FRIENDS OF THE PLANETARIUM NEWSLETTER – NOVEMBER 2005
You learned in school that Venus is the next planet toward the Sun from Earth and that Mars is the next planet farther out. This month, you can actually see this arrangement laid out in view in the early-evening sky. After the Sun goes down and twilight begins to fade, you'll see Venus blazing bright white in the southwest in the Sun's general direction. Now turn around; Mars shines fiery yellow in the direction away from the Sun, in the east. And you're standing on Earth between them.
Brilliant Mars shines high in the eastern sky these evenings, though a trace less brilliantly than when it was closest and brightest a couple weeks ago. This is because Earth is beginning to pull ahead of Mars in our faster orbit around the Sun. From November 14th through 21st, Mars dims a trace from magnitude -2.1 to -1.9 and shrinks from 19.2 to 18.3 arcseconds in apparent diameter. A telescope also shows its gibbous phase returning.
Backyard observers have been watching Mars with increased interest since the planet's first local dust storm this season was reported on October14th in the Chryse region. That storm died down, but another, larger one sprung up on October 17th in the same general area. NASA scientists have also been watching the storms with some trepidation; concerned at the effect the storms will have on the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The severity and duration of these seasonal dust storms will determine the future of NASA’s adventurous robotic explorers. The photos above show just how dramatic a change takes place during dust storm season.
In other solar system news, new moons are springing up in unexpected places. The so-called “tenth planet”, recently discovered roughly twice as far away as Pluto, appears to have its own moon. Now if they do decide to call the new object Xena, what do you suppose its new moon will be called? Gabrielle, perhaps? Not to be outdone, two new moons have been discovered orbiting Pluto. Pluto supposedly represents the god of the underworld and Charon, currently Pluto’s only moon, represents the ferryman who transported the souls of the dead across the river Styx on their journey to hell. Speculation is already rife over the potential names for these two moons.
In space news, a European probe is bound for the planet Venus on a mission to peel back the shroud of the planet’s thick atmosphere after successfully launching into space atop a Russian rocket. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express spacecraft rode a Russian-built Soyuz rocket into space on Nov. 8, lifting off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a 162-day trip to the second planet from the Sun.
Finally, are you looking for some ideas for Christmas presents? The Planetarium has for sale the 2006 Hubble Space Telescope calendar at $26 and the 2006 New Zealand Almanac at $20. The Planetarium is open on Sunday evenings from 7:00 pm. until 9:00 pm.