Dining & Nightlife | Astronomy

On August 24, 1989, the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune, approaching to within 64,000 miles of this ringed planet. The probe discovered six new moons and found that Neptune had more than one ring. Voyager 2 was the first, and so far only, spacecraft to fly by Neptune. Although it is now leaving our solar system on its way to the stars, it is still making important discoveries—the space probe recently detected “magnetic foam” or “bubbles” in the region where our solar system ends and interstellar space begins.

I should also report that a supernova recently went off in the Whirlpool Galaxy, a barred spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way. It was discovered by a French amateur, Stephane Lamott Bailey, this past June. A supernova is an exploding star that, for a brief moment, can outshine the entire galaxy in which it resides. In the average galaxy, a supernova goes off about once every 50 to 75 years. What is unusual about the recent stellar explosion is that it is the third to occur in the Whirlpool Galaxy over the past 17 years (the previous two were observed in 2005 and 1994). The most recent supernova known to have gone off in our own galaxy happened sometime in the late 1800s. Supernovae are important since they serve as “standard candles” for astronomers and are responsible for creating all of the elements in the periodic table heavier than iron; without supernovae, there would be no rocky planets as we know them, nor would there be life.

* August 11. Neptune will be at opposition, that is, directly opposite (and hence fully illuminated by) the Sun as seen from the perspective of Earth. Neptune will appear as a tiny blue dot in all but the largest telescopes.

* August 12-13. The Perseids meteor shower will peak with up to 60 meteors an hour. Viewing will be less than ideal since the full “Sturgeon” Moon (known as such to early Native American tribes because of the large fish caught at this time) will hide many fainter meteor trails.

* Throughout August, both Neptune and Uranus will be visible in the evening skies; Uranus will rise around 9:30pm, about an hour and a half after Neptune. Pluto will also be up—it is an interesting target for a camera-equipped telescope.