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Astronomy – Ch. 8: Origin of the Solar System (16 of 19) Late Heavy Bombardmaent – Video

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Astronomy - Ch. 8: Origin of the Solar System (16 of 19) Late Heavy Bombardmaent
Visit http://ilectureonline.com for more math and science lectures! In this video I will explain how astronomers deduced that early Solar System was a very violent place. Next video in this...

By: Michel van Biezen

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Astronomy - Ch. 8: Origin of the Solar System (16 of 19) Late Heavy Bombardmaent - Video

NASA Surprised By Chelyabinsk Russian Meteor Fragments

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More than two years after an estimated 20-meter class meteor fragmented high over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, new data reported by NASA researchers this week reveals that over a four billion year timeframe the meteors orbital parent body itself had likely been geologically-impacted as many as a dozen times.

Two 15- to 20-gram samples of the Chelyabinsk meteorite that NASA obtained from Russia over a year ago reveal a broad range of information about the meteors mineralogy, bulk composition and age, as noted at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston.

These same fragments came off the path of the fireball somewhere around the middle of its trajectory through Earths atmosphere, Kevin Righter, the lead for meteoritic sample analysis and the Antarctic meteorite curator at NASAs Johnson Space Center, told Forbes. He says the fragments pieces from the outer portion of the meteor itself which streaked across the Russian sky on February 15, 2013 are typical of more stony-type meteorites and made up of some 90 percent silicate; five percent sulfide; and five percent iron-nickel. The original crystallization age of the parent body asteroid, says Righter, might be 4.5 billion years old. But in this case, he says, they found multiple ages using three or four different chronologic detection techniques.

Righter says he and colleagues found evidence for about a dozen different parent-body impact events in pieces of the Chelyabinsk meteorite they studied; ranging from 300 million years ago to as recently as 27 million years ago.

People look at what scientists believe to be a chunk of the Chelyabinsk meteor, recovered from Chebarkul Lake near Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. Scientists on Wednesday recovered what could be the largest part of this meteor from Chebarkul Lake outside the city. They weighed it using a giant steelyard balance, which displayed 570 kilograms (1,256 pounds) before it broke. (AP Photo/Alexander Firsov)

Geologically, thats very young, said Righter. Ages determined on ordinary chondrites can be as old as over 4 billion years old. But theres hardly ever any evidence for these young ages.

The meteor, which initially exploded in the Russian atmosphere at some 29 km in altitude, wreaked widespread destruction and injury in and around the city of Chelyabinsk. But how much of the Chelyabinsk meteoritic material actually made it to the ground?

The main so-called terminal mass of the asteroid was a couple of meters in diameter and weighed over 500 kilograms, planetary scientist Paul Abell, also at NASAs Johnson Space Center, told Forbes.

What hope do we have of actually identifying the parent body of this Chelyabinsk object in the near-Earth vicinity?

Finding the parent body of a near Earth asteroid, says Abell, is really tough because these asteroids are in chaotic orbits. The best we can do, he said, is to try and make a compositional link.

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NASA Surprised By Chelyabinsk Russian Meteor Fragments

Astronomy For Everyone – Episode 67 – Hands-on Astronomy Projects December 2014 – Video

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Astronomy For Everyone - Episode 67 - Hands-on Astronomy Projects December 2014
Astronomy For Everyone is a TV series of monthly TV shows developed by members of the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club (FAAC) targeted to beginner and intermediate audiences as well as all amateur ...

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Astronomy For Everyone - Episode 67 - Hands-on Astronomy Projects December 2014 - Video

Quantum Matters: University of Waterloo Department of Physics & Astronomy – Video

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Quantum Matters: University of Waterloo Department of Physics Astronomy
The University of Waterloo, Department of Physics Astronomy #39;s research in quantum matters, both experimental and theoretical is at the forefront in the field. The members of the UW Physics...

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Quantum Matters: University of Waterloo Department of Physics & Astronomy - Video

Solar Eclipse March 2015 Stargazing Skywatching Astronomy For Kids Ep 1 – Video

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Solar Eclipse March 2015 Stargazing Skywatching Astronomy For Kids Ep 1
A total solar eclipse in the North Atlantic and tips to prepare for the next U.S. eclipse: It #39;s Time For Stargazing, Skywatching, and Astronomy of The Night Sky March 2015. Total eclipses...

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Solar Eclipse March 2015 Stargazing Skywatching Astronomy For Kids Ep 1 - Video

ASMR ~ Whispering about Telescopes and Astronomy (Reading, Page Turning) – Video

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ASMR ~ Whispering about Telescopes and Astronomy (Reading, Page Turning)
The second half of my whispered ramble/chat about telescopes and astronomy, including reading from star charts and page turning! The first part is here: https://youtu.be/_dr2YhhaBMk.

By: SoundAndVisionASMR

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ASMR ~ Whispering about Telescopes and Astronomy (Reading, Page Turning) - Video

Seeing beyond the stars: Why astronomy counts on Earth

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Story highlights Eclipses are a visible highlight of astronomy, one of the oldest of sciences, writes Robert Massey But astronomy is also a science that pushes technology to the limits, he says Massey: Astronomy reminds us that we are really a very small part of an enormous cosmos

Eclipses are a very visible highlight of astronomy, one of the oldest of sciences that has fueled the imagination of humanity since we became capable of complex thought, with monuments as old as Stonehenge in England marking the movement of the Sun and Moon across the sky, and early civilizations creating myths around the patterns of stars that make up the constellations.

Astronomer Robert Massey

That sense of wonder continues unabated in the modern era, though we sometimes seem more disconnected than our ancestors from the world (and universe) around us.

Children and adults alike visit observatories and planetaria, download images originating from spacecraft in orbit around planets, asteroids and comets, and grab the chance to look through a telescope without hesitation.

An early interest in astronomy inspired many of today's leading scientists and engineers, including Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society and a Nobel Prize winner in medicine, who found his inspiration through a telescope at the age of eight.

This is a science that pushes technology to the limits, eking out the faintest of signals and using complex techniques to put together models for worlds, stars and clusters of galaxies that we are unlikely ever to visit.

And these demands set the toughest of challenges. To take one example, the Hubble Space Telescope (named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble) will reach its 25th anniversary next month. Putting a telescope in space had been proposed as far back as the 1940s, a good decade before the Soviet Union's Sputnik transmitted its first pings from orbit.

Hubble construction began in the late 1970s, ready to be carried into orbit by NASA's space shuttle. Delayed by the Challenger disaster, the telescope finally entered service in 1990, when scientists discovered that its mirror was the wrong shape -- a flaw repaired by another shuttle crew who installed a correcting system three years later.

Since those early setbacks, the Hubble telescope has transformed astronomy. From its vantage point above the blurring effect of the Earth's atmosphere, it helped scientists discover that the expansion of the universe is speeding up, powered by a still mysterious "dark energy," sent back images of forming solar systems and planets around other stars, and showed that almost every galaxy has a giant black hole at its center.

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Seeing beyond the stars: Why astronomy counts on Earth

Letchworth astronomy group pulling out all the stops for solar eclipse

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07:01 20 March 2015

by James Scott

Solar Eclipse. Credit: Letchworth and District Astronomical Society.

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An astronomy group is pulling out all the stops for members of the public to wonder at a solar eclipse which is taking place this morning.

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A partial eclipse which happens when the moon passes between the Sun and Earth and partially blocks the former, casting a shadow over the latter is due between 8.25am and 10.40am.

The Letchworth and District Astronomical Society will have four gazebos set up in Leys Avenue housing a screen with a live feed from NASA showing the eclipse and display boards with information.

Outside there will be eight telescopes with solar filters so that people can look directly into the sun safely, as well as 100 pairs of safety goggles.

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Letchworth astronomy group pulling out all the stops for solar eclipse

March Astronomy Madness: A Total Solar Eclipse And A Supermoon For The Spring Equinox

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A total solar eclipse, a supermoon and the spring equinox take place Friday. Reuters

The first day of spring will be a bit more special this year. For the spring equinox there will be a total solar eclipse and a supermoon. Friday's new moon will be at perigee -- the closest point to Earth -- but don't expect to see much of the "black supermoon."

Friday's total solar eclipse, on the other hand, will be a visual treat for those living in Europe, North Africa and North Asia. The total solar eclipse will be visible in the north Atlantic and the Faroe Islands while a partial eclipse will be visible for the three previously mentioned locations. Astronomer and enthusiasts are heading north to catch the rare solar event.

Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago, will be a popular location for solar eclipse observers, but they may be facing more challenges than protecting their eyes during the event.Christin Kristoffersen, mayor of Longyearbyen, Svalbard's largest settlement, has issued polar bear warnings ahead of Friday's event, Reuters reported. Kristoffersen said he expects around 1,500 tourists -- compared with 2,500 residents of Longyearbyen -- that may not be expecting frigid temperatures or the threat of bears.

"Safety comes first, even before the eclipse. We need to take care of people. It's terribly cold in March and we have the challenge with polar bears," Kristoffersen toldReuters.

In Britain, the partial solar eclipse will be visible around 8:45 a.m. local time, with the peak around 9:31 a.m., theBBC reported. The next partial solar eclipse in Britain will take place in 2026 while the next total solar eclipse will be in 2090.

As for the spring equinox supermoon, it will not be a full moon and won't have the same visual appeal as the supermoon that will rise Aug. 29. While there is nothing apocalyptic about a supermoon, Friday's new moon will slightly affect the tides. Britain's National Oceanography Center said the tides will be a few centimeters above last year's maximum while France'sNavy Oceanic and Hydrological Service said it expects to see fast tides rushing off the coast of Normandy and Mont Saint-Michel, Agence France-Presse reported.

This week has been a pretty special one, astronomically speaking. Sunday saw a pair of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) that grazed Earth on Tuesday and led to a spectacular St. Patrick's Day aurora. Friday's supermoon and total solar eclipse fall on the spring equinox -- when the sun crosses the plane of the equator -- at 6:45 p.m. EDT.

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March Astronomy Madness: A Total Solar Eclipse And A Supermoon For The Spring Equinox

Astronomy For Everyone – Episode 62 – Stargate Observatory July 2014 – Video

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Astronomy For Everyone - Episode 62 - Stargate Observatory July 2014
Astronomy For Everyone is a TV series of monthly TV shows developed by members of the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club (FAAC) targeted to beginner and intermediate audiences as well as all amateur ...

By: Astronomy For Everyone

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Astronomy For Everyone - Episode 62 - Stargate Observatory July 2014 - Video


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