher in the sky then.
- Don’t get too hung-up on the exact direction in which to look. Simply try to find an observing site, away from sources of light pollution, where you can see as much of the sky as possible, and look up.
- My favourite piece of meteor shower observing equipment is undoubtedly my sunlounger. If you have one, dig it out. Being wrapped up warm lying back on a sunlounger is, to me, the perfect way to watch meteor showers. They’re great for binocular astronomy too.
- If you’re a budding citizen scientist then you can submit a report of your meteor shower observations to one of the astronomical societies. The SPA have a form here and the BAA have one here.
- For me, meteor showers are mainly about having fun and revelling in one of nature’s greatest spectacles. So my final tip is to invite your friends over to watch the shower with you. When the brighter meteors blaze over you’ll then have someone to share the excitement with. If you’re on Twitter, you can tweet your observations to other meteor watchers using the hastag #meteorwatch.
That’s it! Clear skies and good luck.
At home with the Herschels
Herschel’s garden, from where he found the planet Uranus. Credit: Will Gater
Yesterday I paid a visit to the former home of one of my all time astronomy heroes. Number 19, New King Street in Bath was the home of Sir William Herschel, one of the greatest astronomers this country, and indeed the world, has ever seen. Today the house is a museum, celebrating Herschel’s great achievements, as well as those of his sister Caroline, who herself was a prolific comet hunter and accomplished astronomer.
One of the prisms Herschel used to study infrared radiation. Credit: Will Gater
William is undoubtedly most famous for his discoveries of Uranus and infrared radiation. But he and Caroline were also pioneers of the technique of ‘survey astronomy’. It’s a method that today’s professional astronomers use to study large swathes the sky, looking for objects like asteroids, supernovae, and interesting galaxies. With the telescopes of his day however, William surveyed the sky looking for nebulae and star clusters. His ‘Catalogue of Nebulae’ went on to form the basis of John Dreyer’s famous ‘New General Catalogue’, which astronomers, both amateur and professional, still use today.
The Herschel Museum is full of artefacts from the Herschels’ lives including family letters, notes, many pieces of William’s telescopes and the tools he used to make them. Of all the pieces in the museum, there was one that really caught my eye.
If I’ve understood it correctly, it’s a letter (right) from Caroline Herschel to another astronomer, requesting him to follow-up on her observations of what she suspects to be a comet. What I loved about this letter was how it showed that, in some ways at least, astronomy hasn’t changed after all these years. Even the pros today, using the largest telescopes in the world, still benefit from such collaborations with other astronomers. Now of course it’s an email, or a submission to use time on a big scope, rather than a hand written letter – but the meaning is just the same.
Above right: Caroline’s letter to a fellow astronomer, on display. Credit: Will Gater
You can find out more about the Herschel Museum here and I’ve embedded a short PBS documentary on the Herschels below.
Credit: PBS NOVA Video Podcasts
Noctilucent cloud display 9 July 2010
Around 10:30pm last night I started to see reports coming in on Twitter of a large and bright noctilucent cloud (NLC) display appearing across much of the country. Poking my head out the window I was, to my dismay, greeted with thick uniform cloud lit by light pollution. Hoping for the best, I checked on the latest IR satellite image from the Met Office which showed that a clear patch would likely arrive over my location around midnight. I’ll give it a try I thought.
Well, by 11:30pm the skies had cleared and the sky, low to the north, was glowing with bright and detailed swirling NLC activity. Running out of the house and down the dark lanes I found a spot where the hedgerow allowed me to glimpse the northern horizon. Here are a few of the fifty or so images I managed to grab. It was, without doubt, the most impressive NLC display I’ve seen from south Devon. Let’s hope for a few more displays like this one before the NLC season’s out.
All images above © Will Gater 2010
The sparkling treasures of the summer Milky Way
The Milky Way over Dartmoor (click to see a bigger version). Credit: Will Gater
I thought I’d just briefly share this image with you all and give you a quick heads-up for some sights to look out for in the night sky at the moment.
I took this image last weekend from one of my favourite dark sky sites on Dartmoor. It shows our galaxy, the Milky Way, towards the constellations of Sagittarius and Scutum. I particularly wanted to mention this as the next few weeks are a good time for any of you in the UK, with a clear southern horizon, to look out for the lovely celestial objects on show in this part of the sky.
To help you find the objects — such as the wonderful and bright Lagoon Nebula as well as several fine clusters — I’ve posted a labelled (but slightly cropped) version of the image below. This part of the sky can be found by looking for the famous ‘Teapot’ asterism (labelled) in the south around midnight. Pretty much all of the objects I’ve marked make good small telescope or binocular targets. So, if you’re out observing anytime soon, have a look for some of them.
Spot the International Space Station
A view of the ISS gliding across the night sky on 24 June 2010. Credit: WillGater.com
The International Space Station (ISS) will be making some bright flyovers over the UK over the next week or so, providing the perfect entertainment for any of you waiting for a noctilucent cloud display to materialize. The ISS appears as a very bright point of light moving across the sky against the background stars. It’s an undeniably impressive sight, especially when it’s at its brightest sailing over silently.
The reason we see it shining is because the station’s solar panels and other components reflect the light from the Sun (which is usually below our horizon when we see it) down to us on the ground. The station is over 100 metres long, with 16 huge solar arrays for generating power (seen in the NASA image below), so you can see why it’s so bright in our night skies.
The ISS as seen by the departing Space Shuttle Atlantis in May this year. Credit: NASA
To find out when and where to look for the ISS flying over, plug your location details into the excellent Heavens Above website. It’ll then list when the space station will be visible to you, as well as give you the times and dates of other interesting satellite phenomena, that can be seen from your location, such as Iridium flares.
Much of the UK is forecast to have some sunny warm weather over the weekend. Hopefully the skies will be clear for astronomical observing of all kinds.
Getting the lowdown on LOFAR
Me standing next to one of the LOFAR antennas. Credit: WillGater.com
Today Sky at Night Magazine’s editor Graham, and I, visited the Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire to see the UK’s contribution to the LOFAR project now entering its final stages of construction. LOFAR (the LOw Frequency ARray) is a radio telescope which will observe the Universe at wavelengths between 1.2 and 30 metres. It’s going to work by combining the observations of several separate arrays of antennas across Europe, a process known as interferometry, to create one enormous ‘virtual’ radio telescope.
Work will soon be completed on the low-band array at Chilbolton, which is what we saw being built today. As you can see from this panorama I made (click the image below for a bigger version) there are quite a few antennas already in place; they’re the brown metal lattices with vertical poles on them. There’ll be another array (the high-band array) constructed on a similar plot, right next to the low-band array, very soon.
A panorama of the LOFAR UK low-band array under construction. Credit: WillGater.com
LOFAR will create high-resolution views of the radio sky and will study, amongst other things, transient objects (such as black holes gorging on matter and supernovae) and what the Universe was like when it was just 400 million years old (the time when the first stars were born). There’s a much more in-depth run down on what the project will be studying on the LOFAR site here.
Whilst the individual antennas themselves may seem relatively simple, the science they’ll produce when the whole project comes online promises to be hugely impressive. I can’t wait to see the first results!
To keep up with developments at the Chilbolton site be sure to read the excellent LOFAR UK blog here.
A murky moonrise (and why it appears red)
Moonrise over Bristol 27 May 2010. [Click for full size] Credit: Will Gater
Last night there was a lovely moonrise (image above) over Bristol. The conditions were relatively good for viewing it too, as there was only a small amount of low-level haze and not too much cloud around.
It appears that wonderful orange/red colour because, when the Moon is low, it is shining through more of the Earth’s atmosphere. The gases in our atmosphere are particularly good at scattering blue light (which is why our sunny skies are blue). This means that, as the light from the Moon travels through a thick slice of the atmosphere, the bluer wavelengths of light are essentially ‘filtered’ out. The end result…predominantly redder light reaching us watching on the ground and so we see a gorgeous red/orange Moon.
You’ll also notice that the effect gradually wears off as the Moon rises, with the Moon becoming less and less red the higher in the sky it climbs. That’s simply because the amount of the atmosphere that the light is travelling through, with respect to us observing on the ground, gets smaller. So as the amount of atmosphere that the moonlight has to pass through to get to our eyes reduces, there’s less ‘filtering’ of the bluer wavelengths.
Radio 4 takes a shine to noctilucent clouds
A stunning noctilucent cloud display seen in the summer of 2009. Credit: Will Gater
It’s approaching that time of year when the skies of the northern hemisphere are graced by an ethereal phenomenon known as noctilucent clouds (or NLCs). These high altitude clouds of ice crystals shine long after the Sun has set and are visible from latitudes of around 50 to 60 degrees north during the summer months. They are beautiful to look at, glowing a bright blue/white colour against the reds and oranges of the twilight. We had some wonderful displays last summer and I’m hoping that this year they’ll put on a good show too.
Late last year BBC Radio 4 announced that they would be holding a new competition ‘So You Want To Be A Scientist?’ to find the BBC’s Amateur Scientist of the Year. People from around the UK submitted their ideas for scientific experiments they’d like to carry out, with the four best now being put into practice with the assistance of professional scientists. The finalists will be judged later this year at the British Science Festival to see who wins the coveted title.
I mention this because one of the finalists, aerial photographer John Rowlands, will be studying noctilucent clouds for his experiment, with the help of Professor Nick Mitchell from the University of Bath. You can read (and hear) more about John’s idea and the science behind noctilucent clouds on the Radio 4 website here. There’s also a Facebook page where John and the Radio 4 team are keeping everyone up-to-date with how the project is progressing. It should be a really interesting experiment to follow over the next few months, not least because the subjects of the study are so fun to look at and photograph.
The Gadget Show looks to the stars
Just a very quick post to say that, for anyone in the UK, I’ll be on Channel Five’s The Gadget Show tomorrow night (Monday 10th May) talking telescopes with presenter Jon Bentley. The programme starts at 8pm but I don’t know what time the section we filmed will be shown. The show has over 2.5 million viewers, so I’m hoping that there’ll be loads of people whose interest has been sufficiently piqued to find out what this astronomy lark is all about!
Update 11.05.10: The section of the show where we looked at telescopes is now online on The Gadget Show’s website here.
New article – “Enceladus: water world”
Enceladus as seen by Cassini. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn’s moon Enceladus is a mysterious world. Measuring just 512km in diameter it should be a cold lifeless body, practically unchanged since its formation. Yet it isn’t. It’s very much alive. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has shown that this remarkable moon’s surface has, in parts, been smoothed and altered in the geologically recent past. Images sent back by the probe show great fissures on its surface and, most spectacularly, vast plumes of icy material erupting from its southern hemisphere.
Now scientists studying Enceladus have come to some fascinating conclusions about what could lie beneath its icy crust. In a new article for Sky at Night Magazine I talk to the scientists working on the data from Cassini. I explore their findings which, incredibly, seem to point to a liquid ocean of water under the ice at Enceladus. The article also discusses the various mechanisms which could be creating the plumes. You can read the full story, “Enceladus: water world”, starting on page 68 of the May issue.
Hubble IMAX 3D at the Science Museum, London
Whilst visiting London on Thursday I popped into the Science Museum to see the new IMAX film Hubble 3D. After buying my ticket I wandered amongst throngs of people looking at everything from the Apollo 10 Command Module to Stephenson’s Rocket. It was good to see the place heaving with people, hopefully learning about science and clearly having fun. I thought their presence even more remarkable considering it was a glorious sunny day outside! Great, I thought, these people clearly want to be here.
Yet I did wonder to myself whether any of them were a) interested in astronomy and b) sufficiently interested to buy a ticket to see a movie that is essentially about a telescope. Is Hubble really so well-known that it might draw crowds to the box office? Or has its magic only rubbed off on those of us who live and breathe astronomy, I thought? The answer came a little over half an hour before the film was supposed to start.
I had just passed the Apollo 10 command module when I looked to where the IMAX cinema entrance was. Snaking away from it was a rapidly growing line of perhaps fifty people or more. It was the queue for the Hubble IMAX show. Not wanting to miss the chance of a good seat I jumped in line. And still more and more people joined the queue until it had stretched right around the corner out of sight. Before long we were let in and the film started.
So what was it like? Well, frankly, it was stunning – visually, aurally, emotionally. Epic is the word that actually came to my mind as the lights came up.
When writing about science I’ve learnt it’s great if you can capture some essence of the character of a scientist or their own personal story and weave it in and around the hard facts and discoveries you’re trying to discuss. Sometimes that can be difficult, sometimes it comes easily. What struck me about this film is how naturally Hubble’s ‘personality’ leaps out of the screen. It’s every bit as arresting as the 3D effects, even to a hardened space nut like me.
There are some beautiful pieces of CGI which I’ll let you discover for yourselves. Though I shall say that there’s one zoom onto the Orion Nebula that, for me, was worth the ticket price alone. There are also some wonderful scenes which superbly convey why Hubble’s multi-wavelength observing capability makes it such a powerful instrument.
I tried to write down a few notes as I was watching. But in the darkness they just became random scrawled words. One simply says “Launch!!!!”. I’ll admit I had a tear in my eye at that point. It’s an incredible moment of cinematography coupled with a chest rattling crackle like nothing I’ve ever heard.
Do go and see the film if you get a chance. It’s running at the Science Museum until 28 May from what I can tell. I really don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Hubble image credit: NASA/ESA
STS-131 launch – a personal view
Discovery (STS-131) sat on the pad at launch pad 39A. Credit: Will Gater
The STS-131 mission is set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Monday morning taking science equipment and other supplies to the International Space Station. As I’m writing this the Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled for a lift-off at 6:21am Florida time (11:21am UK time) with the latest weather forecast for the time of launch looking “very favourable” according to NASA weather officers. As always you’ll be able to watch the launch and build up live on NASA TV via this link.
A view of launch complex 39 from the LC39 observation gantry. Credit: Will Gater
Watching the launch will be a little bittersweet for me. Last month I acted on a lifelong dream and flew out to Florida in an attempt to see the STS-131 Shuttle launch which had been scheduled for 18 March. Unfortunately the stacking of the Orbiter (and thus its launch) was delayed just before I left the UK, meaning that as I landed in Florida I knew I was going to miss seeing the Shuttle fly. Nevertheless I had a wonderful time and came back with a fresh perspective and a renewed sense of awe at what is happening at Cape Canaveral. Come Monday morning I’ll be tuning into NASA TV on the web, joining thousands around the world watching and willing the Shuttle to make that spectacular leap off the launch pad. I may be a little further away from the launch than I had hoped to be, but it certainly won’t mean I’m any less excited.
The Meteorite Men land on UK television
Just a quick heads up about an interesting new TV series that’s currently airing on Tuesdays at 10pm* on the UK Freeview television channel Quest (Freeview channel 38). It’s called Meteorite Men and follows expert meteorite hunters Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin as they search the US countryside for pieces of Solar System debris that have fallen to Earth.
I caught the second episode by chance last week and I really enjoyed it. It turns out following the ups and downs of a meteorite hunt makes for really exciting television! The show has a great Mythbusters feel about it, by which I mean you actually learn quite a lot and it’s genuinely fun to watch. I’m not sure exactly how many episodes this series has but I hope it continues; I imagine it’ll get a lot of people interested in astronomy. With many meteorites falling on the Earth every year there’s certainly scope for another few series!
*Update: I’ve just seen that the show is also on Quest on Mondays at 9pm.
Update no. 2: Tavi Greiner mentions in the comments that an interview she & Rob Keown did with Geoff of the Meteorite Men is available on their blog here: http://blog.askyfullofstars.com/2010/03/of-fusion-crusts-and-strewn-fields/
Study our star with Solar Stormwatch
A vast coronal mass ejection blasts away from the Sun. Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO
In August last year I wrote a feature for Sky at Night Magazine about how you could help STEREO mission scientists search for the building blocks of the object, known as Theia, that’s thought to have formed the Moon when it collided with the proto-Earth. Now the latest citizen science project to launch, ‘Solar Stormwatch’, is using data from the STEREO spacecraft to get the public studying another Solar System spectacle — coronal mass ejections.
Coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) are vast and violent eruptions of plasma from the Sun that travel at high-speed across our Solar System. Studying how CMEs and other similar solar phenomena are formed, and how they interact with the Earth, is one of the biggest (and perhaps most important) fields of solar science. The twin STEREO spacecraft are (literally) in a perfect position to do this, as they fly through space separated by huge distances. This allows them to create a three-dimensional picture of the huge clouds of material thrown out from the Sun. The short video below from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center explains a little more about how STEREO does this.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab
Solar Stormwatch, which launched today, is being run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. It gives you the chance to monitor (almost) real-time images from the STEREO spacecraft to spot and track coronal mass ejections. Your efforts doing this can really help solar scientists as this page on the website explains nicely. I really like the smooth interface of the site and there’s a great deal of additional material to explore there on top of the citizen science activities themselves. Once you’re registered the website has everything you need to start seeking out solar storms, including several excellent tutorial videos (two of which I’ve embedded below) narrated by STEREO project scientist Dr Chris Davis. Who knows what you could discover? If previous citizen science projects are anything to go by it could be something very exciting!
Tutorial videos by the Royal Observatory Greenwich
10 incredible infrared space images
NASA has just released the first batch of images taken by the WISE spacecraft showing several astronomical objects glowing at infrared wavelengths. The level of detail in those images is really quite impressive. They got me thinking about the best infrared images of celestial subjects that I’ve seen in recent years.
Infrared telescopes are vital tools for astronomers. Observing at infrared wavelengths allows them to see through dust and gas, revealing regions of astronomical objects that may be obscured from view at other wavelengths (like ‘visible light’ that you and I can see). Similarly, powerful infrared telescopes are able to reveal the farthest galaxies in the Universe, allowing astronomers to study how the earliest galaxies evolved.
I’ve put together ten of my favourite infrared space images below but what would your top ones be? Have I missed a real cracker? Let me know in the comments below, or drop me a tweet. Clicking on the images will take you to the big versions (and be warned I mean big!) whilst clicking the title of the picture takes you to a news story about the science behind it.
1. Clouds of dust and gas in the Eagle Nebula
One section of the Eagle Nebula was made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope image dubbed the ‘Pillars of Creation’. Can you spot the ‘pillars’ glowing in this image from the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope?
NASA/JPL-Caltech/N. Flagey (IAS/SSC) & A. Noriega-Crespo (SSC/Caltech)
2. A stripy Saturn
Infrared radiation reflected off Saturn reveals the Ringed Planet in this view from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona), and NASA
3. The magnificent arms of M81
M81, also known as Bode’s Nebula, is a galaxy in the northern hemisphere constellation of Ursa Major and is a fine sight in a small telescope. Dust clouds within its spiral arms are revealed in red in this picture.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Willner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
4. Wisps of gas and dust at our galaxy’s centre
A 900 lightyear diameter region towards the heart of the Milky Way is shown in spectacular detail in this panoramic image from Spitzer.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/ Caltech)
5. An eerie eye looks out from the Helix Nebula
It might look like the eye of an angry monster staring back at us but this is in fact a planetary nebula – a huge ejected shell (or series of shells) of gas and dust created towards the end of a Sun-like star’s life.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Su (Univ. of Ariz.)
6. The sparkling spiral of the Pinwheel Galaxy
The Pinwheel Galaxy lies 27 million lightyears away from the Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. Its beautiful twisting spiral arms shine brightly in this detailed image.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI
7. The swirling Sword of Orion
The Orion Nebula (M42) at the centre of the Sword of Orion is one of the finest night sky sights through binoculars or a small telescope. This image from the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope however reveals regions of the nebula that amateur astronomers cannot see.
ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
8. The Andromeda Galaxy
At a distance of roughly 2.5 million lightyears away the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. Young stars in its spiral arms glow yellow in this image from the WISE telescope, whilst older stars are represented with a blue hue.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
9. The Milky Way’s heart of stars
Myriad stars sparkle in this image taken using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. It’s thought that hidden within this region (the central region of the Milky Way) is a supermassive black hole.
ESO
10. Drifts of dust in the Pleiades star cluster
The Pleiades star cluster is a familiar sight to amateur astronomers observing the winter night skies. This image from the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope shows the vast cirrus like dust clouds which currently surround the stars of the cluster.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Stauffer (SSC/Caltech)
Focusing on Titan’s lakes and Io’s volcanism
A little while ago I had a lot of fun being interviewed by Jheni, J and Andy from Focus magazine’s podcast. We talked about a new astronomy TV series coming to our screens called ‘Seven Wonders of the Solar System’. Presented by particle physicist Prof Brian Cox the series will, according to the BBC, look at “how the laws of nature…carve spectacular sights throughout the Solar System.”
On the Focus podcast I talked specifically about the lakes of liquid methane on Titan and the spectacular volcanism which occurs on Jupiter’s moon Io. The podcast is now online, on iTunes and embedded below, with my interview starting about 8 minutes 45s in. There’s a short trailer for the series here, so check it out when it airs in the UK sometime later this year.
