PCC News Monthly August 2018 | Page 9

The Sky This Month Welcome to our night-time sky. Please enjoy this month’s tidbits of knowledge. We are lucky to live in a dark-sky area where the heavens can shine through. I hope you enjoy the sky and perhaps learn a thing or two. Happy star gazing! A Star is Born – That’s what hap- pens when you take a whole lot of hydrogen and compress it together.  When the gravita- tional pressure is large enough, fusion begins and a star is born.  The hydrogen is fused into helium and releases a tremendous amount of energy.   When all of the hydrogen is burned up, the star’s core contracts, heats up five times, and begins to fuse helium into carbon.  The massive en- ergy created from the fusion greatly expands the star’s outer layers.  If the star is small, the helium burns out and the star collapses into a white dwarf.  If the star is larger, the collapse will create a supernova and the remnants will form a neutron star.  If the star is really big, the carbon will fuse into iron.  When the carbon burns out, a super- nova will occur and the remnants will form a black hole.  Our Sun is considered a small star and has burned through about half of its hydrogen in the 4.5 billion years since it ignited.  In another five billion years, the Sun will enter its helium burning stage.  The expanding outer layers will consume the Earth and once all of the helium is burned up, the Sun will collapse into a white dwarf.  So you better buy a house today before it’s too late! Perseus Brings Fire to the Sky – He didn’t invent fire – that was Prometheus.  However he did cut off the head of Medusa, which is pretty nice.  So, Perseus returns on the evening of August 12 to shower us with meteors.  Around 11:00 PM, the Perseus constellation will be popping above the horizon in the northeast.  Meteors will appear to origi- nate out of Perseus, so look to the northeast to see them.  If all goes well, you should see about 1 meteor per minute.  Each shooting star will be traveling about 133,000 mph when it hits our atmosphere, exploding into a trail of fire.  The evening should be nice and warm, so grab a lawn chair, relax, and enjoy the show!  For an added bonus, there is no Moon to brighten the sky, so you should be able to see more faint meteors! By the way, if you don’t know where northeast is, face the setting sun.  Now make a half turn to your right – that should be close enough. – Brian Biggs, Amateur Astronomer pccnews  August 2018  9