Tempel 1 flyby tonight; what's not to love? 02.14.11

NASA has cooked up the perfect Valentine’s Day treat for sky watchers everywhere: a flyby of comet Tempel 1.  Talk about lonely hearts—Tempel 1 only comes around every 5 ½ years!

Image credit: NASA.

At around 11:56 EST tonight, the Stardust-NExT probe will fly within 124 miles of Tempel 1 in an attempt to snap photographs of the ball of ice and rock as it hurtles through space. Tempel 1 orbits the sun, so directing a probe to get close enough to the comet to take some quality photos without being put in danger is proving to be a great challenge, but scientists at NASA are confident the probe will rendezvous with its fleeting target just in time as a last-minute Valentine’s Day treat.  “Encountering something as small and fast as a comet in the vastness of space is always a challenge, but we are very pleased with how things are setting up for our Valentine’s Day flyby,” said Joe Veverka, Cornell University researcher and principal investigator for the mission.


Tempel 1 was visited last summer by NASA’s Deep Impact mission and had part of the comet blasted off by one of the probe’s components in an effort to get a glimpse of Tempel 1’s inner layers. At less than 5 miles in diameter, Tempel 1 is an extremely small target, barely large enough to create any sort of tail as it travels, so hitting it in the first place was literally a long shot. Out of all the calculations that went into hurling a projectile the size of a refrigerator (that weighed in excess of two tons) at the speeding comet, one was not quite factored in: things that go “boom” usually leave a “pouf!” There was a magnificent dust cloud that resulted from the more than 20,000 miles per hour collision, and it obliterated any chances of catching even one clear photograph of the resulting crater at the time. NASA did have a camera on the projectile it sent crashing into Tempel 1, though, so it was able to snap a few mug shots before the camera was smashed to pieces in the collision. We have included one here, below.

Image credit: NASA.

NASA hopes that this time, now that Tempel 1 has hurried along and cleared away from some of the dust, some good photos can be had of its new crater that will tell the scientists more about comets in general.


In honor of all of the excitement gendered by the mission, NASA has set up a full itinerary of press events, including live coverage of the flyby on NASA television, which can all be accessed on NASA’s main website, http://www.nasa.gov. They have also created a unique way to send a Valentine to that special someone in your life (and show just how awesome you think comets are at the same time!) with their “I <3 Comets” campaign. Visit http://bit.ly/edauDm to join in on all the fun.


You can forget trying to spot Tempel 1 on your own, though. Even the Hubble telescope has a difficult time of it trying to catch a glimpse of this comet, so at the most, all you would ever see with a powerful backyard telescope is a miniscule dot. It would be far better to sit inside and just watch NASA’s coverage on the television or webpage from the comfort of your own home. Who says sky watching always means you have to be outside?


So, snuggle up with that special someone and catch some late-night coverage of the comet. For the person who wants to opt out of the usual flowers and candy, this is certainly no typical way to celebrate! On that note, we at Thronateeska Heritage Center wish you a wonderful Valentine’s Day!


Credit: NASA JPL.

10 Year old begins supernova hunting career, 01.10.11

Kathryn Aurora Gray of Fredricton, New Brunswick thought she was just in for another night of star gazing with her family and astronomy-enthusiast friend. Little did she know she was about to become the youngest recorded discoverer of a supernova, an exploding star.


The supernova, in galaxy UGC 3378, was located in the constellation Camelopardalis, located not too far away from the North Star. The galaxy UGC 3378 is approximately 240 million light years away. Gray discovered the supernova on January 2 using a telescope belonging to a friend of the family, David Lane. The group had taken photographs through the telescope on New Years Eve, and upon closer inspection of the photographs on January 2, Gray discovered the supernova. Her father, Paul, himself a discoverer of no less than six supernovas, passed the information on to be verified by the proper authorities. The International Astronomical Union’s Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams has finalized Gray’s discovery.

Image credit: David Lane.

Supernovas, the rather violent death of stars as they explode, are considered rare events and can be difficult to spot, as they present themselves merely as bright points of light that were not previously there. They can last for several days, possibly even weeks, and then their light fades from view, leaving their own unique pattern in the night sky that is only visible with high-powered telescopes. Supernovas, however, can be seen with relatively light-powered telescopes, but take an extremely good sense of familiarity with the night sky (or at least that particular patch of night sky) to spot.


Despite her keen observation, Gray has not been allowed to officially name the supernova. The IAU has deemed it simply as Supernova 2010lt.


Credit: SPACE.com

Thronateeska's Top 10 of 2010, 01.03.11

Happy New Year! We wanted to take a break from the normal science and astronomy news we bring every week and instead reflect on all the wonderful things the past year held for us at Thronateeska Heritage Center. Here are some of our favorite things that took place in 2010:

1. Planetarium newsletters. It had been a dream of ours to get a newsletter started for the Wetherbee planetarium. In August, they started slowly as a series of press releases on astronomy events, and snowballed into a publication that we just could not wait to get out each week.  We are so happy about all of the readers we now have of the Word from the Wetherbee and the Wetherbee Sky Watcher, and we hope to continue providing it for many years to come, free for you!
2.  The Astronomy Series. We always love creating our own shows for the planetarium, and the series of astronomy presentations in the Wetherbee planetarium was also a dream of ours to begin. The astronomy series was something new we introduced over the summer. After a solid, six month run of presentations in the planetarium over the summer and fall, we will resume the series again on the third Tuesday of each month, beginning in March. Keep an eye out for it!
3.  Zoo in Space. We had the privilege of participating with the Flint RiverQuarium on September 18 in their first ever “Wings & Wildlife Festival.” Thronateeska was thrilled to author an original planetarium presentation titled Zoo in Space exclusively for the festival; a show about animal constellations and some of the fantastical stories they carry with them.
4. Archives & Collections Department growth. Managing records and history is at the heart of Thronateeska’s founding purpose, so we were more than happy to see this new program grow so quickly in 2010. We hope to serve you even better in 2011 with our department expansions!
5. Summer Camp & Day Camps. Summer is always a blast for us! Just because school is out, that does not mean we slow down! We had the opportunity to team up with the Flint RiverQuarium on some of their summer camps and also for their Home School Day program in October, a three week day camp of sorts just for home school kids. Don’t tell anyone, but there is a rumor of a space camp coming in the summer of 2011!
6. The Butterfly Exhibit. We are so proud to host the Dougherty County High School/High Tech Butterfly exhibit! The exhibit opened in April, and is still on display in the science museum. Be sure to stop by and learn about the experiment they did with NASA and some (probably very confused) newborn butterflies in zero gravity!
7.  Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is always such fun, and it is our pleasure to help coordinate the logistics of the festivities in March every year. What creates civic pride and community spirit more than a family-friendly, downtown street celebration? Be sure to join in this year; it is going to be great!
8.  Science museum exhibit expansions. We wanted to showcase some of the other great things we have had in our collections, so we made some additions in the science museum, with even more to come in the New Year! When you have the chance, be sure to stop by and see our genuine Right Whale skull, part of our mineral collection, and all the marvelous sea specimens we now have on display.
9. Updated Season of Light. We at Thronateeska have been dealing with Loch Ness Productions for years now. Their shows are always informative while still managing to be fun. We were more than happy to feature their new, updated version of one of their winter shows, Season of Light, this past December in the Wetherbee Planetarium.
10. Winter Holiday Exhibit. What would winter be without our holidays? Not just Christmas, either. We were curious about other winter holidays, so we did some digging and decided to share what we learned about other wintertime holidays that may not be quite so prevalent in Southwest Georgia. Sticking with the Christmas spirit, though, we just had to explain the origins of Christmas, traditions we celebrate along with it today, and the history of Santa Claus as a part of Don Fisher’s multi-thousand piece collection of Santa depictions. 

Thanks for sharing in our top ten last year! What a joy it was to meet and overcome each new milestone. In the coming year, we hope to do even more. Our mission, after all, is to:

…inspire wonder and stimulate exploration of science and South Georgia's history by providing a dynamic learning experience through an interactive science center and museum.

The astronomy of Halloween, 10.25.10

Many of the holidays we now celebrate have their roots in nature. Ancient peoples paid a great deal of attention to the world around them and many of them were far more familiar with their night sky than people in our day and age. As their own personal calendars and cues for when to plant or harvest their crops often came from signals in the stars, many were familiar with particular star patterns, lengths of daylight through the seasons, and when equinoxes and solstices would take place. While this generalization cannot be applied to every ancient people group, it does hold true for some ancient civilizations, such as the Mayans, Aztecs, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Arabs, Japanese, Egyptians, Chinese, and some Native North Americans people groups.


The origins of Halloween, however, have their roots in ancient Celtic culture. The Celts lived several thousand years ago throughout the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France. Prior to the arrival of the Romans into that area, the Celts held a celebration called “Samhain” (pronounced sow-in) on or near October 31. Samhain meant “summer’s end,” and was their marker for the transition from the bright sunlight and warmth of summer to the cold and darkness of approaching winter. There was great spiritual significance tied to the holiday, as it was a transition from light and dark, warmth and cold, life and death. The barrier between the physical and the spiritual world was thought to be loosened, and spirits of the dead were thought to walk the earth and visit those they had left behind. The tradition of dressing up in costume began as a way to hide from the spirits so they would pass by you without recognizing you and causing you harm. It was also believed that the spirits would go about causing mischief, but their presence was not entirely unwelcome as the Celts also thought their presence would assist their priests as they attempted to divine the future.


 With the coming of the Romans into the Celts’ territory, Samhain became melded with two of their celebrations, one of which honored the passing of the dead, called Feralia, and another which honored the goddess of fruit and trees, Pomona. It is thought that this may be another prevailing reason why death or the spirits of the dead are tied to Halloween. The celebration to honor the goddess Pomona may also be the origin of the traditional fall activity of bobbing for apples; the apple was considered to be the symbol of Pomona.


With the coming of the Roman Empire, Christianity also began to spread, albeit a little more slowly. It is thought that the Roman Catholic Church often interposed its own holidays either on or near “pagan” holidays in an attempt to cause the people to transition over to their Catholic beliefs, but more often than not the beliefs were simply mixed up in the Catholic holiday. Such is thought to be the case with Halloween. November 1 was celebrated by the Celts as their New Years Day. November 1 was also designated by Pope Boniface IV as All Saint’s Day, a day to honor all the Christian saints who did not have their own, individual holy day. It was also known as “All-hallows” or “All-hallowmas,” so naturally the day before was known as All-hallows eve. Eventually through translation differences and different ways of naming the holiday, “All” was dropped it and became known as Hallowe’en. More western spellings tend to drop the apostrophe. 


So why celebrate October 31? Why is that date important in astronomy? Because it is a cross quarter day. The Celts placed it on that date because they recognized the transition.

Image credit: NASA

Cross quarter days are days that are halfway between equinoxes and solstices.  Equinoxes are those two days during the year when the sun rises and sets exactly in the east and west. During the solstices, the sun is at its furthest northerly and southerly points. Cross quarter days recognize the transition between the two. While it may seem odd to us now to celebrate a new season during what we now consider autumn, it is important to remember that the Celts were recognizing a different transition. While we tend to celebrate our seasons based on the equinoxes and solstices, they placed theirs on the four cross quarter days of the year.  The three other cross quarter days were on February 2, May 1, and August 1. Sound familiar? February 2 for us is celebrated as Groundhog Day. May 1 is the day of our May Day celebrations. August 1 has no equivalent holiday in our culture and is probably lesser well known because of it, but it is recognized as Lammas Day, a festival of the wheat harvest. So remember the holiday’s origins this weekend as you go out and celebrate; you are carrying on traditions with very, very old roots.

Credit: NASA Science, Live Science, Digitalis Education Solutions Inc., the History Channel, and Utah State University.