www.thespacewriter.com/wp

Worlds in Motion

An animated gif “movie” of Pluto and Charon in motion. This was taken by the New Horizons mission at distance of some 429 to 422 million kilometers (267-262 miles) away. The spacecraft is set to arrive at the Pluto system July 2015.

The New Horizons mission to the outer solar system scored a big one this week with the release of a set of images that clearly — and I DO mean clearly — show Pluto with its largest companion Charon in motion. This is an amazing shot from a huge distance, and the fact that we can “see” the orbital motion of these two places makes them seem somehow more real now. The New Horizons mission has been on the way to Pluto (and beyond) since 2006, with a main goal of imaging and studying the Pluto system, and then sweeping out to see what else it can find in the Kuiper Belt.

I really like what this mission is going to do. Not only is it opening up a dwarf planet for exploration, but it’s going to tell us an incredible amount of cool stuff about the tremendously cold and frigid worlds that exist “out there”. Pluto is on the doorstep of a place in the solar system that likely contains many more worlds of its size and possibly bigger! This region is a storehouse of materials that exist in pretty much the same chemical state they were in when they formed in the early epochs of solar system history.

Skygazing is Superlative Enough Without Hyperbole

The Supermoon of March 19, 2011 (on the right) compared with a regular Full Moon of December 20, 2010 that also happened to be in eclipse. This comparison image was created by Marco Langbroek, from his backyard. Found at Wikimedia Commons in a Share and Share-alike license.

No doubt you’ve all seen the hype about the upcoming so-called “Supermoon” on August 10th (Sunday night). And, if you haven’t run into the hype before, you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about. I always wonder it, too. I’ve tried to see the difference between a regular moon and a Supermoon with my own eyes. And, either I have really crappy glasses (which I kinda doubt), or I just haven’t seen the difference. And, I doubt you would either, unless you could somehow magically arrange it so that a regular Full Moon and a Supermoon could appear in the sky at the same time. Then, you might be able to see the difference in size in how the Moon appears from Earth during one of these events.

Since you can’t do that, you just sort of have to look at the upcoming Supermoon and say, “Hmm… yeah…” and then wonder what all the fuss is about.

So, what’s a Supermoon? The correct term for the Full Moon we’re about to experience on Sunday is perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. The term “Supermoon” is not actually an astronomy term. It’s more of an astrological thing, where soothsayers and people who think the Sun, Moon, and stars are going to tell them when to get rich, who they’re going to marry, and so on, all hang out. It’s really nothing to do with the actual astronomy of the situation.

Continue reading What’s So Super about the Moon on Sunday? →

The Spacewriter's Ramblings

We’re Getting Closer to Pluto!

Worlds in Motion

What’s So Super about the Moon on Sunday?

Skygazing is Superlative Enough Without Hyperbole

Exploring Science and the Cosmos