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May 22, 2017 by Fraser Cain

The Mars Project! Von Braun’s Ideas for a Mars Mission. Collaboration with Vintage Space

Did you know that it’s been almost 45 years since humans walked on the surface of the Moon? Of course you do. Anyone who loves space exploration obsesses about the last Apollo landings, and counts the passing years of sadness.

Sure, SpaceX, Blue Origins and the new NASA Space Launch Systems rocket offer a tantalizing future in space. But 45 years. Ouch, so much lost time.

What would happen if we could go back in time? What amazing and insane plans did NASA have to continue exploring the Solar System? What alternative future could we have now, 45 years later?

In order to answer this question, I’ve teamed up with my space historian friend, Amy Shira Teitel, who runs the Vintage Space blog and YouTube Channel. We’ve decided to look at two groups of missions that never happened.

In her part, Amy talks about the Apollo Applications Program; NASA’s original plans before the human exploration of the Moon was shut down. More Apollo missions, the beginnings of a lunar base, and even a human flyby of Venus.

In my half of the series, I look at Werner Von Braun’s insanely ambitious plans to send a human mission to Mars. Put it together with Amy’s episode and you can imagine a space exploration future with all the ambition of the Kerbal Space Program.

Keep mind here that we’re not going to constrain ourselves with the pesky laws of physics, and the reality of finances. These ideas were cool, and considered by NASA engineers, but they weren’t necessarily the best ideas, or even feasible.

So, 2 parts, tackle them in any order you like. My part begins right now.

Werner Von Braun, of course, was the architect for NASA’s human spaceflight efforts during the space race. It was under Von Braun’s guidance that NASA developed the various flight hardware for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions including the massive Saturn V rocket, which eventually put a human crew of astronauts on the Moon and safely returned them back to Earth.

Wernher von Braun. Credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

Von Braun was originally a German rocket scientist, pivotal to the Nazi “rocket team”, which developed the ballistic V-2 rockets. These unmanned rockets could carry a 1-tonne payload 800 kilometers away. They were developed in 1942, and by 1944 they were being used in war against Allied targets.

By the end of the war, Von Braun coordinated his surrender to the Allies as well as 500 of his engineers, including their equipment and plans for future rockets. In “Operation Paperclip”, the German scientists were captured and transferred to the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, where they would begin working on the US rocket efforts.

Von Braun and others standing in front a V-2 rocket engine at White Sands. Credit: U.S. Army/ Ordway Collection/Space Rocket Center

Before the work really took off, though, Von Braun had a couple of years of relative downtime, and in 1947 and 1948, he wrote a science fiction novel about the human exploration of Mars.

The novel itself was never published, because it was terrible, but it also contained a detailed appendix containing all the calculations, mission parameters, hardware designs to carry out this mission to Mars.

In 1952, this appendix was published in Germany as “Das Marsproject”, or “The Mars Project”. And an English version was published a few years later. Collier’s Weekly Magazine did an 8-part special on the Mars Project in 1952, captivating the world’s imagination.

Here’s the plan: In the Mars Project, Von Braun envisioned a vast armada of spaceships that would make the journey from Earth to Mars. They would send a total of 10 giant spaceships, each of which would weigh about 4,000 tonnes.

Just for comparison, a fully loaded Saturn V rocket could carry about 140 tonnes of payload into Low Earth Orbit. In other words, they’d need a LOT of rockets. Von Braun estimated that 950 three-stage rockets should be enough to get everything into orbit.

Ships being assembled in orbit. Credit: Collier’s

All the ships would be assembled in orbit, and 70 crewmembers would take to their stations for an epic journey. They’d blast their rockets and carry out a Mars Hohmann transfer, which would take them 8 months to make the journey from Earth to Mars.

The flotilla consisted of 7 orbiters, huge spheres that would travel to Mars, go into orbit and then return back to Earth. It also consisted of 3 glider landers, which would enter the Martian atmosphere and stay on Mars.

Once they reached the Red Planet, they would use powerful telescopes to scan the Martian landscape and search for safe and scientifically interesting landing spots. The first landing would happen at one of the planet’s polar caps, which Von Braun figured was the only guaranteed flat surface for a landing.

A rocket-powered glider descending towards Mars. Credit: Collier’s

At this point, it’s important to note that Von Braun assumed that the Martian atmosphere was about as thick as Earth’s. He figured you could use huge winged gliders to aerobrake into the atmosphere and land safely on the surface.

He was wrong. The atmosphere on Mars is actually only 1% as thick as Earth’s, and these gliders would never work. Newer missions, like SpaceX’s Red Dragon and Interplanetary Transport Ship will use rockets to make a powered landing.

I think if Von Braun knew this, he could have modified his plans to still make the whole thing work.

Landed at the polar cap. Credit: Collier’s

Once the first expedition landed at one of the polar caps, they’d make a 6,400 kilometer journey across the harsh Martian landscape to the first base camp location, and build a landing strip. Then two more gliders would detach from the flotilla and bring the majority of the explorers to the base camp. A skeleton crew would remain in orbit.

Once again, I think it’s important to note that Von Braun didn’t truly understand how awful the surface of Mars really is. The almost non-existent atmosphere and extreme cold would require much more sophisticated gear than he had planned for. But still, you’ve got to admire his ambition.

Preparing the gliders for rocket-powered ascent. Credit: Collier’s

With the Mars explorer team on the ground, their first task was to turn their glider-landers into rockets again. They would stand them up and get them prepped to blast off from the surface of Mars when their mission was over.

The Martian explorers would set up an inflatable habitat, and then spend the next 400 days surveying the area. Geologists would investigate the landscape, studying the composition of the rocks. Botanists would study the hardy Martian plant life, and seeing what kinds of Earth plants would grow.

Zoologists would study the local animals, and help figure out what was dangerous and what was safe to eat. Archeologists would search the region for evidence of ancient Martian civilizations, and study the vast canal network seen from Earth by astronomers. Perhaps they’d even meet the hardy Martians that built those canals, struggling to survive to this day.

Once again, in the 1940s, we thought Mars would be like the Earth, just more of a desert. There’d be plants and animals, and maybe even people adapted to the hardy environment. With our modern knowledge, this sounds quaint today. The most brutal desert on Earth is a paradise compared to the nicest place on Mars. Von Braun did the best he could with the best science of the time.

Finally, at the end of their 400 days on Mars, the astronauts would blast off from the surface of Mars, meet up with the orbiting crew, and the entire flotilla would make the return journey to Earth using the minimum-fuel Mars-Earth transfer trajectory.

The planned trajectories to and from Mars. Credit: Collier’s

Although Von Braun got a lot of things wrong about his Martian mission plan, such as the thickness of the atmosphere and habitability of Mars, he got a lot of things right.

He anticipated a mission plan that required the least amount of fuel, by assembling pieces in orbit, using the Hohmann transfer trajectory, exploring Mars for 400 days to match up Earth and Mars orbits. He developed the concept of using orbiters, detachable landing craft and ascent vehicles, used by the Apollo Moon missions.

The missions never happened, obviously, but Von Braun’s ideas served as the backbone for all future human Mars mission plans.

I’d like to give a massive thanks to the space historian David S.F. Portree. He wrote an amazing book called Humans to Mars, which details 50 years of NASA plans to send humans to the Red Planet, including a fantastic synopsis of the Mars Project.

I asked David about how Von Braun’s ideas influenced human spaceflight, he said it was his…

“… reliance on a conjunction-class long-stay mission lasting 400 days. That was gutsy – in the 1960s, NASA and contractor planners generally stuck with opposition-class short-stay missions. In recent years we’ve seen more emphasis on the conjunction-class mission mode, sometimes with a relatively short period on Mars but lots of time in orbit, other times with almost the whole mission spent on the surface.”

May 22, 2017May 22, 2017 by Tammy Plotner

Messier 43 – the De Marian’s Nebula

The De Mairan's Nebula (aka. Messier 43) and the Orion Nebula. Credit: Wikisky

Welcome back to Messier Monday! In our ongoing tribute to the great Tammy Plotner, we take a look at Orion’s Nebula’s “little brother”, the De Marian’s Nebula!

During the 18th century, famed French astronomer Charles Messier noted the presence of several “nebulous objects” in the night sky. Having originally mistaken them for comets, he began compiling a list of them so that others would not make the same mistake he did. In time, this list (known as the Messier Catalog) would come to include 100 of the most fabulous objects in the night sky.

One of these if the diffuse nebula known as the De Marian’s Nebula (aka. Messier 43). Located in the direction of the Orion constellation (in close proximity to the Orion Nebula), this nebula lies at a distance of 1,600 light years from Earth. Together with the Orion Nebula, it is part of one of the most active star-forming regions visible in the night sky.

Description:

The diffuse nebula M43 surrounds the variable star N U Orionis (HD 37061) – a rather cool, young star cooking in a rich HII region. But is the light that’s reaching us actually coming through a tunnel in this dusty cloud? As Karl Wurm and Mario Perinotto explained in a 1970 study:

“Most of the areas with identical monochromatic features show a high deficiency of cluster stars correlated with a low surface brightnesss and a reduced gas density. This is explained by an opaqueness of the emission strata in the direction in the line of sight and a position of the same nearer to the observer than the extension of the cluster. There appear surface structures at large distances from the Trapezium which show a correlation between the intensity of scattered star light and the intensity of the emission of the higher ions ([Oiii], [Neiii]). This observation is considered as a proof that canals through the nebular cloud complex allow in some directions the exciting radiation to reach large distances from the star without having suffered an appreciable absorption or scattering.”

De Mairan’s Nebula, M43, NGC 1982. Image: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team — *De Mairan’s Nebula, M43, NGC 1982. Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA)/Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team*

However, N U is far from being alone…. The whole complex is littered with stars being born! As Bo Reipurth (et al), stated in a 1999 study:

“The OMC-2/3 molecular clouds contain one of the highest concentrations of protostars known in nearby molecular clouds. We have observed an area of about 6 × 15 (0.8 pc × 2 pc) covering the OMC-2/3 region with the Very Large Array in the D configuration at 3.6 cm, matching well the area of a recent 1300 m survey. We detected 14 sources, of which it is highly probable that 11 sources are either protostars or very young stars. This testifies to the star-forming activity and extreme youth of the OMC-2/3 region. The 3.6 cm flux is free-free emission probably due to shocks in outflowing material. Three of the sources are extended even with the relatively low resolution of the present observations, and two of these may be collimated radio jets. The large fraction of submillimeter continuum sources that have a radio continuum counterpart is evidence that outflow is already common at the very earliest evolutionary stages. No relation is found between the radio continuum flux and the 1300 m flux of the associated submillimeter dust clumps.”

History of Observation:

In 1731, Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan was the first to notice this independent portion of the Orion nebula, stating:

“Finally I will add that close to the luminous space in Orion [M42], one sees the star d of Huygens [NU Orionis] currently (1731) surrounded by a brilliance very similar to that which produces, as I believe, the atmosphere of our Sun, if it were dense enough and extensive enough to be visible in Telescopes at a similar distance. See it in the form and the situation [given by] D, according to what was determined with the Reticule.”

On March 4, 1771, Charles Messier would also come to the same conclusion as he states in his observing notes:

“The star which is above, and has little distance from that nebula, and of which is spoken in the Traite de l’Aurore boreale [Treat of the Northern Light] by M. de Mairan is surrounded, and equally by a very thin light; the star doesn’t have the same brilliance as the four of the great nebula: its light is pale, and it appears covered by fog. I determined its position; its right ascension was 81d 3′ 0″, and its declination 5d 26′ 37″ south.”

*Close-up view of the Orion Nebula’s little brother, Messier 43, taken by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA*

While Sir William Herschel was very careful not to assign his own catalog numbers to Messier Objects, he, too, was fascinated by the M43 region. In his personal notes he writes:

“In the year 1774, the 4th of March, I observed the nebulous star, which is the 43d of the Connoissance des Temps and is not many minutes north of the great nebula; but at the same time I also took notice of two similar, but much smaller nebulous stars; one on each side of the large one, and at nearly equal distance from it. Fig. 37 is a copy of the drawing which was made at the time of observation.

“In 1783, I reexamined the nebulous star, and found it to be faintly surrounded with a circular glory of whitish nebulosity, faintly joined to the great nebula. About the latter end of the same year I remarked that it was not equally surrounded, but most nebulous toward the south.

“In 1784, I began to entertain an opinion that the star was not connected with the nebulosity of the great nebula in Orion, but was one of those which are scattered over that part of the heavens.

“In 1801, 1806, and 1810 this opinion was fully confirmed, by the gradual change which happened in the great nebula, to which the nebulosity surrounding this star belongs. For the intensity of the light about the nebulous star had by this time been considerably reduced, by attenuation or dissipation of nebulous matter; and it seemed now to be pretty evident that the star is far behind the nebulous matter, and that consequently its light in passing through it is scattered and deflected, so as to produce the appearance of a nebulous star. A similar phenomenon may be seen whenever a planet or a star of the 1st or 2nd magnitude happens to be involved in haziness; for a diffused circular light will then be seen, to which, but in a much inferior degree, that which surrounds this nebulous star bears a great resemblance.

“When I reviewed this interesting object in December 1810, I directed my attention particularly to the two small nebulous stars, by sides of the large one, and found that they were perfectly free from every nebulous appearance; which confirmed not only my former surmise of the great attenuation of the nebulosity, but also proved that their former nebulous appearance had been entirely the effect of the passage of their feeble light through the nebulous matter spread out before them.

The 19th of January 1811, I had another critical examination of the same object in a very clear view through the 40-feet telescope; but notwithstanding the superior light of this instrument, I could not perceive any remains of nebulosity about the two small stars, which were perfectly clear, and in the same situation, where about thirty-seven years before I had seen them involved in nebulosity.”

May this wonderful region entertain your brain for as many years as it did Bill Herschel!

*The location of Messier 43 in the constellation of Orion. Credit: IAU/Sky & Telescope magazine (Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg)*

Locating Messier 43:

Locating M43 is as easy as locating… well… M42! This small star cluster accompanied by an emission/reflection nebula just to the north of the Orion Nebula’s “Trapezium” region is often mistake for part of the great nebula itself. However, if you look closely, you’ll see the two are separated by a dark dust lane.

Begin by locating the asterism of three stars known as Orion’s Belt. If you cover it with your fist held at arm’s length in a “thumb’s down” gesture with your left hand, the tip of your thumb will just about mark the correct spot in the sky. From a dark location when no Moon is present, you can easily see the haze of the Orion nebula surrounding the stars in the “sword” asterism. While it is easily seen in binoculars on a dark night, it will fade significantly under light pollution or moonlight.

And here are the quick facts on Messier 43 to help you get started:

Object Name: Messier 43
Alternative Designations: M43, NGC 1982, De Mairan’s Nebula, Companion of the Orion Nebula
Object Type: Emission/Reflection Nebula and Open Cluster
Constellation: Orion
Right Ascension: 05 : 35.6 (h:m)
Declination: -05 : 16 (deg:m)
Distance: 1.3 (kly)
Visual Brightness: 9.0 (mag)
Apparent Dimension: 20×15 (arc min)

We have written many interesting articles about Messier Objects here at Universe Today. Here’s Tammy Plotner’s Introduction to the Messier Objects, , M1 – The Crab Nebula, M8 – The Lagoon Nebula, and David Dickison’s articles on the 2013 and 2014 Messier Marathons.

Be to sure to check out our complete Messier Catalog. And for more information, check out the SEDS Messier Database.

Sources:

May 20, 2017May 22, 2017 by Ken Kremer

Digital Society Boosted by Stunning SpaceX Launch Delivering Inmarsat Mobile Broadband Satellite to Orbit – Photo/Video Gallery

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying commercial Inmarsat 5 F4 broadband satellite blasts off to geostationary orbit at twilight at 7:20 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A on 15 May 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – The worlds emerging ‘Digital Society’ gained a big boost following SpaceX’s stunningly beautiful twilight launch of a Falcon 9 that successfully delivered the huge 6.7 ton mobile Inmarsat-5 F4 broadband satellite to orbit for London-based Inmarsat on Monday, May 15.

SpaceX blasted the “largest and most complicated communications satellite ever built to orbit” for Inmarsat, the Inmarset CEO Rupert Pearce told Universe Today in a post launch interview at the Kennedy Space Center on May 15.

Inmarsat-5 F4 will eventually serve upwards of “hundreds of millions” of government, military, commercial and everyday customers on land, at sea and in the air as part of the firm’s satellite constellation forming the Global Xpress (GX) network, he explained.

“This has obviously been an absolutely exceptional performance from SpaceX,” Peace elaborated.

The twilight sendoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the commercial Inmarsat-5 Flight 4 communications satellite for High-Speed mobile broadband provider Inmarsat occurred at 7:21 p.m. EDT (or 23:21 UTC) on Monday evening, May 15, from SpaceX’s seaside Launch Complex 39A on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:20 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A on 15 May 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida which successfully delivered Inmarsat-5 F4 broadband satellite to orbit. Credit: Julian Leek

The spectacular liftoff events were captured by journalists and tourists gathered from around the globe to witness history in the making with their own eyeballs.

Check out this expanding gallery of eyepopping photos and videos from several space journalist colleagues and friends and myself – for views you won’t see elsewhere.

Click back as the gallery grows !

The Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite is designed to provide high speed broad band service to government, military, maritime and aviation users and ship and airplane customers numbering in the millions to tens of millions of customers now and potentially hundreds of millions of customers in the future.

It was the heaviest payload ever launched by a Falcon 9.

I asked CEO Peace to explain the customer based expected for the Global Xpress (GX) network.

“We expect to reach millions to tens of millions of customers,” Pearce told me.

“At the moment we are making huge strides with the first three satellites – serving governments around the world; most notably the US government and US defense department.”

“And serving the maritime industry. And serving the aviation industry.”

“We are looking at a world where suddenly passengers want wifi on the aircraft they are flying on. So we could be talking about hundreds of millions of customers [passengers] on aircraft being served by that satellite in the years to come.”

The new I-5 F4 satellite joins a constellation of 3 others already in orbit as part of a US$1.6 billion investment forming the firms transformational Global Xpress (GX) network.

“Inmarsat Global Xpress has been in operation delivering seamless, high-speed broadband connectivity across the world since December 2015,” says Inmarsat.

“Inmarsat GX is the world’s first globally available, broadband connectivity service and was created to enable communities across the world to benefit from the emerging digital society.”

Check out these exquisite videos from a wide variety of vantage points including remote cameras at the pad, Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral media viewing sites and public viewing locations off base.

Video Caption: SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of the Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite from Pad 39A. The I-5 F4 is the fourth Ka-band, mobile broadband satellite launched for the Global Xpress constellation, it was built by Boeing Network and Space Systems. Credit: Jeff Seibert

Video Caption: Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 on May 15, 2017 from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center carrying Inmarsat-5 F4 broadband satellite to geosynchronous orbit for the Global Xpress constellation – as seen in this remote video taken at the pad. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully delivered the gigantic bus sized 7 meter long Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) under brilliant blue and nearly cloudless twilight skies from the Florida Space Coast.

Liftoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 15 May 2017 at 7:20 p.m. EDT that delivered commercial Inmarsat 5 F4 broadband satellite to geostationary orbit from Launch Complex 39A from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

The 6,100 kg (13,400 lbs) Inmarsat-5 Flight 4 communications satellite was built by Boeing at their satellite operations facility in El Segundo, CA for Inmarsat.

TInmarsat 5 F4 counts as the sixth SpaceX launch of 2017.

And SpaceX continues tracking on an absolutely torrid launch pace. Monday’s liftoff took place just 2 weeks after the prior successful SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff on May 1 of the super secret NROL-76 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO – as I reported here.

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite launch reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.

Ken Kremer

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of the Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite from Pad 39A on 15 May 2017. Credit: Jeff Seibert

SpaceX Falcon 9 soars skyward with Inmarsat-5 F4 broadband satellite after liftoff from pad 39A at KSC on 15 May 2017. Credit: Jillian Laudick

15 May 2017 blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying Inmarsat 5 F4 broadband satellite to geostationary orbit – as seen from ITL Causeway with USAF/SpaceX satellite processing facility. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets skyward with Inmarsat-5 F4 broadband satellite after liftoff from pad 39A at KSC on 15 May 2017 as seen from Titusville, FL residential neighborhood. Credit: Melissa Bayles

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Inmarsat 5 F4 broadband satellite stands raised erect poised for twilight liftoff from Launch Complex 39A on 15 May 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying commercial Inmarsat 5 F4 broadband satellite accelerates to orbit leaving exhaust trail in its wake after twilight launch at 7:20 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A on 15 May 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

All 9 Merlin 1D first stage engines firing beautifully as SpaceX Falcon 9 arcs over down range successfully carrying Inmarsat 5F4 #I5F4 to geostationary transfer orbit at twilight after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A on 15 May 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

May 20, 2017October 26, 2019 by Matt Williams

The Star That Probably Doesn’t Have an Alien Megastructure (But Maybe it Does) is Dimming Again

Artist's concept of KIC 8462852, which has experienced unusual changes in luminosity over the past few years. Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech

In September of 2015, scientists announced that the star known as KIC 8462852 (aka. “Tabby’s Star” or “Boyajian’s Star”) was experiencing a strange dip in luminosity. At the time, astronomers indicated that this mysterious behavior could be the result of comets transiting in front of the star, but other (perhaps more hopeful) individuals claimed that it could also be the result of an alien megastructure.

This led to a flurry of studies and articles that sought to offer entirely natural explanations for what has been observed. Even SETI weighed in, indicating that they would begin searching for indications of radio signals coming this mysterious star. But after two years and multiple studies that offer explanations other an alien Dyson Sphere (or some other type of megastructure), the star is at it again! Continue reading “The Star That Probably Doesn’t Have an Alien Megastructure (But Maybe it Does) is Dimming Again”

May 19, 2017June 16, 2020 by Matt Williams

This is Important! Students Are Figuring Out How to Make Beer on the Moon

A team of UC San Diego students have created an experiment to test if beer can be brewed on the Moon. Credit: NASA

When human beings colonize other Solar bodies, how will they see to their basic needs? Already, research has been performed to determine where colonists would be able to procure water, how they might grow their own food, and where and how they might live. But what about the finer things in life, the things that make all the hard labor and sacrifice worth it? In case it’s not clear yet, I’m talking about beer!

If and when Lunar or Martian colonies become a reality, will the colonists be able to brew and enjoy their own beer? Or will imported beer be the only thing available to them? That’s the question a team of bioengineering students from the University of California San Diego sought to answer. As finalists who competed in the Lab2Moon competition being held by TeamIndus, they combined their love of beer with their love of space exploration.

As the only Indian team in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, TeamIndus has been working on a privately-funded spacecraft to send to the Moon. Once complete, TeamIndus hopes to conduct a soft landing on the surface of the Moon later this year. Their accomplishments so far include being one of the five teams selected to compete in the Milestone Prizes and successfully winning the $1 million Milestone Prize for their landing technology.

*Johnny Koo, Jared Buchanan, Han Lu Ling, Neeki Ashari, Srivaths Kalyan, and Tavish Traut. Credit: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications*

The Lab2Moon competition was held in order to see a youth experiment brought to the Moon aboard that spacecraft. And while their experiment did not take home the top prize, their final prototype will still be going into space. Thanks to Synergy Moon, who won an XPrize verified launch contract, the experiment will be launched aboard a rocket this December (the planned launch date is currently Dec. 28th, 2017).

For the sake of their experiment, the UC San Diego team – all undergraduates with the Jacobs School of Engineering – sought to test if yeast would be viable in a Lunar environment. As the key ingredient in the production of beer (and many other beneficial things), their experiment sought to determine if Lunar colonists will be capable of becoming their own brewmasters.

Their team name is “Original Gravity”, a delicious pun that alludes to both brewing and the Lunar conditions they are investigating. In the case of brewing, Original Gravity (OG) is the measure of sugars dissolved in the wort (the beer before it is fermented). In the case of the Moon, it refers to the fact that Lunar gravity is just 0.165 times that of Earth’s, which could affect the behavior of the microorganisms like yeast.

As Neeki Ashari, a fifth-year bioengineering student and the team’s PR & Operations Lead, said in a University press release:

“The idea started out with a few laughs amongst a group of friends. We all appreciate the craft of beer, and some of us own our own home-brewing kits. When we heard that there was an opportunity to design an experiment that would go up on India’s moonlander, we thought we could combine our hobby with the competition by focusing on the viability of yeast in outer space.”

With sponsorship from the Omega Yeast Labs, the team designed a unique brewing system. First, all the prep work that precedes the adding of yeast – for instance, combining malted barley and water to create wort – would take place on Earth. Second, the team plans to combine the “fermentation” and “carbonation” phases – which are usually done separately – into one phase.

This process makes for a system that is much easier to design, eliminates the need for releasing accumulated CO² (which can be a hazard) and also prevents the possibility of over-pressurization if anything in the system fails. Last, the testing of fermentation will not rely on density measurements that rely on gravity (as brewers do on Earth), using pressure to determine sugar content instead.

As Han Ling, a fifth-year bioengineering undergraduate student and the team’s leader, explained, “Converting the pressure buildup to fermentation progress is straightforward, as long as volume and original gravity – specific gravity before fermentation, hence our name – are known prior to the experiment.” Measuring roughly as wide as a soda can, their system is able to ferment yeast and worst to create beer, even under Lunar conditions.

In addition to being the first-ever experiment to brew beer in space, their experiment will also be the first to craft beer using such a small apparatus. A Srivaths Kaylan, a fourth-year nano-engineering major and the team’s mechanical lead, indicated:

“Our canister is designed based on actual fermenters. It contains three compartments—the top will be filled with the unfermented beer, and the second will contain the yeast. When the rover lands on the moon with our experiment, a valve will open between the two compartments, allowing the two to mix. When the yeast has done it’s job, a second valve opens and the yeast sink to the bottom and separate from the now fermented beer.”

*Team Original Gravity’s revolutionary brewing system. Credit: jacobsschool.ucsd.edu*

Looking to the future, Ashari and the team hope to see their experiment adapted for use on other planets – like Mars! Other proposed experiments that were entered in the competition included methods for photosynthesis to producing electricity in a Lunar environment. Beyond making beer, understanding how yeast will behave in a Lunar environment is also important in the development of pharmaceuticals and yeast-containing foods, such as bread.

It certainly is interesting to think about what kind of beers could be produced in an extra-terrestrial environment, isn’t it? Will future generations of brewers have the option of using locally-grown barley, wheat, hops, and yeast cultures to craft their beer? Will the use of Lunar or Martian water have an effect on the taste of the beer?

And then there’s the matter of names and styles. Will Lunar brewers create a Dark Side of the Moon Stout? Will the people of Mars specialize in Red Ales? Like I said, interesting!

Further Reading: UC San Diego, ABC 10News

May 19, 2017 by Matt Williams

Space Station-Based Experiment Might Have Found Evidence of Dark Matter Destroying Itself

The AMS-02 instrument, shown here attached to the outer hull of the ISS. Credit: BASA

Since it was first proposed in the 1960s to account for all the “missing mass” in the Universe, scientists have been trying to find evidence of dark matter. This mysterious, invisible mass theoretically accounts for 26.8% of the baryonic matter (aka. visible matter) out there. And yet, despite almost fifty years of ongoing research and exploration, scientists have not found any direct evidence of this missing mass.

However, according to two new research papers that were recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters, we may have gotten our first glimpse of dark matter thanks to an experiment aboard the International Space Station. Known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02), this a state-of-the-art particle physics detector has been recording cosmic rays since 2011 – which some theorize are produced by the annihilation of dark matter particles.

Like its predecessor (the AMS), the AMS-02 is the result of collaborative work and testing by an international team composed of 56 institutes from 16 countries. With sponsorship from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and overseen by the Johnson Space Center’s AMS Project Office, the AMS-02 was delivered to the ISS aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on May 16th, 2011.

*Artist’s impression of the AMS-02 instrument. Credit: NASA/JSC*

Ostensibly, the AMS-02 is designed to monitor cosmic rays to see how much in the way of antiprotons are falling to Earth. But for the sake of their research, the two science teams also been consulted the data it has been collecting to test theories about dark matter. To break it down, the WIMPs theory of dark matter states that it is made up of Weakly-Interacted Massive Particles (WIMPS), protons and antiprotons are the result of WIMPs colliding.

By monitoring the number of antiprotons that interact with the AMS-02, two science teams (who were working independently of each other) hoped to infer whether or not any of the antiprotons being detected could be caused by WIMP collisions. The difficulty in this, however, is knowing what would constitute an indication, as cosmic rays have many sources and the properties of WIMPs are not entirely defined.

To do this, the two teams developed mathematical models to predict the cosmic ray background, and thus isolate the number of antiprotons that AMS-02 would detect. They further incorporated fine-tuned estimates of the expected mass of the WIMPs, until it fit with the AMS-02 data. One team, led by Alessandro Cuoco, was made up of researchers from the Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology.

Using computer simulations, Cuoco and his colleagues examined the AMS-02 data based on two scenarios – one which accounted for dark matter and one which did not. As they indicate in their study, they not only concluded that the presence of antiprotons created by WIMP collisions better fit the data, but they were also able to constrain the mass of dark matter to about 80 GeV (about 85 times the mass of a single proton or antiproton).

*According to supersymmetry, dark-matter particles known as WIMPs annihilate each other, creating a cascade of particles and radiation. Credit: Sky & Telescope / Gregg Dinderman.*

As they state in their paper:

“[T]he very accurate recent measurement of the CR antiproton flux by the AMS-02 experiment allows [us] to achieve unprecedented sensitivity to possible DM signals, a factor ~4 stronger than the limits from gamma-ray observations of dwarf galaxies. Further, we find an intriguing indication for a DM signal in the antiproton flux, compatible with the DM interpretation of the Galactic center gamma-ray excess.”

The other team was made up of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University, the University of Science and Technology of China, and the National Center for Theoretical Sciences. Led by Ming-Yang Cui of Nanjing University, this team made estimates of the background parameters for cosmic rays by using prior data from previous boron-to-carbon ratio and proton measurements.

These measurements, which determine the rate at which boron decays into carbon, can be used to guage the distance that boron molecules travel through space. In this case, they were combined with proton measurements to determine background levels for cosmic rays. They incorporated this data into a Bayesian Analysis framework (i.e. a statistical model used to determine probabilities) to see how many antiprotons could be attributed to WIMP collisions.

The results, as they state it in their paper were quite favorable and produced similar mass estimates to the study led by Cuoco’s team. “Compared with the astrophysical background only hypothesis, we find that a dark matter signal is favored,” they write. “The rest mass of the dark matter particles is ?20 – 80 GeV.”

*The AMS being delivered to the ISS by the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2011. Credit: NASA*

What’s more, both scientific teams obtained similar estimates when it came to cross-section measurements of dark matter – i.e. the likelihood of collisions happening based on how densely dark matter is distributed. For example, Cuoco’s team obtained a cross-section estimate of $3 x {10-26 per cm³ while Cui’s team obtained an estimate that ranged from 0.2 - 5 \times 10-26 per cm³.}$

The fact that two scientific teams, which were operating independently of each other, came to very similar conclusions based on the same data is highly encouraging. While it is not definitive proof of dark matter, it is certainly a step in the right direction. At best, it shows that we are getting closer to creating a detailed picture of what dark matter looks like.

And in the meantime, both teams acknowledge that further work is necessary. Cuoco and his team also suggest what further steps should be taken. “Confirmation of the signal will require a more accurate study of the systematic uncertainties,” they write, “i.e., the antiproton production cross-section, and the modeling of the effect of solar modulation.”

While scientists have attempted to find evidence of dark matter by monitoring cosmic rays in the past, the AMS-02 stands apart because of its extreme sensitivity. As of May 8th, the spectrometer has conducted measurements on 100 billion particles. As of the penning of this article, that number has increased to over 100,523,550,000!

Further Reading: PBS Nova Next, Ars Technica, Physical Review Letters, (2)

May 19, 2017June 2, 2017 by Tammy Plotner

The Circinus Constellation

Celestial map of the constellation Circinus, the Pair of Compasses. Credit: Torsten Bronger

Welcome back to Constellation Friday! Today, in honor of the late and great Tammy Plotner, we will be dealing with the compass – the Circinus constellation!

In the 2nd century CE, Greek-Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus (aka. Ptolemy) compiled a list of all the then-known 48 constellations. This treatise, known as the Almagest, would be used by medieval European and Islamic scholars for over a thousand years to come, effectively becoming astrological and astronomical canon until the early Modern Age.

Over time, the number of recognized constellations has grown as astronomers and explorers became aware of other stars visible from other location around the world. By the 20th century, the IAU adopted a modern catalog of 88 Constellations. One of these is the Circinus constellation, a small, faint constellation located in the southern skies. It is bordered by the constellations Apus, Centaurus, Lupus, Musca, Norma, Triangulum Australe.

Name and Meaning:

Because Circinus was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, it has no mythology associated with it. The three brightest stars form a narrow triangle. The shape is reminiscent of a drawing (or drafting) compass of the sort used to plot sea and sky charts. Nicolas Louis de Lacaille had a fascination with secular science and the thought of naming a constellation after a science tool fascinated him.

*Lacaille’s table, showing his representations of the constellations. Credit: gallica.bnf.fr*

In this case, Circinus represents a drafting tool used in navigation, mathematics, technical drawing, engineering drawing, in cartography (drawing maps) – and which many elementary school age children use to learn to draw circles and in geometry to bi-sect lines, draw arcs and so forth. In this case, the device should not be confused with Pyxis, a constellation associated with a ship’s compass… despite the similarity in names with the Latin language!

History of Observation:

The small, faint southern constellation Circinus was created by Nicholas de Lacaille during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope in the mid-18th century. Circinus was given its current name in 1763, when Lacaille published an updated sky map with Latin names for the constellations he introduced.

On the map he created, Lacaille portrayed the constellations of Norma, Circinus, and Triangulum Australe as a set of draughtsman’s instruments – as a ruler, compass, and a surveyor’s level, respectively. This constellation has endured and became one of the 88 modern constellation recognized by the IAU in 1920.

Notable Features:

Circinus has no bright stars and consists of only 3 main stars and 9 Bayer/Flamsteed designated stars. However, the constellation does have several Deep Sky Objects associated with it. For instance, there’s the Circinus Galaxy, a spiral galaxy located approximately 13 million light years distant that was discovered in 1975. The galaxy is notable for the gas rings inside it, one of which is a massive star-forming region, and its black hole-powered core.

Composite image of the central regions of the nearby Circinus galaxy, located about 12 million light years away. Credit: NASA/Chandra/HST

Then there’s the X-ray double star known as Circinus X-1, which is located approximately 30,700 light years away and was discovered in 1969. This system is composed of a neutron star orbiting a main sequence star. Circinus is also home to the bright planetary nebula known as NGC 5315, which was created when a star went supernova and cast off its outer layers into space.

Then there’s NGC 5823 (aka. Caldwell 88), an open cluster located on the border between Circinus and Lupus. Located about 3,500 light years away, this cluster is about 800 million years old and spans about 12 light years.

Finding Circinus:

Circinus is visible at latitudes between +10° and -90° and is best seen at culmination during the month of June. Start by taking out your binoculars for a look at Alpha Circini – a great visual double star. Located about 53.5 light years from Earth, this stellar pair isn’t physically related but does make a unique target. The brighter of the two, Alpha, is a F1 Bright Yellow Dwarf that is a slight variable star. This contrasts very nicely with the fainter, red companion.

For the telescope, take a look at Gamma Circini – a faint star a little over five hundred light years from the Solar System. In the sky, it lies in the Milky Way, between bright Alpha Centauri and the Southern Triangle. Gamma Circini is a binary system, containing a blue giant star with a yellow, F-type, companion. Gamma is unique because it possess a stellar magnetic buoyancy!

*Location of the Circinus constellation. Credit: IAU*

For larger binoculars and telescopes, have a look at galactic star cluster NGC 5823 (RA 15 : 05.7 Dec -55 : 36). This dim cluster will appear to have several brighter members which are actually foreground stars, but does include Mira-type variable Y Circini. While it will be hard to distinguish from the rich, Milky Way star fields, you will notice an elliptical shaped compression of stars with an asterism which resembles and open umbrella.

For large telescopes, check out ESO 97-G13 – the “Circinus Galaxy”. Located only 4 degrees below the Galactic plane, and 13 million light-years away (RA 14h 13m 9.9s Dec 65° 20? 21?), this Seyfert Galaxy is undergoing tumultuous changes, as rings of gas are being ejected from the galactic core. While it can be spotted in a small telescope, science didn’t notice it until 25 years ago!

We have written many interesting articles about the constellation here at Universe Today. Here is What Are The Constellations?, What Is The Zodiac?, and Zodiac Signs And Their Dates.

Be sure to check out The Messier Catalog while you’re at it!

For more information, check out the IAUs list of Constellations, and the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space page on Canes Venatici and Constellation Families.

Sources:

May 18, 2017May 19, 2017 by Ken Kremer

We Will Launch on Reusable Rocket After Exceptional SpaceX Performance – Inmarsat CEO Tells Universe Today

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Following SpaceX’s “exceptional performance” launching an immensely powerful broadband satellite on their maiden mission for Inmarsat this week on a Falcon 9 rocket, the company CEO told Universe Today that Inmarsat was willing to conduct future launches with SpaceX – including on a “reusable rocket in the future!”

“This has obviously been an absolutely exceptional performance from SpaceX, Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce told Universe Today in a post launch interview at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, May 15.

“They have now earned themselves an immensely loyal customer.”

SpaceX is the first and thus far only company in history to successfully recover and refly a previously flown orbit class ‘flight-proven’ liquid fueled first stage rocket – during the SES-10 launch in March 2017.

The twilight blastoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the Inmarsat-5 Flight 4 communications satellite for commercial High-Speed mobile broadband provider Inmarsat occurred at 7:21 p.m. EDT (or 23:21 UTC) on Monday evening, May 15, from SpaceX’s seaside Launch Complex 39A on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“They hit the ball out of the park with this launch for us,” Inmarsat CEO Pearce told me regarding the new space company founded by billionaire CEO Elon Musk.

The never before used 229-foot-tall (70-meter) SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully delivered the gigantic bus sized 6100 kg Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) under brilliant blue and nearly cloudless twilight skies from the Florida Space Coast. Read my launch report here.

The first stage is powered by nine Merlin 1 D engines fueled by RP-1 and liquid oxygen propellants and generating 1.7 million pounds.

Pearce says he “has every confidence in SpaceX.”

Inmarsat is a leading provider of mobile satellite communications, providing global connectivity more than 35 years – on land, at sea and in the air, says the firm.

I asked CEO Pearce; What does the future hold regarding further Inmarsat launches with SpaceX?

“They [SpaceX] have now just gained and earned themselves an immensely loyal customer [from Inmarsat], CEO Pearce replied.

“We will be looking to do further launches with them.”

The 7 meter long Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite was deployed approximately 32 minutes after Monday’s launch when it will come under the command of the Boeing and Inmarsat satellite operations teams based at the Boeing facility in El Segundo.

Would you consider a used rocket, a previously flown booster?

“I’m sure we will be using a ‘reused rocket’, Pearce stated. “And we will be launching on a ‘reusable rocket’ in the future.”

“We will be looking to support them in any way we can with their new innovation programs.”

In contrast to virtually all Falcon 9 launches in the past 18 months, no attempt was made to recover the first stage booster.

For this launch there was basically no choice but to make the first stage ‘expendable’ because Inmarsat-5 F4 is heaviest ever payload launched on a Falcon 9.

The satellites heavy weight with a launch mass of approx. 6,100 kg (13,400 lbs) means the rocket needs all its thrust to get the satellite to orbit and thus precludes the chance to land the first stage at sea or land.

Thus there are no landing legs or grid gins attached to the skin of this Falcon 9.

“This rocket that went today was not reusable. That was just a creature of its time,” Pearce elaborated.

“We will stay at the cutting edge with SpaceX!”

To date, SpaceX has successfully recovered 10 first stage boosters either by land or by sea on an ocean going platform.

Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pierce during post launch interview with Ken Kremer/Universe Today discusses SpaceX Falcon 9 launch carrying commercial Inmarsat 5 F4 broadband satellite to geostationary orbit after liftoff at 7:20 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A on 15 May 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

The Inmarsat-5 F4 (I-5 F4) will become part of the firms Global Xpress network “which has been delivering seamless, high-speed broadband connectivity across the world since December 2015,” says Inmarsat.

“Once in geostationary orbit, the satellite will provide additional capacity for Global Xpress users on land, at sea and in the air.”

SpaceX Falcon 9 deploys quartet of landing legs moments before precision propulsive ground touchdown at Landing Zone 1 on Canaveral Air Force Station barely nine minutes after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A on 1 May 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com

I-5 F4 was built by Boeing at their satellite operations facility in El Segundo, CA for Inmarsat.

The new satellite will join 3 others already in orbit.

Inmarsat has invested approximately US$1.6 billion in the Global Xpress constellation “to establish the first ever global Ka-band service from a single network operator.”

Inmarsat 5 F4 counts as the sixth SpaceX launch of 2017.

And SpaceX is on an absolutely torrid launch pace. Monday’s liftoff comes just 2 weeks after the last successful SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff on May 1 of the super secret NROL-76 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO – as I reported here.

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite launch reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.

Ken Kremer

SpaceX Falcon 9 Inmarsat-5 F4 (I-5 F4) mission artwork. Credit: SpaceX/Inmarsat

Inmarsat-5 Flight 4 (I-5 F4) satellite undergoes prelaunch processing for liftoff on SpaceX Falcon 9. Credit: Inmarsat

May 18, 2017 by Evan Gough

Dinosaur Killing Asteroid Hit in Exactly the Wrong Place

When an asteroid struck the Yucatan region about 66 million years ago, it triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs. ESA's Hera mission is visiting the smallest spacerock ever as part of our effort to not get creamed by an asteroid. Credit: NASA/Don Davis

The asteroid that struck Earth about 66 million years ago and led to the mass extinction of dinosaurs may have hit one of the worst places possible as far as life on Earth was concerned. When it struck, the resulting cataclysm choked the atmosphere with sulphur, which blocked out the Sun. Without the Sun, the food chain collapsed, and it was bye-bye dinosaurs, and bye-bye most of the other life on Earth, too.

But, as it turns out, if it had struck a few moments earlier or later, it would not have hit the Yucatan, and things may have turned out differently. Why? Because of the concentration of the mineral gypsum in that area.

The place where the asteroid hit Earth is called the Chicxulub Crater, and scientists have been studying that area to try to learn more about the impact event that altered the course of life on Earth. An upcoming BBC documentary called “The Day The Dinosaurs Died,” focuses on what happened when the asteroid struck. Drill-core samples from the Yucatan area help explain the events that followed the impact.

The drilling rig off the coast of the Yucatan. The rig was there in the Spring of 2016 obtaining samples from the seafloor. Image: BBC/Barcroft Productions.

The core samples, which are from as deep as 1300 m beneath the Gulf of Mexico, are from a feature called the peak ring.

When the asteroid struck Earth, it excavated a crater 100 km across and 30 km deep. This crater collapsed into a wider but shallower crater 200 km across and a few km deep. Then the center of the crater rebounded, and collapsed again, leaving the peak ring feature. The Chicxulub crater is now partly under water, and that’s where a drilling rig was set up to take samples.

The peak ring is at the center of the crater, offshore of the Yucatan Peninsula. Image: NASA/BBC

The core samples revealed rock that has been heavily fractured and altered by immense pressures. The same impact that altered those rocks would have generated an enormous amount of heat, and that heat created an enormous cloud of sulphur from the vaporized gypsum. That cloud persisted, which led to a global winter. Temperatures dropped, plant growth came to a standstill, and the course of events on Earth were altered forever.

“Had the asteroid struck a few moments earlier or later, rather than hitting shallow coastal waters it might have hit deep ocean,” documentary co-presenter Ben Garrod told the BBC.

“This is where we get to the great irony of the story – because in the end it wasn’t the size of the asteroid, the scale of blast, or even its global reach that made dinosaurs extinct – it was where the impact happened,” said Ben Garrod, who presents “The Day The Dinosaurs Died” with Alice Roberts.

“An impact in the nearby Atlantic or Pacific oceans would have meant much less vaporised rock – including the deadly gypsum. The cloud would have been less dense and sunlight could still have reached the planet’s surface, meaning what happened next might have been avoided,” said Garrod.

In the documentary, host Alice Roberts will also visit a quarry in New Jersey, where fossil evidence shows a massive die-off in a very short period of time. In fact, these creatures could have died on the very day that the asteroid struck.

The core samples from the drilling rig show rocks that were subjected to immense heat and pressure at the time of the impact. Image: Barcroft Productions/BBC

“All these fossils occur in a layer no more than 10cm thick,” palaeontologist Ken Lacovara tells Alice. “They died suddenly and were buried quickly. It tells us this is a moment in geological time. That’s days, weeks, maybe months. But this is not thousands of years; it’s not hundreds of thousands of years. This is essentially an instantaneous event.”

There’s lots of evidence showing that an asteroid struck Earth about 66 million years ago, causing widespread extinction. NASA satellite images clearly show crater features, now obscured by 66 million years of geological activity, but still visible.

There’s also what’s called the K-T Boundary, or Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary. It’s a geological signature dating to 66 million years ago, which marks the end of the Cretaceous Period. In that boundary is a layer of iridium at very high concentrations, much higher than is normally present in the Earth’s crust. Since iridium is much more abundant in asteroids, the conclusion is that it was probably deposited by an asteroid.

But this is the first evidence that shows how critical the actual location of the event may have been. If it had not struck where it had, dinosaurs may never have gone extinct, you and I would not be here, and things on Earth could look much different.

It might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but who knows? Maybe a race of intelligent lizards might already have mastered interstellar travel.

May 18, 2017May 18, 2017 by David Dickinson

Comet V2 Johnson Takes Center Stage

Comet V2 Johnson from February 21st, 2017. Image credit and copyright: John Purvis

Had your fill of binocular comets? Turns out, 2017 may have saved the best for last. The past few months has seen a steady stream of dirty snowball visitations to the inner solar system, both short term periodic and long term hyperbolic. First, let’s run through the cometary roll call for the first part of the year: There’s 41P Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák, 2P/Encke, 45P Honda-Markov-Padjudašáková, C/2015 ER61 PanSTARRS and finally, the latecomer to the party, C/2017 E4 Lovejoy.

Next up is a comet with a much easier to pronounce (and type) name, at least to the English-speaking tongue: C/2015 V2 Johnson.

It would seem that we’re getting a year’s worth of binocular comets right up front in the very first half.

Discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey by astronomer Jess Johnson on the night of November 3^rd 2015 while it was still 6.17 astronomical units (AU) distant at +17^th magnitude, Comet V2 Johnson is currently well-placed for mid-latitude northern hemisphere viewers after dusk. Currently shining at magnitude +8 as it glides through the umlaut-adorned constellation Boötes the Herdsman, Comet V2 Johnson is expected to top out at magnitude +6 in late June, post-perihelion.

The path of Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson through the inner solar system. Credit: NASA/JPL

Part of what’s making Comet V2 Johnson favorable is its orbit. With a high inclination of 50 degrees relative to the ecliptic, it’s headed down through high northern declinations for a perihelion just outside of Mars’ orbit on June 12^th. Though Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun this summer, we’re luckily on the correct side of the Sun to enjoy the cometary view. Comet V2 Johnson passed opposition a few weeks ago on April 28^th, and will become an exclusively southern hemisphere object in late July as it continues the plunge southward.

This is likely Comet V2 Johnson’s first and only journey through the inner solar system, as it’s on an open ended, hyperbolic orbit and is likely slated to be ejected from the solar system after its brief summer fling with the Sun.

This week sees Comet V2 Johnson 40 degrees above the eastern horizon in Boötes as seen from latitude 30 degrees north, one hour after sunset. The view reaches its climax on June 6^th near the comet’s closest approach to the Earth, with a maximum elevation of 63 degrees from latitude 30 degrees north, one hour after sunset.

The path of Comet V2 Johnson as seen from latitude 30 degrees north, 45 minutes after sunset from mid-May to late June. The constellation positions are for the beginning date. Credit: Starry Night Edu. software.

The comet also sits just 5 degrees from the bright -0.05 magnitude star Arcturus on June 6th, providing a good guidepost to find the fuzzball comet. July sees the comet cross the ecliptic plane through Virgo, then head southward through Hydra and Centaurus. Another interesting pass occurs on the night of July 3^rd, when the Moon just misses occulting the comet.

Comet V2 Johnson’s celestial path through August 1st. Credit: Starry Night Edu. Software.

Here are some key dates with destiny for Comet V2 Johnson through August 1^st. Unless otherwise noted, all passes are less than one degree (two Full Moon diameters) away:

May 19^th: passes near +3.4 magnitude Delta Bootis.

June 5^th: Closest approach to the Earth at 0.812 AU distant.

June 12^th: Perihelion 1.64 AU from the Sun.

June 15^th: Crosses into the constellation Virgo.

June 21^st: Crosses the celestial equator southward.

June 26^th: Passes near the +4 magnitude star Syrma.

July 1^st: Passes near (30″!) the +4.2 magnitude star Kappa Virginis

July 3^rd: The waning gibbous Moon passes two degrees north of the comet.

Comet V2 Johnson vs Kappa Virginis and the Moon on July 3rd. Note: the graphic is a (very) idealized version of the comet! Credit: Starry Night Edu.

July 5^th: Crosses the ecliptic southward.

July 17^th: Crosses into the constellation Hydra.

July 22^nd: Passes 2.5 degrees from the +3.3 magnitude star Pi Hydrae.

July 28^th: Crosses into the constellation Centaurus.

V2 Johnson light curve — The projected light curve for Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson. The purple vertical line marks perihelion, and the black dots are actual brightness observations to date. Image credit: adapted from Seiichi Yoshida’s *Weekly information About Bright Comets*.

Binoculars and a good finder chart are your friends hunting down a comet like V2 Johnson. We like to start our search from a nearby bright star, then slowly sweep the field with our trusty Canon 15×45 image-stabilized binoculars (hard to believe, we’ve had this amazing piece of astro-tech in our observing arsenal for nearly two decades now. They’re so handy, picking up a pair of “old-tech” none stabilized binocs feels weird now!). An +8^th magnitude comet will look like a fuzzy globular cluster which stubbornly refuses to resolve when focused. A wide-field DSLR shot should also tease V2 Johnson out of the background.

Comet V2 Johnson from May 3rd. Image credit and copyright: Hisayoshi Kato.

The next week is also ideal for evening comet-hunting for another reason, as the New Moon (also marking the start of the Islamic month of Ramadan) occurs on May 25th, after which, the light-polluting Moon will begin to hamper evening observations.

It’s strange to think, there are no bright comets on tap for the remainder of 2017 after V2 Johnson, though that will likely change as the year wears on.

In the meantime, be sure to check out Comet V2 Johnson, as it makes its lonesome solitary passage through the inner solar system.