Overview: In the last two decades, thousands of planets have been discovered outside our solar system. Some of them are potentially habitable, i.e. they orbit a region around their star where liquid water may be present on their surface, a necessary condition for life as we know it. Join me in reviewing the latest findings by scientists from around the world on exoplanets as we explore the path forward over the next decade in studying these worlds and searching for signs of life.
Biography:Maryame El Moutamid is a research associate at Cornell University. She is an expert in orbital dynamics and celestial mechanics, especially orbital resonances of satellites and exoplanets. Her current research concerns planetary ring dynamics and satellite orbital dynamics, and their connections with giant planet interior structure in the context of the Cassini/NASA mission. Maryame earned her Ph.D. in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Celestial Mechanics from PSL (Paris Sciences et Lettres) Research University and Paris Observatory in September 2013, and then moved to Cornell University. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, learning more about food from the world, and practicing Judo.
TACNY Junior Cafe Scientifique
TACNY Junior Cafe Scientifique, a program for middle-school students founded in 2005, features discussions about topics in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in an informal atmosphere and seeks to encourage students to consider careers in these areas. Students must be accompanied by an adult and can explore the MOST at no cost after the event.
Technology Alliance of Central New York
Founded in 1903 as the Technology Club of Syracuse, the nonprofit Technology Alliance of Central New York’s mission is to facilitate community awareness, appreciation, and education of technology; and to collaborate with like-minded organizations across Central New York.
For more information about TACNY, visit www.tacny.org.
With the summer nearly over and long nights replaced by early school bus mornings, the UNY Stargazing series has returned to its regularly-scheduled monthly publishing.
The Great American Eclipse for 2017 has come and gone without major reported inconvenience to the cities that ended up hosting large groups. This is good news for Western and Upstate New York, as we will be participants in the observation of totality on April 8, 2024 and have to contend with potential crowds on top of whatever weather early April brings that year. In the meantime, if you still have your eclipse glasses, you can give others an opportunity to enjoy upcoming total eclipses in South America and Asia in 2019. Consider donating your glasses to the great outreach organization Astronomers Without Borders – see the link for all the details.
Caption:The tail end of the August 21st eclipse from Nashville, including sunspot group 2671 at center and sunspot 2672, just clipped by the moon. (Photo by John Giroux)
* It is a busy month for amateur astronomy, with Jupiter getting very close to being un-observable until December (so catch those photons now), Cassini about to take a serious plunge into Saturn, and Mercury, Venus, and Mars doing a wonderful dance in the pre-sunrise skies all month. Try to catch the days shown below (and see the article for more details)!
Caption: The prominent planetary groupings in the morning sky this month. (Image made with Stellarium)
* The constellation of the month is Draco – and with just one more circumpolar constellation to go, we’re two months away from explaining just what that means!
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (May-June, 2017) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure at www.astropublishing.com (click the link to go directly to the issue).
Free Astronomy Magazine was featured as the first of a series of articles on great free online content for amateur astronomers (see A Universe Of Free Resources Part 1) and we’ll be keeping track of future publications under the Online Resources category on the CNYO website.
You can find previous Free Astronomy Magazine issues by checking out our Free Astronomy Magazine Category (or look under the Education link in our menu).
For those wanting a quick look at what the issue has to offer, the Table of Contents is reproduced below.
May-June 2017
The web browser-readable version of the issue can be found here:
The NASA News Service provides up-to-date announcements of NASA policy, news events, and space science. A recent selection of space science articles are provided below, including direct links to the full announcements. Those interested in receiving these announcements from NASA can subscribe to their service by sending an email to: hqnews-request@newsletters.nasa.gov?subject=subscribe
Space Station Crew Celebrates 15 Years Of Human Space Exploration In Low-Earth Orbit
All six members of the Expedition 45 crew aboard the International Space Station will participate in a news conference at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 2 to mark the start of continuous work by humans aboard the space-based laboratory 15 years ago. The 30-minute news conference will air live on NASA Television and agency’s website.
Station Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Flight Engineers Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Volkov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will take questions from U.S., Russian and Japanese media during the news conference.
Due to time limitations, questions will be taken only from media participating in person at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston or the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. International media accreditation for this event is closed.
NASA launched a new website Monday so the world can see images of the full, sunlit side of the Earth every day. The images are taken by a NASA camera one million miles away on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force.
Once a day NASA will post at least a dozen new color images of Earth acquired from 12 to 36 hours earlier by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). Each daily sequence of images will show the Earth as it rotates, thus revealing the whole globe over the course of a day. The new website also features an archive of EPIC images searchable by date and continent.
NASA is leading our nation and the world on a journey to Mars, and Thursday the agency released a detailed outline of that plan in its report, “NASA’s Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration.”
“NASA is closer to sending American astronauts to Mars than at any point in our history,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Today, we are publishing additional details about our journey to Mars plan and how we are aligning all of our work in support of this goal. In the coming weeks, I look forward to continuing to discuss the details of our plan with members of Congress, as well as our commercial and our international and partners, many of whom will be attending the International Astronautical Congress next week.”
The journey to Mars crosses three thresholds, each with increasing challenges as humans move farther from Earth. NASA is managing these challenges by developing and demonstrating capabilities in incremental steps:
New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.
Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.
“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water — albeit briny — is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”
A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA’s Cassini mission.
Researchers found the magnitude of the moon’s very slight wobble, as it orbits Saturn, can only be accounted for if its outer ice shell is not frozen solid to its interior, meaning a global ocean must be present.
The finding implies the fine spray of water vapor, icy particles and simple organic molecules Cassini has observed coming from fractures near the moon’s south pole is being fed by this vast liquid water reservoir. The research is presented in a paper published online this week in the journal Icarus.
The following is the official announcement for AstroFest 2013 from Patrick Manley and our friends at Kopernik Astronomical Society. Kopernik always does a fantastic job hosting amateur astronomers and the general public alike on Friday evenings throughout much of the year, with their AstroFest among the high points for CNY astronomers. I highly recommend taking in all three days of events and (hopefully) observing, if for no other reason than to see what a fully-equipped and maintained astronomy club should look like!
CNYO members will be there in several capacities, including a guest lecture by CNY’s own Bob Piekiel. Also note that Barlow Bob is scheduled to host a solar session (and hopefully the skies will cooperate this year). The view through his CaK Bob-o-scope is NOT to be missed!
For more information, contact Kopernik at kas@kopernikastro.org. We all hope to see you!
AstroFest 2013 is rapidly approaching.
Kopernik AstroFest is a celebration of the night sky and amateur astronomy. The 3-day event is held annually at the Kopernik Observatory & Science Center (KOSC). Both the KOSC and the Kopernik Astronomical Society (KAS) sponsor the event. AstroFest includes speakers on a variety of topics, demonstrations, an amateur astronomy roundtable discussion, the Kopernik AstroFest Solar Star Party, and nightly observing if skies are clear. Non-fire camping is allowed on the facility grounds for an additional cost.
Kopernik Observatory sports a 20” Ritchey-Chretien OGS Telescope, Celestron C-14 SCT, and a 6” Astrophysics F/12 refractor that will be open for use in observing under clear skies. During clear daytime skies, the legendary Barlow Bob will host the Kopernik AstroFest Solar Star Party (KASSP).
If you are an amateur astronomer located in the Northeastern US, we would love to host you at Kopernik AstroFest 2013.
Biography: Maryame El Moutamid is a research associate at Cornell University. She is an expert in orbital dynamics and celestial mechanics, especially orbital resonances of satellites and exoplanets. Her current research concerns planetary ring dynamics and satellite orbital dynamics, and their connections with giant planet interior structure in the context of the Cassini/NASA mission. Maryame earned her Ph.D. in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Celestial Mechanics from PSL (Paris Sciences et Lettres) Research University and Paris Observatory in September 2013, and then moved to Cornell University. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, learning more about food from the world, and practicing Judo.
