Where:

Frosty Drew Observatory

When:

Friday October 10, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

Cost:

$1 Suggested Donation per Person

Tonight's forecast is calling for mostly cloudy skies with rain overnight. The 94% waxing gibbous Moon rises at 7:56 p.m. and may offer us a few glimpses before clouds take over. We plan to open the Sky Theatre and Observatory at 7:00 p.m. In the Sky Theatre we will present a slide show of astro-photographs taken at Frosty Drew Observatory. The Observatory will feature the bright gibbous Moon if the skies permit. Otherwise tours of the observatory and our primary 16” telescope will be available. Follow @FrostyDrewOBSY on Twitter for updates from the Observatory.

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Weekly Happenings
Scott MacNeill

On December 4, 2014, while testing the most critical systems to human crew safety, the NASA Orion spacecraft will launch 3,600 miles above the Earth. Once in orbit, the Orion vehicle will complete two orbits around our home planet before reentering Earth's atmosphere at speeds close to 20,000 mph! At that velocity, Orion will be subject to heating in the range of 4,000ºF due to atmospheric drag. The test, called “Trial By Fire”, is an important next step for the future of human space travel.

The Orion spacecraft is being built to send humans greater distances into space than ever before. Upcoming missions that will rely on the Orion vehicle will send astronauts to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. The Orion crew module will provide living quarters for up to 21 days and will incorporate an additional habitat module for longer missions.

No human crew members will be on board during the December test launch, though the names of many astro-geeks and community members will have reservations on board the Orion crew module. Want to send your name on the “Trial by Fire” launch this coming December? Visit NASA and get your boarding pass for the Orion test flight. Then check out this video about the test flight to get an idea about the awesomeness Orion is about to undertake.

On January 3, 2013 astronomer Rob McNaught discovered a comet heading straight for Mars. The comet, C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, appeared to be Mars' doomsday comet. Fortunately for Mars, we were able to rule out the likelihood of an impact event after several months spent analyzing the comet's trajectory. Though no doomsday for the martian atmosphere and surface, the comet is going to pass Mars at a close 87,000 miles, at its closest approach. That is only 38% the distance of the Moon from Earth! At that distance, orbiting spacecraft are at risk of damage due to the comet's coma (thin atmosphere around the comet's nucleus) and dust tail. All this is happen on Sunday, October 19th.

Comet Siding Spring is an Ort Cloud comet that likely took millions of years to travel into the planetary neighborhood of the solar system from the Ort Cloud. The size of the comet's nucleus is about 700 meters in diameter, meaning that if it did impact Mars, it would produce an impact crater about 5 miles in diameter. Siding Spring will reach perihelion (closest to the Sun) on October 25th at a distance of 130 million miles, compared to the comfortable 94 million miles of Earth's orbit. After perihelion, Siding Spring will take close to a million years to travel back to the Ort Cloud.

Anticipation of the close pass has been building and NASA is gearing up its fleet of space-bound scientific instruments, including the three orbiters and two rovers that reside at Mars, to make observations of the spectacular celestial event. Being that Siding Spring is an Ort Cloud comet, it is a treasure trove of clues to the origins of the solar system. Though no catastrophic impact on Mars, magnificence will certainly not be in short supply. Get ready for some killer shots of Siding Spring courtesy of Curiosity and Opportunity, with the best shots likely coming from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), all of which will be in position for an astonishing display of Siding Spring's awesomeness!

-Scott