APOD 4.5: Lunar Eclipses

The very pretty image depicts different sorts of lunar eclipses. The umbra's appearances are derived from images of both partial and total eclipses through its different parts. The images were collected from 1997 to 2011 in Voronezh, Russia with the same optics. The bottom and top are stages from 2006 and 2008 partial lunar eclipses; in the rightside bottom the Moon was entering the umbra (the inner shadow of planet Earth) for a 1997 total eclipse. The bottom shows the Moon leaving the umbra after 2004 totality, while middle right, center, and left are stages of a 2011 total eclipse (this encompasses the deep red phase in the center).

APOD 4.4: ISS Lookout

The image is credited to Chris Hadfield, Expedition 34 flight engineer, while the annotations are credited to Vincent Berseth. The picture shows the space station lookout of Japan's Kibo Research Module. The photo is interesting, as I have never quite known about the structure of such aspects of the International Space Station. There are long solar panels stretching from the upper left, and the ePressurized Module's cylindrical airlock can be found in the lower right. Toward the left one can find what looks like a washer and dryer- these are NASA and JAXA's HREP (near) and MCE (far) respective research platforms. Gold foil experiment in the rear of HREP is the Remote Atmospheric and Ionospheric Detection System. to monitor atmospheric airglow; the MCE includes the Global Lightning and Sprite Measurements instrument that keeps track of atmospheric electrical discharges.

Currently, Expedition 35 is commanded by Colonel Hadfield. The crew is to stay aboard until May.

Astronomy Podcast 4.1: How the World Will Really End

I wanted to know exactly what sort of chain reaction would trigger/occur during the end of all life on Earth, so I listened to Astronomy Cast episode 285.

There are a lot of silly theories as to how the Earth will really end. There is a constant pattern of people trying to frighten others with such theories. Well, I didn't get a straight answer.

Recently there was one theory about a "rogue planet X" coming out of some strange orbit causing a catastrophic polar alignment switching in our own orbit. This extra planet was in the Mayan stone carvings, while some research discusses an extra star, that is coming. -The speaker was sarcastic the whole time while describing this rogue planet theory-  The other speaker was, meanwhile, debunking this theory as there is no giant object obscuring our vision of the sky. No stars are "winking out" as this "rogue planet" heads towards us. Frequently, when these apocalypses don't occur, the most common excuse is that the calculations for timing were wrong.

Solar flares that shake up the Earth's magnetic field, however, are worrying. Communication satellites even lose their lives in the face of solar flares as well.... (all this was relevant because a solar flare recently occurred that may also produce pretty aurorae as discussed in the podcast as a result of these phenomena)

Every year, the Sun, the Earth, and the center of our galaxy roughly line up since the center of the galaxy is in the constellation of Sagittarius, and the Sun of course passes through Sagittarius in December. Some people think this is a sign that some crazy laser alignment is going to come about and cause catastrophes.

A growing black hole slowly eating away at Earth is a possibility in the future. Or, our universe could spontaneously collapse into another.

According to the speaker, our universe is always experiment with itself- particularly with AGN- an active galactic nucleus.

Getting hit by a comet or asteroid is actually the thing that is likely to happen to Earth.  According to all current data, an asteroid could come close to destroying the Earth but is more likely not to actually destroy it. If an asteroid was going to come incredibly close to the Earth, anybody could find out and it would be common knowledge even among amateur astronomers. Passionate astronomers can't keep secrets anyhow! Scientists aren't exactly involved in conspiracy theories.

As for aliens, if there is an alien force that is actually big enough to invade our planet, we would certainly see them coming.

APOD 4.3: A Recent Solar Flare

On April 11 the Sun emitted its strongest solar flare to date in 2013. It was followed by a coronal mass ejection in the direction of Earth.

The picture, taken from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, does not portray the real colors of course as it is in extreme ultraviolet light. The solar flare was an M6.5 class flare erupting from active region AR 11719, which is near the center of the solar disk. The sunspot areas of visible light are regions with intense magnetic fields and they become more prominent as solar maximum approaches. Other glowing areas designate glowing plasma tracing the magnetic field lines. The coronal mass ejection that occured will have an effect on the Earth's magnetosphere, leading perhaps to auroral displays.

APOD 4.2: The Black Eye Galaxy

Messier object 64 is usually known as The Black Eye Galaxy, or, for its appearance in telescopes, the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy. It is found about 17 million light-years away, found in the constellation of Come Berenices. In the center of the galaxy, the reddish color as opposed to black is a result of the huge dust clouds glowing with hydrogen- it is a star forming region. M64 is most likely two rotating star systems rotating oppositely; one is within the inner 3,000 light-years while the other extends to 40,000 light-years, rotating in another direction. These odd rotation patterns could be the result of, throughout a billion years, two different galaxies merging.

APOD 4.1:Large Magellanic Cloud

The picture is an infrared portrait  of enormous cosmic dust clouds strewn across the Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. There is something about it, perhaps the way the lighting looks, that render it both heavenly and hellish in appearance. It's a composite image fom the Herschel Space Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. The Large Megellanic Cloud, 30,000 light-years across and 160,000 light-years away from Earth, is a neighboring dwarf galaxy, filled with dust clouds in which temperatures denote the occurrence of star formation. Where there are blue hues, there is warm dust heated by younger stars. The red and green show dust emission from cooler and intermediate regions of beginning star formation. The brightest region is actually the Tarantula Nebula.

Astronomy Observation Log 3.3 (Astronomy Cast - Exploration of Venus)

Apparently, the planet Venus has also been the subject of a number of in-depth explorations, even if these efforts haven't been as publicized as those of Mars.

The science fiction interpretation of the past was interesting and almost funny- the speakers recount a story, perhaps by Asimov, that was adapted into a movie in which people lived on the warm wet world that was Venus, which would only be clear of rain every 20 years. One child was stuck inside during the "fun" of a clear day, which seemed sad at first, except the kids that went out to play all died horrible deaths burning in sulfuric acid. He ended up being lucky for being unlucky.

Scientists had no clue what was going on with Venus. From Earth we could see it had an atmosphere and that it had phases. By 1960 when we started bouncing radio waves off the surface we could see it was a rocky planet. It was not until 1962 we knew it was a "hell-scape" with insanely high temperatures, totally unfit to be considered a planet capable of harboring life. In the 60s there were many failed missions to Venus.

"Venera 4" in 1967 finally measured the atmosphere of Venus- not only was it hot there, it was 95% carbon dioxide, totally different from what astronomers expected. The atmosphere is so thick (it's 22 miles thick) it could almost crush spacecrafts. Many engineering challenges were faced.  Probes, devices and communication methods indeed need to be able to penetrate through 22 miles of sulphuric hail.

In the late 1970s, through the "Pioneer" program we sent four different probes through Venus' atmosphere to take data as they traveled- not only did the atmosphere have extremely high pressure, but we learned the winds are incredibly turbulent. Yet a certain altitude in the cloud layer, you can get a pressure and temperature that are the same as those found on Earth (even though you couldn't breathe the air, you could sit outside in this area if you were on some floating station).

Venus is fascinating to observe, with evidence of past oceans, vortexes in the polar region of the atmosphere near the South Pole, and the presence of hydroxyls. The main problem is protecting the instruments against the intense heat...  After that, the pressure bearing down on all sides is the problem. At least the Russians have got some steel-reinforced drawing boards! The Russians have historically seemed to have the upper hand in Venus exploration.