Be sure to join us TONIGHT for a rare celestial event that has not been seen in more than 150 years! A Super Blue Blood Moon Event! Free viewing for the public on the roof of UCLA Geology from 4:30AM to 6:00AM! It's fun, FREE and telescopes will be set up for you to view this spectacular event. Be sure to bring a camera and jacket as it will take place on the morning of Wednesday 31-Jan-2018 so you may have to stay up late tonight! Image Credit: NASA #nasa #astro #BlueMoon #Eclipse #Education #EPO #LA #outreach #Research #SuperBlueBloodMoon #Science #STEM #UCLA #UCLAeclipse #UCLAEPSS #UCLAiPLEX #universetoday (at UCLA Geology building)

In our journey of comprehending our place is in the #universe, there have been many #exoplanets discovered and have been called “Hot Jupiters” or, planets massive enough and rotating rapidly near their host #star with temperatures making #life inhospitable. A big difference from our own solar system where the hotter terrestrial (rocky) #planets are inward and the cooler massive Jovians are outward. What could this mean? Our #iPLEX speaker may have the key as she studies the origins of Hot Jupiters.. Please join us this Friday with our @UCLAiPLEX Guest Speaker from @caltech: Natalia Storch with her talk titled: ‘Spin-orbit Misalignment Generation in Hot Jupiters’ She also  has a publication out on this topic which you may read here: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1510.08918.pdf  Be sure to follow @UCLAiPLEX on #Instagram, Twitter, and our other social media outlets as we seek to share the fascinating world of #planetary #science and #astronomy with everyone! Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss #nasa #astro #caltech #cosmos #education #EPSS #explore #Jupiter #LA #LosAngeles #outreach #Pasadena #planet #physics #sky #space #stars #UCLAiPLEX #UCLA #universe #universetoday

@ucla ’s Ed Young, Issaku Kohl, Paul Warren, and their collaborators wrote a publication titled “Oxygen isotopic evidence for vigorous mixing during the Moon-forming giant impact” which appears in today’s edition of Science and can be found here: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6272/493.full-text.pdf+html Using their new Panorama high-resolution mass spectrometer, the team has performed ultra-high precision oxygen isotope analyses of lunar samples. The compositions match those of Earth’s mantle #rocks to within a few parts-per-million (in the Δ17O parameter), demonstrating that the #Earth and #Moon formed from the exact same reservoir of well-mixed material. Their data also constrain the composition of the so-called “late veneer” materials added to the Earth after the Moon-forming impact. Be sure to follow @UCLAiPLEX on #Instagram, Twitter, and our other social media outlets as we seek to share the fascinating world of #planetary #science and #astronomy with everyone! Image Credit: William K. Hartmann #nasa #astro #cosmos #collision #education #EPSS #explore #jpl #LA #LosAngeles #luna #outreach #Pasadena #physics #planet #sky #space #stars #Theia #UCLAiPLEX #UCLA #universe #universetoday

Just what are the atmospheres of celestial bodies made of? With the number of exoplanets increasing to the thousands in the last few years, we are learning more about their atmospheres and composition using data from studies of the #planets in our own Solar System. Being able to see deeper into the atmosphere is still an ongoing area of investigation for astronomers and may help us in understanding the nature of our eight planets and the thousands of confirmed #exoplanets. Pictured is an artist’s conception of a Brown Dwarf (an substellar object with a core temperature below the minimum hydrogen burning limit necessary for stars) which may host water ice clouds in its atmosphere. Join us at our #iPLEX Lunch this Friday at 1PM for a talk titled ‘Seeing Through the Clouds: The Thermal Emission and Reflected Light of Super-Earths with Flat Transmission Spectra' given by Caroline Morley (@astrocaroline) from the Univ. of California Santa Cruz #UCSC and be sure to ask her anything you’d like to know more about seeing through the atmospheres of planets, exoplanets, and brown dwarfs! Be sure to follow @UCLAiPLEX on #Instagram, Twitter, and our other social media outlets as we seek to share the fascinating world of planetary science and #astronomy with everyone! Image Credit: Rob Gizis) #nasa #astro #browndwarf #caltech #cosmos #Earth #education #EPSS #explore #jpl #LA #LosAngeles #outreach #Pasadena #physics #sky #space #stars #storm #UCLAiPLEX #UCLA #universe #universetoday #weather #WISE

Phobos is one of two satellites of #Mars and looks like a potato shape. It may one day collide with the Red Planet in a few tens of millions of years and may lead to more asteroids or rings. Before that happens, Phobos may be an interesting place for astronauts and scientists to explore but  has a continually active geometry that would make it unsafe for astronauts. Join us at our #iPLEX Lunch this Friday at 1PM for a talk titled ‘The Strange and Fearsome Geology of Phobos' given by Erik Asphaug from the Univ. of Arizona and be sure to ask him anything you’d like to know more about #Martian #geology. Also, this is a stereo image so be sure to put on your #3D glasses to see #Phobos come to life before your eyes! Be sure to follow @UCLAiPLEX on #Instagram, Twitter, and our other social media outlets as we seek to share the fascinating world of planetary science and #astronomy with everyone! Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) #nasa #aliens #astro #cosmos #education #EPSS #ESA #explore #LA #LosAngeles #outreach #physics #planets #redplanet #sky #space #stars #themartian #UCLAiPLEX #UCLA #universe #universetoday

Sunspots are regions on the #Sun much cooler than the 'photosphere' or the visible surface of the Sun that we can see. The photosphere temperature is ~5800K while sunspots are ~3800K and appear black in colour. During magnetic storms, there is a much higher number of them. Today, there are at least 3 visible sunspots. Using a pinhole camera you can easily make at home (http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/outreach/sunobserve1.pdf) you can safely see the sunspots! Given below the image are the relative sizes of the #Earth and #Jupiter to show you how large the #sunspots are. Image Credit: (Syracuse Astronomical Society) #nasa #astro #astronomy #aurora #auroraborealis #cosmos #education #EPSS #LA #LosAngeles #outreach #physics #planets #sky #sol #solar #space #spaceweather #stars #storm #UCLAiPLEX #UniversityofCalifornia #UCLA #universe #universetoday #weather

Dr. Shields talks about the future of astrobiology, how we might find another planet capable of hosting life, and how we may be able to join the search for life in the universe.