Strange Universe

Can we get out of here? That's the question physicists pondered for centuries: can we permanently leave earth? This week we’ll discuss our attempts to figure it out.

Sunday evening the Moon gets about as high up as we ever see it, and its illumination is perfect for exploring with any small telescope. But let’s start with an amazing fact, that the moon doesn't orbit our planet's center, but a spot a thousand miles beneath Earth's surface. And that magic place lies directly beneath your feet on Sunday evening.

Venus is only visible just before dawn, at the very coldest possible hour. So if it's a very late date or if you and your beloved wake up just as morning twilight begins and gaze out a northeast-facing window, the Morning Star will be totally, absolutely riveting. And on February 14 of all days, the lunatic moon, ancient Sirene, the very celestial embodiment of passion, hovers just after sunset as a lovely crescent.

We’re now in the wonderful time of year when our daily light grows at its fastest rate. From this week through April, places around latitude 40 get 3 extra minutes of daylight per day. This week we’ll learn about light photons: how they move through space and experience no time at all.

Even though we’ve relied on Groundhog Day to predict whether we will have a longer winter, believe it or not, this does connect with the sky. Turns out, according to NOAA climatological data, an average of 69% of February daylight hours are covered by clouds in the Northeast. This is actually one of the year's cloudiest months and we’ll learn exactly why.

Let’s get strange and far out, by exploring a radical new way of perceiving the universe. It’s getting a buzz right now because it’s a central theme in the just-published Biocentrism book I wrote with Dr. Robert Lanza and a Croatian physicist. Using physics and quantum mechanics, it explores the idea that the universe did not start out lifeless. And that we should abandon our standard model in which everything unfolds within random physical events in a largely empty, matter-based universe.

We don’t often think about the third largest planet. Most of us don’t even pronounce it correctly. But once in a while, Uranus becomes briefly easy to find and to observe, and if you own a simple pair of binoculars, that happens this coming Wednesday.

Just a few months ago, this winter was forecast to be warm, and so far that’s been generally true. But now let’s look more closely at that North Atlantic Oscillation, which has been known since 1770.  When people notice that we seem “stuck in a pattern” -- either for good or for bad -- well, the NAO is that pattern. In 2010 and 11 the NAO was negative, and those winters were harsh and snowy. It was positive in 2000 and 2007, and we then had mild conditions.

After 2020, one of the strangest years of our lives, we’re looking forward to 2021 as a time to perhaps restore some normalcy. Well, will that be true in the heavens, as well? What will the new year hold for those of us who enjoy nature, and the night sky?

Let’s preview what the stars hold in store for the coming year. The most spectacular sky event is normally a total solar eclipse, and there will be one on December 4. Unfortunately, it will happen only over Antarctica. So, most of us can forget that one.

But, happily, the year’s two best mteors showers, the Perseids on August 11 and the geminids on December 13, will both unfold without a full Moon or even a bright gibbous Moon to spoil the show. If the weather’s clear, both meteor showers should be gorgeous.

We are now entering the period when the Moon can get strangely high up. The ultra-highest full moon of 2020 happens this Tuesday night, at midnight. This, the 13th full moon of the year, will be two Moon-widths higher up than the Sun ever attains here, even on the summer solstice. Photo from Pixabay.

A rare, spectacular sky event is about to unfold. On the very day of the solstice, December 21, Saturn will come as close to Jupiter as Jove’s own moons! From time immemorial, a meeting of Jupiter and Saturn was deemed the most auspicious of all planetary get-togethers, the only one called a “Great Conjunction.” This is the rarest meeting between any of the five bright planets, and happens just once every two decades. 

On Sunday night, December 13, we will see the year’s finest meteor shower. These are the Geminids, and they deliver a meteor a minute.
     Geminids are much slower than either the summer Perseids or the hit-or-miss Leonids because they don't strike us head-on. They come at Earth sideways. They lope along at half the speed of the other major showers, and it shows. Instead of sharp, brief zaps across the sky, we get leisurely streakers. And you’ll start seeing them as early as 9 PM.

Who hasn't heard of the Dog Star, Sirius - the most brilliant star in the heavens. Right now it rises in the east around 10 p.m., and can easily be identified because the famous belt of Orion points down and leftward to it.
  As the brightest star in the constellation of the Big Dog, Sirius was considered bad news in the Roman Empire, when hit men sometimes sacrificed dogs when Sirius appeared. The Dog Star had better press in ancient Egypt; they believed an alliance between the sun and the brightest star caused summer's heat. Even today we still use the expression "Dog Days" to mean sultry weather.

Every couple of months you'll read about the "first-ever New Earth" found beyond the solar system. But in nearly all cases, the item had been uncovered many years earlier. It’s an odd development that science discoveries are being announced as “new” when the information has been out there for years or even decades. It's strange. Another science journalism sin is hyping sky events that are either minor or unobservable. So beware of today’s headlines, promoting a lunar eclipse Sunday night, November 29th.  For casual observers, the Full Moon will remain unchanged.

Explore the five most abundant elements in the galaxy: hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. The remaining seven dozen elements are almost a seasoning. Together they make up just 4% of the universe. And then there’s the unknown, like dark matter. There’s six times more of it than all of the 92 natural elements combined, but what has nature fashioned out of that?

Following up on last week’s episode regarding planet speed, this week we consider the speed of natural objects around us. We’ll hear about the speed of ocean currents, tectonic plates, air motion and more. 

Everything moves. We know of no object – not one – that doesn’t spin on its own axis while also whizzing through space. It’s a hurry-up universe. But what about us? How fast are you moving through space? Glad you asked.

First, there’s your speed on our spinning planet, and this depends on where you live. At either pole, you don’t move at all. At the equator, you move at 1,038 miles per hours. If you like math, you can figure your exact speed by multiplying the cosine of your latitude by 1,038. It works out to about 750 miles an hour in typical American cities, which is very close to the speed of sound. And while you’re doing that, you’re also being carried through space at our planet’s orbital speed, which is an extremely fast 66,600 miles per hour.

We cover the Earth and Sun’s scheduled pole shifts. Usually the Sun's enormous magnetic field's north pole becomes south, and vice versa, every 11 years, and we are now entering solar cycle number 25. But the recent sunspot cycle has been weirdly drawn out. All this activity has its roots far below the surface in a solar zone called the tachocline, about 70% of the way from the center toward its gassy surface. It's powerful and yet, most people are more concerned about Earth's magnetic poles flipping over. Could our poles shift too?

Every 26 months Earth and Mars meet, but the encounter can occur at either a narrow gap between our orbits or a wide gap. The difference matters because, after waiting 26 months between Martian encounters, called oppositions, the Red Planet can be more than twice as bright on some occasions compared to others. Whenever we meet in the early autumn, we meet at very nearly its closest and best, which makes it very large through backyard telescopes and simply brilliant in the night sky.

Heat is simply the motion of atoms: Something feels hot because you sense the frenzied movement of those little critters. At 98.6 degrees all your body's atoms are jiggling at about 1,000 miles per hour. Atoms stop moving only at 460 degrees farhenheit below zero. Since nothing can go any slower than "stopped," this is indeed the coldest possible temperature -- Absolute Zero.

Amateur astronomers are also often disappointed by the full moon, which looks boring because the sun then shines straight down like a flash camera to erase all shadows and highlights; but all phases are not created equal. The best moon for observers happens next  Thursday, October 22, and it stays fabulous right through weekend.

This is it – the week that Mars is closest to Earth. It won't come this near again until 2035 or appear this bright. Finding it is a no-brainer. Just step out anytime of night and look around. The night has two stars brighter than any others. The white one is the planet Jupiter. The orange one is Mars. The Martian orbit is oval and lopsided. Every 26 months when Earth and Mars meet, the encounter occurs at either a narrow gap between our orbits, as it did in August 2003, or the widest possible gap, which happened in 2012. Whenever we meet in the early autumn, we meet at nearly its closest and best, which makes it very large through backyard telescopes, and simply brilliant in the night sky

There are dozens of "constants” in physics, like the force of gravity, that are just right to allow atoms and planets and life to exist. This week we’ll talk about how the cosmos are amazingly fine-tuned for the existence of observers, but leaves scientists wondering how.

The autumnal equinox happens Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 9:31 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Earth will angle perfectly sideways to the sun. Neither pole will tip toward or away from that favorite star of ours, making days and nights equal.

Look straight up at 8 o’clock tonight, or the first clear night. You will see Vega, the brightest star that is almost directly overhead at midnorthern latitudes on midsummer nights. It's not as brilliant as Jupiter, lowish in the south these nights, but Vega at 8 p.m. is just as unmistakable. The “standard candle” is shining brightly, almost directly right above us. 

This weekend we take a look at Neptune, which is now at its brightest and closest of the year. Neptune is an enormous blue gassy ball 58 times larger than Earth by volume. It’s the only planet invisible to the naked eye, and currently lurks among the dim stars of Aquarius.  It's now out all night long.

In our culture of publicity and hard sell, it's easy to exaggerate, but one planet never disappoints. Through any telescope with more than 30x, Saturn elicits gasps. Strangely enough, photos of the ringed world do not pack the same visceral punch. You have to see it for yourself and now is the time. Saturn is at its closest and biggest and it will remain perfect for viewing for the next several months. Those fabled rings are still nicely angled for our viewing, far from edgewise, revealing exquisite detail, like the inky black gap that separates the narrower darker outer ring from the broad white inner one.

Jupiter came closest to Earth a few weeks ago, so it will dominate the sky all this month and for the rest of the year. Jupiter is in Capricornus, the Sea Goat, but you don't need to know what a Sea Goat is, or anything else to find it. Just look around the sky any time before dawn, for the very brightest star. It’s astronomy made simple.

We just saw the finest comet of the past 23 years. It brings up the topic of what constitutes a true celestial spectacle. When it comes to objects of terrestrial beauty, people travel around the world to get a glimpse of the Grand Canyon or the Taj Mahal. So what are the true sky spectacles? Tune in this Sunday to hear the top five celestial sights that never disappoint.

The year’s best meteor shower is now underway. So far you’d see just a few extra shooting stars per hour. But when we reach the nights of August 11th and 12th we will see a meteor every two minutes or so, especially if we’re away from the lights of town.