EYEPIECE Journal of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York

May 2013 Volume 61 Number 5 ISSN 0146-7662

It was just a matter of time until NASA hit the conceptual

exoplanet jackpot. The moment came on Apr 18, as they re-

vealed the discovery of the smallest exoplanet (Kepler-62f)

and its neighboring planet (Kepler-62e) in the habitable zone

around distant star system Kepler-62. This brings the total

known planets in that star system to five.

Kepler-62 has been under observation for some time, but

it takes many observations utilizing the transit method to de-

tect orbiting planets as they dim the star’s light when passing

in front of it during orbit.

Once detected, NASA sci-

entists can gauge the

planet’s size and distance

from its sun, but composi-

tion and mass can only be

estimated at this time,

based on similarly positioned planets discovered in other sys-

tems. Using the detection method, Kepler has identified 2,740

candidates so far. Various other observation techniques, and

support from ground telescopes and other space assets, have

allowed 122 planets have been confirmed.

"The Kepler spacecraft has certainly turned out to be a

rock star of science," said John Grunsfeld, associate adminis-

trator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. "The discovery

of these rocky planets in the habitable zone brings us a bit

closer to finding a place like home. It is only a matter of time

before we know if the galaxy is home to a multitude of planets

like Earth, or if we are a rarity." Kepler (con’t on Page 4)

Kepler Astounds NASA Finds Earth-Sized Exoplanets

By Evan Schneider

Kepler Space Telescope Snapshot

Launch Date: March 7, 2009 Orbital Height: 92,955,807 miles

Speed on Orbit: 13,180 mph Cost: $550 million

Higgs Boson, The “God Particle” (Not Quite)

By Alan Rude

On July 4, 2012, two teams at CERN’s Large Hadron

Collider (LHC) completed massive, separate experiments, an-

nouncing the “discovery” of a Higgs-like boson particle. Higgs

Boson, first theorized in 1964 by British physicist Peter Higgs,

explains why matter has mass. In March, 2013, the same two

teams announced with virtual certainty that the particle was “a

Higgs Boson, if not the only kind of Higgs Boson”.

Originally named the “Goddamn Particle, ”it was seem-

ingly impossible to isolate. Leon Lederman, author of “The

Goddamn Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the

Question?” was challenged by his editor, calling the title too

controversial. The “Goddamn Particle” became “The God Par-

ticle,” and the name stuck. The concept of the Higgs Boson

was now posited to explain why matter has the mass it does,

something no one had ever been able to physically prove.

Higgs did not get it exactly right, though. The particle is

evidence of the Higgs Field, and that is what might give a par-

ticle mass. Defining mass or its opposite, “massless,” is a part

of the equation. Any particle without mass travels at speed of

light (something we, as corporeal beings, are quite unable to

do). If there were no Higgs Field in Standard Model theory,

all particles would be massless and travelling at the speed of

light. But the Higgs Field may actually act like a cosmic mo-

lasses, slowing down particles (aside from photons and gluons

which remain massless), giving particles their mass.

CERN scientists hunted for the Higgs Boson by smash-

ing two beams of protons together at the LHC. Out of a trillion

proton-proton collisions, perhaps one will create a Higgs parti-

cle, which then will decay almost instantaneously into other

particles. Sensitive detectors placed at the sites of these smash-

ups look for signatures of several ways the Higgs might have

decayed. “It’s not a needle in a haystack - it’s much worse than

a needle in a haystack,” said Joe Lykken, a theoretical physi-

cist at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory.

Higgs Boson (con’t on Page 10)

2

May’s Evening Planets : Venus is now up in the western sky, Jupiter is moving down to meet it, and late in the month Mercury makes it a beautiful threesome. Watch these three planets change their position all through the latter part of May. Although not part of the gathering, higher up is Saturn, with its rings.

May’ s Evening Stars: The remaining winter constellations include Auriga the Charioteer, Gemini the Twins, and Canis Minor the Small Dog. Overhead is Ursa Major, the Big Bear – follow its handle to Bootes the Herdsman and Virgo.the Vir-gin. Returning to Ursa Major, look below it to Leo the Lion. May’s Morning Planets : Only Uranus and Neptune are visible and require a large telescope. Mars is lost in the Sun’s glare.

May’s Morning Stars: The morning hours lack planets, but many bright stars and constellations compensate. They include the stars of the Summer Triangle - Vega in the con-stellation Lyra the Lyre, Cygnus the Swan, and Aquila the Eagle. Looking high in the northwest the handle of the Big Dipper in Ursa Major curves towards the bright star Bootes. Turning in the east we can see Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Perseus and Pegasus.

May 2 Last Quarter Moon at 7:14 a.m. (EDT) May 5 Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks May 9 New Moon at 8:28 p.m. (EDT) May 10 The Moon is 8° below Jupiter in the lower west-northwest. May 11 Mercury in superior conjunction, entering evening sky May 17 The Moon approaches Regulus tonight May 18 First Quarter Moon at 12:35 a.m. (EDT) Jupiter is 10° upper left of Venus May 22 Spica is 8° left of the Moon tonight May 24 Mercury is 1.4° north of Venus May 25 Full Moon at 12:25 a.m. (EDT May 27 Mercury is 2.4° north of Jupiter May 28 Venus is 1.1° north of Jupiter May 31 Last Quarter Moon at 2:58 p.m. (EDT

Observers Note: The western sky will be spectacular in the last half of May as three planets (Jupiter, Venus, and Mer-cury) move among the early evening sky. Check internet listings for the distance of the planets from each other from May 18 through the end of the month.

For additional information visit: www.aaa.org/month513

WHAT’S UP IN THE SKY

AAA Observers’ May Guide

By Richard Rosenberg

May 2013

May “Skylights” Nebula of the Month

Butter�y Nebula NGC 6302 By Evan Schneider

Nearly 3,800 light-years from Earth, in our own Milky Way galaxy, lies the Butterfly Nebula. This bipolar planetary nebula, captured here by the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 in UV and visible light, shows us the extreme char-acteristics of the raging and fast-expanding nebula. Gases, heated to 36,000°F, speed outward into space at over 600,000 mph, with the outer edges having taken over 2,200 years to spread cover over a two light-year expanse. At the center, clouded by a ring of dust, lies the dying star. NASA estimates this body to have a surface temperature of 400,000°F, making it one of the hottest in our galaxy. Hubble imagery tells the story of this fascinating nebula. The original star developed into a red giant, with a diameter 1,000 times that of our Sun. As gas was cast off at both slow and fast speeds, the star began to heat up, greatly increasing the veloc-ity of its solar wind. This wind, travelling at over two million mph, stretched the butterfly shape into what we see today.

Astronomical Fact of the Month Solar Winds Blow Fast By Evan Schneider What creates the beautiful aurorae in the skies? As Peter, Paul and Mary once sang: “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” - the solar wind, perhaps? Travelling at nearly 1 million mph away from the Sun in all directions, it is

a constant stream of ionized particles that bombard the Earth daily. The Sun’s co-rona is so hot, that it’s grav-ity can not hold onto some of the gravitationally bound gases. Add heightened solar activity, like a coronal mass ejection, and the increased density and speed of that stream can wreak havoc with our planet’s magnetic field, which deflects the wind most of the time. NASA/ESA’s SOHO space-craft (Solar and Helio-spheric Observatory) closely monitors real-time solar activity, keeping scientists aware of these events.

EYEPIECE

The solar wind shakes our magneto-sphere, causing aurorae (NASA)

3

EYEPIECE

Many AAA members live in the Bronx, so observing with AAA’s Jupiter Joe Martinez at The Bronx Zoo

or other locations, for some, is a weekly experience. Those of us who live far away from this borough can usually

be found travelling there for a Yankee game. But, on Apr 13, hundreds gathered from both near and far to experi-

ence and enjoy the first AAA Spring Starfest held at Woodlawn Cemetery.

Most would not think to use Woodlawn as a venue for viewing the cosmos but, in fact, the minimal lighting conditions there

make gazing through a telescope more effective than standing amidst the bright lights of Manhattan. A focused team of AAA

board members made it all happen. Starfest organizer Susan Andreoli, Ed Fox on production, and veteran observing team leader

Michael O’Gara, joined president Marcelo Cabrera to make Starfest a reality in the Bronx. “If you build it, they will come,” is an

appropriate description of the evening. This was not the infinite cornfields of Iowa in “Field of Dreams,” but certain similarities

abounded for sure.

Many targets graced AAA scopes throughout the evening. Board member Tom Haeberle reported acquiring the Moon, Jupi-

ter, Saturn, Sirius, Arcturus, Capella, Betelgeuse, and the Pleides.

Starfest would not have been possible without the help of so many people, all too many to list. But it is important to thank

them all, and to give a special thanks to the dedicated observing team who brought their equipment for all to share.

Michael O’Gara Tom Haeberle Evan Schneider Bruce Kamiat

Joe Martinez Marcelo Cabrera Jordan Kushner Rori Baldari

Jaiden Martinez (age 10) Joe Delfausse Tony Hoffman Ron McCollough

Howard Fink David Kaufman Julian Parks Suraya White

Cary Horwitz Katherine Cintron Ben Ngyun Joe White

Yajaira Hernandez Mike Gupta Ike Rodriguez

A special acknowledgement to our night sky photographer, Stan Honda, for photographing the event while capturing the stars.

With this major annual event now behind us, we

look forward to the fall, when AAA observers will, once

again, appear in an ellipse in Central Park’s Sheep

Meadow, or some other carefully planned location. Un-

til then, remember that it’s spring, and summer is not far

behind. That means you should be visiting the AAA

website each week, and reading the AAA Events on the

Horizon at the back of Eyepiece each month, to find and

attend one or several of our observing sessions held

weekly throughout the NY metropolitan area.

We hope to see you all again and again, to share our love of astronomy, and to marvel at the universe all around us.

May 2013

AAA Spring Starfest: A Bronx Triumph By Evan Schneider

Looking at the crescent Moon in the early eve-ning, and stars, planets and nebulae at night, Starfest observers and visitors, alike, enjoyed experiencing astronomy in the unique setting of Woodlawn Cemetery.

4

Hello Members:

We had a very successful first Spring Starfest on April 13th, in the Bronx, with over 17 telescopes in attendance and more

than 300 visitors. The location proved to be dark and appropriate. We look forward to continuing having events at Woodlawn

Cemetery.

We also had a fun weekend at NEAF - yes, we are back at NEAF, and will continue to expand our presence there in the fu-

ture. Many thanks to our friends Al and Judi Nagler for making it possible, and to the many AAA members that volunteered to

spread awareness about our association and its many activities.

Our annual meeting is on May 15th, at 6:30 p.m., at Cicatelli Center - 505 Eighth Avenue (35th/36th Street), 20th floor. Com-

plimentary soft drinks and appetizers will be served. Members only, I urge you to attend and socialize with your fellow members

and friends. This year's annual meeting will feature a lecture from David Kraft about Albert Einstein.

Check out more about our observing sites at http://www.aaa.org/observing, and see our full calendar at http://aaa.org/

calendar.

Thanks, everyone!

Sincerely,

Marcelo Cabrera

President, AAA

A Message from AAA President Marcelo Cabrera

EYEPIECE

Kepler (con’t from Page 1)

Over 1,200 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Lyra, Ke-

pler-62e and 62f orbit their K-2 dwarf sun every 122 and 267 days, respec-

tively. Traversing the interior edge of the habitable zone, 62e is roughly 60%

larger than Earth. Its new companion, 62f, however, is only 40% larger than

our planet, making it the exoplanet closest in size to our own discovered to

date. Applying data from other recent exoplanet research, 62f most likely

has a rocky composition. NASA scientists have not developed the tools to

fully investigate these targets however, they are moving closer each day to

identifying what has affectionately been called “Earth 2.0.”

The Kepler space telescope simultaneously monitors and measures the

brightness of 150,000 stars. It is NASA’s keystone mission to unlocking the secrets of distant solar systems. On Apr 4, 2012, the

mission was extended by NASA through 2016 because of its ongoing successes.

Roger Hunter, Kepler project manager at NASA commented, "Kepler has revolutionized our understanding of exoplanets and

the study of stellar seismology and variability. ...There is currently no other mission in development that can replace or surpass the

precision of Kepler. This extended mission will afford Kepler the unique opportunity to rewrite our understanding of the galaxy

and our place in it.”

May 2013

Contacting AAA

Membership: members@aaa.org

Eyepiece: editor@aaa.org

General Club Matters and Observing: president@aaa.org

Telephone: 212-535-2922 Website: www.aaa.org

Coming in May: AAA Annual Meeting

May 15, 2013 - 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

505 Eighth Avenue, 20th Fl

Food, Fun, and Astronomy!

Kleegor’s Universe By Joshua M. Erich, www.pixelatedparchment.com

5

solar system. We need these formulas for our space laboratory

communication, and GPS satellites. We need them to make

sophisticated airplanes fly. Things that Sir Isaac could not

have even imagined, are touched by his discovery.

So here we are in the present day. Scientists now have a

solid set of formulas to predict the behavior of sub-atomic par-

ticles. Again, people are asking “So what?” Can you use these

formulas to fix our current problems with the economy, fight

wars, or cure disease? What will happen in the future to make

these formulas relevant? Let’s explore

some possibilities.

Imagine it is the distant future.

We have learned how to create an “anti

-Higgs field” into which we have

placed a spacecraft, and the field can

somehow repel the Boson. Since there

are no Boson’s in this field, our space-

craft now has zero mass, just like pho-

tons of light. We’ve created a space-

craft that can now travel the speed of

light, or faster, since it does not dis-

obey Einstein’s laws. Humans now

explore the galaxy much more easily in

our anti-Higgs field spacecraft.

Perhaps the Higgs Boson field properties will be critical

in nanotechnologies using sub-atomic particles as parts. Will

these make tiny robots work in the human body to fight dis-

eases, or use in a quantum computer to dramatically increase

computing speed and storage? As components get smaller and

smaller in the future, these formulas in the Standard Model

may be just as important to our technological efforts as the

formulas of gravity are critical for the space age.

Maybe there will be a new power source. Imagine that

we can manipulate the Higgs Boson and turn matter directly

into energy. We could have the first Higgs Boson engine that

is much more powerful than an ion propulsion or nuclear en-

gine. It might be like an antimatter engine, but without the

dangerous explosions.

Of course, maybe we want explosions. Maybe there will

be Higgs Boson bombs, if we can turn this energy source into

something devastating. Someone is always looking for a new

weapon. A Higgs Boson (HB) bomb might eliminate matter

quietly by removing the subatomic particles from the field.

This is very effective and leaves no radiation signature

(maybe). OK, this is all so evil, but maybe the bomb can be

used to deflect an asteroid or comet, and be used for good.

Maybe it’s used to help mine resources in outer space.

We’ll probably have to wait a couple of hundred years

before knowing what practical applications develop. By then,

maybe, scientists will have solved much greater mysteries with

even more impressive scientific instruments than the Large

Hadron Collider. We can only wait and see. Meanwhile, sad-

dle up - let’s go out and catch a Higgs Particle together.

Richard Brounstein’s monthly column, “WHAT IF,” explores what today

seems improbable or impossible. Stay tuned for more fascinating concepts.

Yes, the pun in the title is intentional. In recent sci-

ence news, CERN particle physicists revealed proof of a the-

ory now heard around the world. Everyone now knows the

words “Higgs Boson,” even if they don’t know its signifi-

cance. Higgs is the sub-atomic particle responsible for giving

us matter in the universe.

Journalists attempting to simplify the definition of this

particle tell readers that the discovery confirms a key concept

in the Standard Model of particle physics, their field guide that

theorizes how matter works. The dis-

covery in itself is very exciting - if you

are a physicist. With this proof, scien-

tists are absolved from wearing out

their dry-erase boards, trying to de-

velop new theories explaining why

matter behaves the way it does - and

forget about trying to get new govern-

ment funding for all of that theoretical

research in today’s environment.

But will this particle “matter” to

the rest of us? To those of you work-

ing in the majority of industries, this is

just a curious new story. Only genuine

science geeks care about it, but not

even for practical reasons. Will it increase our income, or cure

diseases? Of course, not. It got me asking myself: “How

should we care, and WHAT IF we could?”

A theory that explains how matter exists in the universe

is not a surprise to me. I interact with matter every day, so this

discovery only confirms what I already know. Matter exists in

the universe. Everyone knows that.

Let’s put this great discovery of experimental physics

into a different perspective. Travel back in time to the 1680s of

Cambridge, England (well, time travel is not really here yet,

but that’s another article, for another time). Isaac Newton toils

away in his laboratory on a theory to explain the mysterious

force that gives weight to all objects. After tireless efforts and

some really cool new mathematics (for his time), Newton pro-

duced a formula known as the Universal Law of Gravitation:

Force = (Mass 1 * Mass 2)/Distance2.

Newton proved that this law of gravity worked every-

where in the universe. He produced a single set of formulas

that could explain why apples drop toward the ground, and

also explain the Earth’s and other planets’ motion around the

Sun. This was huge, and very exciting for astronomers.

But consider everyone else at the time. Why would they

care? If you were an educated person, you knew that objects

in space moved in predictable patterns. Everyone already knew

that objects would fall, if dropped. It had no application to the

challenges of the day: shipping, farming, warfare, disease,

exploration, trade, etc. Yet, as the world industrialized, and we

built powerful aircraft and rocket ships, these formulas proved

critical to making our great accomplishments work.

We don’t realize the impact of Newton’s laws on every-

day living. For NASA, it allows them to guide a spacecraft to

the Moon and get space probes to explore distant planets in the

EYEPIECE May 2013

WHAT IF??? When Will the Higgs Boson Particle Matter? By Richard Brounstein

CERN computer simulation of particle traces that produce a Higgs Boson Credit: Lucas Taylor

6

Old Star Still Has What it Takes

A star thought to have passed the age at which it can

form planets may, in fact, be creating new worlds. The disk

of material surrounding the surprising star called TW Hydrae

may be massive enough to make even more planets than we

have in our own solar system. The findings were made using

the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Telescope, a

mission in which NASA is a participant. At roughly 10 million

years old and 176 light-years away, TW Hydrae is relatively

close to Earth by

a s t r o n o m i c a l

standards. Its

p lane t -forming

disk has been

well studied. TW

Hydrae is rela-

tively young but,

in theory, it is

past the age at

which giant plan-

ets already may

have formed. "We

didn't expect to

see so much gas

around this star,"

said Edwin Bergin of the University of Michigan. Bergin led

the new study appearing in the journal Nature. "Typically stars

of this age have cleared out their surrounding material, but this

star still has enough mass to make the equivalent of 50 Jupi-

ters," Bergin said. In addition to revealing the peculiar state of

the star, the findings also demonstrate a new, more precise

method for weighing planet-forming disks.

Kept in the Dark

Death Valley National Park, the lowest point in

North America is reaching new heights, since the Interna-

tional Dark-Sky Association announced its designation as the

world's newest and largest "Gold Tier" International Dark Sky

Park. The park is distant enough from the large cities of the

southwest so that much of the night sky above the desert floor

is near pristine and, in many places, offers views close to what

could be seen before the rise of cities. The skies there are af-

fected by only the smallest amounts of light pollution classify-

ing it at the highest level of IDA designation and star-filled

skies, the "Gold Tier". Astronomical objects seen there are

available only to some of the darkest locations across the

globe. Death Valley is a place to gaze in awe at the expanse of

the Milky Way, follow a lunar eclipse, track a meteor shower,

or simply reflect on your place in the universe,"

said National Park Service Director Jonathan B.

Jarvis. "We greatly appreciate the International

Dark-Sky Association certification. It illustrates

the park's commitment to protect natural darkness

and supports the wider mission to protect night-

scapes of the entire National Park System."

Lunch for a Black Hole

Astronomers have watched as a black hole woke up

from a decades-long slumber to feed on a low-mass object –

either a brown dwarf or a giant planet – that strayed too close.

A similar feeding event will soon happen at the black hole at

the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. The discovery in

galaxy NGC 4845, 47 million light-years away, was made by

ESA’s INTEGRAL space observatory, with follow-up obser-

vations from ESA’s XMM-Newton, NASA’s Swift gamma ray

burst mission, and Japan’s MAXI X-ray monitor on the ISS.

Astronomers were

using INTEGRAL

to study a different

galaxy, when they

noticed a bright X-

ray flare coming

from another loca-

tion in the same

wide field-of-

view. Using XMM

-Newton, the ori-

gin was confirmed

as NGC 4845, a

galaxy never before detected at high energies. Along with

Swift and MAXI, the emission was traced from its maximum

in January 2011, when the galaxy brightened by a factor of a

thousand, and then as it subsided over the course of the year.

“The observation was completely unexpected, from a galaxy

that has been quiet for at least 20–30 years,” says Marek Niko-

lajuk of the University of Bialystok and lead author of the pa-

per in Astronomy & Astrophysics. By analyzing the character-

istics of the flare, the astronomers could determine that the

emission came from a halo of material around the galaxy’s

central black hole as it tore apart and fed on an object of 14–30

Jupiter masses. This size range corresponds to brown dwarfs,

sub-stellar objects that are not massive enough to fuse hydro-

gen in their core and ignite as stars. However, the authors note

that it could have had an even lower mass, just a few times that

of Jupiter, placing it in the range of gas-giant planets. Recent

studies have suggested that free-floating planetary-mass ob-

jects of this kind may occur in large numbers in galaxies,

ejected from their parent solar systems by gravitational inter-

actions. The black hole in the center of NGC 4845 is estimated

to have a mass of around 300,000 times that of our own Sun. It

also likes to play with its food: the way the emission bright-

ened and decayed shows there was a delay of 2–3 months be-

tween the object being disrupted and the heating of the debris

in the vicinity of the black hole.

EYEPIECE May 2013

AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY

ESA image of black hole “digesting” material from a nearby star

Artist’s concept of TW Hydrae (Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The Milky Way from Death Valley’s Racetrack Playa

(Photo Credit: Dan Duriscoe, NPS)

7

Saturn is a Ringer

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first di-

rect evidence of small meteoroids breaking into streams of

rubble and crashing into Saturn’s rings. These observations

make Saturn’s rings the only location besides Earth, the Moon,

and Jupiter, where scientists and amateur astronomers have

been able to observe impacts as they occur. Studying the im-

pact rate of meteoroids from outside the Saturn system helps

scientists understand how different planet systems in the solar

system formed. "These new results imply the current-day im-

pact rates for small particles at Saturn are about the same as

those at Earth - two very different neighborhoods in our solar

system, and this is exciting to see,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini

project scientist at NASA/JPL. "It took Saturn's rings acting

like a giant meteoroid detector - 100 times the surface area of

Earth - and Cassini’s long-term tour of the Saturn system to

address this question.” The Saturnian equinox in summer 2009

was an especially good time to see the debris left by meteoroid

impacts. The very shallow Sun angle on the rings caused the

clouds of debris to look bright against the darkened rings in

pictures from Cassini's imaging science subsystem. “We knew

these little impacts were constantly occurring, but we didn't

know how big or how frequent they might be, and we didn't

necessarily expect them to take the form of spectacular shear-

ing clouds,” said Matt Tiscareno, lead author of the paper and

a Cassini participating scientist at Cornell University. "The

sunlight shining edge-on to the rings at the Saturnian equinox

acted like an anti-cloaking device, so these usually invisible

features became plain to see.” (Romulans, beware!)

NASA Hears Mars in 3-D

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has

provided images allowing scientists for the first time to create

a 3-D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the Mar-

tian surface. The spacecraft took numerous images during the

past few years that showed channels attributed to catastrophic

flooding in the last 500 million years. Mars, during this period,

had been considered cold and dry. These channels are essential

to understanding the extent to which recent hydrologic activity

prevailed during such arid conditions. They also help scientists

determine whether the floods could have induced episodes of

climate change. The estimated size of the flooding appears to

be comparable to the ancient mega flood that created the

Channeled Scablands in the Pacific Northwest region of the

United States in eastern Washington. "Our findings show the

scale of erosion that created the channels previously was un-

derestimated and the channel depth was at least twice that of

previous approximations," said Gareth Morgan, a geologist at

the National Air and Space Museum's Center for Earth and

Planetary Studies. "This work demonstrates the importance of

orbital sounding radar in understanding how water has shaped

the surface of Mars." The channels lie in Elysium Planitia, an

expanse along the Martian equator. Extensive volcanism

throughout the last several hundred million years covered most

of the surface, and this buried evidence of Mars' older geologic

history, including the source and most of the length of the 620-

mile-long (1000-kilometer-long) Marte Vallis channel system.

Dark Matter Matters

The antimatter hunter Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

(AMS-02) on the ISS is searching for missing pieces of our

universe. The project’s first published results published hint at

a new phenomenon, revealing more about invisible dark mat-

ter. AMS-02 consists of seven instruments that monitor cosmic

rays. Unprotected by Earth’s atmosphere the instruments re-

ceive a constant barrage of high-energy particles. As these

particles pass through AMS-02, the instruments record their

speed, energy and direction. The project is one of the largest

scientific collaborations of all time involving 56 institutes

from 16 countries. As part of his dark matter “DAMA mis-

sion,” Space shuttle Endeavor’s ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori

transferred the instrument to the ISS in 2011. Since then, sci-

entists have collected data on over 400,000 electrons, together

with their antimatter twins, the positrons. Data released today

show how the ratio of positrons compared to electrons passing

through AMS-02 changes depending on their energy, confirm-

ing data from previous instruments. The findings hint at a new

phenomenon, but it is unknown whether the positron ratio

comes from dark matter particles colliding with each other or

from pulsating stars in our galaxy that produce antimatter.

Shine a torch in a completely dark room, and you will see only

what the torch illuminates. That does not mean that the room

around you does not exist. Similarly we know dark matter ex-

ists but have never observed it directly. ESA’s Planck satellite

refined our knowledge of what makes up our universe, show-

ing recently that it is made of 26.8% dark matter. Despite re-

cording over 30 billion cosmic rays since AMS-2arrived on the

ISS, the findings are based on only 10% of the readings the

instrument will deliver over its lifetime. Scientists are confi-

dent that AMS-02 will deliver the data needed to solve the

riddle of where the changes in positron ratio come from in the

near future. “Over the coming months, AMS will be able to

tell us conclusively whether these positrons are a signal for

dark matter, or whether they have some other origin.” says

Professor Samuel Ting, the project's lead investigator.

EYEPIECE May 2013

AAA BRIEFS IN ASTRONOMY

NASA’s AMS Dark Matter hunter sits comfortably atop the ISS, a state-of-the-art particle physics detector that is constructed,

tested and operated by an international team composed of 56 institutes from 16 countries.

8

telescopes observing from the ground at visible wavelengths.

Flying high above the light-blocking water vapor in

Earth's atmosphere, the airplane-mounted Faint Object Infrared

Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) enabled as-

tronomers to see G35 where it hides - inside a dark, dense,

interstellar dust cloud – by collecting infrared light escaping

the cloud. Uniquely suited for this work, FORCAST detected

faint details next to bright structures at wavelengths inaccessi-

ble to any other telescope on the ground or in space.

"Massive stars, although rare, are important because there

is evidence they foster the formation of smaller stars like our

Sun, and because ,at the ends of their lives, they create and

distribute chemical elements that are the basic building blocks

of Earth-like planets," said co-author James De Buizer, a

SOFIA staff scientist with the Universities Space Research

Association at NASA's Ames Research Center.

Researchers using the airborne Stratospheric Obser-

vatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have captured the

most detailed mid-infrared images yet of a massive star con-

densing within a dense cocoon of dust and gas.

The star is G35.20-0.74, commonly known as G35. It is

one of the most massive known protostars, and is located rela-

tively close to Earth at a distance of 8,000 light-years.

Until now, scientists expected the formation process of

massive stars would be complicated by the turbulent, chaotic

environments in the centers of new star clusters where they

form. But observations of G35 suggest this giant star, more

than 20 times the mass of our Sun, is forming by the same or-

derly process as do stars with the same mass as the Sun. Stars

most like the Sun are understood to form by simple, symmetric

collapse of interstellar clouds.

"The focus of our study has been to determine how mas-

sive stars actually form," said Yichen Zhang of the University

of Florida. Zhang, lead author of a paper about the discovery

published April 10 in the Astrophysical Journal. "We thought

the G35 protostar's structure would be quite complicated, but

instead we found it is simple, like the cocoons of protostars

with the Sun’s mass.”

The observations of G35 were made in 2011 with a spe-

cial camera aboard SOFIA, a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft

that can carry a telescope with an effective diameter of 100

inches (2.5 meters) to altitudes as high as 45,000 feet.

G35 was an ideal target for investigations because it is in

an early stage of development. But infrared light coming from

G35 is so strong, it prevented infrared space telescopes from

making detailed images. Also, the protostar is embedded so

deeply in its natal cloud, that it cannot be detected by optical

EYEPIECE May 2013

NASA Mission Update SOPHIA Observations Reveal a Massive Star Formation

WHY WE EXPLORE

SOPHIA and NASA chase plane climb to monitoring altitude

Inside SOPHIA’s airborne command center, scientists monitor results of equipment scans

Imaging from SOPHIA’s Faint Object Infrared Camera brings new light to unlocking the mysteries of G35

9

crescent. That’s the

sacrifice one makes to

get detail in the darker

area. As long as you

shoot a day or two

past the New Moon,

the crescent will be so

small that the bright-

ness is not objection-

able. In fact, a picture

taken at this time can

be stunning, capturing

the full orb, the thin

crescent lit directly by

the Sun, and the rest

by earthshine.

In night sky pho-

tography, manual set-

tings work better than

automatic. The cam-

era can be fooled by light or dark objects – the dark sky, for

example – causing exposures to be way off. Put your camera

on manual, and you can control shutter speed and f-stop, giv-

ing you more control over the final picture. When photograph-

ing the Moon, I approximate the exposure, then make adjust-

ments from there.

For the Moon, Jupiter and the obelisk, I exposed for one

second at f4/ISO 800. Once you get something that looks good

on your camera’s screen, shoot a few exposures over and un-

der the setting you’ve selected. With night photos, it’s easiest

to change the shutter speed, as long as you have a sturdy tri-

pod. Use a trigger on a cable to prevent jarring the camera

when the shutter is released, and you will have great results.

Jupiter was the other bright object in the sky that eve-

ning. The week before, I had photographed the planet and its

moons from Manhattan. Again, it’s a case of overexposing

Jupiter in order to see its moons. Using a 300mm lens, the

planet isn’t very big in the image, so the overexposure doesn’t

really matter. I tried a half second at f5.6/ISO 1600. This pro-

duced what looked like a bright star on my camera screen. I

enlarged the picture several times, and saw that the big dot had

three tiny dots all in a row - three of the four major moons

were in view, looking like a miniature solar system. Using this

method, you won’t get a Hubble quality photo (in fact, you’ll

have to crop the picture quite a bit to zoom in on Jupiter) but

capturing the image of a planet and its moons is an exciting

accomplishment to share with family and friends.

Night sky photography in NYC? Definitely possible from

the Bronx.

FOCUS ON THE UNIVERSE

Night sky photography in NYC can be tricky. Bright

lights wash out most objects in the sky. So I headed off to the

AAA Spring Starfest on Apr 13 to see how the universe would

photograph from the Bronx. As clouds dissipated around sun-

set, it was clear that I would have a good night for shooting.

Woodlawn Cemetery is a great venue for both observing

and photography, since there are no lights to interfere star gaz-

ing. The Moon and Jupiter were our main attractions on this

evening. Both are bright, excellent, photographic subjects.

I began by using a 300mm lens on my Nikon D4 camera

to get a fairly big image of the crescent Moon in frame. Tall

trees and a very tall obelisk made perfect reference points, as I

placed the Moon above and to the left of the top of the obelisk,

creating an interesting horizontal composition.

AAA member Eileen Renda alerted me to a good view

from another angle 50 feet away. I grabbed my equipment and

ran to catch the moment. This alignment required a wider shot,

so I used a 70-200mm zoom and set it at 85mm. The Moon

was close to the obelisk, and Jupiter was about 10° higher and

to the left. I saw the opportunity for a good vertical composi-

tion, framing the obelisk to the right, and Jupiter and the Moon

to the left. The sky was dark enough to see earthshine on the

unlit portion of the Moon. As clouds floated across the sky,

passing overhead, they reflected city lights and produced an

eerie effect. The reddish hue of the light on the clouds made

the Moon look as though it were in a deep space nebula.

At home, while cropping the image to show just the

Moon and the obelisk in a horizontal format, I noticed the

camera had picked up a number of stars in addition to the

clouds. This often happens during an extended exposure.

There are many ways to compose photos after a shoot. I

converted a vertical image to horizontal a with creative crop-

ping. Jupiter had to get cut, but the second version, with just

the Moon, became a new way to look at the same scene.

To properly photograph earthshine, you have to break a

few rules and overexpose the lit portion of the Moon. Look

closely at my images, you’ll see there is no detail on the bright

EYEPIECE May 2013

NY Yankees Aren’t the Only Bronx Stars

By Stan Honda

Stan Honda is an accomplished professional photographer and

contributing writer. In this continuing series of articles, he shares his

extensive knowledge of photographic equipment and techniques.

(All photo credits: Stan Honda, 2013; www.stanhonda.com )

10

NASA to Lasso an Asteroid Washington - Senator Bill Nelson, chairman of the Sen-

ate science and space subcommittee, has announced that Presi-

dent Obama is putting $100 million into the 2014 budget to

allow NASA to accelerate plans for a future asteroid mission.

The plan would speed up, by four years, the existing mission

to land astronauts on an asteroid after an unmanned ship

brought a space rock closer to Earth.

The mission will deploy a robotic spaceship to “lasso” a

small asteroid and put it near the Moon, for astronauts to ex-

plore. The tentative schedule calls for a 2019 mission to cap-

ture a 500-ton, 25 foot long asteroid, small by comparison to

some recent near-Earth visitors, but big enough for this first

step toward learning more about these bodies that hurl through

space. An Orion space capsule, now being developed, and a

crew of up to four astronauts, would rendezvous with the as-

teroid in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a

government document obtained by The Associated Press.

"It really is a clever concept," Nelson said in a press con-

ference in Orlando. "Go find your ideal candidate for an aster-

oid, go get it robotically, and bring it back."

“While there are thousands of asteroids that size out

there, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right

time to be captured will not be easy,” said Donald Yeomans,

who heads NASA's Near-Earth Object Program that monitors

close-by asteroids. “Once a suitable rock is found it, would be

captured with the space equivalent of ‘a baggie with a draw-

string.’ You bag it, you attach the solar propulsion module to

de-spin it, and bring it back to where you want it."

Yeomans said a 25-foot asteroid is no threat to Earth,

because it would burn up, should it inadvertently enter our

atmosphere. “The mission, as Nelson described, is perfectly

safe,” he said. Nelson also said this would help NASA de-

velop the capability to divert a potentially dangerous asteroid,

if one headed to Earth in the future. It also would be training

for a future mission to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.

The government document said the manned mission,

with no price tag at the moment, would inspire, because it

"will send humans farther than they have ever been before."

EYEPIECE May 2013

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider accelerator ring runs 17 miles underground

Higgs Boson (con’t from Page 1)

Lykken explains: “This instability means that, at some

point, billions of years from now it (the entire universe) is go-

ing to get wiped out." Building on Higgs research, Lykken

performed a calculation identifying the potential for a quantum

fluctuation - an event that would create a lower-energy-state

bubble that expands at the speed of light and would "sweep

everything before it.” That is not scheduled for billions of

years, so no worry - odds are that the Sun will go “super nova”

first. In addition, if the new universe expands at the speed of

light, it will take 26 billion years to cross the known universe -

anything but instantaneous.

String theorists are watching the CERN developments

closely. Discovery of a Higgs Boson sustained hope that more

exotic theories, such as super-symmetry (SUSY), would be

validated. SUSY is attractive, because it could unify some of

the other forces of nature, and even offer a candidate for the

particle that makes up dark matter. So far, though, scientists

have found indications of only a Standard Higgs Boson, with-

out any hints of additional Higgs Bosons with supersymmetric

characteristics. This has been a disappointment to scientists

and theorists alike.

In itself, discovery of the Higgs Boson offers major vali-

dation for the LHC and scientists who have searched for years.

"This discovery bears on the knowledge of how mass comes

about at the quantum level, and is the reason we built the LHC.

It is an unparalleled achievement," CERN said in a statement

last year. "More than a generation of scientists have been wait-

ing for this very moment, and particle physicists, engineers,

and technicians in universities and laboratories around the

world have been working for many decades, waiting for sci-

ence to arrive at this crucial point.”

As it turns out, discovering Higgs Boson was not such

good news. The mass of the new particle is about 126 times

the mass of the proton. If the particle really is the Higgs

Boson, its mass turns out to be just about what's needed to

make the universe fundamentally unstable.

The Orion capsule, designed for six, will be scaled down for four.

11

AAA Events on the Horizon May 2013

Tuesday, May 7, 14, 21, 28 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. P,T,C

Observing on the High Line - Manhattan

Next Month: June 4, 11, 18, 25

Friday, May 10 8 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., P,T,C

Observing in the Bronx - Van Cortlandt Park

Next date: June 14

Saturday, May 11 11 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., P,T,C

Solar Observing - Riverwalk Entrance, Bronx Zoo

Next date: June 15

Wednesday, May 15 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., P,T,C

AAA Annual Meeting

Meeting, Appetizers, and Presentations

Cicatelli Center, 505 Eighth Avenue, 20th Floor

(West 35th / 36th Streets)

Friday, May 17 8 p.m. - 10:00 p.m., P,T,C

Observing at Floyd Bennett Field– Brooklyn (new location)

Next date: June 14

Friday, May 17 8:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., P,T,C

Observing at Carl Schurz Park - Manhattan

Next date: June 21

Please confirm all events at www.aaa.org/events before attending

Legend for Events: M: Members; T: Bring telescopes, binoculars, etc.

P: Open to the public C: Cancelled if cloudy

EYEPIECE May 2013

NEXT MONTH IN EYEPIECE

Everything you want to know about astronomy and current events in space! Stay tuned, and read Eyepiece every month.

Eyepiece Staff - May Issue

Editor: Evan B. Schneider

Writers: Richard Brounstein, Joseph Fedrick,

Stan Honda, Alan Rude

Special Sections: Marcelo Cabrera, Joshua Erich,

Edward Fox, Richard Rosenberg

Solar Observations

By Joe Fedrick

The Sun, for the most part, has not been very active

lately in spite of the fact that this year was supposed to be the

peak of this solar sunspot cycle. However, a fairly large sun-

spot began to rotate onto the solar disk on Sat, Mar 30.

Three AAA club members had scopes set up in Central Park

at the west side of the Conservatory Waters near 74th and

Fifth, where a park ranger was showing some folks the nest of

red tail hawks .Tom Haeberle and Cary Horowitz had each set

up a Coronado scope with 40mm objectives and a Hydrogen-

Alpha filter. A view through these scopes revealed that the

solar limb had numerous small prominences and spicules of

red flame. A large sunspot could be seen emerging at the solar

limb. Nearby, on the solar limb, was a rather large promi-

nence. Julian Parks, our third club member, has set up another

scope. This small refractor had an 80mm objective and

a Herschelian wedge (an optical prism used in solar observa-

tion to refract most of the light out of the optical path) to

counter the intense glare of the Sun. A green filter dimmed

what was left of the solar glare. Four sunspot groups were visi-

ble. Three of the sunspot groups were very small and unim-

pressive, while a fourth near the solar limb was rather large.

The following week, I projected the Sun’s image with my

60mm f/15 refractor, and followed the large sunspot as it ro-

tated onto the suns disk. By mid-week, the sunspot was quite

impressive, and had a very dark central umbra that was tri-

lobed, looking somewhat like a" Mickey Mouse" face. This

dark, central umbra was surrounded by a rather large and im-

pressive, but paler, penumbral shadow. The sunspot was still

rather large and prominent on the solar disk by the morning of

Apr 6, as I continued to track its development.

Focus On: Aricebo Observatory

Nestled deep in the forests of Puerto Rico, this 1,000 foot (305

meter) radio reflector dish is the largest single-aperture tele-

scope ever built, with its spherical reflector consisting of 40,000

aluminum panels, each 3 feet by 6 feet. Targets for this scope?

Distant quasars and galaxies emitting radio waves which reach

Earth after travelling in space for 100 million years.

World Science Festival Opens May 29 The annual World Science

Festival opens this month,

bringing to light an amazing

and wide range of subjects

for members to experience.

Eyepiece will be covering the

opening salvo, “Spooky Ac-

tion: The Drama of Quantum

Mechanics”, with Brian Greene, Maia Guest, Carl Howell,

and Michael Roush. Open your mind to new concepts!

Visit: www.worldsciencefestival.com for complete infor-

mation about the program, and for tickets.