2008 - 2010 Meeting Minutes
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September 2010
- Members are reminded about the Perseid meteor shower that is still providing a good show. Meteor showers offer anyone (regardless of experience and knowledge) an opportunity to see a wonderful astronomical spectacle. Anyone wanting to look for meteors should consider something like a banana lounge to prevent neck strain. The best time is normally in the predawn. This article had a few facts that I found very interesting:
- Most meteors are within 200km of you
- Most become visible about 90km up and burn up before descending to 80km.
- No known meteorite has been associated with a meteor shower.
- Most bright meteors come from a particle weighing less than one gram and less than the size of a pea
- About 100-1000 tonnes of meteor material enters the atmosphere each day
- They enter the atmosphere at a velocity of 40,000-265,000 km/hour.
- Another powerful mass ejection has occurred from the Sun. It appears that the deep sleep that it has been in for some time may be coming to an end.
- The Cassini space probe has had its mission around Saturn extended until 2017. The next seven years will allow study of the planet and its system over the period from its recent equinox until its summer solstice.
- Only last month in these minutes it was reported that water had been found in Moon rocks. This month a different study has suggested that there is no water in other Moon rocks. This study was led by scientists at the University of New Mexico and the basic argument they put forward is that a high level of chlorine indicates that no water is present. If there was water then the chlorine would be attracted to it and would not be present as the form of chlorine that was found in the quantities evident. Read more at www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/08/06/2975747.htm.
- A new method of programming the “Adaptive Optics” that reduces the amount of twinkle of the stars in big telescopes has been designed. Instead of using a nearby guide-star (often one is not available nearby) to measure the twinkle, this new system fires a laser beam into the sky, splits it into five separate beams and measures the twinkle at each. These measurements are then used to vary the mirror to reduce the atmospheric effects causing the twinkle. Apparently far more efficient.
- The Japanese craft to Venus is nearing the planet. It will start orbiting it in early December and continue for at least two years. More detail at science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/16aug_vco.
- Neptune is currently high in the sky in Capricorn most of the night. It was discovered in 1846 on September 23. It is now one complete orbit of the planet later. In terms of its own timescale it has been “one year” since first seen by earthlings.
- There are 16 known “runaway” or “hypervelocity” stars. These are stars that are moving so fast that they will escape the Milky Way galaxy’s gravity and be hurled into intergalactic space. It is thought that this occurs when a binary star system approaches a black hole. Under certain conditions one can be trapped by the black hole and the other thrown off at super speed. This is what is believed to have happened to these stars.
- A new study indicates that the universe will continue to expand forever due to dark energy. This study was led by NASA and used the Hubble telescope and the Very Large Telescope to collect data. See www.smh.com.au/world/no-stopping-universes-expansion-20100820-138xk.htmlfor more.
- A third comet or asteroid has been seen impacting Jupiter in the last 13 months. Before this there was only one confirmed impact; Shoemaker-Levy in 1994. This one was observed by two Japanese taking video through their scopes.
- Recent calculations indicate that the solar system is slightly older that previously thought. The evidence for this is in the extent of decay of Uranium in a meteorite that landed in Africa in 2004. Our solar system is now somewhere between 300,000 and 1,900,000 years older than we thought.
- Wrinkles on the Moon indicate that it is shrinking. It may still be shrinking. Recent images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggest that this may explain some of the moonquakes detected by seismometers left on the moon in the 1970’s by Apollo astronauts.
- Pulsars are being used to measure the mass of some planets with amazing accuracy. By using the distortion in the timing of pulsar signals, researchers can check their estimates for a planet’s mass. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have been checked this way. Most of the measuring for this work has been carried out at the Parks radio telescope.
- A solar system has been detected that holds up to seven planets. This one is around the star HD 10180 in the constellation of Hydrus, about 127 light years from Earth. Five planets have been confirmed and the other two look promising.
- Kepler satellite has found around 700 more candidate exoplanets. One of these (still unconfirmed as a planet) appears to be only one and a half times the diameter of earth.
August 2010
- The Planck Telescope has returned a lot of data in its quest to look for the flash from the big bang. First images have been released. A very interesting image can be studied at www.chromoscope.net which shows an all-sky view. This can be changed to see the same view in various wavelengths the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to gamma frequencies. It is also possible to zoom in or out on any art of the image and examine how that part changes when viewed in different wavelengths. This could provide interest, entertainment and a vast amount of information to any of us.
- During the deep solar minimum of 2008-9 the upper atmosphere of the earth changed dramatically. A region of the atmosphere called the thermosphere (90-600km up) largely collapsed and is now recovering. This is the largest contraction in the atmosphere in over 40 years. Read more at science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/15jul_thermosphere if you are interested.
- Regarding the search for intelligent, extra-terrestrial life. It is now widely regarded that there is a much lower chance of any aliens listening in to our broadcasts than there was a few decades ago. This is due to the much lower power of most of the transmissions in recent years. With the old AM radio stations the power of the transmissions was many thousands of Watts, even for a small regional station. This is rarely achieved these days.
- On 21 June 2010 the Swift satellite detected a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) which exceeded all previous observed intensities. This GRB originated before our solar system formed. Look at www.astronomynow.com/news/n1007/15grb if you would like more detail.
- What has been described as a "Monster Star" has been detected by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The star is named R136a1 and is calculated to be larger than was thought to be the limit of solar mass. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R136a1 will be a good starting point for investigation.
- WISE (Wide Field Infrared Space Explorer) scans the whole sky and has already found over 100 000 new asteroids, 200 of which are "near earth asteroids". For more detail on this and other WISE matters the main website is www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html.
- The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is back in business and working well. This project had a few problems when it started but is now up to half power and results are coming even faster than predicted. Lots of recent details at news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20011612-264.html.
- As reported previously, the Kepler space telescope has so far detected over 700 candidate planets outside our solar system. Of these, about 300 have been confirmed as exoplanets. Contrary to reports, however, no Earth-like planets have yet been confirmed, but the Kepler mission team is "on a path to ... determining the frequency of Earth-size planets..." (See this NASA statement.)
- Moon rocks that were collected in the Apollo project forty years ago are still being analysed. Recently water has been found in the minerals of some of these rocks. A form of calcium phosphate called apatite has been identified. When heated this will decompose and water will be produced. Read more at www.astronomynow.com/news/n1007/22moon if you are interested.
- A quasar has been used to act as a magnifying glass to allow a galaxy to be seen that is too far away to be seen through normal means. This bending of light as it passes by a very massive object was first predicted by Einstein in his Theory of General Relativity and has been widely photographed in recent years. This particular quasar is called SDSS JOO13+1523. More detail on this at www.space.com/scienceastronomy/quasar-galaxy-gravitational-lens-100727.html, while a good explanation of gravitational lensing (with pictures) can be seen at csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/galaxies/lensing.html.
July 2010
- New research published in Nature Geoscience indicates that a large ocean may have covered about a third of the surface of Mars three and a half billion years ago. The researchers are from the University of Colorado and the conclusions are largely based of the existence of 52 delta regions on Mars. These all are at the same height suggesting that they were river mouths at the shoreline of a large ocean.
- The flash of light on Jupiter that Anthony Wesley videoed on 3 June has been the subject of much investigation since. The lack of evidence of the collision soon after its occurrence indicates that it was probably a large rock that burned up in the upper atmosphere without reaching the clouds.
- On the night of 13 June, Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft broke up before landing in the outback of South Australia. The capsule that possibly contains asteroid dust parachuted to earth about 485km NW of Adelaide. Analysis of the contents of the capsule will be carried out in Japan. Readers wanting more information on the mission and all its many problems can start at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa.
- In these pages we have had previous information on the Japanese IKAROS space mission that was to launch a satellite that unfurls a “sail” that is hoped will accelerate the satellite using the solar wind on the sail for propulsion. The satellite was launched and the sail has been successfully unfurled. Details of the project can be found at www.jspec.jaxa.jp/e/activity/ikaros.html. It will be of no surprise to readers that the word IKAROS is an acronym and stands for Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun.
- Even though the number of sunspots is increasing, it is still well down on the number and intensity expected. More detail at www.impactlab.com/2010/06/22/sunspot-activity-eerily-quiet-for-past-two-years/.
- NASA’s Kepler orbiting telescope was designed to detect exoplanets and it is doing a very good job. As at 28 June 2010 there were a total of 464 exoplanets that have been found by any means. In its first 6 weeks of operation Kepler has identified over 700 additional potential planets orbiting other suns. These need to be confirmed as planets and this needs ground based observations which could take some time. It appears likely that there will be a large number of additions to the confirmed list in the near future. For as much detail as most can stand check out www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2010/10-50AR.html.
- Further on exoplanets: one of the accepted exoplanets (named HD209458 b) has had its atmosphere spectroscopically analysed and surface winds of up to 7000km/h have been indicated. This is a very inhospitable planet in Pegasus, as it orbits its star about one eighth of the distance from our Sun to Mercury. It is very hot as well as windy.
- Still further on exoplanets: the first direct image of an exoplanet has been confirmed. This is in Scorpius and the parent star is catalogued 1RXS J1-210524. More detail at au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/7498855/first-pics-of-faraway-planet-confirmed/2/.
- Pan-STARRS (another acronym) is a planned network of large digital cameras that will look for asteroids and comets that could impact earth. The first one is operational and is a 1.8m digital camera in Hawaii. It is a 1400 megapixel camera that will take over 500 photos a night. It is already finding hundreds of “transient objects” each month. More detail at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-STARRS.
- As forecast last month the Anglo-Australian Observatory has now become wholly Australian owned and has changed its name to the Australian Astronomical Observatory. See www.aao.gov.au/press/aat_35yrs/index.html for a previous press release.
- On the night of 20 June the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn carried out a very close flyby of the moon Titan. The distance was only 547 miles (880km). The flyby appeared to proceed faultlessly, data is being analysed. Everything you always wanted to know about it is on the Cassini website at saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ and detail about this particular flyby is at saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/significantevents/significantevents20100624/.
- The Herschel space telescope has found a cluster of faint galaxies at a distance of 11 billion light years from here. Gravitational lensing was used to capture the images. Read about the galaxies at www.informaticaxp.org/index.php?topic=16511.0 and gravitational lensing at /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens.
- Astronomers first reported the bright light that later became known as the Crab Nebula on 4 July 1054. This means that we have just passed the 956th anniversary of this observation. The Crab Nebula (M1) can easily be seen in Taurus near the tip of one of the bull’s horns.
June 2010
- The Herschel telescope has returned data that indicates the rate of star and galaxy formation has declined markedly in the last three billion years. If this trend continues then it is possible that there will come a time when stars will stop forming. At the moment scientists have no explanation for the apparent decline in the rate of star formation. More information available at www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/07/2893076.htm.
- It is believed that there is a limited temperature and pressure ranges at which bacteria can survive in water. Recent Australian research indicates that the temperature range is -20C to 122C. See www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/13/2898466.htm for the details.
- Another apparent error in previous measurement may have been corrected. Recent X-ray measurements seem to indicate that the “empty space” between galaxies is not quite as empty as was previously thought. This WHIM (Warm-Hot Intergalactic Matter), as it is called is now thought to be at a density of about 6 atoms of Hydrogen for each cubic metre rather than 1 atom per cubic metre as previously estimated. This correction would add about 300% to the total amount of “normal” or baryonic matter in the known universe. Maybe the missing matter has been found. See www.skyandtelescope.com/news/93797364.html for more information.
- One of the two main cloud bands on Jupiter seems to have disappeared. To see photos and read about it see www.space.com/scienceastronomy/jupiter-cloud-belt-disappears-100513.html.
- The images of Jupiter in point 4 above were taken by Anthony Wesley who was the Jupiter imager who recently actually videoed a large impact on the planet. A short report is at www.iceinspace.com.au/70-592-0-0-1-0.html and a copy of the video is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo6LHljBKW8.
- There is a very interesting story about the remains of the Astronomer Copernicus. Remains were found buried in a Poland cathedral. DNA from the remains was matched to two strands of hair found in an ancient book that was known to be Copernicus’s. His remains have now been reburied in a marked grave exactly 467 years and one day after his death.
- Hubble telescope has evidence of a star consuming one of its planets. It has long been known that this is possible but it has not been “seen” before. The star and planet are in the constellation of Auriga. The name of the star is Wasp-12 and the planet is Wasp-12b. This particular exoplanet was discovered in 2008.
- The Japanese have sent a spacecraft to Venus. Akatsuki lifted off on 21 May 2010 and is planned to orbit Venus for about two years, mainly studying the local atmosphere. See www.space.com/missionlaunches/japan-venus-wrap-100520.html for more detail.
- It appears that the sun is awakening and there is increasing sunspot activity. Scientists are watching this very closely because it is possible that the increased activity may affect the delicate electronics involved in much of our recent technology. In particular there is concern about power grid controls, GPS navigation, air travel and radio communications, (to name a few). More detail at science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/04jun_swef/.
- The flying telescope SOFIA is working well and has returned some excellent data. The 3 June Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is one such example. This can be seen at apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100603.html.
- Recent research indicates that the Deccan traps (a region off the west coast of India) could be part of a large region that was the scene of a massive volcanic disturbance around 64-68 million years ago. There is a larger than normal presence of Iridium which is rare on earth but plentiful in meteorites. This suggests that maybe there was a major impact here around the time of the impact near Mexico that is widely thought to have caused extinction of the dinosaurs. Perhaps this was as a result of the Mexico impact; maybe it was a second impact. Read more on this interesting topic at www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627631.300-deeper-impact-did-megameteors-rattle-our-planet.html
September 2009
- The current "dance" of the planets with Venus, Mercury and Mars was outlined. They will continue to be in close proximity for some weeks and members were encouraged to watch the proceedings. The viewing of Mercury will be of higher than usual quality with it being quite well separated from the sun at this time.
- The Large Hadron Collider in Europe, near the border between Switzerland and France, is basically a large circular proton accelerator nearly 30km around its circumference. This machine should actually start colliding protons at full power about next January. Our two visitors at the meeting informed the secretary that very recently they both visited this site while in Europe and said that it was a very interesting project. They went back a second time for a closer look.
- The Hubble space telescope has recently completed its 100,000th orbit of earth since it was launched. It had travelled 2.72 billion kilometres around earth and its shuttle service mission is still on track for October this year. This mission should increase its capabilities and increase its useful life by 5-10 years.
- Members may recall the "Galaxy Zoo" project in which amateur astronomers were trained in galaxy classification and sent Hubble images to inspect and classify galaxies in the image as spiral, barred, irregular, etc. A Dutch teacher was participating in this project and found an object that she could not classify due to its unusual "U" shape. She queried it with the project professionals and they could not classify it either. This particular object has been further investigated by Hubble and other telescopes and its nature is still not determined. Current theory is that it could be a nebula that is being lit by a remote supernova. For the moment the object has an official name, which, in English, translates into "Hanna's Object", Hanna being the first name of the lady who found it.
- We all know that recently Pluto was demoted to the position of Dwarf Planet and subsequently to Plutoid status. Apparently the international body responsible has been approached to reconsider and there are suggestions that it should be reinstated to its status as a planet.
- Another solar system object has been discovered which is proving to be hard to classify. It satisfies many of the requirements to be called an either an asteroid or a comet but does not fully satisfy either of these. It is 50-60km in diameter (far larger than other comets) but its orbit around the sun is very elliptical when compared to asteroids. At aphelion (furthest from the sun) it is about 240 billion kilometres distant and at present is only about 3 billion kilometres out.
- Cassini is still in the vicinity of Saturn and on 11 August it passed by the moon Enceladus at the remarkably close distance of only 50km. Enceladus has a diameter of around 500km and has geyser-like eruptions, making its surface extremely reflective.
- Mary D'Souza, a scientist at a Queensland university has developed a plan to potentially save the earth from a possible future asteroid impact. In lay-person’s terms the plan is to wrap the asteroid in Mylar, which is a very reflective film that would change the solar pressure on the asteroid, pushing it slightly off its collision course. Apparently there is a possible event in 2036 for which this may be useful.
- NASA now has a number of telescopes in space that cover most of the electromagnetic spectrum. Members will be aware of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) that has recently been successfully deployed. In keeping with tradition (eg Hubble) this telescope has been renamed after a famous astronomer or scientist. It is now called the FERMI telescope, after Enrico Fermi, an Italian nuclear physicist who spent the later part of his life in the US. He was heavily involved with the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb but his selection for this telescope is due to his groundbreaking theory on how cosmic particles can be accelerated to very high velocity.
- Skymapper is a new telescope that we have operating is Australia. Its purpose is to survey the available sky at regular intervals and at reasonable resolution. It also has to be able to compare its latest survey with past results to look for changes. The telescope has a 50 inch (1.3m) mirror and produces fully automated, multi-colour images of about 5.7 degrees square.
August 2009
- A team of Swedish and Polish researchers have DNA tested bones from a cathedral in Poland and found a probable match to hairs that are known to have come from Copernicus. It appears that his remains have been found.
- Not directly related to astronomy but related to Copernicus is the recent naming of the 112th element in the periodic table in his honour. It has been known as ununbium (meaning 1 1 2) for 13 years since its discovery and was officially changed to Copernicium on 14 July 2009. Due to the extremely controversial nature of his work, suggesting that the earth was not the centre of the universe, Copernicus was not honoured much while he was alive. It was agreed that this would be another appropriate honour for him, like the large crater on the moon named after him.
- The lunar orbiters have imaged the Apollo landing sites. The photos can be seen at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html.
- The most detailed map made of the radio galaxy Centaurus A has been achieved by a group of Australian astronomers. It is reported that the galaxy looks a little like a “Big Mac” with two distinct lobes separated by a dust lane. Radio galaxies are reasonably rare and this one is comparatively close and very large.
- The federal government is making a substantial investment in the world’s biggest optical telescope. The Giant Magellan Telescope is being built in Chile and will have seven 8.4 metre mirrors which will have 30X the resolving power of anything on the ground now and approximately 10X the resolving power of Hubble. Australia will have 10% access to its telescope time. Even this scope will be dwarfed by the proposed Square Kilometre Array. Western Australia is on the short list of possible sites for this project.
- On 19 July 09 an Australian amateur astronomer imaged an impact on Jupiter which was similar in size to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact in 1994 (exactly 15 years to the day). The observer was Anthony Wesley who lives near Canberra and used equipment costing less than $10,000.00 to make this outstanding discovery. His scope is a 14.5 inch reflector, and picture of Anthony and his scope is at jupiter.samba.org/AnthonyWesley.jpg. NASA images of the impact are at www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-112.
- Members may recall the Galaxy Zoo project that trained interested amateurs to interpret images of parts of the sky that were provided for them. Another interesting discovery has been made from this process. Around 250 little round galaxies nicknamed "Green Peas" have been found so far. These are much smaller and less massive than the Milky Way but appear to be forming stars 10 times faster. The 250 have been found after looking at about one million galaxies. The founder of the Galaxy Zoo project said that these would not have been found without the large number of volunteers involved.
- Studies of the moon’s craters indicate that they may have been formed much more by comet impacts than by asteroid impacts (which was the old theory). This is based on the amount of the element Iridium that has been detected in the moon rocks compared to the Iridium levels in old earth rocks. Had the impacts causing the craters on the moon been mainly from asteroids then the Iridium level would have been much higher than what has been found.
- It appears that the rotation of Saturn (its day) is slightly shorter than what has been accepted for many years. It is hard to measure the rotation of Saturn because we cannot observe the surface due to the clouds. Magnetic measurements have also proven to be not an accurate measure of rotation. The accepted figure for the Saturnian day has been reduced by five minutes.
- Last month we reported on Betelgeuse in Orion. It now appears from recent imagery that this massive star is a very "hot-headed" star indeed. Two separate studies indicate that the star is throbbing, churning and emitting large parts of itself into space. More details at www.skyandtelescope.com/news/52184407.html.
- There is yet another website that may interest astronomers. It is put together by ABC, CSIRO and the Federal Government and has some relationship with science week. It includes a virtual tour which is narrated by Fred Watson and is recommended by Win. The site is www.starhunt.net.au/home/.
July 2009
- An interesting star in Sagittarius has been discovered. It is one of a rare group called magnetars. This is a highly magnetic neutron star. Only 15 such stars have been discovered.
- A more light-hearted topic was discussed, "What we should say when the aliens call." There were many suggestions including, "There is nothing to see here, move along," and, "We should freeze and play dead." For anyone wanting to pursue this topic look on the web at www.smh.com.au/world/science/what-earth-should-say-when-the-aliens-call-20090608-c0u9.html.
- Computer modelling of the orbits of the planets has confirmed that they are not perfectly regular. One contributing effect is when two or more planets get in resonance and their gravity causes small changes which are repeated regularly; having a cumulative effect that can become significant over a long period. Some simulations have indicated that Mercury’s orbit could eventually cross that of Venus. Similar possibilities exist for Earth and Mars. This opens the possibility of a collision or other major event. These events are possible sometime in the next 5 billion years.
- Measurements indicate that Betelgeuse, the very large red star in Orion is shrinking. It appears that it has shrunk about 15% in the last 15 years. There are many theories as to why this apparent shrinkage has taken place. These vary from the impending collapse of the star to an undiscovered pulsing to bad measurements. More detail can be seen at www.newscientist.com/article/dn17282-betelgeuse-the-incredible-shrinking-star.html.
- Last month there was the incredible report of a teenager being struck by a red-hot meteorite the size of a pea. He was walking to school in his hometown of Essen in Germany. The meteorite hit his hand, bounced off and buried itself in the ground. The small rock was recovered, has been tested and definitely came from space. This is only the second ever recorded case of a person being struck by a meteorite and recovering (the last time was in Alabama in 1954).
- This month is the 40th anniversary of the first landing of a person on the moon. We have been bombarded with publicity about this which has clearly raised the profile of astronomy in the media.
- Two US probes LRO and LCROSS have recently been deployed to investigate the moon. The first will be crashed into the moon so that the material ejected from the crash site can be investigated for water. Before this happens there will be many other significant results. One so far is the photographing of all the Apollo landing sites. Resolution is good enough to see what is left of the landers and even the tracks left on the moon as a result of the movement of the lunar vehicle. Better resolution is hoped to come. Images can be seen at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html.
- Sunspots. Recent sunspot activity indicates that the exceptionally long and deep solar minimum may be passing. Helioseismology is being used to look for sunspots on the far side of the sun. Jetstreams have been found on the sun and it appears that their position is a trigger for sunspot activity. These jetstreams are not on the surface and thus not immediately visible. Hence the need for seismology to detect them. It appears that the jetstream reaching an angle of 22 degrees from the equator of the sun is a catalyst for sunspots.
- Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn has lines on it called "tiger stripes", some of which are spraying water into space. The water contains sodium and the particles emitted are thought responsible for one of the rings of the parent planet. It is possible that the jets of water are being fed from liquid water below the surface. This water is thought to be in contact with the rocky core and dissolving sodium from the rock.
- NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory has shed new light on the hydrogen gas clouds found about ten years ago which they called, "Blobs". The new discovery is that the power source for these blobs are black holes which are largely obscured by layers of gas and dust. More information can be found at news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cosmic-blobs-revealed/.
- Mars explorer "Spirit" is bogged. It has been for some time. A special sandpit has been made to simulate its predicament so that engineers can try out ideas to unbog it on earth. As well as the sand there is a rock under it that is causing trouble. It may be bogged permanently. More info at marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html. Meanwhile the other Mars rover "Opportunity" continues on its way.
- There could be a new type of black hole. There are two main types: stellar and supermassive. Stellar black holes occur when a star of the required type blows up while the supermassive black holes are the ones found at the centre of galaxies. It is now believed that there is an intermediate type which is thought to be the product of a number of stellar black holes joining.
June 2009
- Planet observation at the moment is:-
a. Saturn is in Leo, rings almost edge-on, moons easily visible.
b. The four other naked-eye planets are all clearly visible in the pre-dawn sky. At 5:30am Jupiter is high overhead; Venus is in the eastern sky with Mars not far below it and getting closer to it. Mercury is below these, closer to the horizon. - The hoax e-mail, chain letter, stating that Mars is going to attain great size and look as big and bright as the full moon is back in circulation. Win Howard has noticed that this correspondence (or similar) seem to reappear about this time each year since 2003. Apparently in the original article it was stated that through a telescope with a magnification of 75X Mars would appear as big in the eyepiece as the full moon does unmagnified. In 2003 Mars was at a very favourable opposition and subtended 25 arcseconds, making this statement substantially true. However, the three important parts of the letter about the close opposition, the 75X magnification and the unmagnified moon seem to have disappeared, making the story sound much better. Pity it also makes the story totally untrue.
- New light is being shed on dark energy through research at Siding Spring. This research, coupled with results from the Hubble Space Telescope is yielding the most accurate measurements to date of the rate of expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the force that is powering the expansion of the universe. The latest figure for the expansion rate of the universe is 74.2 kilometres per second per megaparsec. In this article, dated 9 May 2009, dark energy is described as, “the dark force pulling the universe apart”. What a concise and accurate description this is. For more detail see www.smh.com.au/world/science/shedding-light-on-the-dark-force-pulling-the-universe-apart-20090508-ay04.html.
- The final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope has concluded. Shuttle Atlantis has returned to earth and the mission was a great success. The HST is being tested and seems to be in very good order. People interested in the progress of this process can keep up to date at hubblesite.org/ .
- The two new telescopes, Planck and Herschel (which have been reported on in previous minutes of the Society) were successfully placed in space, both launched on the same rocket on 14 May 2009. They are now on their way to their positions in the shadow of the earth, approximately 1,500,000 km away.
- It seems that almost every month we have at least one article on exoplanets. This month an exoplanet (planet orbiting a star other than the sun) has been discovered by detecting a wobble in the position of a star in the sky. In the past these planets have been detected either by Doppler shift of their spectrum or the transit method. Both these methods have been described in previous meeting minutes.
- The "PHANTOM TORSO" has returned to earth. This is a limbless mannequin named Matroshka that has been on the International Space Station for months recording (via sensors) the amount of space radiation that astronauts are exposed to in space. The torso gives detail about how much radiation actually strikes vital organs of a person rather than just how much radiation is present in space. The torso actually contains some of a real human skeleton. Details can be found at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/MTR-2.html.
- Australia’s first new optical research telescope in 25 years has been unveiled on 25 May at Siding Spring. The name of the telescope is Skymapper and its main purpose is to map the southern sky. It contains Australia’s most sensitive digital camera. Most compact digital cameras have a resolution of around 5 to 15 megapixels. This one is the equivalent of 256 megapixels and is approximately 5,000,000 times more sensitive to light than the human eye. It is anticipated that the telescope will be fully operational later in 2009.
May 2009
- Another new telescope is in existence. The Zadco scope in Western Australia is designed to detect gamma ray bursts and has already detected one that occurred 11 billion years ago. Zadco recorded images of this before any other instrument.
- The task of accurately positioning the nearest 110000 galaxies to us has been recently completed by the Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring, Coonabarabran. The survey was called the Six-Degree Field Galaxy survey and, among other things, will allow researchers to understand galaxy movement better.
- Exoplanets are again in the news. The count is now over 350 and some of them are getting more and more Earth like. Two of the recently discovered ones are of particular interest. One is Earth sized and the other is in the habitable zone of its parent star. For those wanting more information on these the names of these planets are Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 e.
- The coolest (in temperature, not attractiveness) brown dwarf known has been discovered about 40 light years from earth. The brown dwarf has been named Wolf 940B after the red dwarf that it orbits (Wolf 940). The new discovery is about the size of Jupiter and has an infra red spectrum similar to Jupiter; however, it is about 25 times the density of Jupiter.
- A "Massive and mysterious gas blob" has been found. The view is believed to be when the universe was only about 800 million years old. It has been called Himiko. It was previously believed that an object like this did not exist at that time.
- Again there are reports that the decline in solar activity may affect climate change. This has been reported on many times in these meeting minutes. The solar minimum that we are now experiencing is the lowest since records have been taken but reliable records have only been taken since the 1970s.
- Another gamma ray burst has been spotted that is the most remote ever discovered. GRB 090423 (meaning that it was the first observed on 23/04/2009) is believed to be about 13 billion years distant. This burst indicates definitely that massive stars did exist at time (to provide the blast).
- The two European telescopes Planck and Herschel are to be launched on 14 May 2009. These are planned to be launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 launcher. They will be positioned about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.
- Astronomers have found the remains of ancient solar systems while looking at white dwarf stars. Chemical elements like calcium and magnesium that come from planets have been detected in the atmospheres of some white dwarf stars. In one star evidence of seventeen such elements has been detected. The composition of these elements closely matches that of the Earth and the Moon.
April 2009
- Researchers have seen the best evidence yet of a pair of black holes orbiting each other. We have double stars, why not double black holes? The pair are thought to be in a distant quasar. They are each believed to be at least 20 million times the mass of our sun. the black holes are separated by less than one third of a light year and orbit each other every 100 years.
- Another asteroid flew past, narrowly missing earth, on the night of 17 March. It missed us by 85000km and was about 40m in diameter. A good source of information like this is to be found at spaceweather.com/ for those interested.
- The asteroid that did collide with the earth over the desert in Sudan last October has an interesting follow-up article. It was believed that the asteroid exploded into dust about 37km above ground. However, two researchers and a large group of university students have searched the desert and found almost 280 pieces of the asteroid that made it to earth as meteorites. Never before have meteorites been collected from such a high-altitude explosion and they are different to any other meteorites studied before.
- One of Saturn’s moons, Iapetus has a very unusual bulge or ridge that encircles the moon and reaches a height of 20km in places. Astronomers have long been trying to find an explanation for this and now they have one that could explain its formation. The spin of the moon is slowing down. It now spins every 79 days. In its early history it is believed that the rotational period could have been as short as 16 hours. The theory is that warm ice rose to the surface and pushed brittle surface ice outward, forming a ridge at the equator. See the photo at the end of these minutes.
- In the March meeting report it was mentioned that the Kepler Observatory was about to be launched. This has now occurred and Kepler has now entered its final sun-centred orbit. The systems on the observatory are being checked and it should start its working life in about another month.
- Win read a very interesting story about what could happen to the earth if a major solar storm occurred. The largest solar storm known was the Carrington Event of 1859. This took only eighteen hours to travel from the sun to earth and caused havoc with the telegraph system of the day. If a similar event occurred today then there could be much more significant consequences due to our heavy reliance on electricity in modern life. Anyone wishing to read the story can consult the New Scientist website at www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127001.300-space-storm-alert-90-seconds-from-catastrophe.html?full=true.
March 2009
- The smallest planet of the ~330 so far discovered outside our solar system is a bit under twice the size of earth. The planet is rocky and has been named Corot-Exo-7b. This planet was discovered by the transit method. It appears that it is well outside the habitable zone of its solar system with a calculated surface temperature over 1,000°C.
- NASA will soon launch a mission with the Kepler space telescope. The launch is planned for 5 March 2009. This instrument is so sensitive that it should be able to detect earth-sized planets in distant solar systems that are orbiting in the habitable zone of the system (where water can exist in liquid form). The mission is planned to last for nearly four years.
- Many people are now aware of the collision between two satellites that occurred in early February about 800km above Siberia. In place of two complete satellites there are now many little satellites, each one in its own, different orbit. NASA believes that some of the fragments have already fallen through the orbit of the International Space Station.
- A telescope larger than any in space at the moment is ready for its travels into space. The Herschel space observatory (named after the astronomer William Herschel) has a 3.5 metre mirror made out of silicon carbide in ceramic form. It will observe in the far-infra-red part of the spectrum and the data is planned to be used to further understand how stars and galaxies form and evolve. Silicon Carbide is a very common material used in oilstones and grinding wheels. It is suspected that the mirror is a very different form of the substance. It is suggested that the instrument will be able to detect a light intensity similar to one million, million millionth of the brightness of a standard 60W globe (although they do not suggest at what distance this can be achieved).
- Nine partners, including one from Australia, have signed an agreement to construct the largest telescope ever made on earth. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will be situated in Chile and is due to begin operation in 2017. The giant scope will have seven mirrors, each around 8.4m in diameter. The images should be ten times sharper than the best current Hubble images.
- Yet another test for Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is planned. The aim is to finally detect gravity waves. Two pulsars, orbiting each other at a very close distance from each other should be emitting gravity waves. The two pulsars were only discovered six years ago and orbit each other in 2.5 hours. If theory is correct then the energy used to emit the gravity waves should result in the pulsars getting closer together as energy is lost from the system, some of this energy being gravity waves.
- Another possible future asteroid collision with earth has been forecast. The asteroid is called 1999 RQ36. It is about 560m in diameter and has a 1 in 1400 chance of colliding with the earth in about 160 years time.
- Further on asteroids near earth: a near miss occurred in the last few days (2 March) with an asteroid of around 35m diameter missing earth by 72000km. That is much closer than the moon. Australia was one of the places on earth in a good position to see the asteroid. Perhaps this would not be a good thing if it hit. This is a similar size to the one that did hit earth at the Tunguska event in Russia just over 100 years ago.
February 2009
- The Chinese have funded the design and construction of a 500m diameter radio telescope. At present the largest radio telescope is only 300m diameter and is fixed in place, unable to be moved for observations (see the official site, and this APOD image. The proposed design will have around 2000 individual parts of the disc, each about 15 metres square. The Chinese telescope will be able to move up to 40 degrees each side of the zenith (straight up) for observations. Construction has begun and is expected to be completed in 2014.
- Methane has been discovered in the atmosphere of Mars. This gas would be rapidly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere which indicates that it has been produced very recently. There is insufficient evidence to say whether the methane is coming from Martian life or from geological sources such as oxidation of iron, which can also produce that gas.
- The astronomical equivalent to the age old question, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" relates to the black holes found at the centre of many galaxies. Which came first: the black hole, which formed the galaxy OR the galaxy, which formed the black hole. Dr Chris Carilli from New Mexico presented research findings that indicate that the black holes started growing first. This was implied by studying the ratio between the size of the bulge in the central part of galaxies when compared to the mass of the black hole. It was found that in very young galaxies this ratio is different to that in older galaxies.
- The Milky Way has been calculated to be larger than previously thought. It has long been thought that the Milky Way is smaller than the neighbouring Andromeda galaxy. Recent measurements indicate that that the two galaxies are of similar total mass. It is interesting that these latest calculations include estimates of dark matter.
- Almost one year ago a flash was noticed in the sky. It turned out to be a very significant flash. It looked like a star. Nearly every star that can be seen with the naked eye in the sky is from our own galaxy. This flash came from a gamma ray burst originating over 7.5 billion light years away. This is roughly 3000 times the distance to the Andromeda galaxy (which is usually the most distant object of any type that can be seen with the naked eye). This was by far the greatest explosion ever witnessed by humans and has properties that are almost beyond comprehension.
- The Hubble Space Telescope has been soldiering on since its equipment malfunction last year. Much of its time has been spent looking for planets around stars other than the Sun. Recently the HST has detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of one of these planets. Carbon dioxide can indicate the presence of life but scientists believe that this planet orbits too near to its star for life to exist there. The planet is 65 light years from us and also has methane, carbon monoxide and water in its atmosphere.
[January 2009 - no meeting]
December 2008
- Glaciers, similar to some in Antarctica, have been discovered on Mars by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These contain vast quantities of water that have been buried under blankets of protective rocky debris. These reserves of water are at much lower latitudes than any previously discovered water on the planet. Radar echoes indicate the radar beam bouncing off a layer below the visible surface. The nature of the reflected beam indicates reasonably pure water with little rocky debris included.
- Related to the item above: gamma ray spectroscopy evidence from Mars Odyssey suggests the presence of vast oceans on ancient Mars. It indicates that oceans covered about one third of the Martian surface at one time.
- A new planet has been discovered orbiting a red giant star at a distance of only 0.6AU from the star (closer than Venus is to our sun). Again this planet was found by observing the regular changes in the spectral lines from the star. It is thought that observations of this planet may add to our knowledge of how dying stars influence nearby planets before the planet is consumed by the star. The star is 1200 light years from us, in Leo.
- Update on the Large Hadron Collider repairs. These repairs are now estimated to cost about $21 million and take about six months longer than previously thought. Despite this increase in cost the repairs will fall within the project’s budget.
- Further to the continuing debate on carbon emissions and global warming. One report suggests that a future ice age which is expected due to normal shifts in the earth’s orbit may be not occur due to the current changes in the carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere. This ice age was expected in about 10,000 years time. The researchers hasten to add that this is not an argument in favour of global warming, which could cause potentially far reaching damage to our climate system.
- A strange aurora has been discovered on Saturn. Cassini’s infrared camera has imaged this aurora near the polar ice cap. It is like no other known aurora anywhere and contradicts current knowledge of the magnetic field of the planet.
- The first actual images of a planet outside our solar system have been taken. The images are in both visible light and in infrared. The planet is orbiting a star 25 light years away. The main difficulty in capturing the light from far distant planets is that the light is drowned out by the light from the star that they are orbiting. Recent advances in optics have allowed astronomers to digitally subtract the light from the star, leaving the planet visible from heat (infrared) or the light from other nearby stars.
- An interesting report stated that on Wednesday 5 November 2008 a giant rocky body passed through the exact position in space that the earth was less than four hours earlier. The "rocky object" was thousands of kilometres in diameter and would have caused massive destruction had it collided with earth. Fortunately it is a lump of rock that we are all very familiar with: THE MOON. Due to the orbital geometry of the Earth and Moon, at around 9:02pm EST on Earth you could have looked at the Moon and known that it would be exactly where you were, about three hours and forty minutes later.
November 2008
- Some updates from items reported at previous meetings:
The asteroid that impacted earth on the day of the October monthly meeting apparently caused little disturbance to life on earth as it was in a remote part of Sudan as forecasted.
Update, 2009 March 28: 280 fragments have been recovered by a search team; see APOD for details. The Messenger space probe has taken the close-up images of the planet Mercury in its fly-by and some of these excellent images of a previously unseen part of our solar system are now available on the internet. The Fermi telescope (formerly GLAST) which was launched recently has discovered the first known gamma ray pulsar. Pulsars come from neutron stars and this one is almost invisible in all other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is estimated that the supernova from which this pulsar was formed would have happened about 1000 years ago and the frequency of the pulsar is about three cycles per second.
The failure of the communications module on the Hubble Space Telescope has been fixed by successfully booting the back-up system. This means that images from the HST can be stored and transmitted back to earth. The first images to come in since the module came on line are stunning. They are of excellent quality and show the result of a collision between two galaxies. The main picture is called ARP 147 and has been in the national papers. It is also available for viewing on the internet. The repair mission to HST is now planned for April-May next year.
- An unusual new heavenly body has been discovered. Little is known about it yet but it appears to be a planet (not in our solar system) similar to Jupiter in size but with a mass about 20 times that of Jupiter. This would make its density about twice that of lead. Perhaps it is a brown dwarf star?
- Yet another exoplanet has been discovered that is approximately 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter. The unusual property associated with this particular planet is that its surface temperature is about 2250°C due to its close proximity to its parent star, making it the hottest planet yet discovered.
- Temperature of a planet is very important in determining its suitability for life to exist. Another important, but often not considered property is the tidal forces exerted on the planet. Large tidal forces can cause great turbulence in the interior of a planet leading to volcanism making the planet less inhabitable.
- For some time there has been a suggestion of going to the moon and making astronomical observations from there. It has been further suggested that a telescope with a liquid mirror would be convenient as the mirror could be taken to the moon in a container (mirror in a bottle). A 6m, liquid mirror telescope is already in use on earth, based mainly on mercury as the liquid. Some problems would make such a project difficult on the moon: the mirror cannot be tilted or the liquid would run to one side, the mirror has to be continuously spun for the liquid to keep its shape and without atmosphere and its pressure mercury liquid would evaporate and be lost. It is now thought that certain ionic liquids (salts) may be a possible solution that could work on the moon.
- It is well known that sound does not travel through a vacuum. However, sound does travel very well through the body of a star. Scientists use a technique called Helioseismology to observe the sun. They can observe the effects of large sounds which emanate from the events on the other side of the sun.
- IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) is a mission that has been launched to measure the solar wind. In particular, to measure changes in the position of the boundary where the solar wind meets interstellar space and ceases to have an effect. One of the reasons for this mission is the apparent drop in the magnitude of the solar wind in recent years. The current estimate is of a reduction of 25% in the last decade. Cosmic radiation from outer space is largely absorbed by radiation from the sun in the solar wind. If the solar wind is declining then so will our protection from this radiation.
- Epsilon Eridani, a star that is high overhead early in the summer night sky is of interest at the moment. It is one of the nearest stars to us and is similar to the sun in many ways. The big difference between it and the sun is its age. It is estimated to be about 850 million years old whereas our sun is about 5 billion years old. Looking at this star is somewhat like looking at our own sun about 4 billion years ago. This star appears to have three separate ring systems around it. One appears to be in a similar position to our own asteroid belt. Another ring is at about the same distance from the star as Uranus is from the sun. A third ring system is much further out from the star. It is thought that this could be what the solar system was like in its early stage of formation. The presence of three distinct bands indicates that planets may be present with their influence forming the rings. Star Trek fans will remember that this is the star that is supposed to have the planet Vulcan orbiting it (Mr Spock’s home planet).
October 2008
- The Large Hadron Collider in Europe, near the border between Switzerland and France, has broken down. It will take 5 weeks for it to warm up so they can get in and start fixing it. It is believed that a poor electrical connection caused a leak of the liquid helium. A further delay will be encountered because there is an arrangement between the owners and the local electricity supplier that they will not draw greatly on the power grid during their winter months when demand is high. It will probably be well into next year before it gets back in operation again.
- The Hubble space telescope service mission has also struck a snag. Apparently a communication device on the HST failed last week. There is a back-up device which is being powered up. The mission has been delayed in order to allow the preparation of a replacement device for the one that just failed. It is fortunate that this breakdown occurred before the mission, which is now planned for sometime next year.
- Dark Matter was postulated as a result of observations that galactic motion did not fit in with conventional gravitational theory. The stars in the outer reaches of galaxies were observed to be orbiting much faster than predicted unless there was a large amount of matter that was not visible (dark). This matter was inventively called "missing matter" but it was not the matter that was missing, only the light from it that would allow us to see it. Hence the name "dark matter". Recent photographs have shown what appears to be clear evidence of gravitational lensing (indicating the presence of very massive objects) but no such object is visible. This is almost a photo of dark matter.
- It is believed that the first photo of a planet outside our solar system has been taken. The planet is about 8x Jupiter’s size and is orbiting about 300AU [Astronomical Units] from its star. Its temperature is about 1500°C, which is very hot for a planet, but very cool for the other possibility, a brown dwarf star.
- There is now another named dwarf planet in the solar system. It is named Haumea. This makes five named dwarf planets (Plutoids?) in our solar system. This one is not quite spherical due to its very rapid rotation causing a bulge at its "equator". Equatorial diameter is 1960km and polar diameter is only 1900km.
- Gamma ray bursts have featured recently. They are named from the day they are observed. Gamma Ray Burst GRB 080319B would mean 2008, March, 19th day. If more than one is recorded on the one day then the second would be followed by a "B". This particular GRB was bright enough to be observed at magnitude 5 in visible light (ie naked eye). It is believed to have come from about seven billion light years away.
- Another GRB observed last month had a spectrum suggesting that it came from 12.8 billion light years away. This is the furthest back in time that any GRB has been observed thus far.
- In 1979 Arthur C Clarke wrote a book called "Fountains of Paradise" in which he postulated geostationary satellites long before they became reality. His satellites in the book were connected to earth with cables which provided an "elevator" system where people and equipment could be ferried between the satellite and earth. This idea is now being investigated in Japan at a cost of $12 billion. The possible material for the cable is carbon nanotubes.
- Another book titled, "Worlds in Collision" proposed planets in our solar system colliding. Evidence has been found in the constellation of Aries of a dust cloud that is best explained by planets colliding in the past.
- The Sun is in its quiet phase and has been for some time. There has been no significant sunspot activity for 200 days (prior to 27/9/08 when this report was compiled). If this continues till the end of this year then this would be a "1 in 50 year" event. In the 17th century there was a period of no sunspot activity for about 60 years (the Maunder Minimum). This coincided with global cooling in which the River Thames uncharacteristically froze over many times. History seems to suggest that lack of sunspots with global cooling, yet we now have global warming.
- Messenger spacecraft is very close to Mercury and is taking high quality photographs of the side of the planet that has not been imaged before.
- At about 12:45pm today (7/10/08) the earth collided with an asteroid. It was so small that it was not expected to reach ground, but to burn up in the atmosphere over Sudan. [The asteroid duly entered the atmosphere as predicted. See this space.com page for more info.
September 2008
- The current "dance" of the planets with Venus, Mercury and Mars was outlined. They will continue to be in close proximity for some weeks and members were encouraged to watch the proceedings. The viewing of Mercury will be of higher than usual quality with it being quite well separated from the sun at this time.
- The Large Hadron Collider in Europe, near the border between Switzerland and France, is basically a large circular proton accelerator nearly 30km around its circumference. This machine should actually start colliding protons at full power about next January. Our two visitors at the meeting informed the secretary that very recently they both visited this site while in Europe and said that it was a very interesting project. They went back a second time for a closer look.
- The Hubble space telescope has recently completed its 100,000th orbit of earth since it was launched. It had travelled 2.72 billion kilometres around earth and its shuttle service mission is still on track for October this year. This mission should increase its capabilities and increase its useful life by 5-10 years.
- Members may recall the "Galaxy Zoo" project in which amateur astronomers were trained in galaxy classification and sent Hubble images to inspect and classify galaxies in the image as spiral, barred, irregular, etc. A Dutch teacher was participating in this project and found an object that she could not classify due to its unusual "U" shape. She queried it with the project professionals and they could not classify it either. This particular object has been further investigated by Hubble and other telescopes and its nature is still not determined. Current theory is that it could be a nebula that is being lit by a remote supernova. For the moment the object has an official name, which, in English, translates into "Hanna's Object", Hanna being the first name of the lady who found it.
- We all know that recently Pluto was demoted to the position of Dwarf Planet and subsequently to Plutoid status. Apparently the international body responsible has been approached to reconsider and there are suggestions that it should be reinstated to its status as a planet.
- Another solar system object has been discovered which is proving to be hard to classify. It satisfies many of the requirements to be called an either an asteroid or a comet but does not fully satisfy either of these. It is 50-60km in diameter (far larger than other comets) but its orbit around the sun is very elliptical when compared to asteroids. At aphelion (furthest from the sun) it is about 240 billion kilometres distant and at present is only about 3 billion kilometres out.
- Cassini is still in the vicinity of Saturn and on 11 August it passed by the moon Enceladus at the remarkably close distance of only 50km. Enceladus has a diameter of around 500km and has geyser-like eruptions, making its surface extremely reflective.
- Mary D'Souza, a scientist at a Queensland university has developed a plan to potentially save the earth from a possible future asteroid impact. In lay-person’s terms the plan is to wrap the asteroid in Mylar, which is a very reflective film that would change the solar pressure on the asteroid, pushing it slightly off its collision course. Apparently there is a possible event in 2036 for which this may be useful.
- NASA now has a number of telescopes in space that cover most of the electromagnetic spectrum. Members will be aware of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) that has recently been successfully deployed. In keeping with tradition (eg Hubble) this telescope has been renamed after a famous astronomer or scientist. It is now called the FERMI telescope, after Enrico Fermi, an Italian nuclear physicist who spent the later part of his life in the US. He was heavily involved with the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb but his selection for this telescope is due to his groundbreaking theory on how cosmic particles can be accelerated to very high velocity.
- Skymapper is a new telescope that we have operating is Australia. Its purpose is to survey the available sky at regular intervals and at reasonable resolution. It also has to be able to compare its latest survey with past results to look for changes. The telescope has a 50 inch (1.3m) mirror and produces fully automated, multi-colour images of about 5.7 degrees square.