Page 28 - aruba-today-20190119

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 19 January 2019
Total lunar eclipse meets supermoon Sunday night

By MARCIA DUNN upcoming lunar eclipse will
AP Aerospace Writer be a super blood wolf — or
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) great spirit — moon.
— Here comes a total lunar In the U.S., the eclipse will
eclipse and supermoon, all begin relatively early Sun-
wrapped into one. day evening, making it
The moon, Earth and sun easier for children to stay
will line up this weekend for up and enjoy the show. Plus
the only total lunar eclipse the next day is a federal
this year and next. At the holiday, with most schools
same time, the moon will closed. But the weather
be ever so closer to Earth forecast for much of the
and appear slightly bigger U.S. doesn't look good.
and brighter than usual — Parents "can keep their
a supermoon. kids up maybe a little bit
"This one is particularly later," said, Hartigan, who
good," said Rice Univer- will catch the lunar ex-
sity astrophysicist Patrick travaganza from Houston.
Hartigan. "It not only is a "It's just a wonderful thing
supermoon and it's a to- for the whole family to see
tal eclipse, but the total because it's fairly rare to
eclipse also lasts pretty have all these things kind
long. It's about an hour." of come together at the
The whole eclipse starts same time."
Sunday night or early Mon- "The good thing about this
day, depending on loca- is that you don't need any
tion , and will take about special equipment," he
three hours. added.
It begins with the partial Asia, Australia and New
phase around 10:34 p.m. Zealand are out of luck. But
EST Sunday. That's when they had prime viewing last
Earth's shadow will begin year, when two total lunar
to nip at the moon. Total- eclipses occurred.
ity — when Earth's shadow The next total lunar eclipse
completely blankets the won't be until May 2021.
moon — will last 62 minutes, In this Saturday Aug. 28, 2018 file photo, Earth starts to cast its shadow on the moon during a com- As for full-moon super-
beginning at 11:41 p.m. EST plete lunar eclipse seen from Jakarta, Indonesia. moons, this will be the first
Sunday. Associated Press of three this year. The up-
If the skies are clear, the en- coming supermoon will
tire eclipse will be visible in ish coasts. The rest of Eu- servatory in Los Angeles. is sometimes known as a be about 222,000 miles
North and South America, rope, as well as Africa, will During totality, the moon blood moon. In January, (357,300 kilometers) away.
as well as Greenland, Ice- have partial viewing be- will look red because of the full moon is also some- The Feb. 19 supermoon will
land, Ireland, Great Britain, fore the moon sets. Some sunlight scattering off times known as the wolf be a bit closer and the one
Norway, Sweden, Portugal places will be livestreaming Earth's atmosphere. That's moon or great spirit moon. on March 20 will be the
and the French and Span- it, including the Griffith Ob- why an eclipsed moon So informally speaking, the farthest.q

Scientists: Saturn spent billions

of years without its rings

By MARCIA DUNN The findings are based on of ice. The remaining 1 per-
AP Aerospace Writer data collected by NASA's cent is dust and possibly or-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Cassini spacecraft while re- ganic contaminants. Over-
(AP) — Saturn may have peatedly diving between all, the material ranges in

This July 23, 2008 image made available by NASA shows the flown solo for billions of Saturn and its rings in 2017, size from tiny particles, to
planet Saturn, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft. years — almost its entire ex- shortly before its demise. pebbles, to boulders.
Associated Press istence — before getting its By estimating the mass Lead researcher Luciano
stunning set of rings, a new of the rings through grav- Iess, a planetary scientist
study suggests. ity measurements, the re- at Sapienza University in
An Italian-led team report- searchers gauged the age Rome, said orbital motion
ed Thursday in the journal of the three main rings: A, sprayed the dust and other
Science that Saturn's pri- B and C. It's still a mystery, contaminants onto the icy
mary rings appear to be though, how these icy rings rings at a constant rate.
just 10 million to 100 million formed. Scientists suspect His team calculated the
years old. The gas giant a collision between two length of time it would take
Saturn, on the other hand, of Saturn's many moons or for the contaminants to ac-
is 4.5 billion years old, like all perhaps a moon and com- cumulate — it turned out to
the other planets in our so- et. be a "short" 10 million to 100
lar system. The rings are made mostly million years.q