Idaho Skies Transcript for October 25th and 26th

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for October 25th and 26th. We’re your hosts, Paul...

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
The center of the Milky Way appears to the moon’s right on the night of the 25th.

RACHEL
In this region of the sky, a stargazer with binoculars will be rewarded with views of little fuzzy clouds.

PAUL
Many of these are nebulae, a word from the Latin meaning fog.

RACHEL
But they’re not really heavenly fog banks.

PAUL
Nope, they’re actually giant glowing clouds of gas and dust.

RACHEL
How large, how about from one to a few hundred light years across?

PAUL
While telescopic images show them as dense clouds of dust and gas, they’re actually rather thin.

RACHEL
In fact, they’re better vacuums than we can create on Earth.

PAUL
A sugar cube sized sample of nebula would only contain a single hydrogen atom.

RACHEL
And a chunk of nebula the size of Earth would only weight around ten pounds.

PAUL
Nebulae glow because their gases are being excited to higher energy states by ultraviolet radiation from nearby stars.

RACHEL
The electrons in these excited atoms then return to their low energy state by emitting one or more photons of light.

PAUL
With so many atoms emitting light, rarefied nebulae can shine brightly enough for stargazers to see.

RACHEL
In most nebulae, there are regions of dust and gas that are collapsing under their own gravity.

PAUL
The result of the collapse will be the birth of a new star and possibly planets in a few million years time.

RACHEL
So search the region right on the moon on the 25th for tiny glowing clouds of dust and gas.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 25th and 26th of October.

RACHEL
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.