What's Up? The Space Place

Hey Space Placers! NASA announced that organic compounds have been discovered on Ceres , the largest object in the asteroid belt - a dwarf planet actually. This is the first confirmed discovery of such in the main belt and it IS a big deal. Sky Guy at Sea

Hey Space Placers! From today's 'Daily Minor Planet: NASA is inviting the public to help search for possible undiscovered worlds in the outer reaches of our solar system and in neighboring interstellar space. A new website, called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, lets everyone participate in the search by viewing brief movies made from images captured by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.   Read More Sky Guy at Sea

Hey Space Placers! At sea again on my way to Hawaii. There has been some very interesting reporting coming out that says that NASA is considering making the first Orion-Space Launch System (SLS) mission, Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), a MANNED mission. The only other launch system in NASA’s history that had a crew onboard for the maiden flight was the Space Shuttle. Orion-SLS has a crew abort system that can lift the Orion spacecraft with its crew to safety from the launch pad well into the ascent phase. The Space Shuttle had limited options for crew abort once the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) ignited and burned for two minutes. SLS will have two SRBs also. There is also a move to name the EM-1 mission for the late Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan. A fitting tribute to the last human to walk on the Moon. Sky Guy in the Pacific Headed to Hawaii

Hey Space Placers! Check out the cool Jupiter video Here is the background story on how this video was made. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! February’s Full Moon is called the Full Snow Moon as this is prime time for snow. The Full Snow Moon will look a little different this Friday as it will undergo a penumbral lunar eclipse. There are three types of lunar eclipses - total, partial and penumbral  http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html   . All three occur when the Full Moon passes into the Earth’s shadow which is caused by light from the Sun. There are two components to our planet’s shadow  (and all shadows actually  http://van.physics.illinois.edu/QA/listing.php?id=2068 ) called the umbra and penumbra. The umbra is the central and darkest shadow zone which projects about a million miles into space while the penumbra is the outer and lighter shadow zone  https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/umbra-and-penumbra/#.WJyHLhg-KfQ .       Penumbral lunar eclipses are the least dramatic of the three types as usually there is only a sligh...

Hey Space Placers! The 1st EVER white dwarf pulsar has been discovered. This is a major discovery in our study of stars and fills a gap that has been awaiting such a discovery. AR Scorpii Credit: Mark Garlick, University of Warwick Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! A very welcome read from Pope Francis on his views about the Big Bang and Evolution. Many do not know that the Vatican has its own observatory and staff to do research on cosmology and astrophysics. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! I was AMAZED to see this video that shows FOUR exoplanets in orbit around their star. Let me say that again. We can actually SEE four other worlds outside of our solar system in orbit around another star.....WOW. With new telescopes and instruments becoming available we will be seeing more and more of other worlds for ourselves.....unreal. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Check out this article on Saturn's Rings ....UNREAL detail. Sky Guy in VA