Our first direct evidence of something we all knew was going to be commonplace… lightning on another planet, in this case Saturn, courtesy of Cassini.
Embedded video from
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology
I am gearing up for the New Year celebration tonight, so to keep it easy I thought I would pass along a couple of gems from AMNH, the American Museum of Natural History. But first, I need to send my congratulations to Action Flick Chick for winning this years Women of the Web competition.
Tiny pieces of Halley’s Comet will be hitting Earth for the next week in the form of the Orionids Meteor Shower. The tail of Halley’s Comet is made of dust and small pieces of ice and rock that has broken off the comet itself, and now follows an independent orbit around the Sun. That orbit crosses the Earths twice each year, with the Orionids being the second pass. The event started last night and will continue for a week or so, with the peak display coming Wednesday night. Since we will be within a few days of a new moon, viewing should be good as long as you can get away from city lights. This is one of a series of meteor showers you can see each year, and the International Year Of Astronomy viewing tips will get you ready. Lest anyone was concerned, Halley’s Comet itself, the main ball of ice and rock, will not be impacting the Earth any time in the next thousand years or so; just the tiny pieces that broke off.
Four months after the launch, tomorrow LCROSS will smash into the moon. Specifically, it will crash into a Dark Crater at the moon’s south pole, in an effort to find water on the moon. Locating a local source of water is critical for extended manned missions and habitation there. Details about the chances to see these events yourself can be found here, including a link to NASA TV Online, where you can watch the event live beginning at 3:15AM PDT, 6:15AM EDT.
The National Air and Space Museum unveiled POP today: the Public Observatory Project. Another celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, the historic 16-inch telescope set up in the observatory will be available for daytime use by the public. Craters on the moon, phases of the planets, and sunspots (with appropriate filtering and/or projection optics to protect Mark 1 Eyeballs from being burned out) are just some of the things the public can see there. If you can’t make it to the Smithsonian, you might want to visit Experience the Planets instead, and see the solar system through the eyes of artists. Or perhaps you would like to read a little about NASA’s Replicator, not quite ready for an order of Earl Grey, hot, but it can make parts for aircraft and spaceships at nearly the molecular level.
If you find yourself flying through D.C. with a layover at Dulles Airport of 2 hours or more, you can take a shuttle over to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Located on the Dulles grounds, it is another branch of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian. Among the exhibits there is the US Space Shuttle Enterprise, and all the satellite, spacecraft, and aircraft displays you would expect. But there are a few other SciFi goodies as well, including the most complete classic ray gun collection I have ever seen, a small assortment of Robots, a phone booth in the shape of a Mercury capsule, and an R2-D2 USPS mailbox.