From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sun May 12 2002 - 01:52:42 MDT
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Martha J. Heil (818) 354-0850
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 10, 2002
A GOOD CELESTIAL SHOW GETS BETTER
The Moon will join five visible planets to perform a seldom-seen
celestial show on the evening of May 13.
To see the conjunction of the planets and moon, look in the
western sky above the horizon just after sunset. Look for Venus,
the brightest star in the group. Red Mars will be right below, and
Jupiter, which appears white, will be topmost. Mercury is closest
to the horizon, and Saturn is just below Mars.
"You'll see just a sliver of the Moon, because it will be one day
past new," said Dr. E.M. Standish, an astronomer, also of JPL.
"This will be the tightest conjunction for almost 40 years."
A five-planet conjunction isn't new; astronomers have been
recording the phenomenon for over 3,500 years. Dr. Kevin Yau, an
astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
has studied ancient Chinese astronomy texts to find out more
about the conjunction.
"The Han Dynasty came to power in 605 BC," Yau said. "One year
later astronomers saw a five-planet conjunction gathered in the
constellation Dongjing - what we would call Gemini." This led to
the ancient Chinese belief that the conjunction was an omen of
change, but the alignment really has no effect on
Earth or Earthlings.
Based upon good observing circumstances, 40 five-planet
conjunction events may have been seen between the years 2000 BC and
AD 2000. The next time these bodies will be grouped so closely
together will be in September 2040.
"This alignment is a great opportunity to see the planets, since
they are so easy to find in the sky," he said.
As part of the imperial establishment in ancient China, an
astronomical observatory was usually built inside the capital city
of the time. Trained astronomers were appointed to keep a diligent
watch of the sky day and night. The Chinese constellations have
names that represent palaces and gardens, generals and ministers.
"Today, we are grateful that such detailed observational records
were kept," Yau said. "Our modern astronomical database goes back
about five hundred years, which is relatively short in terms of
astronomical timescales." Astronomers often need to access
data covering a longer time span in order to prove or disprove
their theories such as the effect of the 11-year solar cycle on
the Earth's climate change, or predictions of when a comet will be
visible from Earth.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena.
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." --Anais Nin
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