The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Astronomy

  • Leonid Meteors Tonight!

    You should go outside and watch the Leonid meteor shower tonight (Friday Nov. 16, 2012). It will produce many more shooting stars than the normal 6-10 per hour, and if we’re lucky, it’ll be a one-per-second show. It all depends on the density of the stream that the Earth is passing through (see the link).

    What I find coolest about these periodic meteor showers is that you can see exactly which direction the Earth is flying by following the various meteor trails back to their point of origin. The spot in the sky from which they all seem to originate is the direction that the Earth is passing through the cometary leftovers. That’s cool.

    According to the wikipedia post, the Leonids hit the Earth at 72 km/sec, which if you know a bit of orbital mechanics means that the shower stream is orbiting the Sun in retrograde, as that’s the only way a sun-orbiting body can impact the Earth at that speed.

    Like I said, very cool.

    I don’t have a good viewing location around me, but I’ll go out on my porch with my sleeping bag and just hang out watching the sky.

  • Plutopia!

    One month from today is the 2nd anniversary of Pluto’s demotion from Planet status to lowly Dwarf Planet/Kuiper Belt Object. I’m thinking of doing a blog carnival, or having guest bloggers on board that day for a random series of tributes to our favorite solar body named after a Disney Character.

    Any takers?

  • "Why I Read Blogs" -or- "Wicked Stuff!"

    I have a feedreader, appropriately named Feedreader, which serves up to me on a daily basis a stew of random stuff. Some of this is fluff, some is interesting, some is funny, some is crap, and some is so freaking cool, that I have to pass it along to you.

    The reason why I get this deluge of random stuff every day is because, while interested in a lot of different things, I do not have the time to winnow the chaff and come out with the cool stuff on a daily basis. This is why I trust other blogs, such as the one about to be mentioned, to keep me informed.

    Thusly we come to today’s topic. I feel slightly silly blogging about it because I happen to know that at least 60% of my readers also read this other blog, but too bad. It’s wicked freaking cool.

    Bad Astronomy reports today on a program to engage the public in identifying galaxy types. But don’t take my word for how totally awesome this is, go read it for yourself.

  • Awesome Astronomy, Terrible Reporting

    This morning, I was alerted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (reg. req’d) that a Georgia State University astronomy program on Mt. Wilson, in California, had imaged the surface of Altair, a sun-sized star that is one of the brightest in the northern sky. This is cool because it’s the first time a star this size has been seen this way.

    image_5451429 However, accompanying this article was this image. It was very early when I read the news, so it didn’t ping my bullshit detectors, although the sheer amount of detail really should have been a tip-off. It wasn’t until I ended up at the National Science Foundation website that I noticed the caption that should have accompanied the image.

    An artist’s rendition of Altair

    What’s a little detail like that, between friends?

    Regardless, this is excellent astronomy and great science. I could not find the actual image that goes along with the press releases. Hopefully that will pop up into the public domain soon.

  • Big Kaboom! Massive Star Goes Nova

    The NY Times reports that the most massive supernova every observed occurred last September.

    Better information available at Space.com. The NY Times waters down the science, as usual.

    I haven’t been keeping up on my Blog Tracking or this wouldn’t be a surprise to me. This supernova is particularly cool because it does not fall into the current theories of stellar death. Someone, somehwere, just discovered their Ph.D. dissertation.

  • Galactic Faerie Lights

    If you don’t like fantastic wondrous phenomenal things, do not click on this link.

  • Pluto, redux?

    Well! As posted here, and here, I’ve been talking about this whole “Planet” thing. Now there’s more development.

    Apparently the IAU is revising their revised revision again, and might eliminate Pluto from the planet list, dropping back to the 8 “classical” planets, and number all other bodies that would have previously been called “planet” into the “dwarf planet” category. This would include Charon and Ceres and 2003 UB313.

    Further and further we go. It’s all arbitrary people!

  • We've got 12 Planets!

    It’s official!

    The voting membership of the IAU has accepted the draft definition of “Planet.”

    This means that we’ve got three new planets, with many many more to come. Ceres, the planet formerly known as an asteroid, takes the coveted fifth planet position away from Jupiter. Charon, the planet formerly known as Pluto’s satellite, is a part of the Pluto-Charon double planet system. 2003 UB313 a.k.a. Xena, is the first of the new Plutons, other than Pluto itself. (Will “pluton” be capitalized or not? Hmmm…)

    What do I think this means. Diddly! I think a lot of people will talk about the 8 “classical” planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) plus the 9th “discovered” planet of Pluto, and then lump all the rest into “those other things.”

    I think Ceres is going to get the small end of the stick here. Not big enough to be considered a planet for 120 years, it’s not even going to be classified as a Pluton. Red-headed step-child syndrome if there ever was one.

    Of course, whether we have 9 planets or 8 or 12 or (soon) a gazillion, it’s all very arbritraryarbitrary. See my last post.

  • Pluto, Plutons, Plutonium, Plutae?

    The International Astronomical Union has posted a draft definition of “planet” that will serve to define our solar system and all others for all time!

    Well, not exactly, as Phil Plait over at badastronomy.com points out quite well. The rules boil down thus:

    1) It’s got to be big enough to be spherical due to it’s own gravity.
    2) It’s got to orbit a star, not another planet or satellite.

    Go to the Phil Plait link above for a full debrief on why this is rather arbitrary and stupid.

    I have an opinion, though.

    My opinion is that if they’re going to be arbitrary about the definition of a planet, why not be wholly arbitrary and not worry about the science. Here’s my take on the whole thing:

    1) The Solar System has 9 Planets
    2) Pluto keeps planet status just because it’s been a planet for 70 years.

    That’s it. Nothing further. Entirely arbitrary. Make it so, number one…

  • Summer Solstice

    Tomorrow is the summer solstice, known as the first day of summer to Americans. Why do we call this the first day of summer? Weather-wise, it’s more like the end of the first third of summer. Oh well…

    I trolled for some Solstice Superstitions. Most of them hark to druidish type things, and were too boring for this blog. Here’s one I like: (from http://www.geocities.com/traditions_uk/midsummer.html)

    If on Midsummer’s Eve, you approach a fern leaf backwards, without looking, and – without touching the leaf – collect the seed (spores), they have to power to make you invisible.

    So, I’ll be gathering myself some fern spores tomorrow. Right after I balance eggs on end.

    For note, tomorrow we enter the blissful days of summer at 1223 Universal Time, which is 0723 EST which is 8:23 Eastern Daylight Time for us American east coasters. What will you be doing? I’ll be getting my teeth cleaned.