Join us Saturday afternoon, Sept. 25th, from 1:00-4:30p.m. for Explorit's Origins Science Celebration. There will be many exciting hands-on activities and demonstrations for all ages that will aim to explore the origins of the planets, the universe, and life itself. For more information, visit
http://www.explorit.org/program/origins92504.html

Also join us Saturday evening, Oct. 2nd, from 7:30-10:00p.m., when Explorit will host an in-depth talk, Origins of the Universe, for mature audience while younger members explore the museum exhibit, Inner Earth to Outer Space: Origins of Life and the Universe. The Davis Astronomy Club will set up telescopes for viewing objects in the sky. For more information, visit http://www.explorit.org/news.html

The two free events celebrate the premier of PBS (Channel 6) Nova program's Origins series on Tues., Sept. 28, 8:00 - 10:00pm (Earth is Born & How Life Began), and on Wed., Sept. 29, 8:00 - 10:00pm (Where are the Aliens? & Back to the Beginning.) The four part series will cover the events that led from the Big Bang explosion to the formation of the Earth, the cosmos, and us. (More info available at http://www.pbs.org/nova/origins.)

NASA's Discovery Program is involved in the quest to unlock the secrets of the Universe's origins. NASA has many missions that are exploring the solar system with lower cost, highly focused spacecrafts. The samples, collected by the probes and eventually brought back to Earth for analysis, are the building blocks of all the objects in the Universe and will help explain the origin and evolution of the solar system, and the origins of life.

Genesis probe (launched Aug. 8, 2001) spent 27 months outside the Moon's orbit collecting solar wind particles. As the Earth's magnetic field deflects the stream of hydrogen, helium, and other elements ejected by the Sun, the probe collected samples 1 million miles from Earth. Despite crash landing (on Sept. 8, 2004), scientists are hopeful that they can recover some of the "billion billion molecules" from the capsule containing the 0.4 milligrams samples. Stardust spacecraft (launched Feb. 7, 1999), will return on Jan. 15, 2006, after collecting cometary dust and carbon-based samples from comet Wild 2 (on Jan. 2, 2004) and interstellar dust for 150 days.

According to the Big Bang theory, all matter and energy in the universe was concentrated in a small, hot, infinitely dense ball. About thousand million years ago, it exploded, sending torrents of gaseous particles in all directions. Eventually some of these gases condensed (due to gravitational forces) into galaxies while still rapidly expanding. Galaxies fragmented to form protostars, which further fragmented into protoplanets and protosatellites. These eventually became stars, planets and satellites. A lot of matter ejected in the Big Bang that did not concentrate, became interstellar dust. Due to their massive densities, stars became hot nuclear furnaces, converting simple, light elements into complex, heavier elements and producing intense energy radiations. At the end of their lifecycles, the stars exploded, scattering the complex atoms and maybe seeding life in the universe. All life on Earth is made up of elements that were formed in the bellies of stars!

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER SKY
There are no bright planets visible in the night sky. Venus is dazzling bright (mag. -4.0 in Cancer/Leo) in the predawn hours. Saturn (mag. 0.2 in Gemini) rises in the middle of the night. Mars and Jupiter rise after sunrise.
Autumnal equinox is on Sept. 22.
Total lunar eclipse is on Oct. 27, 8pm.
Moon's phases are: New Moon: Sept. 14/Oct. 13, First Quarter: Sept. 21/Oct. 20, Full Moon: Sept. 28/Oct. 27, and Last Quarter: Oct. 6/Nov. 4.
Contact Vinita Domier at vcdomier@yahoo.com to receive these bulletins via e-mail.

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The Astronomy Club is for everyone - adults, children, knowledgeable or ignorant. Come to listen, look and learn, or to share your expertise or experience.