Astronomy

There have been a number of reported objects that were once thought to exist by astronomers, but which later 'vanished'. For instance, two days before the March 29, 1974, Mariner 10 flyby of Mercury, one instument began registering bright, extreme ultraviolent emissions that had "no right to be there." The next day, the emissions were gone. Three days later, they reappeared, apparently emanating from an "object" that seemingly detached itself from Mercury. The astronomers first thought they had seen a star. But, they had seen the emissions in two quite different directions, and every astronomer knew that these extreme UV wavelengths couldn't penetrate very far through the interstellar medium. This suggested that the object must be relatively close. Did Mercury have a moon?

Wired has a story which talks about a danger to possible future inhabitants of the Moon that is rarely brought up: the highly abrasive lunar dust. Unlike Earth, the Moon has no erosive capabilities to smooth the edges of rocks or dust. As a result the lunar dust has arms that stick out, like Velcro, and sticks to everything. As the astronauts who walked on the moon found out, the dust scratched lenses and corroded seals within hours. Some of the particles are only microns across which means once they get into your lungs, they stay there. This could cause a lung disease similar to silicosis.

The Huygens probe has succesfully landed on the surface of Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn, and the only moon in our solar system which has its own atmosphere. The Huygens landing on Titan is probably the biggest scientific event of 2005, just like the scientific proof in 2004 by the Mars Rovers of water once being present on Mars. ESA has a collection of recent images on their Cassini homepage, and so has NASA.

More images :

• larger image of the one here above
• Celestia's rendering of Cassini's flyby
• The Planetary Society's has a Huygens weblog with images and discussion too
• Update : Anthony Liekens has put up a page with various mosaic panorama's, compiled of available images.

Tomorrow, the much anticipated Huygens Probe will rendezvous with the Saturn moon Titan. It has been making a 22 day journey to the moon, and end up entering the atmosphere sometime on January 14th somewhere at 11h15 CET.
Titan is one of the remaining puzzles of the solar system - while Cassini's imaging cameras and radar instrument have begun to reveal the details of its surface, the Huygens probe will be the first spacecraft to venture beneath Titan's thick clouds.

Comet Macholz is one of the most bright comets in the past years : right now, the comet is visible with the naked eye on the evening sky for observers in the northern hemisphere. As it's now making its closest approach to planet Earth, the comet passed near the lovely Pleiades star cluster on January 7th and will pass the double star cluster in Perseus on January 27th as Machholz moves relatively quickly through the evening sky. Currently just visible to the unaided eye from dark locations, the comet should be an easy target in binoculars or a small telescope. Here's a finder chart for the comet, in case you have trouble spotting it.

It has been almost a full year for the Mars rovers. NASA has created a flashback of rover images and information. You can use either HTML or Flash. There is even a movie taken from the hazard avoidance camera showing the full year of travel.

For those who are curious about the names of the full moons they are listed below.

• JANUARY - the Old Moon, or Moon After Yule
• FEBRUARY - the Snow Moon, Hunger Moon or Wolf Moon
• MARCH - the Sap Moon, Crow Moon or Lenten Moon
• APRIL - the Grass Moon or Egg Moon
• MAY - the Planting Moon or Milk Moon
• JUNE - the Rose Moon or Flower Moon
• JULY - the Thunder Moon or Hay Moon
• AUGUST - the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon
• SEPTEMBER - the full moon of September is called the Fruit Moon. Usually it is also the Harvest Moon..
• OCTOBER - As the full moon nearest to the autumn equinox [in 1982], this is called the Harvest Moon.. Other versions of the rule are that the Harvest Moon is the full moon at or after the equinox, or that it is allways in October... Farmers at the climax of harvest can work late into the night by the light of the moon...
• NOVEMBER - the Frosty Moon or Beaver Moon. As the full moon after the Harvest Moon [in 1982] this is called the Hunter''s Moon...Since the fields have been reaped, hunter can ride across the stubble, and can see the fox more easily; also other animals which have come out to glean and can be caught for a thanksgiving banquet after the harvest..
• DECEMBER - the Moon Before Yule, or Long Night Moon. In a December with two full moons, the second of these title should apply to the second of them.

Fancy a ride through the Orion nebula ? On the site of the San Diego supercomputer center you can find a 29MB big AVI file which takes you on a flight in and around the Orion nebula. It is one of the most famous objects in the winter sky, visible with the naked eye, and about 1500 light years away from us. It's a place where young stars are born.

Don't know anything about the Kaluza-Klein theory ? Never heard of Kepler''s first law ? GOES is Chinese for you ? You want more info about Omicron Ceti ? Well, take a look at the Astronomy Knowledge Base.

An interesting signal has been discovered by SETI. No real evidence of Someone Out There, but not fully explainable either. Maybe aliens should send spacemail, not signals: Rutgers electrical engineering professor, Christopher Rose, has an article on Nature magazine's cover today describing the most efficient way for our civilization to be discovered by aliens. On this question of better to 'write or radiate', his conclusions: better not to send radio transmission, when physical media like DNA on an asteroid can declare a terrestrial presence.

Similar to what motivated Voyager scientists to attach a plaque for the outbound trip.