Category Archives: Science

Long Crack

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This entry is part 25 of 25 in the series Lunarcy

The moon is almost full and it seems like there is little to see. But on the southwest terminator is a grouping of craters that lead us to one of the longest cracks on the Moon. Near the top of this image are two overlapping craters. The one on top is Sirsalis (43km diameter). You will notice a rima running north-south just to the right of it. This is, appropriately enough, Rimae Sirsalis one main rima with several smaller, shorter, thinner ones on the side. The main rima is 309km long, its southern end in shadow here and the northern end of the top of this image. Just to the right of the nameplate on this image is the faintest traces of the upper edge of a crater wall. This is the crater Cruger (48km) with the satellite crater Cruger A (27km) the sharp crater next to the rima. Further on in the same direction is a shallow flat bottomed … Continue reading →

Getting to Know a Neutron Star: How Heavy Can They Be?

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This year the Ligo Interferomenter Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration announced the discovery of a potentially new type of object that fell into a black hole, of course never to be seen or heard from again! Black holes are always interesting, but in this case it is not the black hole that is in the spotlight. Instead, it is that ill-fated infalling object that grabbed all the attention. This is because information was obtained that points to the discovery of the heaviest known neutron star. Neutron stars should not be confused with ordinary stars we see in the sky. Stars are made of hydrogen and tend to shine in colors which our eyes can see. On the other hand, neutron stars are formed from the centers of massive stars. They are made of neutrons, and are very dark against the night sky. These dim neutron stars are also densely-packed: so much so that a single teaspoon would weigh as much … Continue reading →

Back Yard Meteor Crater: Jeptha Knob

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There is a meteor crater in my back yard! Despite having lived in the Louisville, Kentucky area for thirty years, I only learned about the crater this year, when I took part in the AAS Kentucky Area Meeting 2020 on March 7. One presenter mentioned impact sites in Kentucky, including Jeptha Knob. Jeptha Knob is located half an hour due east of my house. It is just a few miles from Shelbyville, Kentucky, home of one of my college’s campuses. A few years ago, I taught Astronomy 101 at that campus for two semesters, wholly unaware of any nearby crater. However, while I did not know of Jeptha Knob until this year, I did know the name because of the Jeptha Creed distillery in Shelbyville (we make a lot of bourbon here in Kentucky, you know). Last month my wife and I decided to go check out Jeptha Knob—a good “no social contact”, enjoyable, yet professionally constructive thing to do … Continue reading →

Educational Online Presentations

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Last night I joined a zoom lecture hosted by the Science and Entertainment Exchange. The speaker was Kevin Peter Hand who is an astrobiologist. His talk was about Alien Oceans of Earth and Beyond. I have enjoyed several  educational online presentations in recent weeks, some on the subjet of astrobiology. It can be very stimulating to have something to lift one’s spirits during this difficult time. I have had a thing about Enceladus for years now.  I once made a model of this icy moon out of a football, paint and some clay. So kids could hold it when you could not go to a shop and buy such a thing. A few years later I painted Enceladus  inspired by Cassini’s images. It is a very textured painting as was the model made from a football. Several of my workshops include Enceladus and it has been drawn many times by children attending over the past years. So I  just had … Continue reading →

Happy Birthday Pope John Paul II

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Today would have been the 100th birthday of Pope (and now Saint) John Paul II. Pope Francis has already celebrated (click here) and of course this event will be especially noted in Poland. As part of that celebration, a Catholic newspaper in Poland, Wszystko Co Najważniejsze, asked me to write a short reflection on what Pope John Paul II meant for the Vatican Observatory. Since they are publishing it in Polish, I thought I would run my original English version here. (Anyone who reads Polish can comment in the comments about how well their translation came across! Actually, we do have two Polish speakers at the Specola… and the Polish website has their edited version of my English text.) The papacy of Saint John Paul II came at a watershed moment in the history of the Vatican Observatory. A new observatory director, Fr. George Coyne SJ, had just been named by his immediate predecessor, John Paul I; but Father Coyne … Continue reading →

Science and Water, Then and Now

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You find science everywhere.  During the early eighteenth century Spanish Franciscans established a series of missions along the San Antonio River in what is now the U.S. state of Texas.  They ministered to the native Coahuiltecan people who lived there.  The San Antonio Missions are today active Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, while also being part of the San Antonio Missions National Park, and a UN World Heritage Site.  Thus, the missions are still there.  And, as a film that introduces visitors to the San Antonio Missions emphasizes, so are the Coahuiltecans who built the missions with the Franciscans; their descendants live all over the area. One of the missions, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepción de Acuña, appeared in this blog last year (click here for that post) because the sun illuminates that church in an interesting way every Feast of the Assumption.  However, as I noted in that post, while arranging that sort of … Continue reading →

A Humid Place on the Moon

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This entry is part 22 of 25 in the series Lunarcy

The monster crater here is Gassendi (114km diameter), a landmark for this colongitude on the north shore of Mare Humorum, the “Sea of Moisture”. Gassendi was flooded during the same even that created the mare so we only see the tops of what once were magnificent central peaks. The faulted floor is always a enjoyable but I particularly like the detail in the walls of the crater as they catch these early rays of the rising sun. Note the two notches in Gassendi’s wall at about the 11 o’clock position. On LROC Quick Map they appear to be to impacts through the mountains giving the appearance at this lighting of being parallel rimae. The nice central peaks and rimae on the floor are provide a rich field for examination. There are 3 main rimae that diverge from a point to the east of the central peaks. Between two of them is a small crater, Gassendi N (3km). The rima on … Continue reading →

The “X”

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This entry is part 21 of 25 in the series Lunarcy

Our best observing weather in southern AZ is when the days are hot, the evenings warm and still. The colongitude was just right so this was a good night to get a look at the famous “X” on the moon. Can you see it on the terminator? It only lasts for and hour or so. Here’s how you get there. The area below center of this image is dominated by the two circular pools of darkness that are Aliacensis (82km diameter), lower, and Werner (71km) above. A line between the centers of these two craters lead to the “X” formed by the walls of Blanchinus, La Caille, Purbach and several smaller features. Above Aliacensis and Werner is a nice flat floored crater, Apianus (65km) and further above that is a smaller crater Playfair (49km). Near the top of the image is a pair of craters Azophi (49km) and above it is the irregular Abenezra (43km) with Geber (46km) partially cut … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists | Fr. Athanasius Kircher S.J. (1602-1680): Jesuit Polymath

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This entry is part 15 of 15 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

Athanasius Kircher lived at a time when a wealth of information was coming to Rome from the missions — many of them Jesuit-run — around the world.  Missionaries were documenting new plants, animals, cultures, and natural phenomena.  Stationed in Rome himself, Kircher collected these reports and artifacts from abroad and corresponded with scientists and academics throughout Europe.  His writings — more than 40 texts — compile, report, and expand upon many different fields from linguistics to Egyptology to paleontology to magnetism and more.  Living at the end of the age of Renaissance polymaths, he has been called “the last man who knew everything.” His scientific contributions were largely hit-or-miss, many of them having been corrected or negated by later findings.  Often, historians have emphasized these failures to paint a picture him as anything from a well-meaning but failed scientist to an outright charlatan.  This bias, however, fails to recognize the value of his overall body of work.  More recently, some … Continue reading →

Found: a homemade mystery spectrometer

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While I’m waiting for some research to come in for my second “through clear glass” entry, I thought I’d share some research on an object I found. My greatest garage sale find.     I was called by a flea market seller to come over and look at some photographic equipment he had. I grabbed the magic lantern right away, and a couple turn of the century items that were interesting. Before we settled on a price, he pointed to a collection of black lacquered, obviously homemade wood boxes. The one that piqued my interest the most was about 5” square, boomerang shaped and 18” long. It stands on a nice iron stand, with one end occupied by a ground glass screen. There are two small cranks along the inside edge of the curve, and on the far end are two razor blades held on with screws. My friend saw my eyes light up, and I saw the dollar signs in … Continue reading →

Heading south

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This entry is part 20 of 25 in the series Lunarcy

A night with the Dynamax6 I just  bought as I continue to “shelter in place” during the Coronavirus outbreak. Here we have one of the more identifiable craters on the moon, Clavius (225km diameter) just above center here, containing its impressive arc of smaller craters starting with Rutherfurd (56km) on the southwest rim (lower right) of Clavius and then going through a series of the Clavius satellite craters decreasing in size while curving to the north and east. On the north rim is a crater similar to Rutherfurd. This is Porter (54km). Just outside the wall to the southwest are two similar sized craters. The southernmost one with the relatively smooth floor is Blancanus (109km) and just north and west of it is Scheiner (114km). South of Blancanus is a very flat floored crater, Klaproth (122km) and further south is Casatus (114km). To the left are two more similar craters mostly filled with shadow. The lower one is Kircher (75km) … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: One Year In

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This entry is part 14 of 15 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

Wow, it has already been a year since the first post on this series about religious scientists.  In that year, we’ve looked at men and women who have contributed to astronomy and astrophysics, biology, chemistry, paleontology, computer science, meteoritics,  medicine, and more. My goal in starting the column was to highlight people who had religious vocations (priests, monks, sisters, brothers, etc.) who at the same time contributed to our scientific understanding of the natural world. These people serve as a sign to the world of the compatibility of faith and science. I thought I would celebrate the completion of this year by taking a brief pause and looking back at the people discussed in previous posts. This also serves as an opportunity for you the reader to catch up on anyone that you may have missed. Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J.:  Jesuit priest. He is one of the pioneers of astrophysics. He developed a spectral classification system for stars and was … Continue reading →