From planetarium at lists.parkland.edu Thu May 22 09:18:38 2008 From: planetarium at lists.parkland.edu (planetarium@lists.parkland.edu) Date: Thu May 22 09:31:07 2008 Subject: [Planetarium] Planetarium E-news Message-ID: <48353A6B.241A.00A9.0@parkland.edu> William M. Staerkel Planetarium E-news May 22, 2008 I?m sorry there hasn?t been more E-news postings as of late. Mid-March through the end of May are our main field trip times and we?ve been pretty busy with school buses coming and going. I?m not complaining as this is a ?good problem? to have! Here are a few tidbits you might find interesting. The Phoenix lander is set to descent to the planet Mars this Sunday afternoon (May 25). There should be coverage on NASA TV or you can scan updates. At 78 miles altitude, the lander and heat shield will encounter the Martian atmosphere. After slowing to Mach 1.7, a parachute will deploy and slow the craft further. At 0.6 miles above the surface, the chute will detach and the probe will fall in what NASA calls ?seven seconds of terror!? Thrusters will fire to bring the craft to rest (we hope!) on a northern arctic plain. After ten Martian days the scoop will be activated and the craft will spend 2.5 hours a day digging around near the spacecraft. For more details, see http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ It is also thought now that the interior of Mars is stiffer and colder than previously expected. Any subsurface water might be deeper beneath the crust than expected. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/wires?id=117391232&c=y for more info. Speaking of Mars, it?s in the west now after sunset and moving at about a half-degree per day towards the east. From May 21 to May 24, Mars appears to pass in front of rich star cluster called ?The Beehive? in the constellation of Cancer. Look for Mars in the west with binoculars and see if you can see the star cluster! http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/19008074.html Talk about being in the right place at the right time . . . . . . astronomers caught a supernova in the process of exploding while they were observing another supernova! Last January, astronomers using the Swift X-ray satellite were observing an exploding star. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2141465920080521 Have you heard about doomsday in 2012 yet? It has actually come up once with an audience at our planetarium! Supposedly the Mayan calendar ends in 2012. Their calendars were practical (showing them when to plant and harvest) but there was a religious factor woven into it. They combined several calendars of different lengths into one grand calendar that lasts 5126 year in, oddly enough, base 20! There is no doomsday planned and, in fact, some say there will be some sort of religious miracle. And some say that there is something relating to this in the new Indiana Jones movie (which I haven?t seen yet). http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/19/no-doomsday-in-2012/#more-14094 Why is there something about the ?moon? and ?flashing?? Maybe it?s just me. But in the last 2.5 years. Over a hundred flashes from micrometeorite hits have been observed, especially during certain meteor showers. Some, they say, can be observed with backyard telescopes. More info here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080521/sc_space/100explosionsrecordedonthemoon Might you see the space station tonight? Put your location into www.heavens-above.com and see what pops up. You?ll receive appearance and disappearance times plus a sky map of where to look. Also see why May is a good month to see it at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/19133199.html The Staerkel Planetarium opens a brand new show on the ?new? solar system on June 5 during our Thursday morning matinees. ?Solar System Safari? was originally written and produced by the Chaffee Planetarium in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The story revolves around a jungle adventurer who uses a magical camera to take the audience on a tour of the planets. All eight of them! But dwarf plants and Kuiper Belt Objects are covered in the show. We?ll also bring back some of the films that ran in this spring?s ?First (and Last) 35mm Film Festival? on Friday nights at 9pm. We had not planned on doing this but the turn-out was far greater than expected when we ran these earlier this year. For ?Arctic Light? we had to turn more than 50 people away because of a sell-out! So check out the schedule at www.parkland.edu/planetarium and come and see them! Next month we?ll begin work on the 2008-2009 academic year?s ?World of Science? Lecture series. If you know of a timely topic or a good presenter in the Champaign-Urbana area, please tell us! You can email me off-list at dleake@parkland.edu. Don?t reply to this message!