Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps.311E & 312E: Comet Johnson & Space Salsa
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s two stories:
- Comet C2/2015 V2 Johnson was discovered by my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Jess Johnson on November 3, 2015. It travels on a hyperbolic path around the Sun which is highly inclined to the plane where the planets and most of the asteroids travel. Jess’s comet’s path takes it from deep space into the inner solar system slightly further from the Sun than the planet Mars. Although it will not get closer to the Earth than about 75 million miles it may out gas enough material to make it visible to the naked eye.
- If Lunar and Martian colonists are to have chips and salsa they will need grow their own tomatoes. To test methods to do this German Aerospace Center or DLR has developed the EU:CROPIS satellite which will be launched by a Space-X Falcon 9 rocket into low Earth orbit sometime in 2017. Once in orbit the satellite will be programmed to rotate at two different speeds on its own axis to produce Lunar gravity for 6 months and then Martian gravity for the next 6 months.
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:
311E – Comet Johnson
Humans have recorded the passage of Halley’s comet since at least 240BC, as it has appeared in our sky every 75 to 76 years. Halley’s comet returns regularly because its orbit around the Sun is a closed elliptical path.
Comet C2/2015 V2 Johnson was discovered by my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Jess Johnson on November 3, 2015. It travels on a hyperbolic path around the Sun which is highly inclined to the plane where the planets and most of the asteroids travel. Jess’s comet’s path takes it from deep space into the inner solar system slightly further from the Sun than the planet Mars. Although it will not get closer to the Earth than about 75 million miles it may out gas enough material to make it visible to the naked eye. Observers in the northern hemisphere will have their best chance to view Comet Johnson in April and May of 2017 while those south of the equator will be able to observe it until early 2018.
Jess’s Comet will come closest to the Sun in June of 2017 and then be slung into deep space by the Sun’s Gravity. In February of 2037 Jess’s comet will be further than Pluto’s average distance to the Sun and be invisible to human telescopes as it moves in the direction a star 417 light years away in the constellation of Eridanus. It will take more than 12 million years to get to the vicinity of that distant star.
312E – Space Salsa
If Lunar and Martian colonists are to have chips and salsa they will need grow their own tomatoes. To test methods to do this German Aerospace Center or DLR has developed the EU:CROPIS satellite which will be launched by a Space-X Falcon 9 rocket into low Earth orbit sometime in 2017. Once in orbit the satellite will be programmed to rotate at two different speeds on its own axis to produce Lunar gravity for 6 months and then Martian gravity for the next 6 months. Inside the satellite tomato seeds will germinate and grow under the watchful eyes of 16 onboard cameras. A trickle filter containing the Euglena [U gleen a] microbes will use synthetic urine to produce fertilizer for the tomato plants. The half plant half animal Euglena microorganisms will produce oxygen on the satellite and protect the plants against excessive ammonia build up. LED lights will provide the day night cycle required by both the plants and the Euglena microbes. The separate Lunar and Martian space green houses will operate in a pressure tank to simulate Earth’s atmosphere. These experiments will be carefully controlled and monitored by humans on the ground.
The satellite’s trickle filter uses lava stones and dried soil to produce a home for the microorganisms which process the simulated urine. The same design could be employed in Earth’s cities to recycle urine for use in green houses which are built into high rise buildings.
365 Days of Astronomy
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