The Young Astronomers Newsletter

The Young Astronomers Newsletter Volume 24 Number 8 August 2016

By Bob Patsiga

In this month’s edition of the newsletter Bob discusses:

Update on New Horizons and JUNO missions.  New Horizons is now well beyond Pluto and NASA has already identified its next Kuiper Belt object for exploration.

JUNO is in its initial capture orbit around Jupiter.  The first high-resolution photos of Jupiter are due to be taken in late August.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has proved to be a valuable tool for studying the Moon.  Accurate land formation and elevation information provided by the LRO will help in planning the next manned or robot exploration of the Moon.  The LRO has also found strong indications of deposits of water in shaded craters and in subsurface deposits.

Classical Newtonian – Kepler physics still function in the formation of a variety of bodies found in the cosmos.  This is true for all gravitationally bound bodies, from planets to stars to black holes.  This is explained in an Astronomy (Aug. 2016) article by John Kormendy.

What is causing the strange radiational behavior of KIC 8462852?  This star (Tabby’s Star) shows unusual erratic output of radiation which cannot be explained by the presence of orbiting planets, asteroids or comets.  Could this be caused by intelligent designers?

August birthday: Roger Penrose, British astronomer-mathematician.

Celestial information for August. Moon phases, locations of planets, behavior of the Perseids meteors.