Voyager Reaches the Final Frontier

Courtesy NASA/JPL
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This artist's concept puts solar system distances in perspective. The scale bar is in astronomical units, with each set distance beyond 1 AU representing 10 times the previous distance. One AU is the distance from the sun to the Earth, which is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun, is about 30 AU.
Informally, the term "solar system" is often used to mean the space out to the last planet. Scientific consensus, however, says the solar system goes out to the Oort Cloud, the source of the comets that swing by our sun on long time scales. Beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, the gravity of other stars begins to dominate that of the sun.
The inner edge of the main part of the Oort Cloud could be as close as 1,000 AU from our sun. The outer edge is estimated to be around 100,000 AU.
NASA's Voyager 1, humankind's most distant spacecraft, is around 125 AU. Scientists believe it entered interstellar space, or the space between stars, on Aug. 25, 2012. Much of interstellar space is actually inside our solar system. It will take about 300 years for Voyager 1 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly about 30,000 years to fly beyond it.
Alpha Centauri is currently the closest star to our solar system. But, in 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will be closer to the star AC +79 3888 than to our own sun. AC +79 3888 is actually traveling faster toward Voyager 1 than the spacecraft is traveling toward it.
The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

So...did Voyager 1 leave the Solar System? Astronomer Phil Plait shares his thoughts: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/09/13/voyager_1_space_probe_is_in_now_in_interstellar_space.html

Here are some more great links about Voyager 1's interstellar journey.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20130912.html

What does Interstellar space sound like? Click here.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/interstellarvoyager/

For those who want to like to get technical, here is a paper about the sudden loss of Cosmic Rays back in August 2012. http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1212/1212.0883.pdf

From the Twitter of William Shatner!

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Super Earth Gliese 1214b Might Hold Water

Might this distant planet hold water? Actually, given how close Gliese 1214b is to its parent star, any water, if it exists, would surely be in the form of steam. In theabove artist's illustration, the super-Earth Gliese 1214b is imagined passing in front of its parent star, creating a mini-eclipse that alerted humanity to its presence. Gliese 1214b, also designated GJ 1214b, has been designated a super-Earth because it is larger than the Earth but smaller a planet likeNeptune. The entire Gliese 1214 planetary system is of the closest known systems to our Sun, located only 42 light years away. The parent star, Gliese 1214 is a slightly smaller and cooler version of our Sun.Recent observations from the Subaru telescope in Hawaii found very littlescattering of blue light from the parent star by the planet. This appears most consistent with a planet that has a watery atmosphere -- although it is still possible that the super-Earth has clouds so thick that little of any color of light was scattered. Detecting water on exoplanets is important partly because most lifeforms on Earth need water to survive.

Annular Eclipse of the Sun, as Seen by Curiosity

This set of three images shows views three seconds apart as the larger of Mars' two moons, Phobos, passed directly in front of the sun as seen by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.  Curiosity photographed this annular, or ring, eclipse with the telephoto-lens camera of the rover's Mast Camera pair (right Mastcam) on Aug. 17, 2013, the 369th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. Curiosity paused during its drive that sol for a set of observations that the camera team carefully calculated to record this celestial event. The rover's observations of Phobos help make researchers' knowledge of the moon's orbit even more precise.  Because this eclipse occurred near mid-day at Curiosity's location on Mars, Phobos was nearly overhead, closer to the rover than it would have been earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon. This timing made Phobos' silhouette larger against the sun -- as close to a total eclipse of the sun as is possible from Mars.

Image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M Univ.

A Spectrum of Nova Delphini

When a new star appeared in the constellation Delphinus late last week,astronomers found its spectrum hinted at the apparition's true nature. Now known as Nova Delphini, its visible light spectrumnear maximum brightness is centered in this image of the nearby star field captured withprism and telescope on the night of August 16/17 at the Sternwarte Bülach, Switzerland. Strong absorption lines due to hydrogen atoms are seen as the darkest bands in the nova's spectrum, but the strong absorption lines are bordered along their redward edge by bright bands of emission. That pattern is the spectral signature of material blasted from a catalysmic binary system known as a classical nova. Other stars in field are fainter, identified by theirHipparcus catalog numbers, brightness inmagnitudes, and spectral types. By chance, the faint emission line from planetary nebula NGC 6905 was also included, indicated at the lower right.

Hubble Peers at a Cosmic Optical Illusion

At first glance, this Hubble picture appears to capture two space giants entangled in a fierce celestial battle, with two galaxies entwined and merging to form one. But this shows just how easy it is to misinterpret the jumble of sparkling stars and get the wrong impression — as it’s all down to a trick of perspective. 

By chance, these galaxies appear to be aligned from our point of view. In the foreground, the irregular dwarf galaxy PGC 16389 — seen here as a cloud of stars — covers its neighboring galaxy APMBGC 252+125-117, which appears edge-on as a streak. This wide-field image also captures many other more distant galaxies, including a quite prominent face-on spiral towards the right of the picture. 

Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola Mission: Hubble 

Astrophotography Report (Nova Del 2013)

BOOM!
Photo obtained from AAVSO

On August 14, 2013 Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan found a nova in an image he had taken of Delphinus. This nova or "new star", was not present in a previous image he had taken the night before. news spread quickly of the nova. It did not take long for it to be confirmed. The nova's initial brightness was just under the naked eye limit. It steadily brightened to just under mag 4.5. Anyone at a dark site would be able to see it without the aid of binoculars or a telescope. It was a bit tougher under light polluted skies as I found out. Use this star chart to help you find the nova.

A nova in the making.
Image obtained from Universe Today

So what is a nova?

You might be thinking, 'oh you mean its a Supernova?', No. A supernova is basically when a star destroys itself in a massive explosion. A nova occurs when a when a White Dwarf pulls hydrogen from its companion star. The hydrogen reaches the surface of the white dwarf where it is compacted and heated. The hydrogen piles up until it is dense enough and explodes like a bazillion thermonuclear bombs. This process typically repeats itself several times.

So, now to my story.

After hearing of the news of the nova I was excited to get back outside and try to photograph it. Thunderstorms developed on the afternoon of the 15th threatening my chances of observing. This was going to be my first time seeing a stellar explosion only hours after it appeared. Thankfully the skies began to clear shortly after 10pm, but, thunderstorms had formed to the West of Houston. Even though they were not going to move our way, the cloud tops were being blown East. This meant there was a small window of clear skies.

I went outside, set up the camera and started snapping a few test shots to make sure I had my settings dialed in. I had no idea where Delphinus was. Thankfully with help from an app and star charts I was able to find the stars I had determined would help me point to the nova. I zoomed in to the star Altair and snapped a photo. Altair was in the center pf my photo, Delphinus and Sagitta, my other two guide constellations were to the left. I moved my camera to where both constellations were in the center and Altair was over to the right. I snapped several photos adjusting my focus here and there. After several minutes I could see those clouds moving in from the west. So I called it a night and went inside.

Pulling the images off my camera I quickly zeroed in on one. I could see all the constellations and stars I had determined would help me find the nova. Right in the middle of all of them was a star. According to everything I had used that was Nova Del 2013. But when I would compare my image to star charts, there were a few very slight differences. Plus let's be honest. I have never done anything like this before. I can find constellations using charts but anything in between dont count on it. I spent about an hour trying to confirm on my own if I had found the nova. Eventually I posted the photo to the Houston Astronomical Society (HAS), forum and I sent the same photo via Twitter to AAVSO

The morning of the 16th I awoke to a reply from AAVSO, "Mike, Thats It, NICE Job!". All day reports were coming in that the nova was still getting brighter. Those reports continued till late on the afternoon of the 16th, when the brightness was reported to have stabilized. I had found, seen, and photographed my first explosion in space!

Nova Delphinus 2013
Seen through a 55mm lens.

Thunderstorms again formed on the evening of August 16th. Again it would be a close call as to when the clouds would clear. For me I would only be able to observe this area of the sky till about midnight. After that my view would be obstructed by trees. This time I got brave. I pulled out my 70-300mm camera lens. I was going to capture that nova as close as I could. The skies cleared on my side of town about 10pm. As I did on the 14th, I started by taking a few test shots. I could barely make out the nova with my naked eye. Using my 55mm lens I could tell the nova was brighter. I attached my big lens and slowly zoomed in, taking a photo every so often to make sure I was centered on the nova. I snapped several photos at 300mm & 200mm. I finally called it a night after about an hour. It was very humid and I was sweating buckets.

Nova Delphinus 2013
Seen at 200mm.

Going over the photos I could see that all the photos taken at 300mm were not really going to work. Even though I was doing 5sec exposures, zoomed in that close the stars still move just enough to produce star trails in the image. Thankfully the images I shot at 200mm all came out.

It was exciting sharing this experience with others around the world. To see the reports flood in for two days. To see the nova for myself with my eyes and through my camera and binoculars was awesome! That i could see this happening to a star possibly thousands of light years away.

With the help of HAS this will hopefully be the second of many other observations of the night sky.

I would like to thank the folks at AAVSO for their helping me confirm I had found the nova. Thank you to Universe Today and Sky & Telescope for the very helpful star charts. Also thank you to HAS for providing the forums where I have been sharing most of my images with other local star gazers. For those wondering the app I used was Distant Suns

UPDATE 8-19-2013:

Just wanted to post a small update. Went back out last night, 8-18-13, and snapped a photo of Nova Del 2013 at 300mm. Its still visible through binoculars. The magnitude or brightness has dimmed some, but has remained steady for the last two and a half days. This will most likely be my last photograph of the nova. Unless it completely disappears or something dramatic happens.

Nova Del 2013
Seen at 300mm

Astrophotography 8-13-2013 (Satellite)

Before may of this year, I had not expeirence with astrophotography using a DSLR camera. Even now my experiences so far have mostly been reading a few tips in my books, running outside with the camera snapping away and looking over the results later. Hopefully learning something each time. Tonight I finally found the zone I believe is correct. Also, I might not know a lot about astrophotography, but I know even less about image processing. So the images I present here have very very little processing. All I have done is and "Auto Contrast" and a Color Inversion.

 I basically started out the same. Going outside picking a target take a shot, view the result, make any adjustments if needed, and repeat. Towards the end of my secession I pointed the camera straight up and took a photo. When I looked at it I noticed a small faint white streak at the top. So quickly I took another. There it was again! But in a different position. I took 3 more shots finally realizing what it might be. A satellite passing overhead. I have seen satellites passing overhead at the George observatory. But i never thought I would capture one on camera in the middle of light polluted skies.

My camera is a Nikon D3100. The lens I was using is a Nikkor 18-55mm. I was zoomed all the way in. 800 ISO at a 5 sec exposure.

Click to enlarge!