AST 170 Internet Lab MSWord

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Astronomy

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Feb 20, 2024

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AST 170 Internet Lab BACKGROUND As you are all aware, there is a tremendous amount of information on the web. Some is good and some is bad. The intent of this lab is to introduce you to a number of web sites that you might find useful in the future. They all have good information. Below is a list of those web sites with a short description of their content. The link to each of these sites is posted on Blackboard. I have tested them using both Microsoft Edge, and Google Chrome. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ This is the NASA site for the astronomy picture of the day. http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk This site tries to predict star gazing conditions 48 hours in advance. It is not perfect, but it is better than most. I have found it to be one of the most reliable predictor of sky conditions. http://www.spaceweather.com This site has several interesting features most of them revolving around solar activity. One of them is a current image of the sun along with the daily sunspot number. It also has predictions of aurora activity, as well as near earth asteroid approaches. http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml This NASA sit provides current information on the sun spot cycle and predictions of future activity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis This is a specific link to information on the Apophis asteroid https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/ImpactEffects/ This is a site that will calculate the effects of an asteroid impact given the proper parameters. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/ This site has current information on extra-solar planets. http://www.trappist.one/# , http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm This site contains information on mythology associated with the stars. http://heavens-above.com/ This site has current information on the visibility of various spacecraft as well as planetary locations and star maps http://www.skyandtelescope.com This is the site for “Sky and Telescope” magazine. https://futurism.com/lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds this site is just for fun. 1

AST 170 INTERNET LAB WORK SHEET You need the date and time because some answers are time sensitive. Names Mari Mastrangelo and Juliet Penrod Date & Time April 12, 2022 In this lab we will ask you to go to various web sites and answer a series of questions relevant to the information they provide. 1. Go to the Astronomy Picture of the day. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ Take a moment to enjoy the view. At the bottom of the page, click on archive, and select October 26, 2010 or you can select “search” and enter October 26, 2010. This is an image of comet Hartley as it passed close to the double cluster in Perseus. Knowing that it near the double cluster you would have been able to find it easily in binoculars under dark skies. Had you planned on looking for it on October 26, 2010, using your planisphere, when would have been the best time to see it? (crossing the meridian) The double cluster is located at 2h 20m RA +57° 9’ DEC. a. Midnight b. Sunset c. Sunrise d. Not visible in the northern hemisphere 2. Go back to the archive or search and select October 23, 2010. One of the brightest “deep sky” objects in the sky is M42 in the tip of Orion’s sword. This gas cloud is visible in binoculars even in light polluted skies. If you decided, after seeing this picture, to go out and take a look. Using your planisphere, when would it cross the meridian on October 23, 2010? (5hr 35m RA, 5° 23’ DEC) a. Early evening b. Early morning c. Midnight 3

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3. One of the issues that plague astronomers is the weather. There are many weather sites on the web that will give you general weather forecasts. One that is specifically intended for astronomers is http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk . This site tries to predict star gazing conditions 48 hours in advance. It is not perfect, but it is better than most. Go to http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk , and click on “find a chart” in the contents section along the left side. In the key word box type “Burrell” for the observatory. Select the Burrell Memorial Observatory. From the chart, what is the expected cloud condition for tonight around 10:00PM? (Note the numbers across the top are a 24hr clock). If you hover the curser over the block is will show the conditions. 10% covered 4. What will be the transparency condition? Below average 5. What types of objects require good to excellent transparency to view? Low Contrast objects like galaxies and nebulae. 6. What will be the “seeing” condition? Bad 7. What types of objects are best viewed in good to excellent “seeing”? Planets and fine detail objects 8. Can one have good “seeing” but poor transparency? yes 9. Go to http://www.spaceweather.com . This site has several interesting features most of them revolving around solar activity. The main feature is a current image of the sun along with the daily sunspot number on the left side. What is the value of the current sunspot number? 23 10. The aurora borealis or northern lights are caused when charged particles from the sun interact with the Earth’s ionosphere. The interaction of these charged particles gives off light in the same way light was emitted from the spectrum tubes you looked at in the spectrum lab. The 4

charged particles from the sun are affected by Earth’s magnetic field and are drawn toward the north and south magnetic poles hence the aurora are seen primarily in the polar regions. As the sunspot number increases the sun becomes more active, and can release large quantities of particles in a solar flare or a coronal mass ejection. When this happens aurora can be seen well into the U.S. Go back to the home page. The “ Current Auroral Oval ” chart shows the current auroral activity. Under the Auroral Oval is the Planetary K-index. Click on the “explanation” under the K-index. Based on the current Kp value and the Kp map, and assuming a clear night, what are the chances of seeing the aurora in Cleveland tonight? This is a great place to look, if you hear on the news of a major solar flare, to see if you will be able to see the aurora from you location. a. Slim to none b. Reasonable chance c. Excellent 11. The particles interacting with the ionosphere can create major disruptions in Earth’s magnetic field. These can cause problems in the electrical grid, communications (yes your cell phone could go down), and electrical systems in general. In the past we have had power knocked out in large areas of the country. Scroll down to the “Geomagnetic Storms” section on the left side. What is the probability that we, here in the mid latitudes, will have a minor storm in the next 24-48 hours? 40% 12. In a solar unrelated section, spaceweather.com publishes a list of near-Earth crossing asteroids, also known as PHA’s or P otentially H azardous A steroids. The designation, distance, and size are given. Note that distances are given in LD or L unar D istance. Any distance less than 1, like 0.5, is inside the orbit of the Moon. Our communication satellites orbit at a distance of ~0.1LD. The list is for recent and near future close passes. What is the “designation/name” of the closest approaching asteroid on the list? GF3 13. How big is it? 9m 14. Sunspots are cooler places on the Sun caused by the twisting of the Sun’s magnetic field. The number of sunspots varies over an approximate 11 year cycle from maximum to 5

maximum or minimum to minimum. The number of Sunspots are an indication of the Sun’s activity. Go to http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml . Scroll down the “Maunder Minimum” to answer the question; what climatic period is associated with the Maunder minimum sunspot count in the late 17th century? Little Ice Age 15. Click on “Solar Cycle Prediction” in the upper left hand corner. Clicking on the small chart labeled “Cycle 24 Prediction” will give you a detail of where we are in the current cycle. Are we currently near a maximum or minimum? minimum 16. Speaking of asteroids and doomsday scenarios, one asteroid you are sure to hear of in the future is Apophis. The close approaches in 2029 and 2036 are sure to make headlines. Current observations set the chance of impact to essentially zero. Okay, so what if they are wrong and it really does hit. How bad will it be? To figure this out we will need some basic data. Go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis to complete the table below. Velocity at impact (Km/sec) 13 km/sec Angle of Impact 45° Diameter (In Meters) 370 meters Mass (Kg) 6.1 x 10^10 kg Density (Convert to Kg/m 3 ) .0026 Kg/m^3 \ https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/ImpactEffects/ (“Impact Calculator” on BB). This is a site that will calculate the effects of an asteroid impact given the proper parameters. Let us suppose 6

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that after you graduate you land this great job in San Diego California, sun, surf, and margaritas. One of the possible impact locations for Apophis is southern California – bummer dude! Suppose it hits in Los Angeles about 200km away . In the next several steps we will determine how much trouble you are in. Go to https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/ImpactEffects/ (“Impact Calculator” on BB). Enter the required data from the above table. The other parameters you will need are: Angle of impact - assume 45° Target type – assume sedimentary rock Enter the data in the impact calculator. Press “Calculate Effects” 17. Look at the results particularly for “Thermal Radiation”, “Seismic Effects”, “Ejecta” and “Air blast”. Based on the results, and being somewhat adventurous, which of the following actions you would take? a. OMG PANIC get out of town fast, because if you don’t you will die. b. Grab a margarita and an umbrella to protect you from the fall out, and watch the show. c. Nothing happens, you won’t even notice, so just ignore the whole thing. 18. Assume you are on the beach and Apophis lands in 300m of water offshore. Go back to the data entry page and under “Target Parameters” check “Water at Depth” and enter 300m in the depth box. Press “Calculate Effects” and scroll down to “Tsunami Wave”. What should you do? Keep in mind that the tsunami that hit Crescent City California as a result of the Japan earthquake was a little over 1 meter high and did $48 million in damage. a. Get off the beach to higher ground we could not find an option that talked about a wave in the article and further info sys you cannot calculate because of all the geographical info needed to do it. b. Lay back and enjoy a day at the beach c. Grab your surfboard Surprisingly, for as large as Apophis is, the effects of the impact would not be a doomsday scenario, unless, of course, you are within 50km of the impact site. By contrast the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs has been estimated at 150,000m in diameter and hit with a speed of 30km/sec which works out to over a million times more energy. Even at halfway around the world (the farthest away you can get) you would still experience winds of over 300mph. 7

19. One of the more exciting research programs in recent years is the search for planets around other stars. These are known as “exo-planets”. The first were discovered in the 1990’s. As our techniques and funding have improved, we have found many more. Go to https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/ How many exo-planets have we confirmed to date? 5,009 20. One of the most interesting stars with planets is Trappist-1. Trappist-1 is a solar system with a number of planets. Go to http://www.trappist.one/# , and click on the “About” box? How many planets orbit Trappist-1? 7 planets 21. What are the planets’ size and mass comparable to? Earth and Venus 22. Go back to the opening page and click on the “System” box. Using the Right Ascension and Declination and your planisphere, what time of the year would you expect to see it on the meridian around 9:00pm (STD)? a. Fall/Winter b. Summer c. Spring d. Not visible from the mid latitudes of the northern hemisphere 23. Looking at the magnitude, can you see Trappist-1 with your unaided eye? No 24. Some of the more interesting, yet not scientific, aspects of astronomy are the figures and myths associated with the constellations. Go to http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm and select the astrological sign of someone in the group. In the table, write a one sentence description of something in the mythology you did not know before. Constellation Description Sagittarius It was invented by Sumerians as the supreme god of war and had sheep and oxen sacrificed to him. 8

25. When you go out at night you may have an opportunity to see the International Space Station pass over. A site that provides information on the ISS passes as well as planetary locations and star maps is http://heavens-above.com/ Go to this site, click on “unspecified” next to location in the box in upper right, and search for Cleveland by typing “Cleveland Ohio” in the search box. Then click “update” at the bottom of the page. On the home page click on ISS under “Satellites-10-day predictions for satellites of special interest”. What is the date and time of the next ISS pass? April 22 05:56:15 26. Name a constellation you expect the ISS to pass though. If you click on the date, it will show a star map. Sagittarius 27. Sky and Telescope magazine as well as Astronomy magazine have web sites that provide current information on observing the night sky. Go to http://www.skyandtelescope.com . On the menu to the left under “observing” select “this week’s sky at a glance”. Scroll down to “This Week’s Planet Roundup” near the bottom. Which planets are visible this week? Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus,, Neptune Finally, just for fun, there is a star that made the news a while back. Its designation is BPM 37093. This is white dwarf very rich in carbon. Due to the high pressures and temperatures in the interior, the interior is most likely crystallized carbon. Go to https://futurism.com/lucy-in-the- sky-with-diamonds to read about it. 28. How many carats is BPM 37093? 10 billion trillion trillion 29. How far away is it? 50 light years LOG OFF COMPUTER 9

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