Minnesota Starwatch for May 2007
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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 May 2007

This month both Saturn and Venus are prominent in the evening sky. Go out after dinner and look up and to the southwest. Venus will be more to the right and closer to the horizon. Saturn will be higher up and to the left of Venus. 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 a couple of years 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 on which we have landed a probe.

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. Although scientists had expected a much smoother landscape, they found a varied landscape of channels that had been formed by some kind of flowing liquid. There are lakes of this liquid, probably liquid methane, scattered over the surface. This is the only known instance of lakes on any Solar System body other than the Earth.

The bright star between Venus and Saturn is Pollux, or Beta Geminorum, which is only about 30 light years away. Pollux is a red giant, about 30 times more luminous than the Sun, but cooler in temperature and larger in size. In Greek mythology, Pollux was one of the twin sons of Zeus and Leda, the other being Castor (Alpha Geminorum). To the Chinese, Pollux represents Yang, which along with Yin (Castor) make up the two opposing, but fundamental characteristics of the universe.

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.

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