Hello! This is Karl Hricko of United Astronomy Clubs of NJ bringing you the July Astronomy Update for the WNTI listening area.

What is your address? Ordinarily you would give your street, city and state address. But what if I asked you for your complete address... your cosmic address? You would have to add "Planet Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo Cluster, Local Supercluster, and The Universe." In this sense, we are zooming out of our street location into the expanse of the Cosmos. As we do so, we move from the smallest unit to the largest unit, each containing larger and larger blocks of matter in space. Each of these units interacts with each other in some kind of mutual attraction we we call "gravity." Without gravity, we would have no structure in our Universe -- no galaxies, no stars, and no planets. So we can see that we need gravity to be here.

What is gravity? Nobody knows for sure. Newton said that it is a force of mutual attraction between two objects. Einstein said that it is a warping of the time-space continuum, around objects set in place, like a bowling ball on a trampoline. Other scientists say it is caused by the movement of particles called "gravitons." The only thing for sure, is that it is one of the major organizing "forces" in our universe. Without its presence, we would have no life, let alone an address, in our cosmos.

Its effect can be seen in the orbiting of the planets around the Sun. This month begins with Saturn in Virgo, and Mars, and Venus in Leo. All are slanted in a straight line toward the western horizon just after sunset. At month's end, they form a tight triangle pointed toward Mercury low on the western horizon. Jupiter rises with Uranus after midnight, in Pisces. Uranus is much dimmer, but can be located with binoculars as the second object to the right of Jupiter.

So don't forget your address among the stars, as you see the effect of gravity among the planets.