2009 Moon Phases & Lunar Moon Calendar

We have 2009 Moon Phases & Lunar Moon Calendar here at KeepandShare, ready for you. Looking for online moon phases or full moon websites? Or perhaps phases of the moon for work or family full moon?

Lunar phase refers to the regular appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an person, usually on Earth. The lunar phases vary as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing geometry of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. One half of the lunar surface is always illuminated by the Sun (except during lunar eclipses), and is hence bright, but the portion of the illuminated hemisphere that is visible to an observer can vary from 100% (full moon) to 0% (new moon). The boundary between the illuminated and unilluminated hemispheres is called by a cool name, 'the terminator.'

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03/10/2010 Beautiful Bug

The latest image of the week is of NGC 6302, more commonly known as the Bug Nebula. With the most recent updates to the Hubble Telescope, the most famous optical instrument in the world is beaming back more amazing images than ever before.

The Bug Nebula, from a class of objects known as planetary nebulae, was created when a main sequence star like our Sun used all its available "fuel". The resulting outpouring of gas receeds from the remaining star -- a white dwarf -- at speeds in excess of 600,000 miles per hour, forming this beautiful butterfly shape.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

Beautiful Bug originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 10:00:23.

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03/09/2010 Oh, How Little We Know...

A result was published in the journal Nature a few weeks ago that caught my interest, and may contain a broader lesson for the scientific community. You see, my background is in astrophysics, specifically searching for gamma-rays from objects such as supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae. Then using this data to model the physics of how these objects work.

Of course, some of this work hinges on our understanding of what created these supernovae in the first place. But it now appears that even the basis for this understanding has been called into question. In short, there are two basic types of supernovae. Type II supernovae result from the collapse of a massive star releases a massive amount of energy that will easily outshine its entire host galaxy. I mention this one first since there, at least for now, is less controversy surrounding it.

Type I (specifically Type IA -- a subclass of supernovae) events on the other hand are now under considerable scrutiny. Long thought to be the result of an exploding white dwarf (as a result of accreting material, from a main-sequence companion, past a critical limit), there is new evidence that these events are actually the result of a binary merger of stars.

If you are still reading at this point you are probably wondering why in the world we care. Does it really matter what the mechanism is for these events? Well, yes. Type I supernovae play a key role in our measurements of the Universe. It was long been held that these events all produce the same amount of energy at their peak (since they occur under the exact same conditions). And since the intensity of light falls off in a known way -- inversely as the square of the distance -- scientists could use this information to measure the distance to distant objects, including other galaxies, simply by looking for these events. But, if the cause of these events is not well understood, or more specifically if there are multiple mechanisms that could create these events, then our ability to use this information to calculate distance diminishes.

So, this new information, specifically the addition of new X-ray data from NASA's Chandra Observatory, indicate that one of the standing rules of astronomy has been called into question. This brings me to my main point (finally), that we don't always know as much as we think we do. I always tell my astronomy students that professors like myself often teach this information like it is written in stone, and we are believed because we are an "authority" on the subject. But the reality is that we, as humans, are constantly learning. And our understanding of the Universe is evolving, hopefully toward the truth. So for you young scientists out there, it is good to question and think outside the box. For even the most well established theories are subject to change.

Image Credit: NASA

Oh, How Little We Know... originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 14:52:39.

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03/04/2010 One small Step for Man, One Dance Leap for Buzz Aldrin

Michael Jackson made famous the moon walk, but he had nothing on Buzz Aldrin. Famous for being one of the first men to set foot on the Moon as part of Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin has now accepted a new challenge. And as far as moon walks go, this challenge will require more of the Michael Jackson kind than the kind he achieved in the late 60s.

The lineup for the reality show Dancing with the stars was released this past week and Mr. Aldrin is one of the headlining participants. Now getting on in years -- old enough to be a grandfather to most of the other participants -- there is a natural reaction to believe that this is nothing more than a publicity stunt. He can't possibly be taken seriously as a contender. Right?

Well this is Buzz Aldrin we are talking about. He doesn't take anything lightly -- he once punched Bart Sibrel for suggesting that the Moon landings were faked. I believe that he is in it to win it, just like everyone else. Too old? Nah. I think he will surprise some people. I sure wouldn't bet against him. The show starts March 22 on ABC.

Image Credit: NASA

One small Step for Man, One Dance Leap for Buzz Aldrin originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 15:18:36.

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03/03/2010 Collision In Antarctica

In my image (or rather images) of the week, taken in February 19 days apart, the iceberg B-09B can be seen raming the Mertz Glacier Tongue and seperating it from the rest of the Mertz Glacier. Both the iceberg and galcier tongue are each nearly the size of Rhode Island.

The collsions is thought to have occured around February 12 or 13. However, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite, which was used to catalog the event, was unable to see through the dense cloud cover those days, missing the actual event. In the images you will notice that the water is particularly dark. This is a condition known as polynya, meaning that the region is kept clear of ice. This is good for wildlife that have more access to food in the ice-free waters. Now that the glacier tongue has been seperated to form its own iceberg, it is not clear if the water will remain as clear of ice. The effects that this will have on the wildlife in the area is unknown.

Image Credit: NASA

Collision In Antarctica originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 12:00:15.

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03/02/2010 Massive Chilean Quake Altered Earth's Axis

Last week Chile was rocked by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake. On Monday a NASA scientist reported that the event has altered the Earth's rotation, effectively shortening the length of our day. Now I know what you may be thinking, "I can't hardly get everything done in a day as it is, now the days will be shorter?" Well yes, but worry not, the difference amounts to about 1.26 milliseconds. That is about 1 thousandth of a second. My guess is that you won't likely know the difference.

In fact, this sort of slow down is not all that uncommon. Large earthquakes in the past have shortened the length of the Earth day. But even beyond that, during a normal year the Earth slows down by about 1 millisecond anyway. The only difference is that this was a rather abrupt change. In fact, what NASA scientists are more fascinated by is the amount that the Earth's figure axis shifted.

The Earth's figure axis -- the axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced, located about 33 feet from the spin axis -- shifted by about 3 inches (or about 27 milliarcseconds). This represents a significant shift in the figure axis location. Past earthquakes did not have quite this magnitude of an effect. The reason for this is that the location of the Chilean quake was offset much further from the equator than the magnitude 9.1 earthquake that hit the Sumatran region in 2004.

While these effects are still relatively small, it just goes to show that these massive earthquakes do more than just cause damage to things on the surface of the planet, but have lasting effects on other areas as well.

Image Credit: NASA

Massive Chilean Quake Altered Earth's Axis originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 13:02:10.

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