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UNIVERSE
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 JUNE 2020
VOL. 48, NO. 6

NASA/JPL-CALTECH/N. FLAGEY (IAS/SSC)/

A. NORIEGA-CRESPO (SSC/CALTECH)
ON THE COVER
The Spitzer Space Telescope
revolutionized astronomy by opening
investigation in infrared wavelengths.

CONTENTS 28
COLUMNS
Strange Universe 14
FEATURES BOB BERMAN

For Your Consideration 16

18 36 54 JEFF HESTER
Warm and not so fuzzy Sky This Month Discover exoplanets
The Spitzer Space Telescope Jupiter and Saturn shine from your backyard Secret Sky 64
ceased operations in January, STEPHEN JAMES O’MEARA
together. With the right equipment
but not before giving scientists MARTIN RATCLIFFE AND and techniques, finding these Observing Basics 66
keen insight into star birth, ALISTER LING elusive objects is easier than GLENN CHAPLE
exoplanets, and the shape of you think. JERRY HUBBELL
our galaxy. RICHARD TALCOTT 38
Star Dome and 58 7
28 Paths of the Planets Enjoy the sky’s great QUANTUM GRAVITY
Explore the world RICHARD TALCOTT; globulars Everything you need to
of galaxies ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROEN KELLY These 20 top clusters offer know about the universe
These star cities are vast islands magical targets in any season. this month: newly proven
of matter, floating in a nearly 44 MICHAEL E. BAKICH marsquakes, the launch of
limitless sea of inky black Prepare for launch: a solar orbiter, revelations
space. DAVID J. EICHER Perseverance 68 from the farside of the
Equipped with a suite of high- Ask Astro Moon, and more.
tech tools — including a rock- How meteorites form.
blasting laser, two microphones,
23 cameras, and a helicopter — IN EVERY ISSUE
NASA’s latest rover will explore From the Editor 5
the Red Planet like never Astro Letters 6
before. JAKE PARKS
Advertiser Index 65
New Products 67
Reader Gallery 70
Breakthrough 74
ONLINE
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4 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

 FROM THE EDITOR

Editor David J. Eicher

On the passage of time

Time is one constant we can all count on here on our
planet. Not even my friend and Starmus collabora-
tor Stephen Hawking could find a solution to time
travel, or stop the inevitable movement of the hands of a clock.
When I came to work on March 2 of this year, it marked
the first day in 34 years that our friend and editor Rich Talcott
was not sitting in an office nearby. It was a strange feeling, but
Rich retired after an illustrious career at Astronomy maga-
zine, and we wish him well in his new pursuits. Rich was an
engine of productivity like few others in the history of the
magazine. He handled many of the frontline science stories,
Richard Talcott helped enormously with acquiring great articles, produced
most all of the maps and charts you saw in the magazine,
edited and produced the monthly sky observing sections, and more.
In a world of nearly continual change, Rich was a constant.
Whatever chaos might have been happening outside his office, there
was Rich, happily focused and cranking away, day in and day out,
a tireless engine in suitable lockstep with his mathematical interests
and background.
Design Director LuAnn Williams Belter
EDITORIAL
Senior Editor Richard Talcott
Production Editor Elisa R. Neckar
Senior Associate Editor Alison Klesman
Associate Editor Jake Parks
Copy Editor McLean Bennett
Editorial Assistant Hailey McLaughlin
ART
Contributing Design Director Elizabeth Weber
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Production Specialist Jodi Jeranek
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Michael E. Bakich, Bob Berman, Adam Block,
Glenn F. Chaple Jr., Martin George, Tony Hallas,
Phil Harrington, Korey Haynes, Jeff Hester, Alister Ling,
Stephen James O’Meara, Martin Ratcliffe, Raymond Shubinski
SCIENCE GROUP
Executive Editor Becky Lang
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Buzz Aldrin, Marcia Bartusiak, Jim Bell, Timothy Ferris,
Alex Filippenko, Adam Frank, John S. Gallagher lll,
Daniel W. E. Green, William K. Hartmann, Paul Hodge,
Edward Kolb, Stephen P. Maran, Brian May, S. Alan Stern,
James Trefil
Kalmbach Media
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Senior Vice President, Finance Christine Metcalf
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Vice President, Human Resources Sarah A. Horner

Not only did Rich retire this year, Senior Director, Advertising Sales and Events David T. Sherman
Advertising Sales Director Scott Redmond
but our other senior editor, another Circulation Director Liz Runyon
Director of Design & Production Michael Soliday
engine of productivity, did, too. Our Managing Design Director Lisa A. Bergman
pal Michael Bakich left us last fall, and Retention Manager Kathy Steele
Single Copy Specialist Kim Redmond
has happily set up shop in Tucson.
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After a 16-year career at the magazine, Phone (888) 558-1544
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This would be a sad tale of woe for us survivors of Astronomy
magazine if not for two things. First, we will be adding two editors
this spring. Second, Rich and Michael will be gone, but not really.
They will still be actively contributing lots to the magazine.
This big change in our personnel makes me the last survivor of
the longtime staff members of our brand. I’m not yet ready for
retirement — I’ll still be here a while. But, like Stephen, I can’t halt
the passage of time, and so I will enjoy a late era in my tenure before
I contemplate the end. For me, this is the 451st issue of the magazine
I’ve worked on, over 37½ years. Why stop now?
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 ASTRO LET TERS

Desert memories
Thank you so much
for Stephen O’Meara’s
March article, “The
lunar blackdrop
effect.” In November,
we were in the Namib
SERGI FERRETE/UNSPLASH
mass. In reviewing the three laws, I did not find
a reference to mass. I am guessing that other laws
are used in the calculation of mass? — Bruce Maier,
Shoreham, NY
From Senior Associate Editor Alison Klesman:
You are correct that Kepler’s laws don’t mention mass.

Desert, watching The step our answer left out is that one can apply
the daily show of Newton’s work to Kepler’s third law to calculate mass.
Jupiter passing Kepler’s third law of motion states that P 2 α a3, which
The Namib Desert, southern Africa Venus in the west, means that the period (P) of an orbiting object is
when our talented, proportional to the distance at which it orbits (a is the
knowledgeable, and semi-major axis, or distance between the center and
obviously observant guide spotted the youngest Moon farthest point, of an ellipse). Newton’s work shows that,
We welcome
your comments either of us have ever seen. Although I was practically thanks to gravity, mass also comes into play. So, Kepler’s
at Astronomy Letters, shaking with excitement, I was still able to capture a third law can also be written this way:
P.O. Box 1612, few handheld shots. Again, thank you for reigniting
Waukesha, WI 53187; my excitement for those moments! — Bob Goren, P 2=[4π 2/(G(m1+m2 ))]a3
or email to letters@ Wynnewood, PA
astronomy.com .
G is the gravitational constant, while m1 and m2 are the
Please include your
name, city, state, and
masses of the two objects in question (e.g., a neutron
country. Letters may Weighing black holes star and a black hole). Using this form of Kepler’s third
be edited for space The Ask Astro answer on page 68 of the March issue law, astronomers can make observations of the system’s
and clarity. states that Kepler’s laws of motion are used to measure properties and determine the masses of the objects.

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 QG QUANTUM GRAVITY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE UNIVERSE THIS MONTH

SNAPSHOT

NEW SOLAR
SCOPE SEES
FIRST LIGHT
A close-up view
reveals the Sun’s
boiling surface.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar
Telescope, located on the
Haleakala volcano on the
Hawaiian island of Maui,
released its first photo of
the Sun on January 29. The
image covers an area roughly
22,680 miles (36,500 kilome-
ters) on each side and clearly
shows plasma cells on our
star’s surface. These cells form
as hot plasma from within
the Sun rises to the surface,
cools, and sinks back down in
a process called convection,
like bubbling water in a boiling
pot. The hottest plasma, which
has just risen to the surface,
appears light in this image,
while the darker edges show
where cooler plasma is sinking
below. In addition to creating
NSO/NSF/AURA. BOTTOM FROM LEFT: ESO/M. MONTARGÈS ET AL.; PIRJO KOSKI; NASA

unprecedented views of our

star, the new telescope will help
astronomers study the Sun’s
magnetic field and test theories
about solar physics that have
eluded previous observations.
— ERIKA K. CARLSON
HOT DIM AND DUSTY NEW SHAPES SIGNIFICANT LOSS
Betelgeuse has been Citizen scientists have Katherine Johnson,
BYTES undergoing not only helped researchers who worked at NASA
brightness changes, but identify a new type as a human computer
apparent shape changes of aurora, called the during the space race
as well. Astronomers dunes. Rather than and was featured
suspect the star may be appearing as vertical in the book and film
shedding material, which curtains, this aurora Hidden Figures, died
cools and blocks some of looks like horizontal February 24 at the
its light from view. dunes of sand. age of 101.

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 7
QUANTUM GRAVITY
INSIGHT DETECTS MARSQUAKES,
PROVING SEISMIC ACTIVITY
NASA’s new seismometer on Mars detected
174 quakes in just seven months.
Not far from Mars’ equator,
a series of strange fissures rip
deep into the Red Planet’s surface.
The cracks of Cerberus Fossae run for
hundreds of miles, cutting through
craters, hills, and everything else in
their path. Relatively young-looking
volcanoes nearby, combined with trails
of tumbling rocks, have long fueled
speculation over whether the region is
still active today.
There’s no need to wonder any-
more. In a series of papers published
February 24 in the journals Nature
Geoscience and Nature Communications,
scientists released the first 10 months of
8 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
discoveries from NASA’s Mars InSight
lander. The findings include results from
the first seven months of seismic studies,
which solve the mystery of Cerberus
Fossae: The Red Planet is geologically
active and bustling with marsquakes.
InSight carries the first working seis-
mometer to investigate the Red Planet’s
surface since 1978. It’s also deployed
the first magnetometer on Mars. And
while the lander’s lack of wheels might
bring fewer news headlines than rovers
like Curiosity, astronomers say InSight’s
findings will ultimately help them better
understand the geological processes that
have shaped our neighboring world.
SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE. This view of Cerberus
Fossae, created using stereo data collected by
the European Space Agency’s Mars Express
spacecraft, shows fault cracks cutting across
the Red Planet. New data released from
NASA’s InSight lander show this region is
seismically active today. ESA/DLR/FU BERLIN
MARS IS ALIVE
Last year, InSight’s instruments
detected two particularly strong seismic
jolts that researchers were ultimately
able to trace back to the main sur-
face fault associated with Cerberus
Fossae, which sits roughly 1,000 miles
(1,600 kilometers) from the lander’s
location. Each event measured magni-
tude 3.6 on the Richter scale.
“For the first time, we’ve established
that Mars is a seismically active planet,”
InSight Principal Investigator Bruce
Banerdt said during a media briefing.
“And the seismic activity is greater than
that of the Moon.”
 QUICK

THE INTERNATIONAL GEMINI OBSERVATORY/NSF’S NATIONAL OPTICAL-INFRARED ASTRONOMY RESEARCH LABORATORY/AURA

TAKES
FOUR-WAY COMPETITION
NASA has selected four possible
proposals to explore the solar
system. TRIDENT would venture to
Neptune’s moon Triton, VERITAS
would map Venus’ surface, DAVINCI+
would analyze the venusian
atmosphere, and IVO would assess
volcanic activity on Jupiter’s moon Io.

ALTERNATE TAKE
An international team of
astronomers has simulated galaxy
formation without using dark
matter. The success potentially
overcomes a long-standing
challenge for a controversial theory
called MOND, which claims dark
matter doesn’t exist.

A celestial hourglass FREE THINKER

Physicist Freeman Dyson — who
At least one star in the sky has found beauty in death. This image, captured by the
proposed that sufficiently advanced
Gemini South Observatory, showcases the planetary nebula known as CVMP 1, located
aliens would likely build “Dyson
about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Circinus. The planetary nebula is spheres” around their home stars to
one of the largest known, and is the outcome of a main sequence star that blew off power their civilizations — died
its outer layers as it puffed up into a red giant. This cosmic wonder won’t have a long February 28 at age 96.
lifespan, though. Its hourglass shape will only last about 10,000 years. Within that time,
the central star lighting the massive cloud will cool down, causing the hourglass to BAD BREAK-UP
fade from view. — HAILEY ROSE MCLAUGHLIN A new study led by a University of
Warwick researcher revealed that
giant stars nearing the end of their
lives can release radiation so intense
The shaking didn’t stop there. By The mission hasn’t been a complete it causes orbiting asteroids to spin
the end of September, InSight had felt a success, however. One crucial instru- fast enough that they break apart.
whopping 174 seismic events. The quakes ment, a heat probe called the “mole,”
fell into two distinct categories: 24 had was designed to hammer itself down ADDING A LINE
low frequencies, indicating they were 16 feet (5 meters) below the surface to To prepare for future Moon and
traveling through Mars’ deeper mantle, reveal details about how rocky planets Mars missions, NASA broke ground
while the rest were smaller and had form. Instead, it’s been stuck for the last February 11 on a 112-foot-wide
distinctly higher wavelengths, a sign they year. Teams of engineers around the (34 meters) radio antenna in California
that will bolster the capabilities of the
were propagating close to the surface. world have worked with earthbound
Deep Space Network, which is
But the data collected by the InSight replicas of the spacecraft to test hacks
used to communicate with
lander doesn’t just reveal seismic activity that could free the instrument, but the
interplanetary spacecraft.
— it’s also shedding light on Mars’ mole keeps bouncing out of its hole.
magnetic field. NASA scientists were Scientists and engineers aren’t giving THE BIGGEST BOOM
surprised to find that the localized mag- up just yet, though. NASA expects In February, astronomers
netic field around InSight is 10 times InSight to continue operating for announced the universe’s most
stronger than expected based on satellite about another year. And in addition powerful explosion discovered to
observations. “This indicates that there to collecting more data on the seismic date: an eruption from a
are magnetized rocks that lie beneath and magnetic activity of Mars, one of supermassive black hole some
the InSight landing site,” said mission the main objectives for the lander’s 390 million light-years away. The
co-investigator Catherine Johnson of remaining mission is to get the mole blast released about five times
the University of British Columbia. digging again. — ERIC BETZ more energy than the previous
record holder. — JAKE PARKS

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 9
QUANTUM GRAVITY
Chinese rover peers
beneath the lunar farside
New data from the first spacecraft to softly
land on the lunar farside are offering fresh
details about the part of the Moon that’s
hidden from view from Earth.
China’s Chang’e-4 lander, equipped
with the Yutu-2 rover, touched down in
January 2019 inside Von Kármán crater, a
large impact site nestled inside the South
Pole-Aitken Basin. The 1,600-mile-wide
(2,575 kilometers) basin is the widest,
deepest, and oldest such feature on the
Moon. It is also a prime target for sci-
entists who want to study our satellite’s
evolution over billions of years.
Yutu-2 probed below the surface using
ground-penetrating radar, which sends
pulses through the Moon’s subsurface and
measures the signals that reflect back. It
found that the landing site is carpeted with
loose dirt, called regolith, up to 40 feet
(12 meters) deep, according to a paper pub-
lished February 26 in Science Advances.
10 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
UNEXPLORED
TERRAIN. The
JARED FRANKLE, NASA SOLAR ORBITER SOCIAL PARTICIPANT
Chang’e-4 lander
took this image
of the landscape
near its landing
site on the lunar
farside. Based on
data from the
mission’s Yutu-2
rover, the entire
Moon may be
covered in a
deep layer of
fluffy dust called
regolith. NAOC/CNSA
SOLAR
ORBITER
HEADS FOR
THE SUN
On the night of February 9,
the European Space Agency
and NASA successfully
launched their joint Solar
Orbiter mission from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station
NASA astronauts and experiments, as in Florida aboard a United
well as the Soviet Luna missions, showed Launch Alliance Atlas V
that this pulverized dust and rock is preva- rocket. During its mission,
lent across the Moon’s nearside. But sci- Solar Orbiter will get up
entists weren’t sure if the same material is
close and personal with the
spread across the rest of the satellite.
Yutu-2 also looked beneath the surface
Sun to investigate our host
regolith. Farther down, the rover found star and its magnetic field,
alternating layers of boulders and large as well as how the solar
rocks interspersed with finer soil to depths wind that influences our
of roughly 130 feet (40 m). Each of those solar system is generated.
layers of boulders was probably deposited It will take the spacecraft
as space rocks hit the Moon’s surface about two years to reach
and filled the air with ejecta. Although the its targeted science orbit;
radar couldn’t see any deeper, the scien- once in place, it will be
tists suspect this pattern continues. well positioned to study
The mission’s results will ultimately help
the Sun’s poles up close for
scientists better understand the Moon’s
the first time. The mission
formation and evolution. Astronomers also
say that studying craters on the Moon can
will also work in conjunc-
provide a proxy for what happens when tion with the Parker Solar
large objects strike Earth. — E.B. Probe, which launched in
2018 and has already made
several record-setting close
approaches to our star.
— H.R.M., ALISON KLESMAN
 THE MOST MOONS Mercury
0
Venus
0
Earth
1
Mars
2
A NEW CHAMPION EMERGES. On October 7,
Saturn
2019, Saturn officially surpassed Jupiter
82
as king of the solar system — at least,
in terms of moons. Based on 20 newly Neptune
discovered moons, the ringed planet now 14
Uranus
boasts the most moons of any planet 1ST
in the solar system. And astronomers
27 PLACE

expect it to stay that way, estimating

Saturn may actually have nearly 20
more moons that have not yet been
discovered, due to their small size. FAST FACT
Regardless of future discoveries, Jupiter The Carnegie Institution for Science recently
held a contest to name Saturn’s 20 new moons.

ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY

Saturn is now on top. Here’s 79 Entrants were required to choose names based
how it stacks up against on Inuit, Norse, and Gallic mythology, in keeping
its contenders. — A.K. with current naming conventions.

Arrokoth flyby hints at how planets formed

328
The number
On New Year’s Day 2019, the New
Horizons probe buzzed past a
small world now called Arrokoth,
of days NASA which means “sky” in the Native
astronaut American Powhatan language.
More than a year after the
Christina
flyby, the data are still com-
Koch had ing in. The New Horizons team
spent on the presented their latest results
International February 13 in a series of papers
published in Science, as well
Space Station as at the annual meeting of the
by the time American Association for the
she returned Advancement of Science in
Seattle. Their findings: Planet
to Earth formation may be a gentler pro-
February 6, cess than previously thought.
breaking the Our solar system started as
a cloud of gas and dust, which
record for
evolved into the well-ordered
the longest place we see today. However,
continual time the steps in between are fuzzy.
Orbiting in the Kuiper Belt,
in space for
Arrokoth functions as a sort of
a woman. time capsule, providing a pristine
snapshot of the conditions shortly
after the solar system’s birth.
Arrokoth has a relatively
smooth surface with few signs of
impacts. Most importantly, its two
red-hued lobes appear to have
been moving in lockstep even
before they made contact, like
two lovers on a walk, gravitating
toward each other even before
reaching out to join hands.
Exactly how those lobes came
together reveals clues about
how our solar system assembled
itself. “For decades, there’s been
a war of computer models,” New
Horizons’ principal investigator,
Alan Stern, tells Astronomy. In
one model, called hierarchical
accretion, dust grains collided
to form pebbles, which formed
rocks, then boulders, and finally
large bodies, in a long and violent
game of bumper cars. The other
model, cloud collapse, says the
TWO BECOME
ONE. Arrokoth is
a contact binary
made of two
lobes. New data
indicate this
strange world
formed gently,
supporting the
cloud collapse
model of solar
system formation.
NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
original nebula of dust and gas
swirled together and tenderly col-
lapsed directly into larger bodies.
Early data from New Horizons
hinted at a gentle crash between
Arrokoth’s two lobes — which is
actually evidence for the violent
collision theory. But, says Stern,
with 10 times as much data and
many months of computer model-
ing, the team now sees a different
story, in which Arrokoth formed
more placidly. And this story sup-
ports the cloud collapse model.
“Arrokoth has provided a deci-
sive test between the two,” Stern
said during the Seattle briefing.
“I believe this is a game changer.”
— KOREY HAYNES

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 11
QUANTUM GRAVITY
Swirling space-time
reveals white dwarf’s past
One of the most curious conse-
quences of Einstein’s theory of
relativity is frame-dragging: When a
massive object rotates, it drags space-
time with it like a skirt swirling around
a spinning dancer. Now, an international
team of astronomers has used this effect
to take measurements previously impos-
sible. By watching how frame-dragging
has affected a neutron star circling a
spinning white dwarf, researchers have
measured the rotation speed of a white
dwarf and confirmed previous clues
about its unique history. Their work
appeared January 31 in Science.
The white dwarf (the remnant of a
Sun-like star) is part of a binary system
called PSR J1141-6545, which also
contains a neutron star (a remnant left
when a star more than eight times as
massive as the Sun goes supernova).
Astronomers believe the white dwarf
formed first and the pulsar later. And
between those two events, mass from
the star that would eventually explode to
create the pulsar flowed onto the white
12 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
dwarf, causing it to “spin up” and rotate
more quickly than otherwise possible.
But measuring how fast the white
dwarf is rotating to confirm this theory
is difficult, the researchers said, because
the tiny remnant is too faint to use
traditional methods for measuring a
star’s rotation.
Fortunately, the neutron star compan-
ion is also a pulsar, beaming radiation
from its poles as it spins. Based on when
each pulse arrives at Earth, researchers
can determine how fast the pulsar is
spinning and how it is moving in space.
And the pulsar’s movement through
the twisted space-time caused by the
twirling white dwarf allowed researchers
to work backward and determine how
fast the white dwarf is spinning.
Using atomic clocks to precisely time
0.125 The percentage of molecules in Jupiter’s equatorial
atmosphere that are water. This is nearly three
times the amount of water present in the Sun.
TWISTED UP. In this artist’s concept, a white
dwarf (the larger object) distorts and drags
space-time around it, affecting the orbit of its
neutron star companion. As the neutron star’s
radio beams sweep over Earth, astronomers can
time their arrival to determine conditions near
the pair. ESO/L. CALÇADA
the pulsar’s blips, they determined the
pulsar’s orbit has precessed by about
93 miles (150 kilometers) in the 20
years since the system was discovered.
(Precession is a bit like spinning a hula
hoop around your arm — the place
where the hoop is nearest and farthest
from your arm can change, even if the
shape and size of the hoop do not.) Based
on how fast the white dwarf must spin for
frame-dragging to cause that change, the
team calculated the rotation of the white
dwarf: roughly once every 100 seconds.
That speed confirms the white dwarf
pulled mass off its companion star and
spun up before the pulsar’s creation.
And that gives researchers even more
information about the system and how
it formed, also shedding light on other
systems like it. — A.K.
NASA retires the
Spitzer Space Telescope HIDDEN UNIVERSE.
The Spitzer Space
Telescope floats
On January 30, NASA decom- a command that triggered the against a back-
ground showing the
missioned the Spitzer Space telescope into “safe mode” and invisible infrared
Telescope, ending its more- shut down its systems. universe it revealed
to astronomers, in
than-16-year run. Launched Positioned in an Earth-trailing this artist’s concept.
August 25, 2003, the 33-inch orbit to shield it from heat and NASA/JPL-CALTECH

(0.85 meters) infrared telescope eliminate interference from the

mission initially used liquid
helium to cool its instruments
to –449 degrees Fahrenheit
(–267 degrees Celsius). In 2009,
coolant ran out and the tele-
scope commenced its warm
mission. Spitzer could no longer
observe longer wavelengths,
but continued observing at two
discrete short wavelengths: 3.6
and 4.5 micrometers.
The telescope’s last day of
data collection was January 28;
on January 30, engineers sent
atmosphere, Spitzer broadened
our view of the universe. The
telescope made its own land-
mark discoveries, as well as
complemented data from other
facilities including the Hubble
Space Telescope and the
Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Although observing the
infrared sky without Spitzer
will look different in the future,
astronomers still have some
tools at their disposal. The
Hubble Space Telescope has
limited infrared-observing
capabilities, while NASA’s
NEOWISE mission searches
for near-Earth asteroids at
infrared wavelengths. The
Stratospheric Observatory
For Infrared Astronomy, a
telescope mounted inside a
modified Boeing 747SP air-
craft, covers the entire range
of Spitzer’s instruments and
more. The James Webb Space
Telescope and the Wide Field
Infrared Survey Telescope,
both planned for launch in the
2020s, will also focus on the
infrared universe.
Spitzer far outlived its
primary mission timeline,
revealing a cosmos previously
invisible to humans. Its endur-
ing legacy will pave the way for
new discoveries and new tele-
scopes for years to come. See
page 18 to learn more about
Spitzer’s accomplishments and
see some of its groundbreak-
ing images. — E.K.C., H.R.M., A.K.

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 STRANGE UNIVERSE
Strange Moon rising
There’s a stunning lunar phase you’re likely missing.
The Third Quarter
Moon, which is half
illuminated, throws The overall theme of this page is the odd or
the craters and unusual. So, the sky’s No. 1 most-observed
mountains along the target shouldn’t qualify. But let’s give it a shot
terminator into stark
relief. NASA’S SCIENTIFIC anyway and focus on the Moon, just this once.
VISUALIZATION STUDIO For non-astronomers, the lunar phase that
first comes to mind is “Full Moon,” with
“crescent” serving as runner-up. Cartoonists
portraying a night sky always include one of
those two. Ask friends to name a lunar phase
and no one will say “First Quarter” or “Last
Quarter.” Many don’t even know those are
Moon. This tranquil keep going.
the names of the half Moons — or appreciate
the oddity that, in our little corner of science,
“half” and “quarter” mean the same thing.
So, to explore the public’s least-familiar unobserved smack on t he meridia n at daw n.
lunar phase, we’ll choose a half Moon. But
which one is more neglected — First Quarter
or Last Quarter? It’s actually an easy choice,
since we only ever observe one of them.
BY BOB BERMAN That’s because the First Quarter Moon, illuminated
Join me and Pulse on its right side for North Americans and Europeans,
of the Planet’s stands highest at nightfall. It’s so conveniently placed
Jim Metzner
we observe it monthly. We can’t not see it. But now
in my podcast,
Astounding Universe, consider the Last or Third Quarter Moon, the one lit up
at www.astounding on its left side. This is our strange, orphaned, unob-
universe.com served Moon. The Third Quarter doesn’t even rise until
14 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
midnight or later, and can’t lift itself out of blurry hori-
zon air until the wee hours. It’s highest at dawn, but who
drags their telescope out at 5 A.M.?
I won’t pretend to be special. I only started observing
this phase last year when I finally had an observatory
near my home. But then — wow!
Observers know that only around a half Moon phase
can they see optimally illuminated craters near the
middle of the Moon rather than those closer to the edge,
which are foreshortened and have a faraway appear-
ance. So, people who enjoy up-close lunar features —
and who doesn’t? — drool on their eyepieces when
treated to the rugged front-and-center mountain chain,
the magnificent lunar Apennines, whose western end
abruptly stops at the gorgeous crater Eratosthenes.
Adjacent to it, a few days after First Quarter, the termi-
nator shadow uncovers Copernicus, possibly the
Moon’s most handsome feature.
But at Third Quarter, sunlight comes from the oppo-
site direction, making the familiar lunar features
weirdly alien. The edge of the Apennines, now hit with
direct sunlight, looks oddly white and harsh.
Copernicus, invisible at the First Quarter phase, is now
intriguingly illuminated. The same is true in the rugged
southern highlands, where we optimally see the famous
crater Clavius, featured in the film 2001: A Space
Odyssey. Clavius’ floor has six evenly spaced craterlets,
each slightly smaller than the preceding one. Together
they form a remarkable French curve, an arc so perfect
it seems unnatural, almost a lunar Mount Rushmore.
But the Last Quarter’s visceral eeriness mostly stems
from its reversed lighting, added to its unique position
in the sky. It is the only lunar phase that floats exactly
in the direction toward which Earth is
traveling. When you look up at the Last
Consider Quarter Moon, you see the place that we
the Third ourselves will occupy three and a half hours
Quarter later. If this reconnaissance scout appears
and unruffled, we know it’s safe to
is our Even to the naked eye, the Last Quarter
strange, vividly pops out as it hovers against the dark-
orphaned, est, most polarized part of the blue sky,
Accompanied by birdsong, it’s a scene woven
Moon. of earthly and celestial threads, a tapestry of
timeless design that floats balanced and
motionless — until life snaps out of its crepuscular
reverie to resume its customary frenzy.
In this calm 5 A.M. air you are almost certainly the
only one in your community looking up at the sky. This
is the Moon that is yours alone.
BROWSE THE “STRANGE UNIVERSE” ARCHIVE
AT www.Astronomy.com/Berman
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WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 15
 thinking because he would rub his bald head. The more
F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N agitated he was about something, the more vigorous the
self-administered cranial massage. After the debacle of
first light, Roger was staring at the screen and polishing
his crown with wild abandon. Then he made a

No crystal balls pronouncement.

“Damned thing’s got spherical aberration!”
It would turn out that the $3 billion problem with
Snapshot memories of Hubble’s early days. Hubble came down to a submillimeter paint chip that
nobody bothered to look for because they needed an
Has it really been 30 answer right now. Rushing the process is rarely a
years? Looking back, I good idea.
was just a kid. Granted, Most readers probably look back on 1990 as the now-
I was a kid with three kids of my seldom-discussed prelude to Hubble’s phoenixlike rise
own, but I was still wet behind from the ashes. Hubble went on to deliver on all of its
the ears. original promise and more. But in the moment, lacking
I had come to Caltech fresh a crystal ball, astronomers greeted the news by throw-
from graduate school to take a ing themselves off of observatory catwalks, figuratively
postdoctoral position that paid if not literally.
$22,000 a year. With over half of I was part of Hubble’s ultimate triumph as well.
The first-light image that destined for rent, the num- Maybe I’ll return to it in three years with the 30th anni-
made with the Hubble
Space Telescope and
bers added up to “poor,” but we convinced ourselves we versary of the first Servicing Mission. But for now,
its Wide Field and wouldn’t be there for long. I’d spend a year helping get hopefully this handful of words will offer the reader
Planetary Camera ready for the launch of our space telescope, then a year some small glimpse into what it felt like to a young
(right) shows the
image artifacts that
or two getting some science done. From there, it would postdoc who had hitched his wagon to a wild and uncer-
challenged the scope hopefully be on to the closest thing to immortality tain horse.
before its fix. On the academia has to offer — the track to tenure. There’s also a cautionary tale hiding in this bit
left is a ground-based
image of the same Five months later, the world watched in disbelief of admittedly romanticized remembrance. If the space
field, made with a when Challenger exploded shortly after biz taught me anything, it is that world-
100-inch scope. launch. shaking events are usually the ones you
NASA/ESA
It was over four years before Discovery Most readers should have seen coming, but didn’t.
finally carried the Large Space Telescope, probably look Forgetting that physics doesn’t give a
newly renamed Hubble, into orbit. A lot had
back on 1990 rodent’s posterior about schedule, budget,
happened in the meantime, but on that or politics is an invitation for Murphy’s law
morning in April 1990, it was “attaboys” all as the to come out and play.
around. now-seldom- Now, with Hubble nearing the end of its
The thing is, all it takes to topple a huge discussed life, it’s the James Webb Space Telescope
pile of “attaboys” is a single “aw s---.” So it prelude to proclaiming, “Damn the torpedoes and full
was a month later as Bob Light and I sat at speed ahead!” Having blown through its
computer screens in front of NASA Select
Hubble’s original $1 billion price tag and 2007 launch
television cameras, staring in confusion at phoenixlike date, some “lovingly” refer to the $10 billion
the very first image from Hubble. Jim rise from Webb as “The Telescope That Ate
Westphal, the principal investigator on the the ashes. Astronomy.” A friend who works on the
Wide Field and Planetary Camera, was project recently confided in me about what
standing behind us talking to the cameras. he sees as “big scaries,” but went on to say
The script had called for a quick show. The Hubble that so much is riding on Webb’s success that “it is
image would be spectacular in comparison to a ground- unthinkable that it won’t work.”
based image of the same field. Glasses would be raised I shudder at that. Orbiting at L2, this time there will
in triumphant toast and those of us fortunate to be in be no do-overs. I have tremendous respect for the
the right place at the right time would ride off into a people working on Webb, but physics can be a perverse
sunset filled with wonder. But to quote the poet Robert comedian, and “it has to work” is probably its favorite
Burns, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men …” The straight line.
newly launched miracle of science and engineering had Oh well. You pays yer money and you takes yer
the most basic, no-one-could-ever-miss-it problem a chances. For now, I vicariously share the excitement of
telescope mirror could have. the young astronomers who are waiting and hoping for
BY JEFF HESTER Lots of people independently recognized what was a ride like the one I was privileged to take. Fingers
Jeff is a keynote
going on, but on my personal timeline, the first was crossed!
speaker, coach,
and astrophysicist. Roger Lynds. Roger was known as a bit of an eccentric.
Follow his thoughts At WFPC team meetings, Roger tended to walk around BROWSE THE “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION”
at jeff-hester.com rather than sit, and you could always tell when he was ARCHIVE AT www.Astronomy.com/Hester

16 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020


Working Mechanism of Solar System
Working mechanism of solar system based over discovered
(understood) materialistic particle properties of the rays.
(Get reward* $ 50,000 by proving the discovery wrong and false.)
* See Terms and Conditions over website.
If Discoverer Ramesh Varma (India) had been academic
qualified PhD scientist (not citizen scientist); discovery claim instead
of being an advertisement, would have appeared in all Science
Journals as publication resulting to make it viral among the
concerned. (Mode of new discovery information set by the Academic
World is a curse on the mankind).
Physicists by understanding light as a form of energy having
dual property of the wave and particle achieve the objectives by fitting
the understood property (energy, wave or particles) where it fits. Due
to the said snag among the Physicists; Astronomers/Astrophysicists
are in doldrums because they are the blind followers of Physicists.
Tilted axis of the planets, retrograde direction of the Venus,
eccentric/elliptical orbits and faster/slower rotation speed of the
planets are all due to the materialistic particles curved rays of the Sun
and of the planet itself along with other physical features of the planet.
But due to the wrong knowledge with the Physicists about some vital
physical properties of the rays, Astronomers/Astrophysicsts are left
with no option other than to consider major/minor impacts and
collisions in the past as the cause of all the characteristics said above.
In the absence of any other valid explanation the impact theories were
believed to be correct, but whereas it is not so. Concerned
(Physicists/Astronomers/Astrophysicists) by setting aside all already
understood theories must understand materialistic and physical
properties of the rays from the Nature’s vast laboratory (solar space)
by considering Sun and solar objects as the Scientific devices in it.
Light or any other kind of ray: Light or any other kind of
ray has only one property that it is a state of the matter
(materialistic) to be called as white matter and it acts as energy
under specific conditions. Further, a ray of light or of any kind is
composed of closely touching spherical materialistic particles
and such kind of ray on its escape from a rotating celestial body
adopts a curved or spiral path.
Sun/Star MPC ray
Materialistic Particles Curved rays (MPC rays) obeys
all the laws of reflection, refraction and deflection etc. MPC rays
form a specific mirror reflection image pattern over the
equatorial plane of the rotating body (Sun/planet) from which
they escape.
Pattern (A)
SUN
Pattern (A) formed by MPC rays
from Sun/Planet as seen from
POLE
above the Pole.
Pattern (B)
SUN
EQUATOR PLANE
AXIS OF ROTATION
Mirror reflection image pattern (B) over equator plane of the Sun/
planet formed by the MPC rays as seen from its equator plane.
What do MPC rays do? MPC rays on their escape put
back thrust over the body from which they escape and on strike
over another body put forward thrust; besides it, MPC rays on
their escape from a rotating body on their way also push the
objects to orbit by their sweep like action. MPC rays along with
other ejected independent particles from the Sun (star) or from
the planet put greater magnitude of forward thrust over the
striking bodies, like storm wind with rain drops or dust/sand
particles puts greater thrust over the objects than simply by the
fast blowing air. (Further, magnitude of forward thrust over the
striking bodies by such kind of MPC rays goes beyond
imagination when they strike over the big celestial objects).
Role of the gravity along with MPC rays: Gravity is not
the only factor which governs formation and working
mechanism of the celestial bodies. It is the backward thrust over
the body by the outgoing MPC rays and forward thrust by the
MPC rays over the striking celestial bodies along with the factor
gravity which does the said job.
Sun: Backward thrust by the outgoing MPC rays over
every particle of the Sun rotates the Sun faster at its equator
than near to its Poles and also keeps the shape of the Sun a
perfect sphere. Rotation to the Sun by the MPC rays has already
been advertised in the February issue of this magazine (and see
it over YouTube: Rotation to Sun by the materialistic particles
curved rays).
Why the solar family is almost over a plane? World
understands that Solar Nebula rotated dramatically fast and
flattened to a thin disc of vast diameter. From the central part the
Sun formed and from rest of the flat disc matter other solar
objects have been formed thus solar family is over a plane. The
Sun has not become oblate despite its fast rotation, rather it is a
perfect sphere; this proves World’s understanding wrong and
false. MPC rays form mirror reflection image pattern over
equatorial plane of the Sun; pattern formed acts as trap zone to
keep the solar family over it. (See the sketch below as seen from
equatorial plane of the Sun).
Size PAID
178mm x 247mm (Full Page)
ADVERTISEMENT
N SUN RAYS
SUN V-ZONE
EQUATOR
(OR TRAP ZONE)
MERCURY
VENUS EARTH
AXIS OF S ROTATION
Note: Orbital planes of some of the objects do not coincide with
the said plane; it is due to the MPC rays of the Sun and the object
and some internal and external features of the objects as stated
over the website.
Distance of a planet from the Sun: Scientists
understand that a planet is at a distance from the Sun by the
centrifugal force due to its orbital motion; truly it is not so. A
planet is at a distance from the Sun by the three factors (i)
Already known factor; the centrifugal force (ii) Forward thrust
over the planet by the MPC rays of the Sun along with other
solar ejects (or simply by the thrust of solar wind) and (iii)
Repulsion factor between the MPC rays of the Sun and of the
planet which it generates and radiates.
Formation of the planets: Solar planets have formed by
the same process as the scientists at Hubble Telescope have
discovered. In space planets form by clubbing together particles
of the disk of dust and gases around the protostar. Matter of the
solar disk got arranged density wise in flat rings by the two
factors (1) gravity pull of the Sun and (2) forward thrust over disk
particles by outgoing MPC rays of the Sun along with other solar
ejects; denser/bigger near to the Sun and lighter/finest far away.
Due to the said new discovered fact planets nearer to the Sun
have been formed from the denser elements whereas planets
formed at far off are from the lighter elements and gases.
Planet’s working mechanism: If a planet has spherical
shape and has no satellite or flat rings, has homogeneous mass
and has no influence of gravity from any nearby planet(s); it
would have zero axial tilt; constant orbital speed, perfect centric
and circular orbital path due to the MPC rays of the Sun and
planet. Rotation and orbital motion of a planet by the MPC rays
has been stated below (Reason behind fast/slow rotation
speed, rotation direction; tilt to the rotation axis;
circular/elliptical/eccentric orbital motion etc by the planets are
due to some internal and external features of the planet and by
the MPC rays of the Sun and planet which has been stated
ahead under specific planets).
Rotation of the planet in general: Planet does not rotate
from the conservation of angular momentum got at its formation
as the Academic World understands. MPC rays from the Sun
due to their curved path put thrust difference over the part of the
planet which faces the Sun resulting to rotate the planet in the
direction in which the Sun rotates. Planet further rotates faster
due to the back thrust from its own outgoing generated and
radiated MPC rays. (See the sketch below as seen from Pole of
the Sun).
AXB LOW THRUST ZONE ORBIT
DIRECTION
X
B
ROTATING
SUN MPC SUN RAYS ROTATING
A PLANET
POLE
Y
C
AYC HIGH THRUST ZONE
MPC rays of the Sun rotate the planet by creating thrust
difference on its half side. It is because of longer distance
traveled by the MPC Sun rays to strike the surface of the
planet at AB thus become weaker; whereas the planet
gets stronger thrust at surface AC.
Orbital motion of the planet in general: Orbital motion
of a planet is not from the kinetic energy got at its formation as
the Academic World understands. MPC rays from the rotating
Sun push the planet with sweeping like action to move the object
(planet) over the equatorial plane of the Sun (see the above
sketch). Mutual gravity attraction between the Sun and the
object/planet keeps the planet in orbit around the Sun. Planet
also gets orbital motion speed from its own generated and
radiated MPC rays due to reflex action i.e., planet makes an
attempt to force the Sun to orbit around it by its own MPC rays
but the mass of planet being negligible compared to the Sun
with the result planet itself orbits with faster speed.
Slow rotation speed of the planets (Mercury and
Venus): Planets Mercury and Venus complete one rotation in
59 Earth days and 243 Earth days respectively whereas Earth
does so in one day. Both the planets are very close to the Sun
and have molten cores. Molten cores have mixture of elements;
densest to the lighter. Gravity of the Sun pulls densest elements
closer to it (Sun) and intends to keep densest elements always
towards it (Sun). MPC rays of the Sun and of the planet provide
rotation (torque) force to the planet; whereas accumulation of
the densest elements among the less dense elements in the
molten core which always faces the Sun puts retardation to
rotation speed of the planets Mercury and Venus. Due to the
stated fact planets Mercury and Venus rotate very slowly.
(Note: Due to similar reason rotation speed of the Moon got
retardation on becoming satellite of the Earth by the high gravity
pull of the Earth over its denser elements in the molten core and
later Moon stopped its rotation permanently by another factor
due to Venus as stated over the website).
Faster rotation speed of the planet Jupiter: Jupiter is
far off from the Sun so its molten core does not put retardation to
its rotation and Jupiter generates great quantum of MPC rays
than any other planet, which provides faster rotation speed to it.
The reverse direction rotation of the planet Venus:
Venus is closer to the Sun and has denser atmosphere (90
times denser than the Earth). MPC rays on entering into the
denser medium (atmosphere) of the Venus bend towards
normal resulting to provide rotation to the Venus in the reverse
direction. Further, Venus rotates by its own generated and
20200316
radiated MPC rays in the direction in which the MPC rays of the
Sun are rotating it. (Due to the same/similar reasons in the
space gassy Hot-Jupiters which are closer to their stars, rotate
in the reverse direction). (Some Hot-Jupiters which rotate faster
in reverse direction than their host stars have adopted orbital
motion in the reverse direction than other planets due to the
stated reflex action. Planet Venus has not reversed its orbital
motion because it generates feeble MPC rays and also rotates
very slowly).
Axial tilt to the planets (Mercury, Saturn, Earth and
Uranus in particular): Tilt to the axis of the planets is due to
MPC rays of the Sun and internal and external features of the
planets. Planet Mercury has zero axial tilt because it has no
satellite or flat rings around. Planet Saturn has axial tilt due to
its flat rings. Flat rings can never remain parallel to the
equatorial plane of the Sun due to MPC rays of the Sun and of
the planet; tilt to flat rings has resulted tilt to the axis of Saturn.
Earth has axial tilt due to the similar reason of the Saturn by its
Moon. Earth and Moon both are a clubbed body, their clubbed
invisible cord cannot remain parallel to equatorial plane of the
Sun due to MPC rays from the Sun. Planet Uranus rotates with
tilted axis almost parallel to its orbital plane; solid core of the
planet has been formed of two clubbed planets (say Ura and
Nus) in the past history thus it is of shape prolate spheroid. A
planet of this shape or gassy planet having solid core of this
shape cannot rotate vertically due to the trap zone of V shape
formed by the MPC rays of the Sun; planet has to roll over the
equatorial plane of the Sun. (Uranus does not have bulge at its
equator in spite of its faster rotation; its shape provides the proof
that solid core inside the gassy shell is of shape prolate
spheroid). Read over the website; formation of Planet Uranus
from two nearby planets Ura and Nus.
Circular and elliptical orbits of the planets (Uranus,
Saturn, Venus and Mercury in particular): Planet Uranus has
its flat rings almost vertical to its orbital plane. When surface of
the flat rings faces the Sun; it gets greater thrust magnitude from
MPC rays of the Sun thus Uranus adopts wider orbital distance
than when edge of the flat rings faces the Sun. Due to the stated
fact orbital path of the Uranus is elliptical. Planet Saturn has
vast flat rings and has tilted axis of rotation. Due to tilt of the flat
rings; MPC rays from the Sun put greater thrust (push) to keep
Saturn away from the Sun when inclined surface of the flat rings
faces the Sun whereas when edge of the flat rings faces the
Sun, Saturn comes nearer to the Sun resulting to make its
orbital path elliptical. Planet Venus has greater real mean
density than the Earth though its diameter is somewhat lesser.
Planet Mercury is very small as compared to the Venus though
real mean density of Mercury is greater than the Venus. Further
Venus has huge denser atmosphere and has no satellite or flat
rings. Due to the said physical properties of the Venus MPC rays
of the Sun and gravity of the Mercury could not make much
effect to distort its orbit so its orbit is almost circular and centric.
Planet Mercury is very small planet in between the Sun and
Venus. Gravity influence of nearby planets has made its orbital
path somewhat different than normal.
Flat rings of some planets (Planet Saturn in
particular): Every planet generates and radiates MPC rays but
with different magnitude. Mirror reflection image pattern formed
by the MPC rays over equatorial plane of the Saturn acts as trap
zone similar to trap zone formed by the Sun over its equator
plane. Planets closer to the Sun face high blow of solar-ejects
thus they cannot trap fine particles around them in the form of
flat rings (blow of solar ejects is so high that planets Mercury and
Venus could not have their satellites). Planet Saturn has the
best location to get the fine dust from asteroid belt and of
suitable size to keep trapped matter in the form of flat rings. High
powered MPC rays of the Jupiter with their thrust kept on
colliding asteroids of the asteroid belt. Dust and chips formed
move for wider orbit by the thrust of solar ejects. Saturn gets the
first chance to trap dust and chips in its trap zone in the form of
flat rings. Flat rings with other planets Uranus and Neptune have
been formed the same way.
Formation of Trojans from the asteroids by the
Jupiter: High powered MPC rays from the Jupiter due to their
thrust keep some clusters of asteroids away resulting to form
Trojans on both sides in the asteroids belt which move along as
the Jupiter orbits.
Rotation of Asteroids: Scientists understand that
asteroids get rotation from the light and radiation but they have
failed to understand rotation of the planets due to the light and
radiations (MPC rays) because of the mind-set from centuries
that planets rotate by the conservation of angular momentum
which is wrong and false.
Comets: Working mechanism of the comets suggests
that their nucleus must be composed of high density elements.
So, comets must have formed along with planets but from the
disc matter which was in between the Sun and the planet
Mercury. Solar ejects and solar-storm would have ejected the
orbiting nucleus matter to form comets. Different speeds of the
comet on its way and its functioning while visiting the Sun and
going back and sweeping action by the MPC rays of the Sun
over the vast volume of the comet along with its tail further
suggest that comet does not orbit in elliptical shape but it adopts
loop track path as stated over the website.
Formerly understood planet Pluto being smaller and at
far off from the Sun gets greater sweeping like action over its
orbital path by the MPC rays of the Sun thus it adopts orbital
path somewhat different than the other planets (but somewhat
similar to comets). Due to stated fact some scientists have
called Pluto a stupid planet and debarred it from the category of
the planets.
Much more is over the website about the solar
system and other celestial objects.
Read in detail the discovery claim ‘MATERIALISTIC
UNIVERSE’ on website: www.newtonugeam.com
 Warm and
not so fuzzy
ON JANUARY 30, NASA TURNED
OUT THE LIGHTS ON THE SPITZER
SPACE TELESCOPE. The infrared-sensitive
observatory had far exceeded initial expectations.
When the spacecraft blasted off from Florida in
August 2003, scientists hoped the mission would
last at least two and a half years and, with any
luck, live to see its fifth birthday. But Spitzer sur-
vived, and even thrived, until a few months after
it turned sweet 16.
Spitzer was the fourth and final component
of NASA’s Great Observatories program, which
also included the Hubble Space Telescope, the
Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Compton
Gamma Ray Observatory. This quartet was
designed to deliver super-sharp views of the heav-
ens across a broad span of wavelengths. Originally
christened the Space Infrared Telescope Facility
(SIRTF), Spitzer was renamed for American
physicist Lyman Spitzer Jr., an early and vocal
advocate for space-based telescopes, once the
observatory opened its eye to the universe.
Spitzer’s primary mirror measured 33 inches
(0.85 meter) across, and its three science instru-
ments recorded infrared radiation, or heat, with
wavelengths between 3 and 180 micrometers.
Needless to say, heat from nearby objects would
have swamped the telescope’s sensitive detectors.
The biggest source of heat in near-Earth space is
Earth itself, so NASA launched Spitzer into an
orbit around the Sun that trails our planet and
drifts slowly away.
Yet spacecraft generate their own heat. To
combat this source of infrared radiation, Spitzer
carried a tank of liquid helium that kept its
instruments chilled to –449 degrees Fahrenheit
(–267 degrees Celsius). When the helium ran out
18 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
in May 2009, the spacecraft warmed to a toasty
–408 F (–244 C). Although two of Spitzer’s instru-
ments could no longer operate, the two shortest-
wavelength channels on its infrared camera
continued to function with little change in sensi-
tivity for another decade.
Spitzer’s window on the universe allowed
astronomers to study regions largely hidden from
optical telescopes. Because infrared radiation pen-
etrates dust, the observatory could peer inside
stellar nurseries to watch stars being born. It also
looked through the thick dust lanes that clog the
Milky Way’s disk and confirmed that our galaxy
is a barred spiral.
The observatory’s ability to detect heat signa-
tures exposed the inner workings of giant molecu-
lar clouds, revealed failed stars known as brown
dwarfs, and discovered a slew of exoplanets as well
as the constituents in the atmospheres of many of
these worlds. Notably, Spitzer discovered four of
the seven known planets in the TRAPPIST-1
system, at least three of which appear to lie in the
star’s habitable zone where liquid water could exist
on a rocky planet’s surface.
Although Spitzer is now gone, its impact will
be felt for years to come. That impact will endure
in part because NASA’s 6.5-meter James Webb
Space Telescope, currently scheduled for launch
in March 2021, will also probe the universe at
infrared wavelengths and follow up on many
of Spitzer’s discoveries. Not a bad legacy for an
observatory astronomers once hoped would last
two and a half years.
Senior Editor Richard Talcott has covered the Great
Observatories since the launch of Hubble in 1990. His
latest book is Space Junk (Ziga Media, 2019).
The Spitzer Space
Telescope ceased
operations in January,
but not before giving
scientists keen insight
into star birth,
exoplanets, and the
shape of our galaxy.
BY RICHARD TALCOTT

A Delta II rocket
blasts off from
Cape Canaveral
on August 25,
2003. The rocket
delivered the
Spitzer Space
Telescope into a
Sun-centered orbit
that trails Earth
and slowly drifts
away from our
planet. NASA
 1 2
1. Spitzer discovered water
vapor in the atmospheres of
several “hot Jupiters,” gas
giant exoplanets that orbit
close to their host stars.
This illustration depicts an
infrared view of such a
world as it begins to transit
its parent star. ESA/C. CARREAU
20 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
2. Spitzer discovered
Saturn’s outermost ring
in 2009. Named after the
moon Phoebe that orbits
just beyond it, the dusty
ring extends roughly from
3.7 million miles (6 million
km) to 7.4 million miles
(12 million km) from the
planet. This artist’s concept
shows the ring to scale with
Saturn as a dot. (The inset
shows an infrared view
of the planet through the
10-meter Keck Telescope.) 3
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/R. HURT (SSC)

3. Spitzer discovered four
of the seven known planets
around TRAPPIST-1, a dwarf
star located 40 light-years
away in the constellation
Aquarius. The system
stands out because all
of the planets appear to
be roughly Earth-sized,
and at least three lie in the
star’s habitable zone where
liquid water could exist.
This artist’s view shows the
scene from one of those
potentially watery worlds.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/T. PYLE (IPAC)
4. The protostar Herbig-
Haro 46/47 resides deep
within a dusty Bok globule
that absorbs all the visible
light trying to escape.
Spitzer used its infrared
vision to look inside and
capture the embryonic star
as well as the twin jets of
molecular gas it is ejecting.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/A. NORIEGA-CRESPO
(SSC/CALTECH)/H. KLINE (JPL)
4 5
5. Brown dwarfs are failed stars
that don’t possess enough
mass to trigger hydrogen
fusion in their cores. As such,
they remain cool and emit
most of their light at infrared
wavelengths. Spitzer found the
two young brown dwarfs seen
at the center of this image
with the help of ground-based
telescopes at Calar Alto
Observatory in Spain and
the Caltech Submillimeter
Observatory in Hawaii.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/CALAR ALTO OBSERVATORY/
CALTECH SUBMILLIMETER OBSERVATORY
6. The Galactic Legacy
Infrared Mid-Plane Survey
Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE)
used Spitzer to survey the
Milky Way Galaxy’s disk
and confirm that we live in
a barred spiral galaxy. The
whole survey required
stitching together more
than 800,000 individual
frames; this segment
represents just 6 percent
of the entire project. NASA/
JPL-CALTECH/UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 21
 1

1. The hot, massive 2. Part of what made

stars in the Cat’s Paw Spitzer special was
Nebula (NGC 6334) in its ability to observe
Scorpius emit high- some of the same
energy radiation that objects targeted by
excites the surrounding NASA’s other Great
gas and causes it to Observatories. This
glow. Much of this light view of the Orion
comes from hydrogen Nebula (M42) combines
atoms, but Spitzer also Spitzer infrared data (in
picked up emission yellow, orange, and red)
from organic molecules with Hubble visible-light
(green in this image). observations (in green
Some of the nebula’s and blue). Spitzer
dust is so thick that revealed many infant
even infrared light suns embedded so
can’t pass through. deeply in their dusty
NASA/JPL-CALTECH cocoons that even
Hubble could not show
them. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/
T. MEGEATH (UNIVERSITY OF
TOLEDO)/M. ROBBERTO (STSCI)

22 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

3. The Eagle Nebula (M16)
in Serpens gained fame
in the 1990s, when the
Hubble Space Telescope
photographed three
“Pillars of Creation.” In this
Spitzer infrared view, the
pillars appear as greenish
columns protruding in
front of some reddish
nebulosity to the right
of center. The green
denotes cool dust, while
red signifies warmer
material that might have
been energized by a
supernova explosion 1,000
to 2,000 years ago. NASA/
JPL-CALTECH/N. FLAGEY (IAS/SSC)/
A. NORIEGA-CRESPO (SSC/CALTECH)
5. The universe has a
different look at infrared
wavelengths. In visible
light, dark dust blocks the
glow of more distant gas
to create the outline of the
North America Nebula
(NGC 7000) in Cygnus.
But the continent
disappeared to Spitzer’s
eye because it peered
through this dust to reveal
the cocoons of embryonic
stars within the nebula.
Many of the stars seen
here are only about a
million years old. NASA/JPL-
CALTECH/L. REBULL (SSC/CALTECH)
4. The Carina Nebula
(NGC 3372) hosts one
of the most massive
and luminous stars
in our galaxy, Eta
Carinae, which
gleams at the center
of this Spitzer image.
Infrared light from this
behemoth destroys
dust particles and
sculpts cavities into
the surrounding
nebula. The dust
glows red in this
image and hydrogen
gas appears green.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH
3 4
6. Spitzer proved to
be a revelation for
astronomers studying
star formation. The
Lagoon Nebula (M8)
in Sagittarius offers
a vivid example. In
visible light, the glow
from ionized hydrogen
veils the Lagoon’s
inner workings. But at
infrared wavelengths,
the gas disappears
and we see myriad
young stars as well as
warm carbon-based
dust grains (green)
and hot dust particles
(red). NASA/JPL-CALTECH 5 6
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 23
1
 1. Delicate tendrils of
dust glow brightly in the
infrared as the massive
star Zeta Ophiuchi
approaches. As Zeta —
the luminous blue star at
center — plows forward
(to the left) at about
53,000 mph (86,000 km/h),
its powerful stellar winds
create a bow shock in the
surrounding dust, similar
to the ripples that form in
front of a moving ship’s
bow. The red hues arise
from the warmest, most
compressed dust. NASA/
JPL-CALTECH

2 2. When a massive star

dies, it explodes as a
supernova and seeds
the galaxy with heavy
elements that one day
may find their way into
future generations of
stars and planets. This
image of the supernova
remnant Cassiopeia A
blends observations from
three of NASA’s Great
Observatories: Spitzer
infrared data (in red)
highlight warm dust in the
outer shell; Hubble visible-
light observations (yellow)
reveal delicate filaments
of hot gas; and Chandra
X-ray data (green and
blue) expose the hottest
3 gases. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/O. KRAUSE
(STEWARD OBSERVATORY)

3. Once the Sun exhausts

its nuclear fuel in another
5 billion years or so, it will
puff off its outer layers
and create a planetary
nebula, perhaps similar
to the Helix Nebula (NGC
7293) in Aquarius. When
viewed in the infrared, the
Helix’s expanding outer
layers shine brightest
at shorter wavelengths
(shown as blue and
green), while a central
disk of dust and the final
layers ejected by the
dying star glow at longer
wavelengths (red). NASA/JPL-
CALTECH/K. SU (UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA)

4. The Serpens South star

cluster harbors some 50
young stars. Of these, 35
are protostars — objects
that have not yet started
fusing hydrogen and are
still collecting matter
from the surrounding
molecular cloud. The
cluster members appear
as a tightly packed group
of green, yellow, and
orange stars at the center
of this Spitzer infrared
image. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/L. ALLEN
4 (HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CFA)/GOULD’S
BELT LEGACY TEAM

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 25
 1 2

26 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

 4
1. Infrared radiation often
comes from dust that
absorbs visible and
ultraviolet starlight and
then reradiates it at
longer wavelengths.
That’s why Spitzer proved
so adept at tracing the
dust-laden spiral arms of
nearby galaxies. In this
image, the telescope
revealed the winding
arms of M81 in Ursa Major
from 12 million light-years
away. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/S. WILLNER
(HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CFA)
2. The tangled spiral 3. Although Spitzer
arms of M101 glow with revealed the Milky Way to
a pinkish hue in this be a barred spiral galaxy,
Spitzer portrait. Located our home’s structure was
22 million light-years harder to discern than
away in Ursa Major, that of more distant
M101 shows patchy examples such as NGC
spiral arms that are 1097 in Fornax. Spitzer
not as well defined as scientists color-coded
in typical grand design this image so the galaxy’s
spirals. NASA/JPL-CALTECH dusty bar and spiral arms
appear pink. The space
observatory also revealed
a ring of stars around the
supermassive black hole
that lurks at the galaxy’s
center. NASA/JPL-CALTECH/THE
SINGS TEAM (SSC/CALTECH)
4. Spitzer’s infrared
vision captured different
components of the Large
Magellanic Cloud, the
Milky Way’s largest
satellite galaxy. Blue
depicts light from older
stars, red reveals dust
heated by stars, and
green shows cooler
interstellar gas and dust
grains. Spitzer’s sharp eye
captured nearly a million
objects that hadn’t been
seen before.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/M. MEIXNER (STSCI)
AND THE SAGE LEGACY TEAM
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 27
Explore
the world
of galaxies
These star cities are vast islands of matter,
floating in a nearly limitless sea of inky
black space. BY DAVID J. EICHER
aves crashed
W
along the
beach at Santa
Monica, vast
stands of
forest speck-
led the mountains north of the city,
and a mesmerizing network of roads
crisscrossed here and there. In 1923,
Los Angeles had a population of
1 million — just one-quarter of its
present size — and the city was in
the midst of explosive growth. At the
California Institute of Technology, an
American physicist, Robert Millikan,
won the Nobel Prize in Physics for
his measurement of the charge car-
ried by a single proton or electron (the
fundamental particles) and for work
on the photoelectric effect, includ-
ing his observation that many metals
emit electrons when they are struck
by light. Amelia Earhart took peri-
odic flying lessons in the area. The
Hollywood Bowl had recently opened
for concert performances. And a
The weird barred spiral NGC 4921
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 4921 in Coma
Berenices is a distant object at 320 million light-
years. It is a so-called anemic galaxy, labeled as
such by Canadian astronomer Sidney van den
Bergh because it has a very low rate of star
formation. Its spiral pattern around the small
central bar gives it the appearance of a delicate
painting. HUBBLE LEGACY ARCHIVE, ESA, NASA/ROBERTO COLOMBARI
young cartoonist named Walt Disney
arrived in town with $40 in his pocket.
Despite the area’s forward-looking
involvement in science and technology,
it was a primitive time. No one yet
knew the size and scope of the universe.
People had looked at the brightest
galaxies in the sky — the fuzzy patches
in Andromeda and the Magellanic
Clouds in the Southern Hemisphere
— but no one yet understood exactly
what they were. One big question
floated out there: How big is eternity?
Is creation limitless? Soon, Los Angeles
would play a pivotal role in defining
the distance scale of the universe.
The 100-inch telescope
On October 4, 1923, in the midst of
this peculiar Western paradise, a brash
young astronomer left his Pasadena
house and trekked up to the Mount
Wilson Observatory, not far from
Los Angeles, to the 100-inch Hooker
Telescope — at the time the largest
telescope in the world. Originally from
Missouri, Edwin Powell Hubble had
moved to Illinois, graduated from the
University of Chicago, and then earned
a master’s degree as a Rhodes Scholar
at the University of Oxford. He had
embarked on a career in astronomy
only after returning to school at the age
of 25 to pursue a Ph.D. Hubble was now
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 29
 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATE THAT DEFINED GALAXIES
On October 5/6, 1923, astronomer Edwin Hubble made an exposure of
the “Andromeda Nebula” with the 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mount
Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles. He was initially excited, believing
after analyzing the plate that he had recorded a nova — an exploding
star. He marked the star, which lies between two tick marks he drew on
the glass plate, with an “N.” The famous plate, designated H335H, would
help to unlock one of the universe’s biggest secrets.
A short time later, Hubble realized he had not seen a nova, but a vari-
able star of a particular type called a Cepheid, with very well-known
characteristics. He then wrote “VAR!” on the plate. Because Cepheids’
absolute magnitudes and light curves were well known, Hubble could
use the variable he’d found to determine the distance to its home in
Andromeda. Astonished, Hubble found that the Andromeda Nebula was
actually a distant galaxy, perhaps a million light-years away — far larger
than astronomers believed the entire universe was at the time. With this
plate, he unlocked the nature of galaxies. (It turns out, we now know, that
the true distance to the Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light-years.)
The image on the left shows the entire plate; the image on the right
zooms in on Hubble’s notes. The plate belongs to the collection of the
Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, and is one of the most
famous and influential images in the history of science. IMAGES COURTESY OF THE
CARNEGIE OBSERVATORIES/CINDY HUNT

in his fourth year as a staff astronomer
at Mount Wilson. He relished using the
100-inch Hooker Telescope to study
his favorite subject, the fuzzy nebulae
— mysterious, glowing gas clouds that
appeared scattered across the sky.
No one fully understood these nebu-
lae, although they were suspected to be
the birthplaces of stars. Using his mam-
moth telescope in rural Ireland in the
mid-19th century, the adventurous ama-
teur astronomer William Parsons, Third
Earl of Rosse, had first sketched nebulae
with spiral structures that looked like
faintly glowing whirlpool patterns.
But nearly a century later, little more
was known about them. Hubble was
interested in cracking the code of nebu-
lae, particularly spiral nebulae. His Ph.D.
work had centered on the topic. These
nebulae’s spiral shapes suggested that
they were rotating, but they otherwise
mystified Hubble and other astronomers.
On the night of October 4, 1923,
Hubble used the Hooker Telescope to take
a 40-minute exposure of one of his favor-
ite nebulae: the Great Nebula in the
Andromeda constellation. This spiral-
shaped cloud was large, bright, and faintly
visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy smear
of light for those located away from the
city lights of Los Angeles. The night had
very poor “seeing” when he took the
exposure, because Earth’s atmosphere
was relatively turbulent, and so the star
images were not perfectly small dots.
Nevertheless, Hubble’s examination of the
photographic plate he had made revealed
a suspected nova: an exploding star. It
was exciting to record such a relatively
rare event inside one of the spiral nebulae.
Hubble photographed the Andromeda
Nebula again the next night, hoping for
a better-quality image of the suspected
nova. The resulting photographic glass
plate, exposed the night of October 5/6
and designated H335H, would become
one of the most celebrated in all of scien-
tific history. On it, Hubble successfully
recorded the nova again. But before he
could analyze it further, his periodic

30 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020


observing run on the 100-inch telescope
ended and he had to leave to accommo-
date other observers.
At his office in Pasadena, away from
the mountaintop observatory, he contin-
ued studying earlier images taken by oth-
ers of the Andromeda Nebula region.
And then he made an unusual discovery.
A nova brightens dramatically and then
fades into oblivion. But the star he
recorded appeared on older plates,
brightening and fading regularly over
a period of 31 days. This star was not a
nova, then. It had to be some other kind
of star inside the Andromeda Nebula.
Hubble’s breakthrough
Suddenly, Hubble came upon the solu-
tion. He realized that he had made an
image of a type of star similar to a well-
known one in the constellation Cepheus.
On his photographic plate H335H, he
crossed out “N,” for nova, and wrote
“VAR!” instead, denoting a variable star.
Moreover, this star was a special type
of variable that brightened and faded
in a precise way. Astronomers had long
studied this kind of star, which came to
be known as a Cepheid variable (after
the star in Cepheus), and they knew how
intrinsically bright it was. By knowing
how bright the star really was, and by
measuring how bright it appeared to be
in the sky, Hubble could use the star as
a guidepost to gauge its distance.
This was a monumental realization.
Hubble calculated that, owing to the star’s
faint light, it must lie a million light-years
away — and so must the entire nebula
surrounding it. This meant that the uni-
verse stretches across a distance at least
three times larger than most astronomers
then believed. With his photographic
plate, Hubble had single-handedly reset
the size of the cosmos.
Discovering the galaxies
Hubble’s discovery set off a firestorm of
activity among astronomers research-
ing other spiral nebulae. Countless
The Andromeda Galaxy
in black and white
A monochromatic image of the Andromeda Galaxy,
our galactic neighbor, reveals the intricate details of
its spiral arms, areas of swirling gas clouds near the
galaxy’s center, and two satellite companions, M32
(above, left of the center of Andromeda), and NGC 205
(below the galaxy’s center). TONY HALLAS
NGC 1530: A barred spiral galaxy
with a “mini-spiral” nucleus
Oriented nearly face-on to our line of sight, the barred
spiral NGC 1530 in Camelopardalis lies some
80 million light-years away. Its prominent bar
connects with large, well-defined spiral arms. The
galaxy’s center has a swirling pattern reminiscent of
the spiral form of a galaxy in itself. ADAM BLOCK/MOUNT LEMMON
SKYCENTER/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
observations followed, and follow-up
studies rolled on for many months as
bickering and soul-searching lit up the
world of professional astronomy. Adding
fuel to the fire was a debate staged
several years earlier, in 1920, between
two prominent astronomers of the day:
Harlow Shapley of Princeton University,
and Heber Curtis of the Allegheny
Observatory. Shapley believed that the
Milky Way Galaxy constitutes the entire
universe, while Curtis speculated that
spiral nebulae are galaxies separate from
the Milky Way — essentially “island
universes.” Though not everyone would
concede it yet, Hubble’s discovery seemed
to prove that Curtis was right.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 31
The magnificent edge-on Sombrero Galaxy
One of the greatest edge-on galaxies in the sky, and the one most people say looks like a flying saucer, is the Sombrero Galaxy (M104) in Virgo. This galaxy consists
of a large rotating disk with a prominent dust lane edging it, consumed by a glowing halo of gas and stars. It lies 10 million light-years away and is about 49,000 light-
years across — half the size of the Milky Way. NASA AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (AURA/STSCI)

Hubble continued imaging Cepheid
variables in other spiral nebulae, such as
M33 in Triangulum, demonstrating that
they, like Andromeda, are so far away that
they must be distant galaxies. Hubble’s
observations indicated that galaxies are
the basic units of stars, gas, and dust in
the universe, and that they exist on a fan-
tastic scale. He had many doubters, chief
among them Shapley, but pushed on. The
findings of the confident 35-year-old were
subsequently splashed on the front page of
The New York Times by November 1924.
Egged on by supporters, he sent a paper
summarizing the results to be read at
the winter meeting of the American
Astronomical Society, the professional
organization of astronomers, on New
Year’s Day 1925. After the distinguished
professor Henry Norris Russell of
Princeton University read the paper
aloud at the gathering, galaxies were on
their way to becoming widely accepted.
A breakthrough with
galaxy colors
Several more years led to another huge
advancement. A galaxy’s spectrum is
a picture of the collected light from all
of its stars and gas. In 1929, Hubble
and other astronomers recorded many
spectra of galaxies and noticed that
most appeared to be shifted toward the
red end of the spectrum, increasing the
wavelength and lowering the frequency
of their light. This was an effect first
noticed years earlier, in 1912, by Vesto
M. Slipher, an astronomer at Lowell
Observatory in Arizona.
You experience this effect, called a
Doppler shift, with sound every time an
ambulance with its loud siren passes you.
As it approaches, the siren seems high-
pitched (because it has a short wavelength
and high frequency of sound), and when it
passes and heads away from you, the pitch
drops lower (increasing the wavelength
and lowering the frequency of sound). The
same thing happens with light. When
objects are moving toward us, the fre-
quency of their light shifts higher, toward
the blue end of the spectrum. When they
are moving away from us, their light shifts
lower, toward the red end of the spectrum.
Consequently, the “redshift” of the spectra
of distant galaxies indicates that the gal-
axies are moving away from us. And this
means that the universe is not only
immensely bigger than previously
thought, but also that it is expanding to
become even bigger as time marches on.
Here comes the Big Bang
Hubble’s work, building on the earlier
studies of Slipher and astronomer Milton
Humason, showed that, generally speak-
ing, all galaxies are moving away from
each other over time. Hubble also found
that redshifts can be used to calculate
distances to galaxies.

32 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

 NGC 6744: A galaxy that looks like the Milky Way
The brilliant galaxy NGC 6744, which lies in the southern sky in Pavo, is a
larger version of the Milky Way. This barred spiral stretches 175,000 light-
years across — some 75 percent bigger than our home. Its structure,
however, is similar to ours, with a core, a strong bar through its center,
and radiating spiral arms filled with glowing stars and gas. DON GOLDMAN
NGC 1398: Another Milky Way analogue
The beautiful barred spiral NGC 1398 lies in the southern constellation
Fornax and provides another analogue to the Milky Way’s structure. This
galaxy is somewhat larger than ours, with a diameter of 135,000 light-
years, and sits some 65 million light-years from Earth. WARREN KELLER

This research led to a monumental
realization. In 1929, Hubble, with a
helpful assist from the Belgian astrono-
mer Georges Lemaître, suggested that
the new data he collected about galaxies
supported the theory that, if traced
backward in time, the paths of all the
galaxies led to a small, dense point at
which the whole universe began — a
“Big Bang” billions of years ago. This
Big Bang commenced the expansion
that is causing all galaxies to move
apart from one another more quickly
in space. The whole universe seems to
be flying apart.
Hubble analyzed 46 galaxies and
proposed what came to be known as the
Hubble constant: the rate of expansion
of the cosmos. He fixed this number as
500 kilometers per second per megapar-
sec of space, a much higher value than
what we know is correct today.
Hubble and the
expanding universe
Hubble’s credibility skyrocketed follow-
ing the determination of an expanding
universe. This was big stuff: Hubble had
piled on lots of supporting evidence for
the ideas of the great physicist Albert
Einstein, who had proposed that time
and space are expanding and that the
cosmos is almost unimaginably large.
By the late 1930s, following Hubble’s
big discoveries, it was becoming clear
just how significant galaxies are to the
story of the cosmos. Astronomers knew
that most of the immensely large uni-
verse is filled with darkness. Little mat-
ter exists outside the island galaxies,
which contain all the bright stuff, the
normal matter — stars, gas, dust, and
planets. The universe is like a vast and
stormy sea, with little ships — galaxies
— floating on a virtually limitless ocean
of utter darkness and with a foreboding
void between them.
Classifying galaxies
By this time, Hubble understood the
broad types of galaxies, which he classi-
fied in a “tuning fork” diagram. There
are spiral galaxies, like Andromeda, and
barred spirals — similar to spiral galax-
ies but containing a rectangular “bar” of
material through their centers. There are
ellipticals: spherical masses of stars, gas,
and dust. There are lenticulars, which
appear lens-shaped; and there are irregu-
lars, relatively formless clouds of matter
lacking organized structure. In the late
1930s, astronomers discovered examples
of a new class, dwarf spheroidal galaxies,
and later found so-called peculiar galax-
ies, which seem highly distorted. By the
end of the 1950s, they had devised an
improved way to classify galaxies, based
on the research of the French astronomer
Gérard de Vaucouleurs of the University
of Texas.
Examples of all these types of galaxies
can be viewed with a telescope from a
dark-sky site. They include:
Spiral galaxies: The Sunflower
Galaxy (M63), IC 342, and NGC 1232
Barred spiral galaxies: NGC 1300,
NGC 1512, NGC 1530, NGC 4921, and
NGC 5701
Elliptical galaxies: M49, M87, and
NGC 1052
Lenticular galaxies: M84, NGC
2787, and NGC 4111
Irregular galaxies: NGC 1569, NGC
3239, and NGC 4214
Peculiar galaxies: Arp 81, Arp 220,
Centaurus A, Fornax A, M82, and
Perseus A

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 33

De Vaucouleurs’ classification scheme
was more complex, forming a 3D “cosmic
lemon” that accounted for more proper-
ties of the basic types of galaxies. For spi-
ral galaxies, this included further details
on bars, whether a galaxy showed rings
of encircling material, and how tightly or
loosely wound the arms appeared to be.
De Vaucouleurs also cataloged details
about irregular galaxies and described
34 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
The Sunflower Galaxy’s
tightly wound spiral arms
Sometimes called the Sunflower Galaxy, M63
in Canes Venatici lies at a distance of 27 million
light-years. It is bright and is a favorite target for
backyard observers. M63 is a flocculent galaxy
with patchy, indistinct arms. It is also a so-called
LINER galaxy, with an active nucleus powered
by a supermassive black hole. R. JAY GABANY
A fireworks galaxy:
Face-on spiral NGC 6946
The speckled face of NGC 6946 in Cygnus, right
on the border with Cepheus, suggests a fireworks
display of color. Bluish spiral arms surround a
yellowish central hub and are speckled with
bright pinkish regions of active star formation.
The galaxy lies at a distance of 22 million light-
years and has frequently served up supernovae —
exploding stars. Ten bright supernovae appeared
in this galaxy between 1917 and 2017.
SUBARU TELESCOPE (NAOJ) AND ROBERT GENDLER
peculiar galaxies, which had experienced
galactic train wrecks — interactions with
nearby galaxies that warped their shapes.
The incredible scope
of the cosmos
For years, astronomers have quoted the
results of deep galaxy surveys that sug-
gest something like 100 billion galax-
ies exist in the universe. A 2016 study
suggests that the total number of galaxies
could be 2 trillion. But that study looks
back into the early universe, and many
galaxies have merged over time, creating
a smaller “current” number like 100 bil-
lion. We are hanging out in just one of
them, the Milky Way. These basic struc-
tures of the cosmos, like ships floating
on an ocean of vast darkness, give us a
glimpse beyond our world to understand
the meaning of why we’re here.
As astronomers have discovered more
and more galaxies since the 1920s, they
have acquired one fundamental piece of
knowledge: The universe is really big!
Let’s imagine that you could climb into
a spaceship and travel out into the uni-
verse, seeing more and more distant
things as you went on. Let’s also imagine
that the spaceship could travel at the
speed of light — the fastest speed we
know of in the cosmos. That’s about
186,000 miles per second, the speed at
which photons — particles of light — are
striking your eyes, enabling you to read
this article. (Photons can travel that fast
because they have no mass; spaceships
have mass, so we know that spaceships
couldn’t move that fast. But, for the sake
 EXPLORE GALAXIES FROM HOME
Galaxies: Inside the Universe’s Star Cities by David J. Eicher (Clarkson Potter, 2020) presents
the amazing story of our knowledge of the great star systems populating the cosmos.
Inspired by Tim Ferris’ 1980 book Galaxies, the new work updates the story of what we
know about the fundamental systems of stars, gas, and dust into the 21st century.
Galaxies: Inside the Universe‘s Star Cities contains 200 color photographs and diagrams
showing and explaining the many types of galaxies and how astronomers have come to
understand key questions about them over just the last generation. Cutting-edge imagery
from the Hubble Space Telescope and many ground-based observatories helps to tell the
tale of our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution via mergers, combining small
blobs into the larger, organized structures like our Milky Way we see today. The greatest
recent images by amateur astronomers show the many spectacular forms and colors of
spirals, barred spirals, ellipticals, and others.
The book explores the subject of galaxies traveling
into the deep cosmos, from seeing the band of light
of our Milky Way overhead in your backyard to
understanding the barred spiral structure of our own
galaxy, a relatively recent discovery. We explore the
Local Group of galaxies, the Virgo Cluster, the Local
Supercluster, and the largest structures in the
universe — walls, sheets, and filaments spanning
billions of light-years.
The extensive text describes all of the most
amazing and recently discovered aspects of galaxies,
from supermassive black holes to dark matter to the
fate of our galaxy and of the universe itself.

Galaxies: Inside the Universe’s Star Cities is

available online at MyScienceShop.com/GalaxiesBK

of understanding the size of the universe,
let’s pretend that our spaceship could.)
In our spaceship, let’s set out from
the Milky Way Galaxy, our home. The
closest galaxy we can encounter is the
Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, a
tiny galaxy that orbits ours. If we move at
the speed of light, it would take us 70,000
years to reach this galaxy. Another way
of thinking about these enormous dis-
tances is to understand how long the
light that we now see from other galaxies
has been traveling through space to reach
us. The light from the Sagittarius Dwarf
Spheroidal Galaxy has traveled since
humans made their earliest bits of art
inside caves in South Africa. If we trav-
eled for 163,000 years in our spaceship,
we could arrive at the Large Magellanic
Cloud, our galaxy’s largest satellite.
Traveling for 200,000 years would
carry us to the Small Magellanic Cloud,
another satellite of our Milky Way. The
light you see from this galaxy tonight has
traveled through space since our earliest
human ancestors closely linked to our
species walked the African plains.
But those are dwarf galaxies that
are very close to us. The largest nearby
galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, which
would take us 2.5 million years to reach
in our spaceship. The light you see from
this galaxy tonight has traveled through
space since some of our earliest human
ancestors were here on Earth.
And these are just some of the galax-
ies closest to us. Traveling outward, you
would find countless examples of strange
and beautiful galaxies at all manner of
distances. These would include spirals
like IC 239, M100, M106, NGC 210, NGC
2683, NGC 2841, NGC 3310, NGC 3338,
NGC 4565, and NGC 6946. You would
encounter fields of multiple galaxies like
those in the Leo Trio (M65, M66, and
NGC 3628), M81 and M82, and the gal-
axy group Hickson 31. Some galaxies
that seem to be connected, like NGC
3314, would grow away from each other
as you approached and their visual align-
ment disappeared. You would encounter
numerous weird, distorted galaxies —
the result of interactions or disruptions
by black holes — like Arp 188, ESO 243-
49, NGC 474, NGC 660, NGC 2685,
NGC 4622, NGC 5291, NGC 7714, and
UGC 697.
You can see how enormous the cosmos
is and understand that, fundamentally, it
is filled with galaxies. The Virgo Cluster
galaxies would take 50 million years to
reach in our light-speed spaceship. More
distant galaxies are arranged in clusters
and superclusters that we can see from
Earth, and some lie hundreds of millions
or billions of light-years away. Reaching
the most distant galaxies that we can see
would take us more than 13 billion years,
traveling at the speed of light.
Living our lives on this third planet
from the Sun in our solar system, it’s
easy to ignore how unbelievably
immense the universe is. But moving
farther and farther out into the universe
to explore galaxies allows us to under-
stand how the universe came to be, and
where it’s going.
David J. Eicher is editor of Astronomy
and the author of 25 books on science and
history, the latest being Galaxies: Inside the
Universe’s Star Cities (Clarkson Potter, 2020).
This story is adapted from Galaxies:
Inside the Universe’s Star Cities
by David J. Eicher, © 2020 Clarkson Potter
Publishers, New York.

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 35

SKY THIS MONTH
THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S CHANGING LANDSCAPE AS IT APPEARS IN EARTH’S SKY.
BY MARTIN RATCLIFFE AND ALISTER LING
JUNE 2020
Jupiter
and Saturn
shine together
All seven major
planets are visible
during June’s short summer
nights. Mercury is a fine eve-
ning object, while Venus pops
up in the morning sky after its
inferior conjunction. The solar
system’s two dominant planets,
Jupiter and Saturn, stand
near each other in our skies
all summer. They are nearing
their peak and best seen in the
morning hours. Mars is grow-
ing in brilliance and apparent
size, gaining altitude in the
pre-dawn sky. The trend hints
at what should be a superb
apparition in late 2020. Both
Uranus and Neptune are within
reach of binoculars, completing
the rich planetary stage.
Mercury is well placed for
U.S. observers during the first
two weeks of June as it climbs to
its June 4 greatest eastern elon-
gation (24°), set against the
backdrop of Gemini the Twins.
In twilight, the twins’ brightest
stars, magnitude 1 Castor and
Pollux, stand out an hour after
sunset when you look west.
36 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
On June 1, Mercury shines
at magnitude 0.1 and fades to
1.4 by June 13, when it stands
11° below Pollux. On June 4,
Mercury sets nearly two hours
after the Sun, providing ample
opportunity to view the inner-
most planet. Try to spot the tiny
8"-wide disk in your telescope
— it’s challenging at the planet’s
Giant planets dazzle before dawn
CAPRIC ORNUS
Saturn
Jupiter
SAGIT TARIUS
C ORONA
AUSTR ALIS
June 15, 1 hour before sunrise
Looking south-southwest
The solar system’s largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, stand roughly 5° apart
at midmonth. ALL ILLUSTRATIONS: ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY
Visible to the naked eye
Visible with binoculars
Visible with a telescope
progressively harder to spot in
This shot from
Forsyth, Georgia, mid-June. It dims to 2nd mag-
captures the moment nitude and is just 3° high 45
just before the Moon minutes after sunset on June 16.
occulted Venus in
December 2015. On Jupiter and Saturn rise
June 19, observers in
the northwestern
half of Europe and
northern and eastern
within 17 minutes of each other,
around midnight on June 1.
They straddle the border of
Canada, as well as
parts of Maine and
Massachusetts, will
see a similar show.
STEPHEN RAHN
Sagittarius the Archer and
Capricornus the Sea Goat. Both
are approaching a July opposi-
tion and move in a retrograde
(westerly) direction. Jupiter, by
virtue of its relative nearness
compared with Saturn, moves
farther west than its ringed
counterpart. A waning gibbous
Moon lies near the two planets
on June 8 and 9.
On June 1, Jupiter lies 4.8°
west of Saturn. By June 30, that
gap has increased to 6°. Jupiter
begins the month at magnitude
low altitude (7° one hour after –2.6 and brightens to –2.7 by
sunset for latitudes near 40° June 30. Soak in the remarkable
north). The disk is 36 percent lit view through 7x50 binoculars.
and drops to a 19 percent illu- The scene captures not only the
minated crescent by June 13. solar system’s two largest plan-
That narrowing crescent ets, but also M75, a globular
increases in angular size, reach- cluster 68,000 light-years away
ing 10" on the same date. and orbiting our Milky Way
Mercury fades and sets ear- Galaxy. It’s a faint, fuzzy object
lier each evening, making it shining at magnitude 9.5 and
lying 1.5° south of the line join-
ing Jupiter and Saturn.
The best views of both plan-
ets occur in the hours before
SCU TUM dawn, when they stand about
30° high from a latitude of 40°
north. By the end of June, they’re
well above the horizon an hour
or two after local midnight.
Telescopic views reveal
Jupiter’s 45"-wide disk, which
grows to 46.6" by the end of the
month. If the atmosphere above
your observing site is steady,
you’ll be treated to spectacular
10°
views of its belts and zones, and
occasionally the Great Red Spot.
All features rotate in under 10
hours, so changes in appearance
are noticeable over a 15-minute
period. Jupiter’s brilliance can

OBSERVING
HIGHLIGHT
MERCURY reaches greatest
eastern elongation June 4,
when it will glow at magnitude
0.4 in the early evening sky.
hide subtle features if you take a
quick glance — relax your eye
and gaze for a minute or so to
become accustomed to the
majestic view.
The four Galilean moons
offer a continually varying dis-
play, appearing east and west of
the planet. Most interesting is
when the moons pass in front of
or behind the planet in occulta-
tions, eclipses, and transits.
Multiple events can occur
within minutes of each other.
The relative placements of
Jupiter, its shadow, the moons,
and their respective shadows
offer a unique appreciation of
the dynamic three-dimensional
nature of the entire system as
these events progress.
One multiple-moon event
occurs on the night of June
13/14, when Callisto is eclipsed
by Jupiter’s shadow beginning at
1:17 A.M. EDT, just as Io’s
shadow begins to transit. Note
that Callisto is visible at first
almost 1' west of Jupiter
(approximately two jovian disk
diameters away) and fades over
a 10-minute period. The follow-
ing night, Ganymede is eclipsed
on June 14/15 at 12:40 A.M. EDT,
while Europa and its shadow are
transiting the disk of the planet.
Pluto sits less than 2° south-
west of Jupiter’s location. At
magnitude 14.7, it is a difficult
challenge — within reach of
imaging but beyond visual
observers. On June 1, Pluto
lies a mere 4' due south of a
RISING MOON I Westward ho
THE LAVA-FILLED GRIMALDI BASIN is eas- Grimaldi
ily identified on the western limb of the Moon
as the last patch of dark mare west of the huge N
Oceanus Procellarum. Fully illuminated on
June 4, the highly battered crater rim is direct Riccioli
E
evidence of its age. Several interesting sights
have also appeared next to Grimaldi, notably the
Grimaldi
equally large and battered Riccioli closer to the
terminator. That crater has a much rougher floor
because it was a little too far from Procellarum’s
lava floods to get filled up like Grimaldi.
Use a dark filter on your eyepiece
to reduce the stark brightness levels
of this nearly Full Moon. If you don’t
have one, just crank up the power to Dark-floored Grimaldi sits east of Riccioli,
spread out the light and you’ll find it which lies partly in the terminator's shadow.
a lot easier on the eye. Spend some CONSOLIDATED LUNAR ATLAS/UA/LPL. INSET: NASA/GSFC/ASU
time here to note that Grimaldi’s basin
floor is not a uniform shade. See if you can the Moon is a gorgeous crescent floating above
follow the indistinct rays of lighter rock back to Venus. While the rest of the face is bathed in
their source, ejected from a couple of major earthshine, Grimaldi is a snap to spot as a sharply
impacts late in the Moon’s bombardment. defined dark ellipse. The cycle almost repeats
You can see Grimaldi in a completely differ- one lunation later, with lunar sunrise recurring
ent light on Thursday morning, the 18th, when on the evening of July 4.
9th-magnitude field star, HIP 1/3° across. By June 29, Pluto and brightens by 0.2 magnitude
97251. By June 20, Pluto wanders lies 41.3' due south of Jupiter. by June 30. The 18"-wide disk is
west near a grouping of about Saturn is best viewed in the a fine target for small telescopes,
nine 10th- and 11th-magnitude two hours before dawn, less and the wider expanse of the
field stars that form a small than 6° east of Jupiter. It shines rings is a spectacle. The major
oval-shaped collection about at magnitude 0.4 in early June — Continued on page 42
METEOR WATCH I Clear nights with daytime showers
Noctilucent clouds NO MAJOR METEOR SHOWERS
occur in June. A few daytime show-
ers are active in the first week of the
month, of possible interest to radio
observers. These are the Arietids and
Zeta Perseids. Later in the month, the
Boötid meteor shower is active from
June 22 to July 7, peaking on June 27.
Boötes is visible most of the night,
although rates have been quiescent
except for a reported outburst in 1998.
The summer season sets up condi-
tions to produce noctilucent (night-
glowing) clouds, formed by ice crystals
on high-flying dust particles. Their
pearly white appearance remains sun-
lit long after regular clouds darken in
the deepening twilight because they
occur 50 miles up — more than 10
times the height of cirrus clouds. They
Delicate night-shining clouds float above Lake Saimaa, Finland. June is are best seen from latitudes between
an ideal time to spot this phenomenon. MIKA Y/FLICKR 55° and 70° north.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 37
STAR DOME δ
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HOW TO USE THIS MAP
This map portrays the sky as seen
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BEGINNERS: WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT HOW TO READ A STAR CHART AT

www.Astronomy.com/starchart.
 JUNE 2020
SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THURS. FRI. SAT.

NX 1 2 3 4 5 6
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ο 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY

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8 The Moon passes 2° south of Jupiter, 1 P.M. EDT

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NT PLEASE PROOF:
CE
Individual illustra 24 Venus is stationary, 2 P.M. EDT
ν 1 28 designers, art directors,
C5 27 Asteroid Iris is at opposition, 10 P.M. EDT
NG and editors must
μ and sign this form.
28 First Quarter Moon occurs at 4:16 A.M. EDT
5139
ζ NG C Title Astronomy Illustrator Roen Kelly
June 2020
29 The Moon is at perigee (229,260 miles from Earth), 10:13 P.M. EDT
Issue Designer
Job # MAG-ASY-JUN20 Art Dir. 30 Mercury is in inferior conjunction, 11 P.M. EDT
Code PC Story Ed.
Proof 1 Copy Ed.

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 39
 PATHS OF THE PLANETS
CAS DRA
AUR
AND LAC
An annular solar eclipse
PER CYG HER
occurs June 21 across parts
of Africa and Asia LYR BOÖ
TRI CrB
ARI
Sun
Ve PEG
nu Pallas
s Uranus PSC SGE
OR I SER
TAU Pat
ho EQU
f th AQL SER
eM OPH
o on Celestial equator
Mar
s Neptune
CET AQR Asteroid Iris reaches LIB
Herculina SCT
opposition June 27
ER I
Mars passes 1.7° south Ceres Saturn
of Neptune on June 12
LEP Jupiter
CAP
FOR Pluto SGR
SCL
PsA CrA
MIC LUP
C OL CAE
Moon phases Daon Midnight

22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

To locate the Moon in the sky, draw a line from the phase shown for the day
straight up to the curved blue line.
30

THE PLANETS Uranus

IN THEIR ORBITS
Arrows show the inner Venus
planets’ monthly motions
and dots depict the
Jupiter Neptune
outer planets’ positions
at midmonth from high Mercury
Saturn
above their orbits.

Pluto

PLANETS MERCURY VENUS

Date June 1 June 30
Mercury
Greatest eastern elongation Magnitude 0.1 –4.7
is June 4 Mars
Angular size 7.6" 43.8"
Ceres
Venus Illumination 45% 18%
Inferior conjunction Earth
is June 3 Summer solstice Distance (AU) from Earth 0.890 0.381
is June 20 Distance (AU) from Sun 0.402 0.728
Right ascension (2000.0) 6h17.0m 4h17.2m
Jupiter
Declination (2000.0) 25°21' 17°15'

40 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

 This map unfolds the entire night sky from sunset (at right) until sunrise (at left). Arrows

JULY 2020
and colored dots show motions and locations of solar system objects during the month. JUNE 2020

UMa 1
Comet PanSTARRS Callisto

Mercury appears bright in AUR 2

the evening sky in early June
CVn LMi Europa
COM GEM 3 Jupiter
CNC Sun
Io
4 Io
LEO
tic)
c lip
Sun (e OR I 5
e
f th
ho
Pat CMi Ganymede
VIR
6

SEX
MON Europa
JUPITER’S 7
CRT HYA
MOONS 8
CRV CM a Dots display
LE P positions of
ANT E RI
Galilean satellites 9 Ganymede
PYX
C OL
at 4 A .M. EDT on
the date shown. 10
CEN
Early evening South is at the
top to match the 11 Callisto
view through a
2 1 telescope. 12

13
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
14

15

S
THE PLANETS IN THE SKY 16
Jupiter These illustrations show the size, phase,
W E
and orientation of each planet and the two
brightest dwarf planets at 0h UT for the dates 17

N in the data table at bottom. South is at the top

to match the view through a telescope. 18

Saturn 19
10"

20

Mars 21

Ceres Uranus Neptune Pluto 22

23

MARS CERES JUPITER SATURN URANUS NEPTUNE PLUTO 24

June 15 PLEASEJune 15
PROOF: June 15 June 15 June 15 June 15 June 15
Title Astronomy Illustrator Roen Kelly 25
Individual illustrators,
–0.2 8.8 –2.7 0.3 5.9 7.9 14.7
10.2" 0.5" 46.1" 18.1" 3.4" 2.3" 0.1" 26

84% 97% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

27
0.918 2.584 4.272 9.182 20.501 29.852 33.177
28
1.399 2.977 5.167 10.015 19.798 29.930 34.060
23h33.3m 23h07.5m 19h49.9m 20h11.9m 2h26.8m 23h27.4m 19h44.9m 29
–5°51' –17°17' –21°18' –20°10' 14°03' –4°41' –22°13'
30

SKY THIS MONTH — Continued from page 37
Iapetus at its brightest
S 11" by June 19. Telescopes reveal
W Dione Rhea
Hyperion
Iapetus
June 1, 2:00 A.M. EDT
Saturn’s moon Iapetus reaches its brightest on June 1, when it lies 9' west of
the ringed planet. Several other moons are easily visible as well.
axis widens to 41.6" by June 30,
nearly three times the minor
axis. Skirting the outer edge of
the rings is Enceladus, orbiting
every 1.4 days. At magnitude
11.9, it is tricky to spot against
the brilliance of the rings.
Farther from the rings are
Tethys, Dione, and Rhea, shin-
ing between 10th and 11th mag-
nitude, and orbiting with
periods from 1.9 to 4.5 days.
Titan, the brightest moon, orbits
every 16 days and shines at
magnitude 8.8. You’ll find it due
north of Saturn June 14 and 30,
and due south June 6 and 22.
More distant Iapetus varies
in brilliance between eastern
and western elongations. It’s
brightest (magnitude 10.2) 9'
due west of Saturn on June 1,
just a day after its western elon-
gation. At this position the
brighter of Iapetus’ two hemi-
spheres faces Earth. Throughout
June it tracks closer to Saturn
and reaches superior conjunc-
tion June 20, 54" north of
Saturn and near magnitude 11.
Mars rises soon after 2 A.M.
local time on June 1 and an
hour earlier by June 30. It’s
located in Aquarius, brighten-
ing from magnitude 0 to –0.5 in
the pre-dawn sky this month.
The Red Planet is now only four
months away from opposition.
The best time to view it is in the
hour before dawn. At 4 A.M.
local time, Mars stands only 20°
high on June 1, but 30° high at
the same time on June 30 —
higher than its 2018 opposition.
42 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
WHEN TO
VIEW THE
PLANETS
Mars begins June at 9" in
apparent diameter, and grows to EVENING SKY
Mercury (west)
a distinctive gibbous disk 84
MORNING SKY
percent lit. Visually, its features Venus (east)
Saturn Titan remain a challenge, requiring Mars (southeast)
8- to 10-inch scopes under good Jupiter (south)
Tethys Enceladus
conditions. Video-frame capture Saturn (south)
1' opens Mars observing to smaller Uranus (east)
instruments, as does boosting Neptune (southeast)
the magnification with a Barlow
lens. In the hour before dawn
Mars tracks rapidly east during June’s first two weeks, scope and spy its 2.3" bluish
across eastern Aquarius this you may spot the Tharsis ridge disk, which lies 30 times farther
month. On June 1, it is less than volcano region and the Mariner than Mars (which is at 0.9
3° southeast of Lambda (λ) Valley. By late June, the distinc- astronomical unit from Earth,
Aquarii and crosses into south- tive dark Syrtis Major is evident. or nearly 84 million miles).
ern Pisces June 25, south of the Neptune is also in Aquarius The outer planet lingers
Great Square of Pegasus. A and stands 1.8° due north of while Mars drifts past over a
waning Last Quarter Moon lies Mars on June 12. Observers can few days. At magnitude 7.9,
near Mars June 12/13. easily swing to Neptune with a Neptune can be picked out
COMET SEARCH I PanSTARRS pairings
THE FANTASTIC PHOTO OPS
Comet PanSTARRS (C/2017 T2)
of comet and deep sky continue,
and timing with the New Moon 1 γ
N June 15
couldn’t be better. In case you URS A M AJOR
didn’t get last month’s issue, on M109
May 22 and 23 Comet PanSTARRS 7 5 17
(C/2017 T2) joined the great
galaxies Messier 81 and 82. By 19
chance, during the Full Moon on 11 3
June 5, the comet floats through E CANES 21
the uninteresting bowl of the Big VE NATIC I χ
Dipper, then it poses less than a 23 60
M106 65 2°
degree from M109 on the night Y
Path of
of the 16th. The Moon doesn’t 25
Comet PanSTARRS
even rise until twilight begins —
what good luck. 27
NGC 4449 58
T2 has just passed its peak 67 59
brightness but should still be
By mid-June, comet C/2017 T2 passes out of the Big Dipper’s bowl to flirt
roughly 8th magnitude as it with some stunning deep-sky objects: M109, M106, and NGC 4449. Take
shares the field with the grand your time and compare the comet’s shape to those of these much more
and picturesque bright spiral gal- distant wonders as it slides past.
axy M106 on the night of the
23rd. Since you’re taking advantage of mild summer conditions by observing all night on the weekend of
the 27th, see the comet near NGC 4449 after moonset.
Visually these galaxy-comet duos deserve prolonged inspection. Notice how their shapes are differ-
ent. The galaxies are symmetrical ovals, whereas the comet will be quite lopsided with its bright, round-
edged coma on one side and a flat, diffuse fan of a tail on the other. Take your time, push the power past
150x on a 6-inch and 300x on a 12-inch scope. Although it makes the view darker, the larger image scale
allows your averted vision to pick out structure in both objects.
Imagers will be delighted by the difference between T2’s green coma and the pink-red color of the
galaxies’ star-forming regions. But will the comet’s white dust tail be long enough to drape across the
distant starlight of these island universes? Let us know.

Venus returns to the morning sky
Algol
PE R SE US
Pleiades
Capella
AU R IG A
Aldebaran
June 30, 1 hour before sunrise
Looking east
By the end of June, Venus has returned to the pre-dawn sky. On June 30, it is
8° high an hour before sunrise.
with binoculars 3.5° east of Phi
(φ) Aquarii. Just over a degree
east of this star is a pair of 6th-
magnitude stars roughly
aligned north-south. Another
2° farther lies a second 6th-
magnitude star, forming a long
triangle with the previous pair.
Neptune lies a Moon-width
short of this star. For most of
June, it drifts slightly eastward
before reaching a stationary
point June 23.
Uranus lies in Aries the Ram
and rises in the hour before the
onset of twilight. It stands about
10° high June 16, a waning cres-
cent Moon nearby. Uranus, at
magnitude 5.9, lies 10° left of the
Moon and both are visible at
4:30 A.M. local time. In the dawn
sky of June 17, Uranus lies 5°
north of the thinning crescent.
The rapidly advancing twilight
hides Uranus quickly —
viewing improves next month.
Venus leaps into the morn-
ing sky in late June following its
inferior conjunction with the
Sun on June 3. It misses the Sun
by just 0.2°. See how soon after
conjunction you can spot it low
GET DAILY UPDATES ON YOUR NIGHT SKY AT
www.Astronomy.com/skythisweek.
AR I E S
TAURUS
Venus
10°
in the east-northeast. By June 18,
Venus lies 11° east of a 27-day
thin crescent Moon. Venus is 4°
high 45 minutes before sunrise
and glowing at magnitude –4.3.
On June 19 the Moon occults
Venus from some regions of the
world, including northwestern
Europe and northern and east-
ern Canada. Its reappearance
from behind the Moon may be
visible from the northeastern
U.S., but challenging due to low
altitude. From Massachusetts,
the Moon rises about 3:55 A.M.
EDT — and by 4:07 A.M., when
the Moon is 1° high, Venus
begins to reappear. Venus’ disk
is 8 percent lit, and the Moon is
4 percent lit. If the weather
behaves, Massachusetts or
Maine may grab the lucky view.
The pair rise after the reappear-
ance farther west, with the gap
between Venus and the Moon
increasing with longitude.
By June 30, Venus is 8°
high an hour before sunrise,
located near the Hyades star
cluster and 4.5° northwest of
Aldebaran, the 1st-magnitude
star in Taurus the Bull. The
LOCATING ASTEROIDS I
Crossing the Great Rift
YOU WON’T HAVE TO BE SLY to track 2 Pallas across the terri-
tory of Vulpecula, the celestial fox. With a 4- or 6-inch scope from
the suburbs, you can nab this main-belt asteroid by dropping
south of the lovely double star Albireo, or by scooting north of
the Coathanger asterism, all climbing higher in the eastern sky.
The background sky here is not crammed with stars, thanks to
all the obscuring dust and gas that together form the Great Rift in
the Milky Way. This will make it easier to locate and follow the
modest magnitude 10 glow of Pallas. Still, you will want to push
the power past 100x in order to separate the pinprick of light
from any nearby stars on the chart. After you find Pallas, shift
your scope east to see the Milky Way spill into view.
With the generally good weather in June, you can likely
observe three evenings in a given block of five, giving you the
chance to watch the night-to-night shift of Pallas. June 9 to 13 is
ideal, since one field of view contains more than a half-dozen
stars to use as reference markers. Just jot down a few points on a
logbook page, then keep coming back to discover which dot has
moved. We’re so far from the path of the Moon that its light will
not bother us.
Pallas is one of the few asteroids with an inclination high
enough to take it well above the throngs orbiting closer to the
ecliptic plane. Heinrich Olbers discovered it by accident in 1802
when it happened to be near Ceres. If not for that, Pallas would
have been found later and assigned a higher number.
Pallas passes the Coathanger
N
VULPECUL A
20
15 25 30
10
5 1
Path of Pallas 1
E
June 1
7
9 5 4
U
SAGIT TA 1°
Tenth-magnitude Pallas spends June in Vulpecula, gracefully arcing past
the famous Coathanger asterism early in the month.
Pleiades (M45) stand 10° above just outside the path of annular-
the planet. ity and experiences a 98 percent
The Moon continues along eclipsed Sun near sunset.
the ecliptic to occult the Sun on The summer solstice occurs
June 21 in an annular eclipse on June 20 at 5:44 P.M. EDT.
visible from Africa, the Arabian
Peninsula, Pakistan, northern Martin Ratcliffe provides
India, China, and Taiwan. planetarium development for
Greatest eclipse occurs near the Sky-Skan, Inc., from his home
India-China border with a in Wichita, Kansas. Alister
38-second duration and 99 per- Ling, who lives in Edmonton,
cent coverage, resulting in a Alberta, has watched the skies
very thin annular ring. Guam is since 1975.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 43
PREPARE FOR LAUNCH:
PERSEVERA
Equipped with a suite of high-tech
tools — including a rock-blasting laser,
two microphones, 23 cameras, and a
helicopter — NASA’s latest rover will
explore the Red Planet like
never before. BY JAKE PARKS

Perseverance will follow in the

footsteps of previous martian rovers
— especially Curiosity. But thanks
to the inclusion of forward-looking
experiments, NASA’s latest rover
will also set the stage for human
exploration of Mars. NASA/JPL-CALTECH

44 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

 FEW WORLDS HAVE GARNERED
AS MUCH ATTENTION AS MARS.
And though astronomers have mapped
the planet’s surface from afar for hun-
dreds of years, it wasn’t until the last half-
century that we sent robotic scouts to
NCE
physically explore and capture close-up
views of the rusty world.
In recent decades, scientists have seen
dust devils meandering along Mars’ bar-
ren surface. They’ve uncovered reservoirs
of water ice trapped at its poles and bur-
ied just below the ground. And they’ve
found evidence that liquid water once
existed on the now-arid planet, likely
forming lakes and other bodies of water
well suited for preserving ancient life —
that is, if life ever existed there.
Now, it seems that every time scien-
tists make a new discovery about Mars,
the conversation shifts to: “When are we
going to go there and see for ourselves?”
With this upcoming Mars mission,
scientists are finally taking the first
steps toward humanity exploring the
Red Planet in person.
Perseverance at a glance
Planned for launch between July 17 and
August 5, the Perseverance rover will
embark on a roughly seven-month jour-
ney to Mars, arriving February 18, 2021.
And once engineers confirm it’s landed
safe and sound, the rover will set to work
achieving its four main objectives.
There’s plenty of overlap between this
mission’s goals and those of previous rov-
ers, but Perseverance still has a unique
agenda. Namely, the rover will seek signs
of past life by searching for previously
habitable sites; search those sites for evi-
dence of ancient microbes by studying
rocks known to preserve life; collect and
store rock cores for a future sample
return mission; and help scientists pre-
pare for the hurdles human explorers will
face on Mars, partly by testing a method
for pulling oxygen out of thin air.
But first, Perseverance must get to the
Red Planet.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 45

Like Curiosity (shown in this artist’s concept), Perseverance will be gently lowered to the ground using a sky
crane maneuver. The descent stage will fire retrorockets to slow down before unspooling about 25 feet (7.5 m)
of ropes and an “umbilical cord” attached to the rover until Perseverance softly touches down. NASA/JPL-CALTECH
An entry, descent, and
landing to remember
Perseverance shares a lot with the
Curiosity rover, and that’s because it
uses the same basic design. That’s not
due to laziness; it’s part of the plan. For
Perseverance, NASA is using what they
call a “heritage approach,” borrowing
what worked from Curiosity.
“[Perseverance] is something like
90 percent spare parts from Curiosity,”
says Jim Bell, principal investigator for
Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument.
“That’s how they got the mission
approved, because they could save an
enormous amount of money by using
those spare parts.”
Like Curiosity, Perseverance’s landing
system relies on a parachute, a descent
vehicle, and a nerve-wracking sky crane
maneuver that lowers the rover to the
ground like Tom Cruise dropping from
the ceiling in Mission: Impossible. But
Perseverance also has a few new tech-
niques that will further refine its ability
to safely land at its intended destination:
Jezero Crater.
Because rovers crawl, not zip, along the
martian surface, if Perseverance misses its
target, it could take weeks, months, or
even a year to travel there, costing valu-
able mission time. To help avoid such a
long commute, Perseverance’s landing
suite implements a Range Trigger strat-
egy, which autonomously chooses when
to deploy the craft’s parachute. Previously,
parachutes were triggered as early as
46 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
possible to ensure rovers didn’t smash
into the ground. But using Range
Trigger, if onboard instruments deter-
mine Perseverance will overshoot its
landing site, it will deploy its parachute
early. If the craft will fall short, it will
hold off.
Next, a new technique called Terrain-
Relative Navigation will further refine
Perseverance’s trajectory, ensuring it
lands in a perfectly safe spot. During
descent, the rover will take pictures of
the surface and compare them with an
orbiter-created map stored onboard.
This way, the rover can determine if it’s
approaching dangerous terrain, like
steep slopes or large boulders, and
divert to a hazard-free spot if necessary.
Finally, as an added bonus, the
descending spacecraft will record video
of the parachute’s deployment, as well as
audio of the rover screaming through
Mars’ atmosphere, capturing sounds
Mastcam-Z’s variable-zoom eyes can capture 3D
(stereo) color images with resolutions of up to 1,600
by 1,200 pixels. JIM BELL
such as whipping winds and firing
engines. By later syncing this video and
audio, for the first time, we’ll see and
hear exactly what a rover goes through
during the infamous “seven minutes of
terror” — when it slows from about
13,000 mph (21,000 km/h) to a complete
stop before beaming what feels like a
painfully slow OK signal back to Earth.
A toolbelt meant for
seeking biosignatures
Perseverance is far from the first robotic
explorer to assess Mars’ habitability or
hunt for martian life. In 1975, NASA’s
Viking program sent a pair of probes —
each consisting of an orbiter and a lander
— to Mars. After those landers touched
down, they began carrying out experi-
ments designed to detect active life.
“A very important distinction between
[Perseverance] and Viking is that we are
seeking the signs of ancient life, whereas
Viking was seeking signs of what we call
extant life — life that currently exists on
Mars,” says Ken Williford, deputy project
scientist for the Perseverance mission.
To identify the subtle markers of
past life, also known as biosignatures,
Williford says Perseverance will employ
two main types of tools: remote-sensing
instruments and contact instruments.
One vital remote-sensing instrument
is the Mastcam-Z imaging system. As
the rover chugs along the martian sur-
face, it will rely on Mastcam-Z to both
safely navigate and spot potentially
biosignature-harboring rocks.
Located on the rover’s mast,
Mastcam-Z stands about 6.5 feet
(2 meters) above the martian surface,
allowing it to get 360-degree views of
the landscape with its two stereoscopic,
zoomable eyes. Mastcam-Z is equipped
SuperCam, which is mounted atop Mastcam-Z, uses
a laser to vaporize rock so it can remotely analyze
the resulting plasma. NASA/JPL-CALTECH
 JEZERO CRATER:
EXPLORING AN ANCIENT LAKE
Mission scientists selected
Perseverance’s landing site,
Jezero Crater, after whittling down
about 60 initial options consid-
ered to be “astrobiologically rele-
vant.” At 30 miles (49 kilometers)
wide, Jezero Crater is an ancient
lake and delta system located at
the western edge of a giant
impact basin called Isidis Planitia,
just north of Mars’ equator. Within
Jezero, researchers have identi-
fied many appealing sites packed
with minerals like clays, carbon-
ates, and hydrated silica, which
are of great interest due to their
potential to preserve signatures
of past life.
“One of the fantastic and fairly
unique things about Jezero is not
just that it was a crater lake, but
that on the [northeast side] of that
crater, there’s an outlet channel,”
says deputy project scientist Ken
Williford. This makes Jezero what
scientists call an open system.
“There’s water flowing in one side
and out the other side, and so it
would have been a dynamic sys-
tem that survived for some signifi-
cant amount of time. And in that
sense, it would have been a fairly
stable, habitable environment,”
says Williford.
If certain minerals like carbon-
ates were crystallizing at the
same time that liquid water
Landing site
existed near the edges of Jezero
Crater, Williford says, that’s the
perfect situation for forming
microbial mats. “Think pond scum
at the edge of a pond or a lake,”
he says. “Those carbonates can
entomb that pond scum — these
microbial mats — and form a kind
of rock that we call a stromatolite,
which really just means a layered
10 km
rock. But often stromatolites are
fossilized microbial mats. 5 miles
“Another big one is the rocks at
the bottom of the delta,” Williford
Jezero Crater is seen in this natural-color mosaic made by combining shots
adds. “That stuff that we find pre- from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express. The Perseverance
served right at the bottom of that rover’s landing site (circled) is near the ancient river delta that winds from
beautiful delta in Jezero — that the crater’s rim on the left. NASA/JPL/MSSS/ESA/DLR/FU-BERLIN/J. COWART
mud — is really fantastic at con-
centrating and preserving organic the rocks on Earth that are the have deemed it too challenging to
matter. And it often does that in a richest in organic matter are safely land there. However, with
way that’s homogenized and jum- rocks that were formed in a Perseverance’s improved entry,
bled up. It doesn’t necessarily muddy environment.” descent, and landing technology,
preserve those beautiful fossilized Although Jezero has long been the titillating lake and delta sys-
structures that you might find at on scientists’ lists of intriguing tem are now well within the
the edge of the lake. But most of Mars sites, previous missions rover’s reach. — J.P.

with a range of filters, providing true-
color vision that stretches a bit into the
infrared and ultraviolet realms. This
makes Mastcam-Z particularly sensitive
to rocks containing water or hydrogen
because, according to Bell, “different
kinds of rocks and minerals reflect light
differently in those wavelengths.”
Mastcam-Z also has the ability to take
high-definition video. From an engineer-
ing perspective, Bell says, the video can
be used to confirm the rover’s intricate
tools, like its drill and sample system, are
working properly. “And the second rea-
son? It’s just damn fun,” Bell says. “We
think we’re going to try to take videos
while we’re driving,” he adds. “And the
microphones on the rover will be record-
ing at the same time, so we can merge
our video with the audio.”
Sharing the high perch with
Mastcam-Z is Perseverance’s SuperCam
instrument. According to Principal
Investigator Roger Wiens, “SuperCam is
kind of the eyes and ears and nose, if you
will, of the [Perseverance] rover.”
Although Mastcam-Z might be the first
to identify promising sites, Wiens says
SuperCam will serve as sort of an
advance guard that will remotely charac-
terize the chemistry, mineralogy, and
physical properties of rock outcroppings.
SuperCam relies on a range of spec-
troscopic techniques to investigate tar-
gets from a distance. One such technique
is called visible and infrared reflectance
spectroscopy. This method is exception-
ally powerful, Wiens says, because it’s a
passive technique that only uses sunlight
to distinguish between clays, carbonates,
sulfates, silicates, phosphates, and other
minerals from a great distance. “Really,
it can go as far as you can see,” he says,
“and so when visibility is good on Mars,
then it could be kilometers.”
SuperCam also will utilize a tech-
nique called Laser-Induced Breakdown
Spectroscopy (LIBS), which uses a
1,064-nanometer laser to study targets as
small as a pencil point from up to about
23 feet (7 m) away. The basic idea of LIBS
is that “you just need to blast the rock,
and then you need to see the color spec-
trum of the material that you just
blasted,” says Wiens. The first few laser
shots — each powerful enough to light
about a million lightbulbs but lasting just
4 billionths of a second — create a tiny
shock wave that removes any dust from
the rock’s surface, he says, providing a
clear view of the target. After removing
dust, additional shots vaporize pieces of
rock, creating a plasma. By analyzing the
specific colors of light present in this
plasma, SuperCam can get an idea of
what the rock is made of.
Once Mastcam-Z and SuperCam
identify a promising target, the rover will
trundle over to the target to take a closer
look with two contact tools mounted to
its robotic arm: the Planetary Instrument
for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) and the
Scanning Habitable Environments with
Raman & Luminescence for Organics &
Chemicals (SHERLOC).

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 47
 PERSEVERANCE INSTRUMENTS
The body architecture of Perseverance is nearly identical to that of its predecessor, the Curiosity rover — with some notable
upgrades. In addition to a more sophisticated instrument suite, Perseverance has redesigned wheel treads that are more durable, a
coring drill that can extract intact samples rather than grinding rock into a powder, and a depository within the rover’s belly that
will store rock samples until they are dropped off on the martian surface to await a future return mission. A few forward-looking
experiments are also hitching a ride on Perseverance, including a lightweight helicopter and a machine that produces oxygen.

PLUTONIUM POWER SOURCE

The Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric
SuperCam mast unit
Generator will convert heat from the radioactive
decay of plutonium into electricity, which will charge NavCams
the rover’s two main batteries. MEDA radiation
and dust sensor
RIMFAX
electronics Mastcam-Z
Mastcam-Z cameras
calibration target
SuperCam MEDA wind sensors
calibration target MEDA thermal infrared and
air temperature sensors

BELOW THE
SURFACE
The RIMFAX
instrument will use
ground-penetrating Rear
radar to reveal what HazCams
lies beneath the
rover down to a RIMFAX
depth of about antenna
30 feet (9 m).

SuperCam
body unit
SHERLOC
electronics
MEDA air
temperature
MEDA sensor
electronics Front
and HazCams
pressure
sensor SHERLOC/PIXL
calibration targets
ROBUST WHEELS
Perseverance will use six
wheels with thick, cleated Mastcam-Z digital
aluminum treads to roam electronics assembly
the surface at speeds up to
about 0.1 mph (4.2 cm/s). FRESH AIR
A proof-of-concept
instrument, MOXIE,
WEATHER STATION will attempt to pull
The Mars Environmental Dynamics oxygen from carbon
Analyzer (MEDA) has a number of dioxide, which
rover-mounted sensors that will makes up most of
measure wind speed and direction, Mars’ atmosphere.
pressure, temperature, humidity,
and even the prevalence of dust
particles in the martian atmosphere.

48 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020


SAMPLE HANDLING
The Adaptive Caching
Assembly, including the Bit
Carousel seen here, will
image, seal, and store sample
tubes in the rover until they
are placed on the surface to
await a return mission.
Instruments
inside the rover
MARS HELICOPTER
OTHERWORLDLY TEST FLIGHT
Although not vital to the mission’s main science
objectives, Perseverance will carry a twin-rotor,
solar-powered helicopter with it to Mars. If all goes
according to plan, Mars Helicopter will undertake
up to five test flights over the span of 30 days,
taking images throughout. Its later flights might last
as long as three minutes and travel up to about
1,000 feet (300 m). A successful flight would make
the helicopter the first aircraft to fly on another world
— a major feat considering Mars’ atmosphere is just
1 percent as dense as Earth’s. “If we prove powered
flight on Mars can work,” MiMi Aung, project
manager of the Mars Helicopter mission, said in a
NASA press release, “we look forward to the day
when Mars helicopters can play an important role in
future explorations of the Red Planet.”
SHERLOC/WATSON
DIG IN
The drill has inter-
changeable bits,
including one that
can extract chalk-
sized samples.
PIXL
COVERED IN CAMERAS
MASTCAM-Z
A pair of variable-zoom, stereoscopic cameras will capture stunning
video and 3D color images of the surrounding martian landscape.
SUPERCAM
A camera, laser, and spectrometers will allow SuperCam to study the
mineralogy of rocks and soil from up to about 23 feet (7 m) away.
PIXL
An ultra-close-up camera will take visual images of target sites for
comparison with PIXL’s spectroscopically obtained elemental maps.
SHERLOC/WATSON
An autofocusing macro camera will image sites for comparison with
SHERLOC’S molecular maps. WATSON will get larger context views.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH, ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY
HAZCAMS
Six down-facing Hazard Detection Cameras (four in the front and two in
the rear) will help the rover avoid obstacles like big rocks and sand dunes.
NAVCAMS
Two pairs of cameras on the mast will help the rover autonomously navigate,
spotting golf ball-sized objects from up to about 80 feet (25 m) away.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 49

Engineers carefully install SuperCam on Perseverance last June in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA/JPL-CALTECH
Before PIXL and SHERLOC begin
collecting data up close, the rover will
use an abrading drill bit to flatten a
small, circular spot on a target rock
about 1.5 inches (4 centimeters) wide,
Williford said in a presentation at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. It’s almost like
preparing a slide for analysis with a
microscope. But because this creates a lot
of dust, the rover’s turret also includes
the Gaseous Dust Removal Tool, which
shoots puffs of ultra-pure nitrogen that
will help clear away any debris generated
during the abrading process. After that,
the site’s ready for up-close inspection
with PIXL and SHERLOC.
The PIXL instrument has an X-ray
fluorescence spectrometer that reveals
the specific elements embedded within a
rock. “X-ray fluorescence is a technique
that is considered to be the gold standard
of measuring [the elemental] chemistry
of rocks,” says Abigail Allwood, principal
investigator of PIXL. “But having said
that, it’s usually done in bulk.”
In bulk analysis, like Curiosity does
with its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectro-
meter, “you take rock, powder it up, and
take an average measurement of the
entire sample,” Allwood says. PIXL
instead uses an X-ray beam about as wide
as a human hair to scan an area roughly
the size of a postage stamp. This allows
researchers to create a highly detailed
map of the entire target area, showing
where more than 25 elements conducive
to life are concentrated, down to levels in
the tens-of-parts-per-million range.
50 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
Sharing Perseverance’s turret is
SHERLOC, a laser-based tool that like-
wise scans rocks, but uses an ultraviolet
beam about as wide as PIXL’s X-ray
beam. Unlike PIXL, SHERLOC charts
the molecular composition of rocks using
multiple spectroscopic methods. This
allows researchers to map the specific
locations of minerals and organic matter
that are commonly associated with life.
“We are very sensitive to any minerals
or mineralogy or chemistry that was
done in an aqueous environment,” says
Luther Beegle, principal investigator of
SHERLOC. “So a lot of the stuff we talk
about looking at — phyllosilicates, clays,
gypsum, things like that — are all asso-
ciated with liquid water.” Because scien-
tists understand how these
minerals are formed, he says, Visible
SHERLOC can help research- image
ers rewind the clock to better
n g
understand what the varied Co
environments within Jezero
Crater were like billions of Mudstone
years ago.
Alteration/
But where would vein
SHERLOC be without Mn
WATSON (the Wide Angle
Topographic Sensor for
Operations and eNgineering)?
According to Beegle, this sub-
system of SHERLOC captures
visual images of target areas
to provide more context for
these sites, complementing
PIXL’s X-ray beam causes certain elements to fluoresce at specific
PIXL’s elemental maps and wavelengths, allowing researchers to create a detailed map of the
SHERLOC’s molecular maps. precise elemental composition of a sample. NASA/A. ALLWOOD
But these aren’t the only tools
Perseverance has in its sophisticated tool-
belt. The rover also includes a gadget that
will dramatically help researchers char-
acterize the geology and past habitability
of Mars, aiding in their search for
ancient biosignatures.
After Mastcam-Z and SuperCam
look around the landscape in search of
notable features, but before PIXL and
SHERLOC come into play, Perseverance
will deploy its Radar Imager for Mars’
subsurFAce eXperiment (RIMFAX) —
the very first ground-penetrating radar
tool ever sent to the martian surface.
This pioneering instrument will
reveal buried features, such as ancient
lava flows or sand dunes, that will help
researchers weave together a more com-
prehensive history of Mars’ past habit-
ability, helping them hunt for ancient life.
Furthermore, thanks to RIMFAX’s abil-
ity to detect water, ice, or salty brine
buried at a depth of more than 33 feet
(10 m), scientists can pinpoint locations
rich in natural resources that might one
day be tapped by human explorers.
With all these tools (and more) at its
disposal, Perseverance is better suited to
find evidence of ancient martian life
than any of its predecessors. But perhaps
what makes this mission most intrigu-
ing is not what we can learn from the
rover’s onboard tools, but rather what
we can eventually learn from its
thoughtfully curated collection of sam-
ples, which scientists plan to eventually
ship back to Earth.
Si Cr K Al
ate
Chert
er
lo
m matrix
Chromite
Fuchsitic mudstone
Ca Fe S Zr
Zircon
Detrital pyrite
Mn, Ca, Fe-carbonate
 Phoenix

Viking 2

Viking 1
Perseverance
Pathfinder
InSight
Opportunity Curiosity
Spirit

NASA/MGS/MOLA SCIENCE TEAM

THE LINEAGE OF NASA’S MARS ROVERS
The first rover to successfully
operate on Mars’ surface was
NASA’s small, 23-pound (10.6 kilo-
gram) rover named Sojourner. As
part of the Pathfinder mission,
Sojourner landed in Mars’ Ares
Vallis on July 4, 1997 — and it
instantly captivated the world.
According to an article by
Brian Dunbar titled “The day the
internet stood still,” on the first
workday after Pathfinder
deployed Sojourner, the rover’s
webpage on the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory’s site got 80 million
hits. This was an astonishing
number at the time — and
remains so now — as the still-
burgeoning internet was not
nearly as ubiquitous as it is
today. For comparison, the previ-
ous year, the Atlanta Olympics
website maxed out at 18 million
hits in a day.
In January 2004, NASA landed
two more “robotic geologists,”
named Spirit and Opportunity, on
the Red Planet. These identical,
408-pound (185 kg) rovers landed
by bouncing their way along
Mars’ surface encased in airbags
that deflated after they came to
complete stops — with Spirit
landing in Gusev Crater and
Opportunity in Meridiani Planum.
Both rovers performed exception-
ally well, beaming back hundreds
of thousands of high-resolution
color images, as well as micro-
scopic images. Though Spirit died
in 2010, six years after landing,
Opportunity kept chugging along
until a global dust storm encased
the Red Planet in 2018, leading
NASA to cease its revival efforts
in early 2019.
Improving on the success of
previous rovers, NASA landed its
largest and most sophisticated
rover, Curiosity, in Mars’ Gale
Crater on August 6, 2012.
Because the car-sized, nearly
2,000-pound (900 kg) rover is
so meticulously designed, NASA
chose to softly set it down on
the surface using a sky crane
maneuver. Since its landing,
Curiosity has been exploring the
Red Planet’s past habitability by
taking well over half a million
images and videos, roaming
more than 13.5 miles (21.8 km),
and drilling holes to collect sam-
ples for onboard analysis. — J.P.

There and back again:
Caching samples
After analyzing favorable sites with
onboard instruments, Perseverance will
use its rotary percussive drill to gather
rock cores that scientists hope to study
up close in the near future. But before the
rover begins digging, Perseverance will
snag one of 43 titanium sample tubes
housed in its body and insert it into its
drill. The action of digging will force a
cylindrical core — roughly the size of a
piece of chalk — into the tube within
the drill bit. Then, the sample will be
imaged by an internal camera, her-
metically sealed, and stored in the rover’s
body until a batch is ready for drop-off.
Perseverance will also carry five wit-
ness tubes that will not hold rock sam-
ples. Instead, they’ll be exposed to the
environment around the collection site
to trap contaminants from the rover or
its propulsion system that might pollute
the rock samples. As the mission pro-
gresses, the rover will deposit groups of
sealed sample tubes at “sample cache
depots” on the martian surface. There,
they’ll patiently await their next ride.
Although the specifics of a return
mission are still nebulous, the basic idea
is that a future spacecraft will land on
Mars and deploy a small rover to collect
the cached cores that Perseverance will
leave behind. This worker-bee rover will
load the samples into a small rocket
(tentatively called a Mars Ascent Vehicle),
which will blast them into martian orbit.
There, they’ll be handed off to an orbit-
ing spacecraft for return to Earth.
Finally, NASA will divvy up and dis-
tribute the samples to science labs
around the world. Over the ensuing
decades, Williford says, researchers will
scrutinize the samples with the most
sophisticated instruments on Earth (as
well as some instruments that haven’t
been invented yet) therefore “maximizing
our ability to detect signs of ancient life
or extremely subtle signs of planetary
evolution.” And based on what we’ve
learned from analyzing the Apollo lunar

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 51
NASA’s Mars Ascent Vehicle, seen in this artist’s concept, would ferry rock and Engineers gently lower the MOXIE instrument into its place on the Perseverance
soil samples collected by Perseverance into martian orbit. The samples would rover. MOXIE will pioneer a method for pulling usable oxygen from the carbon
then hitch a ride to Earth aboard another spacecraft. NASA/JPL-CALTECH dioxide-heavy atmosphere of Mars. NASA/JPL-CALTECH

samples in Earth-based labs, getting our
hands on intact Mars samples would
teach us much more than any rover-
mounted instruments ever could.
This is one of the most important
aspects of the mission, Williford says.
“I think without the intention to return
samples, there would probably not be a
[Perseverance] mission.”
Preparing for humans
Despite the recent focus on the Artemis
program, which aims to send humans
back to the Moon within the decade,
many of those working on Perseverance
aren’t too concerned with the prospect of
the Moon trumping their goal of sending
humans to Mars. And because of their
steadfast belief that humanity will even-
tually make it to the Red Planet, they’re
taking the pragmatic approach and doing
some basic prep work. “The more we
know about Mars,” Williford says, “the
better prepared we are to send humans
there and get them home safely.”
For example, one thing that’s part of
everyday life on Earth and will likewise
be needed on Mars is the weather report.
That’s where the Mars Environmental
Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) comes into
play; it’s essentially an extraterrestrial
weather station.
MEDA is designed to wake up about
once an hour throughout the mission to
record data on six different weather-
related factors: atmospheric pressure,
relative humidity, wind speed and direc-
tion, and air and ground temperature.
Additionally, MEDA will monitor dust in
the martian atmosphere, as well as ambi-
ent radiation levels. By collecting this
data, “MEDA will help prepare for
human exploration by providing daily
weather reports and information on the
radiation and wind patterns on Mars,”
said Jose Rodriguez Manfredi, principal
investigator of the MEDA instrument, in
a NASA statement.

Thanks to forward-thinking
missions like Perseverance,
the idea of humans on Mars
doesn’t seem as far-fetched
as it once did. NASA

52 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

 SHERLOC will also play a small part
in preparing for a crewed mission to
Mars, Beegle says. Like many of the rov-
er’s instruments, SHERLOC needs to
calibrate itself using targets mounted to
the rover. Beegle notes that one great way
to do this is by looking for the spectro-
scopic signatures of Teflon within mate-
rial affixed to the rover. And, wouldn’t
you know it, spacesuits contain Teflon.
“Everything on [Perseverance] is on
there for a reason. It’s not just on there
because we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool
to send spacesuit material,’ ” Beegle says.
“But we wanted — we needed — a Teflon
target and we realized that Teflon is part
of the spacesuit material. So, let’s do that.
Let’s kill two birds with one stone.”
By keeping spacesuit samples
mounted to Perseverance and exposing
them to the martian atmosphere the
entire time, researchers will get a bonus
experiment that tests how spacesuits
degrade after being exposed to the
martian elements for years.
Then there’s the Mars Oxygen In-Situ
Resource Utilization Experiment
(MOXIE), one of the first experiments
designed to test the extraterrestrial pro-
duction of something we’ll need to sur-
vive on (and return from) Mars. Its
mission: plucking oxygen from the mar-
tian atmosphere.
One day we might harvest oxygen
from water ice already trapped in Mars’
poles, says Michael Hecht, MOXIE’s
principal investigator. But in
the short term, “the thing
that’s really easy to do is be
an electronic tree,” he says.
“What does a tree do? It
takes in [carbon dioxide];
it puts out oxygen.”
MOXIE will use elec-
tricity to break apart car-
bon dioxide molecules
— which make up about
96 percent of Mars’ thin
atmosphere — into carbon
monoxide and oxygen.
However, MOXIE needs to be
careful not to push the electrolysis-
based process too far, which would
knock lone carbon atoms from the car-
bon monoxide molecules. The danger of
this is that carbon is very difficult to deal
with, Hecht says. “Carbon is actually
how you destroy these [mechanical]
systems, because the carbon builds up
and they stop working.”
Even if MOXIE can avoid getting
gunked up with excess carbon, it’s still
just a proof-of-concept experiment that
will need to be dramatically scaled up
— by hundreds of times — before any
crewed missions venture to Mars. When
it is running, which will likely only be
about once a month, Hecht says MOXIE
might be able to produce around
10 grams of oxygen per hour, but it’ll
probably be closer to 6 g. (For reference,
humans need about 20 g of oxygen per
hour to breathe.) But breathable oxygen
is just a small part of the larger battle.
According to Hecht, launching a
crew of four to six astronauts from the
martian surface will require about
15,400 pounds (7 metric tons) of rocket
fuel and a staggering 59,500 pounds
(27 metric tons) of oxygen for propellant.
To reach that oxygen quota in a timely
manner, Hecht says, a scaled-up version
of MOXIE would need to produce about
4.4 to 6.6 pounds (2 to 3 kilograms) per
hour, “24.5/7 — because the Mars day is
a little longer than the Earth day.”
Beyond creating breathable oxygen
and rocket propellant, another intriguing
aspect of MOXIE is that it will help
researchers learn how to harness the full
power of extraterrestrial electrochemistry.
According to Hecht, if humans eventually
gain access to water on Mars (so there’s a
reliable source of hydrogen), scientists can
This global mosaic was created using images taken
by the Viking Orbiter 1. The Viking Lander 1 was the
first spacecraft to safely land on Mars. NASA/JPL/USGS
tweak MOXIE’s basic technology to make
much more complicated products. “Once
you have water and you have electro-
chemistry,” he says, “you can start mak-
ing anything from paraffin to beer.”
Baby steps to Mars
Although a martian microbrew sounds
delicious, it’s not going to happen any-
time soon.
Instead, myriad researchers, engineers,
organizations, companies, and national
space agencies must continue to make
countless small steps that each bring
humankind a little closer to a reality where
people exist on Mars. According to Hecht,
MOXIE, as well as the entire Perseverance
mission, “is the result of many, many
hands” working in tandem. And we’ll
surely need all hands on deck if we want
to become a multi-planetary species.
Until then, by characterizing the
weather, locating buried resources,
and producing oxygen from thin air,
Perseverance is taking the first baby
steps toward a crewed Mars mission on
our behalf. In addition to seeking the
signs of ancient martian microbes, the
ambitious rover is paving the way to a
future where life — maybe not for the
first time — exists on the Red Planet.
Jake Parks is an associate editor of
Astronomy who hopes to one day witness
humans becoming a multi-planetary species.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 53
DISCOVER
EXOPLANETS from your backyard
With the right equipment and techniques, finding
these elusive objects is easier than you think.
BY JERRY HUBBELL

F
or anyone who grew Then, in 1995, Michel imaginations of people all from their backyard. I wanted
up reading science fic- Mayor and Didier Queloz over the world. to learn asteroid imaging and
tion or watching Star at the University of Geneva I’ve always wanted to do astrometry — the precise
Trek, the existence of announced their discovery of science with my telescope, but measurement of minor planet
planets outside our extrasolar planet 51 Pegasi b only in the last 10 years has positions in the sky. Then I
solar system was a orbiting a G2 star about the technology been available began learning how to do
given. We took it for 50 light-years from Earth. to get serious about studying photometric (brightness)
granted that there must be This watershed event spurred exoplanets with it. Today, just measurements with tools
millions of these star systems a renaissance in planetary about anyone can make pre- freely available on the inter-
— but we didn’t have proof. science and captured the cise measurements of stars net. Measuring brightness

CATCH A PLANET STARLIGHT MINUS SKY

Aperture
Annulus
Exoplanet Star

T1 = 1.720E6
Brightness

C2 = 1.675E6

0.5° diffuser
Time
When an exoplanet transits (crosses in front of) a star from our Aperture photometry requires two measurements: one of the star
point of view, the amount of light we receive decreases. Sensitive (the aperture) and the other of a ring of sky (the annulus) around
equipment can record this drop, revealing properties of the the star. Subtracting the brightness of the annulus from that of the
transiting exoplanet. ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY aperture gives the star’s true brightness. JERRY HUBBELL

54 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

This artist’s illustration shows Dimidium (51 Pegasi b), the first exoplanet discovered that orbited a star similar to the Sun. It was discovered October 6, 1995, orbiting
Helvetios (51 Peg), a magnitude 5.5 star slightly more than 50 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus the Winged Horse. NASA/JPL-CALTECH
changes in starlight over time
is a fundamental skill that
amateur astronomers inter-
ested in doing science should
learn. I’ll describe how you
can do these measurements
and discuss some recent tech-
nology that makes it easy to
observe and record exoplanet
transits with a minimum
investment in equipment,
time, and skills.
Discoveries
Early exoplanet discover-
ies were made with large
telescopes using the radial-
velocity method. This tech-
nique employs the Doppler
shift to detect the “wobble”
of stars caused by large,
Jupiter-sized planets tugging
on them. With this method,
professional astronomers
measured the shift of the
absorption lines in the parent
star’s spectrum.
In the early 2000s, astrono-
mers began observing exoplan-
ets using another technique,
called the transit method.
With it, professional astrono-
mers discovered several exo-
planets by watching them pass
in front of their parent stars
(see “Catch a planet” on page
54). The transit method, virtu-
ally the same as observing a
Venus transit from Earth, is
the primary technique ama-
teurs now use to detect and
measure the telltale dip in a
star’s brightness that indicates
the presence of an exoplanet.
Photometry
Amateurs have been doing
photometry of variable stars,
eclipsing binaries, and aster-
oids for several decades using
their backyard observato-
ries. Early pioneers, such as
Douglas Hall, Russ Genet,
and Mark Trueblood, used
personal computers and
photoelectric photometers
to obtain precise brightness
measurements of variable
stars. Since then, the standard
of precision for observing
these objects, which vary
in brightness by up to a few
magnitudes, has been 1 per-
cent, or about 0.01 magnitude.
Standard practice is to use
the differential photometry
method — measuring the dif-
ference in brightness between
a variable star and a compari-
son star to construct a light
curve of the variable. A dif-
ferential measurement is
required to remove changes
in brightness common to the
comparison and target stars.
This precision is still the
standard when doing photo-
metric measurements. The
fundamental difference,
though, between variable stars
and exoplanet transits is the
amount of brightness change
of these objects. For typical
variable stars, that change can
range from 0.5 to 3 magni-
tudes, a significant amount.
In contrast, exoplanet transits
typically cause the light to dip
only 1 or 2 percent, or about
0.01 to 0.02 magnitude. As
you may suspect, this mea-
surement is difficult if the
error is the same or more
than the expected dip in
brightness.
“High-precision photom-
etry” refers to a total error of
a measurement less than 0.5
percent (0.005 magnitude).
To get this result, I first use a
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 55
 SIGNAL BEATS NOISE
10,000
Noise
1,000
100
10,000 100,000
The more photons a detector collects, the better the signal-to-noise
ratio will be. ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY AFTER JERRY HUBBELL
technique that eliminates any
noise when making the mea-
surement. After that, I need
to minimize other sources of
error. This is done using tech-
niques that any amateur can
learn; you may already be
using some if you image.
The first technique, called
aperture photometry, involves
performing a differential pho-
tometric measurement using
an aperture to restrict the light
to a given area of the detector
(a CCD or CMOS chip) cen-
tered on the star. Another
Today, just about anyone can make precise
measurements of stars from their backyard.
area, called the annulus, which
surrounds the aperture, allows
you to measure the sky bright-
ness. The individual bright-
ness of a star is measured by
subtracting the sky measure-
ment from that of the star (see
“Starlight minus sky” on
page 54). After these values are
obtained for the target and
comparison stars, the differ-
ence between them results in a
series of differential photomet-
ric measurements that are
used to create the light curve.
This effectively cancels out
any brightness changes, such
as dimming by a passing thin
56 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
1,000,000 10,000,000 100,000,000
Signal
cloud, that affect all the stars
in an individual image.
Additionally, there are
three types of error you must
correct or minimize. One is
systematic error (image defects
and errors). The other two are
random errors (shot noise
error and scintillation error).
For the systematic error, I use
the standard method of cali-
bration used by most astro-
photographers when they
image deep-sky objects. The
RAW images are calibrated
prior to doing any measure-
ments using aperture photom-
etry. This corrects them for
bias (readout) noise, dark
(thermal) noise, and differ-
ences in the detector’s pixel
response. Applying these cor-
rections takes care of most of
the noise as well as image
defects, such as vignetting and
dust, within the camera and
optical train.
Nevertheless, even after
calibration, a small source of
systematic error remains. This
is called residual calibration
error (RCE), which involves
small variations from pixel to
pixel. You can eliminate RCE
OUT OF FOCUS
Full-width
Point-spread function
Collecting data through a defocused telescope produces a bell-
shaped point-spread function. RACHEL KENOPA GOOD
by keeping the star on the
same pixels over several hours.
Although it typically totals
less than a half percent, it is
a significant portion of the
error when you want to reveal
exoplanets. RCE can be
reduced through a high level
of control when tracking a
target accurately for long
periods. Unfortunately, this
can be expensive and time-
consuming for most amateurs.
There are also several ran-
dom errors. When sampling
light, the photons arrive at
random intervals, causing
an error in the signal called
Poisson (shot) noise. Shot
noise is related to the particle
nature of light. When doing
photometry, we are counting
the number of photons that hit
each pixel. The detector con-
verts the photons to a numeric
value. Quantum efficiency of
cameras vary, but it can
exceed 75 percent of all the
photons hitting the chip. The
shot noise error value is pro-
portional to the square root of
the total count recorded. As
the number of photons col-
lected increases, so does the
Half-maximum
signal-to-noise ratio, which
increases the shot noise accu-
racy (see “Signal beats noise”
at upper left). The overall mea-
surement, then, is limited only
by the scintillation error.
Scintillation is an error
that divides into short-term or
long-term. Short-term scintil-
lation noise is caused by
atmospheric conditions that
make stars appear to twinkle,
and is an indication of the
seeing (atmospheric steadi-
ness). Until recently, the only
way to significantly reduce
short-term scintillation error
was to avoid times and/or
locations where it was high.
Long-term scintillation noise
is a slow change in the star’s
brightness caused by the slow
movement of high clouds and
variations over time in the
sky’s brightness and haze
(transparency). It can be
largely avoided by taking
observations on clear nights.
A new method for
high-precision
photometry
A long-used technique for
doing high-precision pho-
tometry is called the defocus
method. Defocusing the tele-
scope increases the shot noise
precision of the measurement
by spreading the light out

The Engineered Diffuser developed by RPC Photonics Inc. is installed in the filter
wheel of a CCD camera at the Mark Slade Remote Observatory. JERRY HUBBELL
and collecting more photons
over more pixels for a longer
time without overexposing
the image. When the data
are represented in a graph,
they appear as a point-spread
function (PSF) that is bell-
shaped (see “Out of focus”
on page 56).
My team and I have also
studied, at the Mark Slade
Remote Observatory (MSRO)
in Wilderness, Virginia, a
new technique that I discov-
ered in April 2018. This tech-
nique, called the diffuser
method, is based on a
technique first studied by
astronomers at Penn State in
a paper published in October
2017 entitled “Towards
The author and his team collect data at the Mark Slade Remote Observatory
in Wilderness, Virginia. JERRY HUBBELL
Space-Like Photometric
Precision from the Ground
with Beam-Shaping
Diffusers.”
The diffuser method uses
an instrument called an
Engineered Diffuser, pro-
duced by RPC Photonics Inc.,
from Rochester, New York.
The diffuser spreads the light
out over more pixels, like the
defocus method. Placed in the
image train like a filter, it
serves as an optical beam-
shaping element that creates a
“top-hat”-shaped PSF (see
“Data spread” above).
Diffuser results
With the traditional defocus
method, even though the light
DATA
SPREAD
1
20.4
39.8
Y 59.2
78.6
1
When light passes through the 0.5° Engineered Diffuser, the
collected data forms a “top-hat” point-spread function. The X and
Y axes are positions on the detector, and the Z axis is the count
(photons). The star is shown at upper right. JERRY HUBBELL
is spread out to increase preci-
sion, its bell-shaped PSF does
nothing to mitigate the effects
of scintillation or reduce the
need for precise tracking to
eliminate RCE. At the MSRO,
I used a 0.5° divergence dif-
fuser and analyzed the data
with AstroImageJ, a freely
available light-curve analysis
tool.
I found that using the dif-
fuser resulted in a very stable
PSF. It also significantly
reduced the short-term
scintillation.
I also found that, even
with a significant amount of
drift in the image over several
hours, RCE was virtually
eliminated. This is because
the light is spread out among
many pixels and the RCE is
“averaged out.”
The benefits of using the
diffuser method are shown in
a paper describing our work,
published recently in the
Proceedings of the Society for
Astronomical Sciences 2019
Symposium, entitled “A
Comparison of the Diffuser
Method Versus the Defocus
Method for Performing High-
Precision Photometry with
Small Telescope Systems,”
Hubbell et al.
The diffuser method typi-
cally reduces the shot noise to
4,400
3,600
2,800
2,000
1,200
400
99
79.4
59.8
40.2 X
20.6
less than 0.001 magnitude.
For three-minute exposures,
the short-term scintillation
error could be reduced to less
than 0.002 magnitude for a
magnitude 10.8 star.
The results for one exo-
planet I imaged, HAT-P-16 b,
proved to be of high quality.
The long-term scintillation
performance was the same as
the defocus method, but the
diffuser method provided
high-precision results even
with significant amounts of
haze and the Moon high in
the sky. The defocus method
did not reduce the short-term
scintillation in these same
conditions.
By using the diffuser
method, you’ll have more
opportunities to observe exo-
planet transits and make
high-precision measurements
with your equipment. All you
need to add is a diffuser. This
inexpensive method will help
you contribute to science by
making follow-up observa-
tions of exoplanets discovered
by NASA’s TESS mission or
archived Kepler data.
Jerry Hubbell is assistant
director of the Mark Slade
Remote Observatory and vice
president of engineering for
Explore Scientific.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 57
361667513

M13

58 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

 Enjoy the
sky’s great
GLOBULARS These 20 top clusters offer
magical targets in any season.
BY MICHAEL E. BAKICH

AS I SAT DOWN TO WRITE THIS STORY,

I quickly realized that my problem wasn’t with where
to begin, but where to end. If you’re new to the hobby,
you may think all globular clusters look the same. Not
so. As I hope you’ll realize by viewing them, each has
its own distinctive character.
So many globular clusters — spherical, tightly
packed collections of ancient stars — will reward you if
you spend extra time observing their details through a
telescope. My original idea was to describe only a
dozen globulars. That quickly evolved into 50. That’s
LEFT: TONY HALLAS. BELOW: ANTHONY AYIOMAMITIS

when reason (actually, the allotted page count) took

hold. I settled on my 20 favorite globular clusters easily
visible from the Northern Hemisphere. All but three

NGC 2419

DANIEL V
ERSCHATSE
ADA
M BL
OCK/M
OUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER/U
are Messier objects, so you
know they’ll look great
through medium- to large-
aperture scopes. Because this
list appears in our June issue,
we start with objects visible in
the early-evening spring sky
and end with M79 in the
early-evening winter sky.
Spring
Let’s begin with the faint-
est object on the list, which,
admittedly, is a nontraditional
opener. But in this case, it’s
well worth a look because, at
a distance of 275,000 light-
years, it’s one of our galaxy’s
60
ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
NGC 3201
M5
most remote
globulars. The
Intergalactic
Wanderer
(NGC 2419) lies
in Lynx, itself a
fairly dim constel-
lation. A good way to
NA
locate the magnitude 10.5
IZO
RSIT
Y OF
AR
glob is to search the star-poor
N I VE
region 7° north of Castor
(Alpha [α] Geminorum). If
you use a magnification of
200x or greater in an 8-inch
or larger telescope, you’ll see
a 4'-diameter fuzzball with a
slightly brighter center ringed
by a fainter halo that’s not
uniformly lit.
Initially, astronomers
thought NGC 2419 was located
in intergalactic space. But
further study revealed it
does, in fact, belong to the
Milky Way, although
it takes 3 billion years
to complete a single
orbit.
From the faintest
glob, we head to the
one farthest south,
NGC 3201 in Vela. At mag-
nitude 6.8, it’s quite easy to
spot through a finder scope
about 6° west-northwest of
Mu (μ) Velorum. The first
thing you’ll notice is how big
it is — 0.3° in diameter.
A 4-inch scope reveals
only a crowd of unresolvable
stars at the cluster’s bright
center. A 10-inch or larger
instrument will reveal more
than 100 stars. At powers
above 200x, a moderately
dark but shallow V-shaped
indentation is apparent on the
globular’s southern side.
The first Messier object on
our list, M68 in Hydra, glows
at magnitude 7.6 and mea-
sures 12' across. To find it,
look 3.5° south-southeast of
Kraz (Beta [β] Corvi).
Through a 4-inch scope at
100x, you’ll notice a large, not-
quite-round central region
that spans half of M68’s diam-
eter. From a dark site, a mag-
nification of 200x or more
will let you resolve a dozen or
so of this glob’s stars.
When you look at the
fourth object on the list, M53
in Coma Berenices, you’re
getting a two-for-one treat.
It glows at magnitude 7.7 and
spans a worthy 12.6'. To spot
it, just point your scope 1°
northeast of Diadem (Alpha
Comae Berenices).
Through a 4-inch scope
under a dark sky, you’ll
resolve more than a dozen
outlier stars. But most of
M53’s stars lie at the cluster’s
center. Because this region of
sky doesn’t contain many
stars visible through small
scopes, you’ll easily define
the glob’s edge.
The second part of this
treat is NGC 5053, which
you’ll spot in the same low-
power field of view as M53. At
magnitude 9.9, it’s noticeably
fainter than its partner,
although with a diameter of
10.5', they have comparable
sizes. That, however, is where
the similarity ends. With just
a few dozen widely spaced
stars visible, NGC 5053 looks
more like an open cluster
than a globular. But take in
the big picture and see if you
can pick out its roughly trian-
gular shape.
Moving on, we come to the
second-brightest glob in the
spring sky, M3 in Canes
Venatici. At magnitude 6.3,
it’s visible to the naked eye for
BERNHARD HUBL
some observers. And, span-
ning 16.2', it’s more than half
the diameter of the Full
Moon. You’ll find it midway
between Arcturus (Alpha
Boötis) and Cor Caroli (Alpha
Canum Venaticorum).
From a dark site, start with
a magnification of 100x and
you’ll get a nice view, even
through a 4-inch scope. You’ll
first notice M3’s large, dense
core, but small scopes won’t
resolve many stars near it.
Through a 10-inch or larger
instrument, however, the
M53
D H U BL
N H AR
BER

farther from the core you look,
the more individual stars you’ll
be able to see.
We end our springtime
hunt for globulars with the
brightest of the season — and,
indeed, the brightest in the
Northern Hemisphere sky: M5
in Serpens Caput. This great
object glows at magnitude 5.7
and measures 17.4' across.
To find it, look 12° north
of Zubeneschamali (Beta
Librae). Sharp-eyed observers
can spot M5 from a dark site
without optical aid. If your
eyes are up to the task, you’ll
first spot the 5th-magnitude
star, 5 Serpentis, 22' southeast
of M5. The star is twice as
bright as the cluster.
M5 explodes with detail
through any size telescope.
That said, a 4-inch scope will
reveal just a few dozen stars,
while an 11-inch will expose
more than 100. At a magnifica-
tion of 150x or more, you’ll see
that M5 has a grainy structure
and that its core is condensed,
making up about 25 percent of
the cluster’s diameter. Make
sure to also look for the many
streamers of stars emanating
from its core.
Summer
More globulars populate the
summer sky than during any
other season. Our starting
point will be M80 in Scorpius,
one of the easiest globs to
find. It lies midway between
Antares (Alpha Scorpii) and
Graffias (Beta Sco).
Although you’ll spot this
magnitude 7.3 object through
any scope, instruments with
apertures less than 8 inches
won’t reveal much. M80, which
M12
spans 8.9', is quite condensed.
One particular star you’ll
More globulars
surely spot is magnitude 8.5 populate the
SAO 184288, a foreground star
that lies at the northeastern
summer sky
edge of the cluster. than during
Two more globs lie in the
northern part of Scorpius. The
any other
first is M4. To find it, just cen- season.
ter Antares in your eyepiece
and M4 will be to its west. This
terrific object glows at magni-
tude 5.4 and, at 26.3' wide, has
a diameter 85 percent that of
the Full Moon.
A 6-inch telescope will let
you see 20 or so stars scattered
loosely across M4’s face. Notice
the chain of stars running
north to south through the
cluster’s center. Through a
12-inch or larger scope
cranked up to magnifications
of 200x or more, you’ll see
several hundred stars, which
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 61
M22
Large scopes subdivide into varied patterns
that hide the central chain.
with eyepieces Finally, look carefully 0.6°
that provide high northwest of Antares for
NGC 6144. At magnitude
powers (300x 9.0, this glob glows only 4
and above) will percent as brightly as M4.
Still, it’s easy to spot from
reveal several a dark site. NGC 6144 has a
hundred faint diameter of 9.3'. Through an
8-inch scope, use high powers
stars.
to resolve the stars at the clus-
ter’s outer edges.
Now, head north
from Scorpius to find the
Hercules Cluster (M13),
which, at magnitude 5.8, is
second in brightness only to
M5 in the northern half of
the sky. M13 is more than 30°
higher, however, so observers
target it much more often.
This globular also appears
brighter than M5 to most
observers because it’s slightly
smaller, spanning 16.6'. That
makes its surface bright-
ness a bit higher than
M5’s.
To find M13, look
two-thirds of the
way from Zeta (ζ)
to Eta (η)
M15
MAN
OLD
NG
DO
Herculis. Through an 8-inch
or larger scope, this glob has
character. Use an eyepiece
that gives a magnification of
200x or more and you’ll see
the Propeller, a Y-shaped
region of three dark lanes
near the core. High powers
also cut the brilliance of
M13’s core, which can mask
some of the details visible at
the edge of the cluster.
Our next two treats lie in
Ophiuchus. M12 lies 7.7° east-
northeast of Yed Posterior
(Epsilon [ε] Ophiuchi) and
glows at magnitude 6.1, which
makes it barely visible to the
naked eye from a dark site.
Through a 4-inch tele-
scope, you’ll see a faint halo
around a tiny core. A 10-inch
scope at high power, however,
gives a deep view, resolving
the cluster into hundreds
of stars. This is when you’ll
notice how evenly distributed
 the stars are and how irregu-
lar M12’s edge appears.
M10 is half a magnitude
fainter than M12 but of simi-
lar size — 15.1' compared
with 14.5' — making each
about half the diameter of the
Full Moon. To find M10, look
8° northeast of Zeta Ophiuchi.
Through a 4-inch tele-
scope, the biggest difference
between M10 and M12 is that
M10’s core appears brighter.
It, too, has a faint halo of
stars. Larger telescopes show
both the halo’s richness and
how its brightness slowly
decreases with distance from
the core.
For our next globular, head
back to Hercules to home in
DOUG MATTHEWS/ADAM BLOCK/NOAO/AURA/NSF
on its second-brightest glob,
M92. This treat glows at
magnitude 6.5 and measures
11.2' in diameter. You’ll find
it 6° north of Pi (π) Herculis.
Even small scopes will
resolve many of this cluster’s
stars, and a 6-inch at 100x
shows that M92 is slightly
oval, stretching north to
south. Larger instruments
reveal a large, concentrated
core surrounded by a halo of
hundreds of faint stars.
We’ll end our summer sec-
tion with a trio of globs in
Sagittarius. Start by pointing
your scope 1° northwest of
Lambda (λ) Sagittarii for the
faintest of the three, M28,
which glows at magnitude 6.9.
An 8-inch telescope will let
you resolve a few dozen stars
in its wide halo, which spans
11.2'. Look closely to spot
a bright chain of stars to
the north and a fainter one
to the north-northwest.
Observers have reported a
three-dimensional aspect to
M28 through larger scopes
and magnifications of 250x
or more.
Next up is M22, the third-
brightest globular cluster in
the sky, surpassed only by
Omega Centauri (NGC 5139)
and 47 Tucanae (NGC 104),
both of which lie much far-
ther south. This wonder
gleams at magnitude 5.2
and measures 24' across.
Unfortunately, it’s a
southern object, which
means northern
observers must
observe it through
lots of atmosphere.
To find M22, look
2.4° northeast of
Kaus Borealis
(Lambda
Sagittarii).
A 4-inch scope
will resolve 20 or
more stars against a
rich background. Your
first task is to find the
cluster’s edge. An 8-inch or
larger instrument will satu-
rate the field of view with
hundreds of stars. Spend
some time looking for the
many patterns (arrowheads,
chains, geometric shapes)
that are visible.
Our final summertime
globular is M55, which lies
8° east of Ascella (Zeta
Sagittarii). It glows at magni-
tude 6.3 and spans 19'. You’ll
quickly notice that M55
doesn’t have a dense core.
Large scopes with eye-
pieces that provide high pow-
ers (300x and above) will
reveal several hundred faint
stars. And here’s something
fun you can try: Insert an
eyepiece with a tiny field of
view. Through it, M55 looks
more like an open cluster
than a glob.
Fall and winter
You might think that after
the summer barrage of globu-
lars, there are none left. That’s
not quite true. The best of
autumn’s three objects is M15
in Pegasus. It glows at mag-
nitude 6.2 and spans 12.3'.
To find it, draw a line from
Theta (θ) to Epsilon Pegasi
and extend it 4°.
A 4-inch scope will
resolve dozens of stars
around M15’s bright central
region. Observers specifically
target the cluster’s attractive
chains of stars. Because of
their position, M15 may
appear slightly oval through
a small scope.
If you head south to
Aquarius and look about 5°
north of Beta Aquarii, you’ll
encounter one of my favorite
globulars: M2. This stellar
beehive glows at magnitude
6.6 and measures 12.9' across.
Even a small telescope will
reveal M2’s slightly elliptical
shape, although more north-
erly observers will need
steady air near the southern
horizon. It’s worth the wait.
While you’re in M2’s
neighborhood, head west one
constellation and locate M30
in Capricornus. To find this
magnitude 6.9 glob, look
about 3° east-southeast of
Zeta Capricorni.
M30 has a diameter of 11'.
Through a small scope, you’ll
see lots of resolvable stars
jixiansheng
jixiansheng
SF
RA/N
/AU
OAO
K/N
OC
BL
AM
AD
M79
surrounding a large, bright
core. To resolve that region,
you’ll need a 12-inch scope
and a magnification of 300x
or more.
Our final object is the lone
entry from the winter sky.
M79 in Lepus glows at mag-
nitude 7.8 and spans 8.7'.
To find it, draw a line from
Alpha through Beta Leporis
and extend it 3.5°.
Small scopes don’t reveal
much detail in M79. However,
a 10-inch instrument shows a
bright, wide core. Use a mag-
nification of 200x or more,
and you’ll resolve scores of
stars at the cluster’s edges.
The sky beckons
I hope this list has shown you
that the universe of globular
clusters is a rewarding one
to observe. Indeed, I expect
you’ll add many more details
to the few that I’ve provided
for each of these fascinating
objects. Good luck!
Michael E. Bakich is a
contributing editor of Astronomy.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 63
 SECRET SK Y observer needs to be between a low red Sun and a rain
shower looming in the opposite direction.

A sighting
Red rainbows
Spotting a single-colored arch is an unusual sight.
On occasion, a red rainbow can form with the Sun a few
degrees below the horizon — and that is what occurred
in Maun, Botswana, on January 9, 2020. My wife,
Deborah Carter, and I went outside to enjoy a post-
sunset sky infused with fiery hues. As the display faded,
we turned and saw a partial red rainbow in the east.
At first, a hint of yellow-green could be seen right
after sunset. But as the minutes ticked away, so too did
all colors except for red. We were equally amazed to see
a double rainbow companion with Alexander’s dark
band in between, as well as at least a first-order super-
numerary bow associated with the primary bow, all of
which glowed red. The bow gradually faded, disappear-
ing a full 19 minutes after sunset, with the Sun nearly
5° below the horizon.
Had we been in a more open environment without
trees, we would have likely seen the lower part of the
bow “screened off,” as Minnaert explains, by the shadow
of the horizon, “so that [the] bow appears to begin at
some height above the horizon.”

ABOVE: The
photographer
snapped this image Rainbows, those bridges of prismatic wonder,
of a red rainbow with have enchanted observers since biblical times
her iPhone five — although the poet John Keats apparently
minutes after sunset.
The image shows dim blamed Sir Isaac Newton for abolishing the rainbow’s
supernumerary and poetry by reducing the sight to a strict code of color.
secondary bows. While this is typical, rainbows can, under certain con-
DEBORAH CARTER
ditions, be monochromatic. That’s not to say they’re
RIGHT: Raphael’s dull. On the contrary, a monochromatic rainbow is a
Madonna di Foligno
shows a monochrome
sight arguably more glorious than the more common
rainbow. PINACOTECA OF THE technicolor wonder itself, chiefly because it’s red.
VATICAN MUSEUMS, ROME/
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The cause
Red rainbows arise from the same atmo- Rainbows can, very rare, “from the circumstance that in
spheric conditions that cause the Sun to under certain
change its color from white to red as it conditions, be
sinks from a more lofty perch to within monochromatic. the artist.” As an example he notes a semi-
about a degree of the horizon. As Dutch
astronomer Marcel Minnaert explains in
his classic The Nature of Light and Color in the Open
Air, “Nature is here showing us the spectrum of the
sunlight, and demonstrating how its composition
changes during sunset.” The cause is the scattering of
the shorter wavelengths (by air molecules, dust, and
aerosols) during light’s long trek into the lowest and
BY STEPHEN densest part of Earth’s atmosphere.
JAMES O’MEARA Because only a setting or rising red Sun will cause a
Stephen is a globe-
red rainbow in the opposite part of the sky, we see the
trotting observer who
is always looking bow at or near its maximum height above the horizon,
for the next great 42°. The lower the Sun is in the sky, the higher the rain-
celestial event. bow, and vice versa. To see the phenomenon then, an
Historical precedent
Our view was reminiscent of a
more spectacular display in
July 1877, which Silvanus P.
Thompson witnessed over
Lake Lucerne in Switzerland,
as described in the September
1881 issue of Nature. Thompson
says the rainbow “showed only
red and orange colours in place
of its usual array of hues. No
fewer than five supernumerary
arcs were visible at the inner
edge of the primary bow, and these showed red only.”
Thompson went on to surmise (curi-
ously) that the phenomenon could not be
pictures of the rainbow red and yellow are
frequently the only colours set down by
circular red and yellow rainbow that
appears in Raphael’s Madonna di Foligno,
painted from 1511 to 1512.
By the way, other natural phenomena can create a
red rainbow, particularly at night. For instance, I once
observed a red bow in an approaching rainstorm off the
southern coast on the Big Island of Hawaii — created
by the reddish-yellow glow of molten lava that had
erupted from Kīlauea.
As always, send your observations and thoughts to
sjomeara31@gmail.com.
BROWSE THE “SECRET SKY” ARCHIVE AT
www.Astronomy.com/OMeara

64 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

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 OBSERVING BASICS
Target a changing
crown jewel
Variable star R Coronae Borealis is a veritable treasure.
ρ 5.4
6.4
C ORONA B OREALIS
ι ful of my favorites, including
5.0
7.4
R (September 2004), R Scuti
8.1
ε (August 2005), Beta (β) Persei
4.2 δ γ
4.6
ABOVE: R Cor Bor
is an unpredictable
variable star that
resides near the
center-left of Corona
Borealis. In this chart,
the yellow numbers
indicate each star’s
magnitude. ASTRONOMY:
ROEN KELLY
RIGHT: It’s difficult to
predict exactly how
bright “R CurveBall”
will be on any given
night because it can
fluctuate by as much
as about 8 magnitudes
over a relatively short
period of time. ASTRONOMY:
ROEN KELLY, AFTER AAVSO
BY GLENN CHAPLE
Glenn has been an
avid observer since
a friend showed
him Saturn through
a small backyard
scope in 1963.
66 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020
One of my favorite
backyard astron-
π 5.6 omy activities is
θ observing variable stars. In
4.1 the past, I’ve featured a hand- photosphere. When outward radiation pressure pushes
R Leonis (April 2004), Delta
β 3.7 (δ) Cephei and Beta (β) Lyrae
α (Algol; November 2006), SS
2.2 Cygni (September 2008), Mu
3.8 2°
(μ) and S Cephei (October
2008), and Epsilon (ε) Aurigae
(August 2009).
But as interesting as these variable stars are, none
fascinates me more than R Coronae Borealis, usually
referred to as “R Cor Bor.” I prefer to call it
“R CurveBall,” though, because this unpre-
dictable star has thrown me plenty of curves
over the years. R Cor Bor is usually visible
as a 6th-magnitude star, and it’s located
about one-third of the way from Epsilon to
Theta (θ) Coronae Borealis. It might shine
this way for several years and then, without
warning, fade rapidly from view. I’ve seen R
Cor Bor drop a few magnitudes and then
return to normal within the span of just 1996
months. I’ve also watched it plunge all the
way down to 14th magnitude and remain
there with occasional fluctuations for years How bright
at a time. The light curve on this page shows
its erratic behavior over the past quarter of
(or dim) will your unaided eye, if you’re viewing from a
a century. R Cor Bor be dark-sky location. When near maximum, its
R Cor Bor is the prototype of a relatively tonight? I
rare group of variable stars that includes have no idea.
some 100 known members, with a few dozen
more awaiting official confirmation. Its
variability was first reported by the English astronomer
Edward Pigott near the end of the 18th century. Among
the facts we’ve learned about R Cor Bor in the two-plus
centuries since its discovery is that it’s a yellow supergi-
ant, having just 80 to 90 percent the mass of the Sun but
100 times the diameter. Because it’s an aging star that
has used up most of its hydrogen fuel, R Cor Bor is
comprised of 90 percent helium and just 1 percent
hydrogen. The rest is mostly carbon and nitrogen. By
contrast, our middle-aged Sun has a composition of
approximately 75 percent hydrogen and 25 percent
helium by mass. Past distance calculations for R Cor
Bor have been iffy at best, but recent data from the Gaia
spacecraft suggest that the star is about 4,300 light-years
away. From that distance, our Sun would shine feebly
at around 15th magnitude!
A pair of unknowns that have astronomers scratch-
ing their heads are how stars like R Cor Bor form and
what causes their abrupt fadeaways. Two current and
wildly different theories of the star’s creation suggest
it’s experiencing the final helium flash of an aging star
or the merger of a binary white dwarf system. It’s gener-
ally believed that the dimming is caused by the release
of a cloud of carbon-rich dust that envelops the star’s
the cloud away, or it simply dissipates on its own, R Cor
Bor returns to normal. The mechanism that produces
these sooty clouds is still up for study and debate.
Because its behavior is virtually opposite that of a clas-
sical nova, which undergoes a rapid increase in bright-
ness and then fades back to normalcy, R Cor Bor is
sometimes referred to as a “reverse nova.”
How bright (or dim) will R Cor Bor be tonight? I have
no idea. As I write this in early February, it’s been hover-
ing around magnitude 6.7 since a brief dip to 9th mag-
nitude last autumn. Has it returned to normal or begun
another plunge? The only way to find out is to go outside
6
8
Magnitude
10
12
14
2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Year
and see for yourself. If R Cor Bor is near or at
maximum brightness, you should be able to
pick it up with standard binoculars — even
brightness is somewhere between that of the
stars marked as magnitudes 5.6 and 6.4 on
the accompanying chart. When it’s in the act
of fading or returning to max, it might
appear more like its magnitudes 7.4 and 8.1 neighbors.
If R Cor Bor isn’t visible with binoculars, it’s gone into
its disappearing act. Time to get out the telescopes!
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email me at
gchaple@hotmail.com. Next month: Observing in the
good old summertime. Clear skies!
BROWSE THE “OBSERVING BASICS” ARCHIVE
AT www.Astronomy.com/Chaple
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 ASK ASTRO Astronomy’s experts from around the globe answer your cosmic questions.

How
There are three major solar system and would have originally formed during
types of meteorites,
shown here from left nuclear fusion in massive stars.
to right: iron, stony- All asteroids probably accreted from a mix of stony

meteorites
iron, and stony. Each material, but the largest were able to undergo melting and
is characterized by
the amount of iron differentiation to form a nickel-iron core and stony outer
present. H. RAAB/WIKIMEDIA mantle, similar to the structure of Earth. Indeed, iron

form
COMMONS; JAMES ST. JOHN/
FLICKR; H. RAAB/WIKIMEDIA
meteorites are thought to represent the nickel-iron metal
COMMONS cores of large asteroids that were disrupted and broken
apart by impacts. Stony-irons (nearly equal mixtures of
stony material and nickel-iron metal) may come from
HOW DID STONY METEORITES
QI FORM FROM THE DUST CLOUD
OF THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM TO
the boundary between the molten metal core and the
outer silicate mantle. Stony meteorites come from a vari-
ety of different places in the solar system, including the
BECOME DENSE ROCKS? I THOUGHT Moon, Mars, and the asteroid belt. While some of these
THEY WOULDN’T HAVE HAD ENOUGH originated from bodies that differentiated (like the
GRAVITY TO BECOME ROCKS. AND Moon, Mars, and large asteroids such as Vesta), many are
WHERE DID THE IRON FOUND IN SOME remnants of asteroids that never grew large enough to
METEORITES COME FROM? undergo differentiation and remain largely unaltered
Michale Olsen since they formed over 4.5 billion years ago.
Leaf River, Illinois Jemma Davidson
Assistant Research Scientist, Center for Meteorite Studies,

AI The three major types of meteorite (stony,

stony-iron, and iron) cover a wide range of den-
sities, from the least dense stony meteorites (roughly 2
Arizona State University at Tempe

WHEN YOU WRITE ABOUT “SUPER-

to 3 grams per cubic centimeter), which have densities
similar to some rocks from Earth, to the very dense iron
meteorites (7 to 8 g/cm3). Although they only account
for about 5 percent of meteorite falls, iron meteorites
are more easily recognized than other types of meteorite
because they are so heavy.
The processes by which small grains stick together
and accrete into small bodies are not well understood,
and it is an area of active research and debate. Gravity
isn’t the only force that attracts bodies to one another.
Electrostatic forces, which pull together particles with
opposite magnetic charges, may explain how small
grains stuck together to form the first solids in the early
solar system.
Iron is present in different amounts in all meteorites,
obviously being most abundant in iron meteorites. All
iron in planetary materials (including Earth) was inher-
ited from the molecular cloud that collapsed to form our
QI EARTH” EXOPLANETS, ARE YOU
COMPARING THE MASS OF EARTH AS IT IS
NOW, OR EARTH BEFORE THE MOON WAS
FORMED? I HAVE READ SEVERAL ARTICLES
ON WHAT EARTH WOULD BE LIKE WITHOUT
THE MOON. WOULD THIS AFFECT THE
DEFINITION OF SUPER-EARTH PLANETS?
Doreen McLaughlin
Monument, Colorado
AI Super-Earths are rocky exoplanets with masses
greater than Earth’s. But, in fact, there is no
firm, agreed-upon definition for the mass range of
these planets. Most studies consider planets with masses
between about one and 10 times that of Earth a super-
Earth. (However, as noted above, this number can vary.
Some studies consider slightly more mass — two to three

68 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

times Earth’s mass — as the lower limit, while others
TOP VIEW
consider planets as massive as Uranus — about 14.5 times
Earth’s mass — super-Earths as well. It’s confusing!)
’s
The leading theory for the formation of the Moon, the e Sun path
Th
Giant Impact Hypothesis, states that a Mars-sized object,
called Theia, collided with Earth to create the Moon. The
mass of Earth is about 1.32 x 1025 pounds (5.97 x 1024 THE SUN’S
kilograms). The mass of the Moon is about 0.016 x 1025 GALACTIC
pounds (0.073 x 1024 kg), or roughly 1.2 percent Earth’s
mass. For added reference, the mass of Mars (and, thus, MOTION
Theia) is about 0.14 x 1025 pounds (0.642 x 1024 kg), or just The Sun orbits the
center of our galaxy
under 11 percent Earth’s mass. Both the masses of Mars tipped at an angle of
and the Moon are incredibly small compared with Earth. The Sun 60°. Over the course of
So, even if you added the entire mass of the Moon back its orbit, our star also
bobs up and down
to Earth, our planet would only grow 1.2 percent more above and below the
massive, or about 1.01 times its current mass. galactic plane.
Additionally, this might be an overestimate, as not all the
material in the Moon likely came from Earth, but some
also may have come from Theia as well. The Sun’s path
Thus, if we considered a “pre-Moon Earth” as the
definition for the mass of Earth, we still wouldn’t really North ecliptic Ecliptic plane
pole
need to adjust the definition of super-Earths. Because the The Sun 60°
Earth’s orbit
current definition of a super-Earth is somewhat arbi-
trary, I think that deciding on a universal definition
would likely be the best way to make sure everyone’s Plane of the galaxy The Sun and Earth’s orbit not to scale
talking about the same type of planet when they say
“super-Earth.” SIDE VIEW Earth’s spin axis
Alison Klesman 23.4°
Senior Associate Editor No
rth
e clip
tic Earth
IN WHICH DIRECTION, WITH RESPECT
QI TO ITS AXIS OF ROTATION, DOES THE
SUN MOVE THROUGH THE MILKY WAY?
p ole

60°
Plane of the galaxy

Carlos Rivera The Sun’s path

ne

Tegucigalpa, Honduras
pla

ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY

tic
lip

AI If you imagine looking down on the Milky Way,

Ec

the Sun is located nearly 27,000 light-years from

the center, about halfway between the center and the
edge of our disk-shaped galaxy. Looking from the side,
the disk is relatively flat and the Sun is currently located
about 55 light-years above the plane of the galaxy’s disk.
Over time, the Sun orbits the center of the galaxy, sketch-
ing out a roughly circular path (again, looking down from
ALDARON/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
above) that takes about 230 million years to complete at
a speed of about 137 miles (220 kilometers) per second.
With respect to its own axis of rotation, the Sun is
moving through the galaxy tipped at an angle of about
60° from the galactic plane. This also applies to the
planets orbiting the Sun — just like the disk of our SEND US YOUR
galaxy, if you were to look at our solar system from the
side, the planets orbit the Sun in a relatively flat plane.
QUESTIONS
Send your
Essentially, the Sun and the plane in which the bodies
astronomy questions
of the solar system orbit around it are both tilted for-

via email to askastro@

ward by 60° as they move through the galaxy. astronomy.com, or
It’s perhaps also worth noting that the Sun doesn’t write to Ask Astro,
appear to trace a flat circle — in one plane only — as it P.O. Box 1612,
moves around the galaxy. The Sun actually appears to Waukesha, WI 53187.
bob up and down through the disk (we are up right now, Be sure to tell us
your full name and
Super-Earth exoplanets are larger and more massive than Earth, above the plane of the disk) as it moves, with a period where you live.
but smaller and less massive than the ice giant Neptune. This of about 60 million years.
artist’s concept shows the size of the super-Earth planet Unfortunately, we
CoRoT-7 b (middle), which weighs about 3.18 Earths and falls Alison Klesman cannot answer all
between the mass and radius of Earth (left) and Neptune. Senior Associate Editor questions submitted.

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 69
 READER GALLERY

Cosmic portraits

1
1. WHOSE TRIANGLE?
This section of the Veil Nebula
supernova remnant in Cygnus is
often called Pickering’s Triangle. It
was actually an employee of Edward
C. Pickering’s, Williamina Fleming,
who discovered the object on a
glass plate she was examining at
Harvard College Observatory. As
was the custom of the time, the
credit went to Pickering. Fleming
also discovered the Horsehead
Nebula and classified the first
white dwarf, 40 Eridani B.
• Rodney Pommier

2. UP AGAINST A WALL
These star trails above the ruins of
a brick factory near Ragusa, Italy,
were made by combining 250 four-
second exposures at ISO 1600 taken
every five seconds.
• Gianni Tumino

70 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

E23G671
3. SOUL OF THE NIGHT
The Heart Nebula (IC 1805,
top) pairs with the Baby
Nebula (IC 1848), also known
as the Soul Nebula, in this
image. Exposures were
captured through the same
filters the Hubble Space
Telescope uses. Both objects
are large star-forming
regions in Cassiopeia some
6,500 light-years away. Note
that you also can see two
galaxies, Maffei 1 and
Maffei 2, the red objects at
the right edge. Maffei 1 is
larger and lies above Maffei 2
in this image. They lie about
10 million light-years away
and belong to the IC 342/
Maffei Group, the closest
galactic group to the Local
Group. • Alistair Symon

SEND YOUR IMAGES TO:

Astronomy Reader Gallery,
P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha,
WI 53187. Please include
the date and location of the
image and complete photo
data: telescope, camera,
filters, and exposures.
Submit images by email to
3 readergallery@
astronomy.com.

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 71
 READER GALLERY

4. NORTHERN DE-LIGHTS
This fabulous aurora
appeared above Reine, in the
Lofoten Islands, Norway, on
September 20, 2019. The
auroral band started in the
west, passed overhead, and
ended nearly due east.
• Ben Cooper

5. PENUMBRAL PASSAGE
On January 10, 2020, the
Moon passed through Earth’s
penumbra (its lighter, outer
shadow). These 1/320-second
exposures through the same
equipment show the Moon
at mid-eclipse (left) and
immediately after the eclipse
was over. • Ken Harrison

6. ANCIENT ONE
The Methuselah Nebula, also
known as Motch-Werner-
Pakull 1, is an old planetary
nebula in a region of Cygnus
full of faint nebulosity. The
barely visible planetary
nebula to the upper left of
MWP1 is Alves 1, which
amateur astronomer Filipe
Alves discovered in 2009.
• Joel Short

72 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

jxs

7. EXTENDED FAMILY
Abell Galaxy Cluster 3574
is one of a catalog of some
4,000 galaxy clusters
compiled by American
astronomer George Abell.
Abell 3574, which spans
nearly 1°, lies in the
constellation Centaurus.
The cluster contains 31
members, the brightest of
which is magnitude 11.3
IC 4329. • Bernard Miller

8. LOTS GOING ON
From Observatorio El Sauce
in Chile in October, the Milky
Way was joined by airglow
(the orange-yellow to the left)
and the zodiacal light (the
bright triangle of light at lower
right). The Large and Small
Magellanic Clouds were also
prominent. • Matt Dieterich

WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 73
 BREAKTHROUGH

CAUGHT IN A SPIDER’S TANGLED WEB

Hot, massive stars stoke the fires of the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) — a colossal cloud of ionized gas and newborn suns
unsurpassed in the known universe. The Tarantula, seen at the top of this image, resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud,
the Milky Way’s most massive satellite galaxy. Despite a distance of some 160,000 light-years, the Tarantula appears as
a naked-eye glow from the Southern Hemisphere. The nebula’s spidery tendrils span nearly 2,000 light-years and hold at
least 500,000 times the Sun’s mass. The 2.6-meter VLT Survey Telescope in Chile captured this view of NGC 2070 and its
surroundings, which include the smaller but still impressive star-forming region NGC 2074 directly below the Tarantula. ESO

74 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020

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