Travelers in the Night Eps. 273E & 274E: Neighboring World & Coming Out Of Monsoon

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org

Today's 2 topics:

- Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile have discovered a rocky Earth-like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our Sun. The planet named Proxima b is about 1.3 times more massive than Earth, orbits its dim red star every 11 days, and may always keep the same side towards its sun. Attention grabbing is the fact that Proxima b is at the right distance from its sun to allow for liquid water on its surface.

- In the southwest, the life giving monsoon rains occur in July and August, divide the observing year into two halves, and give asteroid hunters a chance to do major equipment maintenance and upgrades. My Catalina Sky Survey teammates Richard Kowalski and Rose Matheny started the new observing season after the monsoon weather began to taper off using our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon and 30 inch Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow respectively. Richard and Rose were given a three night clear break in the weather during which they were able to discover a dozen new Earth approaching asteroids.

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