Old HAA News from 2001

As of our last meeting (Dec.14), we had only 7 of these beautiful calendars left for sale. They make excellent Christmas gifts and they're only $12 including all taxes.

If you'd like to get one, better hurry. Email Barb Wight : barbara.wight@sympatico.ca and reserve yours now!!!

Marcel analyzed data from the CFHT (Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope) in Hawaii.

His research shows a detailed examination of the normalcy of "The Globular Cluster System of the Sombrero Galaxy - M104" which disproves previous ideas that this globular cluster may have been abnormal.

This is a digital composite of 8 individual shots I took of Comet C/2000 WM1 (Linear) over an approximate- 45-minute period from about 11:30 pm EST November 21 to about 12:15 am November 22, 2001 from north of Burlington, Ontario. This comet was in the constellation Aries at the time. The 8 original shots were taken with the 200 mm lens on Kodak MAX Zoom 800 film, then digitally scanned at 300 dpi, then combined, aligning on the comet's nucleus. The result shows the comet's motion during the total period of about 45 minutes.

See more on Bobs web site.

Drill down through the menus of this site to find many thought provoking aspects of a Mars mission covered.

TOPIC: FORMING ASTEROID FAMILIES AND SATELLITES

Numerical simulations of the collisional disruption of large asteroids show that although the parent body is totally shattered, subsequent gravitational reaccumulation leads to the formation of an entire family of large and small objects with dynamical properties similar to those of the parent body. Simulations were performed in three collisional regimes representative of asteroid families such as Eunomia, Flora, and Koronis. Our results indicate that all large family members must be made of gravitationally reaccumulated fragments, that the post-collision member size distribution and the orbital dispersion are steeper and smaller respectively than for the evolved families observed today, and that satellites form frequently around family members.

DATE: Wednesday, November 28, 2001
TIME: 2:30 p.m.**Note Time**
PLACE: ABB-102

For more information phone 905-529-7070 X24559 or Email the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Check these sites out for more detailed information:

• North American Meteor Website
• Armagh Observatory
• more Armagh Observatory details
• Observing guide
• Photography tips
• Video recording tips

The Kuiper Belt is a vast reservoir of ice cometary material that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. The chunks and hunks of material in this region range from a few meters to 100s of kilometers in size. Dr J.J. Kavelaars is currently and actively searching this region of the solar system, attempting to catalogue its contents and map its structure.

As reported in the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (Circular No. 7749):
J. J. Kavelaars, McMaster University; J.-M. Petit, Observatoire de Besancon; B. Gladman, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur; and M. Holman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, report the discovery of another putative binary transneptunian system, with available astrometry, orbital elements, and an ephemeris given on MPEC 2001-V34. Images acquired on Aug. 24 by Kavelaars at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and analyzed by Petit revealed the presence of two transneptunian objects with identical sky motions and nearly identical magnitudes (R = 24.0 +/- 0.1). The system has an angular separation of 4", several times larger than that of the other known cubewano binary system (cf. IAUC 7610) and the two other known plutino binary systems (cf. IAUC 3241, 3509; IAUC 7733). A gradual separation of 0".2 +/- 0".1 per month is detected at the limit of the astrometric precision. An assumed 4-percent albedo implies that both components have radii of about 100 km; assuming a circular orbit and a density of 1 g/cm^3 indicates an orbital period of approximately 4 yr, consistent with the measured change in angular separation. The very small variation in position angle implies that the system is seen nearly edge-on. [ ... other non-JJ items deleted! ... ] (C) Copyright 2001 CBAT 2001 November 9 (7749) Daniel W. E. Green

Dr. James Wadsley, a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of McMaster University discussed some of the results he has obtained using the 112 CPU Dec Alpha SHARCnet cluster at McMaster.

Thursday, November 1st, 2001, 7:30pm
Sidney Smith Hall, Room 2135
University of Toronto
100 St George St, Toronto

In the middle of the 19th century, Charles Darwin, the originator of the theory of evolution, and Lord Kelvin, regarded by many of his contemporaries as the leading theoretical physicist of his era, were on opposite sides of a controversy concerning the age of the sun and the origin of solar energy. This controversy continued through the first half of the 20th century as the physics necessary to answer the question of how the sun shines was gradually discovered. In the latter half of the 20th century, experiments in the United States, Japan, Russia, Italy, and, most recently, Canada were built deep underground to detect elusive particles called neutrinos that scientists believe are produced when the sun burns hydrogen nuclei to supply the energy that the sun radiates. Fewer neutrinos were observed than were predicted by the theoretical models of how the sun shines. The dramatic solution to the mystery of the missing neutrinos was recently announced by a collaboration of Canadian, American, and English scientists working at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) in Ontario, Canada. This talk will summarize the historical developments that led to the solution of the solar neutrino mystery and will describe the implications of the SNO discovery.

Doug discussed the reasons why stars give off various spectra of visible light and also answered many questions from the audience.

He is also organizing a bulk purchase of diffraction gratings so more people can experience the magic of spectral analysis.

The website has over 50 web pages with over 200 spectacular pictures. The website has 2 purposes: To give a pictorial overview of the solar sytem and to quiz you about these pictures.

Also, test you knowledge of famous astronomers.

But, please note the future of CMC's underlying maps is not certain. If you find this image, or CMC maps useful, please send Alan Rahill of the CMC an email. He needs to show his boss that his astronomy forecasts are actually being used.