Life in Space

Tropical Lakes on Saturn Moon Could Expand Options for Life

I found this current article that since Titan is the only solid body in our solar system that cycles a liquid, it may be a very likely candidate for life. Read the article to learn more:

TITAN'S OPTIONS FOR LIFE

Meteors

This is what you do if a meteor lands near you:

Our Solar System

We began last week by discussing our solar system. Our solar system is located in the Milky Way Galaxy. While we used to have nine planets, Pluto has be declassified and is not known as a dwarf planet. Our eight planets in order from the sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Their order can be remembered by the first letters of "my very educated mother just served us nachos. The first four planets are terrestrial and the last four are jovian. Terrestrial planets have a ground surface that could be landed on, while jovian planets are similar to Jupiter in that they are gas giants. The planet most similar to Earth is Mars, while the jovian planets are the most different from Earth. All of the jovian planets have rings, but Saturn's are the most well known.

Using the information from above, complete this short quiz.

1. What is the fifth planet from our sun?
2. What makes Mars a terrestrail planet?
3. How many planets are in our solar system?
4. What planet is closest to the sun?
5. Which planet is most similar to Earth?
6. How many planets have rings?
7. What is Pluto?
8. How can you remember the order of the planets?
9. Which planet's rings are most well known?
10. Where is our solar system located?

Shades of Bright and Dark on the Moon

I tried to observe the moon for several nights in the past two weeks but with the new moon and a few cloudy nights, this became arduous. I was however able to view the moon at 10pm both lastnight and on 6/25. There was slight cloudcover on the 25th and the moon was closer to the horizon but I was still able to see the detail on the lunar surface. Here is a picture of my observations.

The Sea of Fertility seemed very prominent in both. After that was the Sea of Tranquility. I noticed that the Sea of Serenity was visible on the 27th but not on the 25th. Overall, I felt that the moon on the 27th showed more detail.

The darkest part may have been the right side of the Sea of Serenity, while the highline of the Sea of Fertility may have been the brightest.

I didn't observe any maria on the bottom half of the moon. There, more delicate patches of shading were observed. There weren't bright or dark patches but a rough contour is visible.

Color of Planets

Because of the size, composition, and distance of planets, they all have unique color and brightness. This was a very difficult observation first because it was difficult to find the planets and second because it is hard to gauge how bright they are. I spent some time looking for Venus and Jupiter but later realized that they had set before I was observing. Here is the information I believe corresponds to Mercury, Mars, and Saturn:

This observation exercise was very similar to the earlier post on color of stars. In this case, Mars appeared brightest and Saturn appeared faintest. I would assume this is because Saturn is much farther away than Mars.


The colors of the planets were also difficult to detect. My response my be biased because I already have a mental image of how the planets should appear. Mars seemed to have the easiest color to detect since it is a faint orange-red but Saturn and Mercury just seemed like white stars.


If I did this same project three months later I think my answers would not be accurate anymore as one planet may be closer and another farther, due to their revolution around the sun.

Terraforming

Terraforming is "earth-shaping" a planet, moon, or other body by a hypothetical process of modifying the temperature, atmosphere, topography, or ecology to something that is similar to the biosphere of Earth.

Last week we talked about Mars in class. Mars is considered by many to be the most likely candidate for terraforming. Studies have been done concerning the possibility of heating the planet and altering its atmosphere.

This is how the atmosphere of Earth and Mars currently line up:

              MARS                                  EARTH

				95.32% carbon dioxide 2.7% nitrogen 1.6% argon 0.13% oxygen 0.08% carbon monoxide	78.08% nitrogen  20.95% oxygen   0.93% argon  0.038% carbon dioxide  About 1% water vapor

Therefore, in order for the planet to be hospitable, we'd have to change that carbon dioxide into oxygen by introducing water and plant species.

Colors of Stars

Stars have ranging colors from very blue, through the spectrum to very red. Placing a value from 0 (very blue) to 11 (very red) I've observed ten different stars. Those ten stars all come from either Ursa Major or Ursa Minor because I find that those constellations are easily located. Here is their assigned number:

 

 The brightest stars seemed to be Dubhe, Alioth, and Alkaid. These stars were light orange, white, and blue-white. I think that blue-white and white are easily seen because their wavelengths are stronger than that of yellows and reds.

The most difficult colors to detect were stars like Pherkad. This may be because orange is a less-powerful wavelength or simply because Pherkad is so far away.

Overall, I found orangeish stars to be the least brightest stars that I could detect a hint of color. To me, orange almost seems like a darker color than white or blue-white.

The Big Bang Theory

According to the Big Bang Theory, the Universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and continues to expand today. An analogy we used in class that explains that space itself is expanding, carrying galaxies with it, was raisin bread. As the dough in the bread expands it pushes the raisins further away from each other. The best way to cover the intricacies of the Big Bang Theory is by watching this video: 

Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.  -Albert Einstein

The video gives a straight forward overview of the Big Bang theory. It covers all of the bases that we discussed in class. Therefor, I have no critiques for it. The biggest thing that caught my attention was Einstein's error. It's hard to believe that such a genius would create the cosmological concept just to comply with the thought of the time. He wanted the Universe to be eternal and unchanging...but it's not. 

Sunsets

Today we learned about the nature of a star...WOW! From a white dwarf to a super giant, stars are similar but very, very different. There are many directions I could go with this post but I'll focus on wavelengths.

 

Stars emit all types of electromagnetic waves. They range from intense gamma rays to low-power radio waves. In this same way, our sun also emits visible light. More intense waves of light are violet and the less intense waves are on the red side of the spectrum. 

As it turns out, this difference in the wavelengths of colors results in some amazing sunsets and sunrises. In the same way that X-rays can penetrate our skin but radio waves are harmless; some wavelengths of color get through our atmosphere better than other colors. Here's an illustration I drew:

When the sun is setting, light has to travel through more atmosphere than when it is overhead. Here are two pictures from my cross walk across America:

The dustier and thicker the atmosphere, the more electromagnetic waves are filtered out. Have you ever seen a sunset that was blue or purple like these?

The Venus Transit

Yesterday a sight was seen, but not again till twenty-one, seventeen.

Too bad for me and my crew, not a ray of sunshine could get through...

The cloudy sky, the chance of rain was all this preparation done in vain?

They began to leave, first one then two; a handful of us standing true.

A little more rain, the time passed by, and still no sunshine caught my eye.

I said, "farewell," and put away some gear, the time for sunset getting near.

Got in my car and drove away, I couldn't help but begin to pray.

I said, "God, I just can't stand it. I'd really hoped to see Venus in transit."

Just then the the clouds began to part and that little hope restored my heart.

But what good was seeing the sun? With the naked eye, it's no fun.

I felt like such a dope! I was now miles from the nearest telescope.

But I did a U-turn anyway and prayed that God keep the clouds at bay.

Screeching to a sudden halt, then running fast as a lightning bolt;

I got to the eyepiece just in time, after everyone else had gone in line.

With a deep breath I looked above and saw the amazing goddess of love.

She looked so peaceful, tiny, and cute; like a little BB in front of a grapefruit.

Time stood still as I watched with my wife, that brief moment we'll remember for life.

Then the clouds closed and she was gone. Like a final scene, the curtains were drawn.

Reason for the Season

On special occasions, conjunctions are observed. This is when two or more objects in the sky appear close to each other. On June 17th, 2 B.C., there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus that many believe was the sign of the birth of Christ. The church moved the celebration of Jesus' birth to December to replace a pagan celebration. That's why around Christmas time I try to remind friends of the reason for the season, Jesus Christ. Here is a video depicting the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus:

Constellations

During our first class we discussed the Celestial Sphere with emphasis on constellations and directions. Here is a drawing of Ursa Major as seen around 12:15AM on 6/24/12. The "o"s represent stars that were observed and the "x"s represent stars that are part of Ursa Major but were not visible.

Introduction

Greetings PKD, Classmates, and other bloggers!

My name is Tobiah Steinmetz and I'm a new student at Kutztown University. As a requirement for my Astronomy course, I'll be posting regular updates that follow the material we're covering in class.  

The web address for this blog, CrossWalk2010, is in reference to my walk across America in 2010 when I used the sun, moon, and stars to navigate my way from California to South Carolina. I was dragging an eight foot cross, so the title of my blog is "The Northern Cross", an asterism in the constellation Cygnus. 

Enjoy!