Thursday, September 15, 2011
Comet Elenin Fades Even More
The latest image of Elenin from Michael Mattiazzo (Sept 14th, taken under difficult circumstances0, show a much reduced comet which has faded to magnitude 10 or so. It is doubtful that it will be bright enough to see in the SOHO LASCO cameras. We will probably have to wait until October for powerful Earth-based telescopes to try and find if any of the comet survives.
Labels: comets
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Discovery Institute Fails at Exoplanets
KOI-701.03, an as yet unconfirmed, Earth-like world probably in the habitable zone of its Sun. KOI-703.03 visualized in Celestia (click to embiggen).Still, despite coming hard on the heels of the 50 new exoplanets found by HARPS, the existing bonanza of Kepler worlds and discovering the atmospheric composition of some exoplanets, one can hardly suppress a thrill at the prospect of learning something new about the plethora of extrasolar worlds we have found.
One wonders how William Dembski feels after proclaiming in 1992:
"Dawkins, to explain life apart from a designer, not only gives himself all the time Darwin ever wanted, but also helps himself to all the conceivable planets there might be in the observable universe (note that these are planets he must posit, since no planets outside our solar system have been observed, nor is there currently any compelling theory of planetary formation which guarantees that the observable universe is populated with planets)"Three years later the first exoplanet was confirmed, and the current count stands at 677.
Exoplanets visualized at "Data is Beautiful" for Wired.It's not the first time a pundit has been wrong, after all the philosopher Auguste Comte claimed that we would never know the composition of the stars, yet 25 years later the spectroscope revealed the elements they were made of (and in 1814 Frauenhoffer had seen the spectral lines that would reveal the stars secrets when chemistry improved).
But it's not the fact the Dembski was wrong (or Paul Nelson, who quoted him approvingly in 1993), but the way that they were wrong. The claim is that "Darwinists" posited a plethora of worlds to fulfil the needs of evolutionary theory, without any strong evidence. Yet Dembski and company couldn't be more wrong.
The 55 Cnc system (excluding the outermost planet), 55 Cnc e is marked by the red cross near the sun.Note that Dembski says "nor is there currently any compelling theory of planetary formation which guarantees that the observable universe is populated with planets". You might think this hedges his bets a bit, with the qualifications "compelling" and "guarantees", but it doesn't
By the 60's the dominant theory of planetary formation was a variant of the nebular hypothesis, which with further modification became dominant in the 1970's.
It was abundantly obvious even in the 60's that the implication of this hypothesis was that planet formation would not be a rare event (for example the RAND corporation study "Habitable Planets for Man" published in 1964 used this model as a basis for estimating the number of stars with planets).
Then there was stellar rotation. In the solar system, most of the angular momentum is in the planets, and the sun has most of the mass but just a fraction of the angular moment momentum because during planet formation the momentum of the spinning protostellar disk is transferred to the planets. Most sun-like stars have angular momentum like the Sun's suggesting that the majority of these systems had planets.
Observations in the early 80's of dusty disks around young T-Tauri stars and then dust disks around stars like Beta Pictoris were in line with the nebula hypothesis and strengthened the case that planets were common.
George Wetherill's classic paper "The Formation and Habitability of Extra-Solar Planets" did not come out until 1996, but his work in 1988, 19989 and 1991 on planet formation made scientists confident that solar system equivalents were not rare in the galaxy.
Certainly, when Dawkins published "the Blind Watchmaker" in 1986, there was a compelling theory of planetary formation, along with astromomical observations which guaranteed that there would be planets around other suns. When Dembski wrote his words in 1992, astronomers were busy designing the very instruments that would reap a harvest of extrasolar planets just a few years later.
Dembski was trying to claim that "Darwinists" make things up to bolster their arguments. If Dembski had taken a few moments to read the astronomical literature, or even asked an astronomer, he could not have made his statement.
Based on the Kepler data of 2010, we can say that around 50% of Sun-like stars have planets, and there may be at least one million Earth-like planets in habitable zones in the Milky-Way alone. And that is probably an underestimate. Some good resources are the Exoplanet encyclopaedia, Exoplanet.org (with the exoplanet data plotter) and the Habitable Zone as well as my posts on exoplanets.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Sky This Week -September 15 to Thursday September 22
The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday September 20. Jupiter appears in the evening sky and is close to the Moon on the 15th and 16th. Mars is visible in the morning sky. Saturn is low in the western evening sky. Comet C/2009 P1 Garrad is visible in binoculars in the northern sky.
Morning sky looking north-east as seen from Adelaide at 5:30 am local time on Sunday September 18 showing Mars, the brighter stars and the location of comet 45P Honda. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. Click to embiggen.
The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday September 20.
In the morning Jupiter is high above the north-western sky. Now is a good time to begin telescopic observation of this massive world, or follow its moons in binoculars.
Jupiter is visible in the evening sky, from about 11 pm local time on. However, for good telescopic observation Jupiter is best from 2-4 am. The waning Moon visits Jupiter on Thursday the 15th and Friday the 16th.
Mars is low in the eastern sky, in the constellation of Gemini. At the beginning of the week Mars forms a rough line with the bright stars Castor and Pollux.
Bright white Venus is still lost in the twilight glow, returning to the evening sky later this month.
Mercury is lost in the twilight glow.
Comet 45P Honda enters the morning sky, but will be very hard to see in the twilight sky without a decent telescope.
Evening sky on Thursday September 16 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 11:00 pm local time in South Australia showing Jupiter in the late evening sky not far from the waning Moon. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).
Saturn is still visible low in the westen sky as the bright yellowish object not far from the bright star Spica. It is now too low in the sky for successful telescopic observation.
Despite Saturns closeness to the horizon , there are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope.If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.
The location of Vesta as seen at 8:00 pm on Saturday September 17 looking north-east from Adelaide, similar views will be seen at equivalent local times elsewhere. Click to embiggen,
The asteroid Vesta is well past opposition, but is still readily visible in binoculars and is just below the threshold of unaided eye visibility (magnitude 6.5).
Vesta starts the week above from the relatively bright star Phi Capricorni, making it very easy to find. During the week it stays roughly the same distance from Phi Capricorni. Early in the week bright Moonlight will make it difficult to see, but by the weekend you should have lots of dark viewing time.
Vesta is nearly at a stand still, so you may have to folow it for a few days to be sure. A chart showing Vesta's location is here.
The location of Comet C/2009 Garrad as seen at 8:00 pm Saturday September 17 looking north from Adelaide, similar views will be seen at equivalent local times elsewhere. Click to embiggen,
Comet C/2009 Garrad is visible in binoculars in the northern sky, in the constellation of Hercules.
Although it has brightened substantially, it is still only a fuzzy dot at magnitude 6.9. The best views will be under dark skies, where you might spy a short faint tail. The best viewing is around 8:00 pm, when the comet is almost due north and highest in the sky. Early in the week the comet will be hard to see due to Moonlight, but by the weekend the skies should be dark enough to pick it up easily.
A chart showing C/2009 P1's location is here.
Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm ADST, Western sky at 10 pm ADST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.
Morning sky looking north-east as seen from Adelaide at 5:30 am local time on Sunday September 18 showing Mars, the brighter stars and the location of comet 45P Honda. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. Click to embiggen.The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday September 20.
In the morning Jupiter is high above the north-western sky. Now is a good time to begin telescopic observation of this massive world, or follow its moons in binoculars.
Jupiter is visible in the evening sky, from about 11 pm local time on. However, for good telescopic observation Jupiter is best from 2-4 am. The waning Moon visits Jupiter on Thursday the 15th and Friday the 16th.
Mars is low in the eastern sky, in the constellation of Gemini. At the beginning of the week Mars forms a rough line with the bright stars Castor and Pollux.
Bright white Venus is still lost in the twilight glow, returning to the evening sky later this month.
Mercury is lost in the twilight glow.
Comet 45P Honda enters the morning sky, but will be very hard to see in the twilight sky without a decent telescope.
Evening sky on Thursday September 16 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 11:00 pm local time in South Australia showing Jupiter in the late evening sky not far from the waning Moon. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).Saturn is still visible low in the westen sky as the bright yellowish object not far from the bright star Spica. It is now too low in the sky for successful telescopic observation.
Despite Saturns closeness to the horizon , there are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope.If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.
The location of Vesta as seen at 8:00 pm on Saturday September 17 looking north-east from Adelaide, similar views will be seen at equivalent local times elsewhere. Click to embiggen,The asteroid Vesta is well past opposition, but is still readily visible in binoculars and is just below the threshold of unaided eye visibility (magnitude 6.5).
Vesta starts the week above from the relatively bright star Phi Capricorni, making it very easy to find. During the week it stays roughly the same distance from Phi Capricorni. Early in the week bright Moonlight will make it difficult to see, but by the weekend you should have lots of dark viewing time.
Vesta is nearly at a stand still, so you may have to folow it for a few days to be sure. A chart showing Vesta's location is here.
The location of Comet C/2009 Garrad as seen at 8:00 pm Saturday September 17 looking north from Adelaide, similar views will be seen at equivalent local times elsewhere. Click to embiggen,Comet C/2009 Garrad is visible in binoculars in the northern sky, in the constellation of Hercules.
Although it has brightened substantially, it is still only a fuzzy dot at magnitude 6.9. The best views will be under dark skies, where you might spy a short faint tail. The best viewing is around 8:00 pm, when the comet is almost due north and highest in the sky. Early in the week the comet will be hard to see due to Moonlight, but by the weekend the skies should be dark enough to pick it up easily.
A chart showing C/2009 P1's location is here.
Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm ADST, Western sky at 10 pm ADST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.
Labels: weekly sky
Monday, September 12, 2011
Finding the bright Supernova 2011fe in M101
North-western sky as seen form around latitude 30 deg north at astronomical twilight (an hour and a half after sunset). M101, which hosts the supernova is above the handle of the big dipper.With Supernova 2011fe being exclusively a northern hemisphere object, I have neglected the basic "look here" type posts I normally do.
However, despite this blog being largely about observing from the southern hemisphere, with added exoplanets, most of my readers are from the US (thank you, comet Elenin), so I'm doing a finding the supernova post just for you.
Now Supernova 2011fe is the brightest supernova in the past 20 years, however it's currently around magnitude 10, which makes it very faint from our pespective (the limit anyone can see under dark skies with ideal eyesight is magnitude 6.5). You will need a small telescope or dark skies and good, tripod mounted binoculars to see it.
Approximate binocular view of M101 (Click to embiggen).A big problem at the moment is Moonlight, for the next day or so bright Moonlight will mean that the supernova (and its host galaxy M101) will be effectively invisible in binoculars and small telescopes. You will have to wait until the Moon is below the horizon (September 15) to see them.
The other problem is that M101 sets not too long after twilight, so you have about 2 hours where it is high enough above the murk around the horizon to see.
M101 is a faint patch of light in binoculars, despite its listed brightness of magnitude 7.7, it is a diffuse object, so rather dim, it may look like no more than a fuzzy dot. It will look better in a smal telescope, but will still be a fuzzy patch.
Once you have it, the star within the fuzzy dot is the supernova. Happy supernova hunting!
Labels: supernova
Carnival of Space #214
Welcome to the Downunder Edition of Carnival of Space 214
We have lots of good stories for you this week.
Near Earth:
Solar System
Deep Space
Cosmos
We have lots of good stories for you this week.
Near Earth:- The Space Show welcomes Dr. Jeff Bell back for a two hour plus discussion regarding the retirement of the space shuttle.
- Gene Roddenberry's son tells Discovery News about how his father's vision inspires society, and Discovery News talks to Richard Obousy about how Star Trek inspired him to formulate the science behind the warp drive.
- Cheap Astronomy chats to the Ordinary Guy from the Brains Matter podcast about astronomy, science and saving the world.
- Vintage Space has a history of the real Apollo 18 mission.
- The AIAA has posted the rules to this year's Cessna/Raytheon Missile Systems Student Design/Build/Fly competition.
- This post from Vega00 explains how to create a time-lapse easily with VirtualDub [In Spanish]
- The Next Big Future explains how Russia is trying to get its rockets flying again so that the Space Station does not have to be evacuated. They also describe how the Blue Origin rocket had a crash, but there are images of what the secret rocket looks like in flight. They they show Electric solar wind sail videos of components in operation. A 10 meter test tether should be sent to space in 2012.
- The Meridian Journal talks about the new images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the Apollo landing sites on the Moon in the greatest detail yet. So does Universe Today.
- ZME science reports that the Royal Observatory gives out their annual awards for astronomy photography, and the pictures are amazing.
Solar System
- Centauri Dreams ponders the possibilities of moving asteroids in their orbits, and wonders, as did earlier writers, whether it's a good idea, even if the windfall from mining could be immense.
Deep Space- Chandra Finds Nearest Pair Of Supermassive Black Holes.
- The Next Big Future reports how the Kepler space telescope detected an exoplanet indirectly by detecting the gravitational effect on a visible exoplanet.
- StarryCritters explores a protoplanetary nebula shaped like a starfish or dragonfly.
- A transient Nova in Scorpius was discovered "twice" 92 mins apart by separate observers, interestingly it was brighter than the Supernova our northern cousins have been getting excited about, but appears to have faded slightly already. Details are still emerging about the discovery - Astroswanny has photos. It expected to be announced as a Type Fe II Nova.
Cosmos
- Atra Materia looks at the latest information about dark energy.
- TheSpacewriter muses on measuring the universe.
Labels: carnival of space
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Comet Elenin Passes Perihelion ...
.. and nothing happened. To complement Michael Mattiazzo's recent images, here's image taken on Sept 7 by Jonh Glossop http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment_browse.php?a=100255. Now were are waiting for the remnants of the comet to enter the SOHO C3 imager.
Labels: comet
Saturday, September 10, 2011
And Meanwhile ...
... comet 213P van Ness has fragmented again, two new comets have been discovered and there is a new Nova in Scorpius.
Not to mention that GRAIL made it into orbit okay, and the newly discovered planet in a habitable zone. I just don't have time too keep up (I still have to process my images of C/2009 P1 Garrad and Vesta and the latest STEREO images).
Not to mention that GRAIL made it into orbit okay, and the newly discovered planet in a habitable zone. I just don't have time too keep up (I still have to process my images of C/2009 P1 Garrad and Vesta and the latest STEREO images).
Labels: comet, exoplanet, miscelaneous, news, nova
Comet Elenin by Radar
Leonid Elenin reports of the first radio telescope observation of comet C/2010 X1 Elenin. Radar spectroscopy did not pick up any signature of water vapour from the comet, suggesting that it has well and truly broken up. We will have to wait for Comet Elenin to come into range of the Arecibo radio telescope and the SOHO spacecraft to learn more.
In the meantime, Michael Mattiazzo's latest Elenin images show it fading and becoming more tenuous than before.
In the meantime, Michael Mattiazzo's latest Elenin images show it fading and becoming more tenuous than before.
Labels: astrophotography, comet
Of Various Astronomcial Photography Competitions
Okay, so I am very, very late on this, but the David Main Awards for Australian astrophotography have been out since July. You can see the winning entries here (scroll down, it's worth it), as well as dates that the winning images will be displayed at various cities as it travels around Australia.
Note the winner of the Junior award, her image was featured first on this very blog! Let's hope she goes on to to do more outstanding astrophotography.
Universe Today has images of the winning entries for Astrophotographer of the Year, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich and Sky at Night Magazine. See the winners here, they are stunning. There are a lot more images at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Flickr site .
Note the winner of the Junior award, her image was featured first on this very blog! Let's hope she goes on to to do more outstanding astrophotography.
Universe Today has images of the winning entries for Astrophotographer of the Year, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich and Sky at Night Magazine. See the winners here, they are stunning. There are a lot more images at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Flickr site .
Labels: astrophotography
September 10, Sun Very Active, Possibility of Aurora,
Sunspots on September 9, image credit SOHO/NASA/ESA.The Sun has been readily blasting off powerful flares for the past week, with particularly powerful X class flare on the 8th (some great images at Spaceweather) .
Most of these are from sunspot 1283 (cluster at far right on the image). These have not translated into aurora, not really being directed at Earth.
There is an geomagnetic alert for Australia tonight from a more Earth directed coronal mass ejection, whether this will translate into either a geomagnetic storm or aurora is hard to say.
Certainly people in Tasmania and Southern New Zealand should be on the lookout for aurora this evening (Saturday September 10), but the bright Moonlight will make observing any aura difficult.
UPDATE: In the northern hemisphere this CME event has sparked fantastic aurora to relatively low latitudes (see this Spaceweather report with a great picture gallery), Here in the southern hemisphere the IPS merely forecasts minor storm periods.)
Labels: aurora
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Supernova 2011fe in M101 Nearing or at Maximum Brightness
Supernova 2011fe imaged using Global-ret-a-scope GRAS_05 on August 30 (click to embiggen)Supernova 2011fe in M101 has been brightening considerably, and is nearing, or may be already at, it’s maximum brightness. If you have M101 reasonably high in your night sky, you should be able to see the supernova in binoculars. Sadly, this supernova can't be seen from most of Australia.
Labels: Global Rent-a-Scope, supernova
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