Titan is the most interesting body in the solar system from a weather standpoint. It has a thick and robust atmosphere, a liquid cycle of methane and other hydrocarbons, and it has seasonal variations in these patterns. It’s essentially a cold and oxygen-deficient version of Earth. Because the seasons on Titan take 7.5 years to pass, we have few opportunities to study them up close with the Cassini spacecraft. So as long as Cassini is operating, we are using our time wisely to see how Titan is changing. The first major change is a giant ice cloud that has formed...
Did you know that more than two-thirds of stars are part of multiple systems, where two or more stars orbit a common center of Gravity? This means that the Sun is one of the minority, being on its own. Most of the multiple systems out there are in fact double star systems, but some of them are triples and a few are quadruples. One such quadruple star system, known as DI Cha (in the chameleon constellation), was recently imaged by Hubble. The system lies in the southern constellation of Chameleon, about 520 light years away. The quadruple system is a...
How often does a star explode as a supernova in the Milky Way? With as many as 400 Billion stars, you would expect it to happen often But stars live a very long time, and most massive stars take anywhere from a few hundred million to a few billion years to reach maturity and explode. Putting all this together gives us a surprisingly human estimate. A supernova explodes in the Milky Way, on average, once every 50 years, or about once per human lifetime. We can still see remnants of great explosions that happened long ago, still expanding into the...
Every time a comet slowly approaches the inner solar system, astronomers get excited. We are hopeless romantics, wishing the new comet will brighten enough to be labeled the next ‘comet of the century.’ Yet we have had our hearts broken before, more often than not. The most recent fizzled comet was nearly two years ago with the burn up of comet ISON as it passed close to the Sun. It made for a spectacular view for SOHO and SDO looking at the Sun, but for the rest of us it was just another heartbreak. But once again we have hope; A...
I was out on a sunny day a few weeks ago waiting for a bus, and as per usual I have my head up in space (I would say up in the clouds but that is too low for me). I noticed the Moon up in the sky, just past first quarter, and I was thinking about the angle of the illuminated side and how it related to some of the positions of the Earth and Sun in space. I wondered what information we could gather from the way it looked. It led me to this ‘illuminating’ post. I realized...
As the inevitable launch of humans to Mars slowly approaches over the coming decades, we are using our best technology to study our neighbour in detail. With multiple orbiting satellites and ground surveyors, we are slowly learning more about the geology, climate, environment, and history of Mars. It feels as if every new discovery is a surprise, and we never expected Mars to be such a dynamic and complex world. With science and technology improving every year, humanity is focussing efforts on the red planet. The latest incredible discovery comes from radar data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The...
Time to celebrate! It’s the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the longest in the southern. The first day of Winter here, and the first of Summer down south. Although as a Canadian, Winter usually starts a lot earlier. Why do we have seasons? A common misconception is that the Earth is closer to the Sun in Summer, and further in Winter. Well I can tell you the Earth reaches perihelion (its closest point to the Sun) on January 3rd, and it certainly isn’t a warm day in Canada, historically speaking. So the reason for the...
The sun is definitely hitting its usual ‘rebellious’ phase on its 11 year sunspot cycle, where it flares up at literally everything. The biggest sunspot observed in 24 years has been releasing huge amounts of energy, in the form of X-class solar flares. In the past week this sunspot, designated AR 12192, has released 3 X-class flares, including a huge X-3.1 on Friday. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been watching the light show. Okay so the Sun is blowing up, what does all this mean? Let’s start with Sunspots. A sunspot is a place on the sun where there...
