Astronomy and Astrophysics
Saturn and Mars will have a close encounter low in the western sky an hour after sunset on July 9 and 10. Watch each evening for the first ten days of the month as red-orange Mars is lured away by Saturn from a dalliance with the bright white star Regulus.
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Jupiter, the giant of the solar system, will rise earlier each evening and be visible most of the night as it crosses the southern sky during June. Usually this is the best chance to see the huge planet, especially with a telescope. Unfortunately it is quite low in the sky this time around, still easy to find but with more of the murky turbulence of Earth's atmosphere for its light to penetrate.
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During the second and third weeks of May, look for Mercury low in the west-northwest about an hour after sunset. If you've never seen the smallest planet, you'll have an especially good chance. This will be Mercury's best evening appearance of the year.
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On Tuesday, April 29, Indiana University will welcome one of the most famous -- and controversial -- physicists in the world. Roger Penrose, whose work ranges from black holes to the fundamental physics of human conciousness, will present a surprising proposal for what happened before the Big Bang. His theories could help explain one of cosmology's biggest questions: the origin of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states, among other things, that one cannot get more energy out of a system than what is put into it. Penrose will present two talks in Whittenberger Auditorium. The first is Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and the second is at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
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The Indiana Asteroid Program -- launched in 1949 by Hoosier astronomy legend Frank Edmondson -- wrote the final chapter in its storied history earlier this year. The final of 119 asteroids discovered by the program was recently named to honor Brenda Records, who recently retired as office manager of the astronomy department after 20 years of exemplary service.
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The Pleiades star cluster will have a beautiful encounter with the slender moon in the western sky after sunset on April 8. Usually the moon's brightness overpowers nearby stars, but not when it's such a thin crescent. Binoculars will reveal the spectacle as the moon passes just below the famous Seven Sisters.
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