Welcome to Idaho Skies for the third week of July. We’re your hosts, Rachel...
PAUL
...and Paul.
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We celebrate two important spacecraft landings this week.
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And they both occurred on the 20th of July
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Thirty-eight years ago, the spacecraft Viking 1 landed on Mars.
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It was a good thing that JPL engineers placed Viking 1 in Martian orbit before it attempting a landing.
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That’s because when the spacecraft arrived at Mars, the initial landing site was found to be too rocky and dangerous for the lander.
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After JPL found a safer location, Viking 1 successfully touched down on Chryse Planitia, or the Plain of Gold on July 20, 1976.
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The Viking 1 lander was nuclear powered and operated on Mars for six years.
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It determined that Mars had no obvious signs of life.
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As a result of the negative findings, there was some reluctance in NASA to go back to the planet for further study.
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Our second landing celebration is Apollo 11.
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Forty-five years ago on the 20th, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon.
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After six hours of rest, they climbed out of their lander and spent 2-1/2 hour exploring the moon.
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Do you remember the name of their lunar lander?
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Sure, it was Eagle.
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Yep, and Columbia was the Apollo capsule that remained in lunar orbit with astronaut Michael Collins.
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Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins safely returned to Earth on the 24th.
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And they brought back 47 pounds of lunar rock and dust.
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It was the fulfillment of Kennedy’s pledge to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade and bring him back safely.
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Speaking of the moon, it moon passes close to the Pleiades star cluster on the morning of the 21st
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And the Hyades star cluster on the morning of the 22nd.
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The Pleiades and Hyades are examples of loose groupings of stars called galactic star clusters.
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The stars in a galactic star cluster tend to be young, only on the order of tens to hundreds of millions of years old.
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Because of their recent birth, they are rich in elements heavier than helium.
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That increases their chances of having planets containing the raw materials of life.
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We just need to wait a billion years or so to find out if life developed.
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That’s Idaho Skies for the third week of July. It’s the start of meteor shower season and next week we’ll tell you about the first one to watch.
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Be sure to follow us on Twitter at Idaho Skies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.
For Idaho Skies this is Rachel...
PAUL
...and Paul.
RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.
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