Jan 20

See Jupiter and Moon Shine Dazzlingly Close Together Monday

by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
 
 

Stargazers looking up as darkness falls on Monday (Jan. 21) will notice an eye catching pairing-off between two of the brightest objects in the nighttime sky, weather permitting.

The moon, appearing as a waxing gibbous phase, 78 percent illuminated, will appear to stand close below a very bright, non-twinkling, silvery “star.” But it won’t be a star that will be keeping the moon company on America’s Inauguration Night, but the largest planet in our solar system: Jupiter.

Across much of the United States and southern Canada, this will be closest that the moon and Jupiter will appear relative to each other until the year 2026. On Monday night, the moon will be about of 248,700 miles (400,500 kilometers) from Earth, while Jupiter will be nearly 1,664 times farther out in space at a distance of 413.8 million miles (665.9 million km).

During Monday’s stargazing event, observers have the chance to see what astronomers call an appulse — a very close approach of the moon to Jupiter. An appulse is a phenomenon caused by perspective only. There is no close physical approach in space between the two objects involved. Astronomers insist that appulses have no direct effect on the Earth.

  

The moon, moving around the Earth in an easterly direction at roughly its own diameter each hour, will creep slowly toward and ultimately pass just below the giant planet. Jupiter, meanwhile, will be shining about three times brighter than the brightest star, Sirius, offering a commanding sight for stargazers despite its close proximity to the moon. [Amazing Stargazing Photos for January]

 

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Jan 20

Happy Birthday, Buzz Aldrin! Apollo 11 Moonwalker Is 83 Today

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Famed space man Buzz Aldrin, the second person ever to walk on the moon, is celebrating his 83rd birthday today (Jan. 20) in cosmic style.

Aldrin, who along with Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong boldly walked where no one had before in 1969, is marking his birthday on the road with a trip to England.

“I’m heading home today if the UK weather allows,” Aldrin wrote in a post on Twitter today, where he writes as @TheRealBuzz

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Jan 20

Veins, not Flowers, on Mars

By Caleb A. Scharf | January 18, 2013|

The ‘John Klein’ rock surface, target for drilling. Scale of image is approximately 1 meter across. Image has been white-balanced to mimic Earth-illumination (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

NASA’s Curiosity rover is preparing to drill for the first time, into what appears to be sedimentary rock criss-crossed by mineral-filled veins.

 

 

 

 

Back in September last year the Mars Science Laboratory carried by the rover found a rocky outcrop on the wall of Gale Crater that was full of a crusty mix of cemented pebbles. It matched signs of an alluvial-fan feature seen from orbit and was some of the very best evidence so far of significant historical water flow across the martian surface.

Light color mineral veins in martian rock – a strong clue to a water soaked past (NASA/JPL)

Now Curiosity has entered Yellowknife Bay, a terrain that exhibits all the signs of a different type of water presence. In fact this depression in the landscape seems to be entirely distinct from the earlier Gale Crater landing site about 500 meters away.

Here sedimentary rocks (formed from the crushed remains of earlier rocks) are filled with fractures and veins of what might be hydrated calcium sulfate (bassinite or gypsum) – deposited when water soaked this area. There are also nodules of deposited material, cross-bedded layering, and even a rather shiny pebble embedded in sandstone that’s provoked our human pattern recognition system into thinking there’s a martian ‘flower’ popping from the ground.

It’s the perfect place for a spot of prospecting.

Over the next few days to weeks Curiosity will try out its drill, attached to the end of its 7-foot robotic arm. The drill has a bore depth of about 5 cm, enough to get well past the weathered crust of these rocks and to retrieve the grindings of an ancient martian environment.

The drill with ‘bit’ attached. Cylindrical sheath channels material up for collection. (NASA/JPL)

It’s not an easy task. There are concerns that a Teflon coating on the drill bit may flake off – contaminating any samples. So the first task will be to sacrifice a small amount of the upper layers of rock as an abrasive ‘cleaning’ material for the drill – getting rid of any Earthly contaminants before going deeper.

Once it does we’ll have a new window onto Mars’ deep past.

‘John Klein’ site in raw color (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

 
 

Caleb A. ScharfAbout the Author: Caleb Scharf is the director of Columbia University’s multidisciplinary Astrobiology Center. He has worked in the fields of observational cosmology, X-ray astronomy, and more recently exoplanetary science. His latest book is ‘Gravity’s Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos’, and he is working on ‘The Copernicus Complex’ (both from Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.) Follow on Twitter @caleb_scharf.More »