Coromandel Life Spring/Holiday 2014

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History is being made on the comet scene.
Alastair Brickell, astronomy buff and owner
of Stargazers B&B and Astronomy Tours
in Kuaotunu shares below.
STARGAZERS
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from Alastair Brickell
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Photo by Peter Drury
One of the most exciting things to happen
in the history of space science is the
European Space Agency’s Rosetta
probe that, after a 10 year journey, finally caught
up with Comet 67P on August 6! This has
never been done before…probes flew rapidly
by Halley’s comet in 1986 but never dared to
get closer than about 600 kilometres due to
fears about damage to the spacecraft from the
comet’s tail and dust.
However Rosetta is now in orbiting around
this 4km diameter dumbbell-shaped comet
at a distance of only 25 km. There are some
wonderful photos available on the ESA website
of things the human race has
never seen before and only barely understands.
Rosetta will continue to orbit the comet for a
year as 67P swings around the Sun and starts
to form its tail as it heats up. The first signs of
the tail have already appeared, and it will be
spectacular to watch it develop as we now have
an unprecedented ring-side viewpoint. As if
that were not enough, Rosetta will also attempt
to land a small probe onto the comet’s surface
on about November 12. This is an incredibly
risky venture but if successful, the lander will
provide an extraordinary view of the comet’s
surface and will even drill into it so we can
discover just what it is made of.
By Christmas we will be able to rewrite all
the astronomy texts on the nature of comets
as there is going to be a torrent of new and
unexpected information coming our way.
COMET C2013 A1 VISIBLE
Coincidentally on October 19, another comet
will be passing very close to Mars and
may just be visible in binoculars or a small
telescope…we will certainly be looking out
for it at Stargazers Astronomy Tours! It will be
interesting to follow it as it passes by the planet
which is expected to actually pass through its
faint tail. Reddish Mars will be about half way
down the western sky after dusk in October…
be careful not to confuse it with the bright
reddish star Antares which will lie below Mars
but above yellowish Saturn which will itself be
low in the west at the same time.
While here at Stargazers we can’t actually
show you a piece of a comet, we can do the
next best thing and show you a piece of Libyan
desert glass. This was formed 28 million years
ago when a comet exploded above the Sahara
desert and melted the sand to form a unique
and beautiful glass, a piece of which was found
in Tutankhamun’s tomb carved into the shape
of a sacred scarab beetle.
SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORERS
It is absolutely amazing how the human race
has spread its wings throughout our solar
system in only a few short decades. Here are
currently active space missions:
• Rovers Opportunityand Curiousity running
around on the surface of Mars; several
orbiting it (including one from India)
• Cassini orbiting Saturn, having earlier
dropped off a lander to its moon Titan
• Venus Express and Akatsukiorbiting Venus
• Messengerorbiting Mercury
• Several orbiting the Moon, with one from
China on the surface with a rover
• Dawnorbiting an asteroid
• Rosettaabout to land a probe on a comet
• Voyagers 1 and 2 leaving the solar system
• The first craft to ever visit Pluto, now only
months away after a 10 year voyage
We live in interesting times!
Comet 67P
4km diameter
A Gaggle of Comets
Comet 67P
Churyumov Gerasimenko Comet 67P
smiles for its closeup,
taken from 25 km
We highly recommend a visit to Stargazers B&B and
Astronomy Tours for a ‘tour of the skies’. Alastair has
an impressive observatory and various telescopes,
including the largest one on the Coromandel, for
those who want to learn more about the heavens.
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