July Stargazing

Keep looking up.

Stargazing Summary

The nights of July may be short, but they are packed with skywatching treats. All five naked-eye planets are visible at some point during the month, with Venus packing up after its long run as the morning star. It is barely visible in early twilight at July's start, then disappears by the middle of the month.

More Stargazing information: http://stardate.org/nightsky

July 4-10: Rings and more rings. One of the most beautiful features in all the solar system is the rings of Saturn, and we'll talk about their recent history. We'll also talk about one of Saturn's moons that might have had rings of its own.

July 11-17: The time of Dawn. A spacecraft like no other will reach the first of its two destinations this week -- the asteroid Vesta. We'll have details on its mission, its journey, and its destination. Join us for this and more.

July 18-24: Ice cubes and whales. To catch the ghostly particles known as neutrinos, astronomers are placing detectors in the ice at the south pole, and at the bottom of the ocean. They haven't caught any particles yet, but they have caught some whales.

July 25-31: Rock varnish. In the heart of the dryest desert on Earth, microbes survive by living in the rocks -- in a thin coating known as varnish. And it's possible that rocks on Mars could provide that same home for life.

July Program Schedule: http://stardate.org/radio/calendars
Find an Affiliate: http://stardate.org/radio/affiliates

This Month in StarDate Magazine

In our July/August issue, StarDate editor Rebecca Johnson introduces you to Donald Olson, a physicist who uses scientific methods to investigate mysteries in the arts, literature, and history. And astronomer Bradford Behr returns to explain how to identify sky objects on sight, without the use of maps or guidebooks.

Subscribe online: http://stardate.org/store/subscribe

New Light on the Darkness

Fact sheets on four black holes have been added to the StarDate Black Hole Encyclopedia. All are stellar-mass black holes, which means they are remnants of exploded stars and are a few times heavier than the Sun. The new black holes are GRS 1009-45, GRS 1915+105, IC 10 X-1, and IGR J17497-2821.

Find out more: http://blackholes.stardate.org

News From the Observatory

Video: A New Window on the Universe
In a new seven-minute video, astronomers from The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University talk about why they are excited to be a part of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). Both universities are founding partners of the GMT project, which should be operational by 2019. The telescope will be built at a superb southern-hemisphere site in Chile and offer opportunities to probe the mysteries of cosmos deeper than ever before.

Watch: http://youtu.be/s4uJ8RCVxqE

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