STARGAZER #505 for May 16, 2009

Cosmic Weight-Loss Plan

Want to lose a few pounds? No problem, just go to Mars. And if you want to
lose even more, go to the Moon. It's true, you'll really weigh less on
Mars, and even less on the Moon.

If your bathroom scales show 200 pounds, on Mars you'll weigh a mere 76
pounds, and on the Moon, those same scales will register a minuscule 34
pounds. Now that's serious weigh-loss.

Unfortunately though, traveling to distant worlds won't slim you down or
make you look better because your body's mass won't change. Mass is a
measure of the amount of matter in an object and this isn't affected by where
the
object happens to be.

Weight, however, is a measure of the amount of gravitation force on an
object, and mass is but one factor affecting weight. The other is
gravitational attraction, thus location does affect an object's weight.
Every object, from the smallest atomic particle to the largest galaxy,
exerts at least some gravitational attraction, the amount depending on the
object's mass. The more massive, the greater the gravitational attraction.

We've all heard that Earth's gravity keeps us from flying off into space,
and that's essentially true, but it's not the whole story. Earth and our
bodies exert mutual attraction on each other, but since Earth is vastly more
massive, it does most of the attracting.

So how much would a 200-pound person weigh in other parts of the solar
system? Going to Venus wouldn't help much as she or he would still weight in
at 182 pounds. But on tiny Pluto, his or her weight would be an unbelievably
light 10 pounds.

There's another side to this little weight-game -- like places you can go
to gain weight, such as to the larger gas planets. Their outer layers are
mostly gas, so it wouldn't actually be possible to stand on them, but if one
could, a 200-pounder would weight a manageable 231 pounds on Neptune and a
whopping 505 pounds on Jupiter.

And to really put on some extra pounds, try standing on the Sun. If the
Sun had a solid surface and you wouldn't burn to a crisp, you would tip the
scales at over 5,000 pounds.

If you're just tired of dealing with weight altogether, move to the
International Space Station. There, in the weightlessness of outer space,
you'll
weight virtually nothing. Now that's a weight-loss plan that's hard to
beat.

Next Two Weeks. Avg. sunrise: 6:28 a.m.; avg. sunset: 8:23 p.m. (exact for
Waco, TX).
* Tomorrow morning the 3rd quarter Moon is to the left of Jupiter.
* Tues. morning the crescent Moon is to the left of Venus and above much
fainter Mars low in the east at dawn.
* The Moon is new May 24.
* The evening of May 28 the crescent Moon is to the left of the Beehive
star cluster low in the west; use binoculars to see the Beehive.

Naked-eye Planets. (The Sun, Moon, and planets rise in the east and set in
the west due to Earth's west-to-east rotation on its axis.) Evening:
Saturn is high in the south. Morning: Jupiter is the brightest object in the
southeast with "morning star" Venus low in the east and much fainter Mars to
Venus' lower left just before dawn.

Star Party. The Central Texas Astronomical Society's free monthly star
party is tonight at the Waco Wetlands beginning at 8:30 p.m. For directions
see my Website.

=======================================================

Stargazer appears every other week in the Waco Tribune-Herald and other
newspapers. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Write
him at 918 N. 30th St., Waco, TX 76707, call or fax at (254) 753-6920, or
e-mail at paulderrickwaco@....

Copyright 2009 by Paul Derrick. Permission is granted for free electronic
distribution as long as these paragraphs are included. Please obtain
permission from the author for publication in any other form. To be added to
(or removed from) the free e-mail distribution list, send your e-mail
address (and name) to _paulderrickwaco@..._ (mailto:paulderrickwaco@...)
.


* * See the Stargazer Web site at http://www.stargazerpaul.com. * *



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