Pan Starrs

Clouds, Comet and Crescent Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)

Explanation: In silhouette against the colorful evening twilight glow, clouds part in this much anticipated magic moment. The scene captures naked-eye Comet PanSTARRS peeking into northern hemisphere skies on March 12. The comet stands over the western horizon after sunset, joined by the thin, flattened crescent of a day old Moon. Posing for its own beauty shot, the subtly lit dome of the 4.2 meter William Herschel Telescope is perched above cloud banks on the Canary Island of La Palma. While PanSTARRS has not quite developed into the spectacular comet once hoped for, it is still growing easier to see in the north. In coming days it will steadily climb north, farther from the Sun into darker western evening skies.

Thanks to http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130314.html

International Women's Day

Celebrating International Women's Day with a great feature on women at NASA: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-women-of-nasa-2013-3?op=1

Solar Wind Energy Source Discovered

Using data from an aging NASA spacecraft, researchers have found signs of an energy source in the solar wind that has caught the attention of fusion researchers. NASA will be able to test the theory later this decade when it sends a new probe into the Sun for a closer look.

Image: An artist's concept of the Wind spacecraft sampling the solar wind.

More at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/08mar_solarwind/

Comet Arrives....

Look out for a rare spectacle as a bright comet swings into the Northern Hemisphere.

The icy mass, called C/2011 L4 Pan-Starrs, should be visible with binoculars or a telescope from 8 March.
But in the following days, it will become even brighter and could be seen with the naked eye.



Find the latest news on the Pan-Starrs comet at the BBC.

Comet PANSTARRS

Starting about March 7, 2013. PANSTARRS will appear above the western horizon after sunset for Northern Hemisphere viewers. To see it, you will need an unobstructed, cloudless view of the west after sunset. It is best to pick a dark spot, away from streetlights. Look in the sunset direction, as soon as the sky darkens. The comet will be just above the horizon.



March 10. The comet passes closest to the sun – as close as our sun’s innermost planet, Mercury – at 0.30 AU – or about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers). Comets are typically brightest and most active around the time they are closest to the sun when solar heating vaporizes ice and dust from the comet’s outer crust. Not only will the comet quickly brighten, but it should also develop the long classic comet dust tail.

Around March 12 and 13. Moonlight will interfere with the darkness of the night sky, but there should be some wonderful photo opportunities as the young moon returns to the same part of the sky as the comet.

Throughout March 2013. The comet could be visible in the Northern Hemisphere evening sky low in the west after sunset. It will move northward each evening during March 2013 as it moves from being in front of the constellation Pisces to being in front of the constellations Pegasus and Andromeda. At this time, the comet might have a bright dust tail, and perhaps visible to the unaided eye or binoculars. It should, at least, if it lives up to expectations. Remember to look for the comet in the vicinity of the waxing crescent moon on March 12, 13 and 14. The comet swings above the star Algenib on March 17/18, and above the star Alpheratz on March 25/26.

Thanks to http://earthsky.org/

Learn more about comets:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/other_solar_system_bodies/comet

Evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth

A new experiment simulating conditions in deep space reveals that the complex building blocks of life could have been created on icy interplanetary dust and then carried to Earth, jump-starting life.

Chemists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Hawaii, Manoa, showed that conditions in space are capable of creating complex dipeptides – linked pairs of amino acids – that are essential building blocks shared by all living things. The discovery opens the door to the possibility that these molecules were brought to Earth aboard a comet or possibly meteorites, catalyzing the formation of proteins (polypeptides), enzymes and even more complex molecules, such as sugars, that are necessary for life.
“It is fascinating to consider that the most basic biochemical building blocks that led to life on Earth may well have had an extraterrestrial origin,” said UC Berkeley chemist Richard Mathies, coauthor of a paper published online last week and scheduled for the March 10 print issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Learn more about comets:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/other_solar_system_bodies/comet

Solar Cycle Update: Twin Peaks?

NASA Science News for March 1, 2013

Something unexpected is happening on the sun. 2013 is supposed to be the year of Solar Max, but solar activity is lower than expected. At least one leading forecaster expects the sun to rebound with a double-peaked maximum later this year.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j4bl57D_1U