#AstroMiniBR: We’re going back to the moon!

every week, Technology World this #AstroMiniBR Bring together five relevant and fun astronomical facts produced by Twitter profile contributors to spread the knowledge of this oldest science! Check out this week’s highlights below.

#1: Orion, the cosmic cat

One thing I LOVE about Men in Black is that they talk about how “Orion’s Belt” isn’t a place that exists, it’s just a constellation. “Being in Orion’s belt” doesn’t make sense. We actually call them 3 Marias in BR.

Unfortunately, Orion is the cat. The perfect bag. 10/10#AstroMiniBR pic.twitter.com/JLJH4bDQrj

— Camila Esperança (@astronomacamila) 21 November 2022

Unlike the Men in Black, Orion is a large constellation in astronomy named after the mythological Greek hunter (for amateur astronomers, it is located at approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes of ascension to the right and 0° declination).

Orion is one of the most visible and conspicuous constellations in the night sky, consisting of many of the brightest stars we can see with the naked eye. One of them is the variable star Betelgeuse, a red supergiant about 540 light-years from Earth, easily distinguishable by its reddish color, with a magnitude of 0.6 and the 11th brightest star in the sky. The brightest star in Orion is called Rigel and is found in the mythological representation at a magnitude of 0.1 on the hunter’s leg. The smaller the magnitude value, the brighter the celestial body.

Sword of the hunter contains the large and famous Orion Nebula, an emission nebula with hundreds of young stars visible to the naked eye, south of the constellation. But the easiest way to identify the constellation in the sky is the Belt of Orion. Alnilam, affectionately called Três Marias in Brazil, consists of three consecutive bright stars, Mintaka and Alnitak.

#2: Duty Bear

The target of the Artemis missions is the South Pole of the Moon. Note that some craters in the polar region are never illuminated by the Sun. The goal is to look for water ice in these craters. (images: NASA/SVS/LRO) #AstroMiniBR pic.twitter.com/NQh4FRt5al

— The Deep Sky Project (@CeuProfundo) 18 November 2022

Ay, here we go again! After more than 50 years, humanity is preparing to visit our natural satellite once again with the Artemis program. It is a robotic and manned exploration mission to the Moon, led by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and with three collaborating agencies, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space. Agency (CSA).

The Artemis program aims to re-establish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, and aims to establish a permanent base camp on the Moon and facilitate long-term human missions to Mars. The first launch of the Orion module and the first use of the Space Launch System, which are key components of the Artemis 1 mission, took place last November 16. According to the plan, the manned launch of Artemis 2 will take place in 2024, and the first A manned Moon landing is planned to take place on Artemis 3 in 2025.

#3: Speaking of Orion and speaking of the Moon…

THEM @NASA_Orion This morning (11/21) it makes its closest approach to the Moon and performs the first maneuver that will allow it to enter its Distant Retroactive Orbit (DRO). The next engine activation will take place on Friday 11/25, completing the entry into lunar orbit. #AstroMiniBR pic.twitter.com/GS7po9rVim

— Astronomia Colon Zero (@AstronomiaDois) 21 November 2022

Orion is also the name of the NASA spacecraft built to propel humans further on the Artemis mission.

The spacecraft will act as a reconnaissance vehicle that will carry crews into space, assisting the crew during space travel, and ensuring safe re-entry from deep space return speeds. In addition, Orion has a capacity system for emergency abortion in case of intervention. The spacecraft is currently in space between Earth and the Moon and was launched with NASA’s brand new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS).

#4: White dwarfs: a common class of stars in the universe

Are white dwarfs really white?
Come and learn a little about some features of this star ???? 🇧🇷#AstroThreadBR #AstrominiBR pic.twitter.com/zlc6Bf5HeJ

– Ana Clara ???? (@a_pleiade) 22 November 2022

White dwarf stars are any of a class of faint stars that represent the endpoint of the evolution of medium and low mass stars. They are so named because of the first discovered white color of this category, which is characterized by a low luminosity, a mass of the order of the Sun, and a radius comparable to that of the Earth.

Because of their massive mass and small size, these stars are dense, compact objects with an average density close to 1,000,000 times that of water. Unlike many other stars, which are supported against their own gravity by normal gas pressure, white dwarf stars are supported by the degenerative pressure of the electron gas within them, which is the increasing resistance exerted by the electrons that make up the gas. star contraction. Want to know more? Expands the thread above!

#5: The sunspot cycle

Was the sun there? it’s cloudy here but that doesn’t mean the sun is less strong… ??

This video demonstrates tracking sunspots through measurement of magnetic activity and ultraviolet and X-ray images.#AstroMiniBR
{c} Thorium+20 pic.twitter.com/ztKmZvlQ2L

— yanna martins franco (@martins_yanna) 14 November 2022

The video shows tracking the solar activity cycle at different wavelengths. It tracks sunspots, gas eddies on the Sun’s surface associated with strong local magnetic activity. The spots appear dark in contrast to the surrounding photosphere, which is only a few thousand degrees warmer.

These regions can be several times larger than Earth or small enough to make telescopic observation difficult. Also, sunspots can last for months and have a cycle that peaks approximately every 11 years.