Transcript: 28 February - 6 March 2006
Welcome to Idaho Skies on Radio Boise. This is the first week of March. We’re your hosts, Paul...
...Rachel..
...And Kris
The planet Mars remains close to the Hyades for the first half of this month.
The Hyades is a galactic star cluster. And it represents the face of the bull, Taurus.
There are two kinds of star clusters in our galaxy, galactic and globular. Galactic clusters are loose groupings of stars while globular clusters are tightly packed spheres.
The dozens to hundreds of stars of a galactic star cluster condensed from a single cloud of dust and gas.
But the density of stars inside a galactic star cluster is far too low for their mutual gravity to hold the cluster together. So over time the random motions of the stars cause the galactic star cluster to fall apart.
On the other hand, the stars in a globular star cluster are densely packed. And their mutual gravity prevents most of them from escaping.
The stars in a galactic star cluster tend to be young, in star years. The Hyades star cluster formed some 400 million years ago.
That’s about when plants began to colonize the land.
Look for Mars tonight and you’ll find our second closest galactic star cluster, the Hyades.
Mars is the orange colored star half way up in the southwest at nine PM. On most nights Mars will not twinkle like the other stars.
The orange star to the left, or east of Mars is a real star. It’s called Aldebaran, but astronomers know the star as Alpha Tauri.
The star is named Aldebaran, and not Alderan, princess Leia’s home world. Aldebaran is well within our galaxy at a distance of 65 light years.
If you’re 65 this year, then the light of Aldebaran you see tonight left the star the same year you were born. This makes Aldebaran your birthday star this year.
Aldebaran appears at the tip of the Hyades star cluster. But actually Aldebaran is less than half the distance away.
This is a good example how chance alignments can make widely spaced stars look like neighbors.
Your best view of the Hyades star cluster is with a common pair of field binoculars.
With the unaided eye you’ll only see about a dozen stars in the Hyades star cluster.
But through binoculars you’ll see dozens of stars forming a V shape. The cluster will fill the binocular’s field of view with stars.
But beware when you observe the Hyades.
For according to H. P. Lovecraft, the Old Ones currently reside on a star near Aldebaran.
PAUSE
Forty years ago on the first of March a spacecraft successfully landed on another planet for the first time.
The planet was Venus and the spacecraft was Venera 3. The Soviet Union launched Venera 3 during its space race with the United States.
Venera 3 was their eighth attempt to reach Venus, our closest neighbor in the solar system.
Soviet built spacecraft tended to be poorer in quality than US spacecraft. Because of this, the radio onboard the Venera 3 spacecraft failed before it landed on Venus.
But the silent Venera 3 did carry something else to Venus, medallions.
Today the medallions are probably corroding away in the harsh atmosphere of Venus.
You can see Venus if you look low in the southeast shortly before sunrise. Venus appears as the brightest star in the sky.
That’s Idaho Skies for the first week of March. Join us next week to hear about lunar maria and Ivan Ivanovich. For Idaho Skies this is Rachel.
...Kris...
... and Paul.
posted by Idaho Skies at 2:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home