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Astronomy - Universe's First Moments
Astronomy - Universe's First Moments
40
APRIL 2022
APOLLO 16
remembered
50 years later p. 24
PLUS www.Astronomy.com
EY
EPIECE TECH
N
eVscope 2
n
OL
Niko
OGY
ON THE COVER
Spiral galaxy M101 is just one of
the tens of billions that formed
after the early universe cooled and
coalesced matter. This composite
image shows it in multiple
wavelengths. CHANDRA/HARVARD.EDU
COLUMNS
FEATURES Strange Universe 13
BOB BERMAN
16 COVER STORY 34 52 Binocular Universe 14
Imagining our Star Dome and The strange history PHIL HARRINGTON
infant universe Paths of the Planets of Mercury’s spots
During the Planck era, the RICHARD TALCOTT; Giovanni Schiaparelli didn’t Observing Basics 15
GLENN CHAPLE
universe was so small that our ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROEN KELLY just see canals on Mars. He
laws of physics break down. To also recorded odd markings on Secret Sky 60
dive deeper back in time, we’ll 40 Mercury. WILLIAM SHEEHAN STEPHEN JAMES O’MEARA
need new scientific language. Chang’e 5 rewrites
STEN ODENWALD lunar history 58
The mission’s samples are the Comb through 7
24 youngest lunar rocks yet found, Berenice’s hair QUANTUM GRAVITY
50 years ago: Apollo 16 leaving scientists wondering Packed with a veritable Everything you need to
roves the lunar highlands how the Moon stayed hot for smörgåsbord of galaxies, Coma know about the universe
The fifth crew to land on the so long. MARK ZASTROW Berenices is on full display this this month: JWST finally
Moon took lunar geology to month. MICHAEL E. BAKICH launches, more missing
new heights. MARK ZASTROW 46 62
dark matter, and NASA’s
Check out these solar probe touches the
32 Ask Astro Sun’s corona.
classic sky guides
Safe zone.
Sky This Month Modern tech has made
Venus and Jupiter meet. stargazing more accessible,
MARTIN RATCLIFFE AND but nothing beats an old-
IN EVERY ISSUE
ALISTER LING school observing guide. From the Editor 4
RAYMOND SHUBINSKI Astro Letters 6
New Products 61
Advertiser Index 61
Reader Gallery 64
Breakthrough 66
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ASTRO LET TERS
The bridge between worlds continually appalled at the amount of theory and free-form
I just read Stephen James O’Meara’s column speculation being bandied about to the public as “fact.” I
about violet in the December 2021 issue. think it’s all right for scientists to be bewildered enough on
I am one of the two color scientists who a topic to say, “We just don’t know.” I wish I saw that level
worked with Allen Tager (the protagonist in of honesty more often in the scientific programming being
the hunt for historical violet) on the investi- presented to the public. — John, Lake Worth, FL
gation into the arts that were described. (You
mention my name in the text, so thanks for
Few artworks used
violet hues before that, of course.) Leave it to chance?
“violettomania” overtook This article really makes me feel good. Since I was I enjoyed reading Bob Berman’s December 2021 article,
French Impressionists in “Chances are …” But I cannot agree with everything
younger, I used to spend almost all my free time reading
the 1860s. ROBERT LEHMAN
COLLECTION, 1975/THE METROPOLITAN astronomy and observations. Therefore, your column that he said. He seems to equate chance with random-
MUSEUM OF ART
bridges two worlds in my head that followed distant ness. I contend that these are two very different things.
orbits. — Eric Kirchner, Senior Color Scientist, AkzoNobel Randomness is a pattern of behavior; chance, on the other
We welcome hand, is not even a thing. It’s an ideological construct.
your comments
The mere fact that our universe is governed by laws
at Astronomy Letters,
P.O. Box 1612, Theory vs. fact refutes chance events in nature. Berman touched on this
Waukesha, WI 53187; It was so refreshing to read Bob Berman’s “Alien life” when he said, “Once M42 exists, its chances of looking as
or email to letters@ (November 2021), where he challenged his fellow scien- it does become 100 percent! It’s no longer unlikely in the
astronomy.com . tists, questioned cosmology’s most basic assumptions, least.” Likewise, we can say, once the universe exists, its
Please include your and described the universe’s “sudden appearance as a chances of looking as it does (including all evolutionary
name, city, state, and
country. Letters may hyper-dense marble-size ball that bewilderingly popped processes) become 100 percent; it’s no longer unlikely.
be edited for space out of nothingness.” While I might not agree with There is no room for chance in our universe. But there is
and clarity. his other conclusions, as a university instructor I am plenty of room for discovery. — Paul Kursewicz, Epping, NH
ScopeBuggy
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SNAPSHOT
A SHARP
SCENE
Curiosity captures a
martian landscape
at two times of day.
In landscape photography, pho-
tographers must catch the light at
just the right moment — or, in this
case, moments. To produce the
evocative colors and textures of
this landscape, which shows Mars’
NASA/JPL-CALTECH. BOTTOM FROM LEFT: SPP 1992 (PATRICIA KLEIN), ESO/VOGGEL ET AL.; ESO/VST ATLAS TEAM; ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: DURHAM UNIVERSITY/CASU/WFAU, NASA/BILL INGALLS
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 7
QUANTUM GRAVITY
POCKET-SIZED LIFE
A new theory for how seemingly
NEXT STOP, L2. After separating from inhospitable Venus could support life
the upper stage of its Ariane 5 booster
suggests that organisms may produce
shortly after launch, JWST (the silver
object at left) is now on its way to its pockets of ammonia in the clouds.
final orbit. NASA These pockets would set off a
snowball effect, neutralizing the
surrounding sulfuric acid so life
could thrive.
2007 with a 4-meter mirror and a cost galaxies and penetrate the dusty
of $500 million. shrouds of nebulae to see young stars. HUBBLE SAVED (AGAIN)
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope
After 14 years of delays and a For some astronomers, who have
entered safe mode for the second
ballooning price tag that, at times, much riding on JWST — including
time in 2021 on Oct. 25, after the loss
threatened to swallow NASA’s astro- observing proposals already accepted
of specific data synchronization
physics budget whole, JWST emerged and planned — the approaching launch messages. The 31-year-old telescope
as the most powerful space telescope brought a sense of foreboding. Repeated returned to full science operations
ever built. It is a joint project of NASA, delays pushed the launch closer to the Dec. 6 when the team reactivated
the European Space Agency, and the end of 2021, adding another layer of its final instrument.
Canadian Space Agency. stress to a holiday break already thrown
Its 6.5-meter hexagonal, segmented into havoc by the omicron variant of DEFINING A PLANET
mirror is shielded from the heat of COVID-19. A new study proposes that a body
the Sun by a five-layer sunshield that JWST had arrived Oct. 12 via cargo should be considered a planet if it
will allow the telescope to cool to ship at the spaceport in French Guiana, once was or currently is geologically
–370 degrees Fahrenheit (–223 degrees on schedule for a Dec. 18 launch date. active. According to the researchers,
Celsius). These frigid conditions will This slipped to Dec. 22 after a band requiring a body to have cleared its
minimize background noise at the suddenly unclamped itself during orbit — the current International
infrared wavelengths JWST is designed launch preparations and jolted the Astronomical Union definition —
to observe, allowing the telescope to entire observatory, requiring additional may be too narrow for future
seek the redshifted light of primordial checks. Then, a communications exoplanet discoveries.
problem from the telescope to ground
support arose; it was traced to a bad X-RAY GLASSES
On Dec. 9, NASA and the Italian Space
cable and pushed the launch to Dec. 24.
Agency launched the Imaging X-ray
Finally, bad weather forced a postpone-
Polarimetry Explorer mission. The
ment to the morning of Dec. 25.
observatory will measure the
The euphoria of launch was tempered
polarization of X-rays from the most
by the knowledge that the technically extreme objects in the universe,
audacious deployment lay ahead. An including supernova remnants and
engineering review had identified 344 supermassive black holes.
potential ways the process could fail —
three times as many as a Mars landing. SNEAKY JUPITER
But NASA’s bet seems to have paid off. Citizen scientists recently spotted an
The team must next align JWST’s object that sits more than 1,600 times
mirrors and commission its instru- farther from its star than Earth is from
PACKING UP. JWST underwent final deployment
tests in late 2020. NASA/CHRIS GUNN ments. The scope’s first images should the Sun. Either a large Jupiter or a
come six months after launch. — M.Z. small brown dwarf, the object was
missed by previous professional
searches. — CAITLYN BUONGIORNO
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 9
QUANTUM GRAVITY
LAUNCH October 2022 (0.3 AU) FAST FACT 0.3 astronomical unit (AU)
Feb. 9, 2020 (EST)
The maximum amount of
of our star — roughly
Mercury Sun time it will take a radio signal one-third the average
from Solar Orbiter to reach Earth-Sun distance. From
Earth is 16.5 minutes — just
Earth over twice the time it
there, Solar Orbiter will
takes light to travel from continue occasionally
the Sun to Earth. passing Venus, using the
EARTH GRAVITY Venus planet’s gravity to bump up
ASSIST
Nov. 27, 2021 VENUS GRAVITY
its orbital inclination. In March
ASSIST 2025, the craft will make its first observation
Dec. 27, 2020
Aug. 9, 2021
SOLAR ORBITER of the Sun’s poles, starting at 17° latitude.
Sept. 4, 2022 And if all goes well, Solar Orbiter will start
Feb. 18, 2025
Dec. 24, 2026
its extended mission in December 2026,
March 18, 2028 continuing its up-close exploration of the
June 10, 2029
1 AU = 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) Sept. 3, 2030 Sun’s never-before-seen polar regions
with more passes at even higher latitudes.
— ALISON KLESMAN
ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY
Cosmic butterfly
sports one wing
NASA, ESA, AND GERALD CECIL (UNC-CHAPEL HILL); IMAGE PROCESSING: JOSEPH DEPASQUALE (STSCI)
to the chef
Like any happy eater, our Milky Way’s supermassive black
hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), belches every time it consumes
a particularly hefty meal. The resulting small outbursts, or
mini-jets, can be difficult to spot outright, but may leave
traces in the surrounding gas. Such evidence of a blowtorch-
like jet released just a few thousand years ago was outlined
in a paper published Dec. 6 in The Astrophysical Journal.
Though the jet wasn’t spotted directly, the Hubble Space
Telescope instead saw indirect evidence of the jet’s material
pushing on a nearby hydrogen cloud. Another lingering jet
was previously spotted in 2013 by NASA’s Chandra X-ray
Observatory and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. Both
jets clearly indicate that the 4.1-million-solar-mass Sgr A* is
far from a sleeping giant. — C.B.
1/5
The fraction
of early galaxies
scientists believe
are still hidden from current B TEAM. The apparent rings around the b Centauri binary star system (left) and its planet (right;
marked by arrow) are artifacts from the coronagraph used to block out light from the host stars,
telescopes by cosmic dust. reducing their glare. The object at top right is a background star. ESO/JANSON ET AL.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 11
QUANTUM GRAVITY
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 13
BINOCULAR UNIVERSE
(and last) telescope than one arcsecond apart. Yet it still allows for satisfac-
tory low-power, wide-field views of deep-space targets.
Although prices have risen in recent years, a typical
A bare-bones scope that fits most observer’s needs. no-frills, commercially made 6-inch f/8 reflector costs
around $400 or less. Rarely heavier than 50 pounds
When first (23 kilograms), these scopes are lightweight and portable,
glancing at making them quick and easy to set up in your backyard
that title, or load into your car for a trip to a remote observing site.
some experienced If it’s perched on a simple Dobsonian mount (sans elec-
observers may think tronics), it can be ready to use in just a minute or two.
I’ve written myself You might ask: Considering the availability of larger
into a corner. You instruments, wouldn’t you be short-changing yourself
see, there is no such with a measly little 6-inch scope? Hardly! In a past col-
thing as a perfect umn (April 2011), I sang the praises of my first astro-
first telescope. In nomical telescope, Edmund Scientific’s Space
fact, there’s really no Conqueror, a 3-inch f/10 reflector. It was the only one I
such thing as a per- used during my first decade as an amateur astronomer,
fect scope, period. If and I still take it out for the occasional spin around the
you want to tease out galaxy. Over the years, that “little scope that could” has
the intricate details shown me innumerable lunar features; all of the planets
of Jupiter’s cloud (now that Pluto has been demoted); 120 asteroids down
belts or split apart a to magnitude 11.4; 1,500-plus double, triple, and multiple
tight double star, stars; more than 100 NGC objects; and the entire Messier
you’ll need a scope catalog. It did serious citizen science work, too, helping
that generates the me gather over 1,000 variable star estimates, which I
highest practical forwarded to the American Association of Variable Star
magnification — Observers. Now imagine what a backyard astronomer
perhaps a refractor can do with a 6-inch reflector!
or a cata- Speaking of, here’s an interesting thought
dioptric for the seasoned backyard astronomer who
Though buying your
own 6-inch f/8
telescope I submit needs to downscale from that bulky 12-inch
Dobsonian is usually (a type of telescope that combines both Dob to something easier to handle. The same
the way to go, some refracting and reflecting elements) with a that it’s a bare-bones 6-inch f/8 Dobsonian-mounted
observers choose to
go the homemade
high focal ratio, say f/10 or greater. However, bare-bones reflector telescope that’s appropriate for the
route. JOSEPH DECHENE if you want to chase “faint fuzzies,” where the 6-inch f/8 beginner will also satisfy your needs. Your
amount of light collected is paramount, Newtonian last telescope won’t have the light grasp of the
you’d do well with a large-aperture reflector big Dob, but you’ll spend more time under
with an f/4 or f/5 focal ratio. So, unless you’re
Dobsonian- the night sky — and your creaky back will
content seeking out the same old targets over mounted thank you!
and over, the perfect (or near-perfect) scope reflector. That brings me to the crux of this article:
should be a compromise. When asked to describe the perfect telescope
The ability to reveal a wide spectrum of for anyone, novice or expert, experienced
cosmic objects is just one requirement for an entry-level skygazers will usually say the best scope is whichever one
telescope. There are other, equally important, questions you’ll use the most. And being versatile, relatively inex-
to consider before making your first purchase: Does it pensive, portable, and user-friendly, the classic 6-inch
provide quality optics and mechanical stability at an f/8 Dobsonian fits the bill perfectly.
BY GLENN CHAPLE affordable price? Is it lightweight and easily portable? Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email me at
Glenn has been an
Can it be set up without much time or fuss? Is it easy to gchaple@hotmail.com. Next month: Astroimaging for
avid observer since
a friend showed use and maintain? Dummies. Clear skies!
him Saturn through But if there is no “perfect” beginner’s telescope, what
a small backyard should you choose to best satisfy all of the aforemen- BROWSE THE “OBSERVING BASICS” ARCHIVE
scope in 1963. tioned criteria? I submit that it’s a bare-bones 6-inch f/8 AT www.Astronomy.com/Chaple
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 15
OUR INFANT
GUT era. R
The period of cosmic his- K d s b d s b a
tory before inflation kicked S Down Strange Bottom Antidown Antistrange Antibottom Photon
off, ranging from 10-43 to 10-36
seconds after the Big Bang, is L
almost unimaginable. But we E e + o e+ + o Z
think its properties are never- P Electron Muon Tau Positron Antimuon Antitau Z boson
theless calculable. During this T
time, gravity had become its
own distinct force, but those
O ie i+ io ie i+ io W+ W–
N
forces we now experience indi- Electron Muon Tau Electron Muon Tau W+ W–
S neutrino neutrino neutrino antineutrino antineutrino antineutrino boson boson
vidually as the separate strong,
weak, and electromagnetic
This table shows the particles of the Standard Model, which include matter-generating fermions and their
forces were all essentially antimatter counterparts, as well as force-generating bosons. GUTs add supermassive particles, which become
indistinguishable. most important in the early universe, to this mix.
There are many ways this
INFLATION
Weak nuclear force
we can describe — or, perhaps, GUT
ERA
that even exists. Below these
BIG BANG
scales, our current theories PLANCK Strong nuclear force
about space and time com- ERA
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 19
at each end on three- quantized. You can imagine
dimensional objects called QUANTUM FIELDS that space looks like a lattice
branes. Confined within just constructed from Tinkertoys,
one of these branes — the one PHYSICISTS HAVE DEVELOPED a detailed mathematical but in which only the round
picture of matter and forces in terms of a concept called the
that comprises our particular quantum field. A quantum field consists of innumerable quanta
spools (nodes) can be seen.
universe — are all the (small packets) of energy, called virtual particles, that are emitted The rods (links) connecting
Standard Model particles and and absorbed by matter particles such as electrons and quarks. the spools are hidden, but
hopefully a few more, such as We interpret this exchange as a force acting between the particles. still essential in creating
those we suspect are respon- In fact, the matter particles themselves are seen as persistent the lattice. In the same
excitations in their respective quantum fields — one for each kind of
sible for dark matter, dark Standard Model particle. An important ingredient of quantum fields
way that you can add
energy, and inflation. Closed is that, thanks to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, particles can and remove rods in
strings, meanwhile, represent appear and disappear literally from out of nothingness, usually your Tinkertoy
gravitons, which are the fun- called the vacuum state. Researchers have experimentally con- lattice, spin net-
damental particles, or quanta, firmed this in many different ways since the 1940s. By adding works can change
enough energy to a collision between physical particles,
of the gravitational field. These we can promote these virtual particles into real parti-
through a specific
are free to move across all cles, but only in matter-antimatter pairs. This is how set of cause-and-effect
dimensions of the Bulk. the Large Hadron Collider creates many other moves by changing
A three-dimensional brane particles as debris from the energy of proton- the links at each
represents one possible state of proton collisions. — S.O. node. This sequence
3D space at a specific instant of moves forms what
— a snapshot of the universe. is called a spin foam.
As time ticks by, it generates Imagine taking
a collection of branes, like the (LQG) offers a way to break relate to the a movie of your
successive pages in a book, down space and time into quantized area Tinkertoys in which each
that represent our entire their smallest possible pieces. they represent in frame shows the lattice after
four-dimensional universe. In LQG, the basic ingredient multiples of the Planck area making a single change. The
But like current quantum of space is called a node. It is (10-33 cm)2. And a collection of movie (or spin foam) encodes
theory, string theory relies on the size of the Planck volume: links and nodes at any given the sequence of moves and
the pre-existence of space-time (10-33 cm)3. Nodes are the only instant is called a spin changes along a fourth
and does not (as yet) provide physically detectable elemen- network. For example, the dimension — we interpret
insight into gravity as a quan- tary ingredients of space and volume of a single atom of this dimension of change as
tum field. Strings provide no provide the coordinate net- hydrogen (10-8 cm)3 consists of time. And the time step
clues to how to interpret the work for space-time. They are a spin network described by between successive frames
space-time they are embedded connected to each other by 1075 nodes. represents one Planck time
within. Instead, space-time is links, but these do not physi- Each spin network repre- (10-43 seconds). But what we
the passive coordinate frame- cally exist in space or time. sents a state of 3D space at a call “time” is just the way in
work within which strings Links are assigned integer particular time: a possible which the 3D spin networks
move. What’s more, string numbers (their spins) that way in which space can be are stacked along a fourth
theory requires up to seven
additional dimensions with
complex, spacelike geometries,
but at imperceptible scales of
10-33 cm.
Even though this theory
LINKS AND NODES
has room in it for gravity-
Node
carrying particles, these only A small portion of a spin
network (left) shows nodes Link
weakly interact with the back- (blue dots) and links
ground space-time. To be a (lines). At right, the same
network appears with the
full quantum theory of grav- surface areas of the nodes,
ity, string theory would also visible as shaded regions.
have to create the space-time The network specifies
how many neighbors
background within which it a node can have and
operates. Thus far, it cannot. forms the basis for
defining geometry.
For that, we must entertain
another theory.
Loop quantum gravity
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 21
physicist John Wheeler called
A COSMIC TIMELINE quantum space-time foam.
Collections of nodes came
Diameter of the observable universe Age of the together to form the first pri-
universe mordial objects — quantum
TODAY black holes — but these
13.8 billion years
quickly disintegrated back
into individual nodes. Other
collections of nodes took on
ERA OF wavelike behavior and trav-
GALAXIES eled through the spin foam
network as gravitons.
Structures larger than the
1 billion years Planck scale began to form
stringlike objects consisting
of nodes organized along one
ERA OF dimension of space. With the
ATOMS information (provided by their
links) about the seven compact
dimensions, they took on the
COSMIC MICROWAVE
380,000 years properties of the individual
BACKGROUND
particles we recognize in the
ERA OF Standard Model. Huge ensem-
NUCLEI bles of these strings began to
behave as organized quantum
3 minutes fields. The way in which one
string interacted with another
ERA OF is described by the way in
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
which one enormous collec-
tion of nodes changed into
.0001 second another collection as part of
a spin foam pattern.
During all these phase
PARTICLE
ERA transitions, the amount of
information coded into the
network of nodes steadily
10-34 second
INFLATIONARY ERA increased. This had a profound
10-36 second effect upon how precisely the
GUT ERA mathematical relationships
10-43 second between nodes along the
PLANCK ERA emerging time axis could be
specified. These relationships
BIG BANG
are what we call the physical
laws of nature and include how
we describe gravity and the
details of the Standard Model.
networks to produce spin said, the universe has no Cosmogenesis: At first, So, during this later stage of
foams. Stephen Hawking and boundary (beginning), just as the scope of the Big Bang was the Planck era, not only did
James Hartle proposed this there is no point north of the limited to the Planck scale as time emerge, but also the laws
idea in 1983 to solve the prob- North Pole. Once one dimen- bubbles of new space-time of nature now operating across
lem of the origin of time in sion emerged as the direction emerged from within the our space-time.
cosmology. They called it the of a succession of spatial states vaster network of purely space- In his book The Mind of
no-boundary proposal because (branes in string theory; spin like dimensions. This was an God, Paul Davies notes that
it eliminated the need for dis- networks in LQG), it estab- unimaginably turbulent time, “[Prior to] one second after
cussing what happened before lished cause and effect, and the perhaps resembling the topsy- the Big Bang there was less
the Big Bang. Essentially, they Big Bang occurred. turvy chaos of what theoretical space and less information,
APOLLO
roves the lunar
The fifth crew to land on the Moon took lunar
geology to new heights. BY MARK ZASTROW
16
step,” Duke later said. “It was just: Jump landed.
off and start work.” For the laconic Young, the mission’s
When Duke and Young hit the commander, it was the second trip to
regolith, it marked the first time that the Moon, having orbited it as the
astronauts had set foot in the rugged Command Module Pilot (CMP) on
lunar highlands. Apollo 16’s landing site Apollo 10. He was also a veteran of the
was Descartes, a region some 7,400 feet Gemini program, having flown on
Gemini 3 and commanded Gemini 10.
Duke, the mission’s Lunar Module Pilot,
was an enthusiastic rookie; Apollo 16
highlands
would be his first and only spaceflight.
Ken Mattingly had been slated to fly as
CMP on Apollo 13 but was grounded
after being exposed to the measles and
shifted to Apollo 16.
All the while, uncertainty hung over
the future of NASA. Political support for
crewed space exploration had cooled.
U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, speak-
ing to launch controllers at Kennedy
Space Center shortly after launch, joked,
“I think you are getting a little bit bored
with this thing, aren’t you?” But even
with the end of Apollo in sight, the crew
of 16 delivered, carrying out an expedi-
tion that brought its fair share of snafus
and scientific surprises.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 25
***
Apollo 16 got off to an inauspicious start,
with a string of minor glitches. Paint was
flaking off the LM’s insulation for no John Young works at the
apparent reason. The crew discovered a rover on the lower slopes
software bug that crashed the guidance of Stone Mountain in the
Descartes Highlands,
system. Upon arriving at the Moon, the with the Cayley Plains
LM’s communications antenna jammed spread out below him.
and its landing radar malfunctioned.
Charlie Duke had issues zipping up his
spacesuit. And when he finally did, his
mic was positioned awkwardly: It tended
to bump into his drink tube, spraying
the inside of his helmet with an orange-
flavored sports drink. (The liquid was
laced with potassium to ward off irregular
heartbeats that had affected some previ-
ous Apollo astronauts.) So, when Young
and Duke finally climbed into Orion and
separated from the Command Module Apollo 16 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the
swings it down, left, right, puts it back
(CM) Casper, spirits were high. It seemed Kennedy Space Center at 12:55 P.M. EST on April 16, in the center, switches over to the other
the mission was back on track. 1972. NASA/KIPP TEAGUE [backup] system, and does the same thing,
YOUNG (TO CM): Boy, Ken, you look and you just watch it. It’s a little thing
great! that you do, kind of a ritual, happens
MATTINGLY (TO LM): Well — about 20 seconds before the burn.”
DUKE (TO CM): You really got a pretty While Young and Duke waited for
spacecraft! Mattingly to light Casper’s engine, the
MATTINGLY (TO LM): Yours is a [garbled] pair tried to wipe down Duke’s helmet.
pretty one, too. YOUNG (ONBOARD LM): Ain’t the
JIM IRWIN, CAPSULE COMMUNICATOR clearest in the world, but it’s the
(CAPCOM): Orion, this is Houston. How clearest I could do, Charlie. Honest.
do you read? DUKE (ONBOARD LM): It’s terrible.
DUKE: Roger. You’re five by [five], Jim, YOUNG (ONBOARD LM): You want to try
and we’re sailing free. [Pause.] OK, it yourself? Just doesn’t come off. […]
Jim. It was a little rushed, but we got OK, we’re getting — we’re getting
it done. The only bad thing is, I got a behind the timeline probably
hat full of orange juice. — maybe.
The two craft were in an elliptical orbit DUKE (ONBOARD LM): No, we aren’t.
that dipped to just 11 miles (18 kilometers) We’re OK.
At the end of the first EVA, Young put the rover
above the lunar surface near the landing through its paces in a test drive dubbed the “Grand YOUNG (ONBOARD LM): OK, nothing
site. While on the farside of the Moon and Prix,” which Duke filmed on a 16mm camera. He we can do here, huh?
enthusiastically reported to Houston: “He’s got
out of contact with Houston, Mattingly in about two wheels on the ground. There’s a big
Onboard Casper, Mattingly realized he
the CM would raise Casper’s orbit using rooster tail out of all four wheels. And as he turns, had a problem. In the gimbal test, the
the Service Module’s main engine. It was he skids. The back end breaks loose, just like on second set of yaw gimbals was oscillating
snow. […] Man, I’ll tell you, Indy’s never seen a driver
less than an hour before Young and Duke like this.” ALL IMAGES BY NASA AND FILM SCANS BY THE JOHNSON SPACE violently, causing the entire spacecraft to
would begin their descent. CENTER UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED shake. Not knowing what the issue was,
DUKE (ONBOARD LM): Here we go. he started to blame himself. In 2001, he
YOUNG (ONBOARD LM): Now, shall we recalled: “[I’ve] practiced this stuff so
do it? problem hit: Before the circularization much, it’s like knowing your name. […]
DUKE (ONBOARD LM): Oh … burn, Mattingly had to run an automated We had already done this a couple of
YOUNG (ONBOARD LM): Might as well. test of all four of the Service Module’s times on our way out, so it’s not like the
[…] engine gimbals, two in the primary sys- first time we’d done this test, only this
YOUNG: Ken, do you read us on VHF tem and two in the backup system. These time the spacecraft was [shaking]. I
[Very High Frequency radio]? Over. gimbals swiveled the engine to steer its stopped. [I thought,] ‘Oh, God. I’ve done
MATTINGLY: Yes, loud and clear. direction of thrust. Mattingly recalled the this a thousand times. How could I screw
YOUNG: You fixing to do the burn, right? test in a 2001 NASA oral history: “So you it up now? I’ve got to do this again.’ ”
MATTINGLY: Sure am. start the little computer program, and it MATTINGLY (TO HIMSELF): [garbled]
It was then that Apollo 16’s most serious just automatically swings the gimbal up, marked. [garbled] [Long pause.]
[garbled] yaw. [garbled] [Pause.] an hour before the landing, on an orbit about the Apollo 9 test, and he said
[garbled] [Pause.] It’s not gonna work. you can look down at your landing site, that you really feel it in the spacecraft.
YOUNG (ONBOARD LM): [sarcastically] 8 miles [13 km] beneath you, and they’re But this thing is stable. They’ve really
Charlie, this is fun, by golly. [Laughs.] about to tell you to come home.” checked that out, and it’ll rattle
It’s really — it’s really — it’s the worst YOUNG (ONBOARD LM): Man, I’m ready. and roll a little bit if you have to use
sim I’ve ever been in. I’m ready to go down and land. I it, but it’s stable.
MATTINGLY (TO HIMSELF): I be a sorry think that’d really be neat. MATTINGLY: Sounds good. Once again,
bird. DUKE (ONBOARD LM): I bet we dock and the ground earns their pay.
MATTINGLY: Hey, Orion? come home in about three hours. From there, the landing was smooth
YOUNG: Go ahead, Ken. The crew spent one more trip around sailing. The site was on the Cayley
MATTINGLY: I have an unstable yaw the Moon waiting in agony. When they Plains, nestled between two peaks of the
gimbal, no. 2. It’s just been oscillating came around the lunar farside on their Descartes Highlands — Smoky Mountain
and — oscillates in yaw any 15th lunar orbit and reestablished radio to the north and Stone Mountain to the
time it gets excited. south. Each mountain sported a
YOUNG: Oh, boy. nearby crater with prominent rays
MATTINGLY: You got any quick — North Ray and South Ray cra-
ideas? ters. Geologists hoped these craters
YOUNG: No, I sure don’t. would serve as natural drill holes
Unless the problem was resolved, where the crew could find samples
mission rules dictated the landing of the underlying bedrock. Young
could not continue. and Duke set Orion down roughly
While Mattingly tried to trou- 906 feet (276 m) from their target,
bleshoot the gimbal problem with near two craters named Double
Houston, Young and Duke braced Spot.
themselves for Houston to cancel DUKE: Contact. Stop. Boom!
their landing. “Our hearts sank,” PRO. ENGINE ARM. Wow!
Duke said in a 1999 NASA oral [garbled] man! Look at that! […]
history. “If your heart can sink to
the bottom of your boots in zero
gravity, ours did, because there we The crew of Apollo 16 (left to right):
Command Module Pilot Thomas K.
were, two years of training, Mattingly, Commander John W. Young,
240,000 miles [386,000 km] away, and Lunar Module Pilot Charles M. Duke.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 27
YOUNG: Well, we don’t have to walk far DUKE: Hey John, hurry up! ANTHONY (“TONY”) ENGLAND
to pick up rocks, Houston. We’re YOUNG: I’m hurrying. OK. (CAPCOM): Sounds great.
among them. […] With that, Young stepped onto the Before they began their excursion, the
DUKE: Old Orion is finally here, Moon. pair set up the Apollo Lunar Surface
Houston. Fantastic! YOUNG: There you are, our mysterious Experiments Package (ALSEP), a suite
IRWIN: Sounds great. and unknown Descartes. Highland of stationary scientific instruments. One
*** plains. Apollo 16 is going to change highlight was an experiment developed by
With the long delay, the crew opted to your image. Columbia University’s Marcus (“Mark”)
sleep and push back their first scheduled Duke was next to bound down the ladder. Langseth to measure the heat flow within
extravehicular activity (EVA) to the next DUKE: Here I come, babe! […] Hot dog, the Moon’s interior. It was an upgraded
day. The next morning, as Young clam- is this great! […] Fantastic. That’s the version of a kit that had flown on
bered down the ladder, Duke couldn’t first foot on the lunar surface. It’s Apollo 15; on that mission, problems with
wait to get onto the lunar surface. super, Tony. the drill prevented the heat probes from
being planted at their intended depth.
DUKE: OK. Man, you can’t believe how
happy I am that [the first drill stem]
went in there.
YOUNG: Tony, he’s very happy.
ENGLAND: Mark’s pretty happy, too.
But as Young worked at the ALSEP’s cen-
tral station, with wires tangled at his feet,
NORTH RAY he accidentally caught his foot on a cable
and stumbled.
YOUNG: Charlie …
11 DUKE: What?
YOUNG: Something happened here.
KIVA 13 SM DUKE: What happened?
OKY
MO YOUNG: I don’t know. Here’s a line that
UN
TA
IN pulled loose.
PALMETTO DUKE: Uh-oh.
YOUNG: What is that? What line is that?
DUKE: That’s the heat flow. You’ve pulled
GATOR
it off.
C AY L E Y P L A I N S North YOUNG: I don’t know how it happened.
FLAG 2 Pulled loose from there?
LM DUKE: Yes.
1
SPOOK YOUNG: God almighty. Well, I’m wasting
my time. I’m sorry. I didn’t even know
— I didn’t even know it. [Pause.] It’s
TRAP A IN sure gone —
NT ENGLAND: Did the wire or the connector
U
WRECK 9 O
8 M come off?
E YOUNG: — our first catastrophe. It broke
BABY RAY 6 N
O
4 EVA 1
CINCO EVA 2 DUKE: The wire came off at the
EVA 3 connector.
ENGLAND: OK, we copy. OK, I guess we
SOUTH RAY 0 0.5 1 mile can forget the rest of that heat flow.
0 1 2 km DUKE: Now, if I go do the — ah, rats!
YOUNG: I’m sorry, Charlie. You know it.
Young took the mishap hard — he knew
how hard Langseth and the other mis-
sion scientists had worked on the experi-
The landing site for Orion was chosen due to its location at two overlapping geologic formations: ment. But there was nothing to do except
the Cayley Formation and the Descartes Formation. Both were thought to be volcanic in nature — carry on.
but this was quickly disproved by the dearth of volcanic rocks in the area. Instead, scientists
suspect, the massive Imbrium impact 3.9 billion years ago blasted ejecta that flowed across the After deploying the rest of the ALSEP,
Moon, forming structures at Apollo 16’s landing site that resemble volcanic flows. ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY the pair set out in the rover on their first
traverse: a short excursion about 0.9 miles
DUKE: OK, I’ve got it. […] Oh, Tony, it’s CapCom Henry Hartsfield relayed these Our sampling is really — at least,
got some beautiful crystals in it impressions to Mattingly as he soared over procedurally — has been real team
though. That was a good guess. the landing site in Casper. work, and we appreciate everybody’s
ENGLAND: Good show. HARTSFIELD: I guess the big thing, Ken, hard work on our sampling training.
In fact, this rock — dubbed “Big Muley” was they found all breccia. They ENGLAND: OK. And I sure think it’s
after Muehlberger — tipped the scales at found only one rock that possibly paying off. You guys do an outstand-
almost 26 pounds (11.7 kg), setting a lunar might be igneous. ing job.
sample weight record that has yet to be MATTINGLY: Is that right? [Laughs.] YOUNG: Yeah. You noticed how good I
broken. HARTSFIELD: Yeah. I guess the guys are carried the bags, huh?
As the crew wrapped up their first a little bit surprised by that. Unbeknownst to Young, his radio
EVA, the scientists in Mission Control MATTINGLY: […] [Laughs.] Well, it’s back remained open, allowing Houston — and
were questioning some of their basic to the drawing boards, or wherever the press corps — to eavesdrop on a decid-
assumptions about Apollo 16’s landing geologists go. edly private conversation.
site. Perhaps the landscape wasn’t as vol- Inside the LM, as Young and Duke pre- YOUNG: I got the farts again. I got ’em
canic as they had thought: Nearly all the pared to sleep, Duke paid tribute to the again, Charlie. I don’t know what the
rocks the crew had found were breccias mission geologists who had trained them. hell gives it to me. Certainly not — I
— cemented piles of smaller rock frag- DUKE: Let me say that all our geology think it’s the acid in the stomach. I
ments that are non-volcanic in origin. training, I think, has really paid off. really do.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 29
DUKE: It probably is. bedrock — true samples of the Descartes
YOUNG: I mean, I haven’t eaten this Highlands. However, this was complicated
much citrus fruit in 20 years! And by the nearby presence of South Ray Crater
I’ll tell you one thing, in another on the plains below: The crew realized that
12 f------ days, I ain’t never eating many of the craters they were seeing were
any more! And if they offer to secondary craters formed by flying debris
sup[plement] me potassium with my from the South Ray impact.
breakfast, I’m going to throw up! DUKE: You know, John, with all this —
[Pause.] I like an occasional orange these rocks here, I’m not sure we’re
— really do. [Laughs.] But I’ll be getting [samples of] Descartes.
darned if I’m going to be buried in YOUNG: That’s right. I’m not either.
oranges. DUKE: We ought to go down to a crater
After a few more minutes of unguarded without any rocks. […]
conversation, Houston intervened. As Young and Duke stood at the rim of
JOE ALLEN (CAPCOM): Orion, Houston. one secondary crater with a rake for col-
YOUNG: Yes, sir. lecting samples, they debated the best spot
ENGLAND: OK, uh, John. You — we have to sample from. Indeed, North Ray Crater was a crown
a hot mic. DUKE: This is steep. OK, where do you jewel of the area. At roughly 3,600 feet
YOUNG: How… How long have we had want this [rake]? (1.1 km) in diameter, it was nearly as large
that? YOUNG: Well, on the rim, I think, as Arizona’s Meteor Crater — and with
ENGLAND: OK. It’s been on through the Charlie. even steeper slopes, as the pair found out.
debriefing. DUKE: Why don’t we get outside the rim? YOUNG: Man, does this thing have steep
YOUNG: How could we be on hot mic That would be definitely Descartes, walls.
with normal voice? […] right down here. OK? DUKE: They said 60 degrees.
ENGLAND: John, would you exercise YOUNG: The object is to get the stuff YOUNG: Well, I tell you, I can’t see to the
your push-to-talk button there? It that’s been knocked out of the ground bottom of it and I’m as close to the
may be stuck. [bedrock from the deepest point] and edge as I’m gonna get. That’s the
YOUNG: Yeah, I hit it then. landed on the rim. truth. […]
ENGLAND: John, it doesn’t seem to be a DUKE: Yeah, I know it, but I thought that ENGLAND: Man, is that a hole in the
hot mic now. Evidently, you got it off. would definitely — we could say that ground!
YOUNG: OK. Fine. would be definitely — oh, OK, I’ll DUKE: […] It really is. I see no bedrock,
*** sample right up here. though. All I see is boulders around
The next day, Young and Duke trekked The next day’s third and final EVA was the crater. There’s nothing that
to the lower slopes of Stone Mountain, originally going to be cancelled due to reminds me of bedding, just loose
2.4 miles (3.8 km) south. Driving the rover the landing delay, but it was retained at boulders.
up a 20 percent grade, they reached a clus- the insistence of the science team. They Though no bedrock seemed available to
ter of five craters, called the Cincos, 500 feet argued that EVA 3’s main target, North sample, the crew took the opportunity to
(150 m) above the Cayley Plains. Their Ray Crater, offered the mission’s last, best scout and sample an enormous boulder
goal was to find chunks of the mountain’s chance to find Descartes bedrock material. several hundred feet in the distance.
DUKE: Look at the size of that biggie! jumping up and down in front of the The next day, the crew lit the Service
YOUNG: It is a biggie, isn’t it. It may be rover’s camera. Module engine once more to begin their
further away than we think because — ENGLAND: For a 380-pound [172 kg] guy journey back to Earth.
DUKE: No, it’s not very far. It was just [including the weight of the spacesuit], On the mission’s 11th day, less than
right beyond you. that’s pretty good. 24 hours before Apollo 16 splashed down
YOUNG: Theoretically, huh? The camera panned over to Duke, who in the Pacific Ocean, the crew took part in
Apollo crews found it notoriously diffi- also started jumping up and down. a press conference, answering questions
cult to judge distances on the Moon. The DUKE: Yeah, jump flat-footed straight in from reporters relayed to them by
lack of air meant distant terrain never the air, three hundred — about 4 feet CapCom Henry Hartsfield. Though the
appeared hazy as it would on Earth, rob- [1.2 m]. Wow! press had many questions for the astro-
bing astronauts of a helpful distance cue. Then, Duke had a brush with disaster. nauts about the expedition’s numerous
DUKE: Look at the size of that rock! Losing his balance, he toppled over back- technical glitches, the lead topic of that
ENGLAND: We can see. ward, his legs flailing — and his criti- day’s news cycle was clear.
DUKE: The closer I get to it, the bigger it cal life support systems in his backpack HARTSFIELD: Apollo 16, the questions in
gets. about to impact the surface. “That was this press conference have been pre-
Appropriately dubbed House Rock for a moment of panic,” he said in 1999. “I pared by newsmen covering the flight
its size, the boulder was one of the most really — you know, I was in trouble. You here at the Manned Spacecraft Center.
impressive seen on any Apollo mission. could watch me scrambling like that, try- I’m going to read them to you exactly
Excavated by the North Ray impact, its ing to get my balance. And my heart was as worded by the newsmen and in a
samples gave scientists one of their best just pounding. You know, the backpack is priority specified by them. Question
looks at lunar highlands material. very fragile. I thought the suit would hold, no. 1 for John Young: “A couple of
When Young and Duke returned to the but the backpack, with the plumbing and times you were on hot mic and didn’t
LM, they had planned to stage a light- connections and all — if that broke, it was know it, but how could a nice Florida
hearted “Lunar Olympics” for the TV just like having a puncture in the suit.” boy like you say what you did about
camera. After all, 1972 was an Olympic YOUNG: [disapprovingly] Charlie! citrus fruit?”
year. But time was running short. DUKE: That ain’t any fun, is it? CREW (ONBOARD): [Laughter.]
YOUNG: We were gonna do a bunch of YOUNG: That ain’t very smart. YOUNG: That’s a very good question.
exercises that we had made up as the DUKE: That ain’t very smart. Well, I’m Wait until you drink it day and night
Lunar Olympics to show you what a sorry about that. for two weeks and let me know what
guy could do on the Moon with a YOUNG: Right. Now we do have some you think.
backpack on, but they threw that out. work to do.
As Young talked, he decided to show After returning to the LM and secur- Mark Zastrow is senior editor of
off his high-jump abilities, repeatedly ing their samples, Young and Duke Astronomy.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 31
SKY THIS MONTH
Visible to the naked eye
Visible with binoculars
Visible with a telescope
In November 2019,
Jupiter and Venus came
within 1.4° of each other.
This month brings a
closer conjuntion, with
just 12’ ultimately
separating the pair.
BILL HOOD
APRIL 2022
Venus and Jupiter meet
Mercury is at its month. Following its superior
Movin’ on by
best for Northern conjunction with the Sun on
Hemisphere observers this April 2, Mercury springs
month. It’s a highlight in the AQU I L A upward in the western evening
evening sky. The rest of the sky and reaches greatest elonga-
planetary action takes place in Enif Algedi tion just four weeks later. The
the morning, with the finest PEGASUS high inclination of the ecliptic to
conjunction of the year between the western horizon at this time
the two brightest planets, Jupiter of year further aids its visibility.
and Venus, on the last day of Sadalmelik Can you spot Mercury at the
CAPRIC ORNUS
the month. In the run-up to end of April’s first week? It
that conjunction, Mars, Venus Venus Saturn shines at magnitude –1.8 and
Mars
and Saturn open the month in sets within 30 minutes of the
a fine display that constantly Deneb Sun — certainly a challenge if
changes appearance and makes Algedi your western horizon is blocked
April mornings a good time to 10° by trees or buildings.
spring out of bed early and Circumstances improve rap-
catch the continuing spectacle April 5, 1 hour before sunrise idly as Mercury climbs higher
Looking east
each day. in altitude each consecutive
Mercury achieves its best On April 5, Mars (heading east) slides beneath Saturn. The planets are just evening. On April 9, it stands
evening appearance of 2022 this 24' apart. ALL ILLUSTRATIONS: ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY about 1° high 30 minutes after
remaining above the horizon there really was something going on here.
75 minutes after sunset and Would you too have risen to that bait? Aristarchus is so bright it is easily seen when
magnitude –1.2. The misty glow One evening later, look for a diamond- the Moon is bathed in earthshine. Just after New
of the Pleiades star cluster shaped plateau protruding above the surround- Moon, the farside faces the Sun while the near-
(M45) hangs some 18° above ing lava-flooded plain. Just west of the blazing side experiences night. Yet Luna’s familiar face is
the planet. The cluster slowly crater, note the long snakelike Vallis Schröteri flooded with a blue-green light as it gazes at the
(Schröter’s Valley). This 6-mile-wide channel was nearly full Earth, poised almost motionless in the
appears as twilight darkens.
carved out by a flow of lava that must have been lunar sky. This happens on the 2nd, when the
There’s a rare chance on
truly awesome, dwarfing anything humans have Moon is but a thin, waxing crescent in our eve-
April 17, when Uranus and
witnessed on Earth. Nearest Aristarchus, it stops ning sky. Train a scope on it and pick out the
Mercury stand 2° apart and
at a shadowed volcanic vent in a wider zone bright patch in the northwest. For fun, bump
share a binocular field. Uranus, up the power and take a tour in this ashen light.
aptly named the Cobra Head.
located 20 times farther than
Mercury, is due south of the
innermost planet and appears
left of Mercury in the western
sky. Begin searching around METEOR WATCH I Decent prospects
8 P.M. local time to find Mercury
about 10° high. As the sky dark-
ens and the planet descends, Lyrid meteor shower THE ANNUAL LYRID meteor
look for Uranus to the left of shower is active from April 14 to
Vega Radiant 30 and peaks the night of April 22.
Mercury — after 15 minutes, it Deneb
should come into view. Uranus LYR A H E RCU LE S Its radiant rises in late evening and
shines at magnitude 5.9 and CYGN U S stands about 30° high at local mid-
becomes more difficult to see night. This offers a few hours of dark
through low-altitude haze as skies before the 21-day-old Moon
rises on the morning of the 22nd.
time progresses. The ice giant OPH IU CHU S
Meteors are always more
stands a fraction of a degree
Altair prevalent in the hours before sunrise
north of Omicron (ο) Arietis, AQUIL A Antares
Enif because the relative impact speed of
which is roughly the same mag-
PEGASU S shower particles on Earth’s atmo-
nitude, so search for two objects Nunki sphere is higher. As you prepare for
half a Moon’s-width apart. The Moon SCORPIUS the morning display of planets,
one closer to Mercury is Uranus. Saturn S AGI T TAR IUS which rises in the east soon after
Mercury’s continued 10° 4 A.M. local time, keep a lookout for
progress through the sky the occasional flash from a Lyrid
creates a lovely scene with LYRID METEORS meteor. The Moon will slightly dimin-
April 22, 4 A.M.
the Pleiades later in the Active dates: April 14–30 Looking southeast ish the number of meteors you see.
month. Beginning April 27, Peak: April 22
However, Lyra is above 80° in altitude
Moon at peak: Waning gibbous The Moon remains at low altitude in
the planet lies within 2.5° Maximum rate at peak: Sagittarius as Lyra climbs to the zenith by now, so you could catch 5 to 10
— Continued on page 38 18 meteors/hour near dawn. brighter shower members per hour.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 33
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• Intermediate stars (like the Sun) glow yellow
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BEGINNERS: WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT HOW TO READ A STAR CHART AT
www.Astronomy.com/starchart.
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APRIL 2022
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WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 35
PATHS OF THE PLANETS
UMa
AND
LAC CVN
CYG HER
LMi
TRI LYR BOÖ
SGE LEO
Comet
Sun C/2017 K2 SER
PSC
AQL SER
Celestial equator OPH
Jupiter Neptune
AQR SCT VIR
Ven
u
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Mar HYA
s Saturn CRT
Venus passes 0.2° south
of Jupiter on April
Venus-Jupiter 30
callout CAP Pluto CRV
PsA
FOR SGR Asteroid Hygiea reaches
S CL
MIC
opposition April 28 ANT
G RU CEN
CrA SCO
To locate the Moon in the sky, draw a line from the phase shown for the day
straight up to the curved blue line.
4 3 2 1
30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
Mercury Mars
Ceres
Pluto
Ceres
AND
1 Europa
Callisto
LYN
2
Mercury appears bright in
evening twilight in late April A partial solar eclipse Europa 3
GEM occurs April 30 across
Ceres
Moon southern South America
th o f the liptic) 4
Pa n (ec Io
e Su
of th TAU
Path Callisto
Uranus Sun 5
CMi
Comet Ganymede
C/2021 O3 PS C 6 Jupiter
ORI
MON 7 Ganymede
CET
JUPITER’S
CMA
MOONS 8
Dots display
LEP
S CL positions of 9
PYX FOR
PUP ER I Galilean satellites
at 6 A .M. EDT on 10
COL CA E the date shown.
Early evening South is at the
11
top to match the
view through a
12 Io
30 29 28 telescope.
13
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14
15
S
Jupiter 16
W E
Saturn 17
N
18
10" 19
20
22
23
24
MARS CERES JUPITER SATURN URANUS NEPTUNE PLUTO
April 15 April 15 April 15 April 15 April 15 April 15 April 15 25
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 39
40
rewrites lunar
ASTRONOMY • APRIL 202 2
The mission’s samples are the youngest
lunar rocks yet found, leaving scientists
wondering how the Moon stayed hot
for so long. BY MARK ZASTROW
IN DECEMBER 2020, These findings indicate that volcanoes were
China’s Chang’e 5 mission erupting on the Moon just 2 billion years ago
touched down northeast of the — which throws a wrench into our under-
ancient volcano formation Mons standing of how bodies like planets and moons
Rümker in northern Oceanus form. Scientists think that when such bodies
Procellarum — a region of the Moon are young, radioactive uranium and thorium
that was once a vast plain of molten sink deep into their interiors. These slowly
lava. The site had been targeted by scien- decay and release heat, which can keep the
tists for decades: Curiously, the surface there mantle molten for billions of years. But models
is somewhat sparse of impact craters, sug- suggest that a body as small as the Moon
gesting that its last lava flood occurred quite should have lost all of its heat by then.
recently, in lunar terms. Determining its age “We always said that, OK, 3-billion-year-
was one of the mission’s top priorities. old basalts is fair enough, probably it can be
In all, the Chang’e 5 lander scooped and sustained by this radioactive decay,” says
drilled 3.8 pounds (1.7 kilograms) of lunar Alexander Nemchin, a geochemist at Curtin
material, which its return stage delivered to the University in Perth, Australia, and one of the
grasslands of Inner Mongolia Dec. 16, 2020. Science team’s leaders. But 2 billion years is too
They were the first Moon rocks returned to young for current models, he says — “so now
Earth since the Soviet robotic mission Luna 24 we’ve got a problem.”
in 1976. Chang’e 5’s samples were collected and Nevertheless, the result is exactly what sci-
parceled out to several research groups around entists hoped for when they chose the probe’s
the world. Now, scientists are beginning to landing site, says Brad Jolliff, a planetary scien-
report what they have found. tist and mineralogist at Washington University
The first major scientific paper detailing in St. Louis and a co-author of the Science
mission findings was published Oct. 7 in
Science, followed by a trio of papers in Nature
Oct. 19. The Science paper found that the sam-
ples confirm the relative youthfulness of the
landing site’s volcanic basalt rocks: 1.96 billion
The Chang’e 5 mission
landed on the Moon years old, give or take a few tens of millions of
Dec. 1, 2020, and lifted years. One of the teams publishing in Nature
off 48 hours later with
a stash of lunar rocks. independently found nearly the same result:
CHINESE NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY’S 2.03 billion years, give or take 4 million years.
(CNSA) LUNAR EXPLORATION AND
SPACE ENGINEERING CENTER
This is about a billion years younger than any
of the volcanic lunar samples returned by the
history
Apollo and Luna missions.
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 41
RIGHT: Oceanus each isotope existed relative to
Procellarum is the each other allowed the team to
only feature on the
Moon to earn the
determine the age of the samples.
designation of the For some researchers, the most
Latin word for exciting part of the analysis isn’t
“ocean”. At over 1,600
miles (2,500 km) just learning the age of Chang’e
across, it’s vaster 5’s landing site — it’s that these
than the multitude of
lunar maria, or “seas.” measurements will also help
determine ages of many other
BELOW: Rifts regions of the Moon’s surface.
outlining Oceanus
Procellarum can That’s because the age of Oceanus
been seen in Procellarum is key to improving
gravitational
anomalies (in blue) a completely different technique
as measured by for understanding the Moon’s
NASA’s Gravity
Recovery and Interior
history: counting impact craters.
Laboratory (GRAIL) Generally, the more impact
mission. NASA/GSFC/ craters there are in a given area,
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY;
NASA’S SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION the older that area is, as it’s had
STUDIO
more time to accumulate
impacts. “We know that kind
of in a relative way, and we’ve
known that for many years,” says
Jolliff. “But to actually put num-
bers on that required samples.”
To this point, the most accu-
rate ages that existed were linked
to rock samples 3 billion years or
older from the Apollo and Luna
missions. A handful of Apollo
samples also allowed researchers
to infer dates for some young
impact craters formed within
the past billion years.
But between 3 billion years
The Chang’e 5 soil sample allocated to the ago and 1 billion years ago, “we
Beijing SHRIMP Center weighs just 0.07 just had this giant gap of 2 billion
ounce (2 g), but with careful planning,
researchers can extract a lot of information years — which is like half the age
from it. BEIJING SHRIMP CENTER, INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGY, CAGS of the Moon,” says Carolyn Crow,
a planetary scientist at the
University of Colorado in
the sample published in Science Boulder.
was analyzed at the Beijing At 2 billion years old, the
SHRIMP Center in collaboration Chang’e 5 samples fall right in the
with an international consortium. middle of that gap, significantly
study. “This actually shows that (A SHRIMP, or Sensitive High- improving the technique’s cali-
the main science goal was met Resolution Ion MicroProbe, is bration. “We’re filling this gap,
— and that’s pretty awesome.” an instrument used for chemical which is awesome,” says Crow.
analysis.) “The ability to get some anchor
Filling in the age gap Both teams used similar tech- in that time period is just so
The age measurements of the niques: analyzing various isotopes important.”
samples were taken in two labs of lead, which are produced by And not just for the Moon:
in Beijing. The Nature work was the decay of radioactive uranium Counting craters is also how sci-
performed at the Institute of and thorium. Since these pro- entists estimate the ages of sur-
Geology and Geophysics at the cesses happen at a predictable faces on bodies like Mars and
Chinese Academy of Sciences; rate, measuring how much of Mercury. “They just have such big
The older a surface is, the more craters of a given size it is likely to have. This is
demonstrated clearly in this view of Mare Crisium and the rugged highlands
bordering it to the south (left). In a 2014 study, several researchers and an
algorithm identified craters in both regions (right). Based on the crater-
counting method, the highlands are roughly 3.7 billion years old, whereas
the mare surface is roughly 1.7 billion years old. ROBBINS ET AL. (2014)/ICARUS
uncertainties on them and having ago is murkier. That’s because thorium than samples from
at least one data point just helps there’s no clear source of heat. the regions visited by Apollo
constrain that so much better,” The simplest explanation is and Luna.
says Crow. that there are more radioactive In fact, according
minerals buried deep in the Moon to the Nature paper,
Bringing the heat than models predict. But the anal- Chang’e 5’s basalts
While the results help clarify the yses reported in Science and one have less of one
crater-counting technique, our of the other Nature papers from a type of radioac-
understanding of how magma Chinese team give no indications tive material
could have been spewing from the that Chang’e 5’s samples originally
Moon as recently as 2 billion years contained any more uranium or
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 43
ABOVE LEFT:
It’s possible that
Chang’e 5’s samples
contain ejecta from
Aristarchus Crater
found in previous lunar samples
— a mixture called KREEP, made
Scientists hope coalesced. “One of the big con-
straints on that process — how
(seen here on Apollo
15), located some of potassium (K), rare Earth to glean many that works, or if it was something
370 miles (600 km) elements (REE), and phosphorus else entirely — is how much water
southeast of Chang’e
(P). “According to the previous more insights you have in the mantle,” says
5’s landing site. If
researchers can
identify fragments
theory, the KREEP-like compo- from the Chang’e Crow. “If there’s a big debris disk,
nents would provide heat to sus- and it’s really hot, you’re going to
from Aristarchus, the
crater’s age could be tain the longevity of young 5 samples and get rid of all your water.”
determined in the lab magma,” said Li Chunlai, study Scientists hope to glean many
— providing another
co-author and a researcher at the
eventually more insights from the Chang’e 5
calibration point for
the crater-counting
chronology. NASA
National Astronomical reconstruct their samples and eventually recon-
Observatories of the Chinese struct their history in detail. Lead
ABOVE RIGHT: Academy of Sciences, in a state- history in detail. dating is just one technique to
Chang’e 5’s sampling ment. If that’s not the case, “we apply to a rock — “there’s a whole
apparatus collected
3.8 pounds (1.7 kg) of should rethink the mechanisms” other suite of them, and they all
lunar soil. CHINESE that are involved. molten. To test either scenario give different kinds of informa-
NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY’S
(CNSA) LUNAR EXPLORATION
One possibility is that the will require more sample analysis tion,” says Crow. “When did it
AND SPACE ENGINEERING Moon’s interior consists of differ- and detailed modeling. form? When was it last heated? …
CENTER
ent minerals than scientists The third Nature paper When was the last time it saw a
thought and can melt at lower opened another line of investiga- giant impact? When was it exca-
temperatures, says Nemchin. tion into Chang’e 5’s lunar loot by vated and put on the surface?”
But there are alternative measuring the water content of Those analyses often require
hypotheses — like tidal heating. basalt samples. Analysis of grains destroying the samples to some
Perhaps when the Moon was of apatite, a phosphate mineral, extent, like melting them in acid
younger and orbited found they were no more than or heating them with lasers and
closer to the 0.03 percent water, indicating the measuring the noble gases they
Earth, the tidal Moon’s mantle is very dry. release. So, because the amount
force of our This gives scientists some of Chang’e 5 material is so lim-
planet’s gravity insight into the Moon’s forma- ited — the Beijing SHRIMP cen-
stretched and tion. In the currently favored ter was granted just 0.07 ounce
deformed the Moon, giant-impact theory, Earth col- (2 grams) of soil — researchers
heating it lided with another small planet, are meticulously planning their
enough creating a hot debris disk out of analyses to get the most out of
to keep it which the Moon eventually the material, saving the most
one basin has been directly sam- duration. “It would be great to go
pled and its age measured: to the farside,” says Crow. “If you
Imbrium on the Moon’s nearside, get away from Imbrium, you can
at 3.9 billion years old. Getting try and get other material.”
samples from others could help One thing is certain: The
clarify the early history of not Chang’e 5 samples are likely to Copernicus Crater
just the Moon, but the entire ignite a new wave of interest (near the Moon’s
solar system. in the Moon’s early history to limb) is one of the
most prominent
For instance, NASA is hoping explain its late volcanism. craters on the near
to land Artemis missions at the “When it’s just a suggestion, side of the Moon.
This shot was taken
lunar south pole. There, astro- everybody tends to ignore it,” says from lunar orbit
nauts should be able to collect Nemchin. “Yes, we suspected that during the Apollo 12
mission, which
As magma cools and solidifies, it forms samples from the mysterious younger basalts are on the Moon, sampled the crater’s
irregular crystalline patterns, as seen in South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. but it wasn’t on the forefront of ejecta. NASA
this scanning electron microscope image The oldest and largest of the everybody’s thinking. Right now,
of a lunar basalt fragment used in the
Science study. BEIJING SHRIMP CENTER, INSTITUTE OF Moon’s basins, it stretches from it’s probably gonna be.”
GEOLOGY, CAGS the South Pole roughly 1,550
miles (2,500 kilometers) into the Mark Zastrow is senior editor of
destructive techniques for last. lunar farside. Data taken from Astronomy.
“I want to melt them with laser orbit suggest the SPA basin has a
beams,” Crow says with a laugh. composition that doesn’t match
any previous lunar samples.
Lunar return Samples from the SPA and
Researchers had to wait 44 years other basins around the Moon
between receiving samples from will tell researchers if they all
Luna 24 and from Chang’e 5. formed at the same time — dur-
They won’t have to wait nearly as ing the solar system’s chaotic
long for the next haul: Chang’e 6, early period known as the
which was built as a backup to Late Heavy Bombardment
Chang’e 5, is scheduled to launch — or if they were
in 2024. Then, perhaps as early spaced out over
as 2025, NASA intends to return a longer
astronauts to the Moon with the
Artemis program, which will be
able to return many more sam-
ples than a robotic mission.
This coming second era of
lunar sample return could help
scientists pin down the dates
of many of the Moon’s
largest and oldest
impact craters,
known as impact
basins. Only
Check out
these classic
sky guides
Modern tech has made stargazing more accessible, but nothing beats
an old-school observing guide. BY RAYMOND SHUBINSKI
JLDELAWTER/DREAMSTIME
NOTABLE
MENTIONS
Defining what makes a guide a classic
can be difficult, and there are plenty of
other books potentially deserving of that
title. Some additional selections are:
• The Peterson Field Guide to the Stars
and Planets, by Donald Menzel
• The Constellations, by Lloyd Motz and
Carol Nathanson
• The Cambridge Guide to the
Constellations, by Michael E. Bakich
Of opera-glasses
and telescopes
When I was about 10 years old, I found
a battered copy of Astronomy With an
Opera-Glass, by Garrett P. Serviss, high
up on a shelf in our town’s old Carnegie
library. I later discovered that Serviss
had written a series of astronomy books,
including three others that are observing
guides. At the end of the 19th century,
he began his Urania Lectures — an early
multimedia event. With backing from
Geography of the Heavens Burritt’s guidebook introduced readers to (clockwise
from top left) the fall, spring, winter, and summer constellations. At the end of the book, Andrew Carnegie, Serviss took the show
Burritt shows off the stars and constellations around the South (below left) and North on the road, popularizing astronomy and
(below right) Celestial Poles. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
science for the masses.
When he settled down, he wrote
books on all aspects of astronomy,
science fiction, and even relativity. In
addition to with Astronomy With an
Opera-Glass, he also wrote Pleasures of
the Telescope. His style is delightfully
illustrative of attitudes in the 19th cen-
tury and wonderfully informative. One
of my favorite quotes from his writing,
“But let us sit here in the star light, for
the night is balmy, and talk about
Arcturus,” shows how he is truly at ease
with the sky. Some of the information is
dated, but you can certainly learn your
way around the sky with these delightful
books. And both books feature star
charts that are still useful. I have had my
own copies of these books for years. The
star maps and descriptions of celestial
The Wonders of the wonders of the heavens and of wonders are fascinating, and I continue
of the Telescope the system of the universe.” It has all to use these guides for observing.
Observing guides truly blossomed you need to explore the night sky. There
in the 19th century. Telescopes were are maps and fold-out charts, along Norton’s Star Atlas
becoming more affordable and the with detailed descriptions of the Sun, For many 20th-century astronomy
study of astronomy had taken on an Moon, planets, and even a few deep-sky enthusiasts, amateur or professional,
allure beyond its use for navigation and objects. This little book helped set the one guidebook defines the era: Norton’s
almanacs. The Wonders of the Telescope, standard form for the next 200 years of Star Atlas. The Atlas first appeared
published in 1805, promises “a display observing guides. in 1910 — the same year its creator,
RAYMOND SHUBINSKI
for observers.
The original 1910 guidebook was
called The Star Atlas and Reference Book.
It was so popular that a second edition
was published during World War I, even
though there was a national paper short-
age in Britain. By the 1921 third edition,
the familiar star charts and reference lay-
out were well established. An interesting
feature of the main star maps is Norton’s
use of gores: If sections of a globe are cut
off into individual maps, they look like
truncated ovals. By using this method,
Norton was able to avoid some of the
distortions that occur with other map
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
projections.
Over the years, Norton’s Star Atlas has
evolved. The Atlas has always had notes
on astronomical terms, planets, stars,
RAYMOND SHUBINSKI
nebulae, and more. With each edition, The Wonders of the Telescope
With fold-out charts and maps, this book has
these sections have been updated and everything an observer needs. An illustration
enlarged. The star maps have also been of William Herschel’s 49-inch telescope
(right) also appears in its pages.
updated for the changing star coordi- formalized constellation outlines by T. Olcott, was published in 1929 and
nates caused by precession. The most following lines of right ascension and quickly found a following among star-
noticeable change in the Atlas occurred declination to set the boundaries. gazers. Olcott arranged his guide by
in 1933. Before 1930, constellation Norton brought his maps into the new season. The charts are simple and do
boundaries had not been formalized. era for the fifth edition by using these not have coordinate references. Each
Constellations and their stars appeared precise boundaries. After more than 100 constellation section gives location and
contained by random wavy lines on sky years and 20 editions later, this beloved mythology information. Olcott describes
maps. There was some agreement as to observing guide is still a valuable aid to what can be seen with the unaided eye
what stars belonged to each constellation, many observers. I imagine that Norton and field glasses, all with an accompany-
but there were also possible variations, would certainly be pleased and perhaps ing chart. Then, he provides a page with
depending on who was making the a little surprised. objects for telescopes and an expanded
maps. The first four editions of the Atlas chart to find them. The book also has
have the old-style boundaries. In 1930, Field Book of the Skies information for beginners, a section on
the International Astronomical Union The Field Book of the Skies, by William the planets, and basic charts of the Moon
Only intermittently visible in the twilight before sunrise or after sunset, ABOVE: A
19th-century image
Mercury is the smallest and least conspicuous of the naked-eye planets. shows Schiaparelli
observing with the 49cm
However, its surface is the second easiest (after Mars) to examine with a Merz-Repsold refractor he
used in the later stages of his
telescope. Named for the swift-footed messenger of the gods of Olympus, Mercury studies. ACHILLE BELTRAME/
diminutive Mercury has recently attracted outsize attention. On Oct. 1, 2021, LA DOMENICA DEL CORRIER (OCT. 1900)
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 53
Schiaparelli’s initial tests
WHAT SCHIAPARELLI SAW of his technique in June 1881
were promising. That led to a
Throughout this piece, we have revisited Schiaparelli’s historical observations of Mercury by comparing sustained effort that began at
his series of drawings with CCD images and WinJUPOS simulations. As might be expected, there are a
the end of January 1882. Over
lot of figure 5s. Some of Schiaparelli’s drawings are quite accurate. But in other cases, there is so little
resemblance between modern images and what he described that one has to wonder just what he the course of seven years,
thought he was seeing. — W.S. Schiaparelli made hundreds
of observations of Mercury, as
well as 150 drawings, which
are preserved in the archives
of Brera Observatory.
The air over Milan was
turbulent during the summer,
but in winter, it was often
“pure and calm.” That meant
observations at any time of
day were feasible. With his
usual magnification of 200x,
Schiaparelli scrutinized the
tantalizing pale rose orb,
which appeared through his
telescope a little smaller than
the Moon does with the
Schiaparelli’s view (center) of Mercury on Feb. 6, 1882, with the central meridian (CM) at 85.6°, compared to a naked eye. Markings on
WinJUPOS simulation for the same date and CM (left), and a blurred version (right) that better simulates the Mercury were almost always
telescopic view. The figure of 5, which made such an impression on the great Italian astronomer, is clearly present, in the form of
evident in the simulation. MIDDLE: BRERA OBSERVATORY, MILAN. LEFT AND RIGHT: JOHN BOUDREAU
“extremely delicate streaks.”
But they were of such low
contrast that they disappeared
whenever haze or a layer of
Schiaparelli he was forced to view the and declinations) and a clock cirrus clouds intervened.
targets Mercury planet through the densest drive, allowing him to follow
In the early 1880s, when layers of Earth’s atmosphere. Mercury for hours. He Go figure
Schiaparelli began his study Schiaparelli’s telescope, decided to try observing Schiaparelli began to observe
of Mercury, he was already meanwhile, was equipped the planet in broad daylight. Mercury around the time of
famous for his work map- with setting circles (by which Because Mercury was higher its greatest elongation east
ping Mars. So, using the he could pinpoint objects in the sky then, it would of the Sun on Feb. 6, 1882,
9-inch Merz refractor at Brera using their right ascensions reward sustained inspection. corresponding to the planet’s
Astronomical Observatory in appearance as an evening star.
Milan, he decided to extend On that date, he succeeded in
his survey of the planets making out a “large system of
inward. Venus, as usual, spots” on the nearly dichoto-
offered little more than a mized disk. These spots, he
nearly featureless disk. But noted, oddly combined to
Mercury seemed promising. form the shape of the numeral
At the time, the early 5. He denoted each part of
results of 19th-century the number with the letters
German astronomer J.H. w, a, b, k, and i. That figure
Schröter, who utilized a large 5 made a profound impres-
reflector, still reigned. sion on Schiaparelli, and it
Noticing a blunting of the was to haunt him whenever
southern cusp of Mercury Mercury ran east of the Sun
on several nights, Schröter The mesmerizing figure 5 returns — or does it? Compare Schiaparelli’s
(as it did that May, when he
deduced a satisfyingly Earth- drawing (left) with a blurred WinJUPOS image showing the planet at the again made out the 5). On
like rotation period of about same time (May 22, 1882), with the CM at 264.8°. One really has to stare at the other hand, whenever the
this to make out anything resembling a 5 — and no wonder! Schiaparelli
24 hours. But his observations was actually looking at areas of the planet 170° in longitude apart. planet ran west of the Sun —
had been made during the LEFT: BRERA OBSERVATORY, MILAN. RIGHT: JOHN BOUDREAU becoming a morning star —
short twilight periods, when Schiaparelli seemed to see the
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 55
BepiColombo took this
image of Mercury during
its first flyby. Over the
course of its mission, the
spacecraft will orbit the
solar system’s smallest
world some 3,800 times,
gathering data that will
help planetary scientists
unravel its history. JAXA/ESA
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 57
Comb through
Berenice’s
Hair Packed with a veritable smörgåsbord of galaxies,
Coma Berenices is on full display this month.
BY MICHAEL E. BAKICH
T
he constellation Coma placed these stellar locks on a celestial ascension 12h45m and declination 23°30'.
Berenices (pronounced KOE- globe he designed in 1551. Unfortunately, Coma Berenices ranks 42nd in size
muh-bear-uh-NYE-seez), Coma Berenices, which contains no out of the 88 constellations, covering
Berenice’s Hair, was envi- bright stars, is not an easy star pattern 386.47 square degrees (0.937 percent)
sioned in its current form by Flemish to find. It’s visible only from midwinter of the sky. And while its size is middling,
cartographer Gerardus Mercator. To through midsummer in the Northern it fares worse (57th) in terms of overall
honor Queen Berenice II of Egypt, he Hemisphere. Its center lies at right brightness.
24 COMAE BERENICES For a break NGC 4450 To locate spiral NGC 4450, look M64 The Blackeye Galaxy (M64) got its name after
from galaxies, seek out the double star 24 Comae just south of the midway point of the line that William Herschel discovered its dark dust feature,
Berenices. Its components glow at magnitudes 5.2 connects the stars 11 and 25 Comae Berenices. The which he compared to a black eye. That light-
and 6.7 and are separated by 20". Because people’s galaxy is relatively bright (magnitude 10.1) and oval obscuring dust lane is prominent, but only when
eyes differ in color acuity, some observers see (5.0' by 3.4'). A thick halo surrounds a stretched-out viewed through a 10-inch scope. M64 glows at
yellow and blue, others see both as white, and still core. ADAM BLOCK (NOAO/AURA/NSF) magnitude 8.5 and measures 9.2' by 4.6'. ALAN DYER
others see the pair as orange and green. ALAN DYER
M98 & M99 The magnitude 10.1 spiral galaxy M98 (upper right) measures M88 & M91 Spiral galaxy M88 (right) resides in a region housing
9.1' by 2.1'. It lies 7.2° east of Denebola (Beta [β] Leonis). Through an 8-inch hundreds of other galactic tenants. Fortunately, at magnitude 9.6, it outshines
scope, its center looks broad and slightly brighter than its arms. And a larger them all. Through a 6-inch telescope, M88 is an oval haze more than twice as
telescope will reveal star-forming regions in those arms. The Pinwheel Nebula long as it is wide (6.1' by 2.8'). A 12-inch scope at 300x will reveal some of the
(M99) is actually a spiral galaxy sometimes called St. Catherine’s Wheel, a rather spiral’s structure. The easiest way to find the magnitude 10.2 barred spiral M91
gruesome comparison considering the purpose of its namesake device. It glows (left) is to start at M88 and move 0.8° east. A 6-inch telescope shows a
at magnitude 9.9 and spans 5' by 4.6'. Through a 10-inch scope, M99 appears to rectangular-shaped object a bit longer than it is wide (5.0' by 4.1'). With a high-
have only one arm. Go bigger to see the other two. ALAN DYER power eyepiece in a 12-inch scope, you’ll easily see its central bar. ALAN DYER
M100 Spiral galaxy M100 ranks as one of the NGC 4565 No. 1 on any list of edge-on M85 At magnitude 9.1, lenticular galaxy M85 is
brightest galaxies (magnitude 9.4) in the Coma- spirals is the Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565). It one of the sky’s brightest galaxies. It lies 1.2° east-
Virgo cluster, so it’s a great target for amateur glows at magnitude 9.6 and measures 14.0' by northeast of 11 Com. A 12-inch scope will reveal the
scopes. It lies not quite 2° northeast of the star 6 1.8'. An 8-inch telescope reveals a streak roughly brightness difference as you move out from the
Comae Berenices. Through an 8-inch scope, the 10' long that’s oriented northwest to southeast. core, as well as the galaxy’s overall subtle yellow
arms appear as bright regions to the east and west To see NGC 4565’s full extent, move up to a color. The smaller barred spiral galaxy to its left is
of the nucleus. BILL SNYDER 16-inch scope. ALAN DYER NGC 4394. LEE BUCK
M53 & NGC 5053 Globular cluster M53 (upper right) lies not quite 1° MELOTTE 111 The Coma Berenices star cluster (Melotte 111) contains
northeast of Diadem (Alpha [α] Com). It glows at magnitude 7.7, so a 4-inch some 40 stars between magnitudes 5 and 10. Their light combines for a total
scope will reveal several dozen of its stars. M53 has a diameter of 12.6'. And magnitude of 1.8. Because this object spans more than 4°, start with 50mm or
because few stars are near the cluster, you’ll have no trouble defining its edge. larger binoculars. After that, move to your telescope and select your lowest-
Globular cluster NGC 5053, which looks like an open cluster, lies in the same power eyepiece. ALAN DYER
field as M53. It’s a bit smaller (10.5') and, at magnitude 9.9, more than two
magnitudes fainter. You’ll need an 8-inch telescope to resolve its stars, which
form a rough triangle. ALAN DYER
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 59
SECRET SK Y
Rainbows exist at an uneasy nexus of light, shadow, and water. Umshado wezinkawu
In southern Africa, whenever it rains while the Sun is
shining, people say it’s a “monkey’s wedding.” The
influential Austronesian linguist Robert Blust, who
died Jan. 5, said the expression almost certainly derived
from the Zulu expression umshado wezinkawu: “a wed-
ding for monkeys.” I appreciate the Zulu translation, as
it rings familiar. For instance, in English we might say
something is “for the birds,” or it “has gone to the dogs.”
Having lived in southern Africa now for several years,
my take on the expression is that a sun-shower represents
a union of the Sun and rain that’s best fit for monkeys
— an animal known in mythology for creating chaos.
The expression fascinates because, while no one
knows clearly what it means, it is used in folklore across
the globe to describe a sun-shower, albeit with minor
twists. For instance, in Japan, and parts of Europe and
Asia, a sun-shower is known as the “fox’s wedding”; in
An “improper” Lebanon and Syria, it’s the “rat’s wedding”; in parts of
rainbow appeared in
the author’s garden in
I never thought the day would come when an Northern Africa, it’s the “hyena’s wedding”; and in
Maun, Botswana, “improper” natural phenomenon would dis- Afrikaans, it’s the “jackal’s wedding.” One common
during a “monkey’s play itself out in the open air. theme is the clever nature of the selected animal.
wedding” in March
2021. STEPHEN JAMES O’MEARA
I’ll explain: I’m talking about rainbows. “Improper” In in a 1994 issue of Anthropos, Blust wrote, “The
may seem an ill-fitting term, but rainbows have a darker essential constellation of features [of the expression]
side. After all, rainbows exist when rain and the Sun are appears to involve animal parturition or conjugal union
juxtaposed in the sky. This makes them a rich in connection with sunshowers, or, less
topic, scientifically and ethnologically. often, rainbows.”
For instance, we’re used to the sight of a The rainbow And what of the rainbow? Despite scattered
rainbow arc soaring above the horizon. But is a universal positive associations, such as in the Judeo-
rainbows can be seen underneath the hori- Christian tradition, in the world’s preliterate
zon as well, projected against the ground.
sign of cultures, the rainbow is a universal sign of
That’s because rainbows are centered on the malevolent malevolent spiritual presence, said Blust.
spot in the sky directly opposite the Sun, called spiritual As he explained, “[W]ithin prescientific
the antisolar point, with a radius of 42°. When presence. cultures the natural causality of rainbows is
the Sun is at an altitude of 42°, the tip of the completely obscure, and such a visually stun-
rainbow’s arc just touches the horizon. When ning and awe-inspiring phenomenon can
the Sun is higher, the full arc is seen against the ground. only be attributed to supernatural agency.” In later work,
One can usually see a rainbow underneath the hori- Blust argued that rainbows inspired the varied myths of
zon line whenever the Sun shines on, say, the spray of a dragons around the world: In many cultures, rainbows
waterfall, or from a fountain — not to mention from an are portrayed as possessive serpents guarding precious
ordinary garden hose. But in each of these cases, some- fresh water, drinking the rain and causing it to cease.
thing other than rain generates the phenomenon. Some cultures emphasize other supernatural ele-
On the afternoon of March 25, 2021, I witnessed for ments in describing a sun-shower: “witches weep”; “the
BY STEPHEN the first time a rainbow that arced below the horizon devil fights and gets married”; “fairies comb their hair.”
JAMES O’MEARA during a rain. The rainbow formed when the tail-end Whatever your preference, send your sightings of rain-
Stephen is a globe-
of a thunderstorm had passed but its strong winds lin- induced earthly bows to sjomeara31@gmail.com.
trotting observer who
is always looking gered, which shot rain into our garden just as the Sun
for the next great broke free from an obscuring cloud. The bow was only BROWSE THE “SECRET SKY” ARCHIVE AT
celestial event. yards away, arcing beneath the trees. www.Astronomy.com/OMeara
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ASK ASTRO Astronomy’s experts from around the globe answer your cosmic questions.
Safe zone
flyby of the jovian long elliptical orbit also permits the craft to transmit
moon in this artist’s collected flyby data back to Earth, as well as perform
concept. NASA/JPL-CALTECH additional functions between Europa encounters (typi-
cally two to three weeks apart).
Europa Clipper’s multiple-flyby architecture will
QI WHY WILL EUROPA CLIPPER ORBIT
JUPITER INSTEAD OF EUROPA?
Gary Duemling
yield significantly more data than a Europa-orbiting
mission, and cleverly designed trajectories will permit
Prescott, Arizona near-global high-resolution mapping. As of now, the
Europa Clipper spacecraft is taking shape in “shipyard”
HELIOSPHERE
ends at 123 AU
ASTEROID KUIPER
B E LT 10 AU B E LT
1.0 AU 2–5 AU 30–50 AU
100 AU
AI The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is hot/cold spots (and the cosmological information con- Be sure to tell us
your full name and
the radiation allowed to freely propagate after tained within) should be exactly the same. where you live.
the universe cooled enough for electrons to combine with Victor Chan
Unfortunately, we
atomic nuclei to form neutral atoms some 300,000 years David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics,
cannot answer all
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
after the Big Bang, or roughly 14 billion years ago. This questions submitted.
Alpha Centauri A
O O R T CLO U D
2,000–100,000 AU Proxima
Centauri
1,000 AU 10,000 AU 100,000 AU 268,770 AU
Logarithmic scale; planet and star sizes are not to scale Alpha
Astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance between the Sun and Earth Centauri B
READER GALLERY
Cosmic portraits
5. JWST’S JOURNEY
NASA’s James Webb Space
Telescope rocketed to space
Dec. 25 aboard an Ariane 5
launcher. This imager
captured the second stage
passing the Sculptor Galaxy
(NGC 253) from Sukna in
4 West Bengal, India. The image
is a series of 40 two-second
exposures with a Nikon
D5600 and a 135mm f/2
prime lens at ISO 500.
• Samit Saha/Soumyadeep
Mukherjee
6. ON ITS WAY
Two weeks after launch, JWST
was around 650,000 miles
(1 million kilometers) from
Earth and traveling to the L2
Lagrange point. This image
captures the telescope from
Yellow Springs, Ohio, the
night of Dec. 7, roughly 15
hours before JWST finished
deploying its primary mirror.
The series comprises one-
minute exposures taken every
two minutes with a 12-inch
scope. • John Chumack
5 6
7. LYND’S VESPERS
LBN 587 is an emission
region in Cepheus recorded
by Beverly Lynds in her 1965
catalog of bright nebulae (a
companion to her earlier dark
nebulae catalog). This imager
used 18 hours and 45 minutes
of exposure time with a 4.2-
inch scope, rendering the
nebulae in the Hubble palette
and the star field in LRGB.
• Emil Andronic
WWW. ASTRONOMY.COM 65
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SOUTHERN SKY BY MARTIN GEORGE
June 2022
The evening sky awakens
Evenings haven’t can’t hold them. Mars heads The planet’s 13"-diameter disk great Greek astronomer
offered much to planet eastward quickly, passing into shows an 82-percent-lit phase Hipparchus observed a “new
observers in 2022. But the first Cetus the Whale on June 3 in mid-June. star,” or nova. Chinese astrono-
signs of change arrive in June. before returning to Pisces You’ll have to search harder mers also recorded this nova.
Saturn pokes above the eastern six days later. Jupiter remains to find Mercury. The inner- The object’s appearance
horizon around 11 p.m. local in Pisces until it enters the most planet hangs low in the had a profound effect on
time as the month opens and Whale’s domain June 25. It may east-northeast during morning Hipparchus. He wondered how
rises 30 minutes earlier with seem strange that these two twilight this month. It reaches often such novae burst on the
each passing week. The planet worlds spend part of the month greatest elongation June 16, scene, and whether individual
lies in eastern Capricornus, in Cetus, a non-zodiacal con- when it lies 23° west of the Sun stars could move. This inspired
some 2° north and a little east stellation. But the ecliptic and 10° above the horizon an him to compile a star catalog
of the Sea Goat’s brightest star, passes close to the Pisces-Cetus hour before sunrise. The containing 1,080 entries.
magnitude 2.8 Delta (δ) border, and both planets lie magnitude 0.5 world stands Hipparchus’ catalog formed
Capricorni. Saturn shines at more than 1° south of the eclip- out against the background the basis of Ptolemy’s master-
magnitude 0.5 and appears tic this month. stars of Taurus. work, Almagest, compiled
eight times brighter than Delta. Jupiter shines brilliantly at A telescope reveals nearly three centuries later.
It’s always worth observing magnitude –2.3 and stands Mercury’s disk, which appears Sadly, Hipparchus’ original cat-
the ringed world with your tele- out in this region of relatively 8" across and about one-third alog has been lost. But modern
scope. Just be sure to wait until unimpressive stars. The giant lit at greatest elongation. It researchers have found that the
it climbs well above the horizon world appears more than looks a bit more impressive celestial globe forming part of
so you can view it through less 10 times brighter than ruddy around June 8, however, when the Roman statue known as the
of Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. Mars, which still looks quite the world spans 10" and the Farnese Atlas has constellation
Even a small scope reveals impressive at magnitude 0.5. Sun illuminates 20 percent of outlines that match their posi-
Saturn’s 18"-diameter disk sur- The best telescopic views of its Earth-facing hemisphere. tions in Hipparchus’ time.
rounded by a ring system that these worlds come when they Many scientists think the sculp-
spans 40" and tilts 12° to our stand high above the horizon The starry sky ture was based on the catalog,
line of sight. Also watch for the an hour or two before twilight If you look to the east after or on one of Hipparchus’ globes.
planet’s brightest moon, 8th- begins. Jupiter’s disk spans 39" darkness falls this month, the The catalog’s main claim to
magnitude Titan, which shows at midmonth and displays a spectacular constellation fame came when Hipparchus
up through any instrument. wealth of atmospheric detail. Scorpius the Scorpion domi- compared his star positions
You’ll need to wait a solid Mars appears 7" across and nates the sky. Its bright stars with those from an earlier cata-
three hours after Saturn rises should show some subtle sur- form a pattern that reminds log and noticed a systematic
before another planet appears. face markings during moments many skygazers of an arachnid, shift in star positions. He had
Jupiter comes up around 2 a.m. of good seeing. though others think it looks discovered precession — the
local time June 1 followed five Venus begins June against more like the mirror image of a change in the apparent direc-
minutes later by Mars. The two the backdrop of Aries the Ram question mark. The Scorpion’s tions of the stars as a result of
worlds stand 1.4° from each before crossing into Taurus the head and abnormally short the gravitational pulls of the
other, about twice as far apart Bull after midmonth. The inner claws lie at the constellation’s Sun and Moon causing Earth’s
as they were when they were in planet shines brilliantly at mag- northwestern edge, to the left axis to wobble. Precession
conjunction May 29. The two nitude –3.9 and dominates this as it rises. (The rest of the claws makes the direction of Earth’s
separate quickly in June, with part of the sky. Venus rises now belong to the neighboring axis trace out a circle on the
Jupiter rising nearly two hours nearly three hours before the constellation Libra the Scales.) celestial sphere having a diam-
earlier by month’s end while Sun and makes a spectacular An event in this part of eter of 47° and a period of
Mars gains only 15 minutes. sight well into twilight. Scorpius played a significant about 25,800 years. It’s a nice
Both planets start the Unfortunately, a telescope role in astronomical history. It tidbit to ponder as you look at
month in Pisces, but the Fish doesn’t add much to the view. was here, in 134 b.c., that the the Scorpion this month.
STAR DOME
S
A NA
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RA ICU
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PI LMC H Y D RU S
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HOW TO USE THIS MAP
This map portrays the sky as seen 207 O C TA N S
near 30° south latitude. Located
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op
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inside the border are the cardinal us _ SA
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directions and their intermediate LA
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points. To find stars, hold the map
NS AELE
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overhead and orient it so one of 25 C
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the labels matches the direction C IN
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MA IS
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what’s in the sky. JO
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The all-sky map shows
24 GC
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CIRCI
77
how the sky looks at: _
NGC 47 55
9 P.M. June 1 b
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Planets are shown
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at midmonth
TLI
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MAP SYMBOLS
M8 3
Alphard
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Open cluster
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STAR COLORS BERE
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A star’s color depends N ICES
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W
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BEGINNERS: WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT HOW TO READ A STAR CHART AT
www.Astronomy.com/starchart.
JUNE 2022
TU SUN. MON. TUES. WED. THURS. FRI. SAT.
1 2 3 4
S
U
D
IN
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
SE
US
IU
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
P
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AR
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63
S
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ON ALI
IT
EL
C
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G
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A
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26 27 28 29 30
SA
CO ST
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A U
Note: Moon phases in the calendar vary in size due to the distance
from Earth and are shown at 0h Universal Time.
O
N
M7
31
S
PIU
62
M2 2
C
OR
M6
NG
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
M8
SC
1
SCUTUM
M4 ares
M11
3 Mercury is stationary, 0h UT
M16
14
HU