Category Archives: Science

Shadow of the Mothership

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This image showing the shadow of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft on the surface of asteroid Ryugu just blew me away! Hayabusa2 is an asteroid sample return mission operated by JAXA – the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The spacecraft has been surveying asteroid Ryugu for a suitable location to take a sample, and drop a couple of  unique rovers. The rovers are designed to move over the surface of the asteroid by hopping. As of this posting, the MINERVA-II1 rover is being deployed to the asteroid’s surface. [MINERVA-II1] The altitude of Hayabusa2 when this image was captured was about 80m! https://t.co/1PhAWx4f9u — HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) September 21, 2018 [MINERVA-II1] Communication with MINERVA-II1 has currently stopped. This is probably due to the rotation to Ryugu, and MINERVA-II1 is now on the far side of the asteroid. We are currently working to confirm if there are images capturing the MINERVA-II1 landing. #asteroidlanding — HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) September 21, 2018 Stay tuned!  … Continue reading →

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Nears the End of its Mission

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This entry is part 26 of 26 in the series The Dawn Misson to the Asteroid Belt

I’ve been following the Dawn mission since its launch; my very first lecture as a Solar System Ambassador was to the Warren Astronomical Society about the Dawn mission at asteroid Vesta. Now, the spacecraft’s hydrazine propellant is running out, and when it does, the spacecraft will be unable to communicate with Earth – ending the mission. I’m planning on a good cry for that day; I can only imagine how Marc Rayman and his mission team will feel. The following is a JPL press release about the Dawn end of mission: NASA’s Dawn mission is drawing to a close after 11 years of breaking new ground in planetary science, gathering breathtaking imagery, and performing unprecedented feats of spacecraft engineering. Dawn’s mission was extended several times, outperforming scientists’ expectations in its exploration of two planet-like bodies, Ceres and Vesta, that make up 45 percent of the mass of the main asteroid belt. Now the spacecraft is about to run out of a … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Stories of Another World

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This entry is part 27 of 173 in the series Across the Universe

I’ve recently returned from this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, held this year in San Jose, California. This version of the  column, published in the Tablet in September of 2004, was first published here at The Catholic Astronomer in 2015. It describes my reaction following the 2004 Worldcon, held the first weekend of September in Boston.  Stories, myths, and tales make ideas a part of popular culture. Jesus taught with parables; fables and fairy tales are the way we teach children about life. Even the ancient Greek myths, it’s been argued, might have been deliberate devices for organizing and transmitting information about the natural world to nonscientific people. Once an idea gets turned into a story, people pay attention long enough to listen. And they’ll remember it. The images from Dante are far more vivid than the arguments of Aquinas. All fiction makes assumptions about science and religion. A good mystery, for instance, can depend on the physical possibility of certain … Continue reading →

World Space Week – Oct. 4-10

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World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition.In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly declared that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10. These dates commemorate two events: • October 4, 1957: The launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, beginning the space age, and opening the way for space exploration. • October 10, 1967: The signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. Brother Guy Consolmagno represented the Holy See at UNISPACE+50 – the 50th anniversary meeting of the United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna. 50 years ago the U.N. had its first conference on the peaceful uses of space. And I was a member of the UD High Model U.N. pic.twitter.com/V4ZWsi5Dry — Guy … Continue reading →

Solar Week Fall 2018 – October 22-26

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Solar Week is a week of online lessons, games and hands-on activities about the Sun for grades 5-9, or ages 9-14. Solar Week  happens twice each year, around mid-to-late March, and mid-to-late October. During Solar Week, your group or class can post a question for solar scientists to answer! Celebrating Our Sun-Earth Connection Monday – The Sun As a Star Tuesday – Solar Close-Ups Wednesday – The Active Sun Thursday – The Sky Above: Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Friday – Solar Careers, Internships and Opportunities To post a question – go to the MESSAGE BOARD and then click on the area in which you are interested, for example, “Facts About the Sun” or “Being or Becoming a Scientist.” Click the “Write a New Post” button. Your identity will remain anonymous unless you choose to give your name or affiliation. The Project Scientist for Parker Solar Probe, Dr. Nicky Fox, visited Solar Week in a live webinar to talk about this first mission to the Sun’s … Continue reading →

Eratosthenes Experiment – September 24, 2018

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Teachers! Take note! Have your students take part in the Eratosthenes Experiment – Sept. 24, 2018! Eratosthenes was a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist who lived in ancient Greece. In 240 B.C. Eratosthenes made the first good measurement of the size of Earth’s circumference. You can join with classrooms around the world and repeat his experiment with your students! The Experiment: Ask your students to calculate the circumference of the Earth and submit your data to the experiment’s website. Find the time of your local noon at your location. Please use the web-based NOAA Solar Calculator or Solar Calculator or the Stellarium software (A short guide for using Stellarium to calculate your local noon at your location can be found here in English and in Italian). Take a one-meter stick (H= 1 meter, see figure below) and place it vertically to the ground. Ask your students to measure the length of the stick to make sure it is one meter long. At the time scheduled to conduct the experiment, … Continue reading →

Vatican Observatory to Host First Ever Workshop on Meteorite Curation

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(Press Release from the Vatican Observatory) The Vatican Observatory will host the first ever workshop on the Curation of Meteorites and Extraterrestrial Samples at its headquarters in the Papal gardens of Castel Gandolfo.  Held from September 10-13, the meeting will bring together an international group of meteorite and extraterrestrial sample curators to exchange ideas, discuss best practices, and to explore ways to better serve the scientific community. Thirty curators and collections managers will be at this meeting, representing 27 scientific institutions from around the world. These include museums, universities, and institutions throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, Russia, Morocco, and Japan.  The curators not only care for meteorite collections, but also specimens gathered from space missions, such as the NASA Apollo moon rocks and the specimens from the Hayabusa mission to the asteroid 25143 Itokawa. “The community of curators has been trying to organize itself for many years,” says Br. Robert Macke, S.J., the curator of the Vatican meteorite collection … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Faith in the search

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This entry is part 1 of 173 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in October 2016 The SETI Institute in California’s Silicon Valley is famously using an array of radio telescopes to look for signals from intelligent extraterrestrials. Meeting as part of their Science Advisory Board [in 2016], I heard founder Jill Tarter insist that their work was based on rational science, not “faith.” I disagreed. “You can’t prove yet that alien life exists,” I explained. “But you must have faith that it’s there, despite the lack of evidence; that’s why you keep looking.” Extraterrestrial life is an example of something we believe ought to exist, given how we think the universe works, even without prior evidence. We’ve recently had success looking for such things – the Higgs Boson, Gravitational Waves. Those searches required fabulously complex and expensive detectors and huge teams of scientists to find things we really weren’t sure were actually there. More often in astronomy, though, we believe in the things we cannot … Continue reading →

Photoheliograph part 4

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Photoheliograph

                                                                                                 The Replica Many of the points made in this section have been touched on in the first part. Here I’ll include greater detail. The lens is a Wollensak 127mm 1200mm FL f/9.5 air spaced achromat. It is coated on the outer surface of each lens. It weighs in at nearly 5 pounds including the bezel. It was made by the Virginville optics company in Virginville Pa, also known at the Surplus Shed. The focus spot is ⅝” at 1200mm. The tube is made of clear pine boards, edge glued to make 12” on a side. 2 sides are cut to 10 ½” while the other two are cut to 12”. The boards were … Continue reading →

Dude, my Mom wrote me a physics book, and now I gotta read it!

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Take a look at a couple of entries from the Vatican Observatory Faith and Science pages, both pertaining to the Institutions de physique written by Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet.  Du Châtelet wrote the book for her son (who of course then had to read a physics book his Mom wrote—homeschooling Moms, take note!).  It is an early physics textbook, so to speak, that covers Newtonian physics (she published it in 1740).  It also contains material related to astronomy.  And Du Châtelet made the second chapter of Institutions on the existence of God—not something you are likely to find in a physics textbook today. Click here and here for the Faith and Science entries on Du Châtelet, including a partial translation of that second chapter proof of the existence of God. A group of faculty and students at the University of Notre Dame have been working for four years to create a complete translation of Institutions.  … Continue reading →

The Photoheliograph: pt. 3

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This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Photoheliograph

In April of 2016, I discovered a man named Warren De La Rue while looking through the London Stereoscopic Company website. He was a remarkable scientist and businessman. My interest was originally because of the stereo views of the Moon he made. My attention was soon drawn to an expedition to Spain he made in 1860 to photograph the total solar eclipse. My research led me to an article in the  Illustrated London News that had a woodcut of the research party in Spain. I was fascinated by the instrument used. Further reading led me to research the Kew Observatory’s photoheliograph. He wrote of the expedition in the Bakerian Lecture of 1862. This lecture was far more than an academic speech, he told of the preparations, the trials of the trip, and the generosity of the Spaniards he came across (it is a fun read, even if you skip the science). It was at this time I resolved to build my own … Continue reading →

California Wildfires: Reports of “Weird Skies” and a Red Gibbous Moon

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Last Friday evening, the western Michigan sky had a very unsettling hue to it. It had been cloud-covered and raining all day, but instead of typical shades of gray and red-orange of sunset, the sky was a sickly yellow. “That’s not right” I said, staring at it in confusion. Trails of smoke and carbon monoxide from massive wildfires in California have drifted eastward across the U.S., one branch moving toward Texas and the other forking toward upper Michigan and Canada. Carbon monoxide is a pollutant that can persist in the atmosphere for several weeks, and be transported long distances; it plays a role in both air pollution and climate change. There are several photos online showing an orange-red first-quarter Moon – which is just WRONG! A couple friends said they saw this… all I’ve seen for days is clouds and haze. The Blood Red Moon fighting her way through the Forest Fire Smoke and Haze in our Calgary sky last night. … Continue reading →