O céu intriga o homem desde a pré-história, representado em pinturas anteriores à escrita e em mitos sobre deuses e heróis. Não tardou até que começássemos a tentar entendê-lo. A astronomia nasceu de observações ainda a olho nu e de hipóteses que nem sempre se mostraram verdadeiras. Da Mesopotâmia à América, os primeiros estudos do céu tiveram impacto em diversos aspectos de cada cultura, desde a religião até a divisão e a organização do tempo. Ainda hoje, a astronomia continua a nos desafiar. Os capítulos desta obra foram escritos por astrônomos com vasta experiência em pesquisa, ensino e divulgação, estão organizados para atender a interesses específicos, aprofundando cada tema de forma particularizada. No entanto, este livro também pode ser lido como uma jornada. Partimos do modo como nos relacionamos com a astronomia – desde o que ela representou e o que representa ao homem até os modos como observamos e estudamos o céu. Caminhamos por suas implicações para nosso planeta e para o Sistema Solar, com a combinação de fúria e harmonia essencial para sua formação e seu funcionamento. Viajamos em direção às estrelas e às galáxias, até lançarmos nosso olhar ao Universo – sua história, sua composição e a Teoria do Big Bang, com seu embasamento teórico e observacional. E encerramos o percurso voltando a uma questão essencial: a vida, e como ela poderia se manifestar no Universo. O objetivo desse material é levar um pouco do Universo aos estudantes brasileiros, integrando um trabalho que vem sendo realizado no Departamento de Astronomia do Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas da USP há algumas décadas.

O artigo tem por objetivo mostrar que a poluição luminosa, não conhecida no Brasil afeta o ecossistema atingindo a saúde humana, fauna e flora. Atinge a segurança, no ir e vir das pessoas. Provoca danos à economia, por perdas advindas de projetos mal elaborados do uso de energia. Prejudica a educação, na área da astronomia. As outras poluições possuem legislação protegendo o meio ambiente de seus efeitos. Porém, a PL no Brasil não tem legislação. Todavia, o Chile, Itália, França, Portugal, Estados Unidos, Checoslováquia, Iugoslávia, controlam a poluição luminosa com legislação. Por este estudo, propomos três caminhos para o controle dos danos causados pela PL, área da educação, utilizando-se do processo de mudança, proposta de projeto de lei, e a criação de um portal interativo com professores e alunos, abarcando informações conscientizantes à sociedade a respeito dos danos provocados pela PL.

We report photometric observations of cornet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 made on August 12, 2016 with the broad-band B, V, R and I filters and the SOAR 4.1-meter telescope (Chile). We find the comet active at that time. Enhanced images obtained in all filters reveal three radial features in the 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 coma, regardless of the image-processing algorithm. Using a high-resolution spectrum of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 reported by Ivanova et al. (2018) on the same date, we estimate the relative contribution of the gaseous emission and the continuum to the total response measured with our broadband B and V filters. The gaseous-emission contribution appears to be very small, 2.5%. We compute the dust production Afp in 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 for the four filters and find its growth with the wavelength, from 3,393 +/- 93 cm in the B filter to 8,561 +/- 236 cm in the I filter. We model the color slope of dust in Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 using agglomerated debris particles. Simultaneous analysis of the color slope in the B R and R I pairs suggests a single dominant chemical species of 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 dust particles consisting of Fe-Mg silicates and obeying a power-law size distribution with index n approximate to 2.55. This conclusion is consistent with the previous thermal-emission study of 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1.

Spectroscopic observations of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 were carried out at the SOAR 4.1-meter telescope (Chile) on August 12, 2016, when its heliocentric distance was 5.9 au. The spectra revealed CO+ and N-2(+) emissions in the cometary coma. The [N-2(+)]/[CO+] ratio within the projected slit seems to be 0.01. The mean value of the normalized spectral gradient is 12.69 +/- 0.06 for spectral range 3448-5260 angstrom.

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar um relato a respeito do curso de Licenciatura em Ciências na modalidade EaD, bem como discutir o sentido da formação de professores para o ensino de Ciências. A concepção desse curso tem como desafio promover a perspectiva integrada e interdisciplinar no currículo da graduação. A estrutura curricular modular foi organizada a partir de blocos de conteúdos e atividades, contemplando vários aspectos da formação docente. Esta experiência mostra que a modalidade EaD pode ser tão boa quanto os cursos presenciais e produzir um vasto acervo de material didático

Cometary outbursts are sporadic events whose mechanisms are not well known where the activity and consequently the brightness can increase hundreds of thousands of times within a few hours to several days. This indicates a dramatic departure from thermal equilibrium between the comet and interplanetary space and is usually documented by "light curves". In a typical cometary outburst, the brightness can increase by 2-5 magnitudes (Whitney, 1955; Gronkowski and Wesolowski, 2015). In only 42 h, Comet 17P/Holmes was reported to brighten from a magnitude of about 17 to about 2.4 at the height of the burst, representing the largest known outburst by a comet. We present the H2O production rate of Holmes for the megaburst occurring between 23 and 24 October 2007. For this, we selected more than 1900 photometric observations from the International Comet Quarterly Archive of Photometric Data (Green, 2007) and use the Semi-Empirical Method of Visual Magnitudes (SEMVM; de Almeida et al., 2007). We clearly show that the comet achieved an average water production rate of 5 x 10(29) molecules s(-1) , corresponding to a water gas loss rate of 14,960 kg s(-1), in very good agreement with Schleicher (2009) who derived the water production rate using OH measurements on 1 Nov 2007 (about 8 days after the outburst). We discuss possible physical processes that might cause cometary outbursts and propose a new qualitative mechanism, the Pressurized Obstructed Pore (POP) model. The key feature of POP is the recrystallization of water in the surface regolith as it cools, plugging pores and blocking the release of subsurface gas flow. As the interior gas pressure increases, an outburst is eventually triggered. POP is consistent with current observations and can be tested in the future with observations (e.g., Rosetta in situ measurements) and detailed simulations. (C) 2016 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We carried out photometric and spectroscopic observations of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 at the 6-m BTA telescope (SAO RAS, Russia) and the 1.6-m telescope of the National Laboratory for Astrophysics (LNA, Brazil) on February 20, 2012, and on May 31, 2011, respectively. The spectra revealed the presence of CO+ and N2+ emissions in the cometary coma at a distance of 5.25 AU from the Sun. The ratio [N2+]/[CO+] within the projected slit is 0.013. The images obtained through BVR filters showed a bright, dust coma, indicating a high level of activity. We estimated a colour index and a colour excess for the comet. The parameter Afρ, which is used as an indicator of a cometary activity, was measured to be 2584±50 cm in the reference optical aperture of ρ=104 km. The dust production constituted 33 kg/s and 9.3·103 kg/s, it was obtained using different methods. We also investigated the morphology of the comet using image enhancement techniques and found two jets in the coma.

We present results of JHK photometry for comet C/2005 E2 (McNaught). Observations were made with the OSIRIS imager at the SOAR telescope, on Sept. 26-27, 2005. The dependence of the main parameters on the angular distance from the cometary photometric nucleus is discussed. We considered concentric rings around the photometric nucleus of the comet, with the radius determined by the aperture. Integrated flux in the ring, surface brightness, J-H and ILK color indices, and mean flux decay were obtained for each ring. A phometric radial profile was also obtained by tracing average values of the ace brightness for increasing values of radii in isophotes which allowed us to compute the azimuthally averaged surface brightness of the coma. The images centered on the photometric nucleus show three jets from active areas on the nucleus.

Abstract The results of the analysis of the spectra of comets 9P/Tempel 1, 37P/Forbes and C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) observed in 2004-2005 at Observatório do Pico dos Dias (Brazil), and at Mount Pastukhov (SAO, Russia) are presented.

One of three explored comets 9P/Tempel 1 was the main target of space mission Deep Impact. We present the results of exploration of spectra of three comets 9P (Tempel 1), C2004 Q1 (Machholz) and 37P/Forbes observed in 2004-2005 at Observatorio do Pico dos Dias (Brazil) and at Mount Pastukhov and Peak Terskol (Russia). The detailed identification of emission lines in spectra of comet 37P/Forbes was made. BVRI photometry comets 9P /Tempel 1) and C2004 Q1 (Machholz) was carried out. Physical parameters of C_2, C_3 and CN gases in the near nucleus region of the cometary atmospheres of comets 9P (Tempel 1), C2004 Q1 (Machholz) and 37P/Forbes were determined. Presence of cometary luminescence continuum (non-solar origin) in the spectra of three comets are confirmed.

Using five high-resolution spectra of comet C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) obtained on December 1 and 2, 2001 (UT) with the fiber fed extended range optical spectrograph (FEROS) installed on the 1.52-m reflector of the ESO (Chile, La Silla), we have constructed a high spectral resolution atlas and catalogue of cometary emission lines of this comet. Many emission lines of the molecules C2, C3, CN, CH, CH+, NH2, CO+, H2O+, and presumably CO and C2− were identified in the spectral range λλ 4000–9000Å in the comet spectra. The total number of identified emission lines is 4537: C2 – 2734, NH2 – 1195, CN – 289, C3 – 158, CO – 60, H2O+ – 51, CH – 50, CO+ – 16, CH+ – 8, C2− – 5. Also there are many unidentified emission lines in the comet spectrum.