Hi all,
Please note: send all correspondence to me only at: terrymosel@aol.com
1. IAA LECTURE, Wed 20 March, 7.30 p.m. "Exometeorology: Weather on Worlds Beyond our Own" by Dr Johanna Vos, Trinity College, Dublin.
Synopsis
Major technological advances have enabled the discovery of a small number of directly imaged exoplanets. These imaged worlds can be studied in far greater detail than exoplanets detected by indirect methods such as transit and radial velocity techniques. Next-generation telescopes such as the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming 30-m telescopes (e.g. ELT, TMT, GMT) will enable direct exoplanet characterisation. In this talk I will discuss our current and future efforts to investigate the atmospheres of extrasolar worlds.
Biography:
Johanna Vos is an astrophysicist whose research explores weather on worlds beyond our solar system. Using world-class telescopes on ground and in space, her research has revealed the first insights into exoplanet meteorology. Originally from Dublin, she obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh followed by a research fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She was recently awarded a Royal Society - Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship to establish her group at Trinity College Dublin. Passionate about supporting underrepresented minorities in science, she has worked alongside organisations including NASA, The Planetary Society and Stemettes on a variety of mentorship, outreach and citizen science programs.
VENUE: Larmor Lecture Theatre, Astrophysics Research Centre, Physics Building, QUB.
Admission free, including light refreshments, All welcome.
2. Cancellation of meeting on 3 April
As most of the IAA Officers will be away to observe the Total Solar Eclipse in North America, it has been regrettably decided to cancel the meeting planned for 3 April. The next meeting will therefore be the AGM, in the usual venue, on 1 May. More details on that later.
3. IAA 50th Anniversary Event, Armagh, 18 May
This major event will celebrate the 50 years since the formation of the IAA (formerly the Belfast and Armagh Centres of the IAS). We will have major speakers in the afternoon session, exclusive access to the Star-theatre all morning, tours of the observatory and Astropark and another little-known astronomy site. Lunch and snacks will be provided on-site. There will also be an optional special anniversary dinner in the Armagh City Hotel. Non-IAA members and guests are welcome too: it will be a great day, not to be missed. Further details available soon. But in the meantime, SAVE THE DATE!
4. COSMIC CORNER: What's in the Night Sky for March?
Cosmic Corner is presented by Paul Evans, Sinéad Mannion, and Graham Sales. Highlights for March's podcast include details on upcoming Irish Astronomy Week, more on irishastronomyweek.ie, and Midlands Astronomy event Cosmos, see midlandsastronomy.ie.
Solar Cycle 25 is very active so be on the lookout for Aurora, Paul will tell you the best times and websites to use. March skies make for a possible Mercury sighting, a rarity even for the most experienced astronomer and Graham updates us on the Japanese lunar lander, Slim …
Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/cosmic-corner/id1705184817?i=1000647421104
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5RRz2SjbIC52v0fHjN2d9V?si=aFcSX5qyTIulXy83syPnIg
5. MERCURY: Gives a good show as an evening star in the second half of March.
Look low in the West from about 30 minutes after Sunset.
Date Mag Phase Elong. Diam
Mar 18 -0.9 67.7 16.8º 6.3"
Mar 21 -0.5 55.6 18.2º 6.9"
Mar 24 -0.1 43.1 18.7º 7.5"
Mar 27 0.4 31.3 18.2º 8.2"
Mar 30 1.1 20.8 16.7º 8.9"
6. Comet 12/P Pons-Brooks Is already visible in binoculars, and may brighten to naked-eye visibility in April and May. See Star-Struck: Anticipation Grows as Comet Larger Than Everest About to Appear in UK Skies (msn.com). And Bob King reviews this comet and others in 2024 at this link. You can check the position and distance from Earth of Comet Pons-Brooks at TheSkyLive.com
7, ISS. The ISS continues its series of evening passes until 31 March. See www.heavens_above.com for details
8. EQUINOX
The Sun will cross the celestial equator going Northwards on March 20 at 03.06, marking the start of our Spring. But although some astronomy websites and news platforms still say this, the Sun will not rise exactly due East, nor set exactly due West, on that date.
That's because the Sun will already have moved a bit further North of the equator by the time it rises at 06.25, and it will have moved even further North by the time it sets at 18.38 (at Belfast; times will differ according to your location on Earth). And then there's an even greater effect caused by refraction, which I'll not go into now!
But the end result is that at my location, on March 20 the Sun will set at an azimuth of 1 deg 37' 38" North of due West – that's more than 3 solar diameters!
9. JUPITER still worth observing!
Our largest planet is still by far the brightest starlike object in the evening sky. It's well up in the South West as soon as the sky darkens, in Aries, at mag -2.2. Look for the 4 Galilean moons as they do their stately dance around the giant planet. Ganymede, Callisto and Io are bigger than our Moon; Europa is a bit smaller, but it's brighter than Callisto because of its bright ice-covered surface.
The crescent moon will pass close to it on 13 March.
10. COSMOS STAR PARTY, 23 March, at Clonown Rovers FC, Teach Leatha, Lea Berg, Blue Ball, Co Offaly. This is always a great event, and is central for the whole island. And it's a nice dark location too, so a chance to see some nice objects in a dark sky. See midlandsastronomy.ie.
11. EARTH HOUR.
Give an hour for Earth on Saturday 23 March 2024, 8:30 - 9:30pm and help bring our world back to life.
12. ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: April 8.
A chronology of the April 8 total solar eclipse | Space This is a very useful guide to solar eclipses generally, and to this one in particular, whether you are travelling to see totality or not. It will be visible in Ireland as a partial eclipse, approaching sunset. I'll give more detail on that in the next bulletin.
13. Recurrent Nova T Corona Borealis.
You may have read in some social media or other posts that T CrB is due to explode again in the next week or two. I'm going to stick my neck out, and say that we can't predict the next outburst with that degree of accuracy. It could explode tomorrow – or not for another year or more! It's normally around magnitude 10, but at outburst it reaches mag 2.0 or 2.5.
The first outburst was discovered by Irish astronomer John Birmingham in Tuam, Co Galway, in May 1866. It erupted again in February 1946, indicating an approximate 80 year period. BUT you can't estimate a period from only 2 events! However, in the year before the 1946 outburst, it dimmed to magnitude 12.3, and this has happened again recently, suggesting a possible outburst is imminent. BUT, once again, you can't predict from a single event!
So it's certainly well worth keeping an eye on it - comparison charts can be found on the websites of the BAA Variable Star Section, or the AAVSO.
(BTW, don't confuse it with the other nearby famous variable star, R CrB, which does the opposite – it stays normally around 6th magnitude, but occasionally dims to as faint as magnitude 14 or 15!)
(And for comparison, the other not quite so well-known recurrent nova, RS Oph, was seen, or is thought to have, erupted 9 times since 1898 – with intervals of approximately 9, 26, 12, 13, 9, 18, 21 and 18 years; so its period is by no means constant.)
Anyway, do keep an eye out – T CrB lies just outside the West side of the circle of the 'Crown', but you really do need charts to observe it properly. It's rising in the NE as the twilight ends, about 25 degrees to the left of Arcturus.
14. (Was EASY) TEASER – now DIFFICULT!!:
No-one has cracked this one yet, so I'm changing it to the 'Difficult' category, which means that anyone can answer.
What won't happen in 2037?
Clue: It's something that usually happens regularly.
Another clue: It's connected to our calendar.
(I've deleted a clue, as it may be misleading)
Another clue: what's slightly different about this current year?
Final clue: What's the origin of the name 'month'?
Final Final clue: How many days are there in February in an ordinary year? And combine that with the previous clue.
15. DIFFICULT TEASER - Answered!
The name of which Irish place differs by only two letters with the name of something connected to space?
Peter Millar came up with an excellent answer – Galway/Galaxy, but it doesn't quite fit the question, since the difference is only one letter (W for X) – but well done, Peter, for that.
Conn Buckley suggested Naas and NASA, but that's an anagram – just rearranging the letters.
To clarify: take two letters from word A, and swap them with two letters from word B, with a very minor rearrangement of the order.
Two clues – It's in the Republic of Ireland, and it's a much longer word than 'Galaxy'.
ANSWERED! – by previous winner, Patricia Carroll. The answer is Roscommon and Roscosmos. Well done Patricia.
And Jim Verners came in very soon after Patricia, so well done to him too.
16. NEW EASY TEASER
What's next in this sequence: Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter….?
Remember, only send answers to me at my aol address: terrymosel@aol.com.
17. INTERESTING WEBLINKS (Disclaimer – Use of material herein from various sources does not imply approval or otherwise of the opinions, political or otherwise, of those sources). NB: If the title in the weblink does not indicate the subject matter, I give a brief simple intro before the link. I may also comment about the link afterwards.
ASTROPHYSICS:
James Webb Space Telescope sees the infrared skeleton of a galaxy (image) (msn.com)
Using Pulsar Parameter Drifts to Detect Subnanohertz Gravitational Waves (msn.com)
Why we study black holes and gravitational waves (msn.com)
Astronomers find strong evidence of neutron star in remnant of exploding star (msn.com)
New Theory Reveals Black Hole-Like Objects Nested Within Each Other (msn.com)
Dark Energy Camera captures record-breaking image of a dead star's scattered remains (msn.com)
Scientists may have just caught 7 exotic 'ghost particles' as they pierced through Earth (msn.com)
How 'white holes' could explain the mystery of dark matter (msn.com)
Colliding neutron stars hint at new physics that could explain dark matter (msn.com)
COSMOLOGY:
Just when we thought that Quantum physics was as weird as it gets….. Mysterious 'unparticles' may be pushing the universe apart, new theoretical study suggests (msn.com)
Dark energy remains a mystery. Maybe AI can help crack the code (msn.com)
Explaining Galactic Distribution Without Dark Matter (msn.com)
James Webb telescope confirms there is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe | Live Science
EARTH & MOON
Solar eclipse 2024 weather prospects — Q&A with an expert | Space
Scientists discover origin of first cell life on earth (msn.com)
Dead satellites falling to Earth could weaken its magnetic field (msn.com)
Mars influences Earth's climate, scientists discover (msn.com)
EXOLIFE
Building blocks of life may have formed on dust in the cold vacuum of space (msn.com)
They Thought It Was an Interstellar Meteorite Strike. Turns Out It Was a Truck. (popularmechanics.com) But Avi Loeb won't give up – he has books to sell!
Scientists discover unlikely origins of life on surface of Mars (msn.com)
James Webb Space Telescope spots the icy building blocks of life swirling around infant stars (msn.com)
EXOPLANETS
James Webb Space Telescope spots the icy building blocks of life swirling around infant stars (msn.com)
Film/Tv
CNN explores NASA's Columbia shuttle tragedy in riveting docuseries (video) (msn.com)
IMAGES,
Scientists reveal never-before-seen map of the Milky Way's central engine (image) (msn.com)
NASA releases incredible new pictures of stormy weather and violent winds on Jupiter (msn.com)
Dark Energy Camera captures record-breaking image of a dead star's scattered remains (msn.com)
SOLAR SYSTEM
Scientists discover unlikely origins of life on surface of Mars (msn.com)
This map of volcanoes on Venus is best we've ever made (image) (msn.com)
Mars influences Earth's climate, scientists discover (msn.com)
Giant Mars volcano discovered 'hiding' in plain sight (msn.com)
SPACE FAA to oversee investigation of SpaceX Starship's 3rd test flight | Space
Watch SpaceX's Starship reenter Earth's atmosphere in this fiery video | Space
SpaceX's Starship will go interstellar someday, Elon Musk says | Space
Dead satellites falling to Earth could weaken its magnetic field (msn.com)
TELESCOPES, EQUIPMENT & TECHNIQUES
Dark energy remains a mystery. Maybe AI can help crack the code (msn.com)
FINAL WORD:
"The treasures hidden in the heavens are so rich that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment." - Johannes Kepler
18. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link gives options to join the IAA.
https://irishastro.org/join-the-iaa/ If you are a UK taxpayer, please select the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button. See also https://irishastro.org/
The Irish Astronomical Association is registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC 105858
DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed herein are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the IAA.
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
