Jodrell Bank - The Night Sky Highlights of the Month April - Mars at Opposition. Image NASA. Mars, lying above Spica in Virgo, reaches opposition on April 8th when its magnitude will be -1.5 and its angular diameter 15.1 arc seconds. Due to the fact that Mars, and to a lesser extend, the Earth have elliptical orbits, its distance from us at opposition can vary from ~54 to 102 million km. April - it is still worthwhile to view Jupiter. Jupiter imaged by Damian Peach Jupiter is now well past opposition but this is a still a good month to observe this giant of planets. The features seen in the Jovian atmosphere have been changing quite significantly over the last few years - for a while the South Equatorial Belt vanished completely (as seen in Damian's image) but has now returned to its normal wide state. See more of Damian Peach's images: Damian Peaches Website" Features in Jupiter's atmosphere - December 2013. April: Look for the Great Red Spot on Jupiter Observe the Great Red Spot Image: NASA 1st 22:44 23rd 21:01 11th 21:03
The Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It first started up on 10 September 2008, and remains the latest addition to CERN’s accelerator complex. The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way. Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the speed of light before they are made to collide. Thousands of magnets of different varieties and sizes are used to direct the beams around the accelerator. All the controls for the accelerator, its services and technical infrastructure are housed under one roof at the CERN Control Centre.
The Sky of Earth Once the project was on track, getting confronted to the “real starry sky” has been an endurance test, full of surprises, and much more difficult that I thought at first. During the first observing night, what struck me was the shear amount of work awaiting me. I needed of course to take a picture of all I could see above me, to the west, the east, the north, the south and the zenith, but that wasn’t the end of it… Indeed I knew I would have to start over again in the other hemisphere, the one below my feet so to say, at the nadir… For a while, feeling dizzy, I was wondering what I was doing here… The shooting took place in the traditional way: similarly to a sailor travelling by sight, I got my bearings in the sky, jumping from star to star. The first evening, I aimed the camera at the bright star Canopus, which was culminating south and was starting to set towards the west.
Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2016 April 15 Mercury and Crescent Moon Set Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva) Explanation: Innermost planet Mercury and a thin crescent Moon are never found far from the Sun in planet Earth's skies. Tomorrow's picture: Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD at NASA / GSFC& Michigan Tech.
World Magnetic Model Calculator Use the tool below to compute values for the geomagnetic field and secular variation for a given set of coordinates and date. This calculator uses the World Magnetic Model as released in Dec 2019. Choose the geodetic latitude and longitude either by entering the coordinates into the form below (decimal degrees may be entered into the 'degrees' field, and degrees S or W should be entered with a negative sign), or by simply clicking the location on the map. The altitude and date may be set using the appropriate form fields. Clicking on the 'Show result on map' button will display the values for the chosen coordinates in a pop-up window. As this is based on a web service you can also obtain results in XML format using an HTTP GET request Please note that for Internet Explorer 10 and earlier there may be occasional erratic behaviour from the clickable map and the pop-up window.
Orbiter.ch Space News SETI@home Online Model of Solar System Pulsar Sounds (Jodrell Bank Observatory) A pulsar is a highly magnetised neutron star, with a radius of 10-15 km, having somewhat greater mass than the Sun which has a radius of approximately 1 million km. Radiation is beamed out along the magnetic poles and pulses of radiation are received as the beam crosses the Earth, in the same manner as the beam from a lighthouse causes flashes. Being enormous cosmic flywheels with a tick attached, they make some of the best clocks known to mankind. Pulsar recordings Some questions and answers What do I see in the movies? How are the sounds created? Why is the sampling rate not 44.1 kHz? Is there any need to correct for "dispersion"? I want to use these (or similar) sounds in an art project. Some simulated pulsar sounds
Your Age on Other Worlds Want to melt those years away? Travel to an outer planet! <div class="js-required"><hr> This Page requires a Javascript capable browser <hr></div> Fill in your birthdate below in the space indicated. The Days (And Years) Of Our Lives Looking at the numbers above, you'll immediately notice that you are different ages on the different planets. The earth is in motion. The top-like rotation of the earth on its axis is how we define the day. The revolution of the earth around the sun is how we define the year. We all learn in grade school that the planets move at differing rates around the sun. Why the huge differences in periods? Johannes Kepler Tycho Brahe Kepler briefly worked with the great Danish observational astronomer, Tycho Brahe. Here you see a planet in a very elliptical orbit. Kepler's third law is the one that interests us the most. Let's just solve for the period by taking the square root of both sides: The Gravity Of The Situation Isaac Newton ©2000 Ron Hipschman