It’s been a busy week in outer space.
The most powerful supernova since humans have been writing things down has been recorded in the southern constellation of Indus. Stars explode with surprising frequency, but this one out-did itself; it was about 200 times more powerful than typical supernova, at about 570 billion times as bright as our Sun, or about 20 times as luminous as the entire output of the Milky Way galaxy. Good job!
Thankfully, this one self-destructed at a distance of 3.8 billion light years in a galaxy far away. Had it been in our neighbourhood, say 150 light years or so, we wouldn’t be here to talk about it. But it wasn’t, so we can.
Then, CalTech astronomers announced last week that they had found a new planet, which they promptly nicknamed Planet 9. It’s thought to be about ten times larger than Earth and in an orbit twenty times further than Neptune. At that distance, it would take between ten and twenty thousand of our years for it to orbit the Sun once.
Of course, that’s assuming it exists at all. It’s too far to spot with telescopes and so for now, Planet 9 exists only as another computer simulation like manmade global warming and Super Mario Brothers. In an odd coincidence, one of the pair of researchers making the announcement was also involved in getting Pluto, the former 9th planet, demoted, so this may be a product of his guilt. Time will tell.
The timing of the announcement has fans of David Bowie lobbying to have Planet 9 named after the musical superstar. Not to be outdone, some combination of a Belgian Radio station, nearby observatory and Rolling Stone Magazine have combined to carve out a new constellation to be named after Bowie as well. The result is a group of totally unrelated stars scattered across the sky, but ‘near Mars’, which makes no sense either as Mars moves and stars don’t (they just explode sometimes). Neither Bowie, nor alter ego Ziggy Stardust, would have been pleased with this ‘Space Oddity’.
Speaking of Mars, and something that actually exits, we have the five brightest planets lining up in the predawn sky for the first time since 2005. Between about 7:30 and 8am, beginning well up just a little south of west, and stretched out in a line to the horizon in the south east, you will find Jupiter, then Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury. Cover Mercury with your thumb, and you’re also covering Pluto (which you can’t see). While the five will move around a little, this line up remains in place until the third week in February.
The weather’s cooperating, so there’s no excuse for not getting out for a little real science, available from your own back yard.
