The rumors have been flying for the past few years that December 2012 will be the end of the world.  A lot of the hysteria has been fueled by the so called Mayan calendar reaching the end of its cycle at that point.  Throw  in the wacky weather and climate of the past few years, unprecedented  March heat, earthquakes in Clintonville, WI, terrible world economies, and a movie dealing with Earth’s demise, “2012″, and you have all you need to stir up a frenzy.

Well some NASA folks have set out to debunk all the end of the world hysteria.  They have put together a nice article that basically says there is no science, no evidence, and no facts to support the claim that 2012 is the end.  They dive into the following items and explain why we should not be overly concerned about them for this year.

• Planetary alignment
• Magnetic pole shifts
• Planets or brown dwarfs approaching Earth
• Meteors, comets, and asteroids
• Giant solar storms
• Super novas
• Super volcanoes
• Mayan calendar

Well if you are worried that our days are numbered, please check out this NASA link.  It should give you a bit of reassurance if nothing else.   http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

Posted under astronomy, Natural Disasters, Science, World Weather

Before I delve into anything else, I just wanted to share the photograph, that I tried unsuccessfully to upload yesterday. It was a spectacular picture of a retreating thunderstorm (with mammatus clouds) illuminated by the setting sun on Sunday evening. It was taken by Debi Oswald of Park Falls. It is not often we get so much color and so many interesting features in one picture. Many other lucky people saw and snapped pictures of that sunset. I would like to put a lot more pictures in the blog at this point but I have not yet figured out how to get them all to line up nicely and not ruin the format of the post. I guess I will just put them at the end of the text, so check the bottom.

Staying on the subject of cool pictures, how about that Space Shuttle launch from last week! Nice to see that it went off without a hitch. As I have mentioned in the past, I side with those who decided to shut down the program. It was too expensive, too dangerous, and too old to continue. The program was fabulous when it began and there were some great advances and discoveries made during the shuttle era, but now it is way past time for something new. I think the private-public partnership for space exploration in the future is a good thing to try. In any case, here is a great picture of the last shuttle launch heading off into the wild blue (or black) yonder. It is amazing how huge the space shuttle and its booster rockets are, yet how tiny they seem against the vastness of space.

Outside of shuttle news, the most interesting space exploration news is that the robotic spaceship ”Dawn” has arrived at the large asteroid (or proto-planet) Vesta. It will orbit and study the object for the next year. Read about it and view pictures here. 

Have a pleasant Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Picture by Chris Wypij

Picture by Laurie Zondlo

Posted under Space, Viewer pictures

It appears Jupiter took one for the team. A big buzz among astronomical circles last week was the appearance of a new large spot on the planet Jupiter. It has all the hallmarks of a large asteroid strike. The last time it was struck by something this big was in 1994 when fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy9 put on quite a show. This might lead some to wonder if the Earth could soon be struck by a massive asteroid, comet, or other space object. The odds are slim but many people are in constant vigilance looking for the potential earth-killer. Thankfully, Jupiter (and the sun) are so massive that they collect a lot of solar system debris and thus have taken many “for the team” (the other planets).

Keeping track of asteroids and comets can be handled by small to medium sized telescopes. For looking deeper into the universe and getting higher resolution pictures we need to think big, much bigger. That is why a new 30 meter telescope (TMT) is being built in Hawaii. Once completed, the TMT will be the largest ground-based optical telescope ever built. For reference, 30 meters in diameter is nearly 100 feet. Think of the biggest RV you have ever seen (probably close to 50 feet) and then double that to get an idea of the size of this telescope. It is too bad we still do not have the capability to build something that big in space. Thu Hubble Space Telescope has a mirror only 2.4 meters in diameter and the new JWT (yet to be launched) is only 6.5 meters in diameter. The problem with ground-based telescopes is that the atmosphere gets in the way. Astronomers have done a great job using software techniques to filter out atmospheric distortions but nothing beat the vacuum of space.

On the human spaceflight front, I am rather disconcerted that the X-prize was won 5 years ago. I can’t believe it was that long ago. Here we are 5 years later and Virgin Galactic has not yet sent tourists into space (or at least the edge of space). This article paints an even more depressing picture about private spaceflight. I was unaware of how fast a vehicle has to travel in order to reach orbit – Mach 25. Or at least I was unaware of how far we have yet to go with private ships in order to reach orbit. SpaceShipOne – which won the X-prize – only travels Mach 3! Ouch. It looks like we will have to rely on ballistic launches for some time to come. At least until scramjets can be perfected.

So trips to the moon and Mars are still a long way off. I guess that gives future astronauts plenty of time to prepare and think about all the challenges regarding long-duration space flight. One thing future travelers to Mars will need is food and it might be possible to bring some seeds along with the hopes of growing food on Mars. That would be superior to bringing it all along on the trip and might allow for a longer stay on the red planet. The only problem I can see in environmentalist objections. Of course, if they are worried about “contaminating” Mars, then they would probably oppose any human flight what-so-ever to any other planet.

Present Weather

Growing food here on earth in Northcentral Wisconsin has gotten a little easier recently because of nearly adequate rainfall. We are still in a drought but things are getting slightly better. After dry weather today and tomorrow, it looks like another chance of rain will develop on Thursday. Saturday could also be a little wet, so be prepared if you have any outdoor plans.

Increasing rain in the summer generally means an increased chance of severe weather and we experienced a bit of that yesterday in the far southern part of the viewing area. It was a rare severe weather event in a very uneventful severe weather season. A possible tornado was reported in Adams county. This report has yet to be confirmed by survey teams. The NWS in La Crosse did confirm a tornado touchdown in Crawford county – the first one in that county of the state since 1987. See most of the severe weather reports here.

Have a fine Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Severe Weather, Space, Storms