160,000,000,000 Milky Way Planets? 01.13.11

Have you ever played the party game where you try to guess how many candies were in a jar? You would look at the size of the candies, the size of the container, and try to visualize how many could fit in the space. Now, put that on a galactic scale.

Astronomers use math, not guessing, when trying to determine the number of the planets in our galaxy. There is not much guessing to this at all, really. There is, however, a great deal of calculations and observations. For years, scientists have been trying to track down planets elsewhere in our galaxy  using the “transit method” and “radial velocity.” The transit method measures light from distant stars. If the readings from the planet show regular dips in light, that indicates an object passing in front of the star at regular intervals, which, to cause such a measurable dip, must mean a planet in orbit. The radial velocity method measures how much stars “wobble” because of the pull of the planets in orbit around them.

A new observation method is being employed that is not so biased towards close-orbiting planets, called gravitational  microlensing. According to SPACE.com, microlensing measures how light is magnified and bent by gravitational fields from distant bodies. Based on the researcher’s calculations, they estimate at least 1.6 planets per star in our galaxy, in orbits from their stars roughly the same orbital range of Venus to Saturn from our own sun.

Based on that estimate—1.6 planets per star—and their estimate of about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, that comes out to quite a few planets. When we here at the    Wetherbee Planetarium start to think about how many galaxies are estimated to be in existence in our Universe—100 trillion—it is mind-boggling to try to comprehend how many planets may be in existence outside our tiny little terrestrial world.

An artist's impression of the prevalence of planets in our galaxy.

CREDIT: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Information 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.

Man's passion inspires personal planetarium, 12.27.10

A man in Wisconsin who had the dream but not the grades decided to skip the institution and bring the stars to his fingertips… by making them himself.  Frank Kovac, a 45 year-old paper mill worker, once aspired to be an astrophysicist but could not make it through college math at university. Despite this, Kovac was determined to build—completely by hand—his own planetarium.


A mammoth labor of love that took him no less than 15 years to construct, Kovac built a spherical planetarium with a 22 foot diameter, and weighs in at 2 tons. It has been deemed “the world’s largest, rolling, mechanical, globe planetarium.” To manipulate his rolling monster, Kovac rigged it to an “electric, variable-speed motor controller.”


There are multiple types of planetarium systems. Globe planetaria like Kovac’s are generally viewed from an angle and almost have 360 degree coverage of the night sky all at once. Dome planetaria, like our own Wetherbee Planetarium, cover half of a sphere and can either be directly overhead, or on an angle, generally leaning forward. Planetaria can either make use of multiple kinds of projection systems, or they can have a fixed image of the night sky put on their surface.

Image credit: SPACE.com.

Not possessing the funds to purchase his own projection system for the planetarium, Kovac underwent the arduous task of hand painting 5,000 stars on the inside of his planetarium. These were no simple blobs of paint, either. Kovac carefully mapped out the interior of his globe planetarium and painted each star in its correct position, and made sure to reflect their proper brightness with luminous paint.


Kovac recently spoke to CBS about his planetarium, and said it is now open to the public in Monico, Wisconsin ($12 admission). He said he still works at the paper mill, but spends most of his time with his planetarium.


“To be a planetarium director, you need college,” he said, “but if you build your own, you can run it!”


Credit: SPACE.com.

College takes advantage of local resources, 11.12.10

When asked what they are studying in college, most students in Southwest Georgia probably would not answer with “astronomy.” One teacher in Albany, Georgia, though, is slowly changing that.

Dr. George C. Flowers
Image credit: Darton.edu

Dr. George C. Flowers, associate professor of chemistry at Darton College, who also teaches several introductory science courses, has been taking some of his classes over the past several years to visit the Wetherbee Planetarium at Thronateeska Heritage Center. Much of the content covered in the planetarium is used to supplement teaching material used in the college classroom.


Jim Friese, Museum Guide and staff astronomer at Thronateeska Heritage Center, thinks Darton is doing an excellent job of taking advantage of area resources available to the students. “I met Prof. Flowers at the science museum’s grand opening and have now lectured for his classes 5 times.” Most of the topics used in the presentations for the students were advanced astronomy topics that Dr. Flowers has been able to use in conjunction with his science classroom material. For example, the most recent topics presented to his students were novas vs. supernovas, and “Island Universes,” a look at different classifications of galaxies.


Through the experience of lecturing for Dr. Flower’s classes, Friese says, he was able to begin authoring his Astronomy Series, a  collection of presentations on recent discoveries in astronomy that have continued once a month from June through the present. Friese also says that through the program Dr. Flowers partially inspired, Thronateeska has been able “to better serve the community.”


Dr. Flowers has also made use of Thronateeska Heritage Center’s science museum, hosting Darton College’s science club kick-off meeting there at the beginning of the fall semester. At least 30 Darton students were in attendance and were able to see a planetarium show.


***Note from Thronateeska: this blog post in no way represents the opinion of Darton College. This was simply Thronateeska’s own special way of saying “thank you” and recognizing the impact their involvement with the planetarium has had on developing our programming.***