Saturday: Sometimes
you find a quarter on the ground. Maybe you find a dollar in the lining of your
jacket. But how often do you find a galaxy in a well-known part of the sky? The
Hubble Space Telescope discovered a face-on spiral galaxy in the Coma Cluster
of galaxies about 320 million light years away. This galaxy, called NGC 4911,
contains regions of gas and dust as well as glowing newborn star clusters. The
Coma Star cluster is in the constellation Coma Berenices, found two and a half
fists held upright and at arm’s length above the west horizon at 9 p.m. For
more information about this newly discovered galaxy, plus a zoomable image, go
to http://goo.gl/5OXUX.
Sunday: You
may have gone to the link about the galaxy and said, “That was discovered 3
years ago. What’s actually NEW in the sky?” Is less than a week ago new enough
for you? A Japanese astronomer noticed a star on his August 14 image that was
not on his August 13 image in the constellation Delphinus that was not there
the day before. Of course, this star was there the day before. It just was not
bright enough. For more information about this “new star” or nova, go to http://goo.gl/WSFB69. The nova can be easily
seen using binoculars. At 10 p.m., find the constellation Delphinus five fists
above due southeast. It is shaped like a dolphin. The nova is three fingers, or
a typical binocular field of view, above the dolphin. It won’t stand out in
binoculars but rest assured that one of those stars in the field of view is not
on any star chart.
Monday: Need
a caffeine pick-me-up? Make it a double. Need an astronomy pick-me-up? Make it
a double-double. Find Vega, in the constellation Lyra the lyre, nearly straight
overhead at 11:00 tonight. Less than half a fist to the east (or left if you
are facing south) of the bright bluish star Vega is the “star” Epsilon Lyra. If
you look at Epsilon Lyra through binoculars, it looks like two stars. If you
look at Epsilon Lyra through a large enough telescope, you will notice that
each star in the pair is itself a pair of stars. Each star in the double is double. Hence, Epsilon Lyra is
known as the double-double. The stars in each pair orbit a point approximately
in the center of each respective pair. The pairs themselves orbit a point
between the two pairs.
Tuesday: Tonight’s
full moon is in the constellation Aquarius the water bearer.
Wednesday: Venus
is about a half a fist above the west horizon and Saturn is about one and a
half fists above the southwest horizon at 8:30 p.m.
Thursday: Mars
is two fists and Jupiter is three and a half fists above the east horizon at
5:30 a.m.
Friday: Have
you ever gone to a family reunion, looked around and asked, “How in the world
are we related to each other?”. Astronomers look around the Solar System and
wonder if there is life anywhere else that we are related to. The Mars Science
Laboratory landed on Mars last summer to investigate whether it ever had
conditions favorable for life. The Cassini Mission continues to study the plume
of complex organic chemicals streaming from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. NASA and
the European Space Agency are planning a trip to study Europa, the Jovian moon
with an ice-covered ocean. And many astronomers consider the methane haze in
the atmosphere in Saturn’s moon Titan similar to that of the early Earth. To
learn more about the search for life in the Solar System and beyond, go to http://goo.gl/ewtfr.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week.
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