Dear Friends,
Had to get this e-mail out quickly so you don’t miss Tuesday night’s Leonid meteor shower. Details below, along with a few other news items, including yesterday’s exciting announcement about water on the Moon and an update on whether the world is really coming to an end in 2012 (it’s not).
Apologies for being so rushed today; leaving tomorrow with my family in hopes of seeing the Shuttle launch scheduled for Monday. If it’s something you’re thinking about doing, remember that only five more Shuttle missions remain before the Shuttles go into their planned retirement. I’ll try to provide some tips for planning to watch a launch after we finish our own experience this week…
Best wishes,
Jeff
1. This Tuesday night (Nov. 17): Leonid Meteor Shower — and plan ahead for Geminids Dec. 13!
2. Water (ice) found on the Moon
3. 2012 — World coming to end (or NOT)
4. Tidbits: Rosetta, Kepler, Mars Rovers, Voyage Model Solar Systems
5. New videos, books update
1. This Tuesday night (Nov. 17): Leonid Meteor Shower—and plan ahead for Geminids Dec. 13!
If you watch the sky patiently, you’ll see a few meteors — typically pea-sized particles entering Earth’s atmosphere — on most any clear night. But the best times to watch for meteors are during meteor showers, which occur when Earth passes through the dust-laden orbital path of a comet. The Leonid meteor shower occurs each year around Nov. 17, when Earth crosses through the dust debris of Comet Tempel-Tuttle; the Geminids occur around Dec. 13/14, as we pass through the debris of a comet called Phaeton. Both showers should be worth watching this year:
*The Leonids are expected to be especially good for those of you in Asia. But you should still see at least a few meteors no matter where you live. Go to bed as usual on the night of Nov. 17, then wake yourself up before dawn (say, 1 to 3 am) on Wednesday morning (Nov. 18). If you have dark skies where you live, just go out, get comfortable and look upward. (If you’re in a city, you might try driving out of town a bit.) Be patient, as even during a strong meteor shower it will be minutes on average between meteors. See how many you can count. Space.com has this great article on this year’s Leonids.
*The Geminids may be even better, and for North America should peak before midnight on Dec. 13. I’ll try to send out more details later, but remember that you can get great updates on sky events by subscribing to Larry Sessions’ North American Skies.
For Classroom Discussion:
*Meteors are sometimes called “shooting stars.” Do they actually have anything to do with the stars we see in the sky? (Answer: No. Meteors are created by particles of dust burning up in Earth’s atmosphere, which means they are right here in our own atmosphere — unrelated to stars, which are very far away.)
*Why are Leonids called Leonids, and Geminids called Geminids? (As Earth passes through the orbital dust of a comet, the debris seems to come at Earth from a particular direction, just as driving through a snowstorm makes the snow seem to come from a particular direction. Looking from Earth into space, we specify directions by the constellations, so the names of meteor showers come from the constellations from which most of their meteors seem to emerge. The Leonids emerge from the direction of the constellation Leo, the Geminids from Gemini. Scroll to the end of this e-mail to see a figure from my astronomy textbook that shows the geometry and a great composite photo.)
2. Water on the Moon
You probably heard about NASA “bombing” the Moon with the leftover rocket stage of the LCROSS spacecraft. It really wasn’t quite fair to call it a “bombing,” but we can debate that some other time. The important thing is that this mission was a total success: Yesterday, scientists announced the detection of water in the debris plume from the impact. You can find details in this article from the New York Times. My friend Phil Plait also has a great posting on his Bad Astronomy (which is actually very GOOD astronomy) blog; the lunar water posting is here. This is very good news for those of us who think we should be building a permanent base on the Moon (click here for my latest article on this topic), since it means there may be a “local” source of water.
For Classroom Discussion:
*Read more about this discovery. Where is the water located? (Answer: Craters near the lunar poles.) What form is the water in? (Answer: Ice.) Where do scientists think it came from? (Answer: water-rich comets that hit the Moon in the distant past.) Why is the water in these craters, but not elsewhere on the Moon? (Answer: some polar craters are in permanent shadow, which has prevented sunlight from causing the ice to vaporize and escape from the Moon as gas.)
*Discuss: How does this discovery affect the prospects for building a permanent human base on the Moon?
3. 2012 — World Coming to an End (or NOT)
With Hollywood now promoting the idea, it’s hard to miss the fact that many people are predicting the end of the world in December, 2012. Should you be worried? One of my favorite quotes (wish I could remember where I heard it!) about end-of-the-world predictions: “Throughout history, thousands of people have predicted the end of the world. So far, 100% of them have been wrong.” So based on that alone, you can conclude that the odds that they are right this time must be very close to zero. But if you’re still worried, don’t be:
*Click here to watch Hayden Planetarium’s Neil de Grasse Tyson speaking about why you needn’t worry about 2012.
*And if you want all the details, NASA astrobiologist Dave Morrison has put together this wonderful summary of 2012 and why you need not be concerned.
4. Tidbits: Rosetta, Kepler, Mars Rovers, Voyage Model Solar Systems
Some very brief updates…
*The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, en route to a distant comet, recently swung back past Earth for a gravitational assist, in the process snapping some terrific photos of our planet.
*The Kepler mission has bagged its first planet; odds are it will detect a thousand or more before the mission is completed in 4 years. Meanwhile, the current count of extrasolar planets (planets orbiting other stars) has surpassed 400!
*The Mars rovers are approaching the 6th anniversary of their landing on Mars, and they’re still going! Well, Spirit is currently stuck in the sand, but Opportunity is on its way to explore another crater. Let’s hope Spirit gets unstuck, and these remarkable little robots can keep on going…
*I know it’s tough to think about more donations in our current economy, but if you want to help bring some cosmic perspective to your community, consider helping us build a Voyage Scale Model Solar System. Please contact me if you are interested; in particular, we’re trying to line up donors to support the $200K cost of models for San Diego and Denver, so if you are willing to make pledge, let me know!
5. New Videos, Books update
And finally, a brief update on some of my own projects:
*For those few of you who have told me in the past that you like to torture yourself by watching my latest videos, you can now watch my interview about Beyond UFOs on Barry Kibrick’s Between the Lines book show.
*I have three new textbooks coming out between December and February:
- The Cosmic Perspective — Fundamentals is a new, short (less than 300 pages) version of the introductory astronomy textbook that I write with Megan Donahue, Nick Schneider, and Mark Voit. Because it is so short, it is also a good choice for nonstudents who just want to learn a bit more about astronomy.
- The Cosmic Perspective — 6th edition is a fully updated edition of the complete, 2-semester version of our astronomy textbook.
- Using and Understanding Mathematics — 5th edition; fully updated and loaded with current events, this textbook is aimed at college students who do not plan to take any further coursework in mathematics. Its goal is to teach them mathematics that is useful for college, careers, and life, but that is not standard algebra and not remedial. Also idea for senior level high school courses.
*Max Goes to Mars recently won a 2010 Teachers’ Choice Award, making it 10 awards for the Max series in 2009 alone. Please help me spread the word about these books — my ability to do more of them in the future depends on increasing their sales. And if you can take a few minutes, please post reviews on Amazon.
*For business groups (corporations, Chambers of Commerce, etc.). I have recently been developing a new presentation on the intersection of science and business, with some very positive early feedback. As I develop this, I’m willing to waive my standard fees for a few talks. If you are interested, please let me know.
Thanks so much for your time!
Meteor shower figure (from The Cosmic Perspective)
