No Matter Where You Hang Your Stockings, I Wish You A Very Merry Christmas!

115th Anniversary of the Antikythera Mechanism's Discovery

Today's Google Doodle

On this date in 1902, Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais sifted through some artifacts from a shipwreck at Antikythera. The wrecked Roman cargo ship was discovered two years earlier, but Stais was the first to notice an intriguing bit of bronze among the treasures. It looked like it might be a gear or wheel. That corroded chunk of metal turned out to be part of the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient analog astronomical computer.

The Antikythera Mechanism tracked planetary positions, predicted lunar and solar eclipses, and even signaled the next Olympic Games. It was probably also used for mapping and navigation. A dial on the front combines zodiacal and solar calendars, while dials on the back capture celestial cycles. Computer models based on 3-D tomography have revealed more than 30 sophisticated gears, housed in a wooden and bronze case the size of a shoebox.  

Binary star systems have come up a lot in the past 18 podcasts, and here is a perfect example of them!

As promised, here is a comic about the brightest star in the northern Hemisphere: Sirius! Sirius B will be shown in future comics as 2018 is year of the dog and since Sirius is the dog star, it is year of the Sirius!

Enjoy!

https://www.space.com/21702-sirius-brightest-star.html

Spacewalkers Successfully Connect Adapter for Commercial Crew Vehicles

ISS - Expedition 50 Mission patch / EVA - Extra Vehicular Activities patch. March 30, 2017 Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA concluded their spacewalk at 2:33 p.m. EDT. During the spacewalk, which lasted just over seven hours, the two astronauts successfully reconnected cables and electrical connections on the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. PMA-3 will provide the pressurized interface between the station and the second of two international docking adapters to be delivered to the complex to support the dockings of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft in the future.

Image above: Spacewalkers Shane Kimbrough (spacesuit with red stripe on legs) and Peggy Whitson are pictured shortly after exiting the Quest airlock this morning. Image Credits: @Thom_Astro. The duo were also tasked with installing four thermal protection shields on the Tranquility module of the International Space Station. The shields were required to cover the port where the PMA-3 was removed earlier in the week and robotically installed on the Harmony module. During the spacewalk, one of the shields was inadvertently lost. The loss posed no immediate danger to the astronauts and Kimbrough and Whitson went on to successfully install the remaining shields on the common berthing mechanism port. A team from the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston devised a plan for the astronauts to finish covering the port with the PMA-3 cover Whitson removed earlier in the day. The plan worked, and the cover was successfully installed, providing thermal protection and micrometeoroid and orbital debris cover for the port. To round out the spacewalk, Kimbrough and Whitson also installed a different shield around the base of the PMA-3 adapter for micrometeoroid protection. The shield was nicknamed a cummerbund as it fits around the adapter similar to a tuxedo’s cummerbund worn around the waist.

Image above: Astronaut Peggy Whitson signs her autograph near an Expedition 50 mission patch attached to the inside the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA. Having completed her eighth spacewalk, Whitson now holds the record for the most spacewalks and accumulated time spacewalking by a female astronaut. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 1,243 hours and 42 minutes outside the station during 199 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Related links: International docking adapters: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/meet-the-international-docking-adapter Peggy Whitson spacewalk record: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2017/03/29/astronaut-peggy-whitson-set-to-break-spacewalk-record-thursday/ Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia. Best regards, Orbiter.ch Full article

The Birth of a New Star. IRAS 14568-6304

via reddit

July 16th, 1969, 8:32 AM - Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. lift off aboard Saturn V SA-506.

Ep. 6 Star Classification Part 2: Cannon and Classification - HD and the Void

Jump from the lifecycle of stars to the various ways we've chosen to interpret observational data on stars, from observing the bright sky-dots to evaluating how bright they are by comparing them to each other, and all the new things we can do with...

Did you know that when we classify stars, we’re comparing different types of stars but also stars at different stages of their life cycles? This is the second in a two-part episode about star classifications (go listen to Part 1 if you haven’t already; or listen to this one first and then listen to Part 1, it’s not exactly spoiler territory here). In this podcast, I talk about the various ways we've chosen to interpret observational data on stars, from observing the bright sky-dots to evaluating how bright they are by comparing them to each other, and all the new things we can do with new observational techniques. Never fear, Harvard observatory’s computers make a significant appearance again in this one!

I did my best to explain everything in as comprehensible terms as possible but you can hit me up with questions if you have them! I’m also on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid if you’d rather ask me there. And go ahead and check out the podcast on iTunes, rate it or review it if you’d like, and subscribe! I’ll always post all the extras here on tumblr but iTunes is probably more convenient for downloading.

Below the cut are my sources, music credits (thanks Elena for the filler music suggestion, very on-the-nose), vocab list, and the transcript. I mention a couple of books and quote a couple people in this episode so if you want to see that written down, those sources are there as well. Let me know what you think of this episode, let me know what you think I should research next*, tell me a fun space fact… anything’s helpful!

*(My thoughts were planets or looking into a couple major astronomers; either Edmond Halley or Tycho Brahe <3 or maybeStephen Hawking? Let me know by the 23rd so I can get a podcast up by July 3rd!)

Glossary:

Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) - a device that moves an electrical charge to shift the signal between incoming photons to turn them into electron charges that can then be read as an image. It’s used in digital cameras and in astronomy for UV-to-infrared applications.

deep-sky object - any cosmological object that isn’t individual stars or something from our Solar System. It’s a classification that includes nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters, and it has its roots in amateur astronomy.

Hipparcos satellite - the European Space Agency ‘high precision parallax collecting satellite’ that operated between 1989 and 1993. It gathered astronomical and photometric data of stars and was highly accurate in positioning and cataloging the star information it acquired on its four-year mission. Its data was published in 1997 in two catalogs: the Hipparcos Catalogue, distributed in print as well as on CDs and mapped 118,218 stars; and the Tycho Catalogue, distributed only on CDs and mapped 1,058,332 stars. The Tycho-2 Catalogue was an updated version of the Tycho Catalogue made with more refined imaging techniques and re-released on CDs and online in 2000 with over 2 million stars mapped.

neutron star - a type of star that has gone supernova, when the surviving core is 1.5 to 3 solar masses and contracts into a small, very dense, very fast-spinning star.

pulsar - a type of neutron stars that spins very, very fast: a kind of variable star that emits light pulses usually between 0.0014 seconds and 8.5 seconds.

stellar photometry/photometrics - measuring the brightness of stars and the changes of brightness over time. Previously used photographic plates and visual equipment in professional observatories, but shifted after an international photoelectric system was established in 1951. Currently we use photoelectric devices, such as CCDs.

stellar spectra classification - developed at Harvard Observatory in the 20th century, a categorization of stars based on stellar surface temperatures rather than actual compositional differences, gravity, or luminosity in stars. From highest temperature to lowest, the seven main stellar types are O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. O, B, and A type stars are often referred to as early spectral types, while cool stars like G, K, and M are known as late type stars, even though these titles are based in disproven ideas about stellar evolution.

Script/Transcript

Sources:

Standard stellar types via University of College London

List/timeline of major historical star catalogs

A brief history of early star catalogs, since the International Astronomical Union made a new star catalog in 2016.

A history of the Messier list

A history of the Messier List and how amateur astronomers use it

The Messier List

A really detailed Messier List, including Messier’s own observations on the object along with what it is currently understood to be

`Deep Sky Observers Companion online database

The Caldwell List via SEDS

The Caldwell List via the Astronomical League

Translation of ‘Durchmusterung’ via PONS online translation

Some hilarious mnemonics that are an alternative to the girl-kissing one to remember the order of stellar spectra. I don't know why there’s an entire page dedicated to this but good on you, Caltech.

Photometry overview via the Astronomical Society of South Australia

Hipparcos Catalog via NASA

History of the Hipparcos satellite and subsequent catalogs via ESA

Tycho-2 Catalog via NASA

The Hipparchos and Tycho catalogues online and downloadable if you have a whole lot of storage space to put them in

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command website has a list of recommended informational catalogs, last updated in November 2004

Information on current star charts, specialized and general, and how to download them

The Research Consortium on Nearby Stars’ website, working on cataloging and characterizing all stars within 10 parsecs/32.6 light years of Earth

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory star catalog, which goes to V=9. Please don’t ask me how the hell it works, I didn’t bother ordering it

Another SAO catalog via NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center website

If you can figure out how to navigate this catalog, you should probably take over this podcast for me.

Soba, Dava. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars. Viking: New York, 2016.

“After all, astronomers could not yet tie any given traits of stars, such as temperature or age, to the various groupings of spectral lines. What they needed was a consistent classification—a holding pattern for the stars—that would facilitate fruitful future research” (91).

“A good number of other blank spaces in her tables pointed up other lacunae, such as missing minimum values, uncertain periods, absent spectra, or questionable variable type” (113).

Annie Jump Cannon: “Since I have done almost all the world’s work in this one branch, it was necessary for me to do most of the talking” (158)

Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey. Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century. MIT P: Cambridge, MA, 1986. Located in Google Books preview.

Mack, Pamela E. “Straying from Their Orbits: Women in Astronomy in America.” In Women of Science: Righting the Record. Ed. Gabriele Kass-Simon, Patricia Farnes, Deborah Nash. Indiana U P: Bloomington, IN, 1993 (72-116). Located in Google Books preview.

Selin, Helaine. “Battani” Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer Science & Business Media: Berlin, Germany, 2011. Located in Google Books preview. 

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Champagne Supernova’ by Oasis off their album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

New Horizons Flyover of Pluto

Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system – from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself. This dramatic Pluto flyover begins over the highlands to the southwest of the great expanse of nitrogen ice plain informally named Sputnik Planitia. The viewer first passes over the western margin of Sputnik, where it borders the dark, cratered terrain of Cthulhu Macula, with the blocky mountain ranges located within the plains seen on the right. The tour moves north past the rugged and fractured highlands of Voyager Terra and then turns southward over Pioneer Terra – which exhibits deep and wide pits – before concluding over the bladed terrain of Tartarus Dorsa in the far east of the encounter hemisphere. Digital mapping and rendering were performed by Paul Schenk and John Blackwell of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

Hubble Spots Two Interacting Galaxies Defying Cosmic Convention

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch. March 24, 2017

Some galaxies are harder to classify than others. Here, Hubble’s trusty Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) has captured a striking view of two interacting galaxies located some 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). The more diffuse and patchy blue glow covering the right side of the frame is known as NGC 3447 — sometimes NGC 3447B for clarity, as the name NGC 3447 can apply to the overall duo. The smaller clump to the upper left is known as NGC 3447A. Overall, we know NGC 3447 comprises a couple of interacting galaxies, but we’re unsure what each looked like before they began to tear one another apart. The two sit so close that they are strongly influenced and distorted by the gravitational forces between them, causing the galaxies to twist themselves into the unusual and unique shapes seen here. NGC 3447A appears to display the remnants of a central bar structure and some disrupted spiral arms, both properties characteristic of certain spiral galaxies. Some identify NGC 3447B as a former spiral galaxy, while others categorize it as being an irregular galaxy.

Hubble Space Telescope

For Hubble’s image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, visit:  http://hubblesite.org/ http://www.nasa.gov/hubble http://www.spacetelescope.org/ Image, Animation, Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA/Text Credits: European Space Agency/NASA/Karl Hille. Best regards, Orbiter.ch Full article

It’s way too late for this, but it’s important to note that NASA didn’t discover the new earth-like planets. It was a group of astronomers lead by a dude name Michaël Gillon from the University of Liège in Belgium. Giving NASA credit for this gives the United States credit for something they didn’t do, and we already have a problem with making things about ourselves so. just like…be mindful. I’d be pissed if I discovered a small solar system and credit was wrongfully given to someone else.