The Approach Begins Ceres Pluto

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The Approach Begins Ceres Pluto
— February 2015—
   The Newsletter Of The Sheep Hill Astronomical Association

          The Approach Begins
Ceres                                                 Pluto

Two Separate Spacecrafts Appraoch
Two Different Dwarf Planets!!
And More!
The Approach Begins Ceres Pluto
2     NOVA — Month 2015
Sheep
Hill
Astronomical
Association                                    ON THE COVER
                                                                                             PUT THUMBNAIL HERE
NOVA is the official newsletter of the
Sheep Hill Astronomical Association. It is   Dawn begins ap-
published once each month and a sub-
scription is included with your member-      proach to Ceres
ship to SHAA.
                                             Dawn has entered its approach
                                             phase toward Ceres and will arrive
Club Officers                                on March 6, 2015
    President          Pat Boyle                                                        portant ways. Ceres may have
                                             NASA's Dawn spacecraft has en-             formed later than Vesta, and with a
    Admin Vice Pres.   Robert Moravsik
                                             tered an approach phase in which it        cooler interior. Current evidence sug-
    Tech Vice Pres.    Nick Sperling         will continue to close in on Ceres, a      gests that Vesta only retained a small
    Treasurer          Phil Schwartz         Texas-sized dwarf planet never be-         amount of water because it formed
                                             fore visited by a spacecraft. Dawn         earlier, when radioactive material
    Secretary          Daniel Cleary
                                             launched in 2007 and is scheduled          was more abundant, which would
    UACNJ Delegate     Warren Westura        to enter Ceres orbit in March 2015.        have produced more heat. Ceres, in
                                             Dawn is currently 400,000 miles            contrast, has a thick ice mantle and
                                                                                        may even have an ocean beneath its
Committee Chairs                             (640,000 kilometers) from Ceres,
                                                                                        icy crust.
                                             approaching it at around 450 miles
    Fundraising:       Dino Cappello         per hour (725 kilometers per hour).        Ceres, with an average diameter of
    Observatory:       Patrick Boyle         The spacecraft's arrival at Ceres will     590 miles (950 kilometers), is also the
                                             mark the first time that a spacecraft      largest body in the asteroid belt, the
    Outreach:          Ted Winsch
                                             has ever orbited two solar system          strip of solar system real estate be-
    Publicity:         Nick Sperling                                                    tween Mars and Jupiter. By compari-
                                             targets. Dawn previously explored
    Program:           Phil Schwartz         the protoplanet Vesta for 14               son, Vesta has an average diameter
                                             months, from 2011 to 2012, captur-         of 326 miles (525 kilometers), and is
                                             ing detailed images and data about         the second most massive body in the
Contribute                                   that body.                                 belt.

                                             "Ceres is almost a complete mystery        The spacecraft uses ion propulsion to
Producing our newsletter is a tre-
                                             to us," said Christopher Russell,          traverse space far more efficiently
mendous undertaking each month.
                                             principal investigator for the Dawn        than if it used chemical propulsion. In
We are always looking for help
                                             mission, based at the University of        an ion propulsion engine, an electri-
writing articles, compiling data, or
                                             California, Los Angeles. "Ceres, un-       cal charge is applied to xenon gas,
even just suggesting ideas. If you
                                             like Vesta, has no meteorites linked       and charged metal grids accelerate
have anything to contribute, or
                                             to it to help reveal its secrets. All we   the xenon particles out of the thrust-
would like to help out, contact Nick
                                             can predict with confidence is that        er. Dawn has now completed five
Sperling.
                                             we will be surprised."                     years of accumulated thrust time, far
This newsletter is copyright © 2015 Sheep                                               more than any other spacecraft.
                                             The two planetary bodies are
Hill Astronomical Association. All Rights                                               "Orbiting both Vesta and Ceres
                                             thought to be different in a few im-
Reserved.
The Approach Begins Ceres Pluto
3   NOVA — Month 2015

would be truly impossible with con-
ventional propulsion. Thanks to ion
propulsion, we're about to make his-
tory as the first spaceship ever to
orbit two unexplored alien worlds,"
said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engi-
neer and mission director, based at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California.
The next couple of months promise
continually improving views of Ceres,
prior to Dawn's arrival. By the end of
January, the spacecraft's images and
other data will be the best ever taken
of the dwarf planet.
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres
is managed by JPL, a division of the       Timeline of the approach and departure phases — surrounding close approach on
California Institute of Technology in                   July 14, 2015 — of the New Horizons Pluto encounter.
Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. UCLA is
responsible for overall Dawn mission      Science Division at the agency’s         135 million miles (220 million kilome-
science.                                  Headquarters in Washington. “The         ters) to Pluto.
More information about Dawn:              New Horizons team worked very
                                                                                   “We’ve completed the longest jour-
                                          hard to prepare for this first phase,
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov                                                           ney any spacecraft has flown from
                                          and they did it flawlessly.”
                                                                                   Earth to reach its primary target, and
                                          The fastest spacecraft when it was       we are ready to begin exploring,”
Meanwhile, beyond Neptune:                launched, New Horizons lifted off in     said Alan Stern, New Horizons princi-
                                          January 2006. It awoke from its final    pal investigator from Southwest Re-
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft re-
                                          hibernation period last month after      search Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
cently began its long-awaited, histor-
                                          a voyage of more than 3 billion
ic encounter with Pluto. The space-                                                LORRI will take hundreds of pictures
                                          miles, and will soon pass close to
craft is entering the first of several                                             of Pluto over the next few months to
                                          Pluto, inside the orbits of its five
approach phases that culminate July                                                refine current estimates of the dis-
                                          known moons. In preparation
14 with the first close-up flyby of the                                            tance between the spacecraft and
dwarf planet, 4.67 billion miles (7.5     The images captured by New Hori-         the dwarf planet. Though the Pluto
billion kilometers) from Earth.           zons’ telescopic Long-Range Recon-       system will resemble little more than
                                          naissance Imager (LORRI) will give       bright dots in the camera’s view until
“NASA first mission to distant Pluto
                                          mission scientists a continually im-     May, mission navigators will use the
will also be humankind’s first close
                                          proving look at the dynamics of          data to design course-correction ma-
up view of this cold, unexplored
                                          Pluto’s moons. The images also will      neuvers to aim the spacecraft toward
world in our solar system,” said Jim
                                          play a critical role in navigating the   its target point this summer. The first
Green, director of NASA’s Planetary
                                          spacecraft as it covers the remaining    such maneuver could occur as early
The Approach Begins Ceres Pluto
4   NOVA — Month 2015

as March.                                telescopes on Earth. Eventually, the
                                         spacecraft will obtain images good
“We need to refine our knowledge of
                                         enough to map Pluto and its moons
where Pluto will be when New Hori-       more accurately than achieved by previ-
zons flies past it,” said Mark           ous planetary reconnaissance missions.
Holdridge, New Horizons encounter
mission manager at Johns Hopkins
                                         APL manages the New Horizons mission
University’s Applied Physics Labora-
                                         for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
tory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “The
                                         in Washington. Alan Stern, of the
flyby timing also has to be exact, be-
                                         Southwest Research Institute (SwRI),
cause the computer commands that
                                         headquartered in San Antonio, is the
will orient the spacecraft and point
the science instruments are based on     principal investigator and leads the mis-

precisely knowing the time we pass       sion. SwRI leads the science team, pay-
Pluto – which these images will help     load operations, and encounter science
us determine.”                           planning. New Horizons is part of the
                                         New Frontiers Program managed by
The “optical navigation” campaign
                                         NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
that begins this month marks the first
                                         Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built
time pictures from New Horizons will
be used to help pinpoint Pluto’s loca-   and operates the spacecraft.

tion.
                                         For more information about the New
Throughout the first approach phase,     Horizons mission, visit:
which runs until spring, New Horizons    www.nasa.gov/newhorizons
will conduct a significant amount of
additional science. Spacecraft instru-   and
ments will gather continuous data on     http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
the interplanetary environment
where the planetary system orbits,
including measurements of the high-
energy particles streaming from the
sun and dust-particle concentrations
in the inner reaches of the Kuiper
Belt. In addition to Pluto, this area,
the unexplored outer region of the
solar system, potentially includes
thousands of similar icy, rocky small
planets.
More intensive studies of Pluto begin
in the spring, when the cameras and
spectrometers aboard New Horizons
will be able to provide image resolu-
tions higher than the most powerful
The Approach Begins Ceres Pluto
5   NOVA — Month 2015

IN THE SKY THIS MONTH
                                          Lunar Phases
Solar System
MERCURY—Well placed in the morning
sky from 6th to the 28th                  Feb 03           Feb 11            Feb 18     Feb 25
VENUS—Night of 20/21 Conjunction with
Mars and Moon. Night of 21/22 Conjunc-
                                          The Sun and Astronomical Twilight
                                                         Twilight      Sun      Sun         Twilight
tion with Mars
                                                         Begin         Rise     Set         End
MARS—See Venus                            Feb 01         5:34          07:09    17:13       18:48

JUPITER—Opposition on the 6th             Feb 15         05:21         06:53    17:31       19:03

                                          Feb 28         05:03         06:34    17:46       19:17
URANUS—Occultation by moon on the
21st                                      Telescopic Tour for February
                                          Object                         h      m       °        ‘

                                          ψ Draconis, double star        17     41.9    +72      10

                                          N. American Nebula             20     58.8    +44      20
Highlights                                M31 Andromeda Galaxy           0      42.7    +41      16

Feb 01    All month comet C/2014 Q2       M33, Trianglum Galaxy          1      33.9    +30      39

          Lovejoy visible in binoculars   γ Andromadae, dbl star         2      03.9    +42      20
          but receding
                                          Perseus double cluster         2      21.5    +57      08

Feb 01    Capricornid/Sagittarid mete-    ι Cassiopeiae, triple star     2      29.0    +67      24

          ors (radio shower)              Pleiades M45                   3      47.5    +24      06

Feb 02    Candlemas (a.k.a) Goundhog      R Leporis, crimson star        4      59.6    -14      47

          day, one of four days halfway   M1 Crab Nebula                 5      34.5    +22      01
          between Solstice and equi-
                                          M42 Orion Nebula               5      35.4    -5       22
          nox.
                                          σ Orionis Multiple Star        5      38.7    -2       35
Feb 06    Jupiter Reaches magnitude -
                                          M35 Cluster                    6      08.9    +24      21
          2.6 during opposition on the
          6th                             Rosette Nebula                 6      32.4    +4       52

                                          Castor, double star            7      34.6    +31      54
Feb 08    Alpha Centaurid Meteors
                                          Praesepe Cluster               4      40.4    +19      41

Feb 19    Moon at perigee, large tides    M81 Bode’s Galaxy              9      55.6    +69      04
          for next three days
                                          γ Leonis, double star          10     19.9    +19      51
Feb 20    Moon, Mars and Venus in
                                          Mizar, double star             13     23.9    +54      55
          conjunction
Feb 21    Mars and Venus even closer,
          0.5 degrees apart.

          Uranus Occulted by the
          Moon.
6     NOVA — Month 2015

SPACE NEWS
Minor mergers have mas-                    isolated clump of matter, but by            binary      black
                                           hierarchical mergers of smaller gal-        holes like this.
sive consequences for                      axies over tremendous timescales.           Examples like NGC 3393 and IC 4970
                                           If galaxies with large amounts of           are not only confirming our picture of
black holes                                stars all have black holes at their         galaxy growth and formation, but are
                                           centers, then we should be able to          teaching us that supermassive relics
By: Dr Ethan Siegel
                                           see some fraction of Milky Way-             from ancient, minor mergers might
Courtesy of NASA’s Space Place             sized galaxies with not just one, but       persist as standalone entities for
                                           multiple supermassive black holes           longer than we ever thought!
                                           at their center!
When you think of our sun, the near-                                                   Check out some cool images and
est star to our world, you think of an     It was only in the early 2000s that         artist reconstructions of black holes
isolated entity, with more than four       NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory            from Chandra: http://
light years separating it from its next    was able to find the first binary su-       chandra.harvard.edu/photo/
nearest neighbor. But it wasn't al-        permassive black hole in a galaxy,          category/blackholes.html
ways so: billions of years ago, when       and that was in an ultra-luminous
                                                                                       Kids can learn all about Black Holes
our sun was first created, it very like-   galaxy with a double core. Many
                                                                                       from this cool animation at NASA’s
ly formed in concert with thousands        other examples were discovered
                                                                                       Space Place: http://
of other stars, when a giant molecu-       since, but for a decade they were all
                                                                                       spaceplace.nasa.gov/black-holes.
lar cloud containing perhaps a million     in ultra-massive, active galaxies.
times the mass of our solar system         That all changed in 2011, with the
collapsed. While the vast majority of      discovery of two active, massive
stars that the universe forms—some         black holes at the center of the reg-
ninety-five percent—are the mass of        ular spiral galaxy NGC 3393, a gal-
our sun or smaller, a rare but signifi-    axy that must have undergone only
cant fraction are ultra-massive, con-      minor mergers no less than a billion
taining tens or even hundreds of           years ago, where the black hole pair
times the mass our star contains.          is separated by only 490 light years!
When these stars run out of fuel in        It's only in the cores of active, X-ray
their cores, they explode in a fantas-     emitting galaxies that we can detect
tic Type II supernova, where the
star's core collapses. In the most
massive cases, this forms a black
hole.
Over time, many generations of
stars—and hence, many black
holes—form, with the majority even-
tually migrating towards the centers
of their host galaxies and merging
together. Our own galaxy, the Milky
Way, houses a supermassive black
hole that weighs in at about four mil-
lion solar masses, while our big sister,
Andromeda, has one nearly twenty
times as massive. But even relatively      Images credit: NGC 3393 in the optical (L) by M. Malkan (UCLA), HST, NASA (L); NGC
isolated galaxies didn't simply form       3393 in the X-ray and optical (R), composite by NASA / CXC / SAO / G. Fabbiano et al.
from the monolithic collapse of an         (X-ray) and NASA/STScI (optical).
7   NOVA — Month 2015

CLUB NEWS

Next Meeting                             Qualification
The next meeting of SHAA will be         Congratulations to Patrice Debe,
held on Feb 8th, 2015 at the             Jennifer Graeff, and Gary Scimeca
Boonton Senior Center.                   who are now qualified observers.
Astronomical Presentation: 7:30PM        Anyone interested in becoming a
— Open to the Public. The program        qualified observer should contact
for the evening will be “An Observer's   Nick Sperling or Pat Boyle. A
Guide for the Sheep Hill Observatory “   qualified observer is permitted to
by Ted Winsch.                           operate the Sheep Hill Observatory
Business Meeting: 8:30PM—Open            for public and private astronomical
to the Public.                           viewing. A minimum of five events
                                         combined (Public Nights, Club
                                         Nights) and three business meetings
                                         per year are necessary to retain
Annual Dues                              your qualified observer status.
Yearly club membership dues for          Training will be scheduled on
2015 are now due. You may send in        request and includes one daytime
your payment to SHAA, PO Box 111,        and one nighttime session.
Boonton NJ or give your payment
directly to our club treasurer at one
of the business meetings. Family
membership remains at $40.00 per
year.

                                                                               Sheep Hill
                                                                               Astronomical Assn
                                                                               PO Box 111
                                                                               Boonton, NJ 07005
                                                                               www.sheephillastro.org
8     NOVA — Month 2015

           SHAA CALENDAR

                                                                                                                                                            Image Credit: NASA

                                                                                                                                           February 2015
Some prefer windows, and these are the best available on board the International Space Station. Taken on January 4, this snap-
shot from inside the station's large, seven-window Cupola module also shows off a workstation for controlling Canadarm2. Used
to grapple visiting cargo vehicles and assist astronauts during spacewalks, the robotic arm is just outside the window at the right.

 Sun                        Mon                        Tue                        Wed                        Thu                       Fri                  Sat

 1                          2                          3                          4                          5                         6                    7

 8                          9                          10                         11                         12                        13                   14

      SHAA Meeting

 15                         16                         17                         18                         19                        20                   21
                                                                                                                                             Public Night         Club Night

 22                         23                         24                         25                         26                        27                   28
9    NOVA — Month 2015

MEMBERSHIP

                The Membership List Will Now Be Maintained as a Separate Document

Membership in the Sheep Hill Astronomical Association is open to any individual with an interest in
astronomy. You need not own a telescope or other equipment to become a member of the Sheep Hill
Astronomical Association. Annual dues requirements are:
    Adult (All family members included) $40.00
    Student Membership $21.25
    Senior Citizen $32.50
    (under age 14, parent must join)

Business meetings are held on the first Sunday of each month at 7:30 P.M. at the Boonton Senior Center. The
annual dues are payable at the regular January meeting of the Association. For individuals joining the
Association after July 1st, the dues will be one half of the regular annual dues.
Shortly after payment of dues a new member is entitled to receive a membership card and NOVA, the SHAA
newsletter. The new member is entitled and encouraged to begin qualification on the use of the 18”
telescope housed in Sheep Hill Observatory. All members must be at least 18 years of age to be a “qualified
observer”. All “qualified observers” must adhere to the rules of operation of the Sheep Hill Observatory.

Membership Application
      Name:

    Address:
                                                                                Membership Type (select one)
        City:                               State:            Zip Code:
                                                                                 Adult / Family ($40.00)
      Phone:
                                                                                 Senior Citizen ($32.50)
      E-mail:
                                                                                 Student (Age 14+) ($21.25)
     If you own a telescope, please describe the type and aperture:

                                                                          Complete this application and bring to a
                                                                            meeting with your dues, or mail to:

                                                                           Sheep Hill Astronomical Association
                                                                                       P.O. Box 111
                                                                                   Boonton, NJ 07005
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