Travelers in the Night Eps. 369E & 370E: Night Vision & Double Comet

0:00It's the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, coming in 3, 2, 1.

0:23Many people in our modern world rarely, if ever, experience night vision. To achieve this interesting state of sensory awareness, you cannot look at your cell phone or any other source of bright light for 30 to 45 minutes. Your night vision comes about over time because the rod sensors in the retina of your eye undergo a chemical change when they are placed in total darkness. The process starts immediately, but takes 20 to 30 minutes to get 80% of maximum

0:56sensitivity. The night vision process can be reversed in seconds by exposure to a bright light. In its most sensitive state, your eye can function with a billion times less light than is present in strong sunlight, enabling you to see a candle flame from 1.6 miles away. One of the most interesting and fun ways to experience night vision is to go to a location with a natural night sky such as the Cosmic Campground International Dark Sky Sanctuary on a clear, moonless night. Allow your eyes to become

1:33dark adapted by using only a very dim red light. Amazingly, you will find yourself walking about by the light of stars. Your reward will be to experience seeing the Milky Way, meteors streaking through the night sky, star clusters, planets, bright and dim stars of different colors and more. Pick a dark sky place near you on darksky.org and recruit a friend. Bring a red filtered flashlight, star maps, binoculars,

2:04warm clothes and snacks to experience the wonders of the universe firsthand. For Travelers in the Night, this is Dr. Al Grauer. Go to travelersinthenight.org program 401 for more information.

2:22In November of 2006, University of Arizona's Space Watch astronomers on Kitt Peak discovered a faint moving point of light in the night sky which appeared to be a garden variety main belt asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The minor planet center calculated its orbit and gave it the name 2006 VW-139. Five years later, when it again moved closest to the sun, the Pan-STARRS group in Hawaii

2:54discovered that 2006 VW-139 is surrounded by a gas cloud like a comet and it was given a comet designation 288 P. My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Steve Larson is a member of the team of astronomers who use the Hubble Space Telescope to observe asteroids which have comet-like burps. Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope between August of 2016 and January of 2017 clearly show 288 P to be two

3:29similar mile diameter asteroids orbiting each other about 60 miles apart surrounded by a gas cloud as they move about the sun. The Hubble team estimates that about 5,000 years ago this strange object was formed when a rapidly rotating comet nucleus came apart into two large pieces. Its gas cloud is likely to come from volatile ices like carbon dioxide and water vapor which were liberated by solar heating. Objects

4:00like this one are very interesting since they may have had a role in bringing water to a bone dry earth in the early days of our solar system. For Travelers in the Night, this is Dr. Al Grauer. Go to travelersinthenight.org program 403 for more information. You are listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. Cool. The 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is produced by the Planetary

4:44Science Institute. Audio post-production is by me, Richard Drumm. Project management is by Aviva Yamani and hosting is donated by libsyn.com. This content is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial 4.0 international license. Please share what you love, but don't sell what's free. This show is made possible thanks to the generous donations of people like you. Please consider supporting our show on patreon.com forward slash CosmoQuestX and get access to bonus content.

5:20Without your passion and contribution, we won't be able to share the stories and inspire the worlds. We invite you to join our community of storytellers and share your voice with listeners worldwide. As we wrap up today's episode, we're looking forward to unraveling more stories from the universe. With every new discovery from ground-based and space-based observatories and each milestone in space exploration, we come closer to understanding the cosmos and our place within it. Until next time,

5:52let the stars guide your curiosity.