EYEPIECE Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York

February 2012

Volume 60 Number 2 ISSN 0146-7662

The past year has been a busy time for exoplanetology—

the study of planets orbiting other stars. Last September,

NASA‘s Kepler team announced the finding of a ―Tatooine-

like‖ world (Star Wars fans, rejoice!) orbiting a double star,

but most of the action came out of the Extreme Solar Systems II conference in Wyoming, with the announcements of discov-

eries by several planet-hunting teams. Among them, the largest

trove of new planets was reported by the HARPS (High Accu-

racy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) project: 50 exoplanets,

including 16 ―super-Earth‖ planets with masses between one

and ten times that of Earth, including one orbiting at the edge

of its star‘s habitable zone.

The HARPS announcement was the largest number of

planet discoveries ever revealed at one time, and brought the

project‘s confirmed planet count to more than 150, nearly a

quarter of all exoplanets confirmed to date. This result was

revised again in October, when another 32 exoplanets were

discovered by the science team. NASA‘s Kepler exoplanet

search program has on several occasions announced hundreds

of new planetary candidates, but they require follow-up obser-vations before they can be confirmed. This is because Kepler

uses a different detection technique than HARPS, the so-called

transit method in which astronomers look for minute, tempo-

rary dips in a star‘s brightness caused by the passage of a

planet across the star‘s face. Other potential causes for these

dips must be ruled out before these candidates can be acknowl-

edged as planets.

HARPS uses the radial velocity or Doppler method to

detect planets. It is an echelle spectrograph (which uses a high-

resolution grating) deployed at the European Southern Obser-

vatory‘s (ESO) 3.6-meter La Silla telescope in the Atacama

desert in Chile. It was developed by a consortium headed by

the Geneva Observatory; its principal investigator is Michel

Mayor who, in 1995, became the co-discoverer of the first

exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star (51 Pegasi).

By taking high-resolution spectrographs, HARPS can

detect minute displacements in a star‘s spectral lines, corre-

sponding to changes in its radial velocity (velocity toward or

away from the Earth). These changes could be caused by the

tug of an unseen object—a potential planet—on the star.

HARPS can attain a precision in measuring shifts in ra-

dial velocity of less than one meter per second. Only two in-

struments worldwide can achieve such accuracy. The target star and reference spectrum from a thorium lamp are observed

HARPS Discoveries Bring Us Closer To New Earths By Tony Hoffman

simultaneously over fiber-optic feeds. The instrument is con-

tained in a vacuum to avoid spectral drift due to temperature

and air pressure variations. This accuracy allows HARPS to

detect planets with masses slightly greater than the Earth.

Among the 50 new HARPS planet discoveries announced

in September, the one that garnered the most attention orbits

the star HD 85512 (aka Gliese 370), 36 light-years away in the

southern constellation Vela. The planet, given the prosaic

designation HD 85512 b, has a mass of about 3.6 times that of Earth and orbits its star, an orange K-type dwarf, in 59 days.

But because Gliese 370 is cooler than its sun, the area of

potential habitability, the so-called ―Goldilocks zone‖ in which

temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to

exist, is much closer to the star than it is in our solar system.

HD 85512 b orbits near the inside edge of the habitable zone

and has a surface temperature of about 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whether or not it actually has liquid water is unknown at this

time. Fortunately, the star‘s relative proximity to Earth will

enable it to be studied closely in the years to come in hope of

unlocking some of its mysteries.

A sister project to HARPS called HARPS-N (HARPS-

North) will use a similar spectrograph installed on a telescope

in the Canary Islands. It will primarily be used to confirm

planet candidates first detected by the Kepler mission using the

transit method.

Since HARPS‗s inception in 2003, its scientists have

tweaked the spectrograph to greatly improve its resolution, but

its successors may have the potential to find Earth-sized or even smaller exoplanets. ESPRESSO (Echelle Spectrograph

for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations)

is a HARPS-like instrument being developed by the European

Southern Observatory for use with its VLT (Very Large

Telescope). It is designed with a required precision of 10 cm/s

(our Earth induces a radial-velocity of 9 cm/s on the Sun),

though the aimed goal is to attain a precision of just a few

centimeters per second.

ESPRESSO is currently expected to be commissioned

around 2016. An even more sensitive spectrograph, dubbed

CODEX, one of the instruments being studied for inclusion

with the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) may

be up to five times as sensitive as ESPRESSO, but the E-ELT

is expected to be at least a decade in construction. So for at

least the next five years, HARPS is likely to continue to reign

as the most prolific planet discoverer our world has known.

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February’s Evening Planets: Venus moves higher in the

west, closing in on Jupiter. Mercury joins them the last week

of the month in its best apparition for the year. But February‘s

highlight is Mars, approaching opposition on March 3rd. Watch

the Red Planet brighten with the naked eye. Through a tele-scope its ice cap and other features should be visible. Check

with us – we will have a special observing session.

February’s Evening Stars: The winter constellations are at

their highest around 9 PM. Orion is surrounded by Canis Ma-jor (to the lower east), Canis Minor (east), Gemini (upper

east), Auriga (above), and Taurus (upper right). Flanking them

to the west are the autumnal stars of Andromeda, Perseus and

Pegasus while rising to the east we see Leo, Hydra and the Big

Dipper.

February’s Morning Planets: Mars is in the morning sky as

well. Now retrograding, it moves back into Leo this month.

Saturn is in Virgo, about 7° east (left) of the bright star Spica.

Comet Garradd moves from Hercules into Draco. It should

peak at magnitude 7. To find it, use the star chart at

www.aaa.org/month1202.

February’s Morning Stars: The fainter spring constellations

are now in the west, while brighter stars of summer rise in the

east. Though they‘re not as bright as the winter stars they have

their own attractions. Look for Spica, the bright star in Virgo,

near Saturn all month.

February Day-by-Day

February 1 The Pleiades star cluster is 4° above the Moon February 7 Mercury at superior conjunction, entering the

evening sky

February 7 Full Moon at 4:54 p.m.

February 8 Saturn is stationary, begins retrograde motion

February 10 Mars is 10° south of the Moon

February 10 Venus passes 0.3° north of Uranus

February 12 Spica is 4° left of the Moon this morning

February 13 Saturn is 8° above the Moon this morning

February 14 Last Quarter Moon at 12:04 p.m

February 15 Mars is at aphelion, farthest from the Sun

(154.9 million miles)

February 15 Antares is 5° below the Moon this morning

February 19 Neptune is in conjunction with the sun,

entering the morning sky

February 21 New Moon at 5:35 p.m.

February 23 Mercury, Moon, Venus, and Jupiter line up

west to east in the evening sky

February 25 Moon is 3° above Venus

February 26 Moon is 4° above right of Jupiter

February 28 Moon and the Pleiades are 4° apart

February 29 First Quarter Moon at 8:21 p.m.

For more information go to: www.aaa.org/month1202

AAA LECTURE SERIES PRESENTS

DR. GLENNYS FARRAR ON FEB 10

By Dan Harrison

Dr. Glennys Farrar, professor of physics at NYU, will ad-

dress the AAA Friday, February 10 on ―At Last: Seeing Super-

massive Black Holes Shred Stars.‖ The free public lecture be-

gins at 6:15 p.m. in the Kaufmann Theater of the AMNH.

―A very exciting new frontier has been recently opened:

the observation of the ‗stellar tidal disruption‘ phenomenon,‖

Farrar tells Eyepiece. ―About once every 100,000 years, a star

passes so close to the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the

center of its galaxy that it is torn apart by the gravitational force,

without being so close that the debris completely falls into the

hole.‖

―When this happens, an extremely bright flare is generated

that lasts weeks to months, something like a transient quasar.

The observational challenge is to distinguish the flares from far

more common supernovae and variable active galactic nuclei.

Yet the payoff is tremendous, because the probability and prop-

erties of tidal disruption flares (TDFs) depend on the spin and

mass of the black hole, so that a large database of TDFs will

allow a census to be performed of SMBHs, including determin-

ing distribution of spins and masses. These are critically impor-

tant in understanding the evolution of the universe, yet ex-

tremely difficult to determine with any other technique.‖

―TDFs are also valuable for the insight they will give to

the production of jets in quasars and gamma-ray bursts, and the

possibility they are the sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays.‖

―This talk will describe the discovery of the first two de-

finitive examples of TDFs using optical techniques, in archival

Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, and the requirements for future

searches to do a successful census of SMBHs with this tech-

nique. The remarkable flare seen by the Swift X-ray telescope

last year--likely to be an example of a TDF viewed in ‗blazar

mode‘--and theoretical efforts to model such flares will also be

discussed."

Farrar received her Ph. D. in theoretical physics from

Princeton in 1971, breaking the gender barrier in physics there in

the process. She was a member of the Institute for Advanced

Study and on the faculties of CalTech and Rutgers before mov-

ing to NYU in 1998.

Among her accomplishments in particle physics, Farrar is

perhaps best known for pioneering the phenomenological study

of supersymmetry (SUSY). With colleagues, she developed most

present search techniques for superparticles, gave the first limits

on SUSY breaking and superpartner masses from accelerator

experiments and precision observables, and initiated the study of

cosmological effects of SUSY. She made a number of predic-

tions whose experimental confirmation played an important role

in establishing the Standard Model.

Farrar‘s current work focuses on problems at the intersec-

tion of astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics, including

ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, the nature of dark matter and dark

energy, and the origin of the asymmetry between matter and

antimatter. Another thrust of NYU research is to improve simu-

lation and reconstruction of cosmic-ray air showers. Farrar is

now engaged in several projects, including using observations of

large-scale structure and galactic dynamics to constrain the pos-

sibility that dark matter experiences non-gravitational forces.

WHAT’S UP IN THE SKY

AAA Observer’s Guide for February 2012

By Richard Rosenberg

EYEPIECE February 2012

3

Hello Members:

Our autumn class, ―Evolution of the Solar System/Birth and Death in the Solar System‖ was a great suc-

cess. Thank you, Laird Whitehall, for your professional presentation over the six sessions.

We hope to have a spring class soon and welcome member suggestions. Please let us know what you‘d

like to see covered. A few possible topics include the history of astronomy, the solar system, observing

(including telescopes) and astrophysics.

Our seminar on current topics in astronomy will resume this month at NYU on Thursday, February 9.

Professor David Hogg from NYU will be our guest. We will have the location and topic posted shortly on

our website.

The sky is interesting this month. Watch Venus climb out of the low western sky and approach Jupiter.

Meanwhile Mars is nearing its March 3 opposition, when it will be big and bright. Check with me for special

observing sessions.

With winter upon us the skies are particularly clear. Enjoy the stars!

Sincerely

Rich Rosenberg, AAA President Email: president@aaa.org ; Telephone: (718) 522-5014

A Message from AAA President Richard Rosenberg

EYEPIECE February 2012

KEPLER MAY HAVE HIT EXOPLANET JACKPOT

Two planets found orbiting a Sun-like star 950 light-

years from Earth are the smallest, most Earth-size alien worlds

known. One is smaller than Earth. The planets circle very

close to their star, giving them temps most likely too hot to support life.

The discovery brings scientists closer to finding a twin of

Earth that may be habitable. To discover the planets, astrono-

mers used Kepler and the transit method. Researchers then

used ground-based observatories to confirm the planets exist

by measuring minute wobbles in the star‘s position caused by

gravitational tugs from its planets.

These first Earth-sized worlds found orbiting a Sun-like

star, are among five worlds orbiting G-type Kepler-20, the

same class as our Sun, and slightly cooler. Two of the planets,

Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are 0.87 times and 1.03 times the

width of Earth, respectively, making them the smallest exoplanets known. They also appear to be rocky, with masses

less than 1.7 and three times Earth‘s mass. Although lacking

an atmosphere, scientists think they‘re composed mainly of

silicates and iron, much like Earth. Kepler-20e orbits every 6.1

days at a distance of 4.7 million miles, almost 20 times closer

than Earth. Kepler-20f orbits every 19.6 days at a distance of

10.3 million miles. The close orbits give the planets tempera-

tures of about 1,400 and 800 degrees.

Researchers can‘t exclude the possibility that the planets

used to be habitable, when they might have been farther from

their star. There‘s also chance that there are habitable regions on the planets in spots between their day and night sides; the

planets orbit with one half constantly facing their star and the

other half always dark.

The planetary system is unusual. Scientists say rocky

planets can‘t have formed in their current locations. There‘s

not enough rocky material that close to the star to form five

planets. They probably migrated inward. Unlike our solar sys-

tem, the five planets are in an odd order, with rocky worlds alternating with their gaseous neighbors, Neptune-size sib-

lings.

The star‘s other planets are Kepler-20b, 20c and 20d.

Their diameters are 15,000 miles, 24,600 miles and 22,000

miles, and they orbit every 3.7, 10.9 and 77.6 days. The larg-

est, Kepler-20d, weighs a little under 20 times Earth‘s mass,

while Kepler-20c is 16.1 times as heavy as Earth and Kepler-

20b is 8.7 times our mass.

NEBULA OF THE MONTH— CARINA’S FOOTBALL

With the Superbowl coming on Feb. 5, it‘s appropriate this

month to highlight the Football Cluster, located 6,500 - 10,000

light years from Earth in the Carina Nebula. The nebula con-

tains multiple O-type stars couched within surrounding clus-

ters NGC 3532, NGC 3293 and the Gem Cluster. Although it

is some four times as large and even brighter than the famous

Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is much less well known,

due to its location far in the Southern Hemisphere. Canadian

astrophotographer Alan Dyer (www.amazingsky.com) pro-

vides a myriad of stunning images of this and other celestial targets, as does our celebrated Hubble (www.hubblesite.org).

________________________

What is your favorite nebula?

Write eyepieceeditor@gmail.com to have your answer published!

4

meteorites like the Knowles meteorite from the museum‘s col-

lection are 99% metal alloy and, like some asteroids, could be

mined for valuable materials.

Asteroids are also a constant threat to life on Earth.

NASA has identified more than 1,200 asteroids wider than 500

feet whose orbits come within 5 million miles of Earth. A

touch-screen interactive exhibit explores plausible scenarios

for deflecting a ―doomsday‖ asteroid.

Next comes Mars. There‘s a full-scale model of the nine-

foot-long Mars Science Laboratory Rover, Curiosity, which

launched from Cape Canaveral in November and will go into

insertion orbit in August. It will seek evidence of organic life.

Miniature models show how astronauts might eat, sleep and

exercise during a months-long journey aboard NASA‘s Nauti-lus-X spaceship. Since not everyone is suited for the trip, visi-

tors can take a personality test to see how they‘d fare. A proto-

type of a new space suit shows what an astronaut might wear.

A walk-through diorama of the Martian surface and an interactive fly-over simulation give visitors a sense of what it

might be like to explore the planet. Visitors can zoom in on

locations such as the Gale Crater, the landing spot for the Curi-

osity Rover, and Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and tall-

est mountain in the solar system. The Mars terraforming table

allows several visitors at once to transform Mars from a fro-

zen, thin-aired environment to an Earth-like planet.

The exhibit then moves to the outer solar system. The

search for life on Europa could fall to a robotic submersible, a

prototype of which is featured, that would melt through the

moon‘s icy surface and explore its salty oceans.

Now it‘s time to exit the solar system. The exhibition

concludes with a look at more than 1,000 stars that have been

found to have planets. These exoplanets were detected by the

Kepler Space Telescope in the first four months of operation.

In conjunction with the show, the museum is offering

lectures and educational programming. These include

SpaceFest held on January 15, a family celebration that fea-

tured space-related activities, performances and special dome

presentations. AMNH has also planned a March 11 program

about extremophiles that will examine how organisms that

survive in Earth‘s most hostile environments offer clues about extraterrestrial life. See amnh.org for info on additional pro-

grams.

Predictably, Shara and astronauts Mike Massimino and

John Grunsfeld, who appeared on a panel at the media pre-view, asserted that benefits of space travel will be worth the

expense. But it was clear they are cognizant of the challenge

facing these far-reaching programs: pressure on all agencies of

government, including NASA, to tangibly pare budgets. That

notwithstanding, the three agreed major advances can be ex-

pected starting in 10 years, with Shara predicting humans on

Mars in 15-20 years.

―We‘ll only know about Martian life by going there,‖

Shara said.

EYEPIECE February 2012

AMNH LAUNCHES ITS VISION - THE FUTURE OF SPACE TRAVEL

By Dan Harrison

AMNH astrophysicist Michael Shara, lead curator for

―Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration,‖ an

exhibition at the museum that opened November 19 and runs

through August 12, 2012, told a recent media preview that the

exhibition is coming at a critical time for NASA.

―We‘re at a kind of crossroads. The shuttle program has

ended, and that‘s a little bit like graduating from kindergarten.

We want to take those next steps out of our backyard into the

neighborhood and then into the big city to visit all the other

places in the solar system.‖

The show offers a vision of the future of space travel as it

explores our next steps in the solar system and beyond. It takes

visitors on humanity‘s journey to explore the next frontier,

either through ourselves or via robotic proxies. Highlighted

conceptual future missions include building a space elevator on the surface of the Moon, deflecting a hazardous near-Earth

asteroid and traveling to Mars--perhaps establishing colonies

there.

Before attending the exhibition, visitors can download a

free augmented reality (AR) app for iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad created for the show. The app, ―Beyond Planet Earth

Augmented Reality,‖ can activate 11 AR icons throughout the

exhibition, which unlock animations and allow visitors to

share images via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter in addition to

accessing a special site with additional space-themed links.

The icons and links can also be found on the ―Beyond Planet

Earth‖ section of amnh.org.

The exhibition opens with a retrospective of historic

manned and unmanned space missions: Sputnik 1, the first

manmade satellite; the Vostok 1 space capsule that boosted

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, into orbit; the Hubble

Space Telescope; and a Mars Exploration Rover. Authentic

equipment and artifacts on display include a Soviet cosmonaut

helmet and U.S. astronaut gloves. A model of Virgin Galac-

tic‘s SpaceShipTwo, a space plane in development, highlights

emerging space-travel vehicles.

The solar system theater has a video presentation that

introduces visitors to future manned and unmanned space mis-

sions to Mars, Europa and beyond.

The section on returning to the Moon notes that NASA

and other space agencies have identified Shackleton Crater,

near the South Pole, as a promising site for a lunar base be-

cause it offers access to resources such as water-ice and near-

constant sunlight to generate electricity. Along with a scale

model of a habitat that could house four astronauts, this area features models of a space elevator that could transport mined

materials and a liquid-mirror telescope on the Moon‘s surface.

Exploring Asteroids: This section features a 3-D re-

creation of the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa and the Japanese

Hayabusa spacecraft that rendezvoused with it in 2005 to col-lect samples. Obtaining pristine samples for study not only

helps scientists better understand the formation of the solar

system, but may reveal the presence of valuable metals. Iron

5

Astronomical Fact of the Month

Behold The Mighty Magnetar

The universe’s most powerful magnets are found in the death of very massive stars. First discovered a mere 14 years ago, magnetars are neutron stars with a super-strong magnetic

eld a thousand trillion times stronger than Earth’s. If the eld is really strong, then magnetism itself can keep the star hot - about 10 million degrees C (18 million degrees F) at the sur-face and power the X-rays coming from its rotating surface.

________________________

“If a magnetar ew past Earth within 100,000 miles, the intense magnetic field of the exotic object would destroy the data on every credit card on the planet.”

________________________

The density of a magnetar is such that a thimbleful of its sub-stance , sometimes referred to as neutronium, would have a mass of over 100 million tons.

TWO GRAILS ARE BETTER THAN ONE A pair of NASA spacecraft rang in the New Year by suc-cessfully circling the Moon after journeying for more than three months. The Grail-B probe entered lunar orbit New Year's Day, joining its twin spacecraft, Grail-A, which arrived December 31. The probes are on a mission to the Moon from crust to core. After gradually circling down to super-low orbits, the pair will zip around the Moon in tandem, working to map its gravity field in unprecedented detail. Scientists expect the probes’ measurements to help unlock some longstanding mys-teries about the Moon’s composition and evolution. A major puzzle is why the Moon’s near side, the face we always see from Earth, is so different from the far side. Plains of volcanic rock are much more widespread on the near side, while the far side is higher and more mountainous, with the surface an aver-age 1.2 miles higher than the near side. One possible explanation is that a collision 4.5 billion years ago created two moons. The second moon, much smaller, later slammed into the Moon's far side, spreading it-self over the surface rather than creating a crater. Grail-A and Grail-B will spend two months circling lower and lower, even-tually settling into orbits 34 miles above the surface. Only then will the craft begin their science campaign. They’ll chase each other around the Moon for 82 days, staying 75-225 miles apart. Regional differences in the lunar gravity field will cause the spacecraft to speed up or slow down slightly.

________________________

Calendric Quagmires and Missing Moons By Thomas Haeberle

There is an unusual arrangement of lunar phases this year partially contributed by February’s short duration. The year starts off in January with five lunar phases two of which are First Quarter moons. But even February despite being a leap month of 29 days will be deprived of any First Quarter (FQ) moons. That is because a lunation (lunar cycle) or the time it takes between one lunar phase to another (such as FQ to FQ) takes 29.5 days. Consequentially this will give March two First Quarter moons and again, because this month (like January) has a duration greater than a lunation (29.5 days). A similar turn of events will happen again in 2014 when both January and March will have two New Moons each, thereby depriving February of any New Moons. And then in 2018 when both January and March will have two Full Moons each, and none for February. These four Full Moons in the first three months will translate into 13 Full Moons for 2018. This is because 12 lunations which total 354 days is less than a cal-endar year of 365 days (366 days for a leap year) which makes that many calendric Full Moons possible. Of course the bigger question is when does the calendric “blue moon” occur? An extra Full Moon in a month is popu-larly interpreted as being a blue moon (but not in the literal sense). There is another interpretation of this based on seasons but the monthly extra Full Moon is the preferred. Therefore in 2018 there will not only be one calendric blue moon in Janu-ary, but March as well. This can only happen when February has none, as what happened in 1999.

EYEPIECE February 2012

CALL FOR EYEPIECE WRITERS

Those members who enjoy reading Eyepiece may want to learn more about astronomy by participating as a writer. For the past two years and now as current editor, I am constantly exploring lead-ing-edge astronomical events through research for my articles and attending lectures and presentations as an Eyepiece representative. I encourage anyone focused on learning more about the science of astronomy and the exciting missions at NASA, ESA and other sources in the field to join our team of dedicated writers. Please contact me directly to discuss working together.

Evan B. Schneider, Editor Email: editor@aaa.org Tel: 212-986-4225

Contacting AAA: Website - www.aaa.org; General Club Matters and Observing: president@aaa.org; Membership Business: mem-bers@aaa.org; Classes: classes@aaa.org; Seminars: semi-nar@aaa.org; Eyepiece: editor@aaa.org

Telephone (voicemail): 212-535-2922

Membership Renewal Attention all AAA Members

If you haven’t renewed your membership, this will be your last issue of Eyepiece.

Stay informed and connected to the universe. Visit our website and fill out a membership form.

6

finally break the light barrier. Scientists are certainly trying

and someday there might be conclusive results. We may cre-

ate a particle that can travel faster than the speed of light.

Don‘t expect to see a space probe making a trip to Pluto

in a few hours instead of 15 years. Neutrinos are practically

mass-less and are produced in nuclear reactors, not clean

rooms at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They are not easy to pro-

duce, but when you create them, they do gain a lot of speed

naturally. You don‘t need to invent a great propulsion system

to get them going. So this breakthrough will not be used to power starships through the galaxy. It would be a great break-

through for communications.

Consider the challenges we have communicating across

the vast distances of space. Since the invention of the radio,

communications have happened at the speed of light. The distances on Earth are relatively so small that a person in New

York can speak to someone in Sydney, Australia and it feels

instantaneous. Yet, as we venture into space, the finite speed

of light becomes apparent and quite inconvenient. Even when

astronauts were on the moon, they experienced a 3 second

additional delay communicating to Houston because of this

finite speed. Communication to our probes on Mars takes an

additional 10 to 20 minutes roundtrip so you can imagine how

inconvenient this is as we continue to explore farther. So, if

we can find particles that move faster than light, and use these

to communicate like we do with radio waves then perhaps we

can help exploration.

Unfortunately, while these newly discovered fast neutri-

nos may win a race against light, they don‘t win by much. 60

nanoseconds speed improvement over 743 km do not add up to

much in terms of time savings even when travelling across interstellar space. These fast neutrinos would travel from

Earth to Mars about 0.1 seconds faster than light. Even a trip

to Pluto would only save 0.5 seconds off the 5 hour 28 minute

trip. A trip to Proxima Centauri would get the fast neutrinos

there 56 minutes faster than light. After 4 years and almost 6

months, saving an hour is not going to make much difference.

So, let us assume that we can someday find particles that

can travel many times the speed of light. If the limit can be

broken, then maybe we can smash it. Who knows where the

limit is? Imagine interactive communication with a colony on

Mars. Internet access and sharing information across vast dis-

tances in the Solar System would be possible just as easy as it

is to e-mail your friend in Asia and get a response in seconds.

Consider that someday we may advance propulsion systems to

send space probes to other solar systems in a few decades. We

would still want to communicate to those probes on a regular

basis. Having particles that travel much faster than light

would allow true active exploration of distant star systems.

Wouldn‘t that would be worth breaking a few laws?

________________________

Richard Brounstein is a monthly contributor to Eyepiece, ex-

ploring what today seems improbable or impossible. Stay

tuned for more fascinating concepts in “WHAT IF.”

Do you remember neutrinos? They are the tiny, almost

mass-less, electrically neutral subatomic particles that pour out

of the Sun and supernovas at incredibly fast speeds. There are trillions of them passing through my body right now and, be-

cause they have no electrical charge, they won‘t affect that

pizza particles digesting in my stomach. In fact, a single neu-

trino can pass through 2 light years of solid lead and not inter-

act with a single atom.

In September, 2011, the particle accelerator at CERN in

Switzerland created some exotic neutrinos. These neutrinos

were directed toward a particle detector in Italy, 743 kilome-

ters away and their speed was accurately measured. To the

scientists‘ great surprise, the neutrinos reached their destina-

tion earlier than expected. They traveled the 743 km distance

60 nanoseconds (60/billionth of a second) faster than light

could travel that same distance through a vacuum. In other

words, these neutrinos went faster than the speed of light!

Light speed is that cosmic speed limit set by Einstein in the

early 20th century that cannot be achieved by any particle in nature. And these particles reached that speed and a little bit

more. They did the impossible and something that every sci-

entist and engineer hoped we would someday do. They broke

the ultimate speed limit.

Unfortunately, before we can pack our bags for a day trip to Mars, we must remember that these experiments are still not

entirely verified. Many scientists think there was a mistake

with how they timed the experiment. A 60 nanosecond meas-

urement over any significant distance would require incredible

accuracy of instruments. If the timing measurements are any

bit off, then this great result is wrong and these super neutrinos

are just more particles obeying the currently established laws

of physics. An independent team of scientists needs to verify

the experiment with different timing methods and many more

tests have to take place. While I personally would love to see

us break the speed of light, I‘m still very skeptical.

Putting aside our skeptic‘s hat on this experiment, let us

explore what this would mean to the world. Even if these

experiments do turn up false, some future experiment may

EYEPIECE February 2012

WHAT IF? By Richard Brounstein

NEUTRINOS GOING FASTER THAN LIGHT

Illustration by Joshua M. Erich (Copyright 2012)

7

DIZZY MECURY DIDN’T SEE IT COMING

A collision with an asteroid might have set Mercury

whirling oddly in its orbit, a new study suggests. Scientists had

assumed Mercury was tidally locked with the Sun. Mercury‘s

tiny size and proximity to the Sun suggested its gravitational

pull would quickly force Mercury into such a state. However,

radar observations revealed Mercury leads a stranger life, ro-

tating three times on its axis for every two orbits it completes.

Researchers suggest Mercury was once tidally locked, initially spinning opposite its orbit. Computer models suggest a giant

asteroid impact then knocked it into its current configuration.

HEARTBEAT OF A BABY BLACK HOLE

Scientists may have found the smallest black hole yet by

listening to its X-ray ―heartbeat.‖ The black hole, if it exists,

would weigh less than three times the mass of the Sun, putting

it near the theoretical minimum mass for black hole stability.

Researchers can‘t directly observe the black hole, but meas-

ured a rise and fall in X-ray light coming from a binary system

in the Milky Way they think signals a black hole. Until now,

this X-ray pattern has been seen in only one other black hole

system. The new X-ray heartbeat, in a star system 16,000-

65,000 light-years away, is believed to include one normal star

with a companion black hole. Mass would stream off the star and fall toward the black hole, forming a flattened disk around

it. As friction in the disk heats the gas to millions of degrees,

the disk would emit high-energy X-rays that can be seen

across the galaxy. As changes occur inside the disk, cyclical

variations are seen in X-rays streaming from it. Scientists think

these patterns represent cycles of accumulation and ejection in

an unstable disk. They see seven of them in the system.

SLOW PULSAR FINISHES LAST

Astronomers have discovered a strange spinning pulsar

that appears to be older than the explosion that gave birth to it.

The pulsar, SXP 1062, is spinning slowly, suggesting an ad-

vanced age. But it can‘t be as old as it looks, because the star

probably exploded less than 40,000 years ago. Not many pul-

sars have been observed within their supernova remnant, and this is the first clear example of such a pair in the Small Ma-

gellanic Cloud. A second team independently confirmed find-

ings that leftover supernova debris is 10,000-40,000 years old.

The first team spotted X-rays emitted by SXP 1062. Most pul-

sars spin extremely rapidly, making hundreds of revolutions

per second. But SXP 1062 spins once every 18 minutes.

MICROBES COME IN FROM THE COLD

Ice within lava tubes on Earth can host bacteria in cold,

Mars-like conditions, hinting life could dwell in similar Mar-

tian lava tubes. Microbes were collected from a lava tube in

Oregon‘s Cascade Mountains, within ice on rocks 100 feet

inside the tube. The unique qualities of one species of microbe

allow it to grow in Mars-like conditions. Moreover, these mi-

crobes can grow without organic nutrients such as sugars, sub-sisting off iron in olivine, common on Earth and Mars.

FIRST EXOPLANETS, NOW EXOMOONS

As astronomers search for potentially habitable alien

planets, they‘re hunt has expanded to include moons. Three

new computer simulations may help identify exomoons that

may harbor water on their surfaces if their planets orbit close

enough to their stars. When discovery of 1,235 planetary can-

didates was announced a year ago, the list included 37 Nep-

tune-sized and 10 Jupiter-sized planets within their stars‘ hab-

itable zones, where liquid water can exist on a rocky planet. Although gas giants won‘t contain surface liquid water, their

moons might. Astronomers search for a wobble in starlight to

distinguish between a moon and a starspot. A moon would tug

slightly at the stellar body. The ESA‘s Convection Rotation

and Planetary Transits probe (CoRoT), sporting a 27cm afocal

scope and a 4-CCD wide-field camera, should detect an exo-

moon with a radius 1.3 times as large as Earth, while Kepler

would be able to spot a moon a third the size of our planet.

A STAR IS BORN

A telescope mounted in a jet has peered into the heart of a nebula where stars are being born. NASA‘s Stratospheric

Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) snapped two

photos of a star-forming region in the Orion nebula. Infrared

images show a complex distribution of stars and interstellar

dust. In one photo, a single blue source shines especially

brightly. This dot is a gigantic protostar known as the BN

(Becklin-Neugebauer) Object. The Ney-Allen Nebula region

of intense infrared emission harbors young solar-mass stars

surrounded by dusty disks, possible birthing grounds of plan-

ets. Photographs have been taken of the many stages of star

formation, revealing cold interstellar clouds and stars.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE LUNAR ROCKS GONE?

NASA has lost or misplaced more than 500 moon rocks

Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth. An agency report

says NASA ―lacks sufficient controls over its loans of moon

rocks and other astromaterials, which increases the risk that

these unique resources may be lost.‖ The office audited 59 researchers who‘d received samples from NASA, and found

that 11, or 19%, couldn‘t locate all borrowed materials.

METEORITES DO THE WAVE ON MARS

As meteorites careen toward the surface of Mars, they can trigger avalanches before they even hit the ground, a new

study says. Space rocks flying toward the surface can travel at

several times the speed of sound, creating shockwaves in the

air. These shockwaves pummel the ground, kicking up dust

that rolls over slopes in dark streaks that can be seen from or-

bit. Researchers analyzed dark streaks and found many didn‘t

fit the pattern expected if they were caused by seismic shaking

produced by an impact. Instead, the streaks bore signatures of

shockwaves that would have been created before any impact.

When scientists used a computer model to simulate geologic

features expected from such shockwaves, they found curved

marks, called scimitars, matching those seen on the surface.

EYEPIECE February 2012

AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY

8

RED GIANT TOO FULL FOR DESSERT

Astronomers have discovered two potential exoplanets

that survived being engulfed by their bloated, dying star. It had

been believed that no planet could withstand such a scorching.

Also a surprise, the worlds have inflicted damage on the ex-panded star, consuming much of its mass. There has been no

previous case where such a strong influence on evolution of a

star has occurred. Kepler astronomers didn‘t set out looking

for these planets. They were studying a dying star, KIC

05807616. While observing its light, a team detected bright-

ness variations every 5.8 and 8.2 hours. The cause was two

planets slightly smaller than Earth circling the star in ex-

tremely close orbits at less than 1% of 1 AU. Kepler normally

detects planets by the transit method however, researchers

concluded dimming from planetary transits was not a factor.

Instead, Kepler was flagging reflected planetary light and

emissions. These exoplanets started out as Jupiter-sized gas giants, but before the red giant formed, both sat farther away

and were engulfed during stellar envelope expansion.

DAWN, FEELING GROOVY, EYES VESTA

NASA‘s Dawn spacecraft took its first close-up images

of Vesta, revealing small grooves, lines and dimples along the surface. The asteroid is covered in craters from small-asteroid

impacts. Dawn entered its closest orbit December 12, spiraling

to 130 miles above the surface. Scientists plan to keep the

probe there 10 weeks before sending Dawn higher to observe

with a wider field again. While in lowest orbit, Dawn will col-

lect data to shed light on composition of Vesta‘s surface and

its interior structure. The spacecraft will take optical photos, as

well as measurements of gamma-rays and neutrons from the

surface. In July, Dawn will depart Vesta and head for Ceres,

where it will arrive by February 2015.

MILKY WAY’S BLACK HOLE HAPPY MEAL

The giant black hole at the Milky Way‘s heart will soon

rip apart a vast cloud of gas that could reveal how supermas-

sive black holes gobble their meals. Observing through Chile‘s

Very Large Telescope, scientists named the region of the black

hole Sagittarius A* and pinpointed its location based on radio-

emission. Since 2002, astronomers have monitored a dusty gas cloud three times Earth‘s mass traveling up to more than 5.2

million mph in a straight line toward Sagittarius A*, putting

out five times as much light as the Sun. The cloud has grown

increasingly disrupted as it moves toward where matter begins

its death spiral into the black hole. The cloud should arrive in

2012 or 2013. As it continues to be absorbed, its X-ray emis-

sions should brighten and eject a giant radiation flare.

FLY ME TO THE MOON (SOMEDAY)

Microsoft‘s Paul Allen is teaming up with aerospace de-

signer Burt Rutan to develop a new approach to private space

travel, cargo or satellites. Stratolaunch Systems will create

airport-like operations for space travel. The company will use

a giant twin-boom aircraft to launch a rocket and space capsule

from the air to carry commercial and government payloads,

and eventually paying passengers, into orbit. The first flight is

expected within five years. The company‘s robotic Dragon capsule will launch a test flight to the space station this month.

LUNAR RECON ORBITER BUZZES THE TOWER

Spectacular images of a gigantic lunar crater were cap-

tured by a low-skimming NASA satellite. The Lunar Recon-

naissance Orbiter passed over the Aristarchus crater, 25 miles

wide and more than two miles deep. The spacecraft was only

16.2 miles above the surface; about two times lower than nor-

mal. That‘s only a little over twice as high as commercial jets

fly. The Aristarchus plateau is one of the Moon‘s most geo-

logically diverse places: a mysterious raised flat plateau, a giant rille carved by enormous outpourings of lava and fields

of explosive volcanic ash, all surrounded by massive flood

basalts. Scientists think the crater was created relatively re-

cently, geologically speaking, when a comet or asteroid

smashed into the Moon.

MOBY DICK’S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

Goddard Space Flight Center scientists are designing a

small harpoon that would fire into and collect samples from

nearby comets. Scientists want to look at the primordial ooze,

comet biomolecules that may have assisted the origin of life.

Previous missions found amino acids in comets and meteor-

ites. The new project could discover other ingredients neces-sary for life, supporting the theory that comet and meteorite

impacts boosted development of life on Earth by delivering

biomolecules. Another goal is to figure out how comets are

formed. This would provide scientists with details on how best

to deflect space rocks. A spacecraft would carry harpoons with

various powder charges to handle different areas on a comet.

The spacecraft would choose a target and fire the appropriate

harpoon based on presumed composition of the area.

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK ON A SUPERNOVA

Astronomers have found the first direct evidence that

some star explosions are triggered by white dwarfs. Scientists

studying the youngest type of 1a supernova ever found worked

backward to pinpoint its explosion time with unparalleled ac-

curacy. In doing so, they confirmed that a white dwarf was the

source of the blast, and gleaned insights into the nature of the dwarf‘s companion star. Only 21 million light-years away in

the Pinwheel Galaxy, the supernova is the closest to our planet

in 25 years. Knowing how much energy the supernova put out

allowed researchers to rewind the stellar explosion to see how

it began. Astronomers long suspected white-dwarf remnants

were the source of type 1a supernovae.

IN THE BEGINNING: QUASICRYSTAL

A rock made of a type of crystal never before seen out-

side a lab is most likely a meteorite from the early days of the

solar system, geologists say. Two years after identifying the

Russian rock‘s composition, researchers say it‘s a quasicrystal

likely formed in space rather than inside the Earth. Its chemi-

cal composition of metallic copper and aluminum resembles

what‘s found in carbonaceous chondrites, primitive meteorites scientists think were remnants from the original building

blocks of planets. Thirty years ago, labs began producing qua-

sicrystals, a strange arrangement of atoms. Examination of

oxygen isotopes in the rock indicated origins in the early solar

system. Quasicrystals are one of the first minerals formed in

the solar system, long before most common minerals on Earth.

ries continued on p

EYEPIECE February 2012

9

FROM RUSSIA, WITH SPACE JUNK

A Russian space probe on a mission to the Martian moon

Phobos, having become stuck in Earth orbit, came down in

flames in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile January 15. Pieces

from the Phobos-Ground landed in water, 775 miles west of

Wellington Island in southern Chile. The deserted ocean area

is where Russia guides its discarded space cargo ships serving

the ISS. Some Russian ballistic experts said fragments fell

over a broader patch, spreading from the Atlantic and includ-ing territory of Brazil. The $170 million craft was one of the

heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to

Earth, but space officials and experts said risks posed by its

crash were minimal because toxic rocket fuel and most of the

craft‘s structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above

the ground. The Phobos-Ground was designed to land on Pho-

bos, collect soil samples and fly back to Earth in 2014 in one

of the most daunting interplanetary missions ever. It got

stranded in Earth orbit after its November 9 launch and efforts

by Russian and ESA experts to bring it back to life failed. Rus-

sia‘s space agency predicted only 20-30 fragments of the probe with a total weight up to 440 pounds would survive re-entry

and plummet to Earth. Phobos-Ground weighed 14.9 tons,

including 12 tons of highly toxic rocket fuel left unused.

EUROPA: TWO LANDERS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

NASA is considering dropping two robotic landers on

Europa. JPL researchers are developing a concept mission that

could launch in 2020 and deliver the landers six years later.

The chief goal: to investigate whether life could have existed

on the moon. The concept calls for launching identical landers, each 704 pounds with 79 pounds of instruments, a hedge

against something going wrong. The landers‘ prime mission

would last just seven days, to make sure they get their work

done before radiation takes its toll. But the robots could last

longer. The potential mission wouldn‘t be explicitly to detect

life, but would assess the location‘s ability to support past and

present life. NASA is considering another mission, also to

launch in 2020, which would send a spacecraft to study Europa

from orbit.

CONNECTING THE BLACK HOLE DOTS

The universe‘s first supermassive black holes grew so

fast by gobbling up a steady stream of cold gas, a new study

suggests. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey found supermassive black holes less than 1 billion years old. That they were the

same size as today‘s most massive black holes, which are 13.6

billion years old, was a puzzle. Normally, when cold gas flows

toward a black hole, it collides with other gas in the surround-

ing galaxy, causing it to heat up before entering the black hole.

This shock heating puts the brakes on black-hole growth some-

what. But simulations suggested early supermassive black

holes encountered no such check on their growth. Rather,

streams of cold gas were likely channeled straight into them

along filaments that give structure to the universe, causing the

black holes to grow faster than anything in the early universe.

MOVING AT THE SPEED OF GAMMA RAYS

A well-known exploded star pumping out gamma rays

may be the smoking gun in the search for origins of some of

the fastest-moving particles in the universe, a new study re-

ports. Fermi detected gamma rays emanating from the husk of

Tycho‘s supernova, a star that exploded in 1572. The detection

provides evidence that supernova remnants can accelerate cos-

mic rays. Studying the supernova is yielding further insights. Fermi found gamma-ray emissions emanating from Tycho,

which could shed light on where cosmic rays come from. As-

tronomers have long suspected supernovas are a key source of

cosmic rays. Magnetic fields on either side of the shockwave

trap particles, the idea goes, bouncing them back and forth

very rapidly. The particles gain energy, eventually getting so

amped up they burst free of the magnetic fields and start racing

through interstellar space.

9 BILLION YEARS IN THE MAKING

Astronomers have found the most distant Type 1a super-

nova, a kind of star explosion that should help scientists better

understand the ever-expanding universe and the nature of dark

energy, the strange force accelerating that expansion.

Bursting into existence 9 billion years ago, the supernova (nicknamed SN Primo) was born from the violent death of a

shrunken, super-dense star called a white dwarf. Light from

such explosions falls within a very narrow range, which is why

astronomers call them standard candles. As the light travels

toward Earth, astronomers can measure how it is stretched by

the expansion of the universe. The team used the Wide Field

Camera 3 instrument on Hubble to observe the supernova in

near-infrared wavelengths over eight months.

―In our search for supernovae, we had gone as far as we

could go in optical light,‖ said principal investigator Adam

Riess, of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns

Hopkins University. ―But it‘s only the beginning of what we can do in infrared light.‖

The discovery was part of a survey called the CAN-

DELS+CLASH Supernova Project. The census searches re-

gions targeted by two large Hubble programs, the Cosmic As-

sembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey and

the Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey, over the course of

three years, starting in 2010. SN Primo was found in October

of that same year. The CANDLES+CLASH team searches for

ancient supernovae in an effort to understand if they‘ve

changed over the 13.7 billion years since the Big Bang.

―This discovery demonstrates that we can use the Wide Field Camera 3 to search for supernovae in the distant uni-

verse,‖ Riess said. ―If we look into the early universe and

measure a drop in the supernovae, then it could be that it takes

a long time to make Type 1a supernovae…every supernova is

unique, so it‘s possible that there are multiple ways to make a

supernova,‖ said Steve Rodney, also of Johns Hopkins.

If, on the other hand, such supernovae form quickly in

the early stages of the universe, they should be plentiful. If the

Type 1a supernovae from the early universe look different than

today‘s explosions, the variations could provide more insights

into dark energy.

Riess was one of three astronomers awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of dark energy 13

years ago by studying Type 1a supernovae. The findings were

announced at the 219th American Astronomical Society meet-

ing in Austin, Tex., on Wednesday, Jan 11.

EYEPIECE February 2012

10

FOCUS ON THE UNIVERSE

By Stan Honda

When we look up, it‘s easy to see the wonders of the

night sky. Yet capturing these celestial objects in a photograph

can be a challenge. Although it doesn‘t take much equipment,

it requires a certain amount of patience and planning. But it‘s worth the effort because ultimately photographs can reveal

more of the night sky on a broader scale than can be seen by

the unaided human eye. During the next few months I‘ll write

about simple night sky photography that can be done with a

digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera and basic lenses.

Astrophotography through a telescope with specialized

astronomy cameras is another field altogether. I‘ll concentrate

on wide views of the sky with interesting foreground objects,

essentially landscape photography at night. Like other types of

photography, it‘s a combination of using the right equipment,

finding the right subject matter, composition, exposure and

processing of the image. For those of you who remember film,

processing of film and printing were once major parts of the

art. Now the computer is your darkroom, giving you a greater

ability to experiment to produce the image you want.

Digital cameras have made night sky photographs easier

in some ways. You can check exposures and composition in

the field for better results in the camera. Ultimately you have

more control over the final image when you process it in a computer. One downside is digital noise from high ISO set-

tings or very long exposures (both necessary for night photog-

raphy), which can be mostly compensated for in the computer.

If you have a digital SLR, you‘re halfway there. The newer the model, the better. Any model allowing you to manu-

ally adjust the shutter speed and aperture is best. Make sure

EYEPIECE February 2012

there is a ―bulb‖ setting for the shutter speed, which keeps the

shutter open an indefinite time. Always set the camera to re-

cord files in the ―raw‖ setting for maximum quality. High ISO

settings are important – at least 1600 to 3200 at the high end.

Don‘t worry about megapixels – it‘s generally meaningless. In

today‘s digital technology, the pixel count in each camera is so

high that any difference in models is not significant.

Grand Canyon “Yaki Point” by Stan Honda (Copyright 2011)

As with telescopes, aperture is everything. In the case of

camera lenses, the f-stop is crucial. Many DSLRs come pack-

aged with a zoom lens with the widest aperture of f/3.5. This

will do for most night photos. Ideally f/2.8 is better, but it will

be more expensive. Everything really becomes a compromise; at f3.5 you‘ll have to increase the exposure or increase the

ISO, but then the digital noise increases as well. I will cover

this in future articles. Many cameras have a high ISO noise

reduction feature; look for that when pricing equipment

Generally, the wider angle lens you have, the more flexi-

bility you‘ll have in taking night sky photos. ―Fast‖ wide-angle

lenses (with wide apertures, f2.8 and above) from camera

manufacturers are usually expensive. Look at the independent

companies such as Sigma, Tamaron or Tokina. The lenses may

not be as sharp as those of Nikon and Canon but will often be

much cheaper. Or look at used lenses. Older Nikon and Canon

lenses in good condition are fine. Even manual focus lenses

are good since you are mostly focusing on infinity. Make sure

an older lens will attach to your newer camera; Nikon has not

changed its lens mount, but Canon has done so several times

over the decades.

________________________

Stan Honda is an accomplished professional photographer

and contributing writer for Eyepiece. He will be writing a series of articles to share his extensive knowledge of photo-

graphic equipment and technique. Visit www.stanhonda.com

for a complete overview of his work.

“The City Dark” Enlightens Us All

By Evan Schneider

A powerful documentary film premiered Jan 18 at the

IFC Center, leaving everyone in the audience with a profound

understanding of the impact of light pollution on people, ani-

mals and our fragile planet.

Filmmaker Ian Cheney travelled the globe to interview

observers with a personal connection to the stars and night

sky. AMNH director Neil deGrasse Tyson shared his perspec-

tive in the film. ―What‘s happened over my lifetime is that

you have some kind of sprawl of city lights spilling out into

the surrounding regions...When you look at the night sky, you

realize how small we are within the cosmos. It‘s kind of a

resetting of your ego. To deny yourself of that state of mind, either willingly or unwillingly, is to not live to the full extent

of what it is to be human.‖

Our lack of contact with the sky may affect us subtly -

leaving us without a daily reminder that we are a small part of

the expanding universe. Birds in Chicago die flying into buildings. Hatchling sea turtles in Florida follow artificial

light, endangering themselves by not reaching the sea. Cancer

rates have been elevated in people who work indoors at night,

lit by fluorescent lamps instead of the night sky.

The City Dark‖ completed its limited run on Jan 24, but

remains available for schools, planetariums and special events

screenings. Visit their website at thecitydark.com.

Demonstrating our commitment to special astronomy-

related events, AAA members Joe Delfausse, Rori Baldari and

Shana Tribiano provided scopes to view Jupiter.

11

AAA Events on the Horizon February 2012

Thursday, February 9, 6:30 - 8 p.m., M

AAA Seminar on Recent Advances in Astronomy Speaker, Prof. David Hogg, NYU

Visit AAA website for location Next date: TBD

Friday, February 10, 6:15 p.m., AAA Lecture, P

AAA Lecture Series — Glennys Farrar, “At Last: Seeing Super-

massive Black Holes Shred Stars” AMNH Kaufmann Auditorium

Next date: March 2

Saturday, February 25, 10 a.m.-noon, P, T, C

Solar Observing in Central Park. At the Conservatory Water

Next date: March 31

Legend for Events

M: Members T: Bring your telescopes, binoculars, etc.

P: Open to the public C: Cancelled if cloudy

size of an atom. ―Many people may have seen a version of this

video. It has been used in many teaching situations. How

many have seen it before?‖ A fair amount of hands were raised

for this popular video.

“A Solar Prominence Eruption from Solar Dynamic

Observatory (SDO),” – The 90-minute sequence of a dynamic

explosion was captured in ultra-violet using time-lapse photog-

raphy, where a new exposure was made every 24 seconds.

―This video demonstrates our ability to do better monitoring of

the Sun than ever before…the prominence falls back to the

Sun‘s surface along a magnetic line.‖

“Star Size Comparisons,” – The relative sizes of planets

and stars are shown from smallest to largest. Nemiroff pointed

out that, although there are some minor inaccuracies in the

video, it is very popular with viewers on the web. As with all

pictures, APOD readers are encouraged to complete the learn-

ing experience -- and possibly help make future versions more accurate -- by pointing out any slight inaccuracies in the pic-

ture, video, or descriptive text.

“Cassini Approaches Saturn,” – This was my personal

favorite video of the night. The various sequences are almost

balletic.

“Celestial Trails Over Greece,” – ―In this sequence, the

photographer uses a technique to make the star trails appear to

fade-out.‖

“Time-lapse Auroras Over Norway,” – ―With the Sun

expected to become ever more active over the next few years,

there may be many opportunities to see similarly spectacular

auroras from areas much closer to the equator.‖

“Flying Over Planet Earth,” – This gives a view of what

it is like looking down from the International Space Station,

flying over North America and then South America…the

flashes are lightning seen from above.‖

“Orange Sun Oozing,” – Nemiroff volunteered that this

sequence shows a lot about the composition of the surface of the Sun. ―Every time I view it, I feel I am learning more about

it. The lighter areas are hotter and fall back to the cooler dark

areas.‖

“Earth Rotating Under Very Large Telescope,” – ―The

sequence is digitally made so that it looks as if the Earth is

rotating around the camera viewpoint.‖

“Kepler 16b – A Planet with Two Suns,” – ―This is an

illustration of a planet revolving around a binary star system…

much like Luke Skywalker‘s home planet!‖

“Dark Matter Movie from the Bolshoi Simulation,”

– ―This sequence was created in a computer, and let to evolve, hoping to find the parameters which would duplicate the uni-

verse as it is today.

“Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth.” – ―Try not

to smile watching this. I like this video! I included it in the

series, by adding ‗on Planet Earth‘ to the title.‖

Visit the APOD Archive at: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

archivepix.htm and read the information-filled paragraph at the

bottom of each image. It is written by astrophysicists, but read-

ers are encouraged to complete the learning experience and

help make future versions more accurate.

EYEPIECE February 2012

JAN 6 AAA LECTURE “AT THE MOVIES”

By Edward J. Fox

The lights went down at the AMNH Kaufmann Theater as astrophysicist Dr. Robert J. Nemiroff of Michigan Techno-

logical University and NASA Goddard led his audience to an

interstellar off ramp. Each year, he and fellow astrophysicist

Dr. Jerry Bonnell have lectured with photographs published by

the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website they

founded in 1995. This year they decided to enrich the program

by presenting The Best Astronomy Videos of 2011.

―We started the APOD site and received just 14 hits on

the first day,‖ explained Dr. Nemiroff. ―It has grown over the

years and now has an associated blog where anyone can offer

comments or corrections. It really was a ‗blog,‘ before the

term ‗blog‘ originated.‖

―We began receiving more and more videos, with the

question ‗Have you seen this?‘ Over the years the technolo-

gies and the quality of the videos have improved, so even vid-

eos from amateurs are very good. We have received one amaz-

ing video after the next.‖

Among the many videos available on the APOD website

(apod.nasa.gov/apod), some of the following were highlighted.

“The Powers of Ten,” – The nine minute sequence starts

with a man on a blanket in a lakeside park in Chicago and

demonstrates moving the vantage point away from him in in-

crements demonstrating the power of ten…10, 102, 103…1040.

The trip takes the viewer into the universe to near the Virgo

Cluster of Galaxies. The sequence is then reversed and the

vantage point returns to the man‘s hand and proceeds to view smaller and smaller increments of his body, well below the

Future AAA 2012 Lecture Series Dates

March 2: Charles Keeton, Rutgers, ―A Ray of Light in a Sea of Dark

(Matter)‖

March 30: Debra Fischer, Yale, ―Searching for Earthlike Worlds‖

May 4: Alex Wolszczan, Penn State, ―The Astronomical Future of

Humankind‖

For more information, go to: www.aaa.org

12

Amateur Astronomers Association

PO Box 150253

Brooklyn, NY 11215.

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

First Class

EYEPIECE February 2012

Nothing is Something

Dr. Lawrence Krauss Explores Why We Exist

By Thomas Haeberle

Much ado about nothing? That may be the case in terms of how the universe came into existence, as explained by theo-

retical physicist Dr. Lawrence Krauss on January 23 at the

Rose Center‘s Hayden Planetarium. The lecture is based on his

new book A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something

Rather than Nothing (Free Press, $24.99) which includes an

afterward by Richard Dawkins, a controversial evolutionary

biologist and best-selling author.

In addition to his scientific endeavors, Dr. Krauss is well

known for his best seller The Physics of Star Trek, but my first

encounter with his work and style of writing was for his book

Atom that I reviewed for Mercury magazine (Sept./Oct. 2001)

and Eyepiece. That book describes the life of an oxygen atom,

from its creation in a nuclear furnace of a star to its arrival on

Earth in style as part of a water molecule in a comet.

Similarly, Atom and the AMNH presentation based on his

new book both discuss the future of matter and life and how

the universe unfolds until its ultimate demise. Dr. Krauss dis-

plays a wide knowledge of various fields in science as he

delves into topics such as general relativity, quantum mechan-

ics, particle physics and gravity.

As with most prominent speakers that appear at the Hay-

den, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson kicked off the lecture with a

brief introduction and moderated the question and answer ses-

sion with a very special surprise guest in the audience (who

will be revealed in the March issue of Eyepiece when specifics

of the lecture will be discussed in greater detail). Dr. Krauss‘s

topics were aptly titled Cosmic Mysteries: Beginnings, Light

from the Beginning of Time, Much Ado About Nothing, Our

Miserable Future, Nothing Is Something, to name a few.

Dr. Krauss is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth

and Space Exploration and the physics department, Co-

Director of the Cosmology Initiative, and Inaugural Director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University. He is an

internationally known theoretical physicist with wide research

interests, including the interface between elementary particle

physics and cosmology, where his studies include the early

universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity, and neu-

trino astrophysics. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined the Harvard

Society of Fellows, then the faculty of Physics at Yale Univer-

sity, and later moved to Case Western Reserve University.

NEXT MONTH IN EYEPIECE

Here’s a peek at March: Jason Kendall reports on his Ameri-

can Astronomical Society meeting; Richard Brounstein submit‘s his latest observations in ―What If;‖ Amy Wagner shares her final

shuttle launch experience; Tom Haeberle reviews Dr. Lawrence Krauss; Dr. Glennys Farrar‘s lecture ―At Last: Seeing Super-

massive Black Holes Shred Stars‖ reviewed; Peter Tagatac‘s ―Sidewalk Astronomy;‖ AAA Briefs in Astronomy continue to

inform us; Rich Rosenberg‘s ―What‘s Up in the Sky‖ and more...