Minnesota Starwatch for March 2006
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Starwatch Newsletter

Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest.

It is updated monthly, and is produced by the
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Minnesota Starwatch for March 2006

This month both Saturn and Mars are prominent in the evening sky. Go out after dinner and look up and to the South. Mars will be to the right, Saturn to the left and the constellation of Orion will be in between. If you look at Saturn with a good pair of binoculars, you can see its brightest moon, Titan. Titan has been in the news because about one year ago the Huygens probe was successfully landed on the surface of this unusual and exotic moon. Titan is the most distant object in the Solar System we have landed a probe on.

Titan is unlike other moons in the Solar System. It is large and has a thick atmosphere, unlike our own Moon which is effectively devoid of an atmosphere. The atmosphere of Titan is very cold, and is made up mostly of nitrogen and methane. Scientists are still analyzing the data from the Huygens landing, but preliminary results suggest the surface of Titan is a bizarre mixture of liquid methane, frozen water and sand.

To the South of Saturn and Orion is the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, or the 'Dog Star'. In ancient times the rising of Sirius in the East at morning corresponded to the hottest time of summer. This is the origin of the phrase "dog days of summer."

For fun Astronomy Outreach programs check out our Public Outreach link, or if you're interested in how you can help build the new Minnesota Planetarium, please call 612-630-6151 or visit http://www.mplanetarium.org.

Como Planetarium is offering fun family shows about astronomy on a limited basis; please call 651-293-5398 for more info!

The Minnesota Starwatch is produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department.