Sic Transit Venus

Transit of Venus. Courtesy the Swedish Solar Telescope, Canary Islands.
Transit of Venus. Courtesy the Swedish Solar Telescope, Canary Islands.

I had the best of intentions to get up this morning and watch the transit of Venus. Really I did. But, when I woke at 9:30 (after working until 1 this morning)… well… I missed an event that one of our friends called “the world’s second worst annular eclipse.” Fortunately I was able to get online and see the re-broadcasts of the events from Europe, Australia, and many other places where the transit happened later in the day (local time). Mark got up and caught a glimpse of it through the clouds that were gathering here (of course it’s clear NOW). That happens here in New England. Some great celestial event looms on the horizon and you can just about count on the weather to go wonky for at least part of the event. Never fails.
Anyway, in case YOU missed the transit, here are some links to online sites with images and videos: Transit sites. Browse to your heart’s content!

Know What’s Happening Here?

M82
M82

Neither did I, some 25 years ago when I first wrote about M82 in a planetarium show. At the time nobody was quite sure what was happening at the center of this galaxy. It looked like it could be blowing itself apart; a stellar city disrupted by tremendous forces. Well, times have changed. We have better telescopes, stronger “glasses” if you will, and now we can look into the heart of M82 and see that it’s really harboring a galactic construction site, a humongous starbirth nursery that’s blowing winds across space. To be sure there’s a little stardeath going on here, too. Supernovae—the deaths of massive stars—are also blowing strong winds across space, fueling the frenetic appearance of the scene. Here’s what the Astronomy Picture of the Day site says about this image:

“Star formation occurs at a faster pace in M82—a galaxy with about ten times the rate of massive star birth (and death) compared to our Milky Way. Winds from massive stars and blasts from supernova explosions have created a billowing cloud of expanding gas from this remarkable starburst galaxy. The above scientifically color-coded image highlights the complexity and origin of the plume by combining a wide field image from the WIYN Telescope in Arizona with a smaller high-resolution image from the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. M82’s aspect in optical pictures has led to its popular moniker, the Cigar Galaxy. M82’s burst of star formation was likely triggered a mere 100 million years ago in the latest of a series of bouts with neighboring large galaxy M81.

This is what keeps me fascinated about astronomy. The better our tools become, the more we learn, and of course, the more questions we ask about the cosmos. I wonder what future telescopes will see at the heart of M82?