Astronomy

Fifteen years ago Timothy Ferris earned his living pontificating on the dubious aesthetics of bands such as Grand Funk Railroad. But rock stars were never as intriguing to him as the celestial bodies overhead. So Ferris took a stab at writing about real stars. That his subsequent books on astronomy--"The Red Limit," "Galaxies," "Space Shot" and now "Coming of Age in the Milky Way"--have been praised by scientists as well as book critics should be encouraging to those who still find the Big Bang, black holes, quarks and quantum physics to be over our heads.

James D. Hodgson Former secretary of Labor James D. Hodgson, 96, who as secretary of Labor in the early 1970s helped shepherd the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law, died Nov. 28 at his Malibu home, his family announced. The cause was complications after hip surgery. He was director of industrial relations at Lockheed Aircraft Co., where he had worked for nearly three decades, when President Nixon appointed him undersecretary of Labor in 1969 and secretary of Labor in 1970.

While NASA investigates space with satellites, shuttles and telescopes, you can make discoveries in your own backyard. With your naked eye you can see stars and many planets, and with a pair of binoculars and some practice you can even see Jupiter's moons. Have fun exploring the night skies with the direct links on the Times Launch Point Web site: http://www.latimes.com/launchpoint. Level 1 Let's Explore the Nine Planets! The sun is the only star we can see during the day.

Dressed as usual in jeans and Velcro-secured sneakers, UCLA astronomer David Jewitt sat at his desk recently and feigned concern: What, exactly, does one wear when accepting gold medals from the king of Norway and a Chinese billionaire-philanthropist? "I'm trying to figure out what a tuxedo is," he said, rolling his eyes. "It's apparently different everywhere. " Fashion isn't familiar territory for Jewitt, 54, an expert on comets and the other small objects zipping through the solar system.

The next generation of U.S. space scientists could be dominated by women, according to a new study that shows a majority of the youngest astronomers are women. The study of members of the American Astronomical Society found that of astronomers and astronomy students ages 18 to 23, 56.8% are women, a big jump from those ages 23 to 28, where 39.7% are female. Of those over age 50, only 10% are women.

Forget Cruise as the Vampire Lestat. Forget DeNiro as Dr. Frankenstein's monster. For some real full-moon action, check out the Sylmar branch of the Los Angeles Public Library on Nov. 16. There, the public can peer at the solar system through telescopes, check out craters on the full moon, and take a gander at Saturn and possibly Jupiter. At a special "Sidewalk Astronomy" program to be held at the library from 6 to 8 p.m.

A French-built Ariane 4 rocket roared into space Tuesday and deployed a communications satellite and a star mapper, officials said. The liquid-fueled rocket, the most powerful launcher in the European inventory, streaked away from the European Space Agency's jungle launch complex on the northern coast of South America about 10 hours after the U.S. space shuttle Columbia lifted off in Florida.

TRW said Monday that it is entering into final negotiations with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a $508-million satellite that will study such astronomical phenomena as exploding stars and the collision of galaxies. Although a final contract has not been awarded, TRW officials say all that needs to be done is to settle a few details with NASA before a final agreement is signed.

Peering through a telescope for the first time, Betty Vang, 14, gasped as the moon, magnified 125 times, jumped into view. "Oh, it's so cool! It's so big!" she exclaimed as she squinted into the eyepiece on a recent weekday night. As dozens of other students jostled for their turn, Betty added, "It looked like a big piece of Swiss cheese, but there's more holes in the moon."

The summer sunset has painted a vivid watercolor of orange, coral and violet over the Pacific, just past the pier in Seal Beach. But Michael Beckage already has his telescope trained on the moon. Even in this light, the moon is bright and crystalline, like a salt mine with dimples and ridges. Yet Beckage hardly has a moment to take a peek. Instead, a little girl perches on a stepladder to squint into the eyepiece, a line forming behind her. "Do you see the holes in the moon?" Beckage says, pointing out the craters.

Southern Arizona's dark skies established the region as an international hub for astronomy in the 1960s. Observatories and other sky-gazing research facilities have brought prestige - and millions of dollars - to the state. Today, riches on the ground - or, more specifically, below it - also have the potential to enrich the state, resulting in an odd collision between mining and astronomy. Since 2007, when Rosemont Copper, which is owned by Canada's Augusta Resource Co., announced its plans to build a mine in the desert just south of Tucson, the environmental community has warned that the project will devastate the desert landscape.

ForgetSpider-Manor the Green Lantern. Get ready to meet the Dark Ranger. Since the turn of the century, a band of National Park Service rangers have become self-avowed lovers and protectors of the amazing night sky. Whereas in L.A. we look up at night and see the twinkle of an occasional star (or is that a plane bound for LAX?), they look skyward and see the Milky Way. "Dark Rangers are the sworn enemies of light pollution," Kevin Poe, a ranger at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah , writes on his website.

Across Southern California, sky watchers assembled Tuesday afternoon for a chance to view the last-in-a-lifetime transit of Venus. They donned protective glasses and peered into filtered telescopes to watch the planet as it crossed in front of the sun for the last time in more than 100 years. They spoke of watching a tiny black dot creeping ever so slowly across the solar disk with a combination of reverence and resignation. "It's like watching grass grow," said 93-year-old Don Nicholson, describing Venus' 6-hour, 40-minute progression, most of which was visible locally before sunset.

Type 1a supernovae, exploding stars that can outshine entire galaxies, were instrumental to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery that a mysterious "dark energy" is fueling the expansion of the universe. But astronomers haven't been able to pin down what causes these massive stellar explosions. Now, after studying a Type 1a supernova in a nearby galaxy, two researchers say that they must be the result of a collision between two white dwarf stars. They made their case this week in the journal Nature.

Jerry Schad had a simple explanation for his ability to quickly experience every mile he wrote about in his guidebooks, which helped expand hiking opportunities in Southern California: "I run through the boring parts and walk through the interesting ones. " His "Afoot and Afield in San Diego County," first published in 1986, is regarded as the preeminent guide to the region's trails. He followed it with two other well-regarded "Afoot and Afield" books, on Orange County and then Los Angeles County.

The repaired space shuttle Columbia, grounded since May by crippling hydrogen fuel leaks, was cleared Tuesday for a launch attempt this weekend to begin a 10-day astronomy mission. Columbia is to carry four major astronomical instruments, including a telescope designed to investigate the content of stars and the history of their formation. "The shuttle team has worked very hard to get Columbia ready to fly," shuttle director Robert Crippen said.

Astronomers using Hawaii's Keck II telescope have detected the largest volcanic eruption in the solar system on the surface of Io, a Jovian moon. The eruption took place in February 2001, although analysis of the image was only recently completed. It occurred near an area on Io known as Surt.

For the first time, astronomers say they've borne witness to a supermassive black hole consuming a star. Two papers released Wednesday by the journal Nature describe powerful blasts of radiation whose brightness and behavior can be explained only by a sun-sized star being torn apart by the gravitational forces of a black hole at the center of its galaxy, the authors say. Scientists believe they have seen the aftermath of such stellar violence...

Astronomers have discovered a hidden collection of supermassive, growing black holes dating back to the early universe -- showing, for the first time, that black holes populated the cosmos far earlier than thought. The findings, published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, could help scientists understand how these black holes are born, how big they grow and how galaxies develop with them. "We know the nearest galaxies, like our own Milky Way, all have supermassive black holes in the center," said lead author Ezequiel Treister, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii.