Blog Week 4: Planetarium and Meteorite Gallery

Prior to this week's class the last time I visited a planetarium was 6th grade for a school field trip. This week, I was able to finally visit the planetarium at UCLA. Much like last week, I thoroughly enjoy the fact that this course allows me to explore parts of UCLA I have yet to visit (Like the Botanical Gardens). As we were walking up the flight of stairs to get to the planetarium, I could not help but smile due to how excited I was. As we entered the dome structure, I could not help but notice the large star projector located at the center. "The current projector, a Viewlex Mark IIA (also known as the Goto GX-10), cost about $35,000 and was installed in 1973" ("Planetarium and Telescope Shows"). As I read more about the star projector on the UCLA website, I did not realize that there were different lenses needed for certain projects. As the image below shows, the planets utilize different lenses than the sun and the moon. Not only that, but even the Northern and Southern Hemisphere Stars use different lenses!

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As we took a seat, we were introduced to a PhD candidate by the name of Sebastian Figueroa who went on to give us a show/presentation. I really enjoyed the fact that Santiago made it feel like he was talking to his friends rather than simply making it a lecture. Due to the high levels of pollution in Los Angeles, we rarely encounter seeing stars, a few at most. However, due to the star projector/telescope, we are able to see many more stars. Sebastian mentioned that if we ever visit places like Joshua Tree/National Parks in general, we are able to see many more stars due to the fact that such areas are not as highly polluted as a metropolitan city like Los Angeles. As the lights began to dim and the projector began to emulate the stars, it took a few seconds for my eyes to fully adjust. As those few seconds went by, the room went from total darkness to hundreds if not thousands of stars, it was incredible.

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One extremely interesting topic Sebastian covered revolved around Orion/Orion's Belt. Sebastian began by mentioning the significance Orion's belt had on him as well as where he grew up; Mexico City. Orion's Belt is an asterism, which is simply a pattern of stars. "The three stars that traditionally make up the belt are, from west to east: Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak. The names of the outer two both mean "belt" in Arabic, while Anilam comes from an Arabic word that means "string of pearls" (Howell). As I was reading more about Orion's Belt, I could not believe that two of the three stars that make up the belt have meaning in Arabic. I found this particularly astonishing simply because I was born in Iraq and my first language is Arabic! Orion's Belt is one of the most famous asterisms out there and is called that due to the fact that it forms a belt on the hunter's outfit (Howell). Pictured below is Orion's Belt/asterism that Sebastian showed us during our visit to the planetarium.

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In addition to our visit to the planetarium, I also visited the Meteorite gallery at UCLA. "Meteorites are rocks that have been injected as meter-sized objects into the Earth's orbit following collisions on their parent bodies. Most came from asteroids; More than 200 come from the moon and 150 are thought to come from Mars" ("Meteorite Collection"). My favorite meteorite that I saw during my visit to the gallery was the Doheny Iron Meteorite, which was from the Arizona Meteor Crater. It was named "Doheny Iron Meteorite" due to the fact that the person who purchased it in the early 20th century was Edward Doheny. "... Doheny acquired this iron when he was young and was working as a mining prospector, and that when his estate was donated to MSM, it was forgotten about and was transferred with the greenhouse" (Verish). In addition, as I was looking at the meteorite, I could not help but notice how much it weighs; 343.5 lbs, which is crazy to think about!

I was also able to see Differentiated Meteorites (Irons), which are formed "from chondritic materials by melting followed by the separation of a metal melt." A few of them caught my eye as I was walking around the gallery, one of them being the Campo del Cielo - IAB iron meteorite which was found in Argentina in 1578. "In total, approximately 100 tonnes of fragments have been recovered, the most of any meteorite found" ("Campo Del Cielo ''). That is incredible to think about! The fact that this Differentiated Meteorite is a part of one of the largest meteorite finds is amazing to think about! Pictured below are both the Doheny and a collection of Differentiated Meteorites.

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Selfie with Alien Star Dust AR: 

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Work Cited:

“Campo Del Cielo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campo_del_Cielo.

 
Howell, Elizabeth. “Orion's Belt: String of Stars & Region of Star Birth.” Space.com, Space, 20 Dec. 2014, https://www.space.com/28072-orions-belt.html.
 
“Meteorite Collection.” UCLA, https://meteorites.ucla.edu/faq/.
 

“Planetarium AndTelescope Shows.” UCLA Planetarium: About, https://www.astro.ucla.edu/planetarium/about-planetarium.html.

 
Verish, Robert. “The Doheny Iron Meteorite.” Meteorite, 1 July 2018, https://www.meteorite-times.com/the-doheny-iron-meteorite/.