MARS PLANET - Hubble Telescope Captures Incredible Up-Close View of Mars

Hubble Telescope Captures Incredible Up-Close View of Mars:

An amazing new Mars image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows clouds, craters, ice caps and other features on the Red Planet.

Hubble took the photo on May 12, when Mars was just 50 million miles (80 million kilometers) from Earth. That's quite close in the cosmic scheme of things; Mars is nearly at "opposition" — when the planet and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth from each other — which will come on May 22.  

Mars as it was observed shortly before opposition in May 2016 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Some prominent features are clearly visible, including the heavily eroded Arabia Terra in the center of the image and the small southern polar cap.

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)


Opposition "marks the planet's closest approach to Earth, so that Mars appears bigger and brighter in the sky than usual," European Space Agency officials wrote today (May 19) in a description of the newly released photo. (The Hubble mission is run jointly by NASA and ESA). "This event allows astronomers using telescopes in space and on the ground to see more details on the Martian surface." [The 7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars]

The dates of closest approach and opposition don't mesh exactly. The closest approach will actually come on May 30, when Earth and Mars are separated by 46.8 million miles (75.3 million km).

The average time between Mars oppositions is about 780 days; the last time Earth, the Red Planet and the sun all lined up was in April 2014. And some closest approaches are closer than others. In 2003, for example, Mars came within 34.65 million miles (55.76 million km) of Earth — the closest the two planets had been in 60,000 years, ESA officials said.  

The new Hubble photo, which the telescope took with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, shows a natural-color view of Mars in which mountains, plains, canyons, craters and many other geological features are visible.

Annotated view of Mars as it was observed shortly before opposition in May 2016 by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)


"The orange area in the center of the image is Arabia Terra, a vast upland region," ESA officials wrote. "The landscape is densely cratered and heavily eroded, indicating that it could be among the oldest features on the planet."

"South of Arabia Terra, running east to west along the equator, are the long, dark features known as Sinus Sabaeus (to the east) and Sinus Meridiani (to the west)," they added. "These darker regions are covered by bedrock from ancient lava flows and other volcanic features."

Clouds blanket the dark volcanic plains of Syrtis Major, on the right side of Mars, and cover the extensive south polar ice cap as well. (The northern ice cap is quite small, because it's currently summer in Mars' northern hemisphere.)

Hubble launched in April 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Spacewalking astronauts repaired its flawed primary mirror in December 1993, and the famous telescope has been helping astronomers make big discoveries ever since. Barring any unforeseen events, Hubble should keep operating through at least 2020, and perhaps longer, NASA officials have said.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

JAPAN AEROSPACE - JAXA: Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency

JAXA: Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency:

Earth return of Japan's Hayabusa asteroid probe and release of its sample capsule.

Credit: C. Waste and T. Thompson (NASA/JPL-Caltech)


The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was formed in 2003 after the merger of three government space organizations into one. JAXA is responsible for all civilian space activities in Japan, with activities ranging from basic space research to ongoing space missions.

Japan's human exploration program long predates the beginning of JAXA, including numerous contributions to the International Space Station. Its work on station includes the Kibo research module (including a robotic arm) and regular cargo flights to ISS using the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV).

The country is also noted for several robotic exploration missions – Hayabusa's sample return mission from asteroid 25143 Itokawa and the lunar mission SELENE are examples – and its new self-checking rocket, Epsilon.

Early Japanese space research

Prior to JAXA, Japan pursued space through three different agencies. The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) were both created in 1955, while the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) was formed in 1969.

ISAS focused on robotic space missions, including the PENCIL suborbital rocket launch in 1955 and the first satellite, OHSUMI, which launched in 1970. (The entity was previously known by other names, but was called ISAS after a research agreement was forged between Japanese universities in 1981.)

NAL (first called the National Aeronautical Laboratory) worked on rockets, aircraft, aerospace transportation and related technology. NASDA also performed work in satellites and launch vehicles, and was the hub for Japan's early astronaut program.

Japanese authorities elected to merge the three groups into one in 2003. The goal was to form "one independent administrative institution to be able to perform all their activities in the aerospace field as one organization, from basic research and development to utilization," JAXA stated.

It's important to note that much of the work carried out by JAXA today originates from research performed at these three agencies. One example is work on the ISS.

Japan human spaceflight and the ISS

Japan's first astronaut selection took place in 1985 under NASDA, with three candidates selected: Mamoru Mohri, Chiaki Mukai and Takao Doi. Mohri was the first one to fly into space, riding aboard STS-47 in 1992. The mission on space shuttle Endeavour included Spacelab-J, a scientific module that included numerous Japanese experiments.

The aim of the early Japanese spaceflights was to accumulate research experience that would be useful on the ISS. Then they learned about other station duties: on STS-72 in 1996, for example, Koichi Wakata (part of the 1992 astronaut class) became the first Japanese astronaut to operate robotics in space.

The first spacewalk took place in 1997, when Takao Doi did procedure evaluations for station aboard STS-87. More astronauts were selected in several rounds to fill the demand for orbital slots. JAXA's most recent astronaut selection was in 2009.

For the station, NASDA and JAXA created cargo spaceships and the Kibo – the first Japanese module for human spaceflight. "We will finally be able to conduct experiments in such fields as new material development, which require a lot of preparation time, and to study the impact of long stays in space on the human body," stated Tetsuo Tanaka, director of JAXA's space environment utilization center, in 2006.

A newer JAXA mission to station is a "talking robot", Kirobo, intended to interact with astronauts and gain information about their mental health.

Robotic missions

Hayabusa is one of Japan's most famous robotic missions. The spacecraft launched in 2003 and successfully arrived at the asteroid in September 2005. It deployed a lander, MINERVA, that was supposed to hop from place to place on the surface, but MINERVA never made it. Hayabusa itself made a successful landing in November 2005, attempted to scoop up material, and returned to Earth safely in 2010 after encountering many failures along the way (including two of its four ion engines). [Photos: Hayabusa: Japan's Asteroid Mission]

JAXA launched a successor mission called Hayabusa2 in December 2014. The spacecraft is en route to a carbonaceous asteroid called Ryugu, where it will arrive in mid-2018 and deploy several small robots on the surface. Hayabusa2 will also scoop up a bit of the asteroid itself for sample return. The spacecraft is expected to leave the asteroid in late 2019 and come back to Earth in late 2020.

Another prominent effort is SELenological and ENgineering Explorer (SELENE, also known as Kayuga), a mission to explore the moon. The lunar mission launched in 2007 and operated for well over a year before SELENE was steered into the lunar surface as planned. The mission aimed to learn about the moon's "elemental and mineralogical composition, its geography, its surface and sub-surface structure, the remnant of its magnetic field, and its gravity field," JAXA stated on its website.

Other prominent missions

The Hinode (SOLAR-B) spacecraft launched in September 2006 to do solar observations. Its focus is on understanding more about the solar corona, which is the sun's atmosphere. The aim is to better predict solar weather and its effect on Earth.

The Venus orbiter Akatsuki was supposed to arrive at the cloudy planet in 2010, but didn't make it due to an engine failure. The spacecraft was in an orbit that allowed it to make another close pass by Venus in December 2015, close enough for JAXA to push it into orbit using the attitude control engine. Observations started in April 2016.

JAXA has been periodically testing a solar sail demonstrator called Ikaros, which launched in 2010. The spacecraft has periods of operations broken up by planned hibernations, the latest of which took place in 2015.

JAXA launched the ASTRO-H/Hitomi X-ray observatory in early 2016, but the mission lost contact with Earth and was declared lost in April of that year.

A more recent technology demonstrator is the Epsilon rocket, which is intended to perform its own health checks and relieve the work burden off of ground controllers. The aim is to launch the rocket from the equivalent of a couple of desktop computers, rather than large mainframes, and to cut costs.

"You may doubt that artificial intelligence can be used in a rocket, but nowadays a self-inspection function is something commonly seen in machinery," stated Yasuhiro Morita, Epsilon's launch vehicle project manager. "Another example is a medical device such as the electrocardiograph, which uses artificial intelligence to diagnose heart abnormalities."

Additional resource

SKY IN GAMMA-RAYS The HAWC Has Landed — Observatory Maps the High Energy Sky

The HAWC Has Landed — Observatory Maps the High Energy Sky:

"A view of two-thirds of the entire sky with very high-energy gamma-rays observed by HAWC during 340 days of data taking between November 2014 and November 2015. Clearly visible are many sources in the Milky Way and the extragalactic objects Markarian 421 and 501. Several well-known constellations are shown as a reference."

Credit: HAWC collaboration


In a remote section of desert in southern Mexico, on the slopes of the dormant Sierra Negra volcano, lies a collection of 300 steel tanks, each the size of a small house. Together, they take up an area that's a little less than four football fields. In the otherwise uninhabited area, the glistening metal structures look like a futuristic city tried to take root there.

These metal tanks make up the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-Ray Observatory, or HAWC for short, which is being used to map the sky in high-energy gamma-rays. The new map reveals a cosmic landscape that resembles the isolated desert where HAWC's detectors make their home, sparsely littered with sources of light.

The release of HAWC's first complete sky map last month effectively signified that HAWC is now a participating member of the observing community, and has already begun to perform one of its primary functions: alerting other telescopes when strange and sporadic bursts of gamma-rays appear in the sky. [Gamma-Ray Universe: Photos by NASA's Fermi Space Telescope]

Cosmic treasure maps

Water tanks for the HAWC detector with Picode Orizaba in the background.

Credit: Zig Hampel-Arias, HAWC/WIPAC


Earthlings who look up at the night sky see a background of blackness littered with millions of points of light, and the hazy band of the Milky Way.

HAWC's view of the sky is decidedly different. The map released by the collaboration in April shows a sky that is mostly dark; there are only about 40 distinct sources of light, and most of those line up along the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, which looks bright in any wavelength, simply because of its proximity to the Earth.

The longer HAWC observes the sky, the more sources it will discover, but a high-energy, gamma-ray map of the sky will never look quite like the cosmic skyline that human eyes see. Compared to the number of stars that radiate visible light, there just aren't very many cosmic objects that emit the high-energy gamma-rays that HAWC detects.

But quantity isn't everything. The view of the sky in high-energy gamma-rays is part of the cosmic puzzle, and without it, humanity's view of the cosmos is incomplete.

Consider the different types of maps that can be made of a single city: there are those that show the location of roads, buildings, rivers and lakes; but there are also topological maps that show the rise and fall of the land, or geological maps that reveal the materials buried under the ground. Maps that show gas and power lines are essential for construction projects — even though they don't help people find their way to the grocery store. Different maps can show the same location in a different light.

Maps of the universe show the same location in, literally, different kinds of light — there are telescopes and observatories that have mapped the sky in just about every wavelength of light: radio, infrared, optical, microwave, X-ray and gamma-ray HAWC is not the first).

HAWC's map covers two-thirds of the night sky. (Because it is located on the ground, and not in space, part of its view is blocked by the Earth.) No other observatory has ever mapped such a large section of the sky in such high-energy gamma-rays, and over such a long period of time (which lets HAWC pick up fainter sources), said Brenda Dingus, the principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Energy for HAWC. Comparing the locations in HAWC's map with those same locations on maps of other wavelengths can reveal more about the objects that lurk there, and the processes going on there. These multiwavelength investigations can solve mysteries or create new ones.

Cosmic accelerators

This view shows the entire sky in gamma-rays, based on five years of data from the LAT instrument on NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Brighter colors indicate brighter gamma-ray sources.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration


Stars and most other objects in the universe radiate energy because they are hot, Dingus told Space.com. That thermal energy is responsible for most of the illumination in the universe. But gamma-rays don't form so easily.

"You can't just get something hot and make gamma-rays," Dingus said. "You actually have to have a particle accelerator."

One such cosmic accelerator is a supernova — a massive star that runs out of fuel, collapses under its own weight and explodes. As the stellar mass collapses, the in-falling material can bounce off the star's core, creating a shockwave that slams through nearby dust clouds like a wrecking ball. The dust particles get kicked so hard they spit out gamma-rays. While the initial explosion releases visible light and other wavelengths for a few days, the gamma-rays from the shockwave remain visible for centuries, allowing long-term study of the remains of the supernova. [Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]

When a gamma-ray from a distant source collides with a particle in the Earth's atmosphere, it's like a particle piñata got cracked open: the energy from the collision creates a shower of new particles (including more gamma-rays). Those 300 massive steel tanks that make up the HAWC observatory don't look like most instruments that observe the cosmos; they bear no resemblance to a telescope. The tanks are full of purified water, and when those showers of particles speed through the H2O, they generate more light, which is picked up by detectors. Working backward, scientists can trace the path of the original particle.

HAWC isn't the only telescope that uses this approach to capture gamma-rays, but it is currently the only detector of this type surveying such a large portion of the sky. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope also surveys the sky in gamma-rays (using a different method), but the highest-energy light it collects is fifty times weaker than HAWC's maximum, and HAWC covers an energy range that's over 65 times larger than what Fermi covers.

Despite such a broad reach, HAWC's map effectively reveals a cosmic desert. Maps in other wavelengths — even the lower-energy gamma-ray maps from Fermi — are lush with light sources and diffuse glow. By comparison, the creators of these powerful gamma-rays sparsely populate the cosmic landscape. But quantity isn't everything.

New discoveries

This full-sky map from the Planck mission shows matter between Earth and the edge of the observable universe. Each sky map of the universe can reveal different information about the same area. Image released March 21, 2013.

Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech


Of the 40 high-energy gamma-ray sources seen in the HAWC map, about 25 percent have not been seen before in this wavelength range, said Michelle Hui, a researcher at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and a member of the HAWC collaboration. Hui spoke about the new HAWC map at The American Physical Society April Meeting, held this year in Salt Lake City. The meeting brings together scientists from the field of astrophysics, as well as from particle and nuclear physics, to discuss current trends and new results.

It's likely that some of the sources in the new HAWC map are associated with pulsars, another example of a cosmic particle accelerator, Hui said. Pulsars are the dense cores of material that are often left behind after a star explodes, and their incredibly strong magnetic fields and fierce spinning (up to hundreds of times per second) sometimes generate gamma-rays.

Many pulsars also emit radio waves — the least energetic form of light — all the way at the other end of the spectrum from gamma-rays. So HAWC scientists can consult a radio map of the sky, and see if their gamma-ray sources line up with a known pulsar.

"That will be our next step … to correlate with the other wavelengths to see exactly what is generating these high-energy photons," Hui said.

One of the most interesting revelations in the new map is a region nicknamed "the executioner," which has previously been spotted by other gamma-ray telescopes, Hui said. HAWC's map revealed that there might be three di

stinct sources in this bright spot, which could mean the discovery of a brand-new gamma-ray emitter. [NASA's Top 10 Gamma-Ray Sources in the Universe]

Alert!

The universe seen in infrared light, captured by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA


On April 6, 10 days before the start of the APS meeting, HAWC saw a known gamma-ray source rapidly brighten for about one day, and then nearly disappear again. The team sent out an astronomer's telegram, which is a community-wide alert that lets other telescope observatories know if a bright flash of light appears, or if something else strange is happening. The HAWC scientists still don't know what's causing the flare-up.

This is one of the primary roles that HAWC would like to serve, Dingus said — to be an alert system to let other telescopes know when an object releases a short-lived burst of gamma-rays. The Fermi telescope also performed this function in lower energies.

"We have other [observatories] that also look at this source daily … with the Fermi gamma-ray satellite in lower-energy gamma-rays, down to X-rays," Robert Lauer, a research assistant professor in physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico and a member of the HAWC collaboration, said at the press conference. "And then we can compare all these measurements and see if we see the same type of fluctuation and learn much more about the processes and the source."

"You get a whole lot of new information by studying variability," Dingus told Space.com. "If you look at something and it stays the same all the time, you can make a theory about it. But then if it actually changes, that adds a lot more constraints to your theory."

Outside the room where the three scientists discussed these findings, another 20 HAWC members showed up just to cheer on their colleagues. The hallway buzzed with excitement — it felt more like a red carpet debut than a scientific announcement. But the release of the map is a major milestone for the experiment.

"This is our announcement that we work, and we work as advertised," Dingus told Space.com at the APS April Meeting. "This is the first map with the full detector. And it promises that the next five years are going to be really exciting."

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

BLUE MOON - 'Blue Moon' Rises Saturday — But It Won't Be Blue: A Full Moon History

'Blue Moon' Rises Saturday — But It Won't Be Blue: A Full Moon History:

The "blue moon" full moon of July 31, 2015 rises behind the dome the U.S. Capitol in this image from NASA photographer Bill Ingalls. The May 21, 2016 full moon is the fourth full moon in spring, which is also known as a "blue moon."

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls


This weekend, a full moon will rise in the night sky, a so-called "Blue Moon."

Typically, a Blue Moon is defined as the second full moon that occurs during a calendar month, but the full moon this Saturday (May 21) will be the only full moon of May 2016. So, how can it be called a Blue Moon?

The explanation points back to a somewhat obscure rule. In fact, the current rule of two full moons in one month has superseded the rule that would allow this month's full moon to be called "blue." [Video: What's a Blue Moon — Is It REALLY Blue?]

If you're confused, don't worry. Here's the rest of the story. 

Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com

The almanac rule

In a question-and-answer column from the July 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, writer Lawrence J. Lafleur referenced the term "Blue Moon." Lafleur cited the unusual term from a copy of the 1937 edition of the now-defunct "Maine Farmers' Almanac" (not to be confused with the "Farmers' Almanac," which is still published in Lewiston, Maine).

On the page for August 1937, the "Maine Farmer's Almanac" gives the calendrical meaning for the term "Blue Moon." [Blue Moon Photos of 2015: Amazing Full Moon Views]

That explanation said that the moon "usually comes full 12 times in a year, three times for each season." Occasionally, however, there will come a year when there are 13 full moons during a year, not the usual 12.

The almanac explanation continued: "This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, especially by the monks who had charge of the calendar of thirteen months for that year, and it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. For this reason, thirteen came to be considered an unlucky number."

And that extra full moon also meant that one of the four seasons would contain four full moons instead of the usual three.

"There are seven Blue Moons in a lunar cycle of 19 years," the almanac said, ending on the comment that, "In olden times, the almanac makers had much difficulty calculating the occurrence of the Blue Moon, and this uncertainty gave rise to the expression 'once in a Blue Moon.'"

An unfortunate oversight

While LaFleur correctly quoted the almanac's account, he made one important omission: He never specified any date for the Blue Moon.And as it turned out, in 1937, the Blue Moon occurred on Aug. 21. This was the third full moon in the summer of 1937, a summer season that would see a total of four full moons.

Names were assigned to each full moon in a season. For example, the first moon of summer was called the early summer moon, the second was the midsummer moon, and the last was called the late summer moon. But when a particular season has four moons, the third was apparently dubbed a "Blue Moon," so that the fourth and final one can continue to be called the late moon.

So where did the two-full-moons-in-a-month rule that is so popular today come from?

Pruett's mistake

Once again, the answer hails from the pages of Sky & Telescope magazine. This time, on Page 3 of the March 1946 issue, James Hugh Pruett wrote an article titled "Once in a Blue Moon." Here, he used the term "Blue Moon" and referenced LaFleur's article from July 1943. But because Pruett had no specific dates to fall back on, his interpretation of the ruling given by the "Maine Farmers' Almanac" was highly subjective.

Pruett ultimately came to the following conclusion: "Seven times in 19 years there were — and still are — 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon."

It's unfortunate that Pruett did not have a copy of that 1937 almanac at hand, or else he almost certainly would have noticed that his two-full-moons-in-a-single-month assumption was wrong. That's because the Blue Moon date of Aug. 21 was notthe second full moon that month. [Moon Master: An Easy Quiz for Lunatics] 

Going viral

Pruett's 1946 explanation was, of course, wrong, and it might have been completely forgotten were it not for science journalist Deborah Byrd. She cited Pruett's interpretation on the Jan. 31, 1980, episode of her popular National Public Radio program "StarDate." It could be said that in the aftermath of her radio show, the incorrect Blue Moon rule "went viral."

Over the next decade, this new Blue Moon definition appeared in such diverse places such as the kids' edition of "The World Almanac" and the board game "Trivial Pursuit."

I must confess that even I helped perpetuate the new Blue Moon phenomenon. Nearly 34 years ago, in the Dec. 1, 1982, edition of The New York Times, I made reference to the erroneous Blue Moon explanation in the "New York Day by Day" column.

And by 1988, the new definition had started receiving international press coverage.

Today, Pruett's misinterpreted two-full-moons-in-a-month rule is recognized worldwide. Indeed, Sky & Telescope turned a literary lemon into lemonade, proclaiming later that the magazine had, however unintentionally, changed pop culture and the English language in unexpected ways.

Meanwhile, the original "Maine Farmers' Almanac" rule has been all but forgotten.

For most of human history, the moon was largely a mystery. It spawned awe and fear and to this day is the source of myth and legend. But today we know a lot about our favorite natural satellite. Do you?

0 of 10 questions complete

Moon Master: An Easy Quiz for Lunatics

For most of human history, the moon was largely a mystery. It spawned awe and fear and to this day is the source of myth and legend. But today we know a lot about our favorite natural satellite. Do you?

0 of questions complete

Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com

Playing by the (old) rules

Now, let's come back to this month's full moon.

Under the "old" almanac rule, this Saturday's moon would be a Blue Moon.

In spring 2016, there are four full moons, occurring on March 23, April 22, May 21 and June 20.

June 20, 2016, is the first day of summer if you live north of the equator, but south of the equator, that date is the first day of winter. In 2016, the summer solstice comes at 2234 GMT or 6:34 p.m. EDT on June 20. But the moon turns full at 1103 GMT or 7:03 a.m. EDT. That's 11 hours and 31 minutes before the solstice occurs. So the June 20 full moon occurs during the waning hours of spring and qualifies as the fourth full moon of the season.

This means that under the original "Maine Almanac" rule — the one promoted by Lafleur and later misinterpreted by Pruett — the third full moon of the 2016 spring season on May 21 would be a Blue Moon.

Final thoughts

So which Blue Moon definition tickles your fancy? Is it the second full moon in a calendar month or (as is the case on Saturday) the third full moon in a season with four? Maybe it's both. The final decision is solely up to you.

Saturday's full moon will look no different than any other full moon — it won't likely be blue. But the moon cantake on such a color in certain conditions. After forest fires or volcanic eruptions, Earth's satellite can appear to take on a bluish or even lavender hue. Soot and ash particles, deposited high in the Earth's atmosphere, can sometimes make the moon appear bluish.

For instance, in the aftermath of the massive eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in June 1991, there were reports of a blue-colored moon (and even a blue sun) worldwide. .

If bad weather ruins your "Blue Moon" experience this weekend, don't worry. The online Slooh Community Observatory will offer a free live webcast of the May full moon beginning at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT). You can follow the Slooh webcast at Slooh.com.

You can also watch the Blue Moon webcast on Space.com here, courtesy of Slooh.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of May's Blue Moon full moon and would like to share with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us@Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

GALAXY - Spring Skywatching: The Top 5 Objects to See

Spring Skywatching: The Top 5 Objects to See:

This spectacular image of the Omega Centauri cluster was captured by the VLT Survey Telescope at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Credit: ESO/INAF-VST/OmegaCAM. Acknowledgement: A. Grado/INAF-Capodimonte Observatory


We're now more than halfway through spring. If you head outside during the evening hours and look skyward, you'll notice that the spring night sky is not as dazzling as the winter sky. Indeed, the brilliant stars associated with Orion and his retinue are all but gone, having disappeared into the sunset fires, not to reappear again until the predawn hours of mid-August.

Summertime will bring a brighter firmament compared to spring, with the most spectacular parts of the Milky Way in view. In contrast, at this time of the year, the Milky Way is all but invisible as it runs all around the horizon — and is usually hidden in the haze that lies close to the horizon.

Still, there are a few things that are worth looking for with binoculars or small telescopes in the spring. With the bright moon shifting out of the evening sky during this upcoming week, here is my subjective list of five objects that you might want to look for in the night sky. [Jupiter, Virgo Cluster and More: May 2016 Skywatching Video]

The Beehive, or Praesepe — The late Walter Scott Houston, who spent much of his life observing deep-sky objects, once wrote that this beautiful open star cluster is "symbolic of spring."

The Beehive lies within the dim constellation of Cancer (The Crab), which currently is located about one-third of the way up above the western horizon as darkness falls. Cancer, which is located between the stars Pollux and Castor in Gemini (The Twins) and the Sickle of Leo, is the least conspicuous of the 12 zodiacal constellations; some call Cancer the "empty space in the sky." Aside from being in the Zodiac, The Crab is probably only noteworthy because it contains one of the brightest galactic star clusters in the sky.

This cluster appears to the eye as a fuzzy patch of light, although, under exceptionally clear and dark skies, those with better-than-average vision can almost resolve the cluster using just their eyes. Binoculars will reveal the cluster's stellar nature. In fact, through good binoculars and low-power telescopes, this cluster appears brilliant, with no sharp boundaries.

But what to call it? Some astronomy texts speak of Praesepe (The Manger), referring to a trough in which feed for donkeys or other livestock is placed. The cluster was apparently first called Praesepe 20 centuries ago. Indeed, two nearby stars, Gamma and Delta Cancri, are also known as Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis, the northern and southern donkey colts, and they appear to be feeding from a manger. Using his crude telescope in 1610, Galileo Galilei first resolved Praesepe into 36 stars. Using binoculars or a small telescope, observers can see more than 100 stars, and they seem to be spread out over an area that's about three times the apparent diameter of the moon. [Best Night Sky Events of May 2016 (Stargazing Maps)]

The cluster's relatively new moniker — "The Beehive" — apparently first appeared almost four centuries ago, perhaps when some anonymous person, upon seeing so many stars revealed in one of the first crude telescopes, exclaimed: "It looks just like a swarm of bees!"

Coma Berenices — Nearly overhead at around 10 p.m. local daylight time is the constellation that owes its name to a theft: Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair). According to the story, Berenice was an Egyptian Queen in the third century B.C. who said that she would cut off her beautiful blonde hair if the gods would bring her husband home safely from a war.

After her husband returned, Berenice kept her word, cut off her hair and placed it in a temple. But the hair was stolen and the queen was very upset, until local priests managed to convince her that Zeus had taken her golden locks and placed them in the sky as a constellation to honor her sacrifice.

The Greek astronomer and mathematician Eratosthenes was among the first to notice this faint group of stars, which is a large, loose galactic cluster some 250 light-years away that appears as a faint shimmering patch of light on clear, moonless nights. In many ways, Coma Berenices seems to resemble a larger and more spread-out version of the famous Pleiades star cluster, which is also known as The Seven Sisters.

As a cluster, Coma Berenices is by far at its best in a pair of good binoculars. If you attempt to observe it with a high-powered telescope, the impression of a cluster will become totally lost because of the telescope's narrower field of view.

Algieba (The Lion's Mane) is in the curve or the blade of the Sickle of Leo, halfway up in the west-southwest sky at nightfall, and appears as a single star to the naked eye. However, as a moderate-size telescope (4 to 6 inches; 100- to 150-power magnification) will clearly show, Algieba is actually one of the most beautiful double stars in the sky.

The Lion's Mane should really be observed in twilight or bright moonlight to reveal the contrasting colors; one star has been said to be greenish, the other a delicate yellow. Other observers, however, have described different hues, such as pale yellow; orange; reddish and golden yellow; and even pale red and white! Check it out for yourself: What colors do you see?

Messier 3 — This is a beautiful and bright globular cluster, thought by many to be one of the most splendid in the sky. Messier 3 is located roughly midway between the brilliant orange star Arcturus and the third-magnitude star Cor Caroli in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs) and is currently soaring high in the south at around 10 p.m. local daylight time.

The cluster was first seen by Charles Messier in 1764 and was listed as No. 3 ("M3") in his famous catalog of deep-sky objects. In a good pair of binoculars, M3 looks like a fuzzy sixth-magnitude star. But with a small telescope, it appears as a circular, nebulous object. The outer parts can be resolved into stars with a 4-inch (10 centimeters) telescope. Larger instruments will bring out the cluster's full glory: An 8-inch (20 cm) telescope at 200 to 300 power reveals a beautiful ball of countless tiny stars, with streams of stars seemingly running out from all sides. The 19th-century British astronomer William H. Smyth wrote: "A noble object . . . it blazes splendidly toward the center, with many outliers." Perhaps 40,000 light-years away, the cluster's diameter is estimated to be 220 light-years.

Omega Centauri — In the southern constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), we have the brightest and most splendid globular star cluster in the entire sky. Shining at a moderately dim magnitude +4, Omega Centauri is easy to glimpse with the naked eye under good sky conditions. It has, in fact, been known since ancient times (albeit as a star), and it appeared in the star catalog of Ptolemy more than 18 centuries ago. The cluster even received the Greek letter designation of Omega from German astronomer Johann Bayer, who lived from 1572 until 1625.

Though they look serene and silent from our vantage on Earth, stars are actually roiling balls of violent plasma. Test your stellar smarts with this quiz.

0 of 10 questions complete

Star Quiz: Test Your Stellar Smarts

Though they look serene and silent from our vantage on Earth, stars are actually roiling balls of violent plasma. Test your stellar smarts with this quiz.

0 of questions complete

Edmond Halley (of comet fame) called Omega a nebula in 1677, but it was not until 1835 that its true glory as a cluster was revealed by the 18.25-inch (46.4 cm) telescope that Sir John Herschel took to South Africa to survey the southern skies. Of Omega, Herschel wrote: "It is beyond all comparison the richest and largest object of its kind in the heavens; the stars are literally innumerable." Omega Centauri is about 17,000 light-years away and probably contains more than 1 million stars. It has an apparent diameter equal to the moon — 0.5 degrees — but only appears about half as large as that to the unaided eye.

In 1986, I saw Omega from Easter Island and the Andes of Chile. I brought with me a homemade 3.1-inch (7.9 cm) refracting telescope, and my views through that small instrument rivaledthe views I had of the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules through a much larger (12-inch, or 30-cm) telescope. What a pity that it's positioned so far south! If Omega were visible from farther north, it would be as popular and well known a sky object as the Great Orion Nebula and the Great Andromeda Galaxy. [See amazing photos of the Andromeda galaxy]

This week this splendid object is almost due south at 10 p.m. local daylight time. Theoretically, Omega Centauri can be seen from places as far north as New York or Philadelphia. But I can offer no encouragement to those residents of the Big Apple or City of Brotherly Love, because even if all of their streetlights were somehow to be extinguished and a fresh, clean Canadian air mass were to position itself directly over the Northeastern U.S., the thick haze that is perpetually evident along and near the horizon almost always hides Omega. Furthermore, even if one were to somehow get it in view through a telescope, the cluster would be robbed of its full glory.

To see this globular cluster properly, one should be no farther north than about 35 degrees north latitude, although a far better view can be obtained from the tropics, and especially near, or south of, the equator.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you'd like to share with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

METEOR - Fireball! Brilliant Meteor Streaks Over Northeastern US (Video)

Fireball! Brilliant Meteor Streaks Over Northeastern US (Video):

A huge fireball lit up the night sky over the northeastern United States Tuesday (May 17), sparking hundreds of reports by skywatchers lucky enough to have witnessed the dazzling meteor event. And if you want to go meteorite hunting, there may be a rich reward if you find a piece of the object.

Views of the fireball, including these awesome videos from police car dashcams in Maine and New York, show a brilliant streak across the late-night sky (it occured at 12:50 a.m. EDT, or 0450 GMT, on Tuesday). One particularly striking photo, included in this report, shows the fireball over the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was captured by a Portsmouthwebcam.com camera by Mike McCormack.

A dazzling fireball lights up the night sky over the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on May 17, 2016 in this stunning still image captured by a camera with Portsmouthwebcam.com and provided by Mike McCormack. The meteor was widely visible across the U.S. northeast and the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum is offering a reward for any meteorites from the event.

Credit: Mike McCormack portsmouthwebcam.com



According to the American Meteor Society (AMS), two separate objects entered the Earth's atmosphere. The AMS posted screenshots on its website showing the fireball streaking across the sky. The fireball was best visible in Maine, but nearly 700 reports also poured in from eight neighboring states and two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec).  [Related: 5 Amazing Fireballs Caught on Video]

"Fireball detected by @westernu meteor cameras last night. Probable meteorite fall," planetary astronomer Peter Brown of Western University wrote on Twitter; his institution is based in London, Ontario, in Canada. In an interview he conducted later with CBC News, Brown estimated the fireball to be between a basketball and a shopping cart in size.

Fireball detected by @westernu meteor cameras last night. Probable meteorite fall https://t.co/gGuKSr8ldb #meteor pic.twitter.com/vlQgTDxqgm

— Peter Brown (@pgbrown) May 17, 2016

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum of Bethel, Maine, offered $20,000 to anyone who can find the first chunk of the meteorite that weighs at least a kilogram (2.2 lbs.). That meteorite, once confirmed, will be put on display in the museum's Meteorite Hall.

"It's clear that the meteoroid entered Earth's atmosphere over Maine and its terminal explosion occurred about 30 kilometers [18.6 miles] west of Rangeley, Maine, in Franklin County," the museum wrote in the press release.

"This is an exciting opportunity, and we need the public's help," Museum Director Barbra Barrett said in the statement. Coincidentally, the museum is working on implementing a statewide network of cameras to capture fireballs and better pin down their locations. The network will be ready in 2017, the museum said.

This still image from a Plattsburgh Police Department car dashboard camera video shows the brilliant fireball over Plattsburgh, New York on May 17, 2016. The fireball was visible across the northeastern U.S. and parts of eastern Canada.

Credit: Plattsburgh Police Department


Fireballs occur when small objects (such as space rocks) break up high in the Earth's atmosphere. In this case, the fireball was too small to pose a threat to people or property. A much larger object caused broken glass and injuries after crashing down in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013.

A meteor is a small space rock that streaks through Earth's atmosphere as a dazzling fireball. Meteoroids are small objects in space, while any pieces that reach the Earth are called meteorites.

Most meteors burn up before reaching the ground. Periodically, the Earth goes through a dust cloud left behind by a comet, which produces a series of meteors known as a meteor shower.

Editor's note: If you captured an awesome photo of Tuesday's meteor and would like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a story or gallery, send images and comments in to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at: spacephotos@space.com. If you believe you have found a piece of a meteorite from the fireball, you can contact the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum at (207) 824-3036 or bbarrett@mainemineralmuseum.org.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

BLUE MOON - What Is a Blue Moon?

What Is a Blue Moon?:

Night sky watcher Tomsajinsa sent in this photo of the blue moon taken in NYC, August 31, 2012.

Credit: Tomsajinsa


A Blue Moon is a fairly infrequent phenomenon involving the appearance of an additional full moon within a given time period. But which time period — there are two definitions of the term, and one was borne out of a misunderstanding of the other.

The older meaning defines a Blue Moon as the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. This kind of Blue Moon occurs about every 2.7 years. Why the third moon? Seasons normally have three full moons, and some of them, for traditional and religious reasons, must occur at specific times of the year. So, the "Moon Before Yule" is always the one before Christmas.

The other meaning is that a Blue Moon is the second full moon within a single calendar month. This definition has gained popularity in recent years because of a misinterpretation of an almanac's original definition.

Which one is correct? Well, since language and the meaning of words constantly evolve — take your pick. Both are commonly used today.

By the newer definition, there is a Blue Moon on Saturday, May 21, 2016. The online Slooh Community Observatory will offer a free live webcast of the May full moon beginning at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT). You can follow the Slooh webcast at Slooh.com. You can also watch the Blue Moon webcast on Space.com here, courtesy of Slooh.

By the way, Blue Moons are not typically blue in color — that happens only, well, once in a blue moon, but there is the possibility for a hint of blue in any full moon (more on this below).

Origin of the term

The phrase "once in a blue moon" has been around for more than 400 years, according to Philip Hiscock, a folklorist at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. In a 2012 article in Sky & Telescope magazine, he explained that the earliest use of term was much like saying the moon is made of green cheese — it indicated something absurd. "He would argue that the moon is blue" was similar to saying, "He would argue that black is white."

The meaning evolved to something akin to "never," according to Hiscock. "I'll marry you when the moon turns blue" became the equivalent of "I'll marry you when pigs fly."

But, never say never. It turns out that the moon can appear bluish, as it did in 1883 after the volcano Krakatoa erupted. Dust in the air acted as a filter, causing sunsets and the moon to turn green and blue all over the world. Other events such as forest fires and dust storms can cause the moon to turn blue.

So, the meaning of "once in a blue moon" changed from "never" to "rarely," according to Hiscock.

When does a Blue Moon occur?

Now we get to the contradictory definitions of "Blue Moon."

The calendrical meaning for the term "Blue Moon" has been traced back to the now-defunct Maine Farmer's Almanac as far back as the mid-1800s. On the page for August 1937, the almanac explained that the moon "usually comes full 12 times in a year, three times for each season. Occasionally, however, there will come a year when there are 13 full moons during a year, not the usual 12. And that extra full moon also meant that one of the four seasons would contain four full moons instead of the usual three."

The almanac followed certain rules for what to call each moon. For example, the last full moon of winter had to fall during Lent; it was called the Lenten Moon. The first full moon of spring was called the Egg Moon — or Easter Moon, or Paschal Moon — and had to fall within the week before Easter. There was also the Moon Before Yule and the Moon After Yule.

So when a particular season had four moons, the third was dubbed a "Blue Moon," so that the other full moons could occur at the proper times relative to the solstices and equinoxes.

Second definition

But what about the definition that many people have heard — that a Blue Moon is the second full month in a single month? That came from a misinterpretation of the original definition.

In the Sky & Telescope article, Hiscock helped figure out where this meaning came from. He explained that in a question-and-answer column from the July 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope, writer Lawrence J. Lafleur referenced the Maine Farmer's Almanac definition. LaFleur correctly quoted the almanac's account, but he made one important omission: He never specified any dates for the Blue Moon.

In 1946, James Hugh Pruett, an amateur astronomer, was writing in Sky & Telescope magazine and repeated some of LaFleur's comments. Pruett made an incorrect assumption about how the term had been used in the almanac, according to Hiscock. Pruett wrote, "Seven times in 19 years there were — and still are — 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon." Hiscock explained that Pruett must not have had the 1937 almanac handy, or he would have noticed that the Blue Moon fell on August 21st (obviously not the second full moon that month) and that 1937 had only 12 full moons.

Sky & Telescope adopted Pruett's new definition, and the column was used as a source for a nationally syndicated radio program in 1980, which, according to Hiscock, is when this definition gained widespread use.

Today, either definition of "Blue Moon" is considered valid. As Texas astronomer Donald W. Olson wrote in a 2006 column for the magazine, "With two decades of popular usage behind it, the second-full-moon-in-a-month (mis)interpretation is like a genie that can't be forced back into its bottle. But that's not necessarily a bad thing."

Additional resources

ASTRONOMY - Discover the Treasures of Hercules with Mobile Astronomy Apps

Discover the Treasures of Hercules with Mobile Astronomy Apps:

The spring and summer constellation of Hercules is easily located between the bright stars Vega and Arcturus, immediately south of the northerly constellation of Draco the Dragon. The area of sky above the plane of the Milky Way contains a number of globular clusters.

Credit: SkySafari for Android and iOS


At the end of May, the summer constellations are moving into view for evening stargazers. In this edition of mobile astronomy, we'll showcase one of my favorites — mighty Hercules!

This easily recognizable constellation features interesting folklore, some lovely double stars within reach of backyard telescopes and one of the deep sky's best showpieces for amateur astronomers. Your favorite astronomy app can help you find the treasures within Hercules and tell you all about them.

Getting oriented

Hercules doesn't contain any very bright stars, but you can use your sky-charting app to find it very easily. As the sky darkens in late May, look low in the eastern sky for a very bright blue-white star. That's Vega, the brightest star in the small constellation of Lyra. Higher, and to the south, is another prominent star: orange Arcturus. Between these two stellar signposts is the realm of mighty Hercules. [Stunning Photos of Our Milky Way Galaxy (Gallery)]

The spring and summer constellation of Hercules is easily located between the bright stars Vega and Arcturus, immediately south of the northerly constellation of Draco the Dragon. The area of sky above the plane of the Milky Way contains a number of globular clusters.

Credit: SkySafari for Android and iOS


Hercules' body is defined by a very distinctive keystone-shaped quartet of modestly bright stars. The keystone is about 6 degrees across (a palm's width), with the wide end to the north and the narrow end to the south. The hero of mythology is upside down for Northern Hemisphere observers. His sharply bent legs extend northward, and his two arms are outstretched to the southeast and southwest. The star marking his left hand (to the lower left) combines with four others to form a loose chain of five stars running left to right, each separated by a couple of finger widths. In classical drawings, Hercules is grasping the three-headed dog Cerberus, which he was tasked with capturing as one of his 12 labors.

Hercules is the fifth-largest constellation as measured by area, and was one of the original 48 constellations tabulated in the "Almagest," an early astronomy treatise produced in ancient Greece by Ptolemy. The early Greeks depicted Hercules with his legs bent — "The Kneeler" praying to his father, Zeus, to aid him in an upcoming battle. Below his feet, to the north, are the stars of Draco the Dragon, ready to be crushed underfoot. To the southwest is the little circle of stars that form the constellation of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.

Hercules and its treasures will be in the night sky from now until early autumn. Let's take a look at some of the best objects within the constellation.

For Northern Hemisphere observers, Hercules is inverted. In this reoriented original plate from Johann Bayer's 1603 "Uranometria Sky Atlas," Hercules is shown with bent legs, a raised club and flowers. In Johannes Hevelius' "Firmamentum Sobiescianum" star atlas of 1690, he's holding the three heads of Cerberus.

Credit: SkySafari for Android and iOS

Seeing stars in Hercules

Hercules contains quite a few double and binary stars within reach ofthat can be viewed with a backyard telescope. One of the nicest is modest Rasalgethi, or Ras Algethi ("Head of the Kneeler"), which sits about 16 degrees to the southwest (lower right) of the bottommost corner of the keystone. In a small telescope, this star easily splits into a lovely pair of orange and greenish stars. The slightly brighter one is a red-giant-class star that varies in brightness randomly over months to years. The partner is a yellow, sun-like star that is itself a binary star too tightly spaced to resolve. The stars are about 360 light-years away and are orbiting one another witha period of 3,600 years. This double star, like many others, was given a single name centuries before telescopes revealed that there was more than one star there.

The brightest star in Hercules, Kornephoros ("the club bearer"), sits just below Corona Borealis. Only 3 degrees (about two finger widths) to its right is the double star Gamma (γ) Herculis. This is another pair that easily splits into two yellow stars in a modest telescope. But this double is an optical illusion; the fainter star is actually much closer to us! [Jupiter, Virgo Cluster and More: May 2016 Skywatching Video]

Marsic ("the Elbow"), or Kappa (κ) Herculis, is another "line of sight" double star that's easy to spot in a small telescope. It's not far from Gamma Herculis. I'll leave it to you to track it down using your sky-charting app.

Only a few stars of Hercules were prominent enough for proper names. The others bear the Greek letter designations of Bayer's system. Deep-sky objects are represented by symbols. On your app, tap a symbol to call up details about that object.

Credit: SkySafari for Android and iOS

Globular Cluster Messier 13

Hercules contains one of my favorite objects, a globular cluster known as the Great Hercules Cluster or Messier 13 (M13). This object is a tightly packed ball of about 300,000 old stars. At magnitude 5.9, it is visible with unaided eyes under dark skies as a faint smudge, but reveals much more under magnification. M13 is located along the western (right) edge of the keystone, about one-third of the way from the wide end. Midway between Hercules' knees, there is another, smaller globular cluster called Messier 92. This one is also readily visible in binoculars. A third, fainter globular cluster, designated NGC 6229, is 6.5 degrees, or a palm's width, above M92.

Globular clusters are one of the most interesting classes of objects for amateur astronomers. These spherical concentrations of old, densely packed stars orbit in the region just outside our Milky Way galaxy, and we've observed many of them around other galaxies, including the Andromeda Galaxy. In a telescope under dark skies, they will appear similar to a pile of salt poured onto black velvet, with a dense, white center surrounded by a sprinkling of outlying stars. Each one looks different, varying in the scattering of stars. Photographs reveal that these objects contain a mixture of reddish, blue and yellow stars in different proportions.

The Great Hercules Globular Cluster was first observed by British astronomer Edmond Halley in 1714 and was later included as No. 13 in Charles Messier's famous list of noncometary objects. The cluster is relatively close, at 21,500 light-years away, making it a bright magnitude 5.8, and it actually covers an area of sky 20 arc-minutes across. That's about two-thirds of the moon's diameter! [The Moon: 10 Surprising Lunar Facts]

More than 150 of these clusters have been mapped around our galaxy. They are so densely packed that the stars in their interiors are extremely close together, stirring the imagination of those contemplating extraterrestrial intelligent life. Advanced civilizations around stars deep in a globular cluster would be able to exchange radio messages on timescales of weeks or months — and travel between adjacent solar systems would not require the decades or centuries we would need to visit our nearest neighbors. In fact, M13 was also one of the first targets for potential contact with other civilizations, when a radio message was beamed there from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974.

Your astronomy app lists these objects under the Deep Sky category. In the SkySafariand Stellariumapps, they are displayed using a crosshatched circle. In Star Walk 2,they are rendered as fuzzy patches. (All three apps are available for iOS and Android.) Ensure that your app has the deep-sky object display enabled as you tour around the night sky all summer, especially from more remote locations.

Depending on your app, you may need to enlarge the constellation for the symbols to appear. SkySafari has an option to show objects even in wide fields. As the Milky Way climbs overhead in the summer months, many globular clusters are distributed on both sides of it. How many can you spot?

The great Globular Cluster of Hercules, also known as Messier 13 (or M13), is a large and bright spherical cluster of old stars that is readily seen with unaided eyes away from city lights. A telescope reveals the salt-spilled-on-velvet appearance.

Credit: Wikipedia

Going beyond

The figures that constellations depict are unique to our vantage point on Earth. Each star lies at a different distance from the sun, and if we could travel to another star, the shape of the constellations would change.

You can try this for yourself. In the SkySafari app, search for Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. Tap the Orbit icon, and the app will fly you there. Once there, you can use the search option to find Hercules and center it. The shape will become quite a bit different! A tap on the Globe icon flies you home again, but while you're out there, try looking at some other familiar constellations. Some will be completely unrecognizable. The Star Walk 2 app allows you to select a constellation and rotate it in 3D. You may have to purchase the additional content pack to use it.

The stars of Hercules host at least 15 known exoplanets, including TrES-4, whose mass is 1.7 times that of Jupiter and is one of the biggest alien worlds ever discovered. However, its calculated density is extremely low — about that of cork! This is one of the "hot Jupiter" class of exoplanets, with a surface temperature in excess of 2,750 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius). There a number of exoplanet apps for iOS and Android, including the free Exo Planets Explorer 3Dfor Android and Exoplanet for iOS.

In future editions of mobile astronomy, we'll look at photographing objects with your smartphone, some cool astronomy virtual-reality apps and hardware, how to use astronomy apps in the classroom, and more. Until then, keep looking up!

Editor's note: Chris Vaughan is an astronomy public outreach and education specialist, and operator of the historic 1.88-meter David Dunlap Observatory telescope. You can contact him by email, and follow him on Twitter @astrogeoguy, as well as Facebook and Tumblr.

This article was provided by Simulation Curriculum, the leader in space science curriculum solutions and the makers of the SkySafari app for Android and iOS. Follow SkySafari on Twitter @SkySafariAstro. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

ALIENS - Alien Megastructure? Kickstarter Campaign Launched to Study 'Tabby's Star'

Alien Megastructure? Kickstarter Campaign Launched to Study 'Tabby's Star':

Artist's illustration showing fragments of a shattered comet passing in front of a star, perhaps the best explanation for the mysterious dimming of "Tabby's Star."

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


The mystery of whether a darkening star is home to an alien megastructure might be solved with the aid of crowdfunding, researchers said.

Last fall, a star named KIC 8462852 made news when volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizen-science program uncovered something odd about the object's light. This discovery was made using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope (so far, Kepler has helped scientists find more than 2,200 alien planets.)

KIC 8462852 is an otherwise-ordinary F-type star, slightly larger and hotter than Earth's sun. It sits about 1,480 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus. However, astronomer Tabetha "Tabby" Boyajian of Yale University in Connecticut and her colleagues found dozens of strange instances of the star dimming by up to 22 percent. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life]

Since these events are far too substantial to be caused by planets crossing the star's face, researchers dubbed KIC 8462852 "the most mysterious star in our galaxy."

These analyses of the star — now nicknamed "Tabby's Star," or the WTF star for "Where's the Flux?" — raised the possibility that scientists had detected signs of intelligent alien life. Specifically, researchers have suggested that KIC 8462852 is home to a Dyson sphere, a hypothetical megastructure built around a star to capture as much of the sun's energy as possible. This energy would then be used to power an advanced civilization, it is proposed. (Science fiction often depicts Dyson spheres — which are named after mathematician and physicist Freeman Dyson — as solid shells around stars, but the structures could also be globular swarms of giant solar panels.)

There is still no widely accepted answer as to why Tabby's Star behaves so strangely. "Comets are currently the best natural explanation," Boyajian told Space.com. "That said, 'best' does not necessarily mean 'good.'"

Unfortunately, Kepler has moved on to a different mission and can no longer observe KIC 8462852 in an attempt to unlock the star's confounding secrets.

"It's exciting when you realize that you are working on something new and unusual, but also, at the same time, extremely frustrating," Boyajian said.

To keep working on the mystery of Tabby's Star, and hopefully ease some of that frustration, Boyajian and her colleagues are now turning to crowdfunding. They said they hope a Kickstarter campaign will help raise at least $100,000 by June 17 to secure observing time on a global network of ground-based telescopes. That way, researchers can see when the star's brightness dips again, the investigators said.

The scientists are currently observing Tabby's Star using the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT), a privately run network specifically designed to continuously monitor objects in space. Although this network does not have Kepler's precision, it will be sensitive enough to detect fluctuations in the star's brightness, researchers said.

So far, the network has gifted the researchers with 200 hours to begin the project, which will take them to the end of the summer. The new Kickstarter campaign may help cover the expenses of monitoring this star for a year, including a total of 2 hours per night dedicated to observing the star.

The scientists said they are turning to private observatories because government-run sites do not have the capabilities for the long-term, continuous monitoring this project needs. The traditional way to pay for private observatories is through a government grant, but the researchers said that more than five-sixths of grant applications for time on such facilities are turned down. And the proposals that do get accepted are usually relatively "safe" ones that promise certain and immediate returns, the researchers said; that's why the team is now turning to crowdfunding.

The researchers warned that patience will likely be needed, even if this project gets funded. When Kepler was observing KIC 8462852, after all, the star fluctuated in brightness only 5 percent of the time, and at unpredictable times.

Still, "this project is the ultimate opportunity to help discover something new," Boyajian said.

You can learn more about the Kickstarter campaign here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/608159144/the-most-mysterious-star-in-the-galaxy

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

SATURN PLANET - Saturn Dances with the Moon Sunday Night: How to See It

Saturn Dances with the Moon Sunday Night: How to See It:

Astrophotographer Andrew Kwon captured this photo of Saturn at opposition in May 2014 from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Credit: Andrew Kwon


While the celestial object of the moment is no doubt Mars, thanks to its closest approach to Earth in more than 10 years, on May 30, another planet will be attracting its own share of admirers in the coming weeks.

As summer kicks into gear, the top target of star parties and balmy outdoor astronomy gatherings will almost certainly be Saturn, the "Lord of the Rings."

Even seasoned veterans with many years of skywatching under their belts still experience a surge of excitement when they gaze at Saturn and its incredible system of rings; it's the most spectacular planet in the solar system. I always love showing Saturn to people, especially kids, who have never before seen it through a telescope. [Photos: The Rings and Moons of Saturn]

Talk about a "wow!" moment.

Saturn's famous rings are believed to be composed primarily of countless billions of icy particles that range from as large as boulders all the way down to tiny crystals.

Saturn will be visible near the moon in the southeastern sky late at night on Sunday, May 21, 2016. This Starry Night sky map shows how the moon and Saturn (as well as Mars) will look at 11 p.m. local time.

Credit: Starry Night Software

Summer favors Saturn

From now through 2023, Saturn will be at its best during the summertime.

And the planet's famous ring system has been "opening up" each year since the rings were turned edge-on to Earth in 2009; they'll continue to tip more and more toward Earth until they reach their maximum inclination late next year. But if you point your telescope toward Saturn even now, you will be rewarded with a truly gorgeous sight.

Saturn currently forms an eye-catching triangle with Mars and the ruddy, first-magnitude star Antares.  Interestingly, in a telescope, Saturn appears to be virtually the same size as Mars. But the surface of Saturn is much dimmer, because the ringed world is seven times farther away than the Red Planet.

Saturn is becoming more prominent as the date of its opposition to the sun, June 3, looms closer. (A planet is at opposition when it and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth from each other.) Saturn now appears to the unaided eye as a very bright (magnitude 0.1) yellowish-white "star" shining with a steady, sedate glow. It rises above the east-southeast horizon just before 9 p.m. local daylight time and stands due south by around 1:45 a.m. the following morning.

In fact, Saturn would rank as the eighth-brightest star, between Rigel in the constellation Orion and Procyon in Canis Minor.

See Saturn Sunday

Here's a great way to make a positive identification of Saturn: Late on Sunday evening (May 22), you will find the ringed planet positioned 4 degrees to the right of the nearly full moon. (Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures approximately 10 degrees).

A telescope magnifying 30-power or more will readily reveal the famous ring system, whose northern face is now tilted 26 degrees to our line of sight. For really superb views, try a 4-inch (10 centimeters) telescope at 100-power or an 8-inch (20 cm) telescope at 200-power. Or, for a really jaw-dropping view, use a 12-inch (30 cm) telescope at 300-power.

Remember that the apparent proximity of Saturn to the moon is just an illusion of perspective. On Sunday, the moon will be about 249,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth, while Saturn is more than 3,370 times farther away, at a distance of 840 million miles (1.35 billion km).

A final note: Should unsettled weather hide Sunday's Saturn-moon pairing, the two bodies will have another get-together less than a month from now, on June 18.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Saturn or any other night-sky sight and would like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, send images and comments to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.