Next week, we will be having the first Astronomy Club meeting! It will be held in my classroom until about 4 (details will go home later this week).
It seems as though we have a lot of updates for you!
Today (September 22) is the Equinox! This means it is the official start of fall (for the northern hemisphere)! What else does this mean? Does anyone remember? There are 2 days through out the whole year called an "equinox". This means that there is 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. Pretty soon, the days will start to get shorter as we plow ahead into these winter months. Hopefully many snow days will accompany them!
There have been recent spottings of sunspots on the sun. If you remember, the sunspot is an area of cooler gasses than the surrounding gasses. The sun is on an 11 year cycle, and right now we are at the beginning of the end of what is known as "solar minimum". An increase in solar activity (sunspots/solar flares/prominences) could mean that we are climbing towards "solar maximum". 7th graders-hopefully you know this since your test is on Thursday!!
Below is a photo taken from spaceweather.com. The original picture is from SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory).
Get ready for more ISS flyby's.
The International Space Station is making its rounds yet again, and you will be able to view it in the next few days. Here are the times for Kensington! For information regarding your area (not Kensington) check www.spaceweather.com/flybys
Thursday, September 24, 2009: 7:56:36pm-7:58:50pm NNW with a max elevation of 38 degrees and a magnitude of -2.8
Friday, September 25, 2009: 8:20:55pm-8:23:14pm WNW with a max elevation of 55 degrees and a magnitude of -3.5
Saturday, September 26, 2009: 7:10:12pm-7:12:26pm NNW with a max elevation of 40 degrees and a magnitude of -2.9
Sunday, September 27, 2009: 7:34:30pm-7:36:48pm WNW with a max elevation of 52 degrees and a magnitude of -3.4
*remember the lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object appears to be
Scientists recently tried to see if they could recreate noctilucent clouds, and they launched a vehicle from Virginia to test it out. Looks like they were able to do it! Check out the picture below.
Noctilucent clouds are clouds that generally form from water/ice at high altitudes. They can usually be seen in summer months if you are lucky to see them. For the past few years, however, they have seemed to be a more common occurrence.
Welcome Home Discovery!
The Space Shuttle Discovery returned from its long journey to the International Space Station. Because of weather, Discovery had to land in California and hitch a ride on the back of a modified 747 back to its home at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Below is a picture of its landing and its "piggy back" ride.
Next major launch?
NASA will be test launching the Ares 1-x in October (Oct. 27). This will be a part of major preparations for NASA's Constellation program which will ultimately land on the Moon and look to possibly landing on Mars.
The next STS launch to the ISS is slated to be November 12 at 4:04pm. This will be Space Shuttle Atlantis. We will keep an eye on this mission as it get closer.
Farewell Space Shuttle
NASA has announced that the final Space Shuttle mission will be next September with Discovery. NASA plans to retire its fleet of space shuttles as it moves to develop rockets to send man back to the Moon and eventually to Mars. There are 6 remaining space shuttle missions. What about going back to the ISS? NASA is planning on possibly building a "replacement" rocket, but there is no official word. More news on this as it becomes available. The Space Shuttles have been flying since 1982!
The information regarding the sunspots, including the picture of the sun was taken from www.spaceweather.com The original photo of the sun was from SOHO.
The information regarding the ISS flyby's was taken from www.spaceweather.com/flybys
The information regarding the noctilucent clouds, including the picture, was taken from www.spaceweather.com The original photo was taken by J. Blackwell
The photos of Space Shuttle Discovery were taken from www.nasa.gov
Information regarding NASA's mission launch schedule was taken from www.nasa.gov
Information regarding the farewell to space shuttles was taken from Yahoo! News
Well, those are all the updates that I have right now...more will come later.
Stay tuned for the Astronomy Club!
See you in school,
Ms. T
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