SOUTH DOWNS ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

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Latest News:   Its 40 years since the first men walked on the moon! 40 years ago this month, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out onto the lunar surface, making history in the process. A Storm of meteorites may have made the early Earth, and Mars warmer and wetter. A Bombardment of meteorites Early in Earth’s History may have tipped the balance in favour of life, research has shown.  Researchers analysed the water content from a certain type of 15 meteorite fragments from around the world and found that each fragment gave up 12% of its mass to water, and 6% as Carbon Dioxide, this has implications for Mars too, which may explain it’s suspected wet past. So there you have it we may all own our very existence to the water content of  meteorites!   Dr Neil Bone -  1959-2009 It is with deep regret that I advise that Neil Bone president of the BAA Meteor Section, chemist, author, Astronomy Now writer and long time member of our society sadly died last week after a long illness.  Neil was one of the most inspiring people I have ever met, and among his great many achievements, had an asteroid named after him (A7102) in recognition of his considerable contribution to astronomy. How fitting that he left us right at the Lyrid meteor shower maximum, I am deeply thankful for all the inspiration he gave  to us all, and he will be very sadly missed.  Our deepest thoughts go to his wife Gina and family.   Cosmic smash up! Bam! - The 2009 satellite collision was the first major collision between two intact artificial satellites in Earth orbit. The collision occurred at 16:56 UTC on February 10, 2009, at 789 kilometres (490 mi) above the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia, when Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collided. The satellites collided at a speed of 11.7 kilometres per second (7.3 mi/s), or approximately 42,120 kilometres per hour (26,170 mph). Debris has been re entering the atmosphere over the last few weeks, and debris may pose a threat to upcoming shuttle launches.   Congratulations to Dr John Mason -MBE! Dr John Mason has been awarded the MBE in the New Years Honors list, for services to Astronomy. Comet Alert! Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3) is heading around the sun and approaching Earth, get ready for a 38 million mile close encounter in February, Lulin is not yet a naked eye object but is spectacular in the telescope. Jupiter’s core is twice as big as first thought! Scientists at the university of California have recently modelled the core of Jupiter and discovered it must be twice as big as previously thought. The Rock densities are many times that of the earth surface, meaning that jupiter’s solid core is 14-18 times bigger than the earth! Whilst Jupiter is widely thought of as a gas giant, it is worth bearing in mind that it is actually also the biggest solid planet too!   Sagas website moved. Sagas, the Southern Area Group of Astronomical Societies has moved it’s website to www.sagasonline.org.uk. The Southern Area Group of Astronomical Societies provides a forum where representatives of Astronomical Societies from the South of England can meet to share best practice and discuss items of mutual interest or concern. SAGAS also provides the conduit to and from the FAS Council via our FAS representative. Business meeting are usually held every 3 months near Chichester, Sussex. India Launches Moon Probe India has successfully Launched a rocket with it’s first Moon Probe, called Chandrayaan-1. The probe will map the moon in Hi-resolution detail. Cern Goes Live (Sort of!) The Large Hadron Collider at Cern had begun it’s historic final test phase leading up to a full turn on at the end of the year. Actual proton collisions where expected to take place in the coming weeks and months, except one of the coils have gone down, leaking tons of liquid Helium into the tunnels. Repairs are underway and the system will now be switched back on formally in the spring, as electricity is much more expensive in the winter!   The LHC will hopefully help solve many of the major questions we have , about the nature of space and how it is made. It will further refine our theories on the fabric of matter, and hopefully find the elusive Higgs Boson , the particle (or one of the particles!) that are thought to give everything it’s Mass.  Eventually it is hoped to actually detect Dark Matter, this is done by adding up the energies  of all the detected particles and seeing what’s missing (since Dark matter does not interact with normal matter (at least not at a detectable level). If the missing material corresponds to the predicted amount for dark matter then we will have detected dark matter for the first time!     South Downs Astronomical Society is a registered Charity No. 1052270) Registered office is 46 Central Avenue, Bognor Regis West Sussex PO21 5HH Trustees P.E. FRAY, J.K.W GREEN MBE, Dr J.W. MASON and I.A.WOOD

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