The Young Astronomers Newsletter

The Young Astronomers Newsletter Volume 26 Number 4 April 2018

By Bob Patsiga

In this month’s edition of the newsletter Bob discusses:

• NASA Space Launch System (SLS) engines were given a stringent firing in February. Four RS-25 engines blasted at 113 percent maximum thrust. The SLS has its first flight planned for 2020.
• An amateur astronomer in Argentina is the first lucky person to photograph an ongoing super nova. Astronomers around the world are following up on the event.
• New Horizons’ next Kuiper Belt target (after visiting Pluto in 2015) is believed to be a double dwarf planet system which may even have an included moon.
• Various scientific agencies are developing techniques and materials that can be used in connection with a mission to Venus. Special measures are needed to face the extremes of temperature, atmospheric pressure and corrosive atmosphere.
• Astronomers are trying to determine if the cyclic passing of the Sun and solar system through the outer disk of the Milky Way could dislodge objects from the Oort cloud that could periodically bombard the Earth and thus cause the mass extinctions of life that have taken place millions of years ago.
• Astronomical birthdays for April.
• Celestial happenings to watch for this month.
• A list of all the public events the FAS has planned in conjunction with the NC Science Festival. There are quite a few.
• News bits: A name for New Horizons’ next Kuiper Belt target. A newly described kind of aurora called STEVE