This column was provided by San Benito County resident and amateur astronomer David Baumgartner as part of a local series on astronomy.
Part one:
All my life I have always appreciated anyone who is at the top of their trade whether a carpenter, doctor, or even an author (maybe one writing about astronomy). Let’s say our carpenter has been at his trade for years learning to be the best he can be. I don’t imagine things have changed all that much over the past few years, so I’m sure he feels very comfortable knowing he is one of the best.
Now let’s take our astronomer, who has been in the trade for years and feels he is at the top of the trade. He knows everything he needs to know about astronomy to claim he is the best. Or is he?
I have a cousin who teaches astronomy/physics at Rice University in Houston. He is very proficient at what he does. He has even had the opportunity to spend time on the Hubble Space Telescope. (Am I jealous; not me. Ok, yes me). I can only imagine the time and energy he has invested to be at the top of his trade. He knows it all. Or does he?
The trouble is; when he believes he has it all figured out, some scientist comes along and proves we have had it all wrong all these years. But the one thing this trade has going for it is the fact that a discovery opens the door for yet another astronomer to come up with a different theory or even a fact to prove that we were wrong again all these years. Or maybe wrong for all these weeks. It doesn’t take long for change.
I got to thinking; how much do I know? How much do you know? And how long will this information last before it is proven obsolete? So I thought that I would look up and see just what basics we do know as facts. Let’s get some answers.
We are in space: If Earth and the sun vanished, we would find ourselves floating in black space. We would see stars all around us. The stars are huge fiery globes, but so far away that they look like mere points of light. This picture is simple: just us, space, and the stars: It is Earth and the sun that make it more complicated. Now that’s a good start. Those are facts we pretty much know for sure. So let’s keep going.
Earth and sun: You are not floating alone; you are on a solid globe, Earth. And Earth is near one of the stars; the sun. Because this star is much nearer than all the others, it looks much larger and brighter. When you see a diagram of Earth and the rest of the solar system the scale is wrong. Here are some of the real sizes:
- Your height=1/1000 of a mile
- Diameter of Earth: 8,000 miles
- Distance from Earth to the sun: 93 million miles
- Diameter of the sun: 800,000 miles.
Starting to feel a little small and insignificant? You should.
Actually, Earth is not just floating in space, it is moving in two main speeds and directions; revolving and rotating. Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours, this gives us our day and night effect. To give us our seasons the earth revolves around the sun once every year (12 months or 365 days).
There are other movements our earth makes constantly that most of us aren’t even aware of.
The Earth and moon orbit a Gravitational Center. The sun and Earth revolve around the solar system Gravitational Center. The Earth’s orbit precession makes a complete turn every 25,770 years. Our sun is following other suns as they revolve together circling around our milky way every 250 million years.
(I don’t know who has the time to figure that out. One night in my back yard I was just about to figure it out, I had gotten to 249,999,999, and my wife came out the back door and I lost count and had to start all over again. Sorry about that, I guess I got bored.)
Our galaxy is moving through the universe. And last, but most likely least, we have Polar Variation, a small movement but I feel it needs to be mentioned. While most of our weather involves interactions between the earth/moon/sun/solar activity, some long-term weather variations may be due to lesser known earth motions.
I don’t know about you, but I believe I’m learning more here than you readers are.
This is to be continued next month when we learn more of the answers and facts about our Solar System with “I want more answers.” I can’t wait myself. Thanks to Guy Oterwell of Furman University, for some of the contents hereof.
Clear Skies……
What’s up this month?
Mar 05: Full Moon
Mar 06: Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks
May 10: Mars passes 5° south of Pollux
May 11: Moon is a perigee (229,449 miles from Earth)
May 12: Last Quarter Moon
May 13: Moon passes 3° south of Saturn
May 14: Moon passes 2° south of Neptune
May 17: Moon passes 0.8° north of Mercury
May 19: New Moon
May 23: Moon passes 2° north of Venous
May 24: Moon passes 4° north of Mars
May 25: Moon is at apogee (251,350 miles from Earth
May 27: First Quarter Moon
May 30: Venus passes 4° south of Pollux
May 30: Mars is a aphelion (156 million miles from the Sun