Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 31, 2015

15

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Mountain Views News Saturday, October 31, 2015 


NASA TRACKS THE “GREAT PUMPKIN:”A HALLOWEEN ASTEROID CLOSE FLYBY


NASA scientists are tracking the upcoming 
Halloween flyby of asteroid 2015 TB145 with several 
optical observatories and the radar capabilities of 
the agency’s Deep Space Network at Goldstone, 
California. The asteroid will fly past Earth at a 
safe distance slightly farther than the Moon’s 
orbit on Oct. 31 at 10:05 a.m. PDT. Scientists are 
treating the flyby of the estimated 1,300-foot-wide 
asteroid as a science target of opportunity, allowing 
instruments on “spacecraft Earth” to scan it during 
the close pass.

 Asteroid 2015 TB145 was discovered on Oct. 10, 
2015, by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS-1 
(Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response 
System) on Haleakala, Maui, part of the NASA-
funded Near-Earth Object Observation (NEOO) 
Program. 

 “The trajectory of 2015 TB145 is well 
understood,” said Paul Chodas, manager of the 
Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “At 
the point of closest approach, it will be no closer 
than about 300,000 miles—1.3 lunar distances. 
Even though that is relatively close by celestial 
standards, it is expected to be fairly faint, so night-
sky Earth observers would need at least a small 
telescope to view it.”

 The Center for NEO Studies at JPL is a central 
node for NEO data analysis in NASA’s Near-Earth 
Object Observation Program and a key group 
involved with the international collaboration of 
astronomers and scientists who keep watch on 
the sky with their telescopes, looking for asteroids 
that could be a hazard to impact our planet and 
predicting their paths through space for the 
foreseeable future.

 “The close approach of 2015 TB145 at about 1.3 
times the distance of the Moon’s orbit, coupled 
with its size, suggests it will be one of the best 
asteroids for radar imaging we’ll see for several 
years,” said Lance Benner, of JPL, who leads 
NASA’s asteroid radar research program. “We plan 
to test a new capability to obtain radar images with 
two-meter resolution for the first time and hope to 
see unprecedented levels of detail.”

 During tracking, scientists will use the 110-
foot DSS 13 antenna at Goldstone to bounce radio 
waves off the asteroid. Radar echoes will in turn 
be collected by the National Radio Astronomy 
Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope in Green 
Bank, West Virginia, and the National Astronomy 
and Ionosphere Center’s Arecibo Observatory, 
Puerto Rico. NASA scientists hope to obtain radar 
images of the asteroid as fine as about 7 feet per 
pixel. This should reveal a wealth of detail about 
the object’s surface features, shape, dimensions 
and other physical properties.

 “The asteroid’s orbit is very oblong with a high 
inclination to below the plane of the solar system,” 
said Benner. “Such a unique orbit, along with 
its high encounter velocity—about 22 miles per 
second—raises the question of whether it may be 
some type of comet. If so, then this would be the 
first time that the Goldstone radar has imaged a 
comet from such a close distance.”

 NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations 
Program detects, tracks and characterizes 
asteroids and comets passing within 30 million 
miles of Earth using both ground- and space-
based telescopes. The NEOO Program, sometimes 
called “Spaceguard,” discovers these objects, 
characterizes the physical nature of a subset of 
them, and predicts their paths to determine if any 
could be potentially hazardous to our planet. 

 There are no known credible impact threats 
to date—only the ongoing and harmless in-fall 
of meteoroids, tiny asteroids that burn up in the 
atmosphere.

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com.


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

SOME HISTORY OF HALLOWE’EN


[Nyerges is the author of 
Extreme Simplicity, How To 
Survive Anywhere, and Guide 
to Wild Foods. He has led 
outdoor field trips since 1974. 
He can be reached at Box 
41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or www.ChristopherNyerges.
com.] 

 Last week I shared how “fear” is often a key aspect to 
the Hallowe’en event that we all participate in every year. 

But how did all this get started? It turns out that the 
modern Hallowe’en commemoration is a smorgasborg 
of symbols, very much like the Christmas holiday takes 
bits and pieces from all over the world from different eras. 

The origins of this day go back to the ancient Celts, at least 
2000 years ago, to the people who eventually settled in 
Ireland and northern France. They divided their year into 
four equal parts, which were the equinoxes and solstices, 
for which they had special feasts. They also had special 
days which were more-or-less the half-way point between 
the equinoxes and solstices. 

 One of these half-way points was the feast of Samhain, 
pronounced “sow-wen.” Samhain literally translates as 
“summer’s end.” This half-way feast, celebrated anywhere 
between October 31 and November 6, marked the end 
of summer, the harvest, and the beginning of the dark 
dreary winter. Samhain was regarded as their New Year, 
when the dark half of the year was beginning. It was 
during this time that people believed that ghosts and/or 
spirits were returning to the earth, and could be more 
readily contacted by the Druids, which were the Celtic 
priests and priestesses. 

 People built big bonfires where animal sacrifices were 
burned (the origin of “bon-fire” was “bone-fire,” since 
the bones of the animals would burn up too). Costumes 
would be worn, and according to historians, these were 
mostly animal heads and skins. A big part of the feast was 
to try and tell the future, such as would you get married, 
or how would your crop do this year. The ghosts and 
spirits were not feared, but were summoned in order to 
learn the unknowable. 

 In the first century, by at least 43 A.D., the Romans had 
conquered the Celtic territories, and perhaps tactfully 
used that political influence to combine two Roman 
festivals into the existing Samhain festivals. Feralia was 
a day in late October when the Romans commemorated 
the dead, and this was combined into the Samhain 
commemoration. They also rolled the commemoration of 
Pomona, the goddess of fruits and trees, into the Samhain 
event. That’s probably the origin of the “bobbing for 
apples” on Hallowe’en. 

 Then, on May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV 
established All Martyrs Day on May13 to honor the 
saints and martyrs of the church. About a hundred years 
later, Pope Gregory III moved the May 13 observance 
to November 1, today called All Saints Day, which they 
hoped would blend with the existing Celtic rites already 
being commemorated on that day. By the year 1000, the 
church created All Soul’s Day for November 2, to honor 
all the dead. 

 The All Saints Day holyday was called All-hallows, 
and the night before it began to be called All-hallows Eve, 
which is where we get Hallowe’en. 

And that’s just the 25 cent version! 

 In medieval Britain, the day would be observed by 
going door to door with a hollowed turnip which had a 
candle in it. The turnip was said to represent a soul who 
was trapped in purgatory, and you could make a prayer 
for the deceased by giving food to the turnip-carrier. 
Others believed that such turnips actually warded 
away evil spirits. The pumpkin was a strictly American 
innovation, since pumpkins were common here and were 
easily carved out. 

 This, of course, is how the “trick or treating” began. It 
has, of course, evolved and devolved in many directions. 

Witches on broom sticks, black cats, candles, cauldrons, 
and the like have become the popular symbols of this 
day, each of which has a full back story which we don’t 
have space for now. Some of it is not suitable for a family 
publication. 

Day of the Dead

In Mexico, back before the Spanish conquest, Day of the 
Dead has long been observed as a day when family and 
friends gather to remember and pray for those who have 
died, and to give them moral support on their spiritual 
journey. 

 In its origin, historians can trace this event back to 
an Aztec festival to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. Prior to 
the 16th century, this commemoration of the dead was 
scheduled in the beginning of the summer. It was moved 
to October 31 through November 2 during the reign of 
the Catholic church so that it would coincide with the 
Catholic three days of All Saint’s Eve, All Saints’ Day, and 
All Souls’ Day. Though people mostly in the southern 
parts of Mexico commemorated this day, it has now been 
declared a public holiday by the Mexican government. 

 The Day of the Dead is commemorated with private 
altars (you can see them at the square at Olvera Street 
in downtown Los Angeles), sugar skulls, marigolds, the 
favorite foods of the departed, and face painting. Unlike 
the fear-focus of Hallowe’en, the Day of the Dead seems 
more about remembering and honoring the dead, and 
wishing them well. 

 It’s noteworthy that most cultures in the world have 
their commemoration of the dead, in various forms. 
The Buddhist Bon festival is one example, as are many 
worldwide examples with many variations from Europe, 
China, Japan, Phillipines, Australia, Nepal, Indonesia, 
etc. 

 With such a rich holiday, it’s a shame that so many of 
us have turned it into silly costumes and fear-invoking 
zombies. Members of the Wiccan religion gather and 
conduct a ceremony in a circle, giving respect to the 
powers of the universe and each other, and then sharing a 
meal. Yes, there are always many ways to commemorate 
any holiday. If you don’t like the way that our popular 
culture goes through its routines, then step out of the 
routine and try a more meaningful and enlightened way, 
the best you are able. 

 Comments? I’d love to hear from you! Write to me c/o 
this paper.


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