A Day in Astronomy: The Beginning of the Final Frontier

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock from Star Trek. (Paramount Pictures)

On this day in 1966, NBC television broadcast the first episode of Star Trek. The new series lasted for three seasons. It was the beginning of a “cultural phenomena,” to quote Leonard Nimoy from the 1991 television special, Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special.

While it may not technically meet the definition of astronomy, it definitely impacted many astronomers and other scientists. In 2016, NASA wrote about the technology and ideas in the Star Trek series that later matched up with reality or might exist someday. Here are two examples:

Communicators: Like Star Trek communicators, cell phones are ubiquitous now, to an annoying extent, and images and videos made with them are now collected and exchanged obsessively. Landing parties in past Star Trek shows only gave verbal reports, and did not send back images and videos, as today’s people would.

Impulse Engines: These are rocket engines based on the fusion reaction. We don’t have the technology for them yet – they are far ahead of our present chemical-fueled rockets – but they are within the bounds of real, possible future engineering.

Some Star Trek episodes also mentioned ion drive. In recent decades, Russian, U.S., European, and Japanese spacecraft have used ion drive engines, known as Hall thrusters. They are much more efficient than the usual chemical rockets and have been capable of propelling probes to asteroids and comets in our solar system.

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss, writer of The Physics of Star Trek, also shared his insights on the influence of Star Trek in this video, Trek Talks: Lawrence Krauss on Star Trek and Science. He is among many who have seen the beneficial role of science fiction.

Fortunately, the Star Trek television and movie universe is going strong and can continue influencing young minds ready to explore this universe of ours.

Image (Credit): In 1976, NASA’s space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities and was greeted by NASA officials and cast members from the Star Trek television series. From left to right they are: NASA Administrator Dr. James D. Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed Dr. “Bones” McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Roddenberry; U.S. Rep. Don Fuqua (D.-Fla.); and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov). (NASA)

Extra: The pilot episode of Star Trek was named “The Man Trap.” It was not really the pilot but instead an episode in the wrong order, and the original pilot was dropped, but that is beside the point. The point is that it was bad. Really bad. You can read all about it in this article from Entertainment Weekly, “Star Trek Turns 50: A Look Back at the Desperately Sad First Episode.”

Image (Credit): Spock and Nancy in Star Trek’s “The Man Cage.” (Paramount Pictures)

A Day in Astronomy: The End of Pluto as a Planet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Pluto as captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

On this day in 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved a new definition of “planet” that excluded Pluto. The vote at the IAU approved the following definition of a planet:

  • is in orbit around the Sun,
  • has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and
  • has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pluto fails this last test. In fact, many other objects, including at least one that may be larger (Eris), lie in the same orbit as Pluto around the Sun. However, Pluto does meet the definition of a “dwarf” planet:

  • is in orbit around the Sun,
  • has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape,
  • has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and
  • is not a satellite.

Hence, Pluto meets this definition whereas Europa, which is larger than Pluto, does not because it fails the last two tests – it has not cleared the neighborhood and it is a satellite.

The IAU vote was not popular. As one editorial argued, the third criteria about clearing the neighborhood makes little sense:

That last criterion states that a planet must be the gravitationally dominant object in the area of space in which it orbits. This rule makes sense for somewhere like, say, Earth, which is far more massive that the Moon and anything else along its orbital path. But out in the Kuiper Belt, where neighbouring bodies are far, far more distant than in the inner Solar System, Earth would not necessarily be able to clear its neighbourhood.

He continues:

This argument predates the flyby of Pluto in July 2015 of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, but the images returned by that spacecraft really help make the case: Pluto is an enigmatic world with towering ice mountains, vast glaciers of nitrogen ice, a tenuous atmosphere, a thick, outer icy carapace and a probably liquid water ocean below, all atop a huge rocky interior. By any geological measure – including the fact that there are surface processes acting on Pluto today – Pluto is a planet.

This will get more interesting once we throw in the exoplanets. Stay tuned.

Image (Credit): Some of the known dwarf planets. (Socratic.org)

A Day in Astronomy: Curiosity Rover Arrives on Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s illustration of the Curiosity rover using its drill to core a rock sample on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

On this day in 2012, the Mars rover Curiosity landed on Mars (using Eastern Time). The rover was sent to the Red Planet to to explore the Gale crater and look for evidence that Mars had the conditions needed to support microscopic life in its past. A video from NASA walks you through the rover’s exploration to date and also highlights Maggie, Curiosity’s duplicate here on Earth.

An anniversary posting from NASA explains more about the mission, including issues with the rover’s drilling arm, wheels, and power supply. Life on Mars can be tough.

That said, the rover has already learned a lot after 10 years and it is expected to continue exploring in the years to come. NASA noted:

…most important, Curiosity has determined that liquid water as well as the chemical building blocks and nutrients needed for supporting life were present for at least tens of millions of years in Gale Crater. The crater once held a lake, the size of which waxed and waned over time. Each layer higher up on Mount Sharp serves as a record of a more recent era of Mars’ environment.

You can track the progress of the Curiosity rover using this website.

Image (Credit): NASA’s duplicate Mars rover called Maggie. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/JHU-APL)

A Day in Astronomy: First Men on the Moon

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Image (Credit): Neil Armstrong outside the Eagle lunar module on the surface of the Moon. (NASA)

On this day in 1969, two Apollo 11 crew members – commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin – became the first men to walk on the Moon. The two landed in NASA’s Eagle lunar module in the Sea of Tranquility and remained on the Moon’s surface for about 21 hours and 36 minutes collecting samples, placing scientific equipment, and photographing/filming the terrain.  The astronauts also spoke with President Nixon while on the Moon.

You can rewatch the ABC News video feed here showing Neil Armstrong as he steps on the surface of the Moon and famously states, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

You can read more about the Apollo 11 mission here.

Image (Credit): Apollo 11 mission patch. (NASA)

A Day in Astronomy: Cassini Orbits Saturn

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Image (Credit): On July 29, 2011, Cassini captured five of Saturn’s moons in a single frame with its narrow-angle camera. This is a full-color look at a view that was originally published in September 2011. Moons visible in this view: Janus is on the far left; Pandora orbits just beyond the thin F ring near the center of the image; brightly reflective Enceladus appears above center; Saturn’s second largest moon, Rhea, is bisected by the right edge of the image; and the smaller moon Mimas is seen just to the left of Rhea.. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

On this day 2004, the Cassini spacecraft entered the orbit of Saturn. A collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency, the mission containing NASA’s Cassini space probe and ESA’s Huygens probe was launched in October 15, 1997. Cassini remained in orbit around Saturn from 2004 to 2007. The Cassini spacecraft spent 20 years in space – 13 of them exploring Saturn and its moons.

The ESA’s Huygen’s probe entered the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon Titan on January 14, 2005 to study the moon’s smog-like atmosphere and take pictures from the surface. The probe was not designed to survive past landing, though it was able to take photos for about three hours before it died. You can watch the probe enter Titan’s atmosphere in this video from ESA.

Image (Credit): An artist’s concept of the Huygens probe on Titan. (NASA)