What Was the Star of Bethlehem?

It is one of the most universally recognized images of all time but no one knows exactly what it was. For 2000 years, the Star of Bethlehem has captivated people the world over. Described in the Bible as the star that led the 3 Magi to the infant Christ, little else is related about the Star, leaving a lot of questions, and just as many possible answers to its true identity assuming that the whole story of the Star was not made up by the Biblical writer (the Star only appears in the Gospel of Matthew).

One problem that must be confronted right before we can even start to narrow down the possible identities of the Star is this: no one knows exactly when Jesus was born. Our current calendar is based on the birth of Christ in that His birth separates the B.C./A.D. eras. However, it is clear that the dating is wrong as the Bible describes how the Holy Family fled to Egypt to avoid the wrath of King Herod, a well-documented historical figure who died in 4 B.C. Thus, 4 B.C. is the last possible year in which Jesus could have been born. It is now generally thought that Jesus was born anywhere between 8 and 4 B.C.

Now that our time frame has been narrowed down, we can start looking to the sky.

There are two schools of thought about the Star of Bethlehem: it was either astronomical or astrological. Astronomical possibilities include supernova, planets, comets, and conjunctions. However, with historic records available from all over the world from the time of the Star, no such events were recorded anywhere by anyone, leaving astrology as the more likely explanation to the Star story.

People at this time were almost universal believers in astrology. A notable exception here were the Jews, who were forbidden to practice astrology at numerous spots in the Old Testament. As far as everyone else was concerned, heavenly bodies had special meaning.

SEE ALSO: Astrology vs. Astronomy: Do People Know the Difference?

One thing we know was that the Magi came from the East. Considering the geographical location of Judea, “East” almost certainly meant Persia. In Persian language, the word “magi” referred to Zoroastrian priests, who practiced medicine and magic (“magic” comes from “magi”), which could also include astrology, at which the Persians were very sophisticated. Coincidentally, it is this astronomical focus of the Persians that can cause the traditional astronomical explanations for the Star to be discounted. 

One particular passage in Matthew can greatly narrow down possible candidates for the true Star of Bethlehem. According to the Gospel, “the star which they had seen in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the young Child was.” If this is to be believed, the Star was a planet. Over the course of months, a star's position will change as it rises about four minutes earlier each night. Stars don't stand still, but planets do.

Observe a planet over the course of a year (Mars is best as it is closest), noting where it is in the constellations. For most of the time, it moves with the background stars. However, there are times where it stops, reverses course, stops again, then continues forward with the stars once more. This apparent change in direction called retrograde motion is an optical illusion caused by the Earth passing the slower planet as both orbit the Sun. A comparison can be made to passing cars on the highway. As you pass, the slower car seems to travel backwards. The same is true of planets.

Besides retrograde motion, there is more. Planets and constellations had particular significance. Jupiter was widely considered to be associated with kingship. The constellation of Aires the ram was often associated with Israel/Judea. Putting this information together with the knowledge that the Star of Bethlehem was almost certainly a planet allows one to start putting the puzzle together.

In 6 B.C., an astronomical/astrological event that fits the bill very nicely occurred. In that year, the planet Jupiter (planet of kingship) moved into the constellation of Aires (the constellation for Israel/Judea). Thus, this could be interpreted as a sign that a new king of Israel was born. To add even more weight to the hypothesis, Jupiter first appeared as a morning object in the East. At this time, the Sun was also in Aires (Jupiter was rising just ahead of the Sun). In astrology, any constellation is at its most influential when the Sun is in it. Also, it was believed at the time that planets were at their most powerful as they emerged in the East after a period of invisibility in the Sun's glare.

As it would have taken the Magi months to reach Bethlehem from Persia, this also explains the motion of the Star. As time progressed, the Magi could have observed Jupiter slow down and stop before going into retrograde motion. The stoppage could have coincided with the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem after stopping in Jerusalem and being told of the prophecy predicting the Messiah's birth there.

In the end, though, the Star of Bethlehem will probably remain a matter of faith.

More Ancient Astronomy
The Planet of Bethlehem?
A History of Cosmology: Prehistory to Present
Galileo's Fingers Go on Display.
Renaissance Astronomy: Part 1
Renaissance Astronomy: Part 2
Renaissance Astronomy: Part 3
The Equinox and a Magic Show from the Maya
Ancient America: the Moundbuilders
Ancient America: the Southwest
Ancient Egypt
Classical Greece
The Summer Solstice Sun and the Size of the Earth
The 1833 Leonids: History's Greatest Meteor Storm
The 10 Brightest Comets of All Time
Ben Franklin and the Truth About Daylight Savings Time


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The Dark Side to Cyber Monday

Last Friday was Black Friday for brick and mortar retailers. The nickname comes from the fact that this one day will often put unprofitable stores into the black (profit) for the year. Next up: Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, which is traditionally the busiest day of the year for online shoppers. While the Internet is undoubtedly convenient for shopping and many online stores offer lower prices than can be found in real stores, there are some things worth considering before clicking on the “buy” button.
The most obvious, potentially irritating problem with online buying is returning something should a product be defective. For brick and mortar stores, the return policies for cameras and other high tech electronics is often shorter than for other merchandise. The same is often true online. Unlike a regular retail store, returning something to an online vendor is not as simple as taking the product back. Online retailers often have specific instructions for returning an item in regards to packing and shipping. Sometimes the customer must gain prior approval beforehand as well. So if you buy something online and then have to make a return, be sure to follow the directions carefully.


After the returning process should something go wrong, the fact that there is no hands-on with your prospective buy is the second main drawback of buying online. Generally, cameras should be a safe bet. However, SLR lenses can be a different story. While most lenses work as they should right out of the box, there is always a small percentage that have bugs, often amounting to focusing inaccuracy where the lens will front or back focus in relation to the intended subject. This is most common (although still rare) in third party lenses, but it can occur on manufacturer optics as well. While newer mid to high-end digital SLRs have a feature to compensate for this, older and entry level models do not, which means having to return the lens. In a brick and mortar store, the salesman will often allow you to bring your camera and try out the lens before buying.
Lastly, for people wishing to avoid sales taxes brought about by buying in-store, consider this: shipping charges. While you may save on the taxes, the savings there will probably be wiped out by the cost of getting the bought online item to your front door. The good news is that some online retailers offer free shipping on some items. Also, with the shopping officially season upon us, many online retailers are more likely to sweeten the deal with free shipping this time of year. Back to taxes, you may or may not have to pay. Generally speaking, if your product ships from a different state, you're off the hook to Uncle Sam.
Yes, online stores are great for convenience and saving money. Millions of satisfied shoppers will attest to this fact. However, it is only fair to point out the down sides to online shopping.


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Moon to Occult Aldebaran Thanksgiving Morning

Be Thankful because tomorrow morning, the Moon will occult (eclipse) Aldebaran around 5:45am EST. While lunar occultations of stars are not overly rare, an occultation of such a bright star is a bit of a rarity. To see the show, go out about 5:30am and train your telescope on the Moon. To get exact time Aldebaran will suddenly blink off as the Moon moves in front of the star (there being no atmosphere on the Moon, there will be no dimming, only an abrupt disappearance) go to this website and plug in your latitude and longitude. As the time approaches, stare into the eyepiece and wait for the eye of Taurus to abruptly vanish. Another idea: hook up a video recording device to the telescope and record the event as it happens! Yes, it comes at anything but a convenient hour for most people but this is an event worth getting up early for!

Clear skies and good luck!

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How to Avoid Sales Gimmicks

The goal of any salesman, or woman, is to sell products in order to get an extra, per sale commission for each item sold. So the more things you sell, the more you make. Now that we know why store workers can be sometimes rather pushy in trying to sell a product, we will delve into ways that people can often be coerced into buying a camera.

1. The megapixel myth.
Often sharing real estate on the front of a camera right with the manufacturer's name is the megapixel count. This is most often seen on compact point and shoots. The aim is this: trick beginners into thinking that lots of pixels are good. Wrong! In fact, more pixels are often worse for image quality. Why? Because when it comes to pixels, pixel density is what really counts. Take any sensor of a given size. If you want to cram more pixels onto that particular sensor without increasing its size, there is only one thing to do: decrease pixel size. Small pixels gather less light, which offers less signal to drown out any background noise. The result: crappy pictures.

Nowadays, it's hard to find even a cheap camera under 14Mp. I've made great 8”x11” prints with 3Mp images. For most of us, giving some room to crop, 5-6Mp should be sufficient. Fortunately, the megapixel madness seems to be ending, as many manufacturers are now taking a different approach to pixel counts, either holding steady or even reducing them.

2. Tons of file size options.
Today's cameras come with all kinds of options for your picture files. Beyond file formats, there are the “quality” settings, which are basically the image sizes. Think about it: who needs half a dozen picture sizes? I always find myself using one or two: full size or smallest size. Why? If you care about your images, you want all the flexibility of RAW and none of the limitations of JPEGs, which truly stink when it comes to retaining detail at high sensitivity. Then, if you want to resize your images, you can always do that later. If you want convenience and room on your memory card/hard drive, shoot low quality JPEG. A 2Mp image will fill most computer screens with room to spare and will be plenty to make your less photographically inclined friends/family happy when you decide to share the pictures.

3. Shooting modes by the truckload.
Again, this is another compact point and shoot transgression. In an effort to make the cameras as user friendly as possibly, manufacturers load them with shooting modes that anyone who actually bothers to learn a little about photography will ever need. Portrait, landscape, macro, sports, night, dusk, kids, fireworks, group photo, smile detection, indoor, beach, snow, back lighting, and panorama, plus the traditional time value, aperture value, and full manual. Talk about information overload! Some cameras have a dozen or more shooting modes, all of which can just be intimidating because, after all, who wants to use the wrong setting? My advice: get a camera that allows for traditional aperture and time priority, plus full manual control, learn about achieving proper exposure, then take some pictures.

4. Magnification mania.
Again, this is a point and shoot problem. Some cameras will boast zooming powers of over 50, or even 100x magnification! Sounds good until you consider the major catch: most of this is what is called “digital zoom,” which basically crops off the edges of the images, leaving a tiny, low resolution center that appears to be greatly magnified since the edges of the picture are gone. Besides the huge loss of resolution, there is also the problem of avoiding camera shake, which, like the subject, will also be greatly magnified at such extreme telephoto focal lengths.

5. Electronic image stabilization. 
In an effort to suppress camera shake (mentioned above), good cameras will utilize sensor or lens based stabilization. To cut costs, manufactures employ another type of stabilization, which is called electronic stabilization. In fact, electronic stabilization is not stabilization at all, it is in-camera sharpening. This is the same thing you can do yourself in even the most basic photo editing software. The problem with electronic stabilization is that it can only work effectively on the shots with the slightest blur to sharpen up the edges while sensor and lens based stabilization will prevent blur altogether, but only to a point that depends on how steady your hands are.

6. Stratospheric ISO settings. 
While the megapixel race was the chief marketing ploy of digital's first decade, the focus seems to have shifted to insanely high ISO settings for low light/action shooting. Just a few years ago, point and shoots usually stopped at ISO 400. Simultaneously, most digital SLRs maxed out at ISO 3200. Then came Nikon's D3 in 2007 with the then astounding ISO 25,600 setting. Needless to say, with everyone maxed out at ISO 3200, the cameras following the D3, both P&S and SLR, upped their ISO levels, with SLRs seeking to break the ISO 10,000 barrier and P&S models entering ISO 3200 territory, formerly the SLR realm. Now, we're up over ISO 200,000! Any camera regardless of type is going to be noisy at its top ISO settings, so don't be suckered in to buying a camera for it's “class-leading” ISO settings, which will just give you a grainy, color splotched mess. To be safe, consider the ISO setting 2 f-stops down from maximum as the highest usable, but even this may be generous on some models.Extended warranties.


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Why Extended Warranties are a Scam

Millions of people will head to stores on busiest shopping day of the year. Many of them will return home as victims of a scam. Forget calling the police, they can't do anything about it, as the con you and millions of others have fallen for was perfectly legal. So what is this con job being legally perpetrated against Americans all over the country? Two words: extended warranties.

Extended warranties are undeniably good for two parties: the retailer and the salesman. The retailer gets more money. The salesman gets an extra commission. These are the reasons stores and salesmen push extended warranties for cameras and other electronic devices so much. They want their money first thing, any concern for you probably comes in a distant second. Extended warranties give stores and salesmen money, and consumers a lighter wallet. So why are extended warranties a con job?

Extended warranties are a scam because, chances are, you'll never need them. Manufacturers offer full warranties for their products, provided they're factory sealed and have entered the country of destination via the designated courier. Obviously, gray market and refurbished items don't get a manufacturer's warranty. The lower cost comes at a price. Back onto warranties. The manufacturer's warranty will normally cover any repairs needed because of “normal wear and tear” within a given time frame from the date of purchase. The good news is that things as complex as today's electronics, if faulty, will probably break within a year, if not much sooner. Chances are, if your camera works fine for a year, it will keep right on working for a long time to come.

Besides cost consideration comes what the warranty will and will not cover. Most extended warranties will only cover repairs from “normal wear and tear,” which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Companies may brag about great customer service, but fixing a product at their own expense costs the repair company money. Because of this, the company may refuse to repair your equipment if, in their eyes, the equipment shows signs of “abuse,” which could be as minor as paint wearing off from regular usage or as major as being waterlogged after being caught in a sudden rainstorm. Unless it is a warranty that specifically covers accidental damage, almost anything can warrant repair service being denied. The warranty company gets your money and you get your broken camera back.

So, when that salesperson offers you an extended warranty, think carefully. Unless the warranty specifically covers accidental damage, skip it. A much more encompassing alternative to an extended warranty is insurance, which should protect against damage and even theft, which no warranty will cover. Check with your home insurance company to see if it is possible to get a rider policy for photo gear attached to the main policy. Having done this myself and knowing other people who have also done so, I can safely say that this is a lot cheaper than any warranty and offers complete protection and piece of mind that warranties don't.


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How to Avoid Buying a Junk Telescope

The year is already winding to a close, which means that Christmas, the time for gift giving, is just around the corner. So, if you're looking to buy a telescope for someone else or yourself, quality should be a prime consideration. So, how can one go about staying clear of the junk telescope blues?

It's easy by following these simple suggestions.

1. The source.
Generally speaking, stores that don't specialize in telescopes/optics are not the best source to buy telescopes, or at least high-quality ones. Yes, while deals are a-plenty in those 'mart' stores, one should avoid the telescopes as the low prices are inherent of low quality. Instead, buy from a specialty optics store. Many camera stores also deal in telescopes, too.

2. The box.
Generally speaking, screaming advertising ploys of “see Pluto” and “600 power” are there to take advantage of consumer ignorance, as are colorful images. First, as a general rule of optics, 1 inch of aperture is good for 50x power so, to get 600x, one would need a 12 inch scope. The pictures? Many people new to astronomy assume that they will be able to see such things through scopes, which is completely untrue.

3. Size matters.
In telescopes, 1 ¼ inch is the standard size for eyepieces. These same scopes, through adapters, can also be made to use 2 inch eyepieces, too. On the other hand, junk telescopes come with .965” inch eyepieces. Besides being similar to looking through peepholes (not easy), the small eyepieces are a red flag announcing that the telescope is junk.

4. Build quality/attention to detail.
If there is a display model telescope set up, look at it. If either the scope or mount has a lot of plastic, skip it. Low build quality denotes junk. Also, if the scope is on a alt.-az. or equatorial mount, if it doesn't come with fine adjustment knobs, looking elsewhere is probably a good idea as high-quality scopes include these very useful items.

5. Computers are costly.
Going to show that technology isn't always good, there are cheap telescope setups with computerization selling for around $250. Avoid these toys at all cost! A good computerized mount along (no scope included) will sell for around $600. When it comes to computer-controlled scopes, this is one case where you always get what you pay for.

5. Name brand does not mean quality.

At one time, the big three of American astronomy, Orion, Celestron, and Meade, were synonymous with quality. Not anymore. Now everyone is selling cheap scopes targeted toward buyers who don't want to pay much. The companies get their money and the ignorant buyers get the shaft, showing the importance of doing your research.

Yes, there are a lot of telescopes and companies selling them but, with a little reading, avoiding the junk scope blues is an easy thing to do.


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Shop Till You Drop Week Smart Buying Advice

Photography and astronomy are expensive so don't get suckered!

It's the unofficial Shop Till You Drop Week as, starting today, stores will be seriously slashing the prices on goods in order to lure in shoppers and kick off the Christmas spending spree season, thus taking over a week formerly devoted to a now oft-forgotten national holiday called Thanksgiving. So, with the pressure on to buy, buy, buy, a voice of reason is needed to counter all of those screaming advertisements and save you a few Benjamins. To that end, below is a series of smart shopping articles designed to help readers avoid needlessly wasting money and expose the tactics merchants and manufacturers use in order to induce people into buying a product or service.


Specific Advice:
How to Avoid Buying a Junk Telescope
Why Extended Warranties are a Scam
Avoiding Camera Sales Gimmicks
The Dark Side to Online Shopping
Black Friday Shopping Advice: Stay Home



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United States Seeks to Protect the Grid, Unveils National Space Weather Strategy and National Space Weather Action Plan

The United States government has just announced the framework for a plan to protect the power grid from a major solar storm. The two documents, officially known as National Space Weather Strategy and National Space Weather Action Plan, detail a 6-part plan details preparations that need to be made in 6 areas to better protect the grid. For people in the know (many people don't even know that solar and space weather exists at all), this comes as belated but welcome news considering that the government's previous strategy was one of keeping its fingers crossed and hoping the run of good luck would continue.

So, why should you care about space weather and the grid?

First up, space weather. For anyone who didn't know that space weather even existed, here's proof that it does in a form that just about everyone has heard about: the aurora, also known as the Northern Lights.

The aurora are caused when the energized particles from the Sun come into contact with Earth's upper atmosphere. When the charged particles hit Earth, they react with the atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere, which become energized themselves and then give off the photons we see as the Northern Lights. Why are the lights different colors? Each individual type of atom gives off a different glow when energized.

Needless to say, no harm can come because of the aurora, which represent a gentle shower on the scale of space weather severity. But what about a solar hurricane? What would one of those look like?

Answer: the Carrington Event.

The year was 1859 and it was during this year that the Earth was subjected to the strongest solar storm ever recorded. Named after Richard Carrington, the astronomer first to discover the storm's origin was a series of sunspots, the storm was so strong that aurora were visible over Hawaii and telegraph lines caught fire around the Sun-facing side of the world. Needless to say, 1859 electronic technology was limited to the telegraph as even the incandescent light bulb was still 2 decades in the future. So, in the case of 1859 electronics vs. the solar superstorm, the storm literally fried the only electronics we had at the time.

In the event of a power blackout today, for ordinary people, having to do without a cell phone, satellite TV, and GPS would be an annoyance. For policymakers, who have finally seen the light in regards to taking action to keep us out of the dark, the real worry is the nation's electrical grid, which flawlessly (most of the time) supplies power to 360+ million Americans every day. Do you take your electricity for granted? Most of us do. Do you ever have to worry about whether that light will come to life when you flip the switch? Probably not. Needless to say, we are lucky to live in a modern nation where such luxuries are seen as necessities and taken as just being part of the way the world works.

As for what could happen if a Carrington-magnitude event hit today, things wouldn't be pretty.

Worst case scenario: transformers, power lines, and capacitors all across the nation get fried, the grid goes down, and power could be out for months, putting us back to a largely preindustrial way of life until the power eventually gets restored. Total cost: up to $2.5 billion on the high range of the estimates.

Next up, our nation's electric supply system, commonly known as 'the grid.'

For all of our wealth and technology, some analysts warn that our power grid is both out-dated and severely lacking in safety measures designed to prevent a rolling blackout. The grid was not built with a master plan, rather it was added to and modified as our appetite for electricity increased, the service area expanded, and technology improved. Result: an electrical hodgepodge of sorts supplying power all across the nation. Why the mix of old and new? Money. It would be simply too expensive for the power companies to update their service areas all at once and the customers? The call center lines would probably be alight with angry customers over any service disruptions (probably only in the hours) brought about by the updating. End result: leave things be and fix them when something goes wrong. It doesn't take an engineer to see that our nation as a whole has been rather neglectful of its power supply system, without which we would be transported over 100 years back into time.

Well, now things may be starting to change.

In the new The White House documents, these specific actions are what are called for: 1) Establish benchmarks showing how commonly severe space-weather events occur; 2) Improve the ability to respond to, and recover from, such events; 3) Reduce or eliminate vulnerabilities to flares and geomagnetic storms; 4) Improve predictions about impacts on critical infrastructure; 5) Improve forecasts of space-weather events, and knowledge of space weather more generally; and 6) Increase international cooperation (because impacts of extreme events will likely be felt across the globe).

Now, while it is good that our leaders are finally starting to take the much overdue task of insulating the grid seriously, one must remember that the White House proposal is just that, a proposal. As with all government spending, any bill authorizing money for fortifying the grid must originate in the House of Representatives.

Hopefully those in Washington DC, the town that can't agree on anything, will come to their senses and set aside the funding to protect the grid, which is something anyone with any common sense would agree is a good idea.

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They're Here! First Close-Ups of Pluto, Moons Make it Back to Earth

After the better part of a day's wait, the first close-up pictures of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, have finally made it back to Earth, revealing to scientists and the public alike active, dynamic worlds that were anything but what was realistically expected. So, what has New Horizons found?

On Pluto, New Horizons revealed geology that very few scientists had the audacity to expect. Pluto is a member of the Kuiper Belt, which is made up of mostly comets and a few larger bodies, such as Pluto. Comets, at least on the surface, are known qualities, characterized by battered surfaces of mostly ice and some rock. Going into the mission, many expected Pluto to be like a comet, albeit much, much larger.

How were the experts wrong!

The first close-ups of Pluto snapped by New Horizons have revealed a world of mountains (over 10,000 feet tall), valleys, plains, and even what seems to be a polar ice cap. As exciting as these features are, it's the complete absence of craters in some areas that really has scientists talking. Pluto and the rest of the solar system formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago. In the early history of the solar system, there was far more debris flying around than now, most of which was eventually absorbed into the still-forming planets. Evidence for these objects? Just train a pair of moderately-powerful binoculars on the Moon to reveal all of its craters: a 4.5 billion year record of violent impacts. The absence of craters on some areas of Pluto can only mean one thing: the dwarf planet's surface is much newer than the solar system, with many scientists offering a 100 million year age at most, meaning that Pluto was geologically active at some point in its recent (in geological terms) past. The mechanisms that caused this resurfacing will undoubtedly occupy scientists for years, if not decades to come as, unlike geologically active moons in the outer solar system, Pluto has no giant parent planet tugging on it to warm its interior.

Then there's Charon, Pluto's largest Moon.

Like Pluto, Charon displays a wide variety of geological features, evidence of recent geologic activity, and two massive canyons, the larger of which is over 600 miles long and over 6 miles deep. Another feature that is sure to spark investigation is the color contrasts visible on both Pluto and Charon and the possible causes for them.

Needless to say, even with just these first few pictures, mission scientists have already have a lot to talk about and routes of study to pursue. With the data still coming back (NASA estimates it will take 16 months to get all the data captured during the last week back to Earth), who knows what further surprises will await us Earthlings courtesy of the former 9^th planet over 3 billion miles distant.

Stay tuned!

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New Horizons Survives Pluto Flyby, Earth Awaits First Close Encounter Pictures

Late last night, specifically at 8:52pm EDT, anxious mission controllers at NASA finally got the long-awaited radio signal confirming that New Horizons had survived its encounter with Pluto. The radio contact blackout was planned in order for the probe to its science as it passed by the former 9^th planet. For NASA, this was the culmination of a 9-year flight filled with anxiety and danger. 

Traveling 3+ billion miles without mishap is no easy feat. In fact, just the act of getting off the ground is dangerous enough as a rocket launch is really no more than a controlled explosion. Once in space and traveling thousands of miles per hour, even a piece of space debris the size of a grain of rice hitting the probe at the right spot could destroy its ability to function. Those two dangers known, there was another that presented itself well after New Horizons was already into its flight: newly discovered Moons circling Pluto, which served to point out that the Kuiper Belt, in which Pluto resides, is full of potential dangers in the form of space debris.

Needless to say, mission control was holding its collective breath as close approach to Pluto became a matter of days, hours, and finally minutes.

Now, with the probe known to be alive and well, all we have to collectively do is wait for the first close pass pictures to make it back to Earth, which will take some time as not only is Pluto very distant from us, but data transmission rates are only about 2,000 bits (250 bytes) per second. For comparison, dial-up Internet access (remember that?) will transmit about 50 kilobytes per second (or about 200 times faster than the data rate from Pluto) and the slowest broadband Internet service available today is about 2 megabytes per seconds of data (or about 8000 times faster than the data rate from Pluto). End result: if you think your bandwidth stinks, NASA's download rate from Pluto is much, much worse meaning that it will take roughly the next 16 months to transmit all the data New Horizons captured during the past week, so don't expect the mission to drop out of the headlines anytime soon!

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New Horizons Flys by Pluto, Latest Images Most Detailed Yet

NASA's New Horizons Pluto space probe has just completed its historic flyby of Pluto, which was the 9^th planet at the time of launch. While the first pictures at closest approach are not expected until tomorrow, NASA has released images from yesterday, which meant that New Horizons was, at the time, within 1 day of closest approach.

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New Horizons 1 Day From Pluto Flyby, First Surface Details Revealed on Camera (Pictures)

NASA's New Horizons mission is set to fly past Pluto in roughly 24 hours. Now within a million miles of the former 9^th planet, scientists and the public are getting an eye full thanks to New Horizons' cameras, which are now capturing the first clear details of the former planet's surface.

Released yesterday, the latest images show the first clear details of surface features on Pluto and also its largest moon, Charon. As New Horizons approached Pluto and started beaming back images, the first resemblance of a surface began to appear on camera. Initially appearing as nothing more than splotches of color variation, these surface details have now emerged to appear as possible cliffs, valleys, mountains, and impact craters. Though still a million miles distant (close pass will be 30,800 miles) and anything but high-definition, these pictures have allowed scientists to get their first clear look at Pluto's surface and finally begin to narrow down the possibilities for what the distant world really looks like and the forces that shape it. 

Going into the mission, scientists had three competing ideas of what Pluto's surface would look like. The first idea is a dynamic world like Neptune's largest moon, Triton, which features ice geysers and a surface coated with varying shades of whites to grays thanks to the fact that the geysers, once they get high enough, become black thanks to trace amounts of carbon. It is this carbon-contaminated snow/ice that then falls back to the surface, thus giving Triton its anything but snow-white appearance.

The next idea of what Pluto may look like is one of a snow world. Why? Pluto is known to have an atmosphere, which is theorized to form when it gets to be summer and then freeze and fall back to the surface when it cools in fall/winter. The idea is that the frozen atmosphere would coat the mini world's surface, thus smoothing out many of surface features.

The third idea is basically idea two, sans surface-coating frozen atmosphere (this theory assumes that the atmosphere is too thin to amount to anything when it condenses and falls back to the surface). Result: a battered, frozen world bearing all of the impact craters incurred during its 4.5 billion year existence.

So far, theories 1 and 3 seem to be most likely as, thanks to the most recent images that show great color variation on the surface and fine details that would rule out the possibility of thick 'atmospheric snow.'

Needless to say, stay tuned as the hours progress as better and better pictures are sure to come beaming back to Earth, with the best coming Wednesday, the day pictures from close approach finally make it back to Earth.

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What is a Planet? Upcoming New Horizons Pluto Flyby Resurrects Hot Debate, Old Passions

In just two days, NASA's New Horizons space probe will fly past Pluto, which was the 9th and final planet in the solar system at the mission's launch. Now, 9 years and over 3 billion miles later, Pluto has long since been demoted to the status of 'dwarf planet.' That aside, scientists and the public are buzzing over the mission, which has, to the surprise of none, re-ignited the debate over Pluto's planetary status.

It was August 24, 2006 when our solar system lost one of its own. It was on this date that the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted on a new definition of the word 'planet.' By changing what makes a planet a planet, the IAU instantly stripped the outermost planet of the solar system, Pluto, of its planet status,demoting it to a 'dwarf planet' instead. For Pluto, the road to demotion was a long time coming.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, who had yet to earn a college degree at this point. In the decades since the discovery of Uranus, astronomers noticed that its orbit seemed to exhibit some unexpected eccentricities. This observation led to the discovery of Neptune in 1846 and, following this logic, the implication was that there was an even more distant planet tugging on Neptune after it, too, seemed to exhibit orbital oddities.

So, the search was on for the mysterious 9th planet, which was found by Tombaugh on February 18, 1930.

Initially, astronomers had a very hard time determining the size of Pluto as it was so far away and the tools available at the time of discovery were primitive by today's standards when it came to their planet-measuring capabilities. However, as time progressed, Pluto only seemed to get smaller and smaller, eventually reaching the point where it was estimated to be smaller than many of the moons in the solar system, including our own. By 1978 and the discovery of its first known moon, Charon, Pluto was known to be only about 1/500^th the mass of Earth, far from the 1 Earth mass first suggested shortly after discovery. By virtue of its size alone, some scientists started to question whether Pluto deserved to be called a planet at all.

The next blow for Pluto came with the advent of digital imaging technology. For astronomers, digital CCD chips, which came into mass use in the 1990s, were far more sensitive than film and could reveal much greater details. With the advances in imaging technology, many objects at Pluto's distance from the Sun were found. Now, with the fact known that Pluto was not unique at all, scientists were faced with a dilemma: start adding more planets to the solar system (and thus overwhelm the mind of schoolchildren the world over) or reconsider the definition of a planet.

As history shows, the astronomers took the latter option.

The final blow to Pluto's status as a planet came on July 29, 2005, when the existence of Eris, a body 3 times more distant but nearly 30% more massive than Pluto was confirmed. Eris was discovered by astronomer Mike Brown, who, in a TV interview, recalled calling his wife immediately after the discovery to announce that he had discovered the 10^th planet. Unfortunately for Brown, he would not enter the Pantheon of astronomers occupied by the other planet finders: Tombaugh, Gallee, and Herschel. Instead, Brown's 'planet' was merely the largest in a series of Trans-Neptunian objects discovered since the advent of digital imaging, which is far more adept at low-light photography than film. As a result, being larger than Pluto but now known as nothing unique, Brown's planet, temporarily named Xena (but since named Eris), would never gain planetary status and, despite being larger than Pluto, would retain its status as a newly-dubbed 'dwarf planet' while Pluto would continue to be defined as the 9^th planet.


It was because of this problem, how could the larger of two distant bodies be considered not a planet while the smaller one was a planet, that the scientific community began to reassess the definition of the word 'planet.'


Result: on August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Anion (IAU) came up with the following definition of the word 'planet,' which reads: “a body that circles the sun without being some other object's satellite, is large enough to be rounded by its own gravity (but not so big that it begins to undergo nuclear fusion, like a star) and has "cleared its neighborhood of other orbiting bodies.” Obviously, Pluto met the first 2 conditions (it orbits the Sun and nothing else, it is round), but not the third, as it has failed to clear its neighborhood thanks to the fact that its moon, Charon, is not a true moon in that Charon does not orbit Pluto, but both bodies orbit a point in space between them where their gravitational fields meet, making for more of a double planet system than a planet-moon one.

For many people, both scientists and especially members of the public, the demotion of Pluto was a tough pill to swallow as most everyone alive (save the people 77+ years of age) grew up on the notion of 9, not 8, planets. In fact, there was even a massive 'save Pluto' petition being circulated online, but to no avail as the IAU refused to budge on this question of what defines a planet.


So, regardless of what you call it, Pluto is due for a visitor in two days, so stay tuned!

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New Horizons Enters Pluto's Gravitational Field, NASA Releases New Pictures

Yesterday, it was announced that NASA's New Horizons space probe had entered Pluto's neighborhood, which could be better defined in layman's terms as Pluto's gravitational field. Incidentally, it is the failure to 'clear' its neighborhood that led Pluto to lose its planet status in 2006, only a few months after New Horizons was launched to what was, at the time, the final planet in the solar system.

Now, come July 11, New Horizons is roughly 3 days from its meet-up with Pluto, and the pictures are generating quite the buzz here on Earth, roughly 3 billion miles distant.

Images of Pluto taken during the past two days.

At close pass of about 8,000 miles, New Horizon's cameras will be revealing details down to about 100 yards per pixel. As of yesterday, with the probe still about 3 million miles from its target, the images are only resolved down to about 15 miles per pixel. 

Hubble's best effort.

While anything but crystal-clear, these pictures are still, far and away, the most detailed images of the distant world yet seen by human eyes. Before New Horizons, we had to rely on fuzzy pictures from the Hubble telescope to have even the faintest idea of what Pluto looked like. Bottom line: the images only gave scientists fodder for theory and no hard facts whatsoever. Now, in just 3 days, Earth will have its first up-close look at what was, at the time of mission launch, the final planet from the Sun.

Needless to say, these are exciting times for us interested in space exploration!

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1 Week Until Close-Ups of Pluto, 26 Years Since Voyager 2's Meeting With Neptune

One week from today, we here on Earth will get our first up-close look at Pluto, should all things go according to plan for NASA's New Horizons mission, which is set to fly by the former 9^th planet in 6 days (data will take hours to reach Earth, hence the 7 days until the first images).

As of now, thanks to a computer glitch this past weekend that probably triggered many panic attacks in mission control, the most recent images of Pluto date to last Friday, July 3. Here's one of those pictures.

For a historical perspective, 1989, 26 years ago, was the last time a space probe visited a planet for the first time (Pluto was still a planet when New Horizons launched and many still consider Pluto a planet regardless of the IAU's definition of 'planet') when Voyager 2 flew by Neptune. For some fun, here's a look back at that year, the most recent time a planet was visited for the first time . . .

1989 was a monumental year in human geopolitical history for one reason: the Berlin Wall came down and Eastern Europe shook off the yoke imposed by the Soviet Union. For this reason alone, 1989 will be remembered by historians centuries in the future. Starting in Poland, a wave of revolutions in Eastern Europe saw these countries, formerly behind the 'Iron Curtain' and under the oppressive rule of communist Russia, break free from their Soviet overlords and transform into modern, free democracies. By the end of the year, these Eastern Bloc nations would truly be independent nations once again and Soviet Russia, its communist system under considerable strain, would find itself standing alone against the irreversible tide of freedom. Within two years, communism in Russia would be dead.

That aside, here's more from the news in 1989:

Politics:
George HW Bush succeeds Ronald Reagan as the 41^st president
Tienanmen Square Massacre

Russia pulls last troops out of Afghanistan

Denmark becomes the first nation to legalize same-sex civil unions
The last 2 holdout WWII Japanese soldiers surrender
The United States invades Panama

Nature:
Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska

Hurricane Hugo, the costliest hurricane to date

7.1 magnitude Loma Prieta Earthquake in California

Science/Technology:

Bob Ballard finds the wreck of the German battleship Bismarck
Robert Morris becomes the first person prosecuted for a cyber crime

1^st commercial dial-up Internet service in the United States

NASA launches Galileo to Jupiter, Magellan to Venus

First mention of 'cold fusion'

First text message
Hepatitis C visus first identified

Sports:
Pete Rose banned from baseball

Ryder Cup ends in a tie
Riverside International Raceway closes

Pop Culture:
Sega Genesis released in the United States
Official Soviet news agency reports landing of UFO
The Simpsons airs its first episode
Disney releases the Little Mermaid

Doctor Who ends its original TV run of 26 years

Births:
Taylor Swift

Daniel Radcliffe
Joe Jonas
Michelle Wie

Deaths:
Lucille Ball
Salvador Dali
Emperor Hirohito
Bette Davis

Sugar Ray Robinson
Laurence Olivier

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