Saturday: Has
there ever been life on Mars? Astronomers don’t know. But the Mars Curiosity
Rover has been digging up some strong evidence that Mars was hospitable to life
in the past. At the end of 2012, the first drilling assignment for Curiosity
found clay-like minerals that form in the presence of water. In December 2013,
scientists announced the strongest evidence yet for an ancient fresh-water lake
in Gale Crater. Planetary geologist John Grotzinger said that Earth microbes
could have thrived in this lake if they were placed there. Last year,
astronomers at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in
Chile found evidence that Mars was once had an ocean that held more water than
the Arctic Ocean and covered a greater percentage of Mars’ surface than the
Atlantic Ocean does on Earth. In brief, they came to this conclusion after
analyzing the chemical signature of light that passes through the Martian
atmosphere. For more information about this ancient ocean and the method of
discovery, go to http://goo.gl/bOqD4U.
Mars is two fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 5 a.m.
tomorrow morning. By the way, the name of the observatory in Chile really is
Very Large Telescope. See for yourself at http://www.eso.org/paranal.
Sunday: The
Space Shuttles have been retired. But NASA is still making plans about the
future of space flight. Here is a small NASA poster summarizing the future of
American Human spaceflight: http://goo.gl/D8KWj. It is interesting to
compare the sizes of these real spaceships to the dozens of fictional
spacecraft summarized on a poster found at http://goo.gl/F95aEL.
Monday: The
moon passes by Mars and Saturn in the early morning sky for the next two
mornings. This morning at 6 a.m., Mars is about a half a fist to the lower left
of the Moon. Saturn is about a fist to the left of Mars. Tomorrow morning, the Saturn
is almost directly below the Moon.
Tuesday: The
bright star Arcturus is two and a half fists above due east at 10 p.m.
Wednesday: Jupiter is three fists above the east-southeast horizon at 8 p.m.
Thursday: April
is Global Astronomy Month (GAM). While many astronomy experiences come from
looking up, you can also experience astronomy looking down… at pen and paper.
GAM has numerous arts initiatives and is looking for contributors, hopefully
ones that are better than mine above. Even if you’ve never written a poem
before, this is your opportunity to express your love for astronomy in a unique
way and possibly share it with others. Go to http://astronomerswithoutborders.org/gam2016-programs/astroarts.html
for more information about the AstroPoetry contest and a children’s AstroArt
contest. The moon is expressing its love for Venus by moving upward in the
early evening sky. At 8 p.m., Venus is about two finger widths to the right of
the moon.
Friday: You
need to get up early tomorrow to cheer on your favorite runners at the Yakima
River Canyon Marathon starting at 8 a.m. on Canyon Road just south of Berry
Road. So why not get a little viewing in? To symbolize the long trail of a
marathon, follow the long trail of our own Milky Way Galaxy. It seems to rise
up from the ground due south. It its highest, it is five fists above due east.
It sinks back to the ground due north. The thickest part of the Milky Way is in
the southern sky because that is the direction of the center of the galaxy.
The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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