Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy, Exoplanets, Space participation

IAU decides exoplanet naming by the public is OK

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Uwingu was attacked by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) when it started a program to allow the public to select names for exoplanets :

And this year when Uwingu opened a program to name craters on Mars, the IAU attacked that as well.

Now, however, the IAU has created its own exoplanet naming program for the public:

The Popular Science article uses the word “official” a lot but assigning “official” to whatever the IAU management endorses is purely subjective. IAU is just one of many astronomy and science organizations. (I’d guess that only a minority of professional astronomers and space scientists belong to it.) It is neither a global nor intergalactic governmental organization. It’s main job is to organize conferences. Acceptance of the IAU’s space nomenclature system is voluntary. It’s clear that the IAU is merely fighting to protect and expand its turf and to maintain an aura of space officialdom. It wants to keep organizations like Uwingu from trespassing on its turf and dulling its aura.

Uwingu makes no claim that the names selected in its programs are “official” or will become broadly accepted names in the future.  Users are informed of the limited domain for the names they choose. The primary goal is to give people a sense of participation and connection to real places off of earth and in the process raise  some money for research.

The IAU’s exoplanet naming program will do little to limit Uwingu’s activities and I expect will instead encourage more organizations to get into the space place naming biz.

Asteroids & Comets, Astronomy

Ceres and Vesta to have historic close encounter

The two largest asteroids – Ceres and Vesta – will appear to have a close approach this weekend: Watch Historic Meeting of Two Monster Asteroids in the Sky This Weekend – News Watch

Not since their discovery more than 200 years ago has anyone observed these two giants of the main asteroid belt pair up so closely in the heavens.

Since spring, keen-eyed sky-watchers using nothing more than binoculars or small telescopes have followed the cosmic duo. The two asteroids have flown in tandem, looping across the Virgo constellation now visible in the southwestern evening skies.

Ceres is actually now referred to as a dwarf  planet since it had enough mass to pull itself into a sphere.

The online observatory Slooh.com will have a special live webcast to watch the event.

See also Small solar system targets take center stage – Astronomy.com.

Astronomy, Exoplanets, Space participation

Planet Hunters citizen science paper reports on 14 new planet candidates

Another paper based on analysis done by citizen scientist contributors to the Planet Hunters program has been accepted by a scientific journal: Latest Science Paper Accepted for Publication: The First Kepler Seven Planet Candidate System and 13 Other Planet Candidates from the Kepler Archival Data – Planet Hunters

We at Planet Hunters are happy to announce the acceptance of the PHVI paper to the Astronomical Journal, in which 14 new planet candidates were discovered. All of these new planet candidates are located far from their host stars. In fact, seven of them lie in their host star’s habitable zone. Unfortunately, all of these planets are too large to be Earth-like.

Two of the new planet candidates are in multiple candidate systems. One of them, the new candidate orbiting KOI-351, is the seventh planet candidate orbiting its host star. Planet Hunters actually detected three new candidates around this star when KOI-351 was only known to have three candidates, showing how great the Planet Hunters can be in discovering multiple planet systems. The planets in KOI-351 also show strong gravitational interactions between the planets, which helps to confirm them as true planets. The gravity from some planets in the system causes other planets to transit before or after what we would otherwise expect, called transit timing variations. In fact, the second-to-last planet transited a full day after we expected it would. Others in the exoplanet field have been working for over a year to determine the masses of these planets.

The paper and contributors to the project:

Astronomy, Education, Space participation

Universe Awareness: introducing kids to astronomy

UNAWE or Universe Awareness is a program started in Europe that seeks

to educate children aged 4-10 years (especially those from underprivileged communities) about astronomy because it embodies a unique combination of scientific and cultural aspects:

  • Our awe-inspiring Universe captures the imagination of children, making it a great stepping-stone to introduce youngsters to science and technology. Indeed, many scientists can trace their interest in science to a moment as a young child when they were first introduced to the wonders of the cosmos.
  • Considering the vastness and beauty of the Universe and our place within it provides a special perspective that can help broaden the mind and stimulate a sense of global citizenship and tolerance.

The organization now has projects in 47 countries. Their website has a lot of information and resources about the program, how to get involved, and about amateur astronomy.

Here’s an article about programs like UNAWE to attract young and old to astronomy: Starstruck: Welcome to the universe of amateur astronomers – the Poughkeepsie Journal.