Travelers in the Night Eps. 727 & 728: Dust Moons & Space Weather

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org

Today's 2 topics:

- In a dance of unequal partners the Earth and Moon orbit a common center of gravity which itself travels about the Sun. Leading and trailing the moon's twisted path by 60 degrees, are the L4 and L5 Lagrange points, where gravitational forces create a bowl in space time in which an object will remain until it is disturbed.The discovery of two large ghostly neighbors approximately 65,000 by 45,000 miles in size at the L4 and L5 sites approximately 250,000 miles from both the Earth and Moon verifies theoretical predictions.

- Space is not all that far away. If a powerful solar eruption in 2012 had happened a week earlier, the blast of radiation would have caused widespread power blackouts disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket as well as the water and sewer systems which rely on electric pumps.

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