Saturday: Do
you want to learn more about what goes on at night in the natural world? You
can at a free event called Nature of Night on the CWU campus, today from 10
a.m. to 2 p.m. Go to the two largest science buildings on campus, J-9 and H-10
on the map found at http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map. There
will be planetarium shows, fun nighttime projects, telescopes, animals, cookies
and much more. The College of the Sciences gets help from various community
organizations to put on this event.
Sunday: Are
you disappointed because you are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving? Why not
take a (virtual) trip to outer space using Google’s new visualization tool
called 100,000 Stars. It shows the stars in our neighborhood in a very good 3-D
simulation. The Sun is initially at the center. If you zoom in, you can click
on neighboring stars and learn more about them. Go to http://stars.chromeexperiments.com/
for the simulation. It works best on a Chrome browser.
Monday: Saturn
is about two finger widths to the lower left of the crescent Moon at 5 p.m.
Both are low in the southwestern sky. Mercury is below the pair, just above due
southwest.
Tuesday: So,
you are not into virtual vacations like the Google Simulation, hmmm? How about
a vacation to the most recently discovered Earth-sized temperate planet in our
stellar neighborhood? The European Southern Observatory discovered that Ross
128, a red dwarf star only 11 light-years away (the 12th nearest
star system to Earth) has a rocky planet in its habitable zone. Convenient for
those not willing to make a commitment yet, Ross 128 and its planet are moving
towards Earth. In only 79, 000 years, it will be the star and exoplanet closest
to Earth. This extremely dim star is three and a half fists above due southeast
at 6 a.m. For more information about the discover, and to possibly book a trip,
go to http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1736/.
Wednesday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar system with multiple
planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans up planetary debris
that could have collided with Earth and hindered the formation of complex life.
Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae are thankful for
this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the constellation Andromeda, was
the first Sun-like star discovered to have multiple planets orbiting it. So
far, all of its planets are giant planets like Jupiter. But, the system is
likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim star, but certainly not its
planets, is barely visible straight overhead at 9 p.m. Jupiter is much easier
to see, but you have to wait until tomorrow morning to see it. It is nearly one
and a half fists above the southeast horizon at 7 a.m. Venus is below it, just
above the horizon.
Thursday:
Some of us have a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. But, probably not as
much as Andromeda had to be thankful for. According to Greek mythology, the
beautiful princess Andromeda was chained to a rock next to the ocean. Cetus the
sea monster was about to devour her in order to punish her family. Her mother
Queen Cassiopeia and her father King Cepheus didn’t know what to do. It seemed
that all was lost. But, along came Andromeda’s boyfriend, the great warrior
Perseus. Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and the slayer
of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal circumstances,
Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal circumstance. So,
Perseus drove his sword into the sea monster’s neck and killed it. This was the
first time in recorded history that a set of parents actually welcomed an
uninvited Thanksgiving visit from the boyfriend. Perseus is about five fists
above the east-northeast horizon and Andromeda is about seven fists above the
east horizon at 7 p.m.
Friday: The brightest star in the nighttime sky is making its way into the
evening sky. Sirius is a little more than a half a fist above the southeast
horizon at 11 p.m.
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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