The Discussion: A good old British whinge about the weather and looking forward to our biannual dark sky star party, AstoCamp.
The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have:
- An experiment in an underground lab in London to understand dark energy
- Eight new repeating fast radio burst source
- Help us come up with a cooler name than a pair-instability supernova
- The late accretion phase of the formation of the solar system
- The discovery of interstellar radioactive iron in the Antarctica
- Spitzer reveals surprising exoplanetary details.
- A new exoplanet discovery of three rocky worlds in the same system
- Using oceanography to suggest greater exoplanet biodiversity
The main news story discussion: The latest big Juno discovery at Jupiter.
The Sky Guide: Covering the solar system and deep sky objects on offer to amateur astronomers in September:
Jen: A tour of the planets on offer and the zodiacal light
Ralph: Jupiter Saturn and two meteor showers in September. Then further afield, a double star, an open cluster and a dark Nebula in Cepheus.
Main Object: Messier 27, The Dumbbell Nebula
Q&A: How can Titan have such a thick atmosphere with such a low gravity? From Alastair Frith in the UK
Pair Instability Supernova name suggestions:
“Geminova”:
Emphasizes the ‘pair’ aspect: Gemini Nova
Vertigar:
Emphasizes the ‘instability’ aspect : Vertigo Star
The first sounds like a trance EDM musician’s name and the second like a Finnish Death Metal band.