Space Activities for the Earthbound
Image: Spaceflight Now
Happy end of Space Week 2026. October 4, 1959 was a scary time for earthbound nations, but here we are today celebrating the many successful rockets and satellites and spacecraft many nations have since sent ‘out of this world’. Stars and planets don’t care about that. They are predictable and follow their assigned positions to intrigue those of us who do look up, which is comforting to remember. I hope you participated in some events. There is one tonight, Saturday, October 10th at Monte Bella Trail that will provide telescope views of planets and galaxies between 8:00 P.M and 10:00 P.M. The Trail is in Brownsville at 2485 Alton Gloor Blvd.
While we who do look up lament the loss of our dark skies, we still celebrate the addition of sky-based telescopes that bring even more of the contents of space into view. The recently launched Nancy Grace Roman telescope is undergoing its set-up processes and intriguing astronomers with glimpses curiosities. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/telescope/
The Roman telescope as it is known now, is expected to be revealing even more details than the venerable Hubble telescope that was put into earth orbit in 1990 by astronauts on a space shuttle Discovery mission. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/overview/hubble-timeline/hubble-history-timeline-full-text/ .
The Webb telescope studies every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. Webb launched on Dec. 25th 2021. It does not orbit around the Earth like the Hubble Space Telescope; it orbits the Sun one million miles away from the Earth.
When you see objects visually you are seeing instantaneous light and so we don’t see the same things that are revealed with cameras that gather light and hold it to develop the details. The colors we see in the images are assigned according the elements revealed in the structures. Light is such a phenomenal thing to ponder-the colors of white light passing through a prism are split into the component colors of light itself-red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet-the spectrum of light. A book for older children that explores the discovery of the colors in light is Theodoric’s Rainbow; it might be at your local library. Different gasses emit different colors of light which brighten up many a store front window in our towns today. Folks in earlier times used those glowing gasses as medical ‘treatments’ that did no good-but comforted the person receiving the treatments.
Sunlight passing through our atmosphere lets the yellow spectrum in and dust gives us the orange hues. The blues and violet are scattered. Reflecting off the lunar surface the light appears white but then when the Moon is rising it often appears golden-again because of the particles in our atmosphere-to be whiter when it is at the zenith due to less atmosphere to pass through. What a complex creation our Universe is-and we only understand a small percentage of it.
Remember that there is a better chance of catching a falling star this week with the Draconids and the Orionids, which are particles of dust and rock left from Comet Giacobini and Halley’s Comet. Passing comets and asteroids leave particles of themselves suspended in the vacuum of space along the orbit of our planet. As earth makes its way through the debris and enters our atmosphere the particles are called meteoroids. Once landing on earth the object becomes a meteorite.
The predictable Baseball Diamond in the Sky, better known as the Great Square of Pegasus is there for us to see all during the baseball playoffs and World Series games. I wonder if the earth-bound baseball fans gathered in stadiums across the country ever notice the game going on above them? Or that the player on first base is Princess Andromeda, whose parents King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia are watching to see that no one gets past first base? If seen through a good pair of binoculars the viewer could see stars representing all the players, umpires, and coaches scattered around the area. Isn’t imagination a great gift to people?
Here’s hoping some stars get in your eyes this week. Until next time, KLU.
