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 southwest at 8:30 p.m.
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: Jupiter
is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 10 p.m.
Monday: If
the National Enquirer was around in Galileo’s day, it may have featured the
headline: “Saturn has love handles; Opis leaves him for a much hotter starlet”.
When Galileo first observed Saturn through a telescope, he reported objects
that looked like bulges on either side of Saturn’s midsection. He was actually
seeing Saturn’s rings through less than ideal optics. Saturn is two fists above
the south horizon at 6 a.m.. The star(let) Antares is about a two fists to the
lower right of Saturn.
Tuesday: Orion
still has a prominent spot in the nighttime sky. The belt is three fists above
due southwest at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: Mercury is about one fist above the west horizon at 8 p.m. The
nearly New Moon is between Mercury and the west horizon.
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. 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/gam2017-programs/astroarts.html
for more information about the AstroPoetry and AstroArt contests.
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 https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
No comments:
Post a Comment