Brian Ventrudo

Weekend Stargazing: Crescent Moon and Clusters

July 10, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Stargazing

The waning crescent Moon, the Hyades, and Pleiades star clusters before sunrise on July 12, 2015.

The Moon is on the wane this week, a boon for stargazers who crave the darkest sky. But the Moon remains a pretty sight in the early-morning sky before sunrise, thinning down to a slender crescent by the July 12th as it passes through the sprawling Hyades star cluster in the eastern sky and close to the orange giant star Aldebaran. The Hyades is a V-shaped group of stars about three finger-widths wide. Look for the resplendent Pleiades star cluster above the Moon and Hyades. If you can see down to the horizon, you might even see Mercury before it disappears into the glare of the Sun for the month.

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Ode to a Flower: Science, Understanding, and Beauty

July 9, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Science

Does understanding more about astronomy make the night sky less beautiful? Does science take the mystery and beauty of nature and make it dull and joyless? The great physicist and teacher Richard Feynman thought not. In a famous BBC interview, Feynman explained, using a flower as an example, why understanding something makes it more beautiful, more interesting, not less. Not convinced? Take a look at this short video clip of Feynman’s “Ode to a Flower” and decide for yourself.

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A View of New Star Cluster and Nebula

July 8, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Deep Sky

Image of open star cluster and emission nebula NGC 6823 and NGC 6820 in the constellation Vulpecula (credit: Jeff Johnson)

Within the Summer Triangle, in the constellation Vulpecula, the Fox, lies a fairly new star cluster NGC 6823 embedded within the glowing gas cloud of its birthplace, the nebula NGC 6820. The image above by astrophotographer Jeff Johnson of New Mexico shows cluster and emission nebula along with a dark nebula within the brighter emission nebula that shrouds yet another round of star formation [Read more…] about A View of New Star Cluster and Nebula

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New Image of Pluto by New Horizons

July 8, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Science, Solar System

With less than 6 days to go before New Horizons makes its closest approach to Pluto, the dwarf planet is proving to be an interesting little world. Just released by NASA this morning, this image of Pluto shows the regions of the planet that will be inspected in next week’s close flyby. The dark region along the equator, at bottom, has been dubbed ” the whale”. The lighter heart-shaped region at right is about 1,200 miles across. The polar region is in the upper part of the image.

The probe had a little trouble over the weekend when a software glitch caused the probe to go into safe mode and halt all science operations. But engineers have tidied up the problem and full operations have resumed on July 7. The closest flyby comes next week on July 14, 2015 at 11:50 UTC.

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The Two Faces of Pluto

July 2, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Science, Solar System

New color images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft show two very different faces of the mysterious dwarf planet, one with a series of intriguing spots along the equator that are evenly spaced.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft received a final “all clear” as it approaches Pluto at nearly 50,000 km/hr on its way to an historic flyby on July 14, 2015. Mission scientists have been using the spacecraft’s most powerful telescopic camera, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), to look for potential hazards such as small moons, rings, or dust, since mid-May. But the path looks clear, and the craft will continue on its present course towards Pluto and its five moons.

New color images released July 1 show two very different faces of the dwarf planet. One side of the planet revealed a series of intriguing and evenly-spaced dark spots along the equator. Each spot is about 480 kilometers in diameter with a surface area roughly equal to that of Missouri [Read more…] about The Two Faces of Pluto

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