Travelers In The Night

Recently my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Teddy Pruyne, discovered a potentially dangerous and perhaps valuable asteroid with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, AZ as it streaked through the constellation of Leo. Though Teddy's discovery is unlikely to ever strike the Earth, someday, 2019 LZ1 may become a valuable source of raw materials for space colonists.

When a distant planet passes in front of its star some of the star's radiation goes through the planet's atmosphere. The pattern of colors or wavelengths which are present and missing tells us what is in the planet's atmosphere. The NASA Kepler Spacecraft has discovered more than a half dozen Earth like planets which pass between their star and the Earth. It appears likely that a way to discover pseudo intelligent life in the Universe is to search for pollution in their planet's atmosphere.

In 2019, asteroid hunters set a new record by discovering 2,433 Earth approaching objects including 85 which could potentially become a threat to planet Earth. Fortunately, none of these 2,433 nearby celestial neighbors, having an average diameter of 300 feet, is on a collision course with humanity.

Suppose that a space alien were so far from us that our Sun appears as a tiny point of light in it's night sky. What would the space alien receive if it pointed it's radio antennas at our Sun?

Over the past 50 years, in the interior of Australian meteorites, scientists have discovered a large variety of extraterrestrial organic substances. These include amino acids, sugars, alcohols, and a variety of aromatic hydrocarbons. Other meteorites have been found to contain vitamin B3 and even sugars leading to speculation that meteor bombardments could have brought life's ingredients to a sterile Earth.

In the 50 years that human made Travelers In The Night have been visiting the planet Mars we have discovered a wealth of interesting information about our neighbor in space. Mars has a surface which about the size of the land areas on Earth. It has has a climate which has changed dramatically over the eons. We have literally just begun to scratch its surface. NASA has begun planning for the Mars 2020 Rover which will based on the successful Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity Mars rovers.

Recently, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate David Rankin's backyard all sky camera in Tucson, Arizona recorded a brilliant fireball meteor which took a leisurely 15 seconds to cross the entire sky. It was last seen by a trucker on Interstate 10 near Wilcox, Arizona as it headed in the direction of southwestern New Mexico.

If a space alien were to peer around the edge of the Moon from its base on the far side it could see our lights at night and perhaps even the smoke from our factories during the day. It could also pick up radio and TV signals created by humans. An interesting question is could a space alien detect planet Earth and learn something about it if it were so far away that our Sun were only a tiny point of light in its night sky?

My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Groeller was asteroid hunting, in the constellation of Hydra, with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he discovered a rather distant comet. On its current path it cannot get closer than four times the distance to our Sun from us, making it a very faint fuzzy ball with a tail in our night sky. This situation could change when 2019 V2 Groeller comes near to the giant planet Jupiter. Stay Tuned.

Currently, women are exploring the planet Mars. Dr. Joy Crisp is the Deputy Project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory. Nicole Spanovich is the Curiosity Mars Rover Science Operations Team Chief. There is also a whole team of women who have constructed a Mars like garden park in Pasadena California to exercise the rovers so that we know how to operate them on Mars. There are unnamed dozens of other women who are Professors, Graduate Students, Engineers, Computer Programmers, and Managers who are making the exploration of Mars a reality.

Recently a group of high inclination asteroids hiding in Jupiter's shadow have been identified. Encounters with the giant planet's gravity could cause some of them to experience orbital changes making them a threat to Earth. Stay tuned

Robert McNaught discovered a comet as it was traveling northward from under the plane of the Earth's orbit. He was observing at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales Australia. This object was tracked by telescopes all around the world and named Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). It attracted attention as soon as it was realized that it would pass very close to the planet Mars in October of 2014. We have more to worry about a comets close approach today than humans did in 1910 when the Earth passed through the tail of Halley's comet.

Recent findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research suggests that there is more water locked in the minerals of nearby asteroids, which are easier to reach than the Moon, than could be found in ice deposits near the lunar poles. This asteroidal water combined with solar energy could provide space colonists with water to drink, air to breathe, and hydrogen and oxygen to fuel their rockets.

SpaceShipTwo will carry 6 passengers and two pilots and be launched from the 18,000 acre SpacePort America in New Mexico

At its closest point, a small space rock comes to only 1/3 of Mercury's average distance from the solar surface and receives 9 times the amount of solar energy which heats the planet Mercury to 800F. If it has the chemical composition of a stony meteorite it could contain a sizable amount of iron and in the future could be of interest to space colonists as a valuable source raw materials.

Water is essential to life on our planet. Recently, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was used to study 3 planets orbiting stars similar to our Sun. Astronomers divided the infrared light from these planets into its component colors to see which are present and which are missing. These data provide direct evidence of the amount of water which is present on each planet.

Nine hours after it was discovered a tiny, 4 foot in diameter, space rock streaked less than 4,000 miles above southern Africa as it passed through the cloud of communications satellites which surround our planet. If you are fortunate to witness such an event you would be treated to a spectacular light show and perhaps of a new sense of appreciation for Earth's atmosphere as it protects us from the dangers of space.

NASA's Deep Space Network is celebrating its 50th birthday. Australia, Spain, and California host its three sites. These facilities are spaced nearly evenly around the world to provide continuous communication with any spacecraft.

October of 2019 was a record breaking month for my team the Catalina Sky Survey during which we discovered 240 Earth approaching asteroids. This diverse collection of space rocks ranged in size from one that would fit into the bed of a small pickup truck to one which is more than 1/2 mile in diameter. Three of them can come closer to us than the communication satellites.

The Opportunity Rover has been joined by, a car sized robot, named Curiosity. So far it has found that ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. You can follow its journey on the NASA Curiosity website. What will it find next?