Looking back at historic events
The Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite burned up on re-entry Jan. 4, 1958.
Two notable events in astronomy and space history took place on the dates of today and tomorrow that might interest sky enthusiasts.
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into orbit. It spent 93 days in space, tracked by ham radio operators and backyard astronomers, before burning up in our atmosphere Jan. 4, 1958. In response to the launch of Sputnik, the U.S. rushed its own rocket with a satellite payload, Vanguard TV3, to the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. On Dec. 6, the rocket was ignited, but two seconds after ignition, after rising only four feet, it fell back to the launchpad. The fuel tanks ruptured and exploded. While the rocket was destroyed and the launchpad was severely damaged, the Vanguard satellite itself was thrown clear, landing a short distance away with its transmitter still beeping away. The U.S. did eventually put a satellite into orbit. Explorer 1 was launched atop its Jupiter-C rocket Jan. 31, 1958. It was the first satellite to detect the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding our planet.?
On Jan. 5, 2005, astronomers Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz at Palomar Observatory in California observed a new object in the solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto. They named it Eris after the Greek goddess of Strife, and its moon was named Dysnomia (Lawlessness) after the son of Eris. Initial analysis of Eris indicated that it was almost one-third larger than Pluto. It had long been known that the region of our solar system where Pluto was, known as the Kuiper Belt, had many, perhaps millions, of smaller objects also orbiting the sun. But it was also believed that Pluto was easily the largest such Kuiper Belt Object, or KBO. The discovery of Eris brought that into doubt. While recent data calls the size of Eris into question — the two are now believed to be very nearly the same size with Pluto perhaps even a bit larger — that discovery played a major part in the demoting Pluto from the ranks of planethood. In his book “How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming,” Brown wrote, “To me it made no sense to pull one or even a few objects out of the swarm and call them something other than part of the swarm.” That beginning of the Space Age, the first crude satellite that could do nothing more than beep its radio presence to the world, paved the way to the International Space Station and spacecraft that visit and land on other planets. And less than 50 years later, we redefined what it meant to be a planet.
Astronomy notes
The first solar eclipse of 2011 occurred just before 3 a.m. today. You may have noticed that the sun wasn’t up for us here in Oklahoma at that time. But had you been in northern Africa, Europe or northern Asia, you probably would have been able to see it. The first and only eclipse of any kind visible from Oklahoma won’t occur until Dec. 10, when we we’ll get to see only the very beginning of a total lunar eclipse before moonset.
We keep you up-to-date with all things space and celestial daily in the Kirkpatrick Planetarium’s Star Theater. We show you what to look for in celestial sights visible from your backyard. For information, go to sciencemuseumok.org or call 602-3761.
The Oklahoma City Astronomy Club will meet at 6:45 p.m. Jan. 7 at the planetarium. For more information, go to www.okcastroclub.com.
Planet visibility report: As 2011 begins, only Jupiter in the southwestern sky is visible in the evening. Venus rises around 4 a.m., with Mercury making one of its elusive appearances in the morning sky, rising just before 6 a.m. at the beginning of the month but disappearing from the morning sky by the end of the month. New moon will be tonight. Full moon will be Jan. 19.
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