Playing in October at the Imaginarium

 What do you associate with Halloween? Trick-or-Treating, costumes… astronomy? After all, Halloween is an astronomical holiday! We love Halloween at the Imaginarium and our monthly schedule will be a spooky treat for all. There might even be yummy treats to keep the goblins at bay as you exit through the Imaginarium's creepy graveyard.
Email your reservation requests to: dineene@hawaii.edu.

                                           
Friday October 7
7pm Spooky Tales of the Maya
This Imaginarium show recreates the splendor of Maya architecture and astronomy. Grammy Award winner and Oscar nominee Lila Downs narrates this magnificent journey through Maya cities and temples aligned to the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets and tells the spooky tales of the Mayan underworld.
8:15pm Flying Monsters
For thousands of years, humans believed that there were once flying monsters. Such creatures became mythologized, with stories about them shared around the world. But could they have really existed? Flying Monsters is a National Geographic documentary that explores these great prehistoric beasts. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough
Wed. October 12 - 7pm Stargazing 
Join the ever engaging and entertaining  presenter/storyteller Krissie Kellogg  as she takes you on a spooky tour of the Halloween constellations in the Imaginarium 
Sat. October 29
1pm Double Feature - Halloween Celestial Origins and Nightwalk
Learn the history of Halloween and how it fits into the seasons as a “cross-quarter day”. During this  production we will also explore the night sky and learn what planets, constellations, and stars will be out on your Halloween evening.
 Nightwalk takes the audience on a virtual tour of a haunted graveyard, where you’ll walk at the speed of fright. This 15-minute show features the 3D animated magic of the Imaginarium. Audiences will be guided on a night walk down a creepy crypt and into a haunted mansion filled with bats, ghosts and spooky things that go boo in the night.
2:15pm Double Feature - Mayan Archeo Astronomy and Nightwalk
intertwining science and mythology to take the viewer on a poetic journey of the way Mayans have viewed and understood the Universe throughout their history. The visuals are stunning, giving the viewer the impression of being inside a beautifully stylistic painting. This artistic interpretation of the Universe makes for a journey that will not be forgotten.  


                                                                                                 OOPS!
                                                   
                                                                  No Texting while flying!!!!!

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DART Did It! Slammed into the Didymos binary asteroid system . . . . .


 NASA launched an asteroid-detecting spacecraft to test the world's first planetary defense system to see if it is possible to alter the orbit or trajectory of an asteroid to prevent a "doomsday" collision with Earth. In this test case the cube-shaped "Impactor" vehicle was roughly the size of a vending machine or refrigerator with two rectangular solar arrays. Its target was the asteroid Dimorphos, the smaller asteroid "moonlet" of a binary asteroid system known as Didymos (Greek for twin). Dimorphos is about as large as a football stadium while Didymos is about five times larger.

This is not the first mission NASA has launched to explore and interact with asteroids, which are primordial rocky remnants from the solar system's formation over 4 billion years ago. The reason it is important is that there are 27,500 known near-Earth asteroids of all sizes tracked by NASA. NASA estimates that there are many more undetected asteroids that could pose great danger to Earth such as the cataclysmic Chicxulub asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out nearly three quarters of the world's plant and animal species including the dinosaurs. (FYI the Aerospace Exploration Lab contains samples of asteroids that have landed on Earth as well as a sample of the K-T boundary resulting from the Chicxulub asteroid)

Dimorphos and Didymos are tiny by comparison to Chicxulub but small asteroids are far more common making this binary system suitable test objects to see if it is possible to alter the trajectory of an asteroid at all and if so, what does it take to alter it and how much could the trajectory be altered?

DART was launched by a SpaceX rocket last November (2021) traveling 24,000 kilometers per hour and impacted Dimorphos 11 million kilometers away at 7p.m EDT September 26, 2022. The impact was televised since a camera was mounted to the impact vehicle. People around the world watched as the vehicle got closer and closer and then.... almost like the ending of the Sopranos - fade to black.

But have no fear DART's camera is expected to return pictures at the rate of one image per second. 

When will we know if it worked??? 
The test's outcome will not be known until a new round of ground-based telescope observations of the two asteroids in October. Earlier calculations of the starting location and orbital period of Dimorphos were confirmed during a six-day observation period in July. So, yes stay tuned. We will get back to you.

If You want to  know more about Asteroids. . . . .
keep  an eye out for an Imaginarium show: ASTEROID: Mission Extreme narrated by Sigourney Weaver. 

                                       
This show takes audiences on a journey 65 million years in the making to discover how asteroids are both a danger and an opportunity for those of us on planet Earth. The danger of course lies in the possibility of a cataclysmic collision; the opportunity is the crazy idea that asteroids could be stepping stones to other worlds — veritable way stations in space — allowing us to penetrate the deepest realms of the universe. The challenges are enormous, but the idea could ultimately save humankind.
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More to see in our October Sky (All times are HST)

• October 4, Conjunction of Moon-Saturn (8.3 degrees apart) (6:15pm-1:30am)
• October 7,  Conjunction of Moon-Jupiter (5 degrees apart) (6:15pm-4:30am)
• October 9, Full Moon 10:54a.m
• October 14, Conjunction of Moon-Mars (4.4 degrees apart) 10:15 pm – 6 am
• Check out our Celestial Events calendar for more. http://aerospace.wcc.hawaii.edu/AstroCalendar/Celestial%20Events%20for%20current%20year.pd                                                                                            **********************************************************