Bands and Bacteria

Again it's been a long time since I last posted and I can only apologise. University seems to have had me in a metaphoric stranglehold for the past couple of months and I feel I haven't had enough time to breathe, let alone get in the flow to write. From now on the blog will be forcibly fitted into my schedule. Now onto a couple of bits of Astronomy news:

Exciting piece of news number one is that the Southern Equatorial Band on Jupiter finally appears to be returning, after an unexplained year long disappearance. Several dark plumes have suddenly burst through the upper atmosphere in the last couple of weeks and since such plumes have heralded the return of the belt after past disappearances, it seems likely the it will soon be back in all its former glory. If you have the means to view the belts it's most definitely worth keeping an eye on over the next few months.

Piece of news number two, whilst not strictly Astronomical may hold huge significance in the field in the coming years. Hiding at the bottom of Mono Lake in California, a lake considered particularly inhospitable due to its high concentrations of arsenic, scientists have found a strange bacteria. It may not sound particularly exciting, but this tiny bacteria is in fact a new type of life. It's not an alien as some websites and papers were quick to suggest and there isn't any evidence yet to suggest it evolved independently from normal life on the planet. It is however the only living thing discovered that is able to incorporate arsenic in its cells in the place of phosphorus. This discovery of such an extremophile considerably widens the conditions for life's existence elsewhere in the galaxy; after all large quantities of arsenic have been found on Saturn's moon Titan. If a bacteria can evolve to incorporate a substance that is so poisonous to life on our planet, then why shouldn't we find alien microbial life can exist on worlds much more hostile than our own?

Regarding observing, December is a particularly brilliant time for the northern hemisphere, whether you have lots of equipment or only your eyes on the skies. If you have binoculars or a telescope I recommend in particular the area of Orion (including the Orion, Horsehead and Flame nebulae) and the Pleides cluster in the Southern sky. I also think M13 or the Great Cluster in Hercules (picture on the left)is worth a look- visible early in the evening before it sets in the north west or early in the morning when it rises again in the north east it is quite stunning sight even through a small telescope. For those without equipment the Geminid Meteor shower should also be putting on a good show, peaking on the 14th of this month with an hourly rate of 100 meteors and radiating from the constellation of Gemini. The moon will also experience a total lunar eclipse at 06:30GMT on the 21st of this months. It will unfortunately be low in the west during the eclipse, making it difficult to view for many, but it should certainly still be worth a look!