By Adam England, the Backyard Astronomer

The Greeks coined the term planetes – meaning “wanderer” – to describe the objects they saw in the sky that regularly moved against the background of the other, fixed stars.  Over time, this included many bodies that wander across the night sky, including the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as smaller bodies like Sedna, Eris, Ceres, and Pluto.  The strict definition of a planet has caused heated debates between individual astronomers, professional observatories, and universities, which have pockmarked history like the craters of our Moon.  The International Astronomical Union, or IAU was founded in 1919 as a consortium of astronomers from all over the world, with the mission of cooperative astronomical “research, communication, education and development”.  As such, the IAU has become the definitive organization for the uniform classification and naming of our continued discoveries across space.

Since the first telescopes appeared around 1608, we have been able to observe much more than the easily visible stars that have graced our skies and mythologies for thousands of years.  Commonly known stars such as Polaris, Betelgeuse, Rigel, and Vega were soon joined by many hundreds of others, which were often assigned designations, usually relative to the name of the discoverer, and the chronology of which it was discovered.  For example, German astronomer Wilhelm Gliese (pronounced GLEE-zə) published a 1957 catalogue of 915 stars that were within 20 light years of Earth, essentially our closest stellar neighbors.  The majority of these continue to carry designations like Gliese 436, being the 436^th star listed in the catalogue.  Not nearly as fun to say as Betelgeuse, the IAU has developed periodic naming competitions for some of the more interesting and commonly studied of these many thousands of additional stars sans moniker.  Astronomers, educators, students, and laypeople alike contribute to these competitions, with the winning epithets from around the world are now represented in the heavens.

In 1992, the first exoplanet was confirmed.  Exo being the Greek for “outside”, the IAU has defined an exoplanet similar to that of a planet, being a body which regularly orbits its host star, with a gravitational pull great enough to have cleared its orbit of other smaller bodies, and with the caveat of existing outside of our own solar system.  Finding these exoplanets is difficult, and only a handful have been directly imaged.  Most are discovered through various methods including how their gravity tugs on a star as it orbits and making the host star “wobble”, or by measuring the dip in light observed when the exoplanet passes in front of its star as measured from our view.  Since that first discovery in 1992 by researchers at Puerto Rico’s now defunct Arecibo Observatory, we have added more than 5000 confirmed exoplanets to the list of rocky, liquid, or gas bodies orbiting other stars.  Commonly, they follow the naming designation of the host star itself, such as the hot-Neptune icy body Gliese 436b orbiting its red dwarf star approximately 32 light years distant.

To learn more about these exoplanets astronomers have created ground-based observatories such as the Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama desert, and space-based equipment like the James Webb Space Telescope orbiting with the Earth at 4 times the distance of the moon.  The sensitivity of these telescopes, and ability to observe outside the visible light spectrum of optical telescopes, has provided information that allows us to measure the volume, mass, and atmospheric compositions of some of these exoplanets.  For example, Gliese 436b was chosen as one of the first exoplanets to be studied by the JWST, after the smaller Spitzer Space Telescope previously suggested a composition like that of a giant ice world, albeit with extremely high pressures and temperatures in excess of 800F.  The heat, pressure, and proximity to the radiation of its star at just 2.6 million miles suggested that a giant cloud of gas observed around the exoplanet was actually a comet-like tail stretching 9 million miles.

An exotic exoplanet, 21 times the mass of Earth, soaring around its star every 62 hours, with a surface of solid ice that exists at temperatures hotter than a household oven – and carrying the monotonous designation Gliese 436b.  Something had to be done, and to this end, the IAU introduced NameExoWorld2022, an international competition to propose names for the more fascinating exoplanets that the James Webb Space Telescope will be dedicating time to observing.  The theme for the NameExoWorlds2022 competition was “indigenous languages”, and so I assembled a team including representatives from Prescott’s Museum of Indigenous People, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, The Northern Arizona Astronomical Consortium, and students from ERAU, Bradshaw Mountain High School, Northpoint Expeditionary Academy, and Liberty Traditional School. Together, we came up with submission for Gliese 436b and its host star Gliese 436, and have spent the last 8 months promoting this through in-person outreach events around the Quad City area, articles, videos, and podcasts available online.

On Wednesday, June 7^th, the IAU announced that Gliese 436/b will now formally carry the approved names Noquisi and Awohali for the star and exoplanet, coming from the Cherokee language meaning “Star” and “Eagle” respectively.  These names represent so much more than just two words picked at random from an indigenous language.  They represent an oral history handed down for hundreds of generations telling of a connection between humanity, nature, and the stars, as well as the first time that a star or exoplanet have officially carried a name in the indigenous language of a North American people.  As told by Manuel Lucero IV, Director of Prescott’s Museum of Indigenous People, and a member of the Cherokee Nation, the oral history of Awohali goes:

Long ago when animals chose to speak with us, there was a warrior who had a prayer for his people that he wanted to deliver to the Great Spirit.  This warrior climbed a mountain as high as he could go, and he came across Yona, the Bear.  Yona said, “Two-legged, what are you doing here?  You don’t belong here!”  The warrior said, “I want to deliver this prayer to the Great Spirit.”  Yona was very taken aback by this story and says, “I will take that prayer for you.”  He took the prayer and climbed as high up the mountain as he could.  When he reached the top of the mountain and there were no more trees except for one, he saw Awohali the Eagle nested up at the top of it.  Awohali looked down and said, “Yona, what are you doing here?  You don’t belong here.”  Yona told Awohali about the prayer, and equally touched, offers take the prayer.  Awohali in Cherokee means “He who flies the highest,” and Awohali flew as high as he could, higher than he ever had before, all the way to the Sun – our star Noquisi.  The Sun looked at the eagle and said, “Awohali, what are you doing here?  You don’t belong here.”  Awohali told the Sun about the prayer, who replied, “I speak with the Great Spirit all the time, give me the prayer and I will deliver it.  But first, give me one of your tail feathers.”  Awohali reached back and plucked one, handing it to the Sun, who kissed it.  This is why the golden eagle tail feather has a black mark on the tip.  The Sun told Awohali, “Give this feather to the people so they will know they have a direct connection to the Great Spirit.”  For this reason, the eagle feather is coveted by most native people. 

We are honored to share this story with you, as a small piece of the valued history of one of our country’s many diverse cultures, and as the members of the Prescott Area team who worked so diligently to share it with the world, for now and for generations to come.  I urge you to take an afternoon and visit the Museum of Indigenous People at 147 N. Arizona Avenue to learn more about the Noquisi/Awohali system, the NameExoWorlds2022 competition, and indigenous astronomy at the Ani Noquisi exhibit running now through December 2023, and follow the Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium at Embry-Riddle for more upcoming shows on this and other astronomical wonders. Additionally, a video of the project is available at https://youtu.be/nl893hO6v5w

Members of Team Ani Noquisi:

-Manuel Lucero – Director, Museum of Indigenous People; Representative of the Cherokee Nation

-Joshua Ballze – Trustee, Museum of Indigenous People; Jurassic Paleoart Expo; Representative of the Hia-Ced O’odham Nation

-Dr. Pragati Pradhan – Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University; Association for Women in Science

-Eric Edelman – Director, Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University; AAS Astronomy Ambassador, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee of the International Planetarium Society

-Edward Tucker – Realtor, Licensed Drone Pilot; Videographer

-Adam M. England, E.A, “The Backyard Astronomer” – Founding secretary, Northern Arizona Astronomical Consortium; Former Vice-President, Prescott Astronomy Club; Astronomical League member

-Rebecca Spejcher – Undergraduate Student of Astronomy, ERAU; Society of Physics Students

-Colin Tucker -Student, Bradshaw Mountain High School

-Wyatt Lucero – Student, Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy

-Allyson Barney – Student, Liberty Traditional School

-Jeremiah Christy – Student, Liberty Traditional School

-Aubrey Tucker – Elementary School Student

By Adam England, The Backyard Astronomer

One of my personal favorite constellations is Scorpius.  It is very easy to identify in the summer months when it rises in the Southeast and sways above the Bradshaw Mountains like the traditional scorpion promenade à deux pairing dance.  The red supergiant Antares defines the head of the Scorpion and is often confused with Mars for its brightness and somewhat ochre coloration. Just one degree westward of Antares is the globular cluster Messier 4 (M4), the first cluster to have individual stars resolved by astronomers in the mid 1700s.  Today, Backyard astronomers can easily locate this cluster with a decent pair of binoculars or a small telescope.

While the head of the scorpion is dominated by Antares and the five stars making up its head and claws, the tail of the scorpion rises above the mountain tops a litter later in the evening and is defined by its large hook at the tip.  The Hawaiian culture saw these stars as the fishhook of the demigod Maui, calling it Ka Makau Nui o Māui or “The Big Fishhook of Maui”.

Here in Northern Arizona, we certainly have scorpions and will use a fishhook for landing a trout, however the Navajo culture some something different in these stars.  The last four stars in the tail are strikingly similar to the tracks left by a running rabbit, and as such, was known as Gah Haat’e’ii – Rabbit Tracks.  It was the return of the rabbit tracks each year that signified to Navajo hunters that hunting season was over.  During the time this constellation is visible in the night sky is when deer, elk, and other large game have given birth to your young, and these newborns are still reliant on their mothers for sustenance.  When Rabbit Tracks move to the East and is no longer upright in the sky, the young are then old enough to care for themselves, and the hunting season returns.

Due to its placement along the main swath of the Milky Way, Scorpius contains many other deep sky objects, including double stars, nebulae, and both open and globular clusters.  Enjoy the beautiful summer nights of Northern Arizona and get your telescope out to look at this amazing patch of sky.

IAU Selects Names for 20 Exoplanetary Systems

— The NameExoWorlds global contest names the next set of exoplanets and host stars

The International Astronomical Union’s NameExoWorlds 2022 contest has selected 20 pairs of names for exoplanets and their host stars. The contest was organised within the framework of the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO). With 603 entries from 91 countries, the campaign attracted over 8800 individuals working in teams, who put forward outreach initiatives that stimulated the direct participation of almost 12 million people worldwide.

The NameExoWorlds 2022 contest was set up to recognise and honour the efforts of the people who have been making it their life’s work to popularise astronomy in an accessible and public-friendly way to their communities. The contest was open to anyone to form a team, implement an astronomy outreach event and propose a name for one of the 20 exoplanetary systems, each with one known exoplanet and its host star. The star and planet names were to be connected by a common theme, allowing other planets, if discovered in future, to be named following the same theme. These 20 systems were selected as they were among the first exoplanetary systems targeted for observations by JWST [1].

The contest attracted over 8800 professional and amateur astronomers, students and teachers, and astronomy enthusiasts in teams that hosted astronomy events. From intimate events for neighbours to large online lectures, the astronomy outreach events created for NameExoWorlds 2022 showcased the diversity and creativity that is possible in astronomy outreach practices. For example, students from the JaHo School in Taipei created a participatory game that helped the public engage with the JWST [1], while students at Chittagong International School in Bangladesh created a gender-inclusive, week-long festival that included exhibitions, Q&A sessions, and film screenings.

Through the NameExoWorlds initiatives, the IAU recognises the importance of the connections between the sky and our diverse cultures. In recognition of this link and of the UN International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019, speakers of Indigenous languages were encouraged to propose names from those languages. Seven of the selected names are of Indigenous etymology.

The newly adopted names [2] honour native fauna and flora with cultural significance, for example, Batsũ̀ (LHS 3844) & Kua’kua (LHS 3844 b), from Costa Rica, are the words in Bribri Language for hummingbird and butterfly; while Wattle (WASP-19) & Banksia (WASP-19 b), and Añañuca (GJ 367) & Tahay (GJ 367 b) are names of native flora of Australia and Chile, respectively, whose characteristics allude to the properties of the celestial objects. Selected names also highlight significant geographical landmarks: Zembra (HATS-72) & Zembretta (HATS-72 b) are UNESCO biosphere reserves in Tunisia, while Wouri (WASP-69) is a river in Cameroon & Makombé (WASP-69 b) its tributary.

Some names also celebrate literary works, such as Kosjenka (WASP-63) & Regoč (WASP-63 b), which refer to the work of Croatian writer Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, and Filetdor (WASP-166) & Catalineta (WASP-166 b) which refer to Mallorcan folktales recorded by writer Antoni Maria Alcover i Sureda. Other names celebrated folktales, mythologies and lore from around the world, including words in Maa, Cherokee, Taino, Zoque, Chinese, and Korean. The full list of selected names can be found on NameExoWorlds website.

Several notable exoplanets were named in this campaign. The benchmark transiting exoplanet GJ 1214 b — one of the most-studied ‘sub-Neptune’ planets intermediate in size between Earth and Neptune — received the name Enaiposha, which refers to a large body of water like a lake or sea in the Maa language of Kenya and Tanzania. Two well-studied hot-Neptune exoplanets, designated GJ 436 b and GJ 3470 b, that orbit very close to their stars, but on highly inclined orbits nearly perpendicular to their star’s equator, and show observational evidence for evaporating atmospheres, were also named. GJ 436 b was named Awohali — Cherokee for eagle — referring to a legend in which an eagle was sent to the Sun by a warrior to deliver a prayer. GJ 3470 b was named Phailinsiam — Thai for blue Siamese sapphire — alluding to the blue colour of the planet inferred from the detection of Rayleigh scattering in its atmosphere. The recently discovered hot sub-Earth-sized exoplanet GJ 367 b orbits its star every eight hours, and has a density that suggests it is a very iron-rich planet like Mercury. It has been named Tahay, after a flower that blooms for only about eight hours every year, similar to the length of the ‘year’ for this ultra-short-period planet. Awohali, Phailinsiam, Tahay all orbit nearby red dwarf stars within 33 light-years of Earth.

At the core of the decision process to select these 20 names were members of the Executive Committee WG Exoplanetary System Nomenclature [3], in consultation with the discoverers of the planets, who joined for the selection of the new names from 134 national entries [4].

Eric Mamajek, chair of the NameExoWorlds 2022 campaign, noted, “The thoughtful names for these recently discovered planets and their stars, show that IAU public naming campaigns can draw upon the imagination of people around the world.”

Debra Elmegreen, IAU President, remarked, “Congratulations to those who proposed winning names for these exoplanetary systems, and to everyone who entered. This large engagement of school children, the public, and professional astronomers in the competition is a fitting tribute to the efforts of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach over the past decade. Many thanks to the Working Group on Exoplanetary System Nomenclature and the OAO for running the competition.”

Notes

[1] The systems selected in 2022 are of special interest, as they are among the first exoplanet targets of the JWST. This international space observatory, led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, saw first light in July 2022. The newly named exoplanets have been discovered via a mix of techniques, mostly the transit method, direct imaging, and radial velocity method.

[2] The winning names will not replace the scientific alphanumeric designations, which already exist for all exoplanets and their host stars, but they will be sanctioned as IAU-adopted names and will be publicised as such. Due credit will be given to the communities that proposed them. These public names may then be used freely worldwide, along with, or instead of, the original scientific designation.

[3] The Executive Committee WG Exoplanetary System Nomenclature is an IAU Working Group tasked with providing advice on guidelines for the naming of exoplanets and their host stars, as well as supporting the IAU’s public naming campaigns for exoplanetary systems.

[4] The lead author of the discovery paper for the exoplanet, or a coauthor (either delegated by the first author, or selected by the panel if the first author did not respond), was invited by the panel to participate in the NameExoWorlds 2022 campaign. They were given the choice of either providing input to the panel on the naming selection (after reviewing the leading naming proposals for that system) or participating on a team that proposed names for the system — but they could not do both. Most elected to provide input to the panel on the top proposals for a particular system from the various national campaigns.

More Information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world’s largest professional body for astronomers.

The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) is a joint project of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The mission of the OAO is to engage the public in astronomy through access to astronomical information and communication of the science of astronomy. This is implemented through a network of IAU National Outreach Coordinators (NOCs) and the IAU’s public engagement initiatives. The work of the OAO is about building bridges between the IAU and the global astronomy community of amateur astronomers, outreach professionals, educators, communicators, and the general public, and through international collaboration, to make the science of astronomy accessible to all.

Links

• NameExoWorlds 2022 Information: https://.nameexoworlds.iau.org/
• Executive Committee WG Exoplanetary System Nomenclature: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/331/
• IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach: https://www.iau.org/public/oao/
• NameExoWorlds 2019 Edition: https://nameexoworlds.iau.org/2019edition
• NameExoworlds 2015 Edition: https://nameexoworlds.iau.org/2015edition
• NASA Exoplanet Archive: https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/index.html

Spring also brings with it the pollinators that make our world possible, and the Beehive Cluster shines prominent in the sky this month.  You may be able to spot these industrious little lights “buzzing” around Mars on the night of June 2^nd, when the Red Planet will be centrally located among this open cluster.  Mars is easy to spot, being one of the most crimson objects in the night sky and should help you locate the beehive cluster above the Southwestern horizon just after dusk.  On many nights, and from dark skies, it is easy to locate with the naked eye, as astronomers and observers have done for millennia.  A handful of stars have always been visible to the eye; however, Galileo turned his telescope to the cluster in 1609 as one of his first observations and was able to discern 40 individual stars.  Modern observations have catalogued over 1000 stars that are gravitationally linked in this area of space with a radius of about 12 light years, with around 30% of the stars being Sun-like.

Just as our bees are busy spreading life around our planet, the stars in the Beehive Cluster too are busy forming new planets of their own.  In 2012 researchers using the Kepler Space Telescope announced that two planets had been discovered orbiting two separate stars in the cluster.  Known as “Hot Jupiters” these planets are some of the largest gas giants, though they orbit much closer to their host star, making them – you guessed it – much hotter.  While this is not in itself a unique discovery in this age of planets, what is unique is that both of the stars they orbit are similar in size and brightness to our own star.  From our limited observations since the first exoplanet discovery in 1992 we have found 9432 exoplanets, with less than 5% being rocky, earth like bodies, and K type “orange dwarf” stars being the most common type of star to host a planet.  By comparison, our Sun is a G type yellow dwarf, being slightly larger and hotter.

If you missed the conjunction of Mars and the Beehive Cluster on June 2^nd, you could witness an earth-like planet join the cluster on the nights of June 12^th and 13^th.  Earth’s celestial twin, Venus, will be making a close approach to the cluster as it traverses the ecliptic.  Though separated by millions of miles of empty space, both of these wanderers appear to move along the same cosmic road, as determined by our solar system’s formation out of a disk of gas and dust, and few planets have strayed more than a few degrees from this original stellar plane.

Spring has sprung in Northern Arizona, and with it comes the return of budding flora and emerging fauna.  In like fashion, the sky also graces us with clusters in bloom, and the slithering serpents that herald their homecoming.

The constellation Serpens is often depicted as two halves of a snake, as held by Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine.  The snake was observed to shed its skin, an act seen by the ancients as a sort of rebirth and resurrection, and the return of the constellation Serpens brings the rebirth of the plant and animal life that laid dormant throughout the winter.  The serpent begins to rise in the Eastern skies during the month of May and brings with it a host of deep sky objects for your viewing pleasure.

Messier 5 (M5) is a globular cluster near the head of the Serpent, with more than 100,000 stars densely packed into a ball of space about 165 light years in diameter.  Despite having so many individual stars, its distance from Earth at around 25,000 light years makes it appear to the naked eye as a single, faint star.  Through your binoculars you will be able to discern that it is not a single object, however larger telescopes can resolve many of the brighter individuals, which includes one hundred five variable stars, 2 millisecond pulsars, and a dwarf nova. 

The entirety of M5 is speeding away from our solar system at more than 50km/s, so by the time you finish reading this article, it will have moved a full Earth diameter further away from your backyard telescope.  The most daring Backyard Astronomers can also hunt galaxies off the head of The Serpent.  Hoag’s Object is an extremely rare ring galaxy, and Seyfert’s Sextet is a group of six galaxies which are gravitationally bound like a globular cluster, albeit over a much grander scale.

For early-bird astronomers, Jupiter and the Moon will be dancing together on the morning of May 17^th.  Jupiter will be hidden behind the Moon as it rises from the Eastern Horizon, in what is known as a Lunar Occultation.  Jupiter will re-emerge from behind Luna at 5:17 AM MST, with sunrise just a few minutes later at 5:26 AM, potentially obscuring the view from all but the most dedicated observers.

When I was growing up, we remembered the names of the planets in order with the mnemonic My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas.  However, on August 24^th, 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted on a stricter definition of what it means to be a planet.  You see, Pluto had become a problem – it was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at Flagstaff, Arizona’s Lowell Observatory in 1930, with nearly a dozen more distant worlds discovered within our solar system in the early 2000s.  Our planetary family was expanding to include at least 9 more, or we needed a better way to classify different types of worlds.  It was decided that a planet must be in orbit around the Sun, large enough that its own gravity creates an essentially spherical shape, and that as the gravitationally dominant body in its orbit it has successfully cleared its neighborhood of other large bodies, excepting its natural satellites or moons.  Pluto did not meet this definition, nor did the recently discovered Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Sedna, or Orcus.   As such, planetary scientist Alan Stern is credited as coining the term Dwarf Planet to classify these worlds that border on the definition.  Pluto lovers worldwide were disheartened as we amended to My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nachos.

This wasn’t the first time that a planet had been demoted.  On January 1^st, 1801, a Catholic priest searching for a dim star from the Academy of Palermo in Sicily found a star that moved from night to night.  First assuming it to be a comet, 24 consecutive observations led Giuseppe Piazzi to conclude, “since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet.”  Mathematical predictions placed this new object’s orbit as coming back into view on the other side of the sun, and astronomers worldwide looked skyward for its return.  On December 31^st of that same year, Ceres orbit was confirmed, and astronomers celebrated the addition of a new planet.  Located partway between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is in the location we now refer to as the Asteroid Belt, so named because of its high concentration of solid bodies, both large and spherical, and small and irregular in shape.  Just 15 months after the discovery of Ceres, Heinrich Olbers found Pallas, and by 1807, Vesta and Juno joined the planetary family.  William Herschel, who discovered Uranus in 1781, suggested the term asteroid for these new worlds, meaning “Star Like.”  By 1868, over 100 asteroids had been discovered, and by 1921, primarily due to the introduction of astrophotography in 1891, the number of asteroids discovered tallied over 1000.  The term asteroid stuck, and we now count around 1 million within our Solar System.

Ceres is not visible to the naked eye, but a good pair of binoculars or small telescope should allow you to find this dim world, which fluctuates in apparent magnitude from 6.7 to 9.3 throughout its orbit.  At 2.97 AU and just 595 miles in diameter, it represents approximately 25% of the asteroid belt’s total mass.  Look for it this month as it approaches Denebola, the bright star marking the tail of Leo.

The Red Planet shines bright this month, transiting between the horns of Taurus, the bull, and up towards Gemini, the twins, at just over one AU from Earth.  One Astronomical Unit is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, or about 93 million miles/150 million kilometers.

The horns of Taurus are peaked by the bright stars Zeta Tauri and Elnath.  At apparent magnitudes 3.0 and 1.67, respectively, they should be quite easy to find by looking to the Southwestern sky after sunset.  Zeta Tauri is a binary star system, with the brighter  Zeta Tauri A 11 times more massive than our sun, and separated from its partner Zeta Tauri B by only 1.17 AU.  Being nearly as close to each other as we are to the Sun or Mars right now, we cannot see them as separate objects with backyard telescopes, though scientists have been able to measure the Doppler shift – or change in the frequency of their light spectrum – calculating an orbital period of just 133 days. 

About 1 degree west of Zeta Tauri is the popular Crab Nebula.  You can approximate 1 degree in the sky by the width of your finger at arm’s length.  The Crab Nebula bears the designation M1 or Messier 1, as it was the first object recorded by Charles Messier in 1758 during his attempts to locate the predicted return of a comet, as previously calculated by its modern namesake, Edmund Halley.  This same nebula was independently discovered by multiple astronomers over the 18^th century, and has since become one of the most studied and beloved objects in the night sky.  Modern observations by the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X Ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Infrared Telescope have continued to provide extraordinary detail into this magnitude 8.4 remnant of an ancient supernova which was recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054.

Defining the bull’s other horn, Elnath come from the Arabic meaning “the butting one”.  Relatively close at 130 ly distant, this giant star is 5 times the mass of our Sun, while putting out approximately 700 times more light.

While the Pleiades is the most familiar open cluster in the constellation Taurus, it is host to many other star clusters and nebulae.  The Hyades cluster is nearer the bright star Aldebaran in the face of the bull, with approximately 100 total stars filling a spherical void in space with the same age and chemical composition.

Moving counterclockwise from the West around Elnath, backyard astronomers can find the Flaming Star Nebula (magnitude 6.0), Messier 38 or the Starfish Cluster (magnitude 7.4), and Messier 36 or the Pinwheel Cluster (magnitude 6.3).

The Upper Paleolithic is a segment of human prehistory starting around 50,000 to 12,000 years ago, and is characterized by the first known organized settlements, advancements in tools and weapons, and artistic work.  These early petroglyphs (carved or etched) and pictographs (painted) started with simple lines and dots, and soon evolved to include traced hands, animals, people, and boats.  While we cannot presume to know the full intent of the respective artists, some of these appear to have been purely artistic, while others seem to relay information on game animals, locations, and even seasons and the passage of time.  Lunar cycles, constellations, and unique astronomical events have been found worldwide, documented in these cave walls. 

These ancient people certainly looked to the skies, as we know similar stories behind constellations carry across continents and millennia.  Archaeoastronomers study how these cultures understood the heavens and the impact it had on their civilizations.  From Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, to the dense jungles of Borneo, to caves across Europe, we find repeated patterns of stars, crescent moons, seasonal equinoxes and solstices, supernovas, eclipses, and the sudden appearance and retreat of comets.

Comets became some of the first objects to be predicted, as short-period comets make their return in cycles of less than 200 years.  Well before the invention of the telescope in the early 17^th century, astronomers measured these long-tailed visitors against historical records and saw patterns in their return.  However, some of these comets never matched up to historical records.  Using modern technology, we now identify these as long-period comets coming from the distant Oort Cloud, a bubble of icy bodies well beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto.  These comets are extremely difficult to predict how much they will brighten as they approach the Sun, with some visible during the day, and others only seen through binoculars.

Comet C/2022 E3 (TZF) is one of these long-period comets currently making its way through the inner Solar System.  Discovered at the Palomar Observatory in California on March 2^nd, 2022, it reached perihelion – it’s closets approach to the Sun – on January 12^th, became visible to the naked eye on January 17^th, and will be closest to Earth on February 1^st.  Clear skies permitting, step outside and look toward Polaris, the North Star.  Draw a line to the moon, and about a third of the way from Polaris, in the constellation Camelopardalis, you may be able to see this ancient interloper.  Grab a pair of binoculars or a telescope and you will certainly be able to resolve the fuzzy green tail of this comet, which last graced our skies and was seen by our ancestors nearly 50,000 years ago.

The first and most basic element on the periodic table is hydrogen. A single atom of hydrogen consists of one positively charged proton in the center or nucleus, and one negatively charged electron orbiting it. This simple element was the first thing in the universe after the Big Bang, and there was a lot of it. Every one of these hydrogen atoms had an infinitely small amount of gravity, and each of those tiny atoms immediately began to pull on and towards one another. As more and more atoms found gravitational friends, they coalesced into large clouds of hydrogen. The more dense a cloud became, the larger its gravitational force, and subsequently it was able to pull in more hydrogen, and over and over the cycle repeated.

Now let’s compare this with a material we are all familiar with – water. If you dip your hand in a small bowl of water, you will feel its temperature and the unique, wet texture, but if you dive to the bottom of a deep pool or body of water, you will also feel the pressure of the water push in on your body. The larger the body of water, and the deeper one dives, the more pressure that will be exerted on the diver. The same process occurs with any element or compound, and these clouds of hydrogen were no exception. Clouds of hydrogen gas larger than our solar system pushed inward as they grew, and the individual atoms were packed tighter and tighter into the center, generating heat under the intense pressure. Somewhere around 25,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit, these hydrogen atoms ran out of space and began to merge, fusing four hydrogen nuclei into a heavier Helium atom, and releasing electrons, gamma rays, neutrinos, and heat and energy in the process. This process is known as nuclear fusion and is how stars are born.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been hard at work this past year, looking deep into nebulous clouds of gas around our galaxy that act as stellar nurseries. Comparing against the Hubble Space Telescopes famous images of the Carina Nebula, Tarantula Nebula, and the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation, we can see that the additional data available through observation in the near and mid-infrared allows astronomers to better understand this process of star formation and stellar nucleosynthesis.

Looking to our own star, we are constantly observing in many different wavelengths. With filters like Hydrogen Alpha that are readily available to backyard astronomers, we can begin to resolve the product of the fusion process taking place deep within the sun’s core, and using satellites and observatories we can trace the radiation, heat, and energy produced as it travels the 93 million miles to Earth, and beyond.

Understanding this process has been a key focus of physicists since 1920. After calculating that the mass of 4 hydrogen atoms was slightly more than that of one helium atom, British chemist Francis William Aston laid the groundwork of a science to understand how stars produce energy, and how we may be able to replicate it. On December 5th, 2022, scientists at the Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully produced a fusion reaction in which the energy output was, for the first time, greater than the input, using lasers targeted at a gold canister containing deuterium and tritium. As we continue to develop technology, systems, and materials that can withstand such extreme temperatures and environments, we stand at the junction of a future right out of science fiction.

October 4^th, 1957 was truly the beginning of a new age.  While humans had spent the last few decades dreaming of, dabbling in, and testing their mettle in the high reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, the launch of Sputnik 1 on that day was the true harbinger of what was to come in the new frontier beyond Earth.  The Soviet-made sphere was roughly 23 inches in diameter with a mass of 83.6 kg/184 lbs, with 1 watt of power provided by three silver/zinc batteries designed to last just two weeks.  It was programmed to issue a series of beeps on various frequencies, encoded to provide information about temperature and pressure around the first satellite.  A team of engineers working on the project watched and waited with apprehension for more than 90 minutes after it launched to make sure Sputnik survived a full orbit of the Earth, and then called Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to announce their success with the first human-made object to orbit the Earth.  By the following night, amateur radio operators and astronomer joined professional scientists and engineers around the world to track the satellite’s path across the sky.  The American Radio Relay League – the largest association of amateur radio operators in the United States – quickly issued directions to its members around the country and the world on how to tune in to hear the signals coming from space.  Whole communities gathered outside with warm beverages and craned necks hoping to witness the dawn of the Space Age. 

The 1999 film “October Sky” relates the story of one such community.  Coalwood, West Virginia was a small mining town, not unlike hundreds of others dotting the central Appalachian region.  Then 14-year-old Homer Hickam, Jr. was one such observer, and seeing Sputnik fly overhead the West Virginia sky that week was a catharsis to a boy who was supposed to grow up and work the coal mines, just like every other boy in Coalwood.  A ragtag group of friends developed a new passion for rockets and the self-education that would be required to make them fly.  The self-proclaimed “Big Creek Missile Agency” spent the next two and a half years learning to weld, teaching themselves calculus and trigonometry, destroying countless of their mothers’ borrowed kitchenware, and eventually winning the National Science Fair gold and silver medal in the field of propulsion. 

To celebrate the 65^th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1 and the beginning the Space Age, tune in to our podcast for the audio version of this article series and a special Backyard Astronomer interview with retired NASA engineer and co-founder of the “Big Creek Missile Agency” Homer Hickam.