Ancient Moon Shadows

Is everyone ready for the Annular Solar Eclipse this Sunday, June 21st?  Charted a viewing spot? Got your glasses? Tracked the path of totality and calculated obscuration?

Now imagine that if you didn't fully prepare and estimate those facts accurately, you could be beheaded. Not a typo. Beheaded. Because history is wild. 

On October 22, 2136 BC, astronomers in China noted what is now the oldest surviving record of a total solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, causing the moon's shadow to fall upon Earth and block the sun from view.

In ancient China, astronomy was a government-mandated pursuit, and state astronomers had quite sophisticated observatories for their time. Good thing too, for observing solar and lunar eclipses, as well as tracking planetary orbits, were divination tools for predicting the fate of the Emperor.

If an Emperor could predict a solar eclipse, such was a good omen for his health; accuracy was helpful in validating that he was the ordained link between heaven and his subjects on Earth, endorsing his divine right to rule. Imprecise predictions could be seen as evil omens, or even result in a new ruler, whereby rivals for power might use the eclipse as a sign that they could overthrow one who had lost the blessing of the gods. Careful records were made of all solar eclipses. (Lunar eclipses were only haphazardly noted, being so common as to merit lesser import.)


As early as 2650 BC, a star-gazer named Li Shu wrote about celestial bodies, in particular noting that the sun, earth, and moon moved in harmonious ways. Technology in ensuing years revolved around trying to forecast when certain events might occur so as to keep their political successions and societies more stable.

The fascinating field of "Archaeoastronomy" shed light on the Oracle Bones of the Shang Dynasty (1600 – 1050 BC), unearthed in Anyang, Henan Province. Hailed as the bones of dragons (though actually turtles or oxen), they represent some of the earliest Chinese writings. One such gem tells us that the failure to correctly predict the timing of a total solar eclipse resulted in beheadings:
"Here lie the bodies of Ho and Hi,
Whose fate, though sad, is risible;
Being slain because they could not spy
Th' eclipse which was invisible."

Surely these weren't the only two state astronomers to lose their heads, given how erratic solar eclipses can be in any specific geographic location. With so much at stake, precision was well sought after. By 720 BC, some Chou Dynasty astronomers recognized eclipses as "naturally" occurring phenomena, and not heavenly commentary on who held any particular throne. Still, diligent record-keeping continued up through the ages.


By the turn of the millennium, the Chinese had a firm grasp of what actually caused eclipses, and by 206 AD, they were predicting cycles by analyzing lunar orbits. Their records show that between 600 and 1300 AD, their solar eclipse timing predictions were often accurate to within about 20 minutes!

To see how it's done in the modern day, see the NASA Eclipse Website.

Also be sure to join me on Twitter tomorrow for my #TriviaThursday series, with everything you need to know about #Eclipse dynamics and safe viewing this weekend!

The Space Anniversary I'm Glad We Don't Celebrate

"Putting a man in space is a stunt. Man can do no more than an instrument, in fact, he can do less. There are far more serious things to do than indulge in stunts. As yet, the American people do not understand the distinctions and we in this country are prone to rush at any new thing. I do not discard completely the value of demonstrating to the world our skills, nor do I under-value the effects on morale of the spectacular. But the present hullabaloo on the propaganda aspects of the space program leaves me entirely cool." 

  Vannevar Bush Chairman of the Board Governors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology < Well, what a relief it wasn't up to you, Vann man! The above excerpt is from a statement to the Congressional Committee on Science & Astronautics, made in June of 1960. And it's a 60th anniversary I'm pretty happy we don't celebrate. 

Is it just me, or does he look like Gandalf?

 Of course, we're all very happy that Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) helped to end World War Two, made possible the position of "Science Advisor to the President" and founded the National Science Foundation... but after reading some of his materials (this is the sort of light reading with which I fill my free time), I'm equally happy that he was neither heeded nor funded by the federal government at this point in his career. This is one of those funny things, where I was reading biographical and technical information on a historical scientist, not intending to find any references to space or human exploration. 

While I knew Vannevar Bush had been on some aeronautics councils after WWII, I'd never known he worked long enough to speak to Congress about the space program. So shocked to find this excerpt... but I suppose the content was inevitable at the time. Not everyone was on board! 

Vannevar Bush represented the ideals and thought-paradigms of the previous generation -- one that wasn't ready to move forward, out of their protective stance made necessary by war. While he was happy to keep pace with and reward emerging scientific research, he represented a faction of our government who was not willing to seek new frontiers in the stars... and I cannot help but wonder if our current science advisers suffer from the same pessimistic blindness. 

 Do they also believe astronauts are merely stuntmen? No one walks around these days saying, "Wow, he sure hit the nail on the head 50 years ago. We should have spent all that money on something else and just been content with the practical applications of science instead of inspiring the world." 

And... in another 50 years?

 

Thy Chariot Does Not Await

Here we go again! The chariot story is circulating anew on the Twitterz. In not one but two strings, well-meaning authors are attempting to persuade us that the earliest styles of vehicles pulled behind beasts of burden ultimately set the standard from ancient times up through the space program. 

So say these champions of consequential causality, the span of two horses side-by-side (about five feet) was the original measure of uniformity. Roman roads were thus created to accommodate wheeled carriers of this width, which then spread across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. When roads became railroads, all the tools and surveys were standardized to continue engineering such widths. 

When the Space Shuttle was being developed, its Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) had to travel by train from their manufacturer to the launch pad. No matter how large or powerful NASA may have wanted them, they had to fit on flat train cars, and through train tunnels. And so the size of modern rocket boosters were determined by ancient Roman horse-drawn chariots.

Such a simple choice in ancient times, and yet, it had a huge impact on the world. Or did it? Sometimes, we just innocently enjoy believing stuff because it sounds cool. (But, you know, don't.)

 

One of many different designs of chariot

 

Our brains are primed to enjoy the neat, circular narrative. We love a satisfying story, and as evidenced by how far these tweet-strings travel -- often circulated thousands of times, they are almost impossible to counteract. Case in point, my polite explanation received only a fraction of the retweets. Even for the most patient of teachers, the effort is always an uphill battle.  

This urban legend has circulated every decade since the Space Shuttle program began in the late 1970s. 

The first thing to note is that Romans did not invent chariots. Second, the earliest roads over all kinds of terrain were simply human footpaths. The ground wasn't waiting around to say "hey, I'm a road now!" until chariots were invented (though certainly wheels did indeed carve ruts more effectively).

The third claim is objectively not true. Distances between railroads tracks (known as "gauge") have varied widely over the last two centuries, with three standards in the United States alone. The standard gauge used today is based on engineering practicalities, not ancient Italian equine technology.

 
Chances are, you will wear a white gown at your wedding. Roman brides did too. We still use plenty of things invented by the early Roman Republic and the later Roman Empire: candles, scissors, postage, showers, umbrellas, heating systems, street lights, rampant economic inflation, and so on.  

So, to say that ancient standards are still alive in the modern world isn’t all that exciting. Humans are well-known for sticking with certain things that work, and equally notorious for sticking with certain things that don’t. 

Archaeological evidence suggests the existence of chariots in far more ancient cultures: Chinese, Sumerian, Greek, Persian, etc. The Romans were late-comers, though they fancied-up chariot production with trigas (pulled behind three horses) and quidrigas (pulled behind four horses). So, while we can credit their empire with widespread road systems, they weren't overly attached to the simple metric of dual-equine-derrieres. 

 Methods and means of transportation have, throughout history, been designed different ways to carry different things and accommodate many different vehicles. Some have been dictated by creation costs, others by limitations of nature. From gravel paths to 14-lane freeways, a single lane often accomodates a car as small as a Mini-Cooper, or an 18-wheel rig.

Commonality of construction is no more bizarre here than the idea that all current automobiles have steering wheels – regardless of brand, model, size, number of doors, or color. The Romans would have called such specification: "desideratum" – colloquially, that which is essential is desired. 

At the height of the railway era, over a hundred US companies manufactured three different gauges of track, showing a decided lack of standardization. The Chariot-to-Shuttle tale also assumes that any tunnel would only accommodate a single set of tracks, or only clear the train's mass with no room to spare. Also notice the mysterious mountain tunnel in question is never mentioned by name –- but between where the rocket boosters are built (Utah) and where they are ignited (Florida), there are actually 50+ tunnels.

Skepticism is the new black

We could muse at length over the patterns and rhythms of urban legends, but rest assured NASA takes travel into account when designing hardware specifications, but to my knowledge, NASA has never been crippled by the slightly-less-than-five-foot span of railroad tracks. No fewer than 20 companies contributed to the many parts of solid rocket boosters, so even if transport was the main event, much of the hardware is already delivered in segments, and "Some Assembly Required" is already a given on the launch pads of Cape [Kennedy] Canaveral. 

Galileo Figaro Magnifico

On January 7, 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei discovered Jupiter's satellites Callisto, Io and Europa. He was on a roll with his new-fangled telescopio, as only a week later on January 13th, he also spied Ganymede, later confirmed to be the largest moon in our Solar System.
These four Jovian moons, initially titled "Medician stars", are now referred to as "the Galilean satellites", and Galileo's observations of their orbits would be instrumental in over-turning the belief [cough*wishful-thinking*cough*cough] that ALL objects in the universe revolved around Earth, including our Sun.

Galileo, Figaro, Magnifico, oh oh oh...

This particular Copernican concept was a hard-sell during the time of the Roman Inquisition. Various clerics – up to and including the Pope – denounced him as sacrilegious, censored his books, attempted to bar him from teaching or publishing, and ordered him to undergo a trial before the Holy Office of Rome.

At his sentencing in June of 1633, ten Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, as commissioned by the Apostolic See as 'Inquisitors-General against heretical depravity in Christendom', read the following statement in court:

"We pronounce, sentence, and declare that you, Galileo, because of the things deduced in the trial and confessed by you, have rendered yourself according to this Holy Office vehemently suspected of heresy, namely of having held and believed a false doctrine: that the sun is the center of the world and does not move from east to west, and the earth moves and is not the center of the world, and that one may hold and defend as probable an opinion after it has been declared and defined contrary to Holy Scripture."

Galileo was placed under house arrest until his death at age 77 in 1642.

Me with the Galileo craft model at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

A few centuries later, the joke was on them, since Galileo got a NASA spacecraft named after him to study those very moons; and to date, we have no spacecraft named after anyone in the Inquisition. So there.

Jupiter has 63 confirmed satellites, and one floating trouble-maker being argued over by chaps who are much smarter than I, so I'll not venture an opinion. Time will tell if #64 nails the audition, but in the meantime, the Voyager, Hubble, and Galileo craft offered interesting portraits of the fantastic four:


Ganymede is larger in diameter than Mercury, with ice and silicate crust covering underground ocean in some areas. Abundant craters and mountains surrounded by lava flow indicate ancient origin.

The next largest, Callisto, is considered a likely spot for a human base when we reach Jupiter, as study indicates the presence of water ice, ocean, carbon dioxide and possible organics.

Io is the most geologically active object in the Solar System with over 400 volcanoes, many higher than Earth’s Everest. Lava flows often invade the frosty sulfur dioxide surface, creating yellow, red, green and black compounds, creating a "pizza planet" exterior.

Europa, smallest but perhaps best-known, is about the size of Earth's moon and has an oxygen atmosphere. Its bright, smooth [well, un-cratered] crust led to the hypotheses that it is quite young, and may also have oceans beneath its surface.

Lunar Ponderings

A stunning anniversary just passed: 50 years since Apollo 11. We have 6 more Apollo lunar anniversaries to go, (7 overall in this program if one counts the non-lunar Apollo-Soyuz Test Project). For years, I've tracked statistics of Apollo missions and astronauts as they aged. And each time I have to update my records, the solemnity of the loss halts all activity in my brain.

On December 19, 1972, upon the splashdown return of Apollo 17, there were 12 men on planet Earth who knew what it was like to walk on the surface of our Moon. This fact remained true for true for 18 years and 7 months.

Then, in August 1991, James Irwin (Apollo 15) died of a heart attack at age 61.

In 1998, Alan Shepard (Apollo 14) died of leukemia at age 74.

In 1999, Pete Conrad (Apollo 12) was killed in a motorcycle crash at age 69.

In 2012, Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11) died of heart failure at age 82.

In 2016, Ed Mitchell (Apollo 14) died in his sleep at age 85.

In 2017, Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and 17) died of long-term illness at age 82 and Dick Gordon (Apollo 12) died of cancer at age 88.

In 2018, John Young (Apollo 10 and 16) died of pneumonia at age 978, and Alan Bean (Apollo 12) died of sudden illness at age 86.

Today, as we approach more 50th anniversaries of lunar landings, there are just 4 men left who remember traveling to and working on the Moon.

• Buzz Aldrin turns 90 years old in January 2020.
• David Scott is 87. 
• Jack Schmitt and Charles Duke are both 84.

Among the other Apollo (orbiting or CSM pilot) astronauts, all are now octogenerians, with youngest Ken Mattingly reaching the age of 84.

Even if the youngest of them make it in to their 90s or to 100, will they see another Moon mission? Will they watch astronauts who are American or Chinese? Male or female?  Will it be just as inspiring to the world?

L to R: Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), Buzz Aldrin (11), Walter Cunningham (7), Alfred Worden (15), Rusty Schweickart (9), [Harrison] Jack Schmitt (17), Michael Collins (11), and Fred Haise (13).
PHOTO CREDIT: Felix Kunze/The Explorers Club

Some think we could pull off a Moon mission by 2024, though with how administrations roll (I've seriously been watching various plans and cancellations across my entire lifespan now), it will be more like 2027.

• At that point, Buzz Aldrin will be 97. 
• David Scott will be 94. 
• Jack Schmitt and Charles Duke will be 91. 
• Every living Apollo astronaut will be a nonagenarian. 

I wonder, will they make it? Statistically, the deaths in this tiny club are accelerating, and we can expect to lose a few more before we see a return to the lunar surface, given that even the best technological developments never seem to last past early stages. Anything could suffer cancellation again, in favor of Mars, Asteroids, or on the altar of war, economic depression, or unforseen disaster.

So, when we return to the Moon, if we return to the Moon, will anyone alive personally remember what it was like to visit the Moon?

Something to ponder.

Yon Flaming Orb

It would take 333,000 Earths to equal the weight of our Sun, which loses four million tons of itself each second as it delivers nearly a kilowatt of energy to each square yard of the Earth's sunlit surface.

The Sun is not always at the exact middle of the solar system. It shifts by its own diameter in varied directions, depending mostly on Jupiter's position. Jupiter's 12-year orbit is not around the Sun, but around a point NEAR the Sun. Meanwhile, the Sun too, performs a small orbit around that spot, which it completes every 11.86 Earth years.

What does the sun emit most strongly? Yellow rays? Heat (Infrared)? Ultra-Violet? Gamma rays? Nope. GREEN LIGHT.

The first photograph of the sun was taken in 1845.

Greek scholar Thales of Miletus (624-546 BC) was the first human to accurately plot and record the path of the Sun across the sky, and the first to predict an eclipse in 585 BC. Anaxagoras (500-428 BC) was the first to postulate than the moon reflects light from the sun, rather than glowing on its own.

Aristotle (384-322) then held back science for the next two thousand years with his geocentric model of the universe, where the Earth was fixed and the Sun moved around it. This somehow became church doctrine until the time of Galileo -- and any attempt to question it meant being burned at the stake.

In 1714, clergyman Tobias Swinton wrote a book claiming the Sun was Hell, since there would be too little room for all the current and future damned souls, not to mention that having the fire and brimstone beneath the earth's surface would soon be snuffed by lack of air. All righty then.

In contrast, Charles Palmer published a theory in 1798 saying the sun was made of ice, arguing that the Bible claimed light existed before God created the Sun. It must not be a source of light but rather simply a reflector of light from the rest of the universe, which was clearly focused on Earth.

The Sun kills about a million people per year, with desert exposure, dehydration complications, and melanomas.

People in the villages near the Konark Sun Temple (Orissa, India) bathe before and after any eclipse of the Sun, which is considered dangerous – so much so that any food prepared during such an event is regarded as poisonous and pregnant women take particular care to keep their eyes tightly shut, lest the fetus be malformed.

Spending just 10 minutes in strong sunlight, the kind you get from 11am to 3pm between April and August, will allow your body to make as much vitamin D as you would get from drinking 200 glasses of milk.

Facts, and much wit, courtesy of Bob Berman, in his new book The Sun's Heartbeat. This was just a taste!

Is "Earth" Truly the Right Name For a Ball of Liquid Blue?

In random ponderings, I have always thought "Earth" was an odd name. The crust of our planet is about 70% ocean, and only 30% above-water landmass that is habitable to We The Species who think it's our job to go about naming things.

We decided our planet should be descriptive instead of being named after a god, so wouldn't it make more sense if we were named for WATER?

Figuring my spacey questions might be a welcome breather between Trump rants and film remake freak-outs, I posed this question to a blog forum I infrequently lurk. This particular philosophical discussion yielded thought-provoking responses.
 

ETYMOLOGY  / Language History: Greek era , Old German erda

Indo-European roots akin to Crimean Goth airtha, old Saxon ertha, Olde English eorthe, Middle English erthe

Greek hydor or hudor, Latin unda wave, Old English wæter; akin to Old High German wazzar

The Greek word for water now survives as the prefix hydro- (as in words like hydrogen or hydration). But with the widespread "borrowing" of languages, perhaps we might even be Wazer or Wave? Had humans known more about planetary properties during the time of naming, we might be something entirely different.


If we changed our planet name, what would be more descriptive?

Yourfindit: If we rename the whole planet, then all the Aliens will have to go through a long process of correcting and updating their records.

Legbamel: Mess?

LolitaV: I always though the name should start with Sector; like Sector Z8474895-AJ1248_X.

Aningenious: I'd go with Skaron 6 it's quite cool and any aliens would have to be mad to attempt to invade a planet called Skaron 6.

Nothingprofound: It's always fascinated me that we're the one planet NOT named after a Latin deity.

Exit2013: It doesn't matter... sooner or later this planet will be a waterworld. Seriously.

PetLvr: We have friends that named their chihuahua "Paul" because they heard someone on a TV show make fun of people who name their pet dogs human names... we can do that for the planet Earth. I vote for "Planet Melvin."

Theresa111: Globe ? Earth's fine by me, kinda used to it. I have given the name some thought throughout my existence and figured someone simply named it before being privy to the rest of the planets elements.

Sam1982: Who had the naming rights anyway?

kdawg68: We should probably ask the insects what they think, since they do outnumber us vastly. Or, we could just go with "Insectia."

Animemania: If we held a poll to change the planet's name...that would be just awful. We'd be stuck calling Earth "Planet Stupid" or something.

crazyTsu: But mud is everywhere (well in most places), not only here. What's in a name? we name things according to what we are familiar with. Our familiarity has not evolved so much and I aint no marine creature either so no oceanworld for me.

Flamingpoodle: The 71/29 split only applies to the earth's surface. Besides, we call it earth because we live on the eartherns part.


Well, if we're going to split hairs, it's actually 70.78% to 29.22% -- but who's counting? ;) I originally rounded because the point of the exercise was "early colloquial assumptions versus current knowledge." If we really wanted a descriptive name, we’d have to include core material, and we aren't about to call our planet "Giant Ball of Mostly Molten Silicon and Iron."

Countdown to Yuri's Night!

 On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to enter space. Secured in a small capsule named Vostok 1, he launched from Leninsk, Kazakhstan (now renamed "Baikonur"), the first and still-largest space launch facility in the world. The 27-year-old cosmonaut made a historic 106-minute (not 108!) orbital flight around planet Earth.

Юрий Гагарин 1934 - 1968

In 1962, the Soviet Union established День Космонавтики, or "Cosmonautics Day,” to commemorate this amazing achievement.

In 2001, Loretta Hidalgo, George T. Whitesides and Trish Garner founded "Yuri’s Night," with the support of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) — and each year since, the parties celebrating the first human in space have only grown larger! This year, festivities all around the world are being held between April 4th – April 12th. The current count for Yuri’s Night parties is 160 parties in 42 countries!

The goal of Yuri's Night is to increase public interest in space exploration and to inspire a new generation of explorers. Driven by a worldwide network of celebrations and educational events, Yuri's Night creates a global community committed to the future of exploration while developing leaders and innovators.

This year, *THE* place to be is the Space Station Museum!

On Saturday, April 11th from  noon to 8pm, this particular party will be the only one on the North American continent with actual Yuri Gagarin artifacts on display.

There are precious few places where one can see AND TOUCH Russian Cosmonautica outside of Russia... and The Space Station Museum in Novato, California is one of them! (Kansas Cosmosphere being the other big draw.)

Who can pass up Russian Tea Cookies... with TANG??

The highlight of the Yuri's Night celebration will be a LIVE Skype session with astronaut Dan Bursch at 5:00pm, to reflect on the significance of Yuri Gagarin's historical flight into space and answer questions from any and all space enthusiasts.

Please feel free to come in a space-themed costume! And bring your camera. There will be lots of good photo ops!

FREE YURI STICKERS. FREE ADMISSION, FREE PARKING.

Tickets are not actually needed, but TSSM would like an estimate for attendance, so please register a free ticket at the Event Brite website if you plan to attend.

Moon Musings

A stunning anniversary just passed, and it's been on my mind all weekend.

On December 19, 1972, upon the splashdown return of Apollo 17, there were 12 men on planet Earth who knew what it was like to walk on the surface of our Moon. This fact remained true for true for 18 years and 7 months.

Then, in August 1991, James Irwin (Apollo 15) died of a heart attack at age 61.

In 1998, Alan Shepard (Apollo 14) died of leukemia at age 74.

In 1999, Pete Conrad (Apollo 12) was killed in a motorcycle crash at age 69.

In 2012, Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11) died of heart failure at age 82.

Today, there are 8 men left who remember traveling to and working on the moon.

• Buzz Aldrin turns 85 years old in January.
• Ed Mitchell and John Young are also both 84. 
• Alan Bean and David Scott are both 82. 
• Gene Cernan is 80.
• Jack Schmitt and Charles Duke are both 79.
  

In less than one year, every single man who walked on the Moon will be an octogenarian.

Even if the youngest of them make it in to their 90s or to 100, will they see another Moon mission? Or perhaps, as has been hot news this year, BEYOND the moon? Will they watch astronauts who are American or Chinese? Male or female? Who will be President in that era? Will it be just as inspiring to the world?

Some think we could pull off a Moon mission or beyond by 2020, though with how administrations roll, it will be more like 2025.

• At that point, Buzz Aldrin would be 95. 
• Ed Mitchell and John Young would both be 94. 
• Alan Bean and David Scott would both be 93. 
• Gene Cernan would be 91. 
• Jack Schmitt would be 90. 
• Charles Duke would be 89. 

I wonder, will they make it? Statistically, we can expect to lose a few more of their tiny club before we see a return to the lunar surface, given that even the best ideas are still in the planning stages. Anything could suffer cancellation again, in favor of Mars, Asteroids, or on the altar of war, depression or unforseen disaster.

So, when we go back, if we go back, will anyone alive personally remember what it was like to go the Moon?

Something to ponder.

Telescopin' Trivia

Peak Meteor Shower time! Hope everyone is enjoying the Leonids! And what better time to appreciate our telescopes-- which often translates into coveting a newer, better, bigger one.

Conventional history records that German-born Hans Lippershey invented the telescope in 1608, but legend has it that the device was actually invented years earlier by children playing with lenses in his shop where he created eye-spectacles. Other stories say his apprentice first hit upon the idea of doubling refracting lenses. Nonetheless, Lunar Crater Lippershey is named after him, and not the help.

Coastal merchants were the first competitive consumers of early telescopes, using them to spot approaching trade ships; certainly sailors also found them handy when scanning for land masses -- but Galileo Galilei was the first to use one for astronomy. Turning the telescope heavenward, he found the Galilean moons, noted the phases of planet Venus and also analyzed and described sun spots.


Most of the world's largest optical telescopes (listed by aperture) are now built in remote areas, or atop remote peaks, so as to operational in clean, thin air.

For over 70 years, the largest telescope in the world was located at Birr Castle in Ireland. The 40-ton reflecting telescope with a 3-ton mirror, built by the Earl of Rosse in 1845, was nicknamed the “Leviathan of Parsonstown”. Suspended between two giant stone walls, the telescope offered views of Jupiter and one was later used to observe nebulae.

Leviathan

Today, the largest telescope in the world is the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma, Canary Islands (Spain).

From 1993 (when fitted with corrective lenses after deployment) to the present, the Hubble Space Telescope has been the source of more than 25% of all published astronomy research papers. Funny how you never hear anyone gripe anymore that it was 7 years late and over-budget.


Radio Telescopes that pick up celestial radio waves instead of light, being all the modern rage, now number over 100 and span the globe. Singular dishes and arrays can be found in both Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Antarctica. There have even been two in space!

The majority of professional astronomers don't even look through eye-pieces anymore. Telescopes are largely operated remotely with computers! Even casual computer users can access robotic observatories from home now. Want to try an internet-based telescope? Go to Seeing In The Dark at Cornell University's Astronomy Department.

Flying a Piece of America

Bucket List item! Just this past July, I wrote an article about the Amazing Objects That Have Sailed To Space, and while in Virginia this past week, I got to visit the rarest and oldest!

BEHOLD: The "Yames Town" metal cargo tag from America's very first 17th Century settlement in the New World, which flew on Space Shuttle Atlantis!

NASA Shuttle mission STS-117 carried the small lead piece from "Yames Towne", a 400-year-old artifact excavated by archaeologists in what we now call "Jamestown", Virginia, 2006. This particular item made a trip across the Atlantic Ocean around 1611, along with European passengers destined for Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

Archaeologists at the present-day site of the original James Fort the coast of the James River (are you seeing a pattern, here?) who are still actively digging to find many more relics, say this archaic equivalent of a modern-day luggage tag very likely attached to a wooden barrel or box to identify cargo destination.

Gun powder previously warehoused in London? Someone's personal trunk? Foodstuffs or supplies for the colony? We may never know.  The spelling with the "Y" seems strange to modern eyes, but may indicate Dutch origin, as this language typically represented "J" with "Y" during this historical era.

In honor of the 400th anniversary of the founding of this first colony of the New World, the metal plate was packed aboard Atlantis in 2007, and took 219 orbits around the Earth – this time crossing many oceans in a fraction of the time!  It's quite breath-taking to think of how far our technology has come in such a short time -- but certainly the craftsman who created this item could never have forseen its eventual journey, centuries later.

The tag is now in the Archaearium, the historic Jamestown museum in Virginia, along with a Space Shuttle plaque showing the ISS, the mission patch, the crew of STS-117 and a certificate returning the tag to the new Colonial National Historical Park.  The site of the first ship's landing is only yards away.

For originals of the Jamestown colony visit, or the previous days at NASA Langley, see my Pillownaut Picasa gallery of my trip to Virginia!

Space Junk 2: Surface Litter

Continuing on from yesterday's essay about the floating trash heaps we clever little monkeys keep unleashing into space, I though it was also worth mentioning the things we have sent to the orbit or surface of other celestial bodies.

Click for list of objects on Mars

Did you know the United States sent five probes to planet Venus in 1978? Then an orbiter in 1989. The Soviet Union sent 16 crafts to Venus between 1966 and 1985, including capsules, landers and even "balloon gondolas". You read that right. Balloon gondolas. No space-faring nation has sent anything since around the time the movie "Back To The Future" came out.

Still, even bringing up the rear of mysteries we have explored in our inner solar system, the scattering of major hardware on Venus amounts to 50,000 pounds or 25 tons. That's an awful lot of metal, slowly melting on the hot Venusian crust!

Click for a graphic of large objects mapped on the Moon

We hear far more about Mars in the news and popular culture, but only a fraction of similar metal exists on the red planet. And here, of course, some are still operational and moving about!

As of last summer, when the Curiosity MSL Rover landed successfully,  all the artificial objects on Mars, compliments of NASA, RFSA, and the ESA, come to 20,000 pounds or 10 tons.

It may sound like a substantial heap of hardware, but it's a relatively meager showing, considering that's only 13 crafts total out of 42 attempts! It's also a mere 5% of what we have landed or smashed into the moon.

It is not as easy to reach Mars and land as we might think. The majority of crafts sent up have either failed somewhere along the way, or suffered communication malfunctions, leaving their fate a mystery.


However, the list of lunar junk truly sets the record for off-world trash heaps. Our moon holds a whopping 393,000 pounds of space crafts, or just under 200 tons of human-made objects.

The USA, USSR, Japan, the European Union, India, and China now have 73 probes, [intentionally] crashed orbiters, landers and rovers on the lunar surface.

Wonder which of these will be heritage sites, national parks or Earth Monuments when we are finally a space-faring species? Or will we just send a clean-up crew? Either way, each of the lists linked above have convenient coordinates listed, so it's fun to go to Google Moon or Google Mars and map the human hardware!

Space Junk 1: Orbital Debris

Still on that Mars Curiosity high! It's interesting how exciting I am each time we as a species launch something into space. It's stunning to hear how things zing around above our heads studying various properties of Earth, how far probes travel, or how hardware land successfully on other celestial bodies due to precise calculations and engineering.

All these amazing feats are so rare and so special, proposals have recently emerged to protect them as national treasures. However, it then occurs to me just how much hardware we have released into our solar system, on both successful and unsuccessful missions. We value many -- but others are pure hazards. Then I remember: space debris, as a byproduct of exploration, is a genuine hazard.

Artist's Concept of Objects in Low Earth Orbit

At this time, pieces of orbital debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO) number in the tens of millions. About 20,000 of these objects are larger than 10cm. Particles between 1-10cm are estimated at about half a million. The rest are less than 1cm.

Orbital Debris is defined as a human-made object in orbit around the Earth which no longer serves a useful purpose, such as launch vehicle upper stages, spent payload carriers, derelict spacecraft, pieces resulting from explosions or collisions, and even tiny paint flecks released by impacts.

Most orbital debris reside within 2,000 km of the Earth's surface, or are in LEO.  How do we estimate the numbers and placements? Ground-based radars can detect objects as small as 3mm, and space-based detection systems can detect things as far as 40,000km out.

Artist's Concept of Objects in GeoSynchronous Orbit (GSO)

The US Space Surveillance Network tracks all orbital debris larger than 10cm.  An average of one catalogued piece of debris falls back to Earth each day, and this has been the case for the past four decades.  In LEO and below, orbital debris circles at around 7-8 kilometers per second, or up to 18,000mph.

As a result, the International Space Station (ISS) is the most heavily shielded spacecraft ever flown. Nodes holding human crews and pressure tanks on the structure are able to withstand impact of debris as large as 1cm. The ISS can also maneuver to avoid tracked objects.

The higher the altitude, the longer the debris will remain in orbit. Debris left below 600km fall back to Earth within a few years, though precious little survives the super-heated re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. Things higher than 800km take decades to return. Above 1,000km or more? Those may circle for a century or more.

GSO Polar View

Most telecommunications and meteorological satellites operate at the 36,000km altitude in geostationary orbit, where the problem or orbital debris is less severe. Which is not to say... harmless.

If you happen to have nothing to be indignant about this week yet, you can read about how NASA handles Orbital Debris Re-Entry. Or if you want to be part of all future re-entry dangers, you can sign up for NASA's "Orbital Debris Quarterly" newsletter.

Amazing Objects That Have Sailed To Space

Each crew member of Space Shuttle mission is allowed to take one kilogram of memento items along with them, provided they fit into a tiny compartment set aside for such use.

This is how things like Buzz Lightyear action figures and lunar rocks which an astronaut had carried to the summit of Mount Everest make it on board, despite strict weight restrictions. On each flight, many flags, patches, and medallions are also flown, along with nationally-sponsored specialty items, such as the New York Mets' Home Plate, or the piece of Isaac Newton's apple tree!

Shuttle Atlantis STS-132 carried a portrait of Sir Isaac, and a small piece of his famous tree, which inspired his theory of gravity.  The Royal Society Archives in London presented the materials to ESA astronaut Piers Sellers, who cared for them during the 12-day mission, and later returned them for permanent public exhibit.

I just love the idea that the little piece of apple tree got to experience .... a lack of gravity!


Shuttle Discovery STS-120 flew the light-saber used by Luke Skywalker (actor Mark Hamill) in "Return of the Jedi." In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars film franchise, Chewbacca (actor Peter Mayhew) presented the famed movie prop to NASA, whereupon it was flown to Texas and displayed for a time at Space Center Houston.

The prop weapon continued it's journey to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it was packed into a Shuttle locker and spent two weeks in orbit. George Lucas attended Discovery's launch, and the light saber was later returned to Lucasfilm Ltd. for display in a traveling exhibit.


Shuttle Atlantis STS-117 carried a lead cargo tag from "Yames Town", a 400-year-old artifact excavated by archaeologists in 2006. This particular item had made a trip across the Atlantic Ocean around 1611, along with European passengers destined for Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

In honor of the 400th anniversary of the founding of this first colony of the New World, the metal plate was packed aboard Atlantis in 2007, and took 219 orbits around the Earth – this time crossing many oceans in a fraction of the time! The tag is now in the Archaearium, the historic Jamestown museum in Virginia.

Shuttle Atlantis STS-101 flew the Olympic Torch!  Well, a ceremonial replica, anyway. It wasn't lit, but NASA astronaut James Voss paid tribute to the Year 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia with the torch and a logo banner.

I'm just wondering how and where they packed that thing.  Later this year, Roskosmos plans to send up another torch on a Soyuz mission carrying Expedition 38 crewmen, with the intention of carrying it outside the space station on EVA as part of the official torch relay!  However, they are currently arguing about whether or not they will allow a flame.


Less famous and quirky, but among my personal favorites, is how a rookie astronaut named Eileen Collins took Amelia Earhart's scarf on her first spaceflight aboard Shuttle Discovery STS-63. Colonel Collins would, of course, go on to become the very first female Shuttle pilot and the first female Shuttle Commander, on STS-84 Atlantis and STS-93 Columbia, respectively. She would also be Commander of STS-114 Discovery prior to her retirement.

Want to OWN something FLOWN? Many organizations, such as SpaceFlori, Farthest Reaches and The Space Store, sell metal craft fragments, pieces of shields and tiles, washers, nozzles, on board checklists, suit and seat materials from all eras of NASA missions.

If you were an astronaut or a cosmonaut, and could take something personal, professional or national into space, what would it be?