Posted on 03/17/2007 8:33:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Swarms of astronomers are expected to pack major observatories in Arizona this weekend hoping to see a rare "occultation" as Pluto crosses in front of a star and blots out its light.
Sunday morning's event is exciting for scientists because it will give them a better idea of the size and makeup of Pluto's atmosphere.
In an occultation -- not an eclipse, mind you -- the nearer object blots out the light and is backlit. If there is no atmosphere, it will blink out almost instantly, said Don McCarthy of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory.
But in an object with an atmosphere, the backlighting will "bend the light and go out slowly," McCarthy said. How that light is bent and filtered can tell something about the composition of the atmosphere.
"The only thing better than an occultation is going there. But it's a heck of a lot cheaper to wait for one of these things to happen than send a spacecraft out there," said Lowell Observatory's Marc Buie, who has been studying Pluto since he was a University of Arizona graduate student in 1982.
A 1988 occultation taught scientists much about Pluto's atmosphere. The next event, 14 years later in 2002, astonished viewers.
"It had puffed up three times as much gas," Buie said. "Here (on Earth) the atmosphere and temperature is so stable. We suffer a variation of a few percent as storms come and go."
The event where Pluto blocks the light from a star in the constellation Sagittarius will only last a few minutes. It is only expected to be visible with telescopes in a narrow strip west from Texas to the California coast and south from Wyoming to somewhere in Mexico.
In addition to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff and the Steward Observatory's telescopes, other teams will be using the Smithsonian Institution's 6.5-meter telescope at the MMT Observatory on Mount Hopkins.
A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has reportedly predicted that the event won't even be visible in Arizona, but Buie and McCarthy say they've also heard that the MIT observers have packed their portable observation equipment and plan to be in southern Arizona on Sunday.
"Healthy skepticism abounds," Buie said of the expected occultation.
Lori Stiles
March 14, 2007
Telescopes from Wyoming to Mexico City and from California to central Texas will point at Pluto as the dwarf planet occults a star in the Sagittarius constellation next Sunday.
University of Arizona astronomers will host colleagues from Paris Observatory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lowell Observatory at UA telescopes for the not-to-be-missed event.
it's all those SUVs being driven by the Plutonians.
Cool! Sad that we know so little about our neighbors though.
fascinating...
just what we need here to blot out Hollywood moonbats forever...
I knew that one day Pluto would be vindicated.
Go Pluto!
Reminds me of another time, same place.....
Gary the Seeker, a well-meaning if annoying member of a group of New Age experimentalists who travel on what Gary describes as "The Magical Bus".
Arnold Holflattter; caretaker and groundskeeper at the trailer park where Harry Cox lives. This would be Heater Arizona (where it's hotter than hooker).
Buzz and Bunny Crumbhunger; A married couple who recorded their abduction by extraterrestrials on their home movie camera (They narrate the footage on a seemingly normal travelogue TV show).
Yes everything you know is wrong.
Firesign Theater 1974
Other notable quaotables from the record.
"Benjamin Franklin: The only President of the United States, who was never President of the United States."
"Yes, I'm Dr. Happy Harry Cox, and call me happy because I am!" "Now don't be afraid, here in the 'Nude Age,' because there is a seeker born every minute."
Did anyone bother to Snopes this? A year ago the email was going around about how Mar was going to be as big as the moon.
Nevermind.
Cool ... but EVERYONE PANIC!!!!!
I bet the mundane astrologers are atwitter.
One thing we do know, when that star goes dark, it's W's fault.
to the center of the earth.
lmao go Pluto!
Pluto, the little planet that could.
Looks like GLOBAL WARMING struck Pluto in 2002.
Must have been from the extra solar radiation being emitted from the SUN that caused the atmosphere to expand and increase rather than man-made causes as no Earth probe has reached Pluto yet.
Could it be that the increase in solar radiation from the SUN is actually the cause of climate change on Earth? Hmmmm......
L
Nobody's sure what he'll find down there. Knebus, get it. I just did, 30 years later. That was the ultimate over my head joke.
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