The Young Astronomers Newsletter

The Young Astronomers Newsletter Volume 26 Number 3 March 2018

By Bob Patsiga

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

• SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Feb. 6. This is the largest rocket launched since the days of the Moon missions. The SpaceX project is a private venture backed by billionaire Elon Musk.
• Astronomers from Northwestern University used the ALMA array of radio telescopes in Chile to detect possible new star formation near the center of the Milky Way. This is a surprising discovery that will require explanation and verification.
• *NASA is beginning to reveal some findings from the Cassini mission to Saturn. Dynamics of ring bodies, magnetic fields, gravity variations and atmospheric storms were described in the March addition of Astronomy magazine.
• French astronomers, using the HARPS telescope spectrograph have discovered the second closest extrasolar planet. This planet, Ross 128b orbits its star, Ross, located 11 light years away. A closer extrasolar planet is found 4 light years away at Proxima Centauri.
• Astronomical birthdays for the month.
• Celestial happenings this month.
• A Cosmic Phenomena word search.
• Rare space facts.
• A spring night sky star map.
• Don’t forget to adjust your clocks for Daylight Savings time on March 11th.