ASOTA Scientist Interviews

You are probably already aware of the interviews Chris conducted with 20 of his colleagues for Astronomy: State of the Art. If you are not, pay close attention to this post. The interviews were all recorded over a year ago now, and the number of listens they get is dwindling; so I've stopped by to remind you that they are a great collection of interviews, and are all worth a listen. If you have listened to them all already, but it's been awhile, consider giving them another listen. Below I will list the most played, most liked, and most downloaded interviews, to give you somewhere to start from.

Chris is in Australia, so we won't be having another live session until August at the earliest, but if you have questions after listening to the interviews, please email them to the ASOTA team at astronomysota@gmail.com. We will add them to our queue of questions for our next live session.

Remember, the following are a small selection of the interviews available. Please pick some others to listen to, and let us know what you think.


Most Played
1. Buddy Martin


2. Peter Smith


3. Mike Lesser

4. Roger Angel


Most Liked
1. Buddy Martin
2. Adam Showman


3. Mike Lesser
4. Peter Smith

Most Downloaded
1. Buddy Martin
2. Ilaria Pascucci


3. Feryal Ozel

4. Dave Arnett

Thank You for Your Reviews of Astronomy: State of the Art

Have you left a review of ASOTA on Udemy yet?

We love reading what our students think of the course. A big motivation behind creating ASOTA is to investigate the potential of MOOCs. Can the internet be used effectively for teaching? Can students learn outside the classroom setting? What do you think? What was your experience with ASOTA? What were your favorite features of the course? How could it have been better? Let us know by reviewing on Udemy, or sending us an email.

Here's a word cloud I created using the reviews you've left on Udemy so far.

Thanks for the rave reviews!

World Space Week 2013

This Friday marks the beginning of World Space Week. What is World Space Week, and why does it start on a Friday?

[World Space Week] is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 1999 that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10. These dates commemorate two events:

• October 4, 1957: Launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, thus opening the way for space exploration

• October 10, 1967:  The signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activites of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.

This year, the focus of World Space Week is Mars.

World Space Week 2013 is all about what many consider the Next Frontier: the planet Mars. Humanity is quickly conquering this new frontier. Mars Curiosity is the largest rover ever brought to another planet, discovering new features of the Red Planet every day.

This World Space Week, look for events happening in your area, and make a special effort to talk about Mars or any kind of space exploration with friends and colleagues. You can also share videos and articles about space exploration via Facebook and Twitter. Watch our Twitter feed and Facebook page to find posts that you can share.

All links URLs:
http://www.worldspaceweek.org/wsw/
http://www.worldspaceweek.org/wsw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=3
http://www.worldspaceweek.org/wsw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=145&Itemid=167
http://www.worldspaceweek.org/wsw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98&Itemid=166

Live Session Today

Today's live session will be run through Blackboard. Use this link:

http://elluminate.oia.arizona.edu/scheduleMeetingnonetid.php?sessionId=1954233

Live sessions on Udemy seem to still be not working. Again, sorry to have had to cancel last minute on Tuesday; we know some of you on the other side of the globe have to stay up late or get up early to join us. We're addressing the problem with Udemy, but we should be able to use Blackboard in the mean time.

How About Binoculars?

We had a question in our last live session about binoculars. Since many of our students may be interested in ways to observe the night sky, I thought I'd make a post about what kind of binoculars are best for this. Binoculars are a great tool for amateur astronomers. They cost less than telescopes, they're easy to tote around wherever you go to observe, and they reveal a lot of the sky that is not visible to the naked eye.

The 2 most important features of binoculars are the magnification, and the objective aperture. When shopping for binoculars, you'll find they're all designated by a set of numbers; for example, 20x60. The first number is the magnification. The second, is the objective aperture. A 20x60 pair of binoculars will magnify what you're looking at 20 times, and each of the big, outer lenses will measure 60 millimeters across.

For nighttime use, you'll need a pair of binoculars with a large objective aperture. The bigger those outer lenses are, the more light you'll be gathering, and the brighter dim objects in the sky will appear. I recommend picking out a pair with a lens diameter of 50 or more.

However, it is perhaps, more important that you get the right magnification. For handheld use, you can't use a magnification higher than 20. No matter how steady your hands are, they won't be steady enough to allow you to keep the object you're looking at in your field of view if it's magnified too much. Every tiny little movement of your hand will also be magnified. Unless you'll be getting a stand for your binoculars, keep the magnification between 10 and 15. Generally, for astronomy, magnification is not ever as important as light gathering power.

Therefore, an ideal pair of binoculars for observing the night sky might be 15x70.

And what will you see? Many star cluster that are invisible, or barely visible to the naked eye are easily seen through a pair of binoculars. The best star clusters to try to find are the one's in Messier's catalogue. Other objects that are great to observe with binoculars, some of which are also listed in Messier's catalogue, include, the Andromeda Galaxy; the Orion Nebula; Coma Berenices; Saturn's rings; the phases of Venus; the Galilean moons of Jupiter; the moon; and, occasionally, comets.

The more you observe the more you'll find to look at. If you have a lot of experience with binoculars, and have any tips or recommendations, please leave comments and share your knowledge.

Artist's Rendition: Titan

Saturn has over 60 moons—that we know of, but one of the most interesting is it's largest moon: Titan. Titan has lakes and rivers, just like the Earth. However, it's far too cold on Titan for water to exist in a liquid state. In fact, water is not only hard as rock on Titan, many of Titan's rocks and mountains are made of water ice. So, what flows in the rivers, and fills the lakes on Titan? On Earth it's a gas, known as natural gas: methane. Titan has a methane cycle very similar to Earth's water cycle. Liquid methane evaporates from rivers and lakes, forms methane clouds, and falls back to the ground as methane rain.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has developed a special program for learning about what Titan is like at it's surface, but it's not in a way you might expect. There's no series of slides with bullet points containing facts. Instead, it's an art lesson. Yes, an art lesson. While learning the basics of how to draw mountains, clouds, and and other features common on both Earth and Titan, you can learn about their composition, and why they occur on Titan.

Art Station Titan Show from DMNS on Vimeo.

Here's a video of Eddie Goldstein taking you through the Titan art process. All you need is a sheet of paper and a pencil, but if you have an orange paper, and both a dark and light writing utensil, that will work best. And don't worry if you're no artist. My Titan art came out better than I expected, and yours will too.

Titan art by Carmen Austin

Still Upset About Pluto

Pluto's done it again. That little rock located millions of miles away seems to have a knack for causing drama down here on Earth.

The first dwarf planet ever discovered in our solar system, astronomers made the mistake of referring to Pluto as simply a planet. By the 90's astronomers were beginning to realize there might be a lot of other objects in our solar system that were similar in size to Pluto. Sure enough, in 2003, what later came to be known as Eris was discovered.

Dwarf planet Eris is actually more massive than Pluto, and has at least one satellite to boot. Eris and Pluto are both trans-neptunian objects, meaning, their location in our solar system is beyond Neptune's orbit.

When the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided it was time to devise a new classification for Pluto and Eris and the other dwarf planets being discovered, there was an uproar. In 2006 the IAU voted on resolution B5. The definition of a planet became:

A celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

76 years after its discovery in 1930, Pluto was officially bumped out of the planet category. Earthlings everywhere were outraged.

Now another 7 years later, the IAU has upset Pluto lovers again, at least, Pluto lovers who also love Star Trek. It was recently discovered that Pluto has not only 3 moons, but 5. Pluto's largest moon Charon was discovered in 1978. Nix and Hydra were discovered in 2005. In 2011 and 2012, 2 more moons, smaller than any of the others, were discovered.

The IAU has the final say when it comes to naming solar system objects, but it was decided a public vote might spark some interest in in planetary science.

William Shatner led a movement to name one of the moons Vulcan. Many Trekkies were on board with the idea, and in the end, the name Vulcan had the most votes. Unfortunately the IAU wasn't on board.

The term “vulcanoid” remains attached to any asteroid existing inside the orbit of Mercury, and the name Vulcan could not be accepted for one of Pluto’s satellites (also, Vulcan does not fit into the underworld mythological scheme).

And so, instead, the newly discovered moons have been name Styx and Kerberos. William Shatner tweeted his disappointment.

They didn't name the moon Vulcan. I'm sad.
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 2, 2013

 Read the full press release from the IAU here

Pluto, no one may be able to say you're their favorite planet anymore, but clearly, you're our favorite dwarf planet.