Hi all,
Please note: send all correspondence to me only at: terrymosel@aol.com
1. IRISH ASTRONOMY WEEK: March 9-16, 2024. Organised by Ronan Newman, the first event last year was very successful!
Various events throughout the whole island. See irishastronomyweek.ie,
This event does not run itself, so please help by making a donation via the new go fund me page https://gofund.me/a5b22223
See also the IAW Video - a bit of history, a bit of sky guide,https://youtu.be/WaQ1pcnDYes?si=6vDHbfGmUlsd4Oh3
I shall be giving a talk at Belfast Central Library on Wed 13 March at 11.00, entitled "Our View of the Universe". Booking is not necessary, but you can get details from the library at t: 028 9050 9150 w: www.librariesni.org.uk
2. 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.
3. 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
4. MERCURY Will give 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 15 -1.1 78.4 14.8º 5.9"
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"
5. Comet 12/P Pons-Brooks Is already visible in binoculars, and may brighten to naked-eye visibility in April and May. 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
6, ISS. The ISS starts a series of evening passes on 14 March. See www.heavens_above.com for details
7. 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, the Sun will set at an azimuth of 1 deg 37' 38" North of due West – that's more than 3 solar diameters!
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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 few weeks. 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's 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 – it 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.
12. EASY TEASER:
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.
13. NEW DIFFICULT TEASER
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 replace 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'.
Remember, only send answers to me at my aol address terrymosel@aol.com.
14. 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:
Why the discovery of the oldest black hole is baffling scientists (msn.com)
New Theory Reveals Black Hole-Like Objects Nested Within Each Other (msn.com)
Object 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun discovered at core of distant galaxy (msn.com)
AOP makes a major discovery! Scientists find star with 'scar' from destroying planets (msn.com) Congrats to Prof Stefano Bagnulo at AOP!
Identifying Red Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe (msn.com)
The James Webb Space Telescope may have found some of the very 1st stars | Space
Why we study black holes and gravitational waves (msn.com)
Nasa spots shocking number of galaxies like our own in early universe (msn.com)
Small red dots in the sky are tiny black holes, scientists say (msn.com)
Hundreds of mysterious structures found at the heart of the Milky Way (msn.com)
Scientists find dead galaxy older than any ever found (msn.com)
Unveiling the Secrets of Planet Birth Around Thousands of Stars (msn.com)
COSMOLOGY:
How 'white holes' could explain the mystery of dark matter (msn.com)
Controversial new theory of gravity rules out need for dark matter (msn.com)
Unveiling Dark Matter: The Role of Neutron Star Mergers ~ FreeAstroScience.com
Do we live in a giant void? It could solve the puzzle of the universe's expansion (msn.com)
EARTH & MOON
This seems to indicate an example of 'confirmation bias', where you selectively look for evidence that confirms your hypothesis 'Interstellar meteor' vibrations actually caused by a truck, study suggests | Space
Mysterious 'zombie' ecosystem discovered deep beneath the Earth's crust (msn.com)
Earth swallowed up an alien planet – and it's still lurking inside (msn.com)
The moon is 40 million years older — explained (msn.com)
Key to origins of life on Earth could be in 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid (msn.com)
Scientists 'discover' two huge structures from alien planet beneath the Earth's surface (msn.com)
Scientists discover origin of first cell life on earth (msn.com)
Scientific discovery from 1.75 billion years ago could explain how life began on Earth (msn.com)
Scientists find signs of earliest life on Earth after 3.5 billion-year-old discovery (msn.com)
Earth's original shape revealed by scientists (msn.com)
February 2024 was warmest on record globally, scientists say (aol.co.uk) February 2024 was warmest on record globally, scientists say (aol.co.uk)
Scientists discover our earliest ancestor and change early evolutionary history (msn.com)
Earth has obliterated a worrying record for the ninth straight month (msn.com)
Unveiling the mysteries of Earth's inner core, a planet within our planet (msn.com)
Scientists find 3,000-year-old glitch in the Earth's magnetic field thanks to some bricks (msn.com)
EXOLIFE
Scientists discover unlikely origins of life on surface of Mars (msn.com)
Scientists Think There Could Be LIFE on Europa and It's Even Weirder Than We Thought! | Watch (msn.com)
Aliens could be hiding on four moons of Uranus (msn.com)
Aliens could be hiding in 'terminator zones' on planets with eternal night (msn.com)
'Bouncing' comets could kick-start alien life around the galaxy (msn.com)
Our solar system's ocean moons may be habitable — and their icy shells could hold proof | Space
If aliens had our life-hunting equipment, could they find us? | Space
EXOPLANETS
This seems to indicate an example of 'confirmation bias', where you selectively look for evidence that confirms your hypothesis 'Interstellar meteor' vibrations actually caused by a truck, study suggests | Space
Scientists Discovered NEW Planet way Better Than Earth | Watch (msn.com)
See the birth of a PLANET: Incredible photos reveal the weird and wonderful ways worlds form in different regions of our galaxy (msn.com)
James Webb Telescope Just Announced First Ever, Real Image Of Another World | Watch (msn.com)
Scientists discover water source in outer space three times greater than Earth's oceans (msn.com)
Webb uncovers new details of a water world with a boiling ocean (msn.com)
Astronomers detect 'waterworld with a boiling ocean' in deep space (msn.com)
Scientists devise 'new and easier' way to identify habitable exoplanets (msn.com)
Unveiling the Secrets of Planet Birth Around Thousands of Stars (msn.com)
Spectacular Secrets Of 'Planet-Forming Discs' Uncovered By Astronomers | Watch (msn.com)
Aliens could be hiding in 'terminator zones' on planets with eternal night (msn.com)
Cosmic 'sandwich' theory could explain how smaller planets are formed (msn.com)
The deadly atmosphere on Venus could help us find habitable worlds. Here's how (msn.com)
IMAGES,
Cat's Eye Nebula, by JWST: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/kG1y98bRyPPHmMTD/ SOLAR SYSTEM
Scientists discover unlikely origins of life on surface of Mars (msn.com)
'Larger than Everest' comet could become visible to naked eye this month (msn.com)
Mystery of Jupiter's Great Blue Spot deepens with strangely fluctuating jet | Space
Aliens could be hiding on four moons of Uranus (msn.com)
How methane studies on Earth could inform the search for alien life in our solar system (msn.com)
High-density, ultra-hot water ice discovered on Neptune https://www.facebook.com/share/2jpD5DhUCH7mFghi/
Scientists say 2 solar system dwarf planets may harbor underground oceans (msn.com)
Mars water mystery https://scitechdaily.com/mars-water-mystery-deepens-with-latest-groundwater-findings/Cosmic 'sandwich' theory could explain how smaller planets are formed (msn.com)
The deadly atmosphere on Venus could help us find habitable worlds. Here's how (msn.com)
Our solar system's ocean moons may be habitable — and their icy shells could hold proof | Space
SPACE Astronauts' emotional reunion at space station | Watch (msn.com)Want to live on Mars for a year? NASA is looking for volunteers to lead a simulation mission (msn.com)'Space: The Longest Goodbye' is an intimate glimpse at how astronauts cope with isolation (review) (msn.com)Space debris: is the airspace around Earth cluttered with junk, and is there a sustainable method of getting rid of it? (msn.com)Russian rocket getting out of date before it flies https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/russias-next-generation-rocket-is-a-decade-old-and-still-flying-dummy-payloads/
SpaceX to push the envelope on 3rd Starship test flight | SpaceIs it time for a new Outer Space Treaty? Reports of Russian nuclear space weapon raise questions | Space Yes – if all sides would respect it!Starship: SpaceX reveals next test flight for Mars-bound spacecraft after spectacular explosions (msn.com)SpaceX's Crew-8 Dragon capsule docks at the ISS | Space Hatch seal crack 'not a problem' https://www.digitaltrends.com/space/nasa-crew-8-spacecraft-crack/
SUN
China completes world's largest solar telescope array | Space
TELESCOPES, EQUIPMENT & TECHNIQUES
Why astronomers are worried about 2 major telescopes right now | Space
Why we study black holes and gravitational waves (msn.com)
How does astronomy use the electromagnetic spectrum? (msn.com)
A cosmic magnifying glass: What is gravitational lensing? (msn.com)
China completes world's largest solar telescope array | Space
UFOs, UAPs, Aliens etc.No evidence of aliens or extra-terrestrial life, finds Pentagon study of UFOs (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
15. 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
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