Astrology Quarterly - Astronomy - Heavens Above

A S Morton

Heavens Above - February 2007

Somewhere out there in our solar system, NASA’s nuclear-powered ‘New Horizons’ space-probe is rapidly winging (or should that be warping?) its way to Pluto, our new ‘dwarf planet’ and ex-‘planet’ (as in ‘not a planet anymore’ as opposed to an ‘exoplanet’ being a planet orbiting another star and not our Sun). The nuclear power of this spacecraft is provided by a radioactive isotope of plutonium but the circumstances surrounding the acquisition and use of this particular nuclear fuel were even more ‘plutonic’ than just that straightforward correspondence might suggest.

Because of the magnitude of the danger that a material such as plutonium is capable of, to be able to utilise it in a spacecraft NASA required Presidential sign-off (and I do mean George W and not the president of NASA, if there is such a personage). There were a number of lowish-key protests about all of this because of the potential effects of any radio-active fall-out should, god forbid, anything have gone wrong with the launch or the initial flightpath through the Earth’s atmosphere. Mysteriously though, no sooner had the necessary authorisations been received than the top security US government facility where this type of nuclear fuel is produced was shut-down – due to some major, though not revealed, breach of security within the facility. In fact it remained shut-down, and out of bounds, effectively quarantined, for so long that the whole project timescales seemed to be disappearing over some other distant ‘horizon’. When the plant eventually restarted production it was abundantly clear that they would not be able to produce the fuel requirements for this mission within the necessary timeframes and launch windows. After a lot of recalculating of flightplans and fuel consumption figures and production schedules etc. etc. it was calculated that the mission could just about achieve its essential objectives with around 80% of the originally specified fuel requirement and that that amount of fuel could possibly be made, borrowed or begged from other government allocations within the limited time available. The entire mission very nearly got itself cancelled or seriously deferred. The word ‘sabotage’ (of whatever sort) comes to mind.

Well, they made it in time and ‘New Horizons’ launched on 19th January 2006 and is currently (as of February 2007) in the process of its Jupiter fly-by and the gravitational slingshot that will shave three years off its flight-time to Pluto and will be passing through Jupiter’s vast and powerful trailing magnetosphere, the first such probe to attempt this. Due to arrive at Pluto in July of 2015 when Pluto will coincidentally (if you would like to call it that) be in the opposite sign to its discovery degree at roughly 14? Capricorn. Pluto was discovered in the afternoon of 18th February 1930 in 17? of Cancer by Clyde Tombaugh at Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Tombaugh died in 1997 and NASA, following their somewhat bizarre tradition of placing strange objects and momentos of Earth on board spacecraft, presumably for ET or whomever to retrieve at a later date, have put Tombaugh’s last remaining ashes on board this one. An inter-planetary initiative in recycling, perhaps?

And when this probe does finally arrive out there in Pluto’s dark realm at the inner fringes of the Kuiper Belt we should begin to learn more of what our own solar system backyard comprises and start to unlock some of the remaining mysteries of our collective birth. Perhaps by then the ‘discord’ over Pluto’s supposed demotion will at least be nearer some resolution and we’ll have some better ideas on whether (or even how?) to properly incorporate this new category of ‘dwarf planets’ into the current ‘postmodernised’ practise of astrology. International astronomers may not be able to agree with each other, and they did rather bring this upon themselves, but let us hope that the rest of us are perhaps a little better equipped to reach an acceptable accord.

Part of the current difficulty seems to lie with the term ‘dwarf planet’ (as well of course as the new definition of the term ‘planet’) but in official astronomical nomenclature terms (as determined by the International Astronomical Union, the IAU) it’s all pretty straightforward. ‘Dwarf’ is a descriptive adjective that astronomers use to determine size, meaning something is small compared to the norm. We are orbiting a ‘yellow dwarf star’, our Sun, and other stars are described (astronomically) as being either ‘dwarf’, ‘giant’ or ‘supergiant’. Similarly, our galaxy, the ‘Milky Way’, is termed a ‘giant’ galaxy and we have in tow, in orbit if you like around us, two ‘dwarf galaxies’, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (so called). So using ‘dwarf’ to identify small planets is within the standard naming structure and is certainly not intended as some slight to those smaller bodies out there in our solar system. Of course they have to be pretty near ‘round’, a key determining factor and a long-standing human philosophical and aspirational concept of ‘perfection’, but other than a few other technical details ‘dwarf planet’ essentially means ‘small planet’. And no-one can really argue that Pluto, Ceres and Eris are not small by comparison to the eight remaining ‘planets’.

And to put some of this reported astronomical ‘discord’ into clearer perspective, not all astronomers were actually that miffed about last year’s ‘reclassification’ of Pluto. As one astronomy writer put it: “Astronomers were outraged, children cried and late-night comedians joked. But in the end, the solar system shrugged”. And in our humble opinion it might just have been that the solar system shrugged on the morning of the 23rd October 2006 – and then perchance moved on.

“Plutoed” was even voted as the ‘2006 Word of the Year’ by the American Dialect Society. To ‘pluto’ is to “demote or devalue someone or something”. It won in a run-off against “climate canary”, meaning “an organism or species whose declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon”. And that’s the part of the puzzle where one of the other new ‘dwarf planets’ might have something to contribute. Ceres, the beautifully formed, spherical ‘baby’ planet and former first lady of the asteroid belt might have a great deal to say about our environment, about climate change and the purity or not of our food supply chain. Pluto has been grabbing all the headlines but the ‘rediscovery’ of Ceres should not be overlooked in all of this. The ‘goddess of corn’ knows how to sow a good seed or two, you see, since it was she who showed us how to plant and grow our ‘daily bread’ so many moons ago.

Dawn, the NASA space probe planned to launch in June 2007 to the asteroid belt will arrive in orbit around Ceres in 2015, having first visited Vesta in 2011, and about the same time that New Horizons gets to Pluto. Should be a very interesting year, that one, 2015. Dawn, however, will be powered by ‘ion propulsion’ using the inert (noble) gas xenon as its fuel source. It is much lighter and although slower is far more fuel efficient and eco-friendly than the radioactive power source in ‘New Horizons’.

It seems to be getting all very ‘Star Trekkie’ out there, doesn’t it? But then again space really is “the final frontier”, is it not? In the end for all of us.

Planetwatch

“And the darkest hour is just before dawn”, so sang ‘The Mamas and The Papas’ in the 1960’s pop song. Of course it may not be strictly true but sometimes the early hours can feel like that particularly when the nights are so very long. Our earthly seasons sometimes can seem like that as well, especially the difficult transition from winter to spring. Spring may be just around the corner next month in March but February can be the hardest month of all and those cold, frosty February nights seem to have an extra bite to them. So, if I tell you that the cold, crisp, clean air of February is probably one of the best times for star-spotting because that very coldness gives the stars an extra-special crystal-clear sharpness and enables the fainter star groupings to be more easily visible to the naked eye than at other times then you might think it’s pretty ironic and no wonder everyone isn’t out there doing it! But if you wrap up nice and warm it can be quite surprising, and sometimes even amazing, what can be seen in the heavens above with just your own eyes.

The planetary action this month seems to centre around the western and eastern horizons after sunset and before sunrise. Venus, our bobby-dazzler par excellence, is beginning to put on quite a show as an alluring evening star. Sometimes she can seem so bright up there that you have to almost double-check that it’s not some aeroplane coming into land somewhere. This is what she does better than any other celestial object, other than one of those amazing sunsets perhaps, and to see her materialise out of the fading twilight is always a very special feeling.

Mercury fleetingly pops out to join in with a bit of the after sundown revelry as a shiny (planets shine, stars twinkle) ‘evening star’ (so-called), making greatest eastern elongation (to the east of the Sun i.e. setting in the west after the Sun) on the 7th of the month but at only 18?E (the angular distance as viewed from Earth) which is way down on his maximum of nearly 28?, the reason being that in his own orbit around the Sun he’s at perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) only a day or so later on the 9th and is on a pretty short leash from the Sun. By the early hours of the 14th he’s off into another of those seemingly interminable (well, 22 days this time around – and counting) retrograde periods of his (Oops! Valentine’s day! just what mischief will this cause?!), rapidly arriving at inferior conjunction (nearside of the Sun, between the Sun and Earth) on the 23rd.

The action is coming thick and fast, as is often the case with Mercury, and his (Hitchcock/Tarrantino-like) appearance as an evening star can be easily overlooked. Venus lends a helping hand and can be used to guide you to him. For a few days either side of the 7th, and shortly after shimmering Venus begins to glow in the evening twilight and as the western skies darken, look just a little down and to the right of her and there sits Mercury, a mere fraction of her glittering magnitude it must be said but appearing to be almost the same size in the sky. That’s because although Mercury is only half as big as Venus he’s only about half the distance from Earth as Venus is around this time. And Venus, never one to shun an audience, rises higher and stays longer after dark as the month unfolds, dazzling us as only she can with her increasing brilliance and setting some two to three hours after the Sun.

Mars moves into the constellation of Capricornus but remains low down in the dawn twilight. He’s still recharging the old batteries and is hanging on to the Sun’s regal tail as best he can. Any form of useable energy is readily taken on board, even the ‘cold comfort’ of Capricornus serves a useful purpose.

Jupiter is now putting in an appearance in those wee small hours and increasing in brightness as he rises earlier into the body of the night.

Saturn is now visible all night long, still shining brightly to the right of Leo’s primary star Regulus, and arriving in plenty of time to catch the sparkling VENUS evening show. These two have a very interesting relationship (naturally square and trine) and he’s yet another long-standing admirer of hers. Still, she doesn’t mind, young or old, they’re all very welcome members of her fan club. SATURN is at opposition to the Sun on the 10th and for a few days either side of this he seems to be noticeably brighter in the skies than at other times. It’s actually a “Full Moon” type of effect as the icy rings surrounding the planet reflect a lot more of the Sun’s light directly to us.

He might just have a big grin on his face, you never know!!

© A S Morton