Back to the Beginning

        I have been able to study the phases of the moon, some of the constellations in the night sky as well as some of the aspects that make Earth livable. I have also looked at other places in the solar system that may harbour life. Before I had started to write this blog I did not know about the other planets. I mean I knew that there were other planets and their names but I did not know much else. I also took for granted the night sky and all that information that one can learn from it.  I was able to better appreciate the night sky, from the stars and their vast distances away from us to the moon and the phases that it goes through.  I was also able to gain an understanding of why we are the only planet in the solar system that has been able to develop intelligent life. We are unique in so many ways, from our place in the solar system, to our large moon and even to our magnetic field. It was all of these factors that allowed us to evolve. However, this understanding brings up some other questions like:

• ·         Are we the only ones in the Universe?
• ·         When will we find other life?
• ·         Should we look in our Solar System of concentrate our efforts on other stars?

Some of these questions have been asked by scientists and there is not a clear right or wrong answer for any of the questions. Drake, attempted to figure out if it was possible intelligent life to be elsewhere in the Milky Way or in the Universe. He derived the Drake equation which can show that there could be 10 other planets in the galaxy where life could evolve to as many as millions. This shows the uncertainty that these scientists face. There is also something called the Fermi Paradox. This tries to reason out the fact that if we think that there is life out there why we have not found it yet.  However, I have gained a better understanding of the fundamentals of astronomy that can give me the tools needed to be able to critically think about these questions.

Could there be life on the Gas Giants Moons

        I have talked about the phases of the moon as well as observing the night sky and then I have talked about life on Earth and what makes it possible. I now want to discuss the possibility of life arising in other parts of the solar system. Mars has always been thought to be the place that life would be found but not in the distant past moons around the gas giants have been places of interest in the debate of where life might exist. The ones that I am going to briefly discuss today are Jupiter’s moons (Callistro, Ganymede, and Europa) I will also look at two of Saturn’s moons (Titan and Enceladus). The first four moons that were mentioned are thought to have liquid oceans under the crusts of ices. One knows that there should not be water around Jupiter because it is too cold for liquid water. This means that there have to be a way to explain this liquid. Ganymede and Europa are thought to be heated by tidal forces. Callistro is not heated by tidal forces but it is thought to be caused by radioactivity in its center.  As mentioned above the four moons that have liquid water are thought to be a good place to start to look for life.  Every life-form that we know of needs water, these ranges from the largest mammals to the smallest microbes. Water plays major roles in metabolism as well. One of the places that one should look if they start to search for life on these moons would be under the layer of ice. One may want to start to look at the interface between the rocks and the water; there may be deep sea vents. This is one of the possibilities for the formation of life on Earth. Titan is not like the other moons it is the only moon that has a very dense atmosphere. It has a nitrogen atmosphere and has methane clouds; it is known to have geological activities, lakes, rivers, and seas.  It would not be liquid water bodies but would be seas of hydrocarbons. This environment is very similar to the ones found in the tar ponds in Trinidad and Tobago. There are extremophiles that live in there lakes therefore it may be possible for life to be on Titan. The one major problem of the analog (lake) and Titan is the temperature. Titan is a lot colder and that may cause a problem. Even though life has not been found in the solar system yet scientis are interested in possibility of life on the gas giants large satellites.

Earth’s Magnetic Field

        We are not the only planet or body in our solar system that has a magnetic field but it is a property of our planet that protects the Earth and allows life to prosper. We have a magnetic field because we have a large iron core and the convection of the molten on the outer core.  This is what causes an electric current and this leads to the magnetic field. The magnetic field produces the magnetosphere that in turn protects us. An image of the magnetosphere is shown in the picture below.

Figure obtained by: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/earths-magnetic-field-is-35-billion-years-old/

        The sun gives planets the energy the need to undergo photosynthesis; it gives us the heat needed for liquid water. The sun is able to give us many things that are important to life however, the sun is not all good. The solar wind and solar flares can be dangerous to life. The solar wind is when the sun is continually releasing these charge particles. Solar flares are when the Sun spews out large amounts of these charged particles. The Earth’s magnetosphere channels the solar wind around the planet so that it does not reach the surface. If the magnetosphere was absent then the solar wind and flares would strip away the atmosphere. This means that these charge particles would impact the surface and may make it sterile. We would also be exposed to solar radiation that is very harmful to life. UV radiation breaks carbon carbon bonds. When one thinks about life on earth, all of it is carbon based as we know and therefore it would destroy life. There are other consequences of not having an atmosphere. For example there would be very drastic changes in temperature from day to night. All of these factors are important to life and we are here in part because our magnetosphere protects us.  Recently there has be large sunspots that have been found on the Sun. This increased the activity and released more solar particles. Because of this increase in activity more particles are being trapped at the poles causing Aurora. 

Earth and Its Moon

                        There are over ninety moons in our solar systems but our moon is special because of its size. There are moons that are larger than ours but they are around gas giants or Jovian planets. Most of the moons in the solar system are captured bodies such as meteoroids and asteroids.  This means that the planet had enough gravity to capture the bodies and to keep them in orbit. The moon is so much larger than Phobos and Deimos which are Mars’s moons. This means that Earth’s moon could not have been captured like the rest. There have been many explanations for this but one has won out over the rest. The explanation for the formation of our moon comes from a large impact. When the early Earth was formed it was impacted by a Mars sized body, this impact made the Earth’s surface molten and it let off ejecta that started to orbit the Earth. These ejecta then collided together to form our present day moon. This formation was unique and also gave Earth some of its unique characteristic. The impact has been hypothesized to have increased the speed of rotation of the Earth, as well as the tilt of the Earth these two characteristics give Earth its day and night lengths as well as its seasons. The moon also stabilizes the moon. Without this stabilization Earth would be a tumbling Earth. This means that the Earth would flip and there would be more volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. It is also thought that the impact gave Earth it large iron core as well as its large size.   This iron core gave it its magnetic field which also allows Earth to have life.  I will talk about the magnetic field next time and its significance.

Back to Star Gazing

        There are many constellations that one can find in the night sky however this week I am going to try to find some of the Zodiac Constellations that can be seen in the night sky this time of year. In popular culture there are twelve zodiac signs but in the night sky there are thirteen. I was successful in locating Pisces and Aquarius which are two of the zodiac constellations. Doing some research I found that the best way in which to locate these two constellations that are beside each other is to locate the “Great Square of Pegasus”. Once I have located this then I found the Pisces is right below the Great Square. Once Pisces is located the head of the fish on the right is right beside Aquarius.  Another useful body that Stellarium showed that would be bright in the sky is Jupiter. Jupiter will be located below and a little to the right of Pisces. I also know that in order to locate these constellations I have to look southeast. With all of this information that I found I was able to locate these two constellations.

Figure Obtained from Stellarium

        Above is a map of the night sky one can see that I can find the two constellations if I locate the great square. I was successful in finding the two constellations. Zodiac Constellations are unique; these constellations are the ones that the sun passes through in the sky. This means that presently the constellation Virgo is in the sky during the day and that is where the sun resided. This concept can be explained by looking at the figure below.

Figure obtained from: http://www.2012dayafter.com

         This shows that sun moves through different zodiac constellation different times in Earth’s orbit and thus different times of the year. At this time of year we see Aquarius and Pieces and the sun passes through Virgo. The zodiac constellations can change and you may not have the same sign as you think you have.

Life on Earth

        The weather is still not cooperating and my star gazing did not happen this week. Instead I am going to talk about one of the reasons that we have life on Earth. There are many factors that make Earth a unique planet in our solar system. One of the things that make Earth unique is the evolution of our atmosphere. This evolution has made life on Earth possible. The very first atmosphere that the Earth had was probably mainly Hydrogen and Helium because that was the gas that was left over in small amounts in the inner solar system.  When oceans appeared the atmosphere would have started to contain water vapor. This is due to the evaporation of the water in the oceans. The Earth was had volcanic eruptions that allowed outgassing. Outgassing is the release of gases that were trapped in rock. The outgassing was able to released carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulfur dioxide. This would not have allowed life to move out of the water and onto the land. However, there had to be processes that allowed for this to occur or else we would not be here today. In order for life to move to land there had to be oxygen in the atmosphere. There are two processes that allowed for this to occur. One of the processes photosynthesis, this is when planets and certain organism take in sunlight and carbon dioxide and release oxygen. This allows for oxygen to be put into the atmosphere. The second process is when radiation from the sun breaks apart water molecules in the atmosphere. This leaves oxygen and hydrogen separated, the hydrogen will escape into space and the oxygen will build up in the atmosphere. These to processes were able to build up oxygen and life could evolve and also move to the land. The atmosphere also protects the planet from harsh radiation that would have make life on the land impossible.  

Mars and Jupiter

        Last week I was able to find the two constellations that I wanted to in the night sky. However, my survey of the night sky to find constellations is not looking promising for this week. Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating. It is supposed to rain and be cloudy all week. This will make it very difficult to locate constellations. Therefore, this week I will use Stellarium to explore two of the planets in our solar system. Mars is the first planet that is visible above the horizon at night at this time of year.

Figure obtained from Stellarium

        This figure shows Mars and one can even see some of the surface features. One can also see that Mars has two moons that orbit it, these are Phobos and Deimos.  They appear as circular points however that are actually potato shape because they do not have enough self-gravity to make them spherical. Phobos is more cratered and has a shorter period to orbit mars it is also the largest out of the two moons.  The next planet is Jupiter, this is the close Jovian planet to the sun and it has a large number of moons but it has four large moons called the Galileo Moons.

Figure Obtained from Stellarium 

        This is a figure of Jupiter it is one of the Gas giants. Jupiter and the other Jovian planets are much larger than the terrestrial planets and they also have large moons. Here one can see Jupiter but also its four large moons. These are Callistro, Europa, Io and Ganymede. Many scientists are interested in Europa because it is thought to have liquid oceans under its surface of ice. There are plans to use radar to determine the thickness of the ice. There have also been thought that this moon may be a place that could harbour life.  I have found these two planets and discussed some of the properties of them and their moons. Hopefully next week it is possible to see the stars and I can go star gazing.

Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia

        I have completed my one month study into the phases of the moon. I will now start to look at different constellations in the night sky. I will spend the next two months reporting what constellations I have been able to pick out. I will then compare and also aid my study with Stellarium.  Tonight I am going to start off with a constellation that should not be difficult to find. I am going to look for Ursa Minor which is commonly known as the little dipper. This should realistically be easy to find because one of the stars that make up this constellation is Polaris. Polaris is also known as the northern star. This star is easy to find because it is a bright star in the night sky and with the aid of a compass one can find it. This is the northern star. Once this star is found I will have found the little dipper.

Figures were obtained from Stellarium

        The diagrams that are above were reproduced by Stellarium. As once can see it can be difficult to see these constellations when there are so many stars in the night sky. It would be a wonderful world if the sky would highlight each of the constellations just like Stellarium does for us inexperienced stargazers.

Figures were obtained from Stellarium

         I was successful in finding Ursa Minor so I decided to see if I could locate Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia is to the right of Ursa Minor and looks like a sideways W.  I was able to spot both of these constellations on my last outing. The two diagrams above show what Cassiopeia looks likes. One would think that all of these stars that make up the constellations would be close to each other. However this is not the case they can be light years away from Earth. In Cassiopeia the closet star is 54.46 light years away and the star that is the furthest from Earth is at a distance of 613.08 light years. There are hundreds of light year differences between them.  Stay tuned for more constellation next week.

First Quarter Moon

Over the past three entries I have made my way through some of the phases of the moon. According to the figure above I should observe the first quarter moon tonight. Last week I observed the new moon and as mentioned before the moon goes through close to 2 phases a week. This means I should see the first quarter moon. This phase of the moon rises at noon and will be highest in the sky at 6 pm and will set at midnight. I chose to view the moon at around 8pm on Sunday night. When I observed the moon it was not yet a full half illuminated it was closer to the first quarter moon phase as opposed to the waxing crescent phase. 

This Figure was obtained by Stellarium

           This figure above is close to what I observed when looking at the moon on Sunday night. As you can see the full quarter of the moon is not illuminated and thus it is not quite in the first quarter phase. I compared my observation to Stellarium which agreed. I then fast forward to the next day on Stellarium and recorded the phase of the sun. For the figure below one can see that a quarter of the moon is illuminated. This means that the moon on Sunday was closer to the first quarter phase. 

This Figure was obtained by Stellarium

         This will be my last blog on the phases of the moon. Next week the moon will be back to the same phase that it was when I started my blog. I am going to now concentrate on certain constellations that are in our sky every weekend. Hope you enjoyed the phases of the moon.

New Moon

           From the lunar phase diagram that is part of my last post I can predict what the next phase of the moon will be on Sunday. Knowing as stated before that in a week span the moon will complete approximately two phases.  It follows that if the moon was in the third quarter phase that in one week it will pass through the waxing crescent phase. When I observe the moon on Sunday it will be in the new moon phase. This phase is highest in the sky at noon and cannot be seen because of the alignment of the earth’s sun and moon. Thus we cannot see the half of the moon that the sun is lighting up. Interestingly one may think that there should be a solar eclipse every new moon because the moon is between the Earth and Sun. This does not occur because the moon orbits the Earth and a slight angle and prevents the solar eclipse. To have a solar eclipse the moon, sun and earth have to line up exactly. When I observed the moon at around 12 noon on Sunday there was just a sliver of the moon that I could see. This portion of the moon that I saw can be explained because the new moon will occur on Sept. 27 which is two days after my observations. This is closer to the new moon phase as opposed to the waxing crescent phase. The figure that is shown below shows what Stellarium the computer program gave for the phase of the moon on Sunday at noon. This backs up my prediction as well as my observations. 

This Figure was obtained by Stellarium

            To prove that the true new moon would occur on the Tuesday I have used Stellarium to give a picture of what the new moon should look like. This is represented in the figure below. Stay tune for the next phase of the moon. 

This Figure was obtained by Stellarium

The Third Quarter Moon

Figure obtained by: http://kimbasangels.com/moon.html

               The figure that is shown above will allow me to set a prediction of what I will see in the sky this morning. If we take a look at the figure and know that the moon goes through all of its phases in approximately a month we can see that the moon will go through two phases each week.  Last week when I was observing the moon it was very close to being in the full phase, this means that this Sunday I will expect to see the moon in the third quarter phase (last quarter).  One thing that did not occur to me until I started to look at the night sky is that each night the moon does not rise or set at the same time. I think like most I did not stop and the take the time to look up.  On the previous Sunday the moon started to rise at 6 pm it was highest in the sky at 12 pm and set at 6 am. This however as I have recently found out will not be the same for this Sunday. From the use of this figure and Stellarium I found that the best time to see this phase high in the sky. From Stellarium I found that the moon will start to rise at midnight and will be highest at six in the morning and set at noon.  I chose to check my prediction at around 6am on Monday morning.  The moon looked to be half full this narrows the phases to the first and third quarter moon, from looking at the figure we can see that when the left side of the moon is bright then it is the third quarter moon. Therefore my prediction and what was observed were the same. Next week we can predict to see nothing at all; this is the new moon phase. Stay tuned for my observation next week!

Figure was obtained from Stellarium

The Full Moon

There are benefits to being in a small town. One of which is the ability to see the night sky without all of the light pollution that accompanies big cities. Therefore, I will use this as an advantage to take weekly drawings of the moon and then compare them to lunar charts for the first month. When I become more equated with the night sky I will then try to find constellations each week that I have previously located on Stellarium. The use of Stellarium is to allow me to look up into the night’s sky and to compare what I see on the computer with what I see in the sky.  On my first night of watching the night’s sky, which was Sunday September 11^th at 9:30pm, the moon appeared to be completely full. The farmer’s almanac reported that the next full moon would take place on September 12^th 2011 at 6:27 am. When my results from the sketch were compared to the data above one can see that my sketch and data were close to a match. Therefore, I was close in predicting that the moon was almost full when I was looking at the night’s sky. I will make another sketch next week and record the changes that have occurred.

Sasha