Rosetta’s Trajectory

This photo found on NASA’s Solar Exploration page diagrams the trajectory for the European Space Agency’s mission Rosetta’s exploration of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Launched in 2004, Rosetta has since flown-by Earth three times, Mars, and two asteroids, and is scheduled to arrive at the comet later this year.  It’s so how cool scientist are ale to calculate precisely where the planets, asteroids, and comet will be at a given point in time in the future and how long it will take Rosetta to reach it on it’s given path.

Observing the Night Sky

The website Sky and Telescope is very cool! It shows an easy to understand layout of what planets, stars, etc. you will be viewing in the night sky and where they will be moving throughout the night and week. It also gives you categories of different celestial objects you can try to search for in the night sky. Beyond that there is an interactive tool to viewing the night sky, which makes it easy for any level of sky observers. Additionally, there are pictures, videos, and news updates relating to what is going on in space. Attached is the picture of tonight’s night.

Spectroscopy

I always wondered how we were able to determine what chemicals are present in other stars in outer space. This video excellently and concisely teaches the basics behind studying this in terms of spectroscopy. Naturally, light is important in our viewing of the stars, but I never considered that the way different elements bend light could be used in astronomy. It is so cool that they can detect these patterns in stars that are so distant from us.

Sky and Telescope

Sky and Telescope

This website is very cool!  It shows an easy to understand layout of what planets, stars, etc. you will be viewing in the night sky and where they will be moving throughout the night and week.  It also gives you categories of different celestial objects you can try to search for in the night sky.  Beyond that there is an interactive tool to viewing the night sky, which makes it easy for any level of sky observers.  Additionally, there are pictures, videos, and news updates relating to what is going on in space.