Friday, May 20, 2011

APOD 4.8

The Last Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour (2011 May 18)



This picture was taken of the Endeavour after it took off. There were six astronauts aboard and was on its way to the International Space Station. Part of it's mission is to deliver to the ISS special equipment which includes a detector called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2. This is supposed to be able to detect a significant abundace of specific types of dark matter, charged, antimatter, and maybe strange variations of familiar matter called strangelets. This is the second to last launch. The last launch is currently scheduled for mid-July when Atlantis will also be launched to go to the space station. This was very interesting to see the picture and the follow-up video in the links. I was actually able to see the trail of smoke that the shuttle left behind during the launch after it disappeared in a cloud. This was the first time I actually observed something like this.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Quarter 4 Astronomers: Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker

            Eugene Merle Shoemaker, also known as Gene, was born on April 28, 1928 in Los Angeles, California. He was very eager to learn and while their family lived in Buffalo, he went to the evening classes at the Buffalo Museum of Science for high school students even though he was still in elementary school. When he was seven, his mother gave him a set of natural-stone marbles. Along with the family’s summer trips in the West, this instigated his interest with rocks and stones and their inner structure. In 1944 when he was only sixteen, he attended the California Institute of Technology where he excelled and got his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in geology in a short period of 3 years.
In the summer of 1948, she started working for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) where he learned how to differentiate between craters caused by underground forces and crater caused by an impact from above. In 1906, Daniel Moreau Barringer proposed that the Meteor Crater outside Flagstaff, Arizona was caused by a meteorite and not a volcano but had no way to prove it. So, Shoemaker examined the crater and confirmed Barringer’s belief. In 1960, with his colleagues, he isolated a mineral they found at Meteor Crater which he named “coesite.” This was the equivalent of a DNA fingerprint for extraterrestrial impact. Eventually he would find more coesite at other craters and basins. This new science was called astrogeology.
In 1973, he established the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey with Caltech geologist, Eleanor Helin. With the observations they gathered, he became one of the earliest people to come up with the theory that a catastrophic asteroid or comet impact could have been the cause of the annihilation of most of life on Earth 65 million years ago, which included the dinosaurs.
During the 1960’s, he was the leader of the teams investigating the structure and history of the moon and helped developed geologic mapping methods from telescope images. He was also the investigator in charge of the geological fieldwork that occurred during the first Apollo missions. He even helped in suggesting where those missions should land.
In 1950, Gene Shoemaker married Carolyn Spellman. Her brother was his roommate at Caltech. After her marriage, she decided to stay at home and raise their three children between 1952 and 1983, so she quit her job as a teacher. When Eleanor Helin left in 1982 to start her own asteroid search, Carolyn took her place after learning how to use the 18-inch Schmidt telescope. She would help her husband in his work. Helping each other, they discovered 32 comets and several hundred asteroids.
            In 1993 with David Levy, an amateur astronomer with a degree in English literature from Nova Scotia, they discovered a new object which is now known as the Periodic Comet Shomaker-Levy 9. With further study, it was suggested that this was just another comet that was caught in orbit around Jupiter due to the planet’s gravity. At one point in its path, the gravitational forces had pulled it into 21 fragments that looked like a string of pearls which were now falling into Jupiter.
            On July 18, 1997, when the Shoemakers were on a visit to Australia they were in a car crash. Carolyn survived but Gene, at age 69, died from his injuries. Carolyn is still alive and holds the record for most comets discovered.

Works Cited
  • Chapman, Mary G. "USGS Astrogeology: Carolyn Shoemaker." USGS Astrogeology Science Center. United States Geological Survey. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/CarolynShoemaker/>.
  • "Gene Shoemaker." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. Vol. 20. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 335-338. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 10 May 2011.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Zooniverse

This week I did two hours of Zooniverse Planet Hunters in class. Currently, I have classified 343 stars.

APOD 4.7

Wonder and Mystery above the Very Large Telescopes (2011 May 9)



This is a picture of the sky above the Very Large Telescopes (VLT). This facility is for European ground-based astronomy. They have the world's most advanced optical instrument, with the the four Unit Telescopes to form the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer. This allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes. This panoramic image in Chile, allows us to see many things. One of these diagonal bands of light to the far left is called zodiacal light. It comes from the sunlight reflected off of dust orbiting in the inner solar system. If you scroll your mouse over the image the different objects in the sky are identified and labeled. This was also taken during the total lunar eclipse last December so the moon actually appears orange. I am actually familiar with the constellations Canis Major and Orion, which appear in this photo. But with all the other stars in the sky it makes it harder to find them.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

APOD 4.6

Jupiter's Great Red Spot from Voyager 1 (2011 May 2)

 

This is a digital enhancement of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. This is a completed digital enhancement of a image of Jupiter taken in 1979 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The Great Red Spot is a anticyclonic storm and has l jat least 181 years and maybe even longer 346 years but it is unknown why it changes shape, size, and color. Also the Voyager 1 is currently the farthest human made object in the universe at about 117 AU from our planet. It is even expected to leave the heliosphere which is the region dominated by the solar wind and magnetic field. One of the interesting things about this APOD was being able to see the Great Red Spot with a little more depth into it because all the times I have seen the spot was when it's just a circle on the side of Jupiter and how scientists  efficiently use information they learned decades ago to help them in their research today.

Zooniverse

This week I continued planet hunters on zooniverse. I did one hour in class and my total number of stars classified is 280 stars.