MAC August 2012 Magazine by MAC Realta

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Sky Guide - Beginner’s targets for August In August, we have one of the best meteor showers of the year for the naked eye. The Perseids should offer their best viewing in the evening hours of the 11th and 12th. Watch for the Perseid meteors to streak across this short summer night from late night until dawn, with only a little interference from the waning crescent moon. The shower will appear to radiate from the Northeast from the constellation of Perseus. Telescopic Sights We'll concentrate our August tour in the constellation Sagittarius. Find the teapot asterism (or house) in the South and you're there. Sagittarius is home to dozens of wonderful sights and is a great place to just scan with your telescope as you'll pick up dozens of open and globular clusters. When you look toward Sagittarius you're looking toward the centre of the Milky Way. M22 is one of the best globular clusters for Northern Hemisphere observers. To locate M22, use the top of the teapot (Kaus Borealis) and the top star of the handle of the teapot (Nunki). M22 forms the

To help find your way around the night sky, Skymaps.com makes available for free each month. The Evening Sky Map is suitable for all stargazers including newcomers to astronomy and will help you to: • identify planets, stars and major constellations. • find sparkling star clusters, wispy nebulae & distant galaxies. • locate and follow bright comets across the sky. • learn about the night sky and astronomy.

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Issue 35- August, 2012

corner of an "L" with these 2 stars. M22 consists of approximately 500,000 stars located 10,000 light years away. Also in the same area is a much dimmer globular cluster, M28. M28 is located just above the top star of the teapot (Kaus Borealis). It will provide a nice comparison with the much closer M22. M28 contains about 100,000 stars and is located approximately 15,000 light years from us. The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is located just above the teapot and presents a wonderful example of an emission nebula. To locate it, use the star in the top of the handle (Nunki) of the teapot and the star at the top of the teapot (Kaus Borealis). Follow this line the same distance out from the teapot and you're there. The Lagoon Neb is quite large so use a low to medium powered eyepiece to get the most out of the view. Embedded within the nebula is an Open Cluster, NGC6530. The Nebula is a cloud of ionized hydrogen gas approximately 50 light years in diameter located approximately 5000 light years from us. Just North of the Lagoon Nebula (about a low powered eyepiece field's width) is another fine Nebula, the Trifid (M20). The trifid is much smaller than the lagoon and will require dark skies to get a good view. The trifid is also a cloud of Ionized gas approximately 25 light years in diameter which is located about 2500 light years from us. Embedded within the nebula is a multiple star system, HN 40. Small scopes will show it as a double star while a 6" - 8" scope will show an additional 2 members. Just outside of the eyepiece view to the Northeast is the Open Cluster, M21. This is a loose aggregation of about 50 stars of which a dozen or so are visible in small scopes. M21 is also located about 2500 light years away.

M22 (NGC 6656) is one of the brightest globulars that is visible in the night sky and is located about 10,600 light-years away. M17 (NGC 6618 or Omega Nebula) was discovered in 1745. Earth's distance to the Omega Nebula is between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years. M8 (NGC 6523 or Lagoon Nebula) is a giant interstellar cloud, classified as an emission nebula and is located at an estimated distance of 4,100 light-years from Earth. One of the brightest Nebulae in the sky is the Swan Nebula (M17), also located in Sagittarius. Using the depth of the teapot as a gauge, go up (North) from the top of the teapot about 1 and a half times this distance toward the constellation Scutum. Scutum contains several 4th magnitude stars which form a diamond shape. The lower star of the "diamond" also points right at M17. M17 appears as a check-mark

shape in the scope and provides a fascinating view. The nebula is located about 5000 light years away from us. These are just a sampling of the many gems located in this area of the sky. A good star chart will point you to many more in this area. Well, that's about it for the month.

By Kevin Daly http://members.aol.com/kdaly10475/index.html

Club Notes Next Meeting: The next MAC meeting will be on the 4th September at 8pm in the Presbyterian Church and Hall, Main Street, Tullamore. ______________________________________ Club Observing: Perseids StarBQ Sometimes we get lucky, other times the weather hampers our efforts. Nonetheless, you are still invited to our StarBQ. Come along, bring some food and implements for a barbecue, sit around the campfire under the stars and retire to your own tent for the night! We are planning for Saturday 11th. If it's cloudy, we'll still go ahead - purely for fun! - FREE EVENT

Latest Astronomy and Space News Kids Astronomy Quizzes and Games Monthly Sky Guide Internet Highlights

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Exercise your brain

Observatory site clean-up day & BBQ July 28th ..................... 7 Hubble has spotted an ancient galaxy that shouldn’t exist ..................................................................... 8 Astronomers discover a fifth moon orbiting Pluto................... 8 Stellar Nurseries .................................................................. 9 You don’t need a telescope to do astronomy ......................... 9

Kids Section

3. Who experimentally discovered the relationship between redshift and distance within the universe? Hoyle Hubble Hey Hewish

Kids Korner ....................................................................... 10

Quizzes and Games Front cover image: Humanity's robot (Cassini) orbiting Saturn has recorded yet another amazing view. The new amazing view includes a bright moon, thin rings, oddly broken clouds, and warped shadows. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, appears above as a featureless tan as it is continually shrouded in thick clouds. The rings of Saturn are seen as a thin line because they are so flat and imaged nearly edge on. In the upper hemisphere of Saturn, the clouds show many details, including dips in long bright bands indicating disturbances in a high altitude jet stream.

Credit & Copyright: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/J. Major

Exercise your brain ............................................................ 11

Monthly Sky Guide Beginners sky guide for this month .................................... 12

Internet Highlights Special content only available with the online version of the magazine ................................................................ 13

4. Where is the world's first fully steerable giant radio telescope located? Green Bank Jodrell Bank Arecibo Mount Wilson

5. What does the 'C' in Einstein's famous equation E=MC2 stand for? Redshift The speed of light in a vacuum The Doppler Effect The age of the universe

8. What is the name of the largest moon of Saturn? Triton Titania Titan Titus

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8 6

1 8

Hydrogen Oxygen Helium Gasoline

10.What element is at the bottom of the Energy Well? lead iron uranium mercury

8 9

7 6

Check your answers

9. What is the fuel that powers our sun?

Confused??? Check your answers on this page.

www.midlandsastronomy.com

sun, rather than the earth cantered universal model proposed by Aristotle.

Galaxy Zoo's black holes ...................................................... 7

2. What is the name of the closest large spiral 7. A Supernova is the explosion of a _______? galaxy to our own Milky Way? Star Leo Planet NGC2143 Bomb M33 Asteroid Andromeda

Answer 1: The correct answer was a comet. The term dirty snowball is a descriptive term for the core of a comet

You can see more about the club and its events on www.midlandsastronomy.com or contact the club via e-mail at midlandsastronomy@gmail.com Meetings are informal and are aimed at a level to suit all ages.

Perseid meteor shower ........................................................ 6

Answer 7: The correct answer was Star. One of the most recent Supernovae visible on Earth with the naked eye occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud in 1987.

All are welcome to attend. It also holds infrequent Observing Nights at its Observing Site in Clonminch, or at a member’s house (weather permitting) on the first Friday of every month..

Answer 2: The correct answer was Andromeda, also known as M31 and NGC224 is a spiral galaxy similar to our own but twice as large. It contains about 400 billion stars

Massive stars found to orbit a partner .................................. 5

Lord Kelvin Copernicus Kepler Galileo

Answer 8: The correct answer was Titan. The second largest moon in the solar system. First discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655

meteorite meteor comet

Answer 3: The correct answer was Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), discovered the true meaning of redshift and first confirmed experimentally that the universe was expanding. The Hubble Space Telescope is named after him.

X-rays discovered from young supernova remnant ................ 4

Answer 9: The correct answer was Hydrogen. Hydrogen is turned into Helium by atomic fusion.

Hubble sees a galaxy festooned with stellar nurseries ............ 4

Answer 4: The correct answer was Jodrell Bank, England is the site of the Lovell Telescope a 250ft dish which first came online in 1957.

Molten “Mars” is “right around the corner” ............................ 3

SUDOKU

1. In 2136 B.C. the two The 6. Who was first person recorded as seeing the term dirty snowball moons of Jupiter and the refers to a ______? rings of Saturn? asteroid

Answer 10: The correct answer was iron. All heavy elements are created in supernova explosions. Iron is the most stable and the least likely to breakdown by atomic fission.

Latest Astronomy and Space News

Answer 5: The correct answer was The speed of light in a vacuum which is approx 186,000 miles per second or 300,000km per second.

contents

Answer 6: The correct answer was Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Galileo was persecuted by the Roman Catholic church for his belief that the Earth circled the

MAC meets on the first Tuesday of the month in the Presbyterian Hall, High Street, Tullamore from 8pm.

Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Kid’s Korner Why is the sky dark at night? That question is not as simple as it may sound. You might think that space appears dark at night because that is when our side of Earth faces away from the Sun as our planet rotates on its axis every 24 hours. But what about all those other far away suns that appear as stars in the night sky? Our own Milky Way galaxy contains over 200 billion stars, and the entire universe probably contains over 100 billion galaxies. You might suppose that that many stars would light up the night like daytime!

is that no matter where you look in the night sky, you should see a star. Stars should overlap each other in the sky like tree trunks in the middle of a very thick forest. But, if this were the case, the sky would be blazing with light. This problem greatly troubled astronomers and became known as "Olbers' Paradox." A paradox is a statement that seems to disagree with itself.

To try to explain the paradox, some 19th century scientists thought that dust clouds between Until the 20th century, astronomers the stars must be absorbing a lot didn't think it was even possible to of the starlight so it wouldn't shine count all the stars in the universe. They thought the universe went on forever. In other words, they thought the universe was infinite.

through to us. But later scientists realized that the dust itself would absorb so much energy from the starlight that eventually it would glow as hot and bright as the stars themselves. Astronomers now realize that the universe is not infinite. A finite universe--that is, a universe of limited size--even one with trillions and trillions of stars, just wouldn't have enough stars to light up all of space. Although the idea of a finite universe explains why Earth's sky is dark at night, other causes work to make it even darker. Not only is the universe finite in size, it is also finite in age. That is, it had a beginning, just as you and I did. The universe was born about 15 billion years ago in a fantastic explosion called the Big Bang. It began at a single point and has been expanding ever since.

Besides being very hard to imagine, the trouble with an infinite universe

Above: This Hubble Space Telescope “deep field” image shows about 300 galaxies in a piece of sky only a few millimetres in size!!!

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Molten “Mars” is “right around the corner” In a surprise find, astronomers have discovered a planet possibly covered with oceans of magma "right around the corner." Even more exciting to scientists is its size: about the same as Mars's, which would make the new world the closest known planet smaller than Earth. Above: A cloud of gas and dust, called a nebula. This one NGC 604, glows with light from newly formed stars. Because the universe is still expanding, the distant stars and galaxies are getting farther away all the time. Although nothing travels faster than light, it still takes time for light to cross any distance. So, when astronomers look at a galaxy a million light years away, they are seeing the galaxy as it looked a million years ago. The light that leaves that galaxy today will have much farther to travel to our eyes than the light that left it a million years ago or even one year ago, because the distance between that galaxy and us constantly increases. That means the amount of light energy reaching us from distant stars dwindles all the time. And the farther away the star, the less bright it will look to us.

Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope essentially stumbled upon the new planet while studying a hot, Neptune-size planet called GJ 436b. In their data, however, the team caught a faint signal of the new planet and named it UCF-1.01, after their institution, the University of Central Florida. Both worlds were detected by watching for regular dimming of their host star, indicating a planet transiting, or crossing in front of, the star. Thirty-three light years away, "we have a sub-Earth-sized planet that's slightly larger than Mars and essentially right around the corner, at least on a cosmic scale," said Kevin Stevenson, a planetary scientist now at the University of Chicago, who led the study that revealed UCF-1.01.

Midlands Astronomy Club have created a Facebook page so that our members and non-members alike can: • Keep up-to-date on future outreach events. • Be informed of upcoming lectures. • Have online access to the latest astronomy news as it happens. • See photos of all club events and activities. Find us on www.facebook.com http://www.marcsobservatory.com

"It's one of the nearest transiting planets, it's tiny, and it may not be alone." It's a Small World After All Large planets are easier to find, but they're generally gas giants that don't have a rocky surface or an atmosphere like Earth's. So scientists are scanning the skies for smaller worlds, which should be more likely to support life as we know it. NASA's Kepler space observatory, in particular, is actively hunting for Earth-size planets around sunlike stars. In three years it has found more than 3,000 potential new worlds and confirmed dozens (find out how). But Kepler scans parts of the sky between 100 and 2,000 light-years away, giving it a blind spot closer to home. Spitzer's infrared detectors can "see" planets within a hundred light-years of Earth, but the telescope is normally used to fine-tune our knowledge of farther-out planets that scientists already know about.

Above: Magma may cover UCF-1.01, which orbits scorchingly close to its star, as shown in an artist's concept. "It could be a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. That may be hot enough to make an ocean of molten rock." Planetary Companion? Until the mass of UCF-1.01 is known, the planet can't be confirmed by official standards. "But we know it's there," Stevenson said. And it may have hidden company. The larger planet, GJ 436b, has an oblong orbit likely caused by the

gravitational pull of another planet or planets. And, Stevenson explained, the small planet alone doesn't seem strong enough to explain the eccentric orbit of its big companion. "At some point I'd like to go back and make new observations," Stevenson said. "There could be a third planet there, called UCF-1.02." www.nationalgeographic.com

"We weren't looking for this planet, even though other researchers suspected it might be there," Stevenson said. UCF-1.01 is about 8,400 kilometres wide, making about a quarter the volume of Earth. And with a year that lasts only 1.4 Earth days, the new planet's orbit takes UCF-1.01 searingly close to its star. "The only thing separating the planet from the star is about seven times the distance between the Earth and the moon," said Stevenson, who noted the probably lacks an atmosphere.

Above: Declan Molloy and Seanie Morris were invited by St. Mary's Youth & Community Centre in Tullamore to present a series of talks to the kids at their Summer Camp on Tuesday July 3rd last. Four sessions, lasting 45 minutes each were presented, with models, videos and more. A Certificate of Participation was presented to each child, which doubled up for free membership to MAC till the end of 2013!

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Stellar Nurseries

Hubble sees a galaxy festooned with stellar nurseries

After a dark cloud of gas and dust collapses into dense globules that ignite into stars, the residual material is set aglow by the intense blue and ultraviolet light from newly formed stars. The glowing gas surrounding the stars is called a “diffuse nebula”, an “emission nebula”, or an HII (pronounced “H-two”) region.

NGC 4700 has many bright pinkish clouds where intense ultraviolet light from hot young stars causes hydrogen gas to glow. The galaxy NGC 4700 bears the signs of the vigorous birth of many new stars in this image captured by the NASA and European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope. The many bright pinkish clouds in NGC 4700 are known as H II regions, where intense ultraviolet light from hot young stars is causing nearby hydrogen gas to glow. H II regions often come part-and-parcel with the vast molecular clouds that spawn fresh stars, thus giving rise to the locally ionized gas. In 1610, French astronomer NicolasClaude Fabri de Peiresc peered through a telescope and found what

turned out to be the first H II region on record — the Orion Nebula (M42), located relatively close to the solar system in the Milky Way. Astronomers study these regions throughout our galaxy, and those easily seen in others, to gauge the chemical makeup of cosmic environments and their influence on the formation of stars. NGC 4700 appears to be an edgeon galaxy. In March 1786, British astronomer William Herschel discovered this object and noted it as a very faint nebula. NGC 4700, along with many other relatively close galaxies, lies in the

X-rays discovered from young supernova remnant The new data suggest a neutron star lurks within supernova remnant SN 1957D, located about 15 million light-years away in spiral galaxy M83. More than 50 years ago, a supernova was discovered in a spiral galaxy about 15 million light-years from Earth named M83. Astronomers have now detected for the first time X-rays emitted by the debris from this explosion. Named SN 1957D because it was the fourth supernova to be discovered in the year 1957, it is one of only a few such objects located outside of the Milky Way Galaxy that is detectable, in both radio and optical wavelengths, decades after its explosion was observed. In 1981, astronomers saw the remnant of the exploded star in radio waves, and then in 1987 they detected the remnant at optical wavelengths, years after the light from the explosion itself faded.

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A relatively short observation about 14 hours long from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2000 and 2001 did not detect any X-rays from the remnant of SN 1957D. However, a much longer observation obtained in 2010 and 2011 did reveal the presence of Xray emission. The X-ray brightness in 2000 and 2001 was about the same as or lower than it is in this deep image. This new Chandra image of M83 is one of the deepest X-ray observations ever made of a spiral galaxy beyond our own. This fullfield view of the spiral galaxy shows the low, medium, and highenergy X-rays observed by Chandra in red, green, and blue, respectively. The location of SN 1957D, which is found on the inner

These nebulae usually glow a reddish-pink colour. That’s because the new stars excite the atoms of hydrogen gas that remain in the cloud, and the atoms relax again by emitting red light at 656 nm, a wavelength set by the structure of the hydrogen atom. Diffuse nebulae also have traces of ionized oxygen which also emit light at a characteristic wavelength near 500 nm (blue-green). Above: NGC 4700 is a spiral galaxy located 50 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo. NGC 4700 was discovered in March 1786 by the British astronomer William Herschel who noted it as a v"ery faint nebula". constellation Virgo the Maiden. It is a barred spiral galaxy, similar in structure to the Milky Way. NGC 4700 lies about 50 million lightyears from us and is moving away

at about 870 miles per second (1,400 kilometres per second) due to the universe’s expansion.

edge of the spiral arm just above the galaxy's centre, is outlined in the box.

An image from the Hubble Space Telescope (in the box labelled "Optical Close-Up") shows that the debris of the explosion that created SN 1957D is located at the edge of a star cluster less than 10 million years old. Many of these stars are estimated to have masses about 17 times that of the Sun. This is just the right mass for a star's evolution to result in a core-collapse supernova, as is thought to be the case in SN 1957D.

The new X-ray data provides important information about the nature of this explosion, which astronomers think happened when a massive star ran out of fuel and collapsed. The distribution of Xrays suggests that SN 1957D contains a neutron star - a rapidly spinning, dense star formed when the core of pre-supernova star collapsed. This neutron star, or pulsar, may be producing a cocoon of charged particles moving at close to the speed of light known as a pulsar wind nebula. I f t h i s interpretation is correct, the pulsar in SN 1957D is observed at an age of 55 years, one of the youngest pulsars ever seen.

www.astronomy.com

These nebula also contain a fair bit of dust that reflects the blue light of the new stars. The reflective dust is called a “reflection nebula”; in many cases, the two nebula occur in the same area of star formation (see the image of the Trifid Nebula, below). In a way, diffuse or emission nebula are much like the neon lights you see on buildings and billboards. The lights use electricity to make gases glow, while a diffuse nebula get its

energy from the light of new stars embedded within. Even a random search with a small telescope along the plane of the Milky Way reveals many diffuse nebula, which look to the unaided eye like hazy patches of silverwhite light. The sword of the constellation Orion contains one of the brightest and most famous such nebula. A telescope gives you an astoundingly beautiful view of the Orion Nebula; no amount of observation is enough to reveal all its detail. You can see many more such nebula in July through September such as the Swan, Lagoon, Tr ifid Neb ulae in Sagittarius and Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens. All you need is a small telescope or pair of binoculars. Just remember, you won’t see colour when you observe such nebulae visually; there isn’t enough light to

Above: The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 is an H II region located in Sagittarius. Its name means 'divided into three lobes'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the lower, red portion), a reflection nebula (the upper, blue portion) and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' within the emission nebula that cause the trifid appearance). stimulate the cone cells in your eye. But in dark sky, these objects are still quite striking. Diffuse nebulae don’t last long, at least in astronomical time scales. After a few million years, the hot

You don’t need a telescope to do astronomy Many people assume that you need a telescope to get into ancestors in helping them know astronomy, which means you’ve got to be rich to afford one. Well when to plant crops, for example. For today’s astronomer, it is a you don’t actually need anything other than your eyes! A telescope may be essential for close-up views of the Moon and planets, but you can find plenty to look at in the sky without any form of optical aid. You can even take part in observing projects such as monitoring meteors or bright variable stars. What is more, it can be very helpful to get to know your way around the sky and learn how it changes before stepping up a gear and mastering a piece of optical equipment. You will find it invaluable if you take time to learn the different star patterns, or constellations. Start with the easy ones that you might already have had pointed out to

you as a child, such as the Great Bear, or Orion. Then use those as signposts to help locate other constellations nearby. The more you learn, the more quickly you will fill in the gaps between them that complete the celestial jigsaw.

welcome connection with the natural rhythm of the calendar.

young stars burn off the remaining gas and dust, leaving a small open cluster of gravitationally-associated stars. www.oneminuteastronomer.com

Learning the constellations is also a solid grounding that you will greatly appreciate when finally you do get the telescope of your dreams and are deciding were in the sky to point it. www.skymania.com

The human brain is good at making out patterns and it will not be long before the stars no longer appear as random points of light scattered across the sky but as instantly recognisable shapes that will become like old friends throughout your life. You will note, just as ancient man did, how they return to greet you at particular times of the year. Such familiarity was vital for our

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Massive stars found to orbit a partner

Hubble has spotted an ancient galaxy that shouldn’t exist

An international team of researchers from the USA and Europe including from the University of Bonn under the direction of Dr. Hugues Sana at the University of Amsterdam has discovered that the most massive stars in the universe don't spend their lives in space as singles as was previously thought. More than two-thirds orbit a partner star.

This galaxy is so large, so fully-formed, astronomers say it shouldn't exist at all. It's called a "grand-design" spiral galaxy, and unlike most galaxies of its kind, this one is old. Like, really, really old. According to a new study conducted by researchers using NASA's Hubble Telescope, it dates back roughly 10.7-billion years — and that makes it the most ancient spiral galaxy we've ever discovered. "The vast majority of old galaxies look like train wrecks," said UCLA astrophysicist Alice Shapley in a press release. "Our first thought was, why is this one so different, and so beautiful?" Shapley is co-author of the paper describing the discovery, which is published in the latest issue of Nature. She and her colleagues had been using Hubble to investigate some of our Universe's most distant cosmic entities, but the discovery of BX442 — which is what they've dubbed the newfound galaxy — came as a huge surprise. "The fact that this galaxy exists is astounding," said University of Toronto's David Law. "Current wisdom holds that such ‘grand-

design' spiral galaxies simply didn't exist at such an early time in the history of the universe." The hallmark of a grand design galaxy is its well-formed spiral arms, but getting into this conformation takes time. When astronomers look at most galaxies as they appeared billions and billions of years ago, they look clumpy and irregular. A 10.7-billion -year-old entity, BX442 came into existence a mere 3-billion years after the Big Bang. That's not a lot of time on a cosmic time scale, and yet BX442 looks surprisingly put together. So much so, in fact, that astronomers didn't believe it at first, chalking their unusual observation up to the accidental alignment of two separate

galaxies. But further investigations, conducted at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, revealed BX442 to be the real thing. So how does a galaxy that shouldn't exist come to be? The researchers think the answer may have something to do with a companion dwarf galaxy looming near BX442 (in the image up top, it's the separate circular cluster in the upper right). Simulations conducted by University of Arizona researcher Charlotte Christenson indicate that gravitation interactions between the two, which she says appear to be in the process of colliding, may have helped BX442 take shape. The reason Stephen Hawking bet against the Higgs Boson is the

Astronomers discover a fifth moon orbiting Pluto

Southwest Research Institute's Alan Stern, the mission's principal investigator.

It may not be a planet, but Pluto's got moons to burn. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spied the icy orb's fifth satellite. Everybody, say hello to S/2012 (134340), or "P5" for short.

Seeing as we're already talking about planetary nomenclature today, I can't help but wonder what they'll wind up naming P4 and 5. (Nix, Charon and Hydra are all figures from Greek mythology with ties to Hades (aka Pluto), god of the Underworld.)

Measuring somewhere between 6 and 15 miles in diameter, P5 may have to compete with P4 — which was discovered almost exactly one year ago — for the title of Pluto's smallest moon, but astronomers say it fits right in with the rest of the dwarf planet's system. "The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits," said team lead Mark Showalter in a statement released by Hubble, "a bit like Russian dolls." Its size also means NASA will have to keep an eye out for P5 when its New Horizons spacecraft soars

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through the Pluto system in 2015. The Agency has been using Hubble to look for potential hazards to New Horizons in the months and years leading up to its historic flyby.

Above: Top image is an artistic rendering of BX442 same reason BX442 is the best kind of discovery; not only does this galaxy set a new benchmark by way of its cosmic seniority, it's also super weird — weirder than what anyone thought was possible. In science, these are the finds that help us rework our understanding of nature, the discoveries that force us to step back from what we thought we knew, re-assess our preconceived notions, and bring forth a newer, more fully formed view of our Universe. rocky planets look like and how many there could be, or how stable or unstable their orbits are."

"The orbit paths of the stars are very close together so that the region around these stars is turbulent and by far not as calm as previously thought," says Professor Norbert Langer from the University of Bonn. What happens is that one star can suck the material out of its companion like a vampire or both stars can melt to become an even larger massive star. Astronomers evaluated more than ten years' worth of observations using one of the world's largest telescopes, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile's Atacama Desert. "The spectacular new research findings could only have been gathered based on one of the most extensive observation campaigns in this area," says Professor Robert Izzard. A total of 71 massive stars in six young galactic star clusters

were observed for years. Through close-knit monitoring, researchers were able to determine the paths of over three-quarters of the double stars discovered which led to unique precision. "The current study reveals that the fast majority of all massive stars spend their lives with a partner," states Fabian Schneider, the third scientist based in Bonn. Over time, roughly one-third of the star s ys t e m s m e l ts w i t h t he i r companion, while the other twothirds transfer material to its partner. Massive stars, also called spectral class O stars because of their characteristics are the brightest and the most short-lived stars in the universe. In the beginning they are more than 15 times as massive

www.nationalgeographic.com

Hubble’s View of Messier 68

Above: NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula near NGC 6334 in the constellation Scorpius. This nebula was given the name War and Peace Nebula by the Midcourse Space Experiment scientists because of its appearance. as our Sun. The end of their life is marked by spectacular supernova explosions or gamma ray bursts. They account for a large part of all the heavy elements in the universe. "The new insight into the lives of massive stars has a direct impact on the understanding of the final stages most massive stars experience," says Professor Langer. The gigantic explosions at the end of a star's life can be observed from almost all corners of the universe. One star in the open cluster Pismis 24, shown at the top of the page, is over 200 times the mass of our Sun, making it a record holder. This star (shown below) is

the brightest object located just to the right of the gas front in the above image. Close inspection of images taken recently with the Hubble Space Telescope, however, have shown that Pismis 24-1 derives its brilliant luminosity not from a single star but from three at least. Component stars would still remain near 100 solar masses, making them among the more massive stars currently on record. Toward the image left, stars are still forming in the associated emission nebula NGC 6357, including several that appear to be breaking out and illuminating a spectacular cocoon. www.dailygalaxy.com

www.io9.com

Astronomers discover a fifth moon orbiting Pluto "The inventory of the Pluto system we're taking now with Hubble will help the New Horizons team design a safer trajectory for the spacecraft," said

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Midlands Astronomy Club Magazine

Perseid meteor shower

Galaxy Zoo's black holes

The Perseid Meteor Shower is caused by debris coming from the Comet Swift-Tuttle. One of the main components of comets is ice. So when a comet passes near the Sun, a part of it vaporizes and is ejected from the main body. The ejected components form a stream of particles that follow the outline of the comet's orbit. When the Earth intersects with this path (or in other cases, come close to it), the particles then enter the Earth's atmosphere. Once in the atmosphere, gravity pulls them downward into a high-speed plunge. Because they are mostly very small, virtually all of them readily ignite and disintegrate. We then observe them as streaks of light as they burn up. They can number by the hundreds to hundreds of thousands per hour, hence the name meteor shower. The Perseid meteor shower is always seen from Earth as if coming from the constellation Perseus. It is for this reason that the Perseid meteor shower, and all other meteor showers for that matter, is named as such. The apparent source of the shower is more commonly known in astronomy circles as the radiant.

Observed since 2,000 years ago, the Perseid meteor shower is also known to some Catholics as the 'tears of Saint Lawrence' because the time when it peaks (early August) usually coincides with the saint's martyrdom. The event actually begins in mid-July but usually peaks at around August 1012. This is the time when our planet is bathed inside the densest portion of the debris stream. In the non-peak catch less than hour. But during 60+ of them can one hour.

times, you may 10 meteors per the peak times, be visible in just

The meteor shower is most visible in the Northern hemisphere.

Fun facts about the Perseids! The Perseid meteor shower is named for the constellation Perseus, from where the meteors appear to originate. The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most prolific showers of the year, with an average peak rate of 100 streaks per hour. Meteors are the visible paths of vaporizing space debris as it encounters our planet’s atmosphere. This debris range in size from dust particles to small pebbles, and occasionally larger stones. As a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it is heated by friction, which vaporizes the debris and causes the gases to glow. Most meteoroids disintegrate at about 50 miles above the surface, but become visible at about 40-75 miles. Meteoroids orbit the Sun just like planets, comets, and asteroids. They travel at speeds

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of about 26 mps, but, when combined with Earth’s orbital speed of about 18 mps, enter our atmosphere at a velocity rate of about 44 mps. The meteoroids associated with the Perseid meteor shower enter the Earth’s atmosphere at about 37 mps. Our planet encounters space debris every day, thus meteors are actually visible all year long. Occasionally, Earth passes through thicker patches of debris, known as streams or swarms, resulting in a meteor “shower.” Meteoroid streams, or swarms, have orbits similar to those of comets, thus are believed to be fields of comet debris resulting from a comet’s closing approach of the Sun. The Perseid meteor shower has been associated with the ancient debris field of Comet 109/Swift-Tuttle.

Citizen scientists are helping astronomers understand how galaxies and their resident supermassive black holes grow. In 2007 a simple online project invited the public to classify vast numbers of faint galaxies captured in beautiful panoramas by the Hubble Space Telescope. The trained human eye, astronomers judged, could still do a better job of assigning galaxies to their correct shape classifications than the best automated algorithms. Above: The Perseids should offer their best viewing in the evening hours of the 12th of the month and peak on the 13th. The shower will appear to radiate from the Northeast from the constellation of Perseus. However, for as long as you have a clear sky and standing in a dark area, you can easily spot the streaks of light wherever you are on Earth. If you're lucky, you can even catch a fireball. A bright moon can also prevent you from viewing the shower in all its magnificent glory.

be mistaken for a fireball. Newbie astronomers can easily be fooled because the Perseid meteor shower can cover a big part of the sky. The Iridium flares actually come from any of the 66 satellites that make up the Iridium Satellite Constellation.

Sometimes, a brilliant streak of light caused by an Iridium flare can

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Comet Swift-Tuttle leaves new debris each time it passes our planet – every 130 years. This debris field has the appearance of several streams, each measuring millions of miles long.

Comet Swift-Tuttle was “rediscovered” in 1992 by Tsuruhiko Kiuchi, ten years after its expected return of 1982. That year, the comet reached 5th magnitude, making it easily visible thr ough binoculars.

The Swift-Tuttle debris streams are comprised of small widelyspaced particles. Most of the meteoroids are about the size of sand grains, but some may be as large as small pebbles. With a core diameter of about 26km, comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest known object, and one of the oldest comets, to regularly pass closely to our planet. Comet Swift-Tuttle was originally recorded by Chinese astronomers in 69 BC and 188AD, but was formally discovered in 1862, by Lewis Swift on July 16, and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on July 19. Three others also independently discovered this comet: Dudley Observatory’s Thomas Simmons; Antonio Pacinotti and Carlo Toussaint from Florence, Italy; and Danish Astronomer Hans Schjellerup.

Comet Swift-Tuttle will pass within 14-million-miles of our planet when it next returns in 2126. Scientists believe that the comet will be even brighter than the 1992 pass, possibly even bright enough to be seen without binoculars. Astronomers once believed that comet Swift-Tuttle might, in the relatively near future, pass close enough to actually impact Earth or the Moon. While continued observations and recalculations have dispelled that concern for at least the next 2,000 years, this comet remains one the greatest known solar system threats to our planet.

Perseids StarBQ You are invited to our free StarBQ on the 11th Aug. See page 12 for full details.

Five years later the Galaxy Zoo project is still going strong, but the classifications, still made by ordinary folks, have gotten more complex and ever more useful. Some 200,000 volunteers contributed to the collaboration’s most recent project. Its conclusion goes against the current paradigm of galaxy and black hole evolution. Almost every galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its centre: which can weigh up to 10 billion Suns. Astronomers used to think that galaxy collisions played a big role in black hole growth and galaxy evolution, but Galaxy Zoo’s

newest result is the latest in a turning tide of evidence downplaying the importance of collisions. Supermassive black holes are hosted by galaxies that have central bulges of old stars, and the two are tightly correlated — usually. For example, the Milky Way is home to a black hole weighing 4 million Suns, and as seen from the side, our galaxy would look a bit like a Frisbee with an elongated golf ball stuck in the center. The ball-like bulge of the Milky Way looks and behaves like an elliptical galaxy: its stars are old, the interstellar gas associated with them is long gone, and they travel in essentially random orbits giving the bulge its round, puffy shape.

Above: Citizen scientists helped astronomers select these 12 face-on, bulgeless spiral galaxies. Each nucleus contains a healthy, growing supermassive black hole, despite the lack of a galactic bulge. and the black hole’s growth are both fed by infalling matter stirred up by collisions and mergers with other galaxies. Finally the black hole becomes so massive and active that gas blowing out from its surroundings clears out the galaxy’s entire inner region, halting both star formation and further feeding of the hole. But do the black holes and bulges always need collisions to grow? Galaxy Zoo volunteers identified thousands of face-on spiral galaxies with no significant bulge. These bulge less galaxies have probably never experienced a major collision with another galaxy. Out of 10,488 bulge less galaxies,

The current theory is that early in a galaxy’s life, its central bulge and central black hole grow in lockstep with each other. Star formation

Observatory site clean-up day & BBQ July 28th We finally did it - we finally got out and did a day's work on the Site in Clonminch! Rain or shine, Saturday July28th was pencilled in for the event. It did rain at times, but the Site is shining now! Eleven volunteers turned up with everything you can think of short of a 2 tonne mini-digger, and helped out. Despite some Above: Seanie Morris showers, we still managed to have practicing his pose for next years MAC Calena barbecue afterwards too. dar titled “Stud Muffins We look forward to our big Summer of Astronomy”. event, our Perseids StarBQ and Right: Jason Fallon and Camp Night on Saturday August his family which helped 11th. out during the day. And oh

the Galaxy Zoo astronomers selected 12 that host healthy, growing black holes regardless, each with a mass of at least a million Suns. If it’s really true that these galaxies have never collided with another, then the black holes must have grown entirely by other, less dramatic processes. They’re clearly a rarity, but they represent a “pure” sample, one that astronomers can study further to finally answer the question of all the ways that big black holes can grow. www.skyandtelescope.com

Left: MAC’s Vice-Chair and Chair helping out on the day… Some would say “The brains of the operation”, others would say “Don’t feed the animals”.

look! There’s Shane managing NOT to break any of the hired equipment.

Above: When asked to pose for this photo they swore that this was their first tea-break (yeah, right lads!).

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