Key Nutrients Summary

Scientists have found a key nutrient for human existence in space. Astronomers and scientists think radiation-blasted powered the chemical reaction used to make B3. B3 is essential to human health and is not made in the body. It can only be obtained from outside sources, i.e. food. Scientists have found this and other essential vitamins in meteorites.

Key Nutrients

"An essential nutrient for life on Earth also cooks up in space, a new study finds.

While scientists aren't yet sure of the exact recipe, they think radiation-blasted ice powered the chemical reactions that produced vitamin B3, or niacin, early in the solar system's history. A stew of dust and ice created key molecules for life in this planetary kitchen, which all later clumped into asteroids and comets, suggests the new study, published April 13 in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

Some researchers think impacts on early Earth could have delivered chemicals essential for life, such as amino acids and vitamins like niacin. Today, niacin isn't made by the human body, and must be consumed in the diet.
"Vitamin B3 is essential to metabolism and likely very ancient in origin," lead study author Karen Smith of Pennsylvania State University said in a statement.

Smith and her co-authors discovered vitamin B3 in eight carbon-rich meteorites. (When fragments of an asteroid fall to Earth, they're called meteorites.) The meteorites are all CM-2 carbonaceous chondrites, one of the most common meteorite types found on Earth.

The meteorite's vitamin B3 levels ranged from 30 to 600 parts per billion, the study reports. Related molecules discovered in the meteorites include pyridine carboxylic acids and pyridine dicarboxylic acids.

The amount of vitamin B3 in the meteorites was linked to how much their parentasteroids were altered by water, Smith said. "We discovered a pattern — less vitamin B3 was found in meteorites that came from asteroids that were more altered by liquid water," she said. Several chemical and mineral traces in meteorites show how much an asteroid was altered by water.

The researchers also tested their theory of how vitamin B3 may form in space with laboratory experiments. "We showed that the synthesis of vitamin B3 might be possible on ice grains," Smith said.







Earlier research has also shown vitamin B3 can be produced non-biologically on Earth, Smith said. The team plans further experiments to explore how the vitamin can form on ice grains in space." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/21/meteorites-vitamin-b3-nutrient-space_n_5183585.html?utm_hp_ref=astronomy)
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Habitable Summary

Scientists have found a planet about the size of Earth in, what we consider to be, a habitable zone. This means that life could possibly exist in this zone. The planet's size is known but not much else. However, due to some previous research, scientists think the planet is rocky and mountainous. The planet is named Kepler-186f and it is found in the constellation Cygnus. This planet orbits a star that is much smaller than our sun, it is a red dwarf. Scientists will continue looking for Earth twins and just because a planet is in the habitable zone does not mean it is habitable. Maybe we need to look elsewhere.

Planet In Habitable Zone

"Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.

While planets have previously been found in the habitable zone, they are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth.

"The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind's quest to find truly Earth-like worlds."

Although the size of Kepler-186f is known, its mass and composition are not. Previous research, however, suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky.

"We know of just one planet where life exists -- Earth. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth," said Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published today in the journal Science. "Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward."

Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system, about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four companion planets, which orbit a star half the size and mass of our sun. The star is classified as an M dwarf, or red dwarf, a class of stars that makes up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

"M dwarfs are the most numerous stars," said Quintana. "The first signs of other life in the galaxy may well come from planets orbiting an M dwarf."

Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130-days and receives one-third the energy from its star that Earth gets from the sun, placing it nearer the outer edge of the habitable zone. On the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon is only as bright as our sun appears to us about an hour before sunset.

"Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has," said Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. "Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth."

The four companion planets, Kepler-186b, Kepler-186c, Kepler-186d, and Kepler-186e, whiz around their sun every four, seven, 13, and 22 days, respectively, making them too hot for life as we know it. These four inner planets all measure less than 1.5 times the size of Earth.

The next steps in the search for distant life include looking for true Earth-twins -- Earth-size planets orbiting within the habitable zone of a sun-like star -- and measuring the their chemical compositions. The Kepler Space Telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measured the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, is NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets around stars like our sun.

Ames is responsible for Kepler's ground system development, mission operations, and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

The SETI Institute is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education and public outreach. The mission of the SETI Institute is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe."(http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/nasas-kepler-telescope-discovers-first-earth-size-planet-in-habitable-zone/#.U1RVDtxH1FI)

5 Stages of a Lunar Eclipse.

1. Penumbral Eclipse
2. Partial Eclipse
3. Total Eclipse
4. Partial Eclipse
5.Penumbral Eclipse



A Lunar Eclipse happens when the moon passes into the shadow of the earth. There hasn't been a lunar eclipse since 2011 and there will be a total lunar eclipse on April 15th. There are five stages of a lunar eclipse. 1. Penumbral Eclipse: This stage is the start of the shading and when the moon is first dipping behind the earth's shadow. 2. Partial Eclipse: The moon enters the umbra and there is no direct sunlight at all.      3. Total Eclipse:"From the Moon's perspective, the Sun remains completely hidden for 1 hour 18 minutes. From Earth's perspective, the lunar disk isn't completely blacked out but instead remains dimly lit by a deep orange or red glow. Why so? Our atmosphere scatters and refracts (bends) sunlight that grazes the rim of our globe, so that red glow comes from all the sunrises and sunsets around Earth's terminator at the moment. If you were an astronaut standing on the Moon, you'd see Earth ringed with a thin, brilliant band of sunset- and sunrise-colored light. On rare occasions the eclipsed Moon does go black. Other times it appears as bright and coppery as a new penny. Sometimes it turns brown like chocolate, or as dark red as dried blood."(http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/aprils-total-eclipse-of-the-moon/)   4. Partial Eclipse: The eclipse starts to fade and the moon becomes more visible. 5.Penumbral Eclipse: The moon is now no longer in the umbra and it is completely visible.      

Total Eclipse

"North America hasn't had a total eclipse of the Moon since 2011. But this long dry spell will break in the early morning hours of April 15th (beginning late on April 14th for the West Coast), when the full Moon passes through the umbra — the dark inner core of Earth's shadow.

The diagram and timetable below tell what to expect and when if you live in North America. The eclipse will also be visible from Central and South America and much of the Pacific. In eastern Australia the Moon doesn't rise until the total eclipse is already underway on the evening of the 15th.


The Stages of a Lunar Eclipse

A total lunar eclipse has five stages, with different things to watch at each:

Penumbral eclipse: Shading starts to occur when the Moon's leading edge enters Earth's penumbra, the outer portion of its shadow. But initially the effect is weak — you won't start to see a dusky fringe along the Moon's leading limb (celestial east) until the disk intrudes about halfway across the penumbra. As the Moon glides deeper in, the shading becomes much more obvious.

Partial eclipse: More dramatic is the Moon's entrance into the umbra, where no direct sunlight reaches the lunar surface. Few sights in astronomy are more eerie and impressive than watching this red-black shadow creeping, minute by minute, across the bright lunar landscape, slowly engulfing one crater after another. If you're so inclined, there's scientific value in carefully timing these crater crossings.

As more of the Moon slides into the umbra, a second, deeper night is falling around you as more stars come out in what had been a full-Moon-washed sky. An hour or so into partial eclipse, only a final bright sliver remains outside the umbra and the rest of the Moon is already showing an eerie reddish glow.

Total eclipse: From the Moon's perspective, the Sun remains completely hidden for 1 hour 18 minutes. From Earth's perspective, the lunar disk isn't completely blacked out but instead remains dimly lit by a deep orange or red glow. Why so?

Our atmosphere scatters and refracts (bends) sunlight that grazes the rim of our globe, so that red glow comes from all the sunrises and sunsets around Earth's terminator at the moment. If you were an astronaut standing on the Moon, you'd see Earth ringed with a thin, brilliant band of sunset- and sunrise-colored light. On rare occasions the eclipsed Moon does go black. Other times it appears as bright and coppery as a new penny. Sometimes it turns brown like chocolate, or as dark red as dried blood.

Two factors affect an eclipse's color and brightness. The first is simply how deeply the Moon goes into the umbra — because the umbra's center is much darker than its outer edge. The second is the state of Earth's atmosphere all around the terminator. If the air is very clear, the eclipse is bright; if it's mostly cloudy (or polluted with volcanic ash from a major eruption), the eclipse will be dark red, ashen gray, or almost black.

Adding to the late-night spectacle will be the bright star Spica shining only about 1° or 2° from the Moon, and brilliant Mars about 9° to the west.

Partial eclipse: Totality ends once the Moon's leading limb peeks back into direct sunlight, and after that events unfold in reverse order. If you're using binoculars or a small telescope to view the eclipse, watch as lunar features slide back into full view.

Penumbral eclipse: When all of the Moon has escaped the umbra, only the last, penumbral shading is left. This final duskiness gradually fades away, leaving the full Moon shining as bright and white as ever. Notably, of the three lunar eclipses in 2013, two were penumbra-only events."(http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/aprils-total-eclipse-of-the-moon/)

Mumbai AWB Summary

The organization Astronomers Without Borders does an astronomy month in April and this year they are going to promote education and awareness in Mumbai. The organization feels that it is very important to educate and involve all different kinds of people with astronomy; we all live under the same sky. They have many educational tools, scientists and artists  representing the astronomy month of April. It is important to make people aware of their surroundings and widen what people think they know by giving them opportunities to explore, AWB does this. 

Mumbai prepares for Global Astronomy Month 2014

"Astronomers Without Borders, based in the US, organises Global Astronomy Month in April every year to bring together enthusiasts from across the globe and share new ideas and opportunites. This year's schedule boasts over 20 events. There's a photography contest (last year's winning photos were widely broadcast by National Geographic, Sky and Telescope, Huffington Post, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day and others), a poetry contest, a special asteroid search campaign–students get to make original discoveries, a Global Star Party, a Cosmic Concert by an Italian pianist and even a live audio-visual transmission performance between the earth and the moon–radio signals will be used to send images to the moon and these signals will bounce off the moon and return to earth to be picked up by the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. Moon-bounced images will be presented in real time. For the detailed schedule visit: www.astronomerswithoutborders.org.

Astronomy on the sidewalk
If you plan to stroll on the sidewalks of Nariman Point, Worli Seaface, Shivaji Park, Dadar, Carter Road in Mumbai or a few locations in Thane, you can do much more than just walking. Keeping with the spirit of Global Astronomy Month several amateur astronomers, who have built their telescopes at Nehru Planetarium, plan to lend them to passers-by to view the treasures of the sky from 7 pm to 9 pm. Detailed information and updates are available on their Facebook Page: Sidewalk Astronomy Mumbai.

Evening Sky Show
On all the weekends of April, you can have a heavenly time with celestial bodies. Nehru Planetarium plans to run free sky observation sessions, between 7 pm and 8.30 pm, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday; you can expect to see the moon, Jupiter and more, interact with astronomy buffs and query with the planetarium's staff too."(http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-mumbai-prepares-for-global-astronomy-month-2014-1975368)



"In April 2013, when ISON was about 4au from Sun, I was quite surprised to receive an invitation to attend a Consultation Workshop on ISON Comet, to be held at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,Mumbai (HBCSE). The convenor organisations of the workshop were All India Peoples Science Network (AISPN), HBCSE, Vigyan Prasar, and Navnirmiti. At the consultation workshop I met about two dozen persons from various institutes and individuals from all over India, professional astrophysicists, amateur astronomers, science educators, science educators, science popularisers, communication designers and artists. It was quite a diverse gathering. We deliberated for two days and a night.

In the meeting, it was decided that the arrival of the Comet ISON provided a very good opportunity to launch a massive campaign. The excitement in tracking the comet, and the opportunity it provides for several science activities by children in the learning-by-doing mode, as well as the long-term potential of such an effort to develop an interest in them in watching objects in the night-sky. The apparition of ISON could well become a vehicle on which science could be taken to the far flung corners of India.

It was decided to produce resource material in printed and digital forms that would be publicly available on a web portal, and plan a cascading series of training workshops for resource persons, in order to reach a large number of children nation-wide in each district. It was also decided to form a co-ordination committee, and constitute an advisory panel.

India is a large country, and with an even larger population. Slowly the numbers involved sank in my mind. The amount of effort needed to reach the number of children in each district of India would be astronomical. Thankfully, I was given the relatively easy task of technical support."(http://astronomerswithoutborders.org/gam-2014-blog/item/a-science-campaign-in-india.html?highlight=WyJtdW1iYWkiXQ==)