Hi Everyone! I hope you enjoyed the Spring Equinox yesterday. It’s a great feeling knowing the days are now longer than the nights, even if just by a little bit. To celebrate, I’m having a little giveaway! One lucky, random person will get a free copy of Why Are There Seasons?
To enter, login to Rafflecopter and you can 1) let me know if there is a science demo/experiment/topic you’d like me to cover, 2) follow A Little Science on twitter, OR 3) visit A Little Science on Facebook, that’s it! Good Luck to all those who enter!
I hope you enjoy the longer days and have clear skies!
Before sunrise on January 31st we will be treated to a special sight- a Super, Blue, Blood Moon! It is a Supermoon because the Moon will be full and close to perigee- its closest point to the Earth along its orbit. It is a Blue Moon because it is the second full Moon of the month. And lastly, it is a Blood Moon because it will be eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow. During a total lunar eclipse the Moon is not completely dark but is red due to our Earth’s atmosphere. Sunlight that slips through our air is scattered and only red light, the light of the Earth’s sunrises and sunsets, falls onto the Moon.
When to see it:
Partial eclipse begins: 4:48am
Total eclipse begins: 5:51am continues through Moonset at ~7:00am
The Moon will be setting in the northwest and will be close to the horizon during totality. For best viewing find a spot with nothing blocking the horizon. Good places include open spaces, parks, or elevated locations to see over houses. This is a great opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse without having to stay up late. Enjoy the Super, Blue, Blood Moon!
Tomorrow morning marks the end of NASA’s super successful Cassini mission. It has been studying our ringed planet for over 13 years and has been in space for almost 20. Cassini has had numerous scientific discoveries, including observations from the Huygens probe which landed on Saturn’s Moon Titan.
Courtesy of NASA
NASA and JPL Mission scientists have been preparing for Cassini’s end since April when the spacecraft began its Grand Finale phase of highly elliptical orbits taking Cassini into the space between Saturn’s rings and its outer atmosphere.
Starting this afternoon (at 4:22 pm EDT), Cassini will be doing one final “data dump” of all the science is has stored but has yet to transmit back to Earth. Early tomorrow morning (at 3:15 EDT) Cassini will go into “Real Time Downlink” mode and begin transmitting data seconds after it records it. Then Cassini will begin entering Saturn’s atmosphere at 6:30 am EDT. At 6:32 EDT, NASA expects Cassini to lose contact with Earth. However, it will take an hour and a half for Cassini’s final transmission to reach us.
You can watch live coverage of Cassini’s end of mission on NASA TV beginning at 7 a.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 15. You can also watch Cassini’s final images come in at Cassini Raw. Some other awesome NASA links about Cassini:
Cassini entered orbit around Saturn on June 30, 2004 when I was between my second and third year of graduate school. It’s hard to believe that 13 years have passed since then and I will miss Cassini. It has been an important tool in astronomy and astrophysics, providing endless data about our very unique ringed planet, its moons, and of course its rings.
So, I say farewell and many thanks to Cassini. And to Saturn, I hope we will be sending you a new visitor soon.
