Astron

JWST is flat out amazing, it's the tip of the spear, the culmination (to date) of the accomplishments of Human Kind. Well done to all who participated in this effort. Expect the launch and deployment to succeed, but if not, we will do it again, for certain. https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/launch.html

Top events coming up for 2021  https://www.universetoday.com/149259/astronomy-2021-top-events-for-the-coming-year/ Posted on December 24, 2020 by David Dickinson Astronomy 2021: Top Events for the Coming Year Eclipses, meteor showers, occultations and more in store for the next year of astronomy 2021. Ready for another exciting year of skywatching? 2020 produced several memorable astronomical events, including a surprise naked eye comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, the sure-fire Geminid meteors, and a fine, once in a lifetime close pairing of Jupiter and Saturn rounding out the year.  

  file:///C:/Users/danws/AppData/Local/Temp/hydro_202021-almanac_planet-visibility.pdf 16 ASTRONOMICAL INFORMATION | New Zealand Nautical Almanac 2020 – 21 ASTRONOMICAL PLANET VISIBILITY 2020 – 2021 The following diagrams show, in graphical form, when the five “naked-eye” planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are visible in the night sky during the period July 2020 – June 2021. Each diagram spans the hours of darkness, covering the period from 16:00 to 08:00 with midnight being represented by the central line across the diagram. For a given date, time runs from the bottom to the top of the diagram. Times are shown in terms of New Zealand Standard Time; one hour must be added when New Zealand Daylight Time is in force. Each diagram is plotted for Wellington; time differences at other locations in New Zealand will generally not exceed an hour. In addition to the planet information, the diagrams show the time of sunset and sunrise as well as the end and start of astronom...

    A great conjunction is a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn , when the two planets appear closest together in the sky. Great conjunctions occur approximately every 20 years when Jupiter "overtakes" Saturn in its orbit . They are named "great" for being by far the rarest of the conjunctions between naked-eye planets (i.e. excluding Uranus and Neptune ). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_conjunction   The spacing between the planets varies from conjunction to conjunction with most events being 0.5 to 1.3 degrees (30 to 78 arcminutes , or 1 to 2.5 times the width of a full moon ). Very close conjunctions happen much less frequently (though the maximum of 1.3° is still close by inner planet standards): separations of less than 10 arcminutes have only happened four times since 1200, most recently in 2020. [2] https://www.planetary.org/articles/jupiter-and-saturn-great-conjunction-viewing-guide   Heads-up: Jupiter and Saturn are putting ...

InSight is a robotic lander designed to study the interior of the planet Mars . [10] [11] The mission launched on 5 May 2018 at 11:05  UTC [12] and is expected to land on the surface of Mars at Elysium Planitia on 26 November 2018, [4] [13] where it will deploy a seismometer and burrow a heat probe. It will also perform a radio science experiment to study the internal structure of Mars. [14] The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. The lander was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems and was originally planned for launch in March 2016. [11] [15] The name is a backronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InSight   GOOG  

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorers program , designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. It was launched on April 18, 2018 atop a Falcon 9 rocket . Wikipedia The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky. In a two-year survey of the solar neighborhood, TESS will monitor more than 200,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. No ground-based survey can achieve this feat. NASA GOOG  

Kepler is a retired space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler , the spacecraft was launched on March 7, 2009, into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki. Kepler observed 530,506 stars and discovered 2,662 exoplanets over its lifetime. [15] A newer NASA mission, TESS , launched in 2018, is continuing the search for exoplanets. [43] Wikipedia   After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets - more planets even than stars - NASA's Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations NASA GOOG  

Particle physics (also high energy physics ) is a branch of physics that studies the nature of the particles that constitute matter and radiation . Although the word particle can refer to various types of very small objects (e.g. protons , gas particles, or even household dust), particle physics usually investigates the irreducibly smallest detectable particles and the fundamental interactions necessary to explain their behaviour. By our current understanding, these elementary particles are excitations of the quantum fields that also govern their interactions. The currently dominant theory explaining these fundamental particles and fields, along with their dynamics, is called the Standard Model . Thus, modern particle physics generally investigates the Standard Model and its various possible extensions, e.g. to the newest "known" particle, the Higgs boson , or even to the oldest known force field, gravity . [1] [2]   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_p...

SN 1987A was a peculiar type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud , a dwarf galaxy satellite of the Milky Way . It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs (168,000 light-years ) from Earth and was the closest observed supernova since Kepler's Supernova , visible from earth in 1604. 1987A's light reached Earth on February 23, 1987, [5] and as the first supernova discovered that year, was labeled "1987A". Its brightness peaked in May, with an apparent magnitude of about 3. It was the first opportunity for modern astronomers to study the development of a supernova in great detail, and its observations have provided much insight into core-collapse supernovae . SN 1987A provided the first chance to confirm by direct observation the radioactive source of the energy for visible light emissions, by detecting predicted gamma-ray line radiation from two of its abundant radioactive nuclei. This proved the radioactive nature of the long-duration post-explosio...

A gravitational lens is a distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies ) between a distant light source and an observer, that is capable of bending the light from the source as the light travels towards the observer. This effect is known as gravitational lensing, and the amount of bending is one of the predictions of Albert Einstein 's general theory of relativity . [1] [2] (Classical physics also predicts the bending of light, but only half that predicted by general relativity. [3] ) Although Einstein made unpublished calculations on the subject in 1912, [4] Orest Khvolson (1924) [5] and Frantisek Link (1936) [ citation needed ] are generally credited with being the first to discuss the effect in print. However, this effect is more commonly associated with Einstein , who published a more famous article on the subject in 1936. [6]   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens   http://w.astro.berkeley.edu/~jcohn/lens.html   Google ...

A supernova ( / ˌ s uː p ər n oʊ v ə / plural: supernovae / ˌ s uː p ər n oʊ v iː / or supernovas, abbreviations: SN and SNe) is an event that occurs upon the death of certain types of stars. Supernovae are more energetic than novae . In Latin , nova means "new", referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star. Adding the prefix "super-" distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous. The word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931. [1]   Only three, Milky Way naked-eye supernova events have been observed during the last thousand years, though many have been seen in other galaxies using telescopes . The most recent directly observed supernova in the Milky Way was Kepler's Supernova in 1604, but two more recent supernova remnants have also been found. Statistical observations of supernovae in other galaxies suggest they occur on average about three times every century ...

Vera Florence Cooper Rubin ( / ˈ r uː b ɪ n / ; July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016) was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. [1] She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves . This phenomenon became known as the galaxy rotation problem , and was evidence of the existence of dark matter . [2] Although initially met with skepticism, Rubin's results were confirmed over subsequent decades. Her legacy was described by The New York Times as "ushering in a Copernican -scale change" in cosmological theory . [1] [3]   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Rubin

 One of the main scientific justifications for building Hubble was to measure the size and age of the Universe and test theories about its origin. Images of faint galaxies give 'fossil' clues as to how the Universe looked in the remote past and how it may have evolved with time. The Deep Fields gave astronomers the first really clear look back to the time when galaxies were forming. The first deep fields – Hubble Deep Field North and South – gave astronomers a peephole to the ancient Universe for the first time, and caused a real revolution in modern astronomy. Subsequent deep imagery from Hubble, including the Hubble Ultra Deep Field , has revealed the most distant galaxies ever observed . Because of the time it has taken their light to reach us, we see some of these galaxies as they were just half a billion years after the Big Bang. http://www.spacetelescope.org/science/deep_fields/   Video  

L2 is one million miles from the Earth and 94 million miles from the Sun and is a resting place for smaller bodies (such as space telescopes) due to gravitational give and take . In celestial mechanics , the Lagrangian points ( / l ə ˈ ɡ r ɑː n dʒ i ən / ; also Lagrange points , L-points , or libration points ) are positions in an orbital configuration of two large bodies, wherein a small object, affected only by the gravitational forces from the two larger objects, will maintain its position relative to them. Click 4 Videos Click 4 Videos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point 

Interacting galaxies (colliding galaxies) are galaxies whose gravitational fields result in a disturbance of one another. An example of a minor interaction is a satellite galaxy 's disturbing the primary galaxy's spiral arms . An example of a major interaction is a galactic collision, which may lead to a galaxy merger . Google  

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is an interacting [7] grand-design [8] spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus [9] in the constellation Canes Venatici . It was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. [10] Recently it was estimated to be 23 ± 4 million light-years from the Milky Way , [3] but different methods yield distances between 15 and 35 million light-years. Messier 51 is one of the best known galaxies in the sky. [11] The galaxy and its companion, NGC 5195 , [12] are easily observed by amateur astronomers , and the two galaxies may even be seen with binoculars . [13] The Whirlpool Galaxy is also a popular target for professional astronomers, who study it to further understand galaxy structure (particularly structure associated with the spiral arms ) and galaxy interactions. Google

Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) is a non-profit private operating foundation directed by the technologist Wayne Rosing , located in Goleta, California . The telescopes are located at both northern and southern hemisphere sites distributed in longitude around the Earth. For some astronomical objects, the longitudinal spacing of telescopes allows continuous observations over 24 hours or longer. The operating network currently consists of two 2-meter telescopes, nine 1-meter telescopes, and seven 40-cm telescopes, placed at six astronomical observatories. The network operates as a single, integrated, observing facility, using a software scheduler that continuously optimizes the planned observing schedule of each individual telescope. https://www.google.com/search?q=las+cumbres+observatory&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8   https://lco.global/    

A giant planet has been found orbiting an ultracool dwarf star — the largest planet compared to its star ever found — leaving scientists baffled at how the duo could have formed. The planet NGTS-1b is situated 600 light-years from our solar system, according to a statement from the University of Warwick, and it is a gas giant about the size of Jupiter. Its star, on the other hand, is just half the mass and radius of the sun. The planet orbits its star at 3 percent the distance from the Earth to the sun, and it whips around a full orbit every 2.6 Earth days. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.11099v1.pdf https://www.space.com/38625-monster-planet-circles-tiny-star.html  

Scientists detect gravitational waves from a new kind of nova, sparking a new era in astronomy Some 130 million years ago, in a galaxy far away, the smoldering cores of two collapsed stars smashed into each other. The resulting explosion sent a burst of gamma rays streaming through space and rippled the very fabric of the universe. On Aug. 17, those signals reached Earth — and sparked an astronomy revolution.   WaPo New Nova      

The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 was a total eclipse visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States , passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. As a partial solar eclipse , it was visible on land from Nunavut in northern Canada to as far south as northern South America . In northwestern Europe and Africa, it was partially visible in the late evening. In Asia it was visible only at the eastern extremity, the Chukchi Peninsula .   Yahoo