Keeble Observatory
May 2008 Sky from the Keeble Observatory
Mars, again! If this column seems frequently to return to Mars, there is good reason. Roughly every 26 months there is a “launch window” for sending spacecraft to the Red Planet on the most energy-efficient (i.e. cheapest!) trajectory. That window opened again last August, and on 2007 August 4 the Phoenix Mars Lander left Cape Canaveral atop a Delta rocket. The robotic probe will, if all goes well, execute a powered soft landing on the high northern plains of Mar on May 25th.
In ancient mythology (and Harry Potter novels!) the Phoenix is a bird which is reborn from the ashes of its own fiery destruction. Budget woes and technical glitches earlier in this decade led to the demise of two planned Mars missions, the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Surveyor 2001. Both spacecraft were nearly complete, and their components were essentially mothballed.
Those components have been reassembled into the Phoenix, which will dig into the top soil layers to analyze the underlying ice. Both soil and the underlying ice will be analyzed in a variety of remote science experiments on the lander. Specifically, the project team will attempt to answer two key questions: First, are current conditions on Mars capable of supporting “extremophile” life forms, similar to terrestrial bacteria found living in Earth’s arctic ice? These bacteria form dormant spores, and can remain so for perhaps millions of years until conditions are favorable for their reactivation. Second, is there evidence indicating that such life ever existed in the Martian arctic?
Unlike the current generation of (still operating!) Mars rovers, this will be a powered descent using hydrazine thrusters to slow the spacecraft’s fall to the surface once the parachutes are jettisoned. The rovers, you will recall, used airbags and basically bounced and rolled to their landing sites. One challenge in the chemical analysis will be to account for the thruster exhaust when analyzing the surface – they expect it to be contaminated with ammonia and unburned hydrazine.
Lunar phases for May: New Moon on the 5th, at 8:18 am; First Quarter on the 11th, at 11:47 pm; Full Moon on the 19th, at 11:11 pm; Last Quarter on the 27th, at 11:57 pm.
Predawn sky watchers will have limited viewing targets this month. At sunrise, toward the east you may be able to pick out Venus, assuming you have a pristine eastern horizon and no haze. Most likely, it’s too low for easy observing otherwise, and will settle closer to the Sun as the month passes. It’s pulling ahead in its orbit, swinging around to the far side of the Sun, and will reappear in the evening skies late in June. Jupiter begins May to the south at sunrise, about 30 degrees from the horizon. It will settle lower and to the southwest by month’s end.
Evening viewing is a little better. Saturn is high at sunset all month, beginning to the south-southeast about 63 degrees above the horizon at the beginning of May. It’s about five degrees to the east (left) of Regulus, in Leo. Mars is high to the west at sunset, level with and almost equally spaced with Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Mars will drift rapidly to the east this month, passing through the “Beehive” cluster around the 23rd, getting closer to Saturn. Look for them both to the southwest by the beginning of June. Mercury has emerged as an “evening star” climbing higher each night for the first two weeks. It will reach “greatest eastward elongation on the 14th, setting more than an hour after sunset. It will then rapidly move towards our orbital alignment, appearing closer and closer to the Sun. By the end of May, Mercury will set only about 20 minutes after the Sun crosses the horizon.
Our overhead view at mid-month, roughly two hours after sunset, finds the direction toward zenith almost empty of stars. The plane of the Galaxy is coincident with the horizon, and you will be looking out of the plane toward “galactic north.” The center of the Milky Way is below the horizon to the south-southeast, in the constellation Sagittarius. The brightest star to the south is Spica, in the constellation Virgo, about 40 degrees above the horizon. Arcturus, in Bootes, lies to the southeast at about 60 degrees elevation, and Regulus is to the southwest at 50 degrees. This triangle lacks a name, though we might think of it as a “spring triangle.” Vega and Deneb are to the northeast, low to the horizon, and Altair is below the horizon. These comprise the “Summer Triangle,” and they will be high in the sky in another month.
Ursa Major is high to the north, with the “bowl” of the familiar Big Dipper inverted. From the last star in the “handle,” you can imagine following the extension of the arc of that asterism to find Arcturus if you haven’t already found it to the southeast. Directly from that last star in the handle, known as Alkaid, a slow sweep upward about 5 degrees will bring your binoculars or small telescope to the beautiful galaxy M51, known as the Whirlpool Galaxy.
For your own monthly star chart, you can direct your web browser to http://www.skymaps.com. You will find extensive descriptions of what's worth looking for, and you can download and print a single copy for your personal use.
Copyright 2008
George Spagna