The Night Sky This Month (March 2012)

The Night Sky This Month (March 2012)

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Key Stars

The seven stars that make up the familiar shape of the Plough, or Big
Dipper, are well placed for viewing in March. On the eastern horizon,
Spica (Alpha Virginis) and Arcturus (Alpha Bootis) are rising,
heralding the approach of springtime. In the west, Taurus and Orion
are sinking towards the horizon by 10 P.M. local time. Castor (Alpha
Geminorum) and Pollux (Beta Geminorum), the twin stars of Gemini, are
still well displayed, and Capella (Alpha Aurigae) shines high in the
northwest.

The Planets

Mercury

Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation on March 5, when it lies
18 degrees east of the Sun and is visible about 30 minutes after
sundown, relatively near to the western horizon and far lower right
of bright Venus. The innermost planet disappears in the evening
twilight around mid-month, reaching inferior conjunction with the Sun
on the 21st.

Venus

Shining brilliantly in the western sky soon after sunset, Venus will
immediately grab your attention. On March 1, the planet glows at
magnitude -4.2 and does not set until around 9:30 P.M. local time. By
month's end, Venus remains visible until 11:30 P.M. local daylight
time and also shines brighter, at magnitude -4.4.

Mars

March brings the Red Planet closer to Earth than at any time since
the winter of 2010. Mars reaches peak visibility March 3 when it lies
opposite the Sun in our sky and remains visible all night. It pokes
above the horizon during evening twilight, among the background stars
of Leo the Lion, and is high up in fine view in the east by 9 P.M.
local daylight time.

Jupiter

Jupiter glares in the west during evening, among the background stars
of Aries, an inconspicuous constellation of the zodiac located between
Pisces to the west and Taurus to the east. You will not need any help
spotting Jupiter; at magnitude -2.1 it is the second-brightest point
of light in the sky and stands out on any clear evening.

Saturn

This month, Saturn rises around 9 P.M. local daylight time and is 30
degrees high in the southeast soon after midnight. The ringed planet
resides among the background stars of Virgo the Maiden and remains
within about 5 degrees of the blue-white star Spica all month.
Through a telescope, Saturn sports an angular size of 18", while the
rings span 41" and tilt 15 degrees to our line of sight.

Uranus

Uranus is lost in the evening twilight, setting soon after the Sun.
It will return to view in mid-May, low in the morning sky.

Neptune

Neptune is too deep in the solar glare and cannot be observed until
early April, when it will reappear in the morning sky.

Pluto

Pluto lies in northwestern Sagittarius and stands 30 degrees high in
the southeast shortly before dawn. The dwarf planet glows dimly at
magnitude +14, which means you will need an 8-inch telescope to have
a decent chance of spotting this glimmer of light.

Bright Asteroids

5 Astraea

Asteroid 5 Astraea lies at the border between Leo and Virgo and
shines around 9th magnitude. As such, it is outside the range of most
binoculars, but locating it with a 4-inch telescope from your backyard
is straightforward.

6 Hebe

Magnitude +9.5 Hebe can be found east of Leo's Sickle asterism during
March. It shares the eastern evening sky with Mars and Regulus (Alpha
Leonis). 

Bright Comets

C/2009 P1 Garradd

In early March, comet Garradd can be found in the constellation Ursa
Minor, but by mid-month it passes the border into neighboring Ursa
Major. According to recent reports, it should glow at 7th magnitude.
For observers located at mid-northern latitudes comet Garradd is
circumpolar, meaning that it never sets and can be viewed all night.

C/2012 C2 Bruenjes

Comet Bruenjes is a new amateur discovery of February 12, by Fred
Bruenjes of Warrensburg, Missouri, USA. It currently glows at 10th
magnitude and can be spotted with a 6-inch scope in the constellation
Pisces the Fishes. The comet keeps observable until mid-March,
although it will be getting lower in the evening sky.

Meteor Showers

The Virginids

The Virginids are a vast complex of a dozen or so radiants that
become active in late January and persist until mid-April, without
reaching a definite peak. Meteors from this stream appear at a slow
speed (about 20 miles per second) from a large radiant that measures
15 degrees by 10 degrees in size. Throughout March, the radiant is
located in the northwestern part of Virgo and rises around 9 P.M.
local daylight time.

Sky Events

March 3 - Mars is at opposition, exactly opposite the Sun in the sky
as seen from the Earth.

March 5 - Mercury is at greatest eastern elongation, 18.2 degrees
east of the Sun in the evening sky.

March 8 - Full Moon at 4:39 A.M. EST.

March 10 - The Moon is at perigee, the point in its orbit when it is
nearest to Earth. The Moon is 1.5 degrees south of Spica (Alpha
Virginis) at 3:20 P.M. EST.

March 11 - Daylight Saving Time begins in the United States at 2 A.M.
local time.

March 13 - Venus is 3 degrees north of Jupiter at 4:53 P.M. EDT.

March 14 - Last Quarter Moon at 8:25 P.M. EDT.

March 20 - The Vernal equinox occurs at 1:14 A.M. EDT, when the Sun
crosses the celestial equator heading north. This is the beginning of
spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and fall in the Southern
Hemisphere.

March 21 - Mercury is in inferior conjunction with the Sun.

March 22 - New Moon at 9:37 A.M. EDT.

March 24 - Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun.

March 25 - The Moon is 3.4 degrees north of Jupiter at 6:57 P.M. EDT.

March 26 - The Moon is at apogee, the point in its orbit when it is
farthest from Earth. The Moon is 2.1 degrees south of Venus at 1:21
P.M. EDT.

March 27 - Venus is at greatest eastern elongation, 46 degrees east
of the Sun in the evening sky. The Moon is 3.9 degrees south of the
Pleiades at 3:56 A.M. EDT.

March 30 - First Quarter Moon at 2:41 P.M. EDT.

Learn more! Visit NightSkyInfo.com (http://www.nightskyinfo.com).

From Personal Liberty Digest:

NASA Watching Asteroid To Pass By Earth

March 6, 2012 by Sam Rolley 

NASA scientists are keeping an eye on a large asteroid that they believe could possibly smash into earth in February 2013.

Data shows the 60-meter asteroid (2012 DA14), which was spotted by Spanish stargazers last February, will pass by Earth in 11 months. While the asteroid’s exact trajectory is unknown, the scientists believe that it will pass very close to the planet. There is a possibility that it could collide with earth, but further calculation is required to estimate the potential threat and work out how to avert possible disaster.

According to RT, NASA expert Dr. David Dunham told students at Moscow’s University of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM):

“The Earth’s gravitational field will alter the asteroid’s path significantly. Further scrupulous calculation is required to estimate the threat of collision. The asteroid may break into dozens of small pieces, or several large lumps may split from it and burn up in the atmosphere. The type of the asteroid and its mineral structure can be determined by spectral analysis. This will help predict its behavior in the atmosphere and what should be done to prevent the potential threat.”

Scientists say that the energy released in the event of a collision would equate to the destructive power of a thermo-nuclear bomb.

From The Washington Post:

Mars, moon cut in on Venus-Jupiter dance

NASA - Jupiter is one of the planets that will be visible to humans this March. In like a lamb, this month features a Venus-Jupiter heavenly duet, an interloping moon and a magnificent Mars.

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By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr., Published: March 3

In like a lamb, this month features a Venus-Jupiter heavenly duet, an interloping moonand a magnificent Mars.

For the past few weeks, skygazers at dusk have been treated to cosmic candy – that is a very bright Venus (magnitude -4.3 now) and a bright Jupiter (magnitude -2.2) moving closer in the western sky. Late last month, the pair looked like the lit ends of a cheerleader’s baton, with Jupiter the higher object in the sky.

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Gallery

 Images of space: A new look at the Orion Nebula, a view from the international space station and more.

Now, these two planets get chummier. Watch the western sky at dusk every day for the next week, as Jupiter and Venus close their gap. By next Sunday, from our earthly perspective, the planets will be within 3 degrees of each other through Ides of March (March 15). The planets seem to pass one another in mid-month, as Venus climbs higher in the west and Jupiter becomes the lower planet in the sky.

The young, thin crescent moon climbs into the western sky March 23. You may be able to spot it at dusk March 24. This three-day-old moon snuggles up to Jupiter on March 25, and then dances a do-se-do with Venus on March 26.

Then the moon skitters off toward the east on March 27.

Mercury makes a cameo appearance between now and mid-March in the western sky. It’s almost a sub-plot under the main Jupiter-Venus drama. Observe closer to the horizon after dusk to find the fleet Mercury (zero magnitude, bright).

As the sun drops in the west, watch the magnificent Mars ascend the east. On Monday, our reddish neighbor, at -1.2 magnitude reaches its closest point to Earththis year, when the planet will be about 63 million miles from us. Saturn (at zero magnitude, bright) rises around 10 p.m. now in the east.

We will all be a wee bit sleepier as we lose an hour and officially turn our clocks ahead at 2 a.m. next Sunday, the start of daylight saving time, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. Thus, 2 a.m. becomes the new 3 a.m.

While it might feel as though we’ve gone from one spring season into another, the Vernal Equinox, spring’s official start in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs March 20 at 1:14 a.m. EDT, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Down-to-Earth Events

●March 5 – “An X-Ray view of Black Holes,” a talk by astronomer Javier Garcia, at the open house at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. Afterward, scan the night sky, weather permitting. 8 p.m. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse.

●March 10 – The Space Shuttle is the featured subject in the Super Science Saturdays series. Hands-on activities, with visitors immersed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Free admission. $15 parking. www.nasm.si.edu/.

●March 10 – How do clouds of interstellar gas and dust transform into stars and planetary systems? Jennifer Wiseman of the Goddard Space Flight Center explains in her talk, “Protostellar Disks and Jets,” at the National Capital Astronomers meeting, University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 7:30 p.m. www.capitalastronomers. org.

●March 11 – “The Dawn of Exoearths,” a lecture by astronomer Raphael Perrino, at the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club meeting, Room 80, Enterprise Hall, George Mason University, Fairfax. 7 p.m. www.novac.com.

●March 19 – Enjoy a program celebrating the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, at the Montgomery College Planetarium, Takoma Park. 7 p.m.www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/planet.

●March 20 – “Pulsars,” a lecture by Megan DeCesar, at the open house at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. Afterward, treat yourself to a night sky heavenly treat, weather permitting. 8 p.m. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse.

●March 22 – “Big Bang for the Buck: Cosmology from WMAP,” a lecture by Charles Bennett, a physicist and astronomer from Johns Hopkins University. He explains theWilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) space mission and how it mapped the remnant radiation from the Big Bang across the entire sky. Lockheed Martin Imax Theater, National Air and Space Museum, National Mall. 8 p.m. (Stargazing at the public observatory, adjacent to the museum, 8:30 – 10 p.m.) www.nasm.si.edu/.

●March 24 – “Family Day: Women in Aviation and Space,” at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Free admission. Parking $15. www.nasm.si.edu/.

●March 30 – Imagine a moon that spits plumes of ice and vapor. “Enceladus: Saturn’s Remarkable, Watery Moon,” an illustrated lecture by John Spencer, of the Southwest Research Institute. Hosted by the Washington Philosophical Society. At the John Wesley Powell Auditorium, adjacent to the Cosmos Club, 2170 Florida Avenue NW. 8:15 p.m.www.philsoc.org.

Blaine P. Friedlander Jr. can be reached at PostSkyWatch@gmail.com.

From Personal Liberty Digest:

Massive Solar Storm Could Kill Grid By 2020

March 2, 2012 by Sam Rolley 

The number of American preppers appears to have grown in recent years. With shows such as “Doomsday Preppers” on major television networks, the prepper lifestyle has become a bit more mainstream. If one space physicist is correct, now may be a better time than ever.

According to research published by Pete Riley, senior scientist at Predictive Science in San Diego, Calif., in Space Weather, there is about a one in eight chance that the Earth will be hit by a massive solar megastorm this decade. The event would likely fry electrical components and cause trillions of dollars in damage.

Solar flares are caused because the sun goes through an 11-year cycle of increased and decreased activity. During solar maximum, sunspots and enormous magnetic whirlwinds erupt from its surface. Sometimes, the flares burst outward from the sun, spewing a mass of charged particles out into space.

The biggest solar event ever to affect Earth, the Carrington Event, occurred in 1859. Astronomer Richard Carrington watched an enormous solar flare erupt from the sun’s surface, emitting a particle stream at the Earth traveling more than 4 million miles per hour. When the energy reached the Earth’s atmosphere, the particles generated the intense ghostly ribbons of light known as auroras.

A 2008 report conducted by the National Research Council concluded that in today’s electronic world a similar event could spark: “disruption of the transportation, communication, banking, and finance systems, and government services; the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure; and the loss of perishable foods and medications because of lack of refrigeration.”

NASA worker's lawsuit charges discrimination over intelligent design

NASA worker's lawsuit charges discrimination over intelligent design

Asteroids planetary security | Homeland Security News Wire

Asteroids planetary security | Homeland Security News Wire

From The Washington Post:

Posted at 01:43 PM ET, 02/28/2012

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson fills a leadership black hole

By Jena McGregor

View Photo Gallery: The best and the worst leadership moments of recent U.S. presidents.

Quick: Name an astrophysicist. Any astrophysicist.

Can’t do it? You’re surely not alone. But not only is there an astrophysicist whose name was among the 20 most-searched terms on Google Tuesday morning—he also has more than 300,000 Twitter followers. With a new book released Monday, Neil deGrasse Tyson is making the rounds of The Daily Show, NPR, CBS Morning and the like. If he keeps getting attention at this pace, he may actually help to reinvigorate this country’s space program (which in 2012 will mark its first year in three decades without launching a manned space vehicle) by giving it something it appears to be missing: An outspoken leader.

Tyson’s day job is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York; he is also a renowned space expert who began giving lectures on astronomy at the ripe old age of 15. He hosts several science programs on television, has served on presidential astronomy commissions, and is a recipient of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian honor given by the space program.

What I find most interesting about all the interest in Tyson and his book is that it comes along at the very moment Newt Gingrich’s fall in the polls seemed to coincide almost directly with his talk of moon colonies and trips to Mars. Our reactions to the two may simply be that we trust the head of the Hayden Planetarium when he talks about a base on the moon—something Tyson says is no more ambitious than Kennedy’s goal of walking there 40 years ago—but question a GOP candidate who says it while standing on Florida’s “space coast,” thinking it sounds nutty, if not pandering.

But it probably also has something to do with how Tyson talks about science and space exploration. He is not just a child prodigy with a lot of media appearances and a penchant for wearing celestial-themed ties and vests without a trace of irony. He is a gifted communicator who displays qualities of leadership that seem lacking in so many public officials. For one, he makes the reasons for space exploration accessible, putting its importance into simple and often humorous terms. “Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect—I kind of want to know what happened there,” he said in an NPR interview Monday. “Mars once had running water—it’s bone dry today; something bad happened there as well. Asteroids have us in [their] sights. Dinosaurs didn’t have a space program, so they’re not here to talk about this problem. We are and we have the power to do something.”

He also has a genuine passion and child-like fascination with what he does, and isn’t afraid to wrap the space program up in grand talk of bold adventure and big ideas. His enthusiasm is infectious—and credible—even for those who couldn’t care less about space and see it as a nice-to-have at a time of bloated deficits and economic pain. He thinks President Obama should be talking about upping NASA’s budget because “not only is it the grandest epic adventure a human being can undertake” but such an increase would “create a shift in the state of mind of people where they will say hey, ‘we are dreaming about tomorrow again.’ ”

Finally, he’s not afraid of criticizing the president’s current approach to space exploration and funding, saying that Obama’s “Sputnik moment” call for high-speed rail amounts to short-term thinking. “Is that how you’re going to use a new Sputnik moment? To do something you should have already had? Excuse me? Let’s use a Sputnik moment to do a Sputnik kind of thing.” In other words, he says things no NASA administrator could ever say, pushing for more funding with his enthusiasm, accessibility and credibility. Some have said Tyson is filling the void of Carl Sagan, who was a mentor of Tyson’s in his early years. Whatever unofficial role he may have, Tyson shows the power of both outside voices and outside leaders when it comes to generating attention.