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FOAP Newsletter December 2025 |
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President's Message
Dear Members - December kicks off with Giving Tuesday! Thank you to many of you who have donated to the Friends; we welcome your contributions that support our organization and our activities. Our success would not be possible without your generosity! December 12 is FOAP’s Annual Member & Volunteer Appreciation Night at the Planetarium! This is our night to thank our members and our many volunteers as we celebrate the holiday season. We will offer free planetarium shows, telescope viewing on the plaza, treats and festive music. Look for details coming to your inbox later this week, including how to reserve your (free) show seats. It will be a fun night under the stars ✵
Seasons Greetings from all of us on FOAP’s Board of Directors!
Theresa Carroll Schweser
President |
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Reimagining Our Entryway: The “Gateway to the Stars” Project
By Tom Wanat, FOAP Board Member For years, the curved hallway leading into the Planetarium was defined by a beloved space mural. However, during the facility’s renovation and asbestos remediation in 2020, that artwork was removed. Today, visitors entering the theater are greeted by a clean, but blank, white slate.
The Friends are thrilled to announce a new initiative to bring the wonder back to this space. We are spearheading the “Gateway to the Stars” project to transform the hallway into an inspiring, educational experience for the 20,000+ Arlington Public Schools students and thousands of community members who visit annually.
Working in agreement with Arlington Public Schools, our vision is to create a hybrid space that features a permanent, professional mural to anchor the hallway, alongside a rotating exhibit area designed to support student learning and showcase community connections.
We Need Your Input! This project belongs to the community, and we want your voice to help shape it. What themes inspire you? Should the mural focus on the history of space flight or the future of deep space exploration?
We have launched a brief member survey to gather your creative input. Members were sent the survey in November. If you have not already submitted your comments, please take less than 5 minutes now to share your vision and help us turn this blank hallway into a launchpad for curiosity. Survey closes December 15.
FOAP 2025 Planetarium Hallway Project Survey |
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David M Brown Public Planetarium Shows for December
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Last Call for 2025 FOAP Events!
Once again, the Friends will be wrapping up the year with a Member and Volunteer Appreciation event! |
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Member and Volunteer Appreciation event at the David M. Brown Planetarium *Watch email later this week for details! |
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Public Weekend Shows at the David M. Brown
Planetarium (details below) |
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Don’t Miss FOAP's Public Shows this Month
at the David M. Brown Planetarium!
Saturday, December 13
6:00pm“Season of Light” - planetarium show
Duration: 35 minutes
Recommended for general audiences 7:30pm“Exoplanets” - special guest lecture
by Dr. Inge Heyer
Duration: approximately 1 hour
Recommended for general audiences
(best for ages 8+) Sunday, December 14 1:30pm“Season of Light” - planetarium show
Duration: 35 minutes
Recommended for general audiences 3:00pm“Incoming!” - planetarium show
Duration: 25 minutes
Recommended for general audiences FOAP members will receive an email notification when tickets go on sale.
**This is the first time the Friends have shown Dream Big at the Arlington Planetarium**
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Reminders
AFAC
This year, FOAP is supporting our local non-profit, AFAC, by collecting non-perishable food at each of our shows this season. Please consider bring some canned food to a show!
Friends’ Student Scholarships
Please check out our website if you’d like to find out more about the David M. Brown Scholarship. The application period opens mid-December and closes in early February. Plan now to apply! ACF Scholarship Webpage
Dome Fest!
Arlington secondary students are invited to submit their original films to the 2026 Dome Fest Full Dome Film Festival, sponsored by the Friends of Arlington’s David M. Brown Planetarium.
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Friends Board of Directors Vacancies The Friends of Arlington’s Planetarium seeks to fill two vacancies on its 2026 Board of Directors. Interested candidates seeking information and applying can find details at the FOAP Elections webpage. The deadline for submission is December 15, 2025. |
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What are Meteors? By Addison Fuelling
Have you ever looked at the night sky and seen a shooting star, a beautiful blazing burst of light moving through darkness? You probably even made a wish on it. In the science world, we call those bright shooting stars, meteors! Meteors are the result of meteoroids. Once meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere from space they become meteors, burning up and zooming through the atmosphere at high speed, typically ranging from 27,000-90,000 miles per hour! Meteoroids are pieces of space rock or metal ranging in size from grains to small asteroids. Meteoritic pieces fall on the earth everyday, you may even be able to find a meteorite of your very own, they are a result of meteoroids after they survived a difficult and hot trip through the atmosphere and hit the ground. Less than 5% of the original meteorites object makes it down to the ground to become a meteorite. |
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Meteorites are found in open areas with little vegetation and they can be hard to spot, though they appear just like rocks, but some have mini craters as they would appear just like on the moon. In fact, some meteorites are from the moon! Although you may think you would find a meteorite after a meteor shower, this is not the case. Meteors are quite common and can be typically seen on any clear night, but a meteor shower is a bit more rare and that is when multiple meteors rush through the sky. Most meteor showers are the result of comets that are quite fragile and won't make it down to earth's ground to become a meteorite. The best winter meteor shower is Geminids during the month of December. Its peak is during December 13-14th, it's very bright and colorful. One last fact about meteors is that the dinosaurs became extinct by a massive asteroid about 65 million years ago and that huge space rock created one of the most dramatic meteor events in Earth's history. It shows just how powerful objects from space can be, but luckily the meteors we see today are usually tiny and harmless.
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Jokes for Kids Only!
Q. What’s the difference between an alien and a loaf of bread? A. If you don’t know, I’m not sending you to the bakery! Q. How does the Solar System like its eggs cooked? A. Sunny side up! Q. What did the alien say to the garden? A. Take me to your weeder!
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Word Search by Addison Fuelling |
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What's in the Sky this Month By Mike Rhee |
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The Sky is Falling By Jennifer Bartlett
Scientists estimate that more than 48 tons of meteoritic material (meteor stuff) enters the Earth’s atmosphere each day. While most of it consumed putting on a “shooting star” display, some it reaches the surface. Much of that falls some place harmless, such as into an ocean or in a remote area. Antarctica is a favorable place for finding meteors, not because it attracts more than its share, but because scorched rocks stand out against the surrounding white ice.
On February 15, 2013, 9:20 AM local time, about 13,000 tonnes of stoney meteor about 20 m (60 ft) in diameter blazed across the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia. Moving at about 65,000 km/hr (40,000 mi/hr), it briefly outshone the Sun. It, then, exploded producing a shock wave and cascade of smaller meteors and debris that, in turn, crashed into the Earth’s surface. Although more sensitive instruments detected a total of seven explosions, experts rated the energy of the final blast at about 500 kilotons, 30 times the energy release at Hiroshima. About 1,500 people sought treatment for their injuries, which were primarily from broken glass and other terrestrial matter sent flying by the shockwave or from the heat of the flash, rather than from the space rock itself.
Until 2020, Ann Hodges was the only person confirmed to have been hit by a meteorite. One rudely interrupted her nap on November 30, 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama. It caused bruising on her person ignited a legal battle with her landlady. However, researchers in the archives of the Republic of Turkey uncovered a more tragic incident. Multiple letters in an Ottoman-Turkish language describe a fall of meteorites that killed one man and paralyzed another in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on August 22, 1888.
Still, the odds of death by meteor are 1 in 1,600,000 maybe even as much as 1 in 700,000. Just don’t tell the dinosaurs. |
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“And meteors fright the fixèd stars of heaven.” – Shakespear, Richard II, Act 2, Scene 4 By Jennifer Bartlett
Twice this month, you will have a chance to catch a meteor shower: The Geminids, which will peak around 2:30 AM on December 13, and the Ursids, which will peak around 6 AM on December 22.
This year, the Geminids will not be competing with the waning crescent moon. Under ideal conditions, this event has produced more than 100 meteors per hour. The shower is named for the constellation from which the meteors appear to arrive. Gemini, the twins, is distinguished by two bright stars: brighter, orangish Pollux and higher, bluish Castor. Look for the pair to the east of Betelgeuse, the shoulder of Orion the hunter, and slightly east and above bright Jupiter.
The less spectacular Ursids produce only about 10 meteors per hour under the best circumstances but Ursa Minor (Little Dipper) for which they named is well known and visible all night. New Moon on December 19 means it will not interfere with your viewing.
To observe either of these showers, dress warmly and head for as dark a location as possible. In addition, seek as open as expanse of sky as you can find because you can sight meteors throughout the sky. Give your eyes plenty of time to adapt to the night conditions. Scan the whole sky around the host constellation, perhaps 45 degrees away. Meteors closer to their apparent origin with shorter tails may be more difficult to see.
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If your site is not ideal, you may still enjoy Jupiter, which is the brightest object visible throughout most of the night. At the beginning of the month, it rises around 8 PM and reaches its highest point around 3 AM. Those times will shift earlier in the evening as the month progresses, making it easier to catch. Saturn is not as bright but is already high in the southern sky at sunset. You will be able to during the first half of the night throughout the month. It sets after midnight at the beginning of the month and closer to 11:00 PM by the new year. If your meteor hunting takes you to dawn or you are an early riser, look for Venus on your eastern horizon just before the sunrise. It will be challenging to see.
Meteor showers occur at regular times of the year when the Earth’s orbit crosses the orbit of a comet that has left debris behind. This region with a higher than usual number of meteoroids produces the temporary burst of meteors. Comet 8P/Tuttle with a 13.7-year orbit is the parent of the Ursids. The Geminids, however, are the product of 3200 Phaethon, an active asteroid, or an object that has an asteroid-like orbit but some comet-like behavior. |
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“What’s in a name?”
By Jennifer Bartlett
Did not the Bard write “that which we call a rock/By Any Other Name would hit as hard;” No, probably not. At any rate, meteoroid becomes meteor becomes meteorite. We are used to such situational naming conditions. Cows and pigs abound in farmyards while beef and pork adorn our plates.
To start, asteroids and comets are large chunks of stuff left over from the formation of the Solar System. Asteroids, which tend to be more rock and metal, are primarily found orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Most comets, which tend to be icy with bits of rock and other trapped matter, orbit the Sun unseen beyond the orbit of Neptune. However, if a comet’s orbit approaches the Sun more closely, the comet produces a large head and tail of escaping gas as it warms. Meteoroids are roughly pebble-sized rocks that probably broke free from an asteroid or comet.
As long that debris continues to orbit the Sun, we call it a meteoroid. If, instead, the rock crashes into the Earth’s atmosphere, it will probably burn up. That brief glowing spectacle of a “shooting star” is a meteor. Most meteors are completely consumed before they reach the Earth’s surface. We call the few that survive the trip meteorites if we can distinguish them from the surrounding rocks.
These terms all share a common ancient Greek origin in a term that implies a transformation in the atmosphere. Before the early 20th century, you might have described airy (wind), watery (precipitation), luminous (rainbows, aurorae), or fiery (“shooting stars”) meteors. All those, except our fiery, are now the providence of modern meteorology, or the study of weather phenomena. |
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This message has been sent to you from the Friends of Arlington's Planetarium.
Friends of Arlington's David M. Brown Planetarium
P.O. Box 7029
Arlington, VA 22207 USA
Copyright (C) 2025 Friends of Arlington's David M. Brown Planetarium (FOAP). All rights reserved.
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