Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps. 557 & 558: Back On The Sky & Exploring The Lunar South Pole
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- After six weeks of clouds, thunder, rain, hail, and lightning, asteroid hunters are glad to be on the sky again. Eric Christensen discovered 2019 QK and 3 other space rocks.
- The race to explore the Moon by robots and eventually human lunar colonists is on. There are even plans afoot to land a rover near the Moon’s south pole.
Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona. This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.
He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.
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Transcript:
557: Back On The Sky
In the American southwest we welcome the Monsoon rainy season during which the Earth receives much needed moisture. Asteroid hunters use this break from observing to install new equipment and do annual maintenance to keep our telescopes in tip top shape. This year we added new adjustable stand up /sit down desks to help us survive 13 hour long winter nights. After six weeks of clouds, thunder, rain, hail, and lightning asteroid hunters are glad to be on the sky again.
Taking advantage of the improved weather conditions my Catalina Sky Survey team captain Eric Christensen pointed our 60 inch telescope into the Constellation of Boötes and was rewarded by the discovery of four new space rocks. Of these 2019 QK quickly received enough followup observations for scientists at the Minor Planet Center to estimate its size and path about the Sun. Turns out that this 715 foot diameter space rock has an orbit which never takes it closer to us than about one third of our distance from the Sun. Even so, this discovery marks the beginning of a new asteroid hunting season in Arizona.
Using our excellent location, my team the Catalina Sky Survey scans the sky with four telescopes, 24 nights per month when the Moon is not too bright from the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona. Our goal is to find any celestial neighbors whose impact could pose a threat to residents of Planet Earth. Along the way we discover thousands of new main belt asteroids and a few comets.
558: Exploring The Lunar South Pole
The race to explore the Moon by robots and eventually human lunar colonists is on. The Indian Space Research Organization has placed a spacecraft, Chandrayaan-2, in lunar orbit where it is sending back images of our Moon from less than a distance of 2,000 miles.
This project is an ambitious mission to land a rover near the Moon’s south pole. This wild lunar region has a mountain, Epsilon Peak, 29,600 feet high, deep basins, and a temperature of minus 13 Celsius or about 8 degrees above zero Fahrenheit. So far orbiters from several countries have studied the lunar south polar region. The NASA Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite found water in the plume of debris created by the impact of its Centaur launch vehicle into a permanently shadowed south lunar pole crater bottom.
Crater rims in the lunar south polar region receive nearly constant sunshine which could to power solar panels. Additionally at the bottom of these craters are cold traps which are in constant shadow and possess water ice and other volatiles left there during the early history of the solar system.
Near the lunar south pole human space colonists could use solar energy to power equipment and keep warm, manufacture needed items, and most importantly have water to drink as well as to use a raw material. Applying electricity to water produces Oxygen to breathe and Oxygen and Hydrogen which is a handy rocket and rover fuel. When humans will show up is only a guess.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
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