Andrew Fraknoi (The AstroProf)

Back on the Radio, Talking about the Mars Helicopter and Hungry Black Holes (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) Those of you who have known my career in public outreach may remember that I got my start in radio being a guest on talk shows on San Francisco radio station KGO. That venerable station has undergone many changes, but it's back to the talk show format, and I am back as a guest -- at the same time slot where I began in the... 1970s -- the early afternoon. The host is an enthusiastic Pat Thurston. Today, I was scheduled to be on briefly to explain the exploits of the Mars Helicopter, but she got so interested, she kept me the full hour (like the old days) talking about a number of cosmic subjects. You can hear the whole show (without news and commercials, it takes just over 30 minutes) at: https://omny.fm//april-23-2021-elon-musk-wants-spacex-to-r Our image shows the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity on its second flight above the surface of the red planet on April 22, as photographed from the nearby rover Perseverance. The rotors spin approximately five times faster than Earth helicopter blades to lift the light-weight little drone in an atmosphere with only 1% as much air as we have near the surface of Earth.

Ingenuity Helicopter Takes Flight on Mars (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) Today, early in the morning U.S. time, NASA's self-powered little drone on the red planet Mars flew for 39 seconds, up to an altitude of 10 feet or so, in its first experimental flight. For more information and a 6-second movie, see: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov//nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-

Mars Image with Rover and Helicopter (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this message, so others can see it too.) NASA has just released this amazing new image, in which the Perseverance Rover takes a selfie and also shows us the helicopter named Ingenuity, about 13 feet away. If all goes well, the little helicopter will next week take its first experimental flight, where it will rise and hover at 10 feet or so above the ground for 30 seconds. That will be the first powered flight for a human robot on another world. And it will be quite an achievement given that the air at the martian surface is so thin, like the air on Earth at an altitude of 28 miles! As more and more of us get vaccines on Earth, perhaps 2021 will turn out to be a better year for trusting science and marveling at human ingenuity.

Mars Landing, Images, Link to Fiction (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others may see it.) Today, the Perseverance Rover on Mars began its first "stroll" and sent back images of the ancient lake-bed on which it landed and its own body. You can see the tracks it made in the red martian soil in the accompanying image. You can find other images and a full description at: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov//nasas-perseverance-drives-on-mar... The project team informally named the landing site the "Octavia Butler Landing," after the science fiction writer whose works have imagined so many interesting extra-terrestrial landing sites. (She was also the first Black woman writer to win both the major awards in science fiction writing.) Continuing the connection with fiction, we should also mention that on the case of the instrument they call the "Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals" which they call SHERLOC for short, they put 221B Baker Street, which was the address where Sherlock Holmes lived. Good for NASA for tipping its hat to the humanities. It's wonderful to see this rover land successful and begin its mission without a hitch. Eventually it will deploy a drone helicopter for the first flight on another world, explore the lake-bed for evidence of the building blocks of life, make oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the air, and put interesting Mars samples into canisters for pick-up by future missions. It really seems a bit like science fiction, doesn't it?

Teaching a Mini-Course on Black Holes for People Over 50 (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) The nonprofit Osher Life Long Learning Program at SF State University has asked me to teach: Black Holes: Space Warps, Time Machines, ... and the Science that Won the 2020 Nobel Prize Thursday afternoons 3:00 - 4:45 PM, Jan. 28 Feb. 18 (4 Meeting Days) Offered through the SF State OLLI, but open to anyone over age 50. In this non-technical mini-course, we will learn about the theory and experiments behind one of the most remarkable phenomena in science the gruesome and powerful places in the universe called black holes. Formed through the deaths of huge stars, black holes are places where gravity overwhelms every other force in the universe and the behavior of space and time is altered, almost beyond recognition. Designed for non-scientists and presented in everyday language with lots of beautiful illustrations, the class will first describe how black holes emerged from Einstein’s work and then show how new instruments on Earth and in space are demonstrating that black holes of various sizes really do exist. The fee is $70 for 4 weeks. To sign up, go to: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx When you register for the class, if you are not a current member of OLLI, you will be asked to sign up, but it’s a free process. Sign up link: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/account/signin.aspx

Happy New Year Image: Cosmic Togetherness (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it.) 2020 has been a difficult year for so many of us, missing the togetherness of being with extended family and friends. So I’m posting one of my favorite images of the year, showing astro-photographer David Lane’s remarkable view of the Pleiades cluster of stars. This cluster contains about a thousand stars all hanging out together, attracted by each other’s g...ravity. It’s the brighter stars that stand out, though, which was, sadly, not always the case in clusters of politicians in Washington this year. The cluster is relatively young, only about 100 million years old (as compared to our Sun, which is 4600 million years old.) Of the brightest blue stars, 7 to 9 are visible to the unaided eye. That’s how the cluster got to be named after the seven sisters of Greek mythology. Other cultures developed their own stories around the easily visible stars. In Japan, the cluster is called Subaru, giving its name to a car company that formed from a bunch of smaller ones. By coincidence, the cluster is moving through cloud of cosmic dust that was in the same neighborhood. The blue glow you see around the cluster is starlight reflecting from filaments of that dust. The group is about 450 light-years from us, making this one of the closest clusters of stars astronomers get to study. Here’s to a bright 2021, with widespread vaccine protection, when we can all get together again in clusters small and large! You can see more of David Lane's photography at: http://davelaneastrophotography.com

A Fun Astronomy Course for People Over 50 (Please respond with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it.) If you are under 50, perhaps you could share this post with someone over that age; thanks. I am teaching a course that consists of a spectacularly illustrated "Tourist Tour of the Solar System and the Galaxy," Tuesdays, 12:30 PM - 2:15 PM, Oct. 13 through Nov. 3 (Four Meeting Days over Four Weeks) It is offered through the SF State Osher Life-long Learni...ng Institute (OLLI), but open to anyone over age 50. Have you recently had an irresistible desire to get off planet Earth and be somewhere else? Then join us on a fun tour of the not-to-be-missed best "tourist sights" among the planets and moons with which we share the Sun, and among the nearby stars, glowing clouds, and star clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy! To sign up, go to: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx When you register for the class, if you are not a current member of OLLI, you will be asked to sign up for OLLI, but it’s a free process. The class itself has a modest fee. The class discussion will be accompanied with really dramatic color images from the latest space probes, many of them new. We'll learn about some of the most interesting vistas in deep space, including: * the steam geysers on one of Saturn's moons, * a cliff on a moon of Uranus’ which is the tallest lovers leap in the solar system * nearby stars that have intriguing planets that may be habitable (including the closest star to the Sun) * several glowing columns of cosmic material that are being converted into new stars and new planets as we watch * the colorful death-shrouds that surround aging stars in our neighborhood (like the accompanying photo). Designed like the Rick Steves travel shows on public TV, these tours are for the beginner, and will assume no background in science. Discover how we humans fit into the bigger picture.

Life on Venus?? (Please respond with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) You may have heard or read about the announcement that astronomers have found the molecule phosphine in the clouds of our neighbor planet Venus. One possible interpretation of the discovery is that the small amount of phosphine we detect is produced by micro-organisms high in the clouds of Venus. I was interviewed on San Francisco's radio station KGO about the discovery and had... a 30-minute segment to set the background and give perspective on the discovery. You can hear the interview as a podcast at: https://www.kgoradio.com/patthurstonshow/ It is the second segment for Sept. 16. It's so exciting that, despite the lack of science appreciation in some parts of our government, scientific research around the world continues during the pandemic, and we can sometimes get out of our own constrained situations and think about the bigger picture. Here is a color-exaggerated NASA image of the clouds of Venus, which perpetually veil the planet.

A Talk/Discussion: Top Solar System Tourist Sights (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can also see it.) On Friday, Sept. 18th, from 6 to 7:30 pm, the Web destination SpeakEasy is presenting my on-line talk (and discussion), entitled: Where Jeff Bezos’ Great Grand-Daughter Will Go for Her Honeymoon: The Top Tourist Sights of the Solar System. For more information and to reserve a spot, see: ... https://www.speakeasy.com/event/tourist-sights-solar-system The tour will explore the most intriguing future tourist destinations among the planets and moons in our cosmic neighborhood. Stops will include the 4,000-mile lava channel on Venus, the towering Mount Olympus volcano on Mars (three times the height of Mount Everest), the awesome Verona Cliffs on the moon Miranda (which are the tallest lover’s leap in the solar system), and the recently discovered salt-water steam geysers on Saturn’s intriguing moon Enceladus (nicknamed Cold Faithful.). The tour will finish with the latest images of the eerie vistas on Pluto. Beautiful color images from U.S. and other space probes will accompany the talk. No background in science is required. The image with this post shows Saturn casting a shadow on its own magnificent ring system.

The Perseid Meteor Shower (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) This Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning (Aug. 11-12), there will be one of the better meteor showers you and your family can watch the Perseids. The Moon won’t rise until 11 pm or so. Therefore, in the evening after 8 pm, the dark skies will make it easier for even casual viewers to spot a number of shooting stars. While the best night is the evening of Aug. 11t...h and morning of Aug. 12th, there could be significantly more meteors than usual in the sky on the night before and the night after too. Meteors or shooting stars (which have nothing to do with stars) are pieces of cosmic dust and dirt hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and making a flash of light. These flashes could happen anywhere in the sky, so it’s best to view the shower from a dark, wide-open place. See the list at the end for viewing suggestions. The Perseid meteors are cosmic garbage left over from a regularly returning comet, called Swift-Tuttle (after the two astronomers who first discovered it). The comet itself returns to the inner solar system every 130 years or so; it was last here in 1992. During each pass, it leaves dirt and dust behind and it is this long dirt and dust stream that we encounter every August. Each flash you see is a bit of material from the comet hitting the Earth’s atmosphere and getting heated up (and heating up the air around it) as it speeds through our thick atmosphere. Both the superheated dust and dirt and the heated air contribute to the visible light we observe. Since comets are left-overs from the early days of our solar system, you can tell yourself (or your kids) that each flash of light is the last gasp of a bit of cosmic material that formed some 5 billion years ago. ANDREW FRAKNOI’S EIGHT HINTS FOR TAKING A METEOR SHOWER 1. Get away from city lights and find a location that’s relatively dark 2. If it’s significantly foggy or cloudy, you’re out of luck 3. Your location should allow you to see as much of the dome of the sky as possible 4. Allow time for your eyes to get adapted to the dark (at least 10 -15 minutes) 5. Don’t use a telescope or binoculars they restrict your view (so you don’t have to be part of the 1% with fancy equipment to see the shower; this is a show for the 99%!) 6. Dress warm it can get cooler at night even in August (and don’t forget the insect repellent while you are outside) 7. Be patient (it’s not fireworks): keep looking up & around & you’ll see flashes of light 8. Take someone with you with whom you like to spend time in the dark! (Our image shows a past Perseid meteor over the Very Large Telescope in Chile.)

(Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post so others will see it.) I am the lead author of a free, online introductory textbook about astronomy, and the American Astronomical Society just made a video in which I got to explain this nonprofit project. So far, I am proud to say, at least 350,000 students have used the book and have saved at least $25 million in their college costs as a result.

Hot Blob Signals Presence of Long-Awaited Star Corpse (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) Astronomers have just announced the first indication that a star seen to explode in 1987 has left behind a neutron star a kind of weird star corpse that is more compressed than any other structure in the universe. It’s a discovery that has long been hoped for by astronomers to confirm that our ideas about the deaths of massive stars are co...rrect. Smaller stars, like our Sun, die a relative peaceful death, where they simply collapse under their own weight until they become kind of solid. But the bigger stars become unstable and blow up at the end of their lives, in an explosion astronomers call a supernova. Most such explosions leave behind a core so compressed that, in it, atoms as we know them cease to exist. Instead, electrons are squeezed into protons to make neutrons, essentially removing all empty space within each atom. The result is a tight ball made mostly of pure neutrons. To make something this dense on Earth, we would have to take all the people in the world and squeeze them into one raindrop! An entire star collapses to be about the size of a small U.S. suburb. How could we find such a squozen star corpse? It turns out these neutron stars are very hot after they form and can heat any left-over gas and dust around them. The most recent nearby supernova explosion that astronomers know of was seen in February 1987 in a satellite galaxy that orbits our Milky Way. It is given the very unimaginative name Supernova 1987A, being the first one seen in 1987. Searching the central regions of the remnant of this supernova, astronomers, using the big array of radio telescopes called ALMA, have recently found a super-hot blob of material right where the neutron star was expected to be. All the characteristics of the blob indicate that is a heated cloud of dust and gas hiding a hot neutron star within. It will be decades before the material around the neutron star is cleared out and we can get a glimpse of the star corpse itself. But for now, the detailed properties of the blob tell us that it is most likely hiding just the kind of neutron star astronomers were hoping to see. (In our radio image, you see a wide ring of material around the dead star, set to glow by the particles of the explosion that reach it. The inset shows the central region, with the hot blob glowing bright in radio waves.)

Super-Jupiter Pair Photographed Orbiting Sun-like Star (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) Astronomers have, for the first time, photographed a family of two planets going around a sun-like star. Using the world’s largest telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, they blocked out the light of the bright young star the planets orbit, allowing them to see the light of the planets clearly. (The planets are the ones wi...th the arrow on our image.) These are not ordinary planets. Both are super-Jupiters, meaning they have much more material than our Jupiter (one has 14 times its mass, the other 6 times.) And they are much further from their stars than our Jupiter 32 and 64 times further. The whole star and planet system is very young (only 17 million years old, compared to the solar system’s 4.6 billion year age.) Such young planets have more heat, and can thus be found more easily via their heat-rays (infrared light.) Most of the four-thousand plus planets we know to orbit other stars have been found indirectly by the gravity pull they exert on their star, or the light they block from their star. But humans have a seeing is believing prejudice, so it’s great to have actual photos of a family of planets like this. At the center of our image, you see the star itself as a set of artificial dark and light rings (where its light was blocked). The other dots are background stars.

Faint but Visible Comet in our Skies (Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post, so others can see it too.) An ancient cosmic chunk of ice, perhaps 3 miles in diameter, rounded the Sun on July 3 and is now barely visible in our skies as a comet with a tail. Right now it is only visible at dawn an hour or two before sunrise (which is when most of us are asleep). But July 14-19, it will come to the early evening skies and can be seen without disrupting your dreams. ... The diagram shows you where to look. Comets are icy pieces left over from the formation time of our solar system; they are "fossils" that didn't get incorporated into the planets and moons, but still orbit the Sun. When one gets into an orbit that comes close to the Sun, our star's heat and light evaporates the ice, frees the dust frozen inside it, and makes for a glowing cloud around the ice and pushes a long tail of dust and gas away. The darker your location, the easier Comet NEOWISE (named after the telescope in space that discovered it) will be to see. So get away from city lights and take binoculars and someone with whom you like to sit in the dark with you. The later in the month you look for the comet, the higher in the sky it will be but also the fainter it will be. You can see great images and more instructions at: https://skyandtelescope.org//comet-neowise-delights-at-da/ By the way, the bright object you see after sunset in the southeast is the planet Jupiter. The bright object you see just before sunrise in the east is Venus. The comet is much fainter than either of those.

My Tourist Tour Video Available Until July 22 (Please reply yes if you get this post, so others can also see it.) I have been giving tourist Zoom tours of our solar system to various groups during the pandemic, to help people get outside our confused and complex planet for an hour or so, at least. Kepler's Books, a wonderful bookstore just south of San Francisco, has given me permission to share the secret code for one of my tour lectures with you. Where Will Jeff B...ezos’ Great Grand-daughter Go for her Honeymoon: The Top Tourist Sights of the Solar System, is available on-line only until July 22: Access the video at: https://us02web.zoom.us//7JV-Ie6uqDI3HoXD4wSDBKUtW47pL_6s1 The secret password is: 2TheStars! (yes, the exclamation point is part of it)

"Ring of Fire" Eclipse on the Other Side of the World (Reply with a quick YES if you get this post, so others will be able to see it; thanks.) Late tonight (Pacific time) there is an annular eclipse of the Sun on the other side of our planet. This is an eclipse where the Moon doesn't quite cover the Sun, leaving a brilliant ring of light. The San Jose Mercury News did a nice article on the eclipse, where they have some quotes by me, and links to where you can see the eclipse on the Web without having to travel to China. See the article at: https://www.mercurynews.com//how-to-watch-this-weekends-d/

Frank Drake, the Father of SETI, Turns 90 This Week (Please answer with a quick yes if you get this post, so FB will send it to others.) This week, Dr. Frank Drake, the pioneer in the scientific search for intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos and one of my favorite astronomers, turns 90. He has been a really important mentor in my life, with good advice at several crucial career points, and I want to wish him all the best on this occasion. He is perhaps best known for t...he Drake Equation, a formula for making estimates of the number of technological civilizations in the Galaxy that are capable of communicating with us. To read an article in which he wrote up The Origin of the Drake Equation (for a column I was editing at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific), go to: http://bit.ly/drakearticle For my 2012 interview with Drake, where he reflects on his work over the years, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPQz-kdaxNo&t=536s The accompanying picture shows us on that occasion, at the SETICon convention organized by the SETI Institute, where he and I have been on the Board of Trustees. With all the reasons to despair of intelligent life here on Earth, I hope we can soon realize Drake's dream of finding it among the stars. A number of projects are carrying on the search he began, and a success would be a great present for his next birthday.

(Please reply with a quick yes if you get this post so FB will share with others.) Here is a free program I am doing on line that may tickle your fancy if you are a bit sick of planet Earth...