1. MOON/JUPITER ECLIPSE FOR EARLY EASTERN RISERS
For those of you in the Eastern U.S., the Moon will eclipse (pass in front of) Jupiter shortly before dawn on Dec. 7; for exact times at different locations, see http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/29nov_moonjupiter.htm. Elsewhere, Jupiter and the Moon will still appear quite close together as a beautiful pair….
Questions you might want to ask your students in class:
- Why is this eclipse visible only to people in some locations and not in others? (Answer: The Moon is close enough to Earth that observers in different locations see it in slightly different positions against the background sky of more distant planets and stars; that is, the Moon exhibits a noticeable parallax as seen from different points on Earth’ surface.)
- Suppose a spacecraft photographed Jupiter during the time that we see the Moon eclipsing Jupiter in our sky. Would we see the Moon’s shadow on Jupiter? (Answer: No — while the Moon does indeed cast a shadow (the shadow that falls on Earth during a solar eclipse), the shadow extends only a few hundred thousand kilometers in space — far short of the distance to Jupiter.)
2. GEMINID METEOR SHOWER
No matter where you live, you may want to stay up late or get up early for this year’s Geminid meteor shower, which should be the best meteor shower we’ve had all year. The shower will peak on the night of Dec. 13/14. You can see it starting around about 10pm local time (anywhere) on Monday Dec. 13, and it should peak around 2am on Tuesday morning. Thus, for the best viewing, set your alarm for about 1:30 am before you go to bed on Monday Dec. 13. Details at http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_802_1.asp.
Questions you might want to ask your students in class:
- 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 on our own planet — unrelated to stars, which are very far away.)
3. MARS/SATURN MISSION UPDATE
The Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn continue to produce amazing results. The best part is the photos. So keep looking at the Mars rover web site (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov) and the Cassini web site (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov). And stay tuned for two exciting events at Saturn’s moon Titan: (1) The next close flyby of Titan by Cassini on Dec. 13; (2) Scheduled release of the Huygens probe on Christmas Day, en route to land on Titan on Jan. 14. See the web site for news on these events.
4. SWIFT IN ORBIT
Many people think the Hubble Space Telescope is the only telescope in space, but in fact there are many more. The latest addition to our fleet of space observatories is Swift, launched on Nov. 20. Swift is designed to explore the mystery of gamma ray bursts. (For those of you who have my book "On the Cosmic Horizon," this is Mystery #5 on my Top 10 list.) While we have learned much about these bursts in the past few years, much still remains mysterious. For more information, see the Swift web site at http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov.
MAX’S GIFT
For those of you who have followed the story of our dog Max, inspiration for and star of Max Goes to the Moon (and the forthcoming Max Goes to Mars): As you may recall, Max had surgery for bone cancer last May. The surgery was successful and he had a great summer and fall – swimming, hiking, running, and enjoying time with all of us. Unfortunately, his cancer returned fast and furious, and with great sadness we had to put him to sleep on Nov. 13. We all miss him a lot, but we are thankful for 9 1/2 great years and especially for our five "bonus" months after the surgery. In addition, Max apparently left us a parting gift. On the same day that Max returned to our home in an urn, Max Goes to the Moon won the 2004 Colorado Book Award for Best Children’s Book (books published in 2003). We feel very honored, especially given the competition: The other 3 finalists included a book that had already won a Newberry Honor this year and a book by a past Newberry winner. Thank you, Max…