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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2017)
Wednesday, March 1, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 11 Stars over Sisters By Rylee Funk & Taylor Frey Correspondents As we move into the month of March there are new objects to focus on in the night sky. Out of the many constel- lations that can be seen, the one to look out for is Pyxis, the constellation referred to as the Mariner’s Compass. It is surrounded by the constel- lations Puppis, Hydra, Vela, and Antlia, and is best seen in the evening at around nine o’clock in the southern sky. Pyxis is made up of three main stars; Alpha Pyxidis, Beta Pyxidis, and Gamma Pyxidis. The Alpha star is a large star, being ten times the mass and six times the radius of the Sun. It is predicted that Alpha Pyxidis will explode in a supernova because of it’s size. Beta Pyxidis is a yellow-white giant which is an estimated twenty-five times larger than the sun. It is the beta star not because of it’s size, but because from Earth it appears to be dim- mer than Alpha Pyxidis. Finally, Gamma Pyxidis is a giant yellow-orange star that is similar to the Sun, but is three times larger. All three of these main stars have orbiting planets which have been discovered through the process of Doppler Spectrocity which uses the wavelengths of light to prove that there is an object orbit- ing the star. Pyxis is said to be a part of the former con- stellation known as Argo Navis, which was eventu- ally split into three main constellations: Carina, Vela, and Puppis. Argo Navis was a ship in Greek Mythology, and each of the three split constellations represents a part of the ship. Pyxis is a subordinate detachment of Argo Navis because it is in very close proximity to the actual divisions of the con- stellation, but is not consid- ered an actual division itself. Pyxis doesn’t contain any Messier objects but it has several deepsky objects, one being NGC 2818, a plan- etary nebula. What is spe- cial about NGC 2818 is that it is located within an open cluster called NGC 2818A. There are only a handful of nebulae that exist within a cluster. This is because the open cluster disperses faster PHOTO COURTESY NASA, ESA, AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA) NGC 2818 is a beautiful planetary nebula in t2e constellation of Pyxis, located at a distance of 10,400 lig2t- years. than its stars can age to the Another object to look with binoculars, but can also point of forming a plane- for this month is 41P/Tuttle- be visible to the naked eye. tary nebula. NGC 2818 was Giacobini-Kresák, a comet This month, Venus will formed by a sun-like star first discovered in 1858 by appear in the western skies that ran out of fuel to sus- Horace Parnell Tuttle, redis- along with Mars. Jupiter will tain itself. Therefore, over covered in 1907 by Michel be visible in the South East. the next tens of thousands Giacobini, and in 1951 by The full moon will appear of years the core will be left L’ubor Kresák. The comet on March 11, and will start as a white dwarf, which will will be closest to the Earth waning until March 27, remain there for millions in late March, being only when the new moon begins. of years. Our own star will 13.67 million miles away, Finally, mark your calen- eventually go through this the closest this comet has dars for March 20, when the process in the very distant been to the Earth in the last spring equinox starts off the future. century. It can be seen best new season.