StarDate

Allan Sandage once said that when he became a graduate student at Caltech, in the late 1940s, he was a “hick who fell off the turnip truck.” He fell at the feet of Edwin Hubble, the most famous astronomer of the time. Hubble was ill, so Sandage gathered data for him at the world’s largest telescope. When Hubble died, a few years later, Sandage took over much of his work. And like Hubble, he expanded the size and age of the universe, and shaped much of the debate over its fate.

Sandage was born 100 years ago today, in Iowa City. He got interested in astronomy while looking through the telescope of a boyhood friend.

Over the decades, he contributed to many areas of astronomy. As an example, he pioneered studies of globular clusters – large clumps of ancient stars.

That work led to a better understanding of the age of the universe. Many of the stars in globulars appeared to be older than the universe – an impossibility. Sandage used that and other lines of evidence to greatly increase the known age of the universe.

One line of evidence was the rate at which the universe is expanding – a number known as the Hubble constant. Hubble himself had come up with a number that was much too big, implying a much younger age. Sandage calculated a rate that was close to modern numbers.

Sandage wasn’t always right. But his work shaped the field of cosmology for decades – and still has an impact today.

Script by Damond Benningfield

As the Moon orbits Earth, its gravitational pull creates the ocean tides. As the “bulge” in the water laps against the continents, it creates drag that slows our planet’s rotation. That increases the length of a day by about 2.4 milliseconds per century. That doesn’t sound like much, but over the eons it adds up.

That rate can be affected by big changes in Earth itself, including powerful earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tropical storms, and more. And over the past few decades, it’s become clear that one of those factors is climate change.

As Earth gets warmer, glaciers and polar ice sheets melt, raising sea level. The extra water increases the power of the tides, slowing Earth’s rotation.

According to a recent study, that’s extending the day by 1.33 milliseconds per century – the highest rate of change over the past 3.6 million years. And the rate could get even bigger by the end of the century. In fact, climate change could add more to the day than the effects of the Moon itself.

As Earth slows down, the Moon moves farther away. Right now, it’s receding at about an inch and a half per year. But climate change could speed things up – pushing the Moon away.

The crescent Moon is low in the west at sunset. And it has a bright companion: Venus, the brilliant “evening star.” They drop from sight a couple of hours later.

Tomorrow: measuring the age of the universe.

Script by Damond Benningfield

The crescent Moon charges through a rapidly disappearing group of bright stars and planets early this evening. Most of the group will be gone from view by the end of the month.

As twilight begins to fade, the planet Mercury is close below the Moon. Brighter Jupiter is the same distance to the left or upper left of the Moon. Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini, are to the upper right of the Moon. And the brightest member of the group is farther to the upper left of the Moon: Venus, the brilliant “evening star.”

Except for Venus, all the members of the group are dropping toward the Sun as seen from Earth. For Pollux and Castor, it’s because all true stars rise and set four minutes earlier each day. So every star disappears in the evening twilight at the same time every year.

For Jupiter and Mercury, the descent is due in part to the same thing – the daily shift of the starry background. But it’s also influenced by the relative motions of Earth and the planets themselves. Mercury is beginning a rapid dive toward the Sun, and will cross between Earth and Sun in a few weeks. Jupiter, on the other hand, is headed toward a passage behind the Sun as seen from Earth.

But Venus is actually moving farther from the Sun. It won’t reach its peak separation for two months, so it’ll remain in good view in the western evening sky into October.

We’ll have more about the Moon and Venus tomorrow.

Script by Damond Benningfield

Like a cosmic butterfly, a cluster of young stars is just emerging from its cocoon – a cloud of gas and dust. The cocoon `spans about 45 light-years. But some of the beautiful butterfly is already in view. Parts of the gas cloud are lit up by the brightest of the infant stars taking shape there. That creates a glowing patch of red and blue.

The whole complex is known as the Cocoon Nebula. It’s about 4,000 light-years away, in Cygnus. Hundreds of stars are being born inside it.

The most impressive of those stars is about 14 times as massive as the Sun, and tens of thousands of times brighter. It’s especially bright in the ultraviolet – wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye. The U-V zaps atoms of hydrogen in the nebula, splitting them apart. When the atoms re-combine, they emit red light – the main color of the nebula.

The hot star also illuminates dust grains in the nebula. It doesn’t set them aglow; instead, the light simply reflects off the grains. That colors the blue parts of the nebula.

Less-massive stars – stars like the Sun or even smaller – are still coming together. They won’t shine as fully formed stars for millions of years.

The Cocoon Nebula is low in the northeast at nightfall. It’s to the lower left of the bright star Deneb, which marks the tail of the swan. The nebula is too faint to see with the eye alone.

Script by Damond Benningfield

The Sun’s closest planet is making a pretty good appearance in the early evening. As seen from Earth, it’s just about as far from the Sun as it ever gets. It looks like a bright star low in the west-northwest beginning shortly after sunset.

Mercury is getting ready to cross between Earth and the Sun – a point known as inferior conjunction. In the meantime, it’ll drop closer and closer to the Sun as viewed from Earth. It’ll vanish in the twilight in a couple of weeks.

Mercury’s orbit is carrying the planet closer to Earth. Tonight, it’s about 78 million miles away. At conjunction, it’ll close to just 53 million miles.

On average, Mercury returns to conjunction every 116 days. But the gap varies by more than 10 days in either direction. That’s because Mercury’s orbit is more lopsided than that of any other planet. When Mercury is closer to the Sun it moves faster; when it’s farther it moves more slowly. So the gap between conjunctions varies depending on where Mercury is in its orbit when it passes Earth.

For the next few nights, look for Mercury as evening twilight fades. Although the planet is bright, it’s so low that you need a clear horizon to spot it. It lines up to the lower right of the much brighter planets Venus and Jupiter. And the crescent Moon will join the lineup on Tuesday, helping point the way to the little planet.

Script by Damond Benningfield