http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=1562946005/LC.JPG&client=sjose&type=hw7ASaturday, April 20, 2013 is Astronomy Day! Astronomy Day is an annual event which is meant to provide a means of interaction between the public and various astronomy enthusiasts, groups and professionals. There will be many special programs and celebrations throughout California and your very own Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library will be holding 2 special events on that day:

It was in the news - massive, the size of 15-story office building, asteroid DA14 nearly brushed the surface of the Earth on February 14th, 2013. Almost at the same time another meteorite (or meteoroid) unexpectedly exploded over Russia's Ural region. About 1,200 people, 200 of them children, were injured mostly by glass that exploded into schools and workplaces. Meteoroids typically cause sonic booms when they enter  the Earth's atmosphere and the one over Russia shattered windows, TVs and dishes in peoples's homes. Large asteroids reflect the light of the sun, so it is easy to see them and small objects like the one that exploded over Ural are difficult to trace. Meteoroids are usually pieces of matter that have splintered off from asteroids. A meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches the surface of the Earth without being completely vaporized . To find out more about these mysteriously dangerous space objects come to the library and explore all our materials from books (digital and printed) to DVDs.

 Here are some titles from our collections:

 Adult materials:

        Comets, Meteors and Asteroids by John Man 

        Cosmic collisions [videorecording] : our explosive universe

        Asteroids [videorecording] : deadly impact  

Children's books:

        Asteroids by Derek Zobel

        Comets and Asteroids by E.M. Hans

        Jupiter and the Asteroids and the rest of Explore the solar system series books 

Using SJPL new Encore library catalog you can now search not only for books and other library items,

but also for news and answers to your research questions. Encore provides an access to variety of articles from Ebsco Academic Search Complete databases along with information on books and media that library has.

NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 6th. Using Google you can search for a nice NASA's video of this landing:

But you can also search for news on this mission using Encore's key words search: Curiosity rover, mars, NASA. This way you will be able to view full text of almost 30 articles on this topic as well as an article from New York Times by Kenneth Chang - Curiosity Rover Lands Safely On Mars, published on exact date when mission has been accomplished.  Curiosity ROver LAnds safely on AMrspublished on August 6th

 In addition to being the first American woman in space, Sally Ride was
 an accomplished author of astronomy books for children. You can check out
 the juvenile non-fiction written by Ride and her collaborators in the SJPL catalog.

 Dragon - the large, commercial bell shaped craft created by company SpaceX delivered last month 1,000 pounds of provisions to the International Space Station (ISS) and brought back more than 1,400 pounds of old equipment. It is on display at company's rocket factory in McGregor and looks "almost untouched", as SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk told the reporters. He is also CEO of Palo Alto based Tesla Motors. Dragon was built in collaboration with NASA. NASA's Administration commented that nine days test flight was a real success.

SJPL has an interesting book for kids at the library -  Living and working aboard the International Space Station by Henry Holden.

San Jose Public Library customers enjoyed meeting astronaut Dr. Megan McArthur on March 5th, 2012 at Evergreen Branch Library. This visit was scheduled due to NASA's International Space Station (ISS) national awareness campaign that promotes research opportunities, educates communities about activities performed on the ISS, and communicates the real and potential impacts of the station on our everyday lives.  Dr. McArthur was reading Astronaut Handbook children's book on how to become an astronaut and answered questions about ISS, where she was working 14 days, when in space. Adam Padilla, SJPL staff member, filmed a wonderful video of this visit.