Saturday: “Happy
Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Pluto. Happy
Birthday to you.” On this day in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, at that
time classified as the ninth planet. However, as astronomers started
discovering a lot of similar objects in that part of the solar system, they
realized that had a classification crisis on their hands. Should everything in
this region of the solar system be named a planet? Eventually the International
Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto and all future Pluto-like objects
as dwarf planets.
Sunday: Clyde
Tombaugh discovered the first planet 9. Will you discover the new Planet 9? You
and thousands of others will have the opportunity to comb through images of the
sky from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). You’ll view short
“flipbook” movies of the same patch of sky on different nights. Any point of
light that moves could be Planet 9 or another undiscovered Solar System object.
Read about how you can join the search for Planet 9 at https://goo.gl/D4PkCD.
Monday: Orion
stands tall in the southern sky. At 7:30 p.m., the middle of Orion’s belt is
four fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south. And talk about
belt tightening! Alnilam, the middle star in the belt, is losing mass at a rate
of about 100 thousand trillion tons a day. That’s a 1 followed by 17 zeros tons
per day.
Tuesday: Venus
is two fists above the west horizon at 7 p.m. It is the brightest point of
light in the sky.
Wednesday: Jupiter is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m.
By 6 a.m., Jupiter has moved into the southwest sky and Saturn is one and a half
fists above the south-southeast horizon.
Thursday: The
Stargate movies and TV shows have access to a portal to other planets. Harry
Potter has access to a portal to the Chamber of Secrets. You have access to a
Portal to the Universe. This portal is not in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom but is
on the web at http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/. It is
a repository of up-to-date astronomy news, blogs, and podcasts. A recent story
highlights how planet hunters like you and Clyde Tombaugh study the early Earth
to learn more about the possibilities for life on other planets. The Earth’s
atmosphere of the Archean Eon, which lasted from 2.5 to 4 billion years ago,
was a hazy mix of methane, ammonia and other organic materials. This haze had
the doubly positive effect of seeding the Earth-with the building blocks of
life and protecting the Earth from the harmful effects of DNA-damaging
ultraviolet light. Astronomers can look for signs of this haze in the
atmospheres of Earth-sized planets orbiting Sun-like stars. For more
information about this, go to https://goo.gl/n3GCGl.
Friday: Under
ideal sky conditions, the planet Uranus is just on the edge of being a naked
eye planet. For the next few nights, its proximity to Mars in the night sky
makes it an inviting binocular target. At 7 p.m., Mars is two and a half fists
above the west horizon. Get Mars in the center of your binocular field of view.
Uranus is the brightest object to the upper left of Mars. Over the next few
nights, look for Mars to move towards and then pass by Uranus in the sky. This
is evidence that Mars is much closer to Earth than Uranus is.
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 https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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