February 11, 2022 Tonight at about 8:30 pm CST, the Moon reaches apogee – the furthest point from Earth in its orbit. At this point, the moon is approximately 251,593 miles away. Although the moon is farther away than its average distance of 238,900 miles, the visual difference is minimal, and often cannot be detected… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 10, 2022
February 10, 2022 On this date in 1961, a voice message was sent from Washington D.C. to Woomera, Australia via the moon. NASA Deputy Administrator Dryden spoke on telephone, where the signal was then “bounced” off the moon, before being delivered to the receiving station in Woomera. This message was sent as part of the… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 9, 2022
February 9, 2022 On this date in 1960, Peggy Annette Whitson, American biochemist and astronaut, was born. She was the first female commander of the International Space Station and completed approximately 60 hours of extra-vehicular activity. Whitson completed her final flight at the age of 57, and by the end of her career she had… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 8, 2022
February 8, 2022 The gas giant planet Neptune hosts a moon named Triton. This is the largest moon of Neptune, but it has the unusual characteristic of orbiting Neptune in the opposite direction of all the other moons. Moons typically orbit a planet in the same direction that the planet rotates – in this case… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 7, 2022
February 7, 2022 Mars has the largest volcano that we know of – Olympus Mons. This volcano covers approximately the same area as Arizona or France. Additionally, it is 16 miles high, which is about 3 times as tall as Mount Everest. Although the geologic origins of this volcano remain a mystery, scientists know that… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 6, 2022
February 6, 2022 The Kuiper Belt is a region that extends beyond the orbit of Neptune and is believed to contain at least hundreds of thousands if not millions of icy objects. There have been approximately 2,000 individual Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) discovered so far. The most famous of the KBO’s is the dwarf planet… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 5, 2022
February 5, 2022 In February 1968, Jocelyn Bell Burnell and her advisor Anthony Hewish published their discovery of pulsars. A pulsar is a quickly spinning neutron star that emits beams of radiation from both of its poles. As the pulsar spins, the beam of radiation comes in and out of alignment with Earth. Bell Burnell… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 4, 2022
February 4, 2022 Uranus’ moon Miranda is home to a series of massive fault canyons which are some of the largest in the solar system. Some reach depths 12 times that of the Grand Canyon. Miranda also has low surface gravity due to its relatively small size. This means that if you were to drop… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 3, 2022
February 3, 2022 On this date in 1966, the uncrewed Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first man-made object to make a soft landing on the Moon. Although the images taken by Luna 9 were not immediately released by the Soviet Union, British astronomers used standard radiofax technology of the time to intercept the image… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: February 2, 2022
February 2, 2022 On this date in 1931, Austrian civil engineer Friedrich Schmiedl launched his 29-ft V7 rocket from Schöckl which successfully delivered 102 letters to a town just under 2 miles away. Schmiedl unsuccessfully tried to convince the Austrian Post Service to send mail through his series of rockets. Although there was interest, Schmiedl… Continue reading