In the Sky This Week – January 28, 2020
The handle of the "Big Dipper" asterism points nearly straight down toward the northeastern horizon at midnight this week.
The handle of the "Big Dipper" points down in the northeastern sky at midnight. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The waxing crescent Moon appears near at dusk on Jan 29th & 30th.
-
- The waxing crescent Moon appears close to Venus above the southwestern horizon at dusk on Jan 29th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
-
- The waxing crescent Moon appears very close to Venus above the southwestern horizon at dusk on Jan 28th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Moon appears near the star Aldebaran at dusk on the evenings of February 2nd-4th.
Jupiter appears low and Mars appears high above the southeastern horizon at dawn this week.
Jupiter low and Mars high above the southeastern horizon at dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
M 47
Messier 47 (M47 or NGC 2422) is an open cluster in the constellation Puppis. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 and independently discovered by Charles Messier on February 19, 1771. It was later independently discovered again, under the current name NGC 2422.
There is actually no cluster in the position indicated by Messier, which he expressed in terms of its right ascension and declination with respect to the star 2 Puppis. However, if the signs of Messier's coordinate differences are changed, the position matches that of NGC 2422. Until the equivalency of M47 with NGC 2422 was found, M47 was considered a lost Messier Object. The discovery that M47 and NGC 2422 were the same cluster only came in 1959 with a realization by Canadian astronomer T. F. Morris.
M47 is at a distance of about 1,600 light-years from Earth with an estimated age of about 78 million years. The member stars of M47 have been measured down to about red dwarfs at apparent magnitude 19. There are around 500 members, the brightest being HD 60855, a magnitude 5.7 Be star. The cluster is dominated by hot class B main sequence and giant stars, but a noticeable colour contrast comes from several bright red giants.
Location of M 47. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
This spectacular image of the star cluster Messier 47 was taken using the Wide Field Imager camera, installed on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. This young open cluster is dominated by a sprinkling of brilliant blue stars but also contains a few contrasting red giant stars. Credit: ESO.
The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The first quarter Moon occurs on February 2nd, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
After February 2nd, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.
The Moon from 2020-01-28 - 2020-02-03. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Moon News
Proposed House bill pushes NASA's crewed moon landing back to 2028 https://t.co/lOj3iOp6m9 pic.twitter.com/4Uixl0PbSk
— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) January 28, 2020
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine expressed reservations Monday about a NASA authorization bill introduced in the House last week that he fears could constrain the agency’s approach to human space exploration. https://t.co/4rraLAEyFa pic.twitter.com/BecQzDZoOL
— SpaceNews (@SpaceNews_Inc) January 28, 2020
We have a spot! Sunspot AR2757 is a member of old Solar Cycle 24.
The northern coronal hole remains small, while the southern hole is huge!
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 27, 2020:
Some awesome prominences on the Sun'd limb over the last couple days - the location of sunspot AR2757 is easily visible as the bright orange region in the video below.
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 27, 2020:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 323.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 6.3 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1257 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
#SolarOrbiter, an @ESA & @NASA collaborative mission, launches in February! This spacecraft will study the Sun from a unique perspective: its tilted orbit carries it out of the plane of the planets so it can take the first-ever pictures of the Sun’s poles. https://t.co/rX55sMOpWf pic.twitter.com/W3oME8LtKg
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) January 27, 2020
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 127 (+13), this year: 128 (+14), all time: 21,951 (+13)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 931,886 (+1222)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 931,886 (+1222)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 BO2 |
2020-Jan-28
|
10.5 LD
|
10.7
|
19
|
| 2020 BJ7 |
2020-Jan-28
|
1.2 LD
|
20.2
|
8
|
| 2020 BG9 |
2020-Jan-28
|
12.5 LD
|
10.2
|
18
|
| 2020 BJ1 |
2020-Jan-29
|
15.5 LD
|
11
|
51
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2020 BV7 |
2020-Jan-30
|
5.9 LD
|
8.3
|
9
|
| 2020 BR8 |
2020-Jan-31
|
9.7 LD
|
29.4
|
27
|
| 2020 BZ4 |
2020-Jan-31
|
5.7 LD
|
9
|
10
|
| 2017 AE5 |
2020-Feb-01
|
13.6 LD
|
9
|
123
|
| 2020 BD9 |
2020-Feb-02
|
16.4 LD
|
7.6
|
39
|
| 2013 BA74 |
2020-Feb-04
|
3.7 LD
|
7.4
|
28
|
| 2020 BL8 |
2020-Feb-08
|
6.6 LD
|
3.2
|
29
|
| 2020 BW5 |
2020-Feb-09
|
5.2 LD
|
9
|
18
|
| 163373 |
2020-Feb-15
|
15.1 LD
|
15.2
|
589
|
| 2018 CW2 |
2020-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
10.2
|
28
|
| 2020 BL7 |
2020-Feb-19
|
13.6 LD
|
8.7
|
35
|
| 2020 BC9 |
2020-Feb-20
|
14 LD
|
9.3
|
75
|
| 2019 BE5 |
2020-Feb-20
|
13.9 LD
|
14.8
|
34
|
| 2011 DR |
2020-Feb-23
|
14.7 LD
|
5.8
|
25
|
| 2016 CO246 |
2020-Feb-23
|
18.4 LD
|
5.9
|
25
|
| 2012 DS30 |
2020-Feb-26
|
12.3 LD
|
5.4
|
22
|
| 2015 BK509 |
2020-Feb-29
|
18.7 LD
|
12.5
|
118
|
| 2017 BM123 |
2020-Mar-01
|
10.5 LD
|
8.1
|
65
|
| 2018 RF6 |
2020-Mar-10
|
11.2 LD
|
12.6
|
36
|
| 2008 UB95 |
2020-Mar-11
|
18.5 LD
|
7.6
|
41
|
| 2018 GY |
2020-Mar-15
|
6.2 LD
|
9.5
|
39
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Asteroid News
The latest Minor Planet Center circular is out with several newly named asteroids: https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2020/MPC_20200109.pdf
On Jan. 27, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 4 fireballs.
(3 sporadics, 1 alpha Antilid)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Fireball News
185 reports and many videos about this 100t TNT #fireball that occurred over #Cyprus on January 21th - https://t.co/C2gb45n8Dp pic.twitter.com/pGdjTQtAVg
— AMSMETEORS (@amsmeteors) January 23, 2020
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system - the Parker Solar Probe will reach perihelion #4 on Jan. 29th at about 4:30 a.m. EST.
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-01-28. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-01-28. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system - the orbit of transneptunian object 148780 Altjira is highlighted:
Outer Solar System 2020-01-28 - Orbit of binary transneptunian object 148780 Altjira is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
(148780) Altjira
148780 Altjira /ælˈtʃɪrə/ is a binary classical Kuiper belt object (cubewano). The secondary, S/2007 (148780) 1, is large compared to the primary, 140 kilometres (87 mi) vs. 160 kilometres (99 mi). The Altjiran lightcurve is quite flat (Δmag<0.10), which is indicative of a "quasi-spherical body with a homogeneous surface".
The satellite's orbit has the following parameters: semi-major-axis, 9904 ± 56 km; period, 139.561 ± 0.047 days; eccentricity, 0.3445 ± 0.0045; and inclination, 35.19 ± 0.19°(retrograde). The total system mass is about 4 × 1018 kg.
It was named after the Arrernte creation deity, Altjira, who created the Earth during the Dreamtime and then retired to the sky.. - Wikipedia
Artist's conception of S/2007 (148780) 1 seen in the distance from above (148780) Altjira. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
It’s all good in the neighborhood.
Passed over Nightingale yesterday … looow and slooow.
Learn more about the flyover here: https://t.co/CRJeRZTEdn pic.twitter.com/jUZpACdaHr
— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) January 22, 2020
International Space Station
Congratulations to teams around the world on the repair of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the @Space_Station! Back to studying the fundamental physics of our universe thanks to years of hard work designing and executing a complex and unique repair plan. pic.twitter.com/8qEiWKX2AC
— Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) January 27, 2020
Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble welcomes the Year of the Rat with a view of its own favorite rodents, NGC 4676A and B, and highlights the planetary origins of the Chinese zodiac’s 12-year timetable. #LunarNewYear pic.twitter.com/wrUpDfB4ZE
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) January 25, 2020
Climate
Lake Kariba, the world's largest reservoir by volume, stands between 10 and 20 percent of capacity and at its lowest point in more than two decades.
Learn more and view more "images of change": https://t.co/6QGoSTmyoX pic.twitter.com/7Z9vGfF3Yf
— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) January 27, 2020
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
T.K. Lawless County Park becomes Michigan's 2nd Dark Sky park!
Dr. T.K. Lawless County Park has been designated as an IDSPark! Parks Director, Scott Wyman says, “Through the parks, we've always been able to say that we are stewards of the land, but I’m very proud to say that now, we are stewards of the land & the sky"https://t.co/yopVKWc57Z
— IDA Dark-Sky (@IDADarkSky) January 15, 2020
The Local Stellar Neighborhood
Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to Barnards's star.
Stars up to ten light-years from the Sun. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley
Barnards's Star
Barnard's Star, also known as Barnard's Runaway Star, is a very low-mass red dwarf star approximately six light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus (the Snake-holder). It is very old, and moving relatively fast.
In 1916, the American astronomer E. E. Barnard measured its proper motion as 10.3 arcseconds per year. This is the largest-known proper motion of any star relative to the Sun. At a distance of about 1.8 parsecs from the Solar System, or just under six light-years, Barnard's Star is the nearest known star in the constellation Ophiuchus, and the fourth-closest known individual star to the Sun, after the three components of the Alpha Centauri system. Despite its proximity, Barnard's Star, at a dim apparent magnitude of about nine, is not visible with the unaided eye; however, it is much brighter in infrared light than it is in visible light. - Wikipedia
Distance of Barnard's Star from Sol. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Barnard's Star b (also designated GJ 699 b) is a candidate super-Earth-like exoplanet and ice planet that orbits Barnard's Star in the constellation of Ophiuchus. The exoplanet's discovery by an international team of astronomers – including the European Southern Observatory and Carnegie Institution for Science – was officially announced on 14 November 2018. It is the first confirmed planet orbiting Barnard's Star... - Wikipedia
Orbit of exoplanet Barnard's Star b. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Artist's conception of exoplanet Barnard's Star b. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
In the Sky This Week – January 21, 2020
We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members. Please subscribe and help support this website and VOF education and outreach programs.
The constellation Orion appears high in the southwestern sky at midnight this week; at the latest meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society, the dimming of the star Betelgeuse was discussed - members mentioned that the star had almost dimmed to the level of the other three major stars in the constellation... which was "just weird."
Orion with dimming Betelgeuse appears high in the southwestern sky at midnight this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Here's another comparison showing the dimming of #Betelgeuse - this time shot at 50mm focal length (and cropped in on Orion). At left is a shot from Jan 2019, right is the one from last night. Identical equipment/exposures/apertures etc.
HQ version here: https://t.co/V2PGbskgVI pic.twitter.com/ailwKLfAdn
— Will Gater (@willgater) January 19, 2020
Jupiter makes a return to the southeastern at dawn! Jupiter will appear very low on the horizon this week. Mars continues to appear near the star Antares in the southeastern horizon before dawn - a waning crescent Moon joins the planets on January 23 & 24th.
-
- Jupiter appears low on the southeastern horizon at dawn; the waxing crescent moon appears near Jupiter on Jan. 23rd. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
-
- Jupiter appears low on the southeastern horizon at dawn; the waxing crescent moon appears near Jupiter on Jan. 24th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Venus continues to appear high above the southwestern horizon at dusk this week - a thin waxing crescent Moon joins Venus from Jan. 26-29th.
-
- Venus is high above the southwestern horizon at dusk this week; a thin waxing crescent Moon joins Venus on Jan. 26th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
-
- Venus is high above the southwestern horizon at dusk this week; a thin waxing crescent Moon joins Venus on Jan. 27th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Moon is a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise.
The new Moon occurs on Jan. 24th
After Jan. 24th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The Moon from 2020-01-21 - 2020-01-27. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Moon News
On Feb. 10, join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re developing and advancing the #Artemis missions to the Moon. Learn about astronaut life in space and tour facilities where engineers design and test the Orion spacecraft and Gateway outpost! https://t.co/6a0qRmuYdz pic.twitter.com/rpoTldLg5t
— Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) January 20, 2020
The Sun has been spot-free for 9 days; coronal holes continue to appear at both poles - the northern hole has reduced in size quite a bit from previous weeks. A small coronal hole appears near the equator; Spaceweather.com says "Solar wind flowing from this minor coronal hole could reach Earth on Jan. 21."
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 20, 2020:
Several short-lived pillar prominences appeared and vanished over the last couple days:
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 20, 2020:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 303.5 km/sec (↑), with a density of 3.7 protons/cm3 (↑) at 0955 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
#ParkerSolarProbe's measurements of the solar wind reveal a chorus of plasma waves that hold clues to the wind's origins — and scientists have turned some of this data into sound. Listen ⬇️ and read more from @JHUAPL: https://t.co/tPW5TnZrUt https://t.co/1B1xPbQvbd
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) January 15, 2020
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 114 (+52), this year: 114 (+52), all time: 21,938 (+44)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 930,664 (+8,762) - I still want to know why this number has been so consistently huge for the last several months...
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 930,664 (+8,762) - I still want to know why this number has been so consistently huge for the last several months...
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 BP |
2020-Jan-21
|
3.7 LD
|
16.7
|
28
|
| 2020 BB |
2020-Jan-21
|
2 LD
|
3.7
|
6
|
| 2020 BY |
2020-Jan-21
|
3.8 LD
|
16.7
|
46
|
| 2020 BN |
2020-Jan-21
|
9.8 LD
|
6.1
|
10
|
| 2020 BU |
2020-Jan-22
|
19.4 LD
|
4.2
|
23
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
19
|
| 2020 BB1 |
2020-Jan-23
|
2.6 LD
|
11.4
|
8
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2020 BF1 |
2020-Jan-24
|
7.8 LD
|
4.6
|
22
|
| 2020 AK3 |
2020-Jan-25
|
8.3 LD
|
6.9
|
22
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2017 AE5 |
2020-Feb-01
|
13.6 LD
|
9
|
123
|
| 2018 BU1 |
2020-Feb-02
|
19.4 LD
|
10
|
41
|
| 163373 |
2020-Feb-15
|
15.1 LD
|
15.2
|
589
|
| 2018 CW2 |
2020-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
10.2
|
28
|
| 2019 BE5 |
2020-Feb-20
|
13.9 LD
|
14.8
|
34
|
| 2011 DR |
2020-Feb-23
|
14.7 LD
|
5.8
|
25
|
| 2016 CO246 |
2020-Feb-23
|
18.4 LD
|
5.9
|
25
|
| 2012 DS30 |
2020-Feb-26
|
12.3 LD
|
5.4
|
22
|
| 2015 BK509 |
2020-Feb-29
|
18.7 LD
|
12.5
|
118
|
| 2017 BM123 |
2020-Mar-01
|
10.5 LD
|
8.1
|
65
|
| 2018 RF6 |
2020-Mar-10
|
11.2 LD
|
12.6
|
36
|
| 2008 UB95 |
2020-Mar-11
|
18.5 LD
|
7.6
|
41
|
| 2018 GY |
2020-Mar-15
|
6.2 LD
|
9.5
|
39
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Asteroid News
Jupiter is the shepherd for many, many asteroids - this dance of gravity just amazes me!
Millions of asteroids being shepherded by Jupiter. We call them Trojans and Hildas. https://t.co/FjfmZb9eCz https://t.co/KTQ5HHybKZ pic.twitter.com/ioC7OAJjvI
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 16, 2020
On Jan. 20, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 13 fireballs.
(13 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Fireball News
Estoy aquí admirando la vista, tomando fotos como de costumbre y tiro una foto, thank God que fue Live Photo y capture este meteorito ☄️. pic.twitter.com/UREFQVvARQ
— LOUI 📸 (@LouisVtweeter) January 17, 2020
Satellite loop appears to show the flash of the meteorite seen in Puerto Rico this evening! ☄️ @StormHour pic.twitter.com/Mepq8UBUVG
— Collin Gross (@CollinGrossWx) January 17, 2020
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system - the Parker Solar Probe has re-crossed the orbit of Mercury.
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-01-21. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system - the Earth's orbit is bringing it around the Sun, and Jupiter is coming back into view at dawn.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-01-21. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system - the orbit of transneptunian object (174567) Varda-Ilmarë is highlighted:
Outer Solar System 2020-01-21 - Orbit of binary transneptunian object 174567 Varda-Ilmarë is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
(174567) Varda-Ilmarë
174567 Varda (provisional designation 2003 MW12) is a binary trans-Neptunian object of the resonant hot classical population of the Kuiper belt, located in the outermost region of the Solar System. Its moon, Ilmarë, was discovered in 2009.
Brown estimates that, with an absolute magnitude of 3.5 and a calculated diameter of approximately 700–800 kilometers (430–500 miles), it is likely a dwarf planet. However, Grundy et al. argue that objects such as Varda, in the size range of 400–1000 km, with albedos less than ≈0.2 and densities of ≈1.2 g/cm3 or less, have likely never compressed into fully solid bodies, let alone differentiated, and so are highly unlikely to be dwarf planets.
...
Varda has at least one satellite, Ilmarë (or Varda I), which was discovered in 2009. It is estimated to be about 350 km in diameter (about 50% that of its primary), constituting 8% of the system mass, or 2×1019 kg, assuming its density and albedo the same as that of Varda.
The Varda–Ilmarë system is tightly bound, with a semimajor axis of 4809±39 km (about 12 Varda radii) and an orbital period of 5.75 days. - Wikipedia
174567 Varda seen from above Ilmarë - the system's barycenter is the gray diamond, and the orbit of Varda around that barycenter is shown in red. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
SpaceX Dragon In-Flight Abort Test
Test complete! Today, @SpaceX completed its In-Flight Abort Test designed to show the #CrewDragon spacecraft’s capability to safely separate from the rocket in the unlikely event of an inflight emergency: https://t.co/j7v2y8svOk pic.twitter.com/VbKh9E2BAQ
— NASA (@NASA) January 19, 2020
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
On Tuesday, Jan 21, I’ll fly closer to site Nightingale than ever before.
Time to start preparing for #TAG2020
Let’s do this 😎 pic.twitter.com/ZyjBIyeUsG— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) January 17, 2020
International Space Station
At 1:33pm EST, @Astro_Jessica and @Astro_Christina concluded today's spacewalk. After working 6 hours and 58 minutes the two successfully completed the battery upgrade for one channel on one pair of the station’s solar arrays. #AskNASA | Read more... https://t.co/GQfO9zyIGP pic.twitter.com/e3mHSeM8l3
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) January 20, 2020
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
The final speaker of the #AAS235 @NASA_TESS splinter session is Eliza Kempton. She highlighted how many of the exoplanets being discovered by TESS are prime targets for @NASAWebb - JWST can be used to reveal the properties of the atmospheres of exoplanets! pic.twitter.com/e3r199OeWn
— NASA_TESS (@NASA_TESS) January 7, 2020
Hubble Space Telescope
ESA/Hubble #Flashback: Within this galaxy, NGC 4993, Hubble discovered the first visual counterpart of a gravitational wave event — the merger of two neutron stars.
Credit: @NASA / @ESA , Digitized Sky Survey 2 https://t.co/mQ290mRWvA pic.twitter.com/9EanqATBdQ
— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) January 21, 2020
Climate
LIVE: NASA and @NOAA climate experts discuss the annual global temperatures analysis for 2019 in a teleconference: https://t.co/PWJkcuQ2Jt
Earth's global surface temperatures in 2019 were the second warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880: https://t.co/ZRrydb1PiR pic.twitter.com/aA4kbtaWJU— NASA (@NASA) January 15, 2020
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Dr. T.K. Lawless County Park has been designated as an IDSPark! Parks Director, Scott Wyman says, “Through the parks, we've always been able to say that we are stewards of the land, but I’m very proud to say that now, we are stewards of the land & the sky"https://t.co/yopVKWc57Z
— IDA Dark-Sky (@IDADarkSky) January 15, 2020
New class of stellar objects: G-objects
The newly detected population of G-objects adds more mystery to an already fascinating group of objects in orbit around our supermassive black hole! This animation shows the orbits of the G-objects (purple), young stars (green), and old stars (orange).@GalacticCtrGrp & AVL/NCSA pic.twitter.com/gRDUrt6sdH
— Tuan Do (@quantumpenguin) January 17, 2020
Astronomers have discovered a mysterious new class of objects at the heart of the Milky Way, unlike anything else found previously in our galaxy. The objects “look like gas but behave like stars,” according to senior researcher Andrea Ghez, as they start off small and compact but are stretched to a larger size when they approach the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy.
The researchers believe these objects could teach us about the evolution of stars and what happens to celestial bodies in environments of extreme gravity.
The puzzle began in 2005 when astronomers identified an object near the center of our galaxy called G1, which seemed to be orbiting around the supermassive black hole there in a strange way. In following years, five more objects numbered G2 to G6 were discovered. At first, these objects were thought to be clouds of gas. But one odd thing researchers noticed was that when the object G2 came very close to the event horizon of the black hole, it wasn’t torn apart in the way they would have expected. Instead, it initially stretched out, before rebounding back toward its original state. - reddit
Artist's representation of what G Objects look like. Credit: NASA, UCLA Galactic Group, Others.
The Local Stellar Neighborhood
Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to the Alpha Centauri binary system.
Stars up to ten light-years from the Sun. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley
Alpha Centauri A & B
Alpha Centauri (Latinized from α Centauri, abbreviated Alpha Cen or α Cen) is the closest star system and closest planetary system to Earth's Solar System at 4.37 light-years (1.34 parsec) from the Sun. It is a triple star system, consisting of three stars: α Centauri A (officially Rigil Kentaurus), α Centauri B (officially Toliman), and α Centauri C (officially Proxima Centauri).
Alpha Centauri A and B are Sun-like stars (Class G and K), and together they form the binary star Alpha Centauri AB. To the naked eye, the two main components appear to be a single star with an apparent magnitude of −0.27, forming the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus and the third-brightest in the night sky, outshone only by Sirius and Canopus.
Alpha Centauri A has 1.1 times the mass and 1.519 times the luminosity of the Sun, while Alpha Centauri B is smaller and cooler, at 0.907 times the Sun's mass and 0.445 times its luminosity. The pair orbit around a common centre with an orbital period of 79.91 years. Their elliptical orbit is eccentric, so that the distance between A and B varies from 35.6 AU (astronomical units), or about the distance between Pluto and the Sun, to 11.2 AU, or about the distance between Saturn and the Sun. - Wikipedia
Orbits of Alpha Centauri A (red) & B (blue). Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
To date, no planets have been detected orbiting either Alpha Centauri A or B.
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
VOF YouTube Channel
Check out the Vatican Observatory Foundation's YouTube channel! We have several videos about current astronomical issues as well as shorts films about the relationship between the Catholic Church and Science today and historically - we've also linked to numerous other videos featuring VOF staff.
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3D Printing the Vatican Observatory Logo
Vatican Observatory Foundation
Vatican Observatory 6 minute
Prototype Photoheliograph
Scienziati Religiosi della Chiesa Cattolica: P. Angelo Secchi SJ; Gesuita ed Astrofisico
RSotCC Ep. 1: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J., Jesuit Astrophysicist
20150123170021 512 aia 0304
20150123165918 512 aia 0171
Lotourell Falls
2018 Vatican Observatory Summer School
Br Guy's Christmas Message 2017
Audra Baleisis: Vatican Observatory Summer School or VOSS
Nakhla Meteorite
Dan Davis "Turns Left at Tectonics"
What is the Vatican Observatory
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We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members. Please subscribe and help support this website and VOF education and outreach programs.
In the Sky This Week – January 14, 2020
We’re running a membership drive this month – our goal is 150 new members. Please subscribe and help support this website and VOF education and outreach programs.
Mars appears near the star Antares in the southeastern horizon before dawn this week; a waning crescent Moon joins them on January 20th.
The Moon appears near Mars and the star Antares in the southeastern sky before sunrise on Jan. 20th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Moon appears near the star Regulus at midnight on January 13th, and near the star Spica on January 17th.
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- The Moon appears near the star Regulus in the eastern sky at midnight on Jan. 13th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
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- The Moon appears near the star Spica in the southeastern sky at midnight on Jan. 17th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Venus appears high and bright above the southwestern horizon at dusk this week.
Venus appears in the southwestern sky at dusk this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Moon is a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
The third quarter moon occurs on January 17th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.
After January 17th, the Moon will be a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise.
The Moon from 2020-01-14 - 2020-01-20. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Moon News
Impact craters come in many sizes. In this image, the crater on the top left, called Milichius A, is 5.6 miles (9 km) across. You can also see plenty of craters just a few yards wide. #MoonCrushMonday #MCM https://t.co/iGk1h5mGyQ pic.twitter.com/pgNA7qaYWN
— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) January 6, 2020
The descent stage of the #Apollo10 LM "Snoopy" may still be orbiting the moon today. That's what a randomized trial of 50 simulations of the initial stage orbit suggest. All 50 remained in orbit after 10 years... pic.twitter.com/8qT5RUixX5
— Roger Twank (@RogerTwank) January 11, 2020
The Sun has been spot-free for 3 days; coronal holes appear at both poles, and a large coronal holes appears north of the equator.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 13, 2020:
Light prominence activity over the last couple days - except for that large prominence in the upper right side of the video below:
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 13, 2020:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 299.5 km/sec (↓↓), with a density of 0.4 protons/cm3 (↓↓) at 1100 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
Researchers used NASA supercomputers to model how Sun-like star Kappa Ceti could erupt in a gigantic superflare — one as powerful as our Sun’s famous 1859 Carrington superstorm. More from @NASA_NCCS: https://t.co/44VVqa9ecv pic.twitter.com/4mGQ8gDNw2
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) January 13, 2020
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 62 (+20), this year: 62 (+20), all time: 21,894 (+22)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 921,902 (+8,850)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 921,902 (+8,850)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 AO |
2020-Jan-14
|
9.3 LD
|
19.5
|
49
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2020 AZ1 |
2020-Jan-16
|
8.3 LD
|
4
|
17
|
| 2019 YD3 |
2020-Jan-16
|
6.9 LD
|
4.8
|
22
|
| 2010 AE30 |
2020-Jan-17
|
11.9 LD
|
12.3
|
68
|
| 2019 YG1 |
2020-Jan-17
|
17.5 LD
|
4.5
|
32
|
| 2019 YQ3 |
2020-Jan-17
|
18.2 LD
|
3.1
|
19
|
| 2020 AD1 |
2020-Jan-17
|
9.1 LD
|
4.5
|
20
|
| 2020 AH1 |
2020-Jan-18
|
15.9 LD
|
8
|
45
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2019 YA5 |
2020-Jan-19
|
11.7 LD
|
5.2
|
22
|
| 2020 AQ1 |
2020-Jan-20
|
10.6 LD
|
27.6
|
135
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
14.9 LD
|
6.4
|
56
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
19
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2017 AE5 |
2020-Feb-01
|
13.6 LD
|
9
|
123
|
| 2018 BU1 |
2020-Feb-02
|
19.4 LD
|
10
|
41
|
| 163373 |
2020-Feb-15
|
15.1 LD
|
15.2
|
589
|
| 2018 CW2 |
2020-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
10.2
|
28
|
| 2019 BE5 |
2020-Feb-20
|
13.9 LD
|
14.8
|
34
|
| 2011 DR |
2020-Feb-23
|
14.7 LD
|
5.8
|
25
|
| 2016 CO246 |
2020-Feb-23
|
18.4 LD
|
5.9
|
25
|
| 2012 DS30 |
2020-Feb-26
|
12.3 LD
|
5.4
|
22
|
| 2015 BK509 |
2020-Feb-28
|
18.3 LD
|
12.5
|
118
|
| 2017 BM123 |
2020-Mar-01
|
10.5 LD
|
8.1
|
65
|
| 2018 RF6 |
2020-Mar-10
|
11.2 LD
|
12.6
|
36
|
| 2008 UB95 |
2020-Mar-11
|
18.5 LD
|
7.6
|
41
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Asteroid News
Meet Lucy, currently in development. The Lucy spacecraft will travel to the Trojan asteroids, near Jupiter.
“The #LucyMission will transform our understanding of solar system evolution.”#NASALucy pic.twitter.com/yHj35hCvCZ
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) January 13, 2020
On Jan. 13, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 10 fireballs.
(9 sporadics, 1 beta Sextantid)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Fireball News
Check out this amazing photo of the first meteor shower of the decade courtesy of @NASA astronaut @Astro_Christina. https://t.co/cXKXpuyz9n pic.twitter.com/qgSI5LAUbE
— Mike Massimino (@Astro_Mike) January 13, 2020
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-01-14. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Mars News: New Crater Candidate
Candidate new impact site formed between December 2007 and May 2008 - https://t.co/UXUXg1GWkW pic.twitter.com/3NpKXaEL11
— HiRISE Bot (@HiRISEBot) January 14, 2020
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-01-14. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Jupiter News: Amazing Citizen Scientist Image Processing!
Jupiter: Exotic Marble
"A mind of limits, a camera of thoughts" is the name of this contribution from citizen scientist Prateek Sarpal. Jupiter inspires artists and scientists with its beauty!
Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Prateek Sarpal pic.twitter.com/6qZZO2Mfrr
— Universal-Sci (@universal_sci) January 14, 2020
Position of the planets in the outer solar system - the orbit of transneptunian object (38083) Rhadamanthus is highlighted:
Outer Solar System 2020-01-14 - Orbit of transneptunian object (38083) Rhadamanthus is highlighted - vertical lines show distance above and below the plane of the ecliptic. Credit: JPL Small Body Database Browser / Bob Trembley.
(38083) Rhadamanthus
38083 Rhadamanthus is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO). It was discovered in 1999 by the Deep Ecliptic Survey. It was originally thought to be a plutino but no longer is.
Rhadamanthus was discovered on 17 April 1999 by the Deep Ecliptic Survey.
Rhadamanthus is named after the Greek mythological figure. The name was announced in the circular of the Minor Planet Center of 24 July 2002, which stated "Rhadamanthus was a son of Zeus and Europa. Because of his just and upright life, after death he was appointed a judge of the dead and the ruler of Elysium, a blissfully beautiful area of the Underworld where those favored by the gods spent their life after death. The name was suggested by E. K. Elliot. - Wikipedia
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
My first rehearsal for sample collection is in April. I’ll practice leaving orbit, maneuvering to a checkpoint 420 ft (125 m) above Nightingale, and returning to orbit. In the second rehearsal I’ll fly even closer to Nightingale, hovering just 164 ft (50) m above Bennu’s surface. pic.twitter.com/MwO6YR27dF
— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) January 9, 2020
International Space Station: Spacewalk Tomorrow
.@Astro_Christina and @Astro_Jessica are getting ready for Wednesday's spacewalk as the rest of the crew works a variety of @ISS_Research today. Read more... https://t.co/Q6EREcFnzy pic.twitter.com/PCWvksv3Pe
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) January 13, 2020
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
The final speaker of the #AAS235 @NASA_TESS splinter session is Eliza Kempton. She highlighted how many of the exoplanets being discovered by TESS are prime targets for @NASAWebb - JWST can be used to reveal the properties of the atmospheres of exoplanets! pic.twitter.com/e3r199OeWn
— NASA_TESS (@NASA_TESS) January 7, 2020
Man! I have GOT to attend some of these conferences!
Hubble Space Telescope: 30 Years!
Soon to arrive on your doorstep — yes, it’s been 30 years now for the great Hubble Space Telescope. Read all about it! pic.twitter.com/NWHkMuQE37
— David Eicher (@deicherstar) January 13, 2020
ASTERIA Cubesat: Goes Silent
I’ve gone quiet 🛰☹️
My team misses me, but we did great work for 2+ years - 8x my planned 90 day mission!https://t.co/0ynnCkJSCy— ASTERIA (@ASTERIA_CubeSat) January 6, 2020
Climate: Arctic Sea Ice Decline Animation
Source: Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2019 with Area Graph
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Congratulations to France's Alpes Azur Mercantour for being designated as an International Dark Sky Reserve! This makes the Alpes Azur Mercantour the third International Dark Sky Reserve in France, joining Pic du Midi and Cévennes National Park!https://t.co/awSWj10OSe
— IDA Dark-Sky (@IDADarkSky) January 8, 2020
City lights, oh so bright, deep at night, all around the world...
New York City 🇺🇸
Dammam, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
Winnipeg, Canada 🇨🇦
Bucharest, Romania 🇷🇴 pic.twitter.com/97NkWcDulo— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) January 8, 2020
I think I need to print this image of star cluster R136 as a 3 foot poster, so I can stare at it for hours!
The central region of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The young and dense star cluster R136 can be seen at the lower right of the image. This cluster contains hundreds of young, blue stars, among them the most massive stars detected in the universe so far. Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope were able to conduct a detailed imaging and spectroscopic study of the central and most dense region of this cluster. Here they found nine stars with masses greater than 100 times the mass of the sun. The cluster is located 170,000 light-years away from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Crowther (University of Sheffield)
The Local Stellar Neighborhood
I read a LOT of science fiction - much of that deals with space travel, in one form or another. A couple books I've read recently deal with sending probes to nearby stars and several star names keep coming up, so for the next several weeks, I thought I'd take readers on a visual tour of nearby stars and their systems.
Stars up to ten light-years from the Sun. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley
Proxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star that is likely a part of the Alpha Centauri star system and is the closest star to the Sun at a distance of 4.22 light-years (3.99×1013 km; 2.48×1013 mi). It is in the constellation of Centaurus.
Proxima Centauri was found to share the same proper motion as Alpha Centauri in 1915 by Robert Innes while he was Director of the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In 1951, Harlow Shapley said that Proxima Centauri was a flare star. Recorded photographs showed that the star became measurably brighter about 8% of the time, making it the most active flare star then found.
Red dwarfs are usually far too faint to be seen with the naked eye, that means without a telescope. Proxima Centauri has an apparent magnitude of 11 while its absolute magnitude is a very dim 15.5. Even from Alpha Centauri A or B, Proxima would only be seen as a 5th magnitude star.
Proxima Centauri has been the closest star to the Sun for about the last 32,000 years. Barnard's Star will make its closest approach to the Sun around AD 11,700, when it approaches to within about 3.8 light-years. However, at that time, it will not be the nearest star, since Proxima Centauri will then have moved even closer to the Sun.
In 2016, a exoplanet was found by the European Southern Observatory around Proxima Centauri, Proxima Centauri b (or Proxima b). It was found in the habitable zone, and was thought to be Earth-like, with an ESI of 0.87. While being Earth-like, it may not be habitable on the surface, since Proxima Centauri gives off strong solar flares and high solar winds, which could strip away parts of the atmosphere of the planet, making it less habitable.
In October of 2016, scientists at France's CNRS research institute said that the planet may have oceans on its surface, and a thin atmosphere. If this idea is true or not is not known. - Wikipedia
Proxima Centauri System. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Artist's conception of Proxima Centauri seen from above exoplanet Proxima b - Alpha Centauri is the bright star to the left of Proxima. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
NASA’s Eyes – Part 1: Eyes on the Solar System
NASA Eyes splash screen from the Eyes website::Eyes.nasa.gov
With NASA's Eyes on the Solar System, you can learn about the Earth, the solar system and beyond! You can fly alongside current spacecraft, take guided tours of historic space missions, travel to the planets, their moons, comets and asteroids. You can visualize and animate Earth climate data, and take virtual tours of exoplanets that have been discovered orbiting other stars! NASA's Eyes is FREE for Windows and MAC, and is great for use in the classroom or at home!
NASA Eyes Client App Start-up Menu.
I use Eyes every week to create images for my "In the Sky" posts; in this post, I'll cover the Eyes on the Solar System module of the Eyes app.
When you launch the Eyes client app, you are presented with a splash screen showing the three Eyes modules; Eyes on the Solar System (middle) has two buttons: simple and advanced mode. Simple mode presents you with a very minimal user interface, and enters into a Kiosk-mode after a few moments if you do not select anything; I've had Eyes running in this mode on several library PCs at my wife's school during an "Astronomy Night" event.
Advanced mode allows you to manually travel wherever you wish, select from multiple display options, set your date from 1950 to 2050, accelerate time to see the motions of planets and satellites, and more - I use advanced mode frequently.
When you launch into Eyes' advanced mode, you are shown a top-down view of the inner solar system as it appears at your current date and time:
NASA's Eyes on the Solar System: top-down view of the inner solar system with menu displayed. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
You can change your viewpoint by clicking+dragging the mouse, double-clicking on an object, or using the mouse wheel - scroll and zoom functions work the same way as in many video games. Using the menu system you can select from several different display options and destinations including: orbit and spacecraft view lines, date and time, planets and dwarf planets, major and minor moons, asteroids, comets, spacecraft and more. The following animation shows an oblique view of the the inner solar system with various options as they are turned on:
The inner solar system viewed with various options enabled. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
When I give live demonstrations of Eyes, the first thing I do is zoom to the Earth, showing all the orbiting satellites, and then select the International Space Station and zoom to it. I get really close to the station, rotating around it to show-off the detail of the model, and I then accelerate time and show the station orbiting the Earth. Most of the spacecraft in Eyes are modeled in full 3D; some older spacecraft are shown as 2D photos. Eyes has a "View in 3D" setting that changes the display to red-cyan anaglyph 3D - crack out your 3D glasses!
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- International Space Station in NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System. Credit: NASA Eyes / Bob Trembley
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- International Space Station in NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System shown in anaglyph 3D. Credit: NASA Eyes / Bob Trembley
Most of Eyes' control functions are described on the help screen; I discovered that if you hold the CTRL key down while clicking+dragging, you will slowly rotate around your target object - great for when you are making videos!
Eyes Help Screen. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System
Moons of Jupiter
Showing the orbits of the moons of Jupiter in Eyes is always fun! Starting near Jupiter, I display the orbits of the four Galilean moons - all in a nice flat plane around Jupiter. I then turn on "minor moons" and the screen becomes filled with orbit lines! This always gets gasps from audiences. You need to zoom way out from Jupiter to see the orbits of its farthest moons - some of which take over 2 years to orbit Jupiter!
The moons of Jupiter. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
On September 27, 2019, the NASA Juno mission posted the following tweet showing an image of the shadow of Jupiter's moon Io on the clouds of Jupiter:
Moon shadow: during most my recent close flyby of Jupiter, I captured this extraordinary view of a shadow cast by the planet’s volcanic moon Io. See details https://t.co/NsUohRsMJl pic.twitter.com/tWG8XpICJr
— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) September 27, 2019
I wondered how close the Juno spacecraft had to be above Io's shadow when it took that photo, so I changed the date in Eyes to when Juno was at perijove - Io's shadow was accurately represented, and Juno is shown to be pretty close!
Many objects have info cards with interesting facts about that object, many with links to NASA's Solar System Exploration website with more images and information.
Jupiter's moon Io with info card displayed. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
You can visualize several typically invisible features of Jupiter including aurora, magnetosphere, radiation field and rings.
Jupiter's magnetosphere and radiation field. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Eyes has several different guided tours of historic space missions: Voyager, Cassini at Saturn, Juno at Jupiter, Dawn at Ceres, Mars Curiosity descent and more! I've been using Eyes for years - after following the Cassini and Dawn missions for so long, it was heartbreaking to see them both moved to the list of historic missions.
Curiosity Entering the atmosphere of Mars in NASA Eyes. Credit: Bob Trembley
Cassini at Saturn
The Cassini mission tour has an impressive number of display controls; you can scroll the timeline through the entire mission, see the mission from several different vantage points, and choose from several different mission highlights via buttons at the top.
Cassini Tour in NASA Eyes - orbit insertion shown. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
In mid-August of 2015, the Cassini spacecraft flew-by Saturn's Moon Dione; at the time, I wanted to post some screen shots of what that might look like
Cassini Encounter with Dione, Aug. 17, 2015. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Cassini Encounter with Dione Aug. 17, 2015 Close-up in NASA Eyes. Credit: Bob Trembley
Note how well Dione is modeled in Eyes (above) compared to this actual flyby image:
This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft looks toward Saturn's icy moon Dione, with giant Saturn and its rings in the background, just prior to the mission's final close approach to the moon on August 17, 2015. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
The Cassini mission discovered that Saturn's moon Enceladus has plumes of water vapor and ice particles erupting from its south pole - with Eyes, you can travel to Enceladus and see an animation of those plumes. Some of the material from Enceladus' plumes escapes from the moon to form Saturn’s tenuous E ring.
Enceladus' south pole plumes - Saturn appears in the distance with shadows from its rings on its cloud tops. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
In the Cassini tour, you can display the interior of Enceladus, showing its sub-surface ocean and hydrothermal activity that is the source of its plumes:
Interior of Enceladus from the Cassini Tour in NASA Eyes. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
One of the coolest things I've done with Eyes is watch a "live simulation" of the New Horizon's Pluto flyby as it was happening. I got to see what the spacecraft was observing in real-time - it was simply fantastic! During the Pluto flyby, I had NASA TV running on a second monitor - several times I saw images from NASA's Eyes being used during the broadcast.
New Horizons Pluto Flyby in NASA Eyes. Credit: Bob Trembley
I got to repeat the "live flyby" experience again when New Horizons flew by Kuiper belt object Arrokoth (2014 MU69); the shape model for 2014 MU69 was updated in Eyes after New Horizons flyby; at the time of this writing, the name of 2014 MU69 has not been updated in Eyes.
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- Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, Aug 27, 2019 showing shape similar to that imaged by the New Horizons probe. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
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- Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, Aug 27, 2019 showing the flattened pancake shape imaged after the New Horizons probe flew-by it. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Running Eyes
NASA's Eyes is FREE for Windows and Mac from: https://eyes.nasa.gov. Eyes runs OK on lower-end PCs, but it runs better on a "game-ready" PC - something with a higher-end graphics adapter.
NASA Eyes needs an internet connection - it downloads data when you zoom-in to objects; this has been an issue for me when I've tried to give live demos of Eyes in locations with poor internet service - I've had to turn on the internet hotspot on my smartphone, connect my laptop, and then launch Eyes and access the things I plan on showing so they got cached. There is a method by which you can download an "offline version" of Eyes, but it is meant for museums and educational institutes, requires about a terabyte of drive space, and you must coordinate with the Eyes developers - and there are frequent updates. If you are interested in this option you can contact the developers by using the “Feedback” email address on the Eyes homepage.
NASA's Solar System Exploration Website
NASA's Solar System Exploration Website is a great online resource for information about bodies in the solar system - it is linked to by many info panels within the Eyes app. From the website's menu system, you can choose which solar system body you'd like to explore, and see related articles and images; if you do nothing, the site will go into kiosk-mode and display animated images of various solar system objects.
NASA's Solar System Exploration Website. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech / Bob Trembley
From the website's menu system, you can access an online orrery which shows the solar system as it appears now, and you can zoom-to various solar system objects - just like with the Eyes app. The orrery acts like a web-based version of Eyes, but it can run on PCs and smartphones without having to install an app.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
The current version of the online orrery does not allow you to set the date and time, or accelerate time and only has a subset of the objects available in the Eyes app. NASA is developing a new webGL engine which future versions of the orrery will use - it will have more options, and you will be able fast-forward time; I'm told by developers it will be amazing!
UPDATE: Easter egg!! To fast-forward and rewind in the Orrery, click the date six times.
Because development is moving to the web, the Windows/Mac client version of Eyes will only be updated with new missions. When the new version is released I'll be sure to post an update!
Follow Eyes on Social Media
Official Eyes Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/nasa_eyes
@NASANewHorizons has a rendezvous with #UltimaThule and you can follow along live in the latest Eyes module! Go to https://t.co/ftbOL2JnAf and click on "Launch" and then hit the Preview button to see the flyby. pic.twitter.com/dp0xCKQuE3
— : NASA_Eyes (@nasa_eyes) December 22, 2018
Unofficial Eyes Facebook page (that I created and a couple volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors maintain): https://www.facebook.com/NASAEyes/
Gallery of Eyes Images:
Related NASA Web Products: (Updated: 2020-10-16)
Solar System Orrery (using new webGL engine) direct at: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/orrery/ or via menu from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov.
Deep Space Network Now: https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
Experience Curiosity: https://eyes.nasa.gov/curiosity
Experience Insight: https://eyes.nasa.gov/insight
Juno embed (using new webGL engine): https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/juno-embed/
Mars Relay Network (using new webGL engine): https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/mrn/
Eyes on Exoplanets, (using new webGL engine): https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/eyes-on-exoplanets/
Earth Now (moving to new webGL engine by spring 2020): https://climate.nasa.gov/earth-now/
In the Sky This Week – January 7, 2020
I am the 2020 outreach officer for the Warren Astronomical Society - this is a position I've held several times before; I receive requests from individuals and groups that would like to use our observatory, or have a member come to their location and set up telescopes and/or give presentations about astronomy and space science. I've got a great outreach team - several of our members are volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors; we frequently get excellent feedback from the public for our events!
One of the things I want to do this year is resurrect a popular Messier observing program that late member Larry Kalinowski ran years before I joined. I'm going to base it off of the Astronomical League's Messier observing program, and I want to create some "standard" easy-to-use forms for recording and submitting observing logs.
Mars appears above the star Antares in the southeastern horizon before dawn this week
Mars above the star Antares in the southeastern horizon before dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The Moon appears near the star Aldebaran on Jan 7th and 8th in the southwestern sky at midnight.
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- The Moon appears west of the star Aldebaran high in the southwestern sky at midnight on Jan. 7th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
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- The Moon appears near the star Aldebaran high in the southwestern sky at midnight on Jan. 8th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
On Jan. 13th, the Moon appears very near the star Regulus in the southwestern sky at midnight.
The Moon appears near the star Regulus high in the southeastern sky at midnight on Jan. 13th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
M39
Messier 39 or M39, also known as NGC 7092, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Cygnus, positioned two degrees to the south of the star Pi Cygni and around 9° east-northeast of Deneb. The cluster was discovered by Guillaume Le Gentil in 1749, then Charles Messier added it to his catalogue in 1764. When observed in a small telescope at low power the cluster shows around two dozen members, but it is best observed with binoculars. It has a total integrated magnitude (brightness) of 5.5 and spans an angular diameter of 29 arcminutet the size of the full Moon. M39 is at a distance of about 1,010 light-years (311 parsecs) from the Sun.
This cluster has an estimated mass of 232 M☉ and a linear tidal radius of 8.6±1.8 pc. Of the 15 brightest components, six form binary star systems with one more suspected. HD 205117 is a probable eclipsing binary system with a period of 113.2 days that varies by 0.051 in visual magnitude. Both members appear to be subgiant stars. There are at least five chemically peculiar stars in the cluster and ten suspected short-period variable stars.- Wikipedia
M39. Credit: Christian van Endern
The Moon is a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.
The full Moon occurs on Jan 11th, rising at sunset, visible high in the sky around midnight, and visible all night long.
After Jan 11th, the Moon will be a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
The Moon from 2020-01-07 - 2020-01-13. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Moon News
🌖 What will the Moon look like throughout 2020? Using data from our @NASAMoon Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to visualize with unprecedented fidelity, @NASAGoddard's Dial-a-Moon shows each hour: https://t.co/iPrELt2wNN
🎦 Watch a full year of Moon phases: https://t.co/AQnn8FxCe7 pic.twitter.com/Fy6GVBelFo
— NASA (@NASA) January 2, 2020
We have another spot! It's small, and practically invisible in the image below:
Colored HMI Intensitygram from 2020-01-07. Credit: NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
However, the location of the active region's coronal loops are easily visible south of the equator when seen in UV in the two videos below.
The coronal hole at the Sun's north pole has shrunk some more, while the southern hole seems to continue to grow; a couple small connected coronal holes appear in the southern hemisphere.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 6, 2020:
Light prominence activity over the last couple days!
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 6, 2020:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 428.1 km/sec (↑), with a density of 4.1 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1610 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
The following topic was covered during last night's meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society:
Data from our Solar Dynamics Observatory has given scientists the first look at a new type of magnetic explosion, first theorized over a decade ago. Unlike the events we’ve seen before, this one was set off by a nearby eruption: https://t.co/s3ke3lejVl pic.twitter.com/6eQUv8dF1q
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) January 3, 2020
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 42 (+42), this year: 42 (+42), all time: 21,872 (+81)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 921,902 (+20,013!!!)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 921,902 (+20,013!!!)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 YT3 |
2020-Jan-07
|
13.2 LD
|
7.4
|
26
|
| 2020 AV1 |
2020-Jan-07
|
7.3 LD
|
12.1
|
22
|
| 2020 AJ1 |
2020-Jan-07
|
13.5 LD
|
22.1
|
78
|
| 2020 AR1 |
2020-Jan-08
|
6.9 LD
|
9.6
|
13
|
| 2020 AT1 |
2020-Jan-09
|
2.5 LD
|
6.2
|
11
|
| 2019 YV |
2020-Jan-10
|
17.3 LD
|
4.5
|
69
|
| 2019 YF4 |
2020-Jan-10
|
3.7 LD
|
2.9
|
15
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
331
|
| 2019 WC5 |
2020-Jan-11
|
6.4 LD
|
13
|
109
|
| 2019 YV5 |
2020-Jan-11
|
16.8 LD
|
13.9
|
48
|
| 2020 AO1 |
2020-Jan-12
|
8.6 LD
|
17.7
|
66
|
| 2020 AB2 |
2020-Jan-12
|
3.8 LD
|
7.9
|
15
|
| 2020 AE |
2020-Jan-13
|
11.7 LD
|
6.8
|
25
|
| 2020 AS1 |
2020-Jan-13
|
15.8 LD
|
5.7
|
17
|
| 2020 AE1 |
2020-Jan-13
|
6.6 LD
|
4.2
|
12
|
| 2020 AO |
2020-Jan-14
|
9.4 LD
|
19.5
|
50
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2020 AZ1 |
2020-Jan-16
|
8.3 LD
|
4
|
17
|
| 2019 YD3 |
2020-Jan-16
|
6.9 LD
|
4.8
|
22
|
| 2010 AE30 |
2020-Jan-17
|
11.9 LD
|
12.3
|
68
|
| 2019 YG1 |
2020-Jan-17
|
17.5 LD
|
4.5
|
32
|
| 2019 YQ3 |
2020-Jan-17
|
18.2 LD
|
3.1
|
18
|
| 2020 AD1 |
2020-Jan-17
|
9.1 LD
|
4.5
|
19
|
| 2020 AH1 |
2020-Jan-18
|
15.9 LD
|
8
|
45
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2019 YA5 |
2020-Jan-19
|
11.7 LD
|
5.2
|
22
|
| 2020 AQ1 |
2020-Jan-20
|
10.3 LD
|
27.4
|
138
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
14.9 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2017 AE5 |
2020-Feb-01
|
13.6 LD
|
9
|
135
|
| 2018 BU1 |
2020-Feb-02
|
19.4 LD
|
10
|
41
|
| 163373 |
2020-Feb-15
|
15.1 LD
|
15.2
|
589
|
| 2018 CW2 |
2020-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
10.2
|
28
|
| 2019 BE5 |
2020-Feb-20
|
13.9 LD
|
14.8
|
34
|
| 2011 DR |
2020-Feb-23
|
14.7 LD
|
5.8
|
25
|
| 2016 CO246 |
2020-Feb-23
|
18.4 LD
|
5.9
|
23
|
| 2012 DS30 |
2020-Feb-26
|
12.3 LD
|
5.4
|
22
|
| 2015 BK509 |
2020-Feb-28
|
18.3 LD
|
12.5
|
118
|
| 2017 BM123 |
2020-Mar-01
|
10.5 LD
|
8.1
|
65
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
On Jan. 6, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 21 fireballs.
(16 sporadics, 2 Quadrantids, 2 Leonis Minorids, 1 alpha Hydrid)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Fireball News
The first meteorite of the year is for... Italy!https://t.co/Yl4Hox86VS pic.twitter.com/rPenWGfrPf
— AMSMETEORS (@amsmeteors) January 6, 2020
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-01-07. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Venus News
Active volcano on Venus. Image: volcanic peak Idunn Mons, data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft http://t.co/Yy8kgujX4H pic.twitter.com/ey4fql8hVx
— EarthSky (@earthskyscience) March 28, 2014
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-01-07. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, the orbit of transneptunian object (19521) Chaos is highlighted:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, 2020-01-07 - the orbit of (19521) Chaos is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
(19521) Chaos
19521 Chaos /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/ is a cubewano, a Kuiper-belt object not in resonance with any planet. It is a likely dwarf planet. Chaos was discovered in 1998 by the Deep Ecliptic Survey with Kitt Peak's 4 m telescope. Its albedo is 0.050+0.030 −0.016, making it, with its absolute magnitude (H) of 4.8, 600+140 −130 km in diameter. It is named after the primeval state of existence in Greek mythology, from which the first gods appeared.
19521 Chaos has an orbital period of approximately 309 years. Its orbit is longer, but less eccentric than the orbit of Pluto. 19521 Chaos's orbit is inclined approximately 12° to the ecliptic. Its orbit never crosses the orbit of Neptune. Currently, the closest approach possible to Neptune (MOID) is 12.5 AU (1.87 billion km) - Wikipedia
Artist's conception of transneptunian object (19521) Chaos. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
International Space Station
.@NASA TV goes live Tuesday at 4:45am ET broadcasting the @SpaceX #Dragon leaving the station at 5:03am loaded with over 3,600 pounds of science and cargo. #AskNASA | Read more... https://t.co/3CL5imhwNy pic.twitter.com/Lrit6zHxES
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) January 6, 2020
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
.@NASA_TESS has discovered a system of three planets that includes an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of the cool host star. Read more here: https://t.co/1n8SBbfqt7 #AAS235 pic.twitter.com/sZvjGJoNJ9
— NASA_TESS (@NASA_TESS) January 7, 2020
TESS has discovered an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of its star. With work led by grad student @EmDwarf & research assistant @GabrielleSuissa, and key contributions by a high school student! https://t.co/tH3rcIhYU2 pic.twitter.com/bcSDVRWCFU
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) January 7, 2020
Another high-school student analyzed observations from @NASA_TESS and helped discover a Saturn-like planet that is orbiting two stars, Tatooine-style. https://t.co/9cWVkvZq3K pic.twitter.com/qNHXNri2dm
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) January 7, 2020
Hubble Space Telescope
Did you know: Early designs of @NASAHubble included *a person inside the spacecraft operating it!* Slide from Jennifer Wiseman #AAS235 pic.twitter.com/f1Emc8tG09
— Liz Landau (@lizlandau) January 6, 2020
Climate
The recent wildfires in California, and the current wildfires in Australia are EXACTLY the type of negative effects from climate change that scientists have been warning about for years if not decades. I can not be more saddened or horrified.
A Landsat image taken Jan. 1 shows thick smoke from wildfires blanketing southeastern Australia, compared with the same area in clear skies on July 24, 2019. Our @NASAEarth satellites provide near real-time data to help detect and map the spread of fires: https://t.co/e8gWlMBhyK pic.twitter.com/USEyd27Le3
— NASA (@NASA) January 3, 2020
📈 413.09 parts per million (ppm) #CO2 in the last week of 2019 📈 Up from 409.55 ppm 1 year ago 📈 NOAA Mauna Loa data source: https://t.co/WxFPTcniYz 📈 Weekly https://t.co/DpFGQoYEwb updates & graphics: https://t.co/idlRE62qB1 & https://t.co/k88EQNe3Kn 🔄 pic.twitter.com/q1SUoNl5PW
— CO2 earth (@CO2_earth) January 6, 2020
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Myself, and at least one other member of the Warren Astronomical Society will soon start working with another individual to see about getting Belle Isle designated as an IDA Dark Sky site - I'll keep you posted as things develop.
Happy new year to all of you! 2020 will be the year of Gaia's Early Data Release 3 #GaiaEDR3: https://t.co/7pGutbmsDy with improved astrometry and photometry! pic.twitter.com/cO83nHXLGl
— ESA Gaia (@ESAGaia) January 6, 2020
In a panorama spanning a distance of over 600 light-years across, our @SOFIAtelescope shows the Milky Way galaxy's center in never-before-seen detail. This infrared image reveals dense swirls of gas and dust that are the building blocks for new stars: https://t.co/E3VLvpeSRI pic.twitter.com/4v1uwbS52r
— NASA (@NASA) January 6, 2020
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
In the Sky This Week – December 31, 2019
By mid-February 2020, I will be a grandparent! Thoughts of what the world might be like when my granddaughter is an adult naturally come to mind. What new things will astronomers have discovered in the cosmos? What new inventions will change society forever, again? I also have to give a thought to my granddaughter's quality of life, and in this I have to admit to no small amount of trepidation...
Before I started writing this post, I was collecting notes about what I wanted to discuss - the list of topics grew WAY past my expectations, and needs to be an article all by itself. Many, but not all of the topics relate to pollution in its various forms: microplastics, air pollution, light/electromagnetic pollution, compromised city water systems, PFAS, space junk - the list goes on and on... Let me condense all those notes into one single question:
Do you believe humanity is acting as adequate stewards of this Earth, and has the best interests of all its various lifeforms in mind?
I know how I'd answer that question, and my family members are taking steps to reduce their carbon output, plastic use, and we have been encouraging others to do the same for years now. I want to see a shift in mindset where billionaires and multi-national organizations all compete for a prestigious annual award recognizing those who helped to restore/repair Earth's environment!
On Sept. 4, 2019, a loose chain of tropical cyclones lined up across the Western Hemisphere. At the time of this image (1:10 p.m. EDT) Hurricane Juliette in the East Pacific and Hurricane Dorian in the Atlantic were both category 2 storms. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Fernand packed sustained winds of 45 mph and had just recently made landfall over northeastern Mexico. Gabrielle strengthened into a tropical storm on September 4 over the eastern Atlantic, and had sustained winds of 50 mph around the time of this image. Data for the simulated natural-color image were acquired with the Advanced Baseline Imager on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 16. GOES-16 is operated by NOAA; NASA helps develop and launch the GOES series of satellites. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens; NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Caption: Kathryn Hansen.
The star Capella is nearly overhead shortly after 11:00 PM this week.
Capella - nearly overhead shortly after 11:00 PM on 2019-12-30. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
From Antananarivo, Madagascar, the star Rigel is nearly overhead shortly after 10:30 PM this week.
The star Rigel is nearly overhead shortly after 10:30 PM this week seen from Antananarivo, Madagascar. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Mars continues to appear above the southeastern horizon before dawn this week.
Mars above the southeastern horizon around 6:30 AM this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
On New Year's Eve, the waxing crescent Moon joins Venus and the star Fomalhaut in the southwestern sky at dusk.
A waxing crescent Moon joins Venus and the star Fomalhaut in the southwestern sky at dusk on New Year's Eve. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The waxing gibbous Moon appears near the star Aldebaran high in the southeastern sky at 8:00 PM on Jan. 6th.
A waxing gibbous Moon appears near the star Aldebaran high in the southeastern sky at 8:00 PM on 2020-01-06. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The first-quarter Moon occurs on Jan. 3rd, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
After Jan. 3rd, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.
The Moon from 2019-12-31 - 2020-01-09. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Moon News
This tweet was pretty cool! It's a video showing a researcher very happily unpackaging and running experiments on lunar soil samples!
Don’t you love the look on someone’s face when they open the perfect gift? Scientist Jamie Elsila just got a present that’s out of this world. https://t.co/NodXSwbT5t 🎁
🎊 Happy Holidays! pic.twitter.com/8sR3EHmEKW
— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) December 23, 2019
The Sun has been spotless for 4 days - apparently we had a spot in middle of last week. The coronal hole at the Sun's north pole has shrunk, while the southern hole has grown and is now enormous; a couple small coronal holes appear in the southern hemisphere.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 30, 2019:
LOTS of prominence activity over the last couple days!
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 30, 2019:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 303.2 km/sec (↓), with a density of 3.0 protons/cm3 (↓) at 0810 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
Diving toward the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe caught a glimpse of a debris trail left by an asteroid boiling away from the heat… and the source of one of the year’s best meteor showers.https://t.co/lgWiPTyYKu
— Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) December 30, 2019
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 160 (+29), this year: 2400 (+31), all time: 21,791 (+31)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 901,889 (+12,979!)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 901,889 (+12,979!)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 WR4 |
2019-Dec-31
|
11.7 LD
|
4.2
|
21
|
| 2019 YK |
2020-Jan-01
|
14.1 LD
|
7.3
|
47
|
| 2019 YH2 |
2020-Jan-02
|
7.4 LD
|
14.3
|
86
|
| 2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
| 2019 YT3 |
2020-Jan-07
|
13.2 LD
|
7.4
|
27
|
| 2019 YV |
2020-Jan-10
|
17.3 LD
|
4.5
|
64
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
331
|
| 2019 WC5 |
2020-Jan-11
|
6.4 LD
|
13
|
108
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2019 YD3 |
2020-Jan-16
|
6.9 LD
|
4.8
|
23
|
| 2019 YG1 |
2020-Jan-17
|
17.5 LD
|
4.5
|
31
|
| 2019 YQ3 |
2020-Jan-17
|
18.4 LD
|
3.1
|
19
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
14.9 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2018 BU1 |
2020-Feb-02
|
19.4 LD
|
10
|
41
|
| 163373 |
2020-Feb-15
|
15.1 LD
|
15.2
|
589
|
| 2018 CW2 |
2020-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
10.2
|
28
|
| 2019 BE5 |
2020-Feb-20
|
13.9 LD
|
14.8
|
34
|
| 2011 DR |
2020-Feb-23
|
14.7 LD
|
5.8
|
25
|
| 2016 CO246 |
2020-Feb-23
|
18.4 LD
|
5.9
|
23
|
| 2012 DS30 |
2020-Feb-26
|
12.3 LD
|
5.4
|
22
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Asteroid News
I report the current #asteroid count each week in my "In the Sky" post for the @VaticanObsFound; I've noticed a LARGE weekly increase in those numbers since about mid-summer. What's the reason?@MinorPlanetCtr @specolations @AsteroidDay @NEOShieldTeam @IAU_org @AsteroidWatch pic.twitter.com/N0F6lcb0ru
— AstroBalrog (@AstroBalrog) December 31, 2019
The University of Arizona is working to begin efforts to construct a space-based infrared telescope that could provide the capabilities @NASA needs to search for asteroids and comets that pose impact hazards to Earth. More at https://t.co/P85aiy7UDP.
— Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) December 16, 2019
Thanks for your support, Senator! Looking forward to developing the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope so we can get a very good look at Earth’s nearest neighbors. https://t.co/wp4FoaELW3
— Amy Mainzer (@AmyMainzer) December 31, 2019
On Dec. 30, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 16 fireballs.
(15 sporadics, 1 Quadrantid)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Fireball News
A Christmas present from space – at 3:11:23 UTC a bright meteor was seen from FRIPON's Canterbury, Wimereux and Ludiver cameras – initial mass calculated by FRIPON was 1.25 kg (like a small chicken), final mass of 10 g (like a pigeon egg) so no hunting for this Christmas turkey! pic.twitter.com/hbhh76khi3
— UK Meteor Network (@UKMeteorNetwork) December 25, 2019
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system - the Parker Solar Probe has flown-by Venus, and is on the way to perihelion on January 29, 2020:
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2019-12-31. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2019-12-31. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, the orbit of Pluto is highlighted:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, 2019-12-31. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
I highlighted Pluto in the image above, but I wanted to talk about one of Pluto's several small moons, in this case: Nix.
Nix
#/media/File:Nix_best_view.jpg)
Processed image of Nix. Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI/Roman Tkachenko - Roman Tkachenko
Nix is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of 49.8 km (30.9 mi) across its longest dimension. It was discovered along with Pluto's outermost moon Hydra in June 2005 by the Pluto Companion Search Team. It was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. Nix is the third moon of Pluto by distance, orbiting between the moons Styx and Kerberos.
Nix was imaged along with Pluto and its other moons by the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew by the Pluto system in July 2015. Images from the New Horizons spacecraft reveal a large reddish area on Nix that is likely an impact crater. - Wikipedia
I was playing around in the Pluto system in SpaceEngine; The surface detail of Pluto and Charon are taken from actual photos and look fantastic! The minor moons, not so much... yet; you can see in the image below that the model for Nix does not match the photo - however the view of Pluto and Charon from Nix would be like the image below:
Artist's conception of Pluto and Charon seen from Nix. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
International Space Station
Dozens of experiments are going on at any given time aboard the @Space_Station. We're advancing our understanding of everything from robotics to combustion. 🤖🔥
Here is some of what we learned this year from ground-breaking space station science: https://t.co/5Bm996kFYv pic.twitter.com/pQ0MkxK5pn— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) December 28, 2019
Students and professors from @NCSSM and @NCState, @Astro_Christina’s alma mater, are saying #CongratsChristina today as she sets a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. pic.twitter.com/cmUtq0xhw3
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) December 28, 2019
Mars InSight - Drill has dug a bit deeper
NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image on December 30, 2019 (Sol 388), using its robotic arm-mounted, Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC). This image was acquired on December 30, 2019, Sol 388 where the local mean solar time for the image exposures was 11:57:51.828 AM. Each IDC image has a field of view of 45 x 45 degrees. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Climate
Air pollution in India’s capital has become so dire that the government declared a public health emergency on Friday, shutting all primary schools for days. NASA satellite imagery showed large swathes of India’s northern plains smothered by haze. https://t.co/PZ0rO1ruOm
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 4, 2019
The fires burning across Australia come after years of drought in parts of the country and record-breaking heat.
Earlier this week, the country had its hottest day on record — only to break that record the following day. https://t.co/FaXBFN8WJo
— NPR (@NPR) December 22, 2019
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Have you seen our newest ebook? "Earth at Night," tells the story of satellite measurements of global light in the night. Explore the brilliance of our home planet when it is in darkness.
📲 Free downloads for all e-readers: https://t.co/jlj4oiwbNd pic.twitter.com/0DeAXCN7c9— NASA (@NASA) December 30, 2019
Warren Astronomical Society Outreach recently got an email from a southeastern Michigan resident asking about a weird train of lights in the sky; I used Stellarium to set the date and time the resident saw the objects, and there was a train of Starlink sats visible, vanishing into the Earth's shadow. I'm putting future Starlink news here under the Light pollution section rather than the Spacecraft news section.
Location of Starlink train seen by a Michigan resident 2019-12-22. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
This is, sadly, one of the major problems with @elonmusk's ventures: Actions without considering consequences.
The starlink satellites are a pest, both to professional astronomers and for those of us who just like spending five mins looking at the stars.https://t.co/pw3MCCqGow— Simon Proud (@simon_sat) December 30, 2019
The burst released as much energy in 20 seconds as the Sun does in 10 days. https://t.co/G2o4UtwZir
— Astronomy Magazine (@AstronomyMag) December 31, 2019
Both Pioneer 10 and 11 carry a plaque bearing a message from Earth https://t.co/6xXrxAnxc7
— Astronomy Magazine (@AstronomyMag) December 31, 2019
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
In the Sky This Week – December 24, 2019
The waning crescent Moon joined Mars and the star Spica in the southeastern sky before sunrise on Dec. 24th - Mercury has vanished from the morning sky, and will return to the southwestern sky at dusk at the end of January 2020.
The waning crescent Moon, Mars and the star Spica align above the southeastern horizon before dawn on Dec. 24th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Saturn and Venus continue to move away from each other in the southwestern sky after sunset each evening - Saturn is very low on the horizon; the waxing crescent Moon joins Venus and Saturn on the evenings of Dec.27-29.
The red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the Constellation Orion appears high in the southern sky at midnight this week; this last week, I saw numerous tweets from astronomer about Betelgeuse, so I thought highlighting it might be appropriate.
The star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion high above the southern horizon at midnight this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Betelgeuse
The Constellation Orion. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Betelgeuse is generally the ninth-brightest star in the night sky and second-brightest in the constellation of Orion (after Rigel). It is a distinctly wreddish, semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude varies between +0.0 and +1.3, the widest range of any first-magnitude star. At near-infrared wavelengths, Betelgeuse is the brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation α Orionis, which is Latinised to Alpha Orionis and abbreviated Alpha Ori or α Ori.
Classified as a red supergiant of spectral type M1-2, Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. If Betelgeuse were at the center of the Solar System, its surface would extend past the asteroid belt, engulfing the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and possibly Jupiter. However, there are several other red supergiants in the Milky Way that are larger, such as Mu Cephei and VY Canis Majoris. Calculations of its mass range from slightly under ten to a little over twenty times that of the Sun. It is calculated to be 640 light-years away, yielding an absolute magnitude of about −6. Less than 10 million years old, Betelgeuse has evolved rapidly because of its large mass. Having been ejected from its birthplace in the Orion OB1 Association—which includes the stars in Orion's Belt—this runaway star has been observed moving through the interstellar medium at a speed of 30 km/s, creating a bow shock over four light-years wide. Betelgeuse is in the last stages of its evolution, and it is expected to explode as a supernova within the next million years. Some recent sources estimate a supernova event from today to 100 000 years. - Wikipedia
Observers have reported that Betelgeuse has been dimming recently - this tweet-thread has an excellent explanation of how red giants act:
space twitter has been buzzing recently with the observation that Betelgeuse is much, much dimmer than usual. what could that mean?! does it mean that it's close to explosion?
to start, let's talk a little bit about what's actually happening in/on this massive star..
— Sarafina Nance (@starstrickenSF) December 23, 2019
In 1996, Betelgeuse was the first star other than the Sun to have it's surface directly imaged:
This is the first direct image of a star other than the Sun, made with the Hubble Space Telescope. Called Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, it is a red supergiant star marking the shoulder of the winter constellation Orion the Hunter. The Hubble image reveals a huge ultraviolet atmosphere with a mysterious hot spot on the stellar behemoth's surface. The enormous bright spot, more than ten times the diameter of Earth, is at least 2, 000 Kelvin degrees hotter than the surface of the star. Credit: Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland (STScI), NASA and ESA
In 2017, the surface of Betelgeuse was imaged by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)
This orange blob shows the nearby star Betelgeuse, as seen by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This is the first time that ALMA has ever observed the surface of a star and this first attempt has resulted in the highest-resolution image of Betelgeuse available. Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars currently known — with a radius around 1400 times larger than the Sun’s in the millimeter continuum. About 600 light-years away in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), the red supergiant burns brightly, causing it to have only a short life expectancy. The star is just about eight million years old, but is already on the verge of becoming a supernova. When that happens, the resulting explosion will be visible from Earth, even in broad daylight. The star has been observed in many other wavelengths, particularly in the visible, infrared, and ultraviolet. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope astronomers discovered a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System. Astronomers have also found a gigantic bubble that boils away on Betelgeuse’s surface. These features help to explain how the star is shedding gas and dust at tremendous rates (eso0927, eso1121). In this picture, ALMA observes the hot gas of the photosphere of Betelgeuse at sub-millimeter wavelengths — where localised increased temperatures explain why it is not symmetric. Scientifically, ALMA can help us to understand the extended atmospheres of these hot, blazing stars. Links: Size comparison: Betelgeuse and the Sun
Seen from nearby, Betelgeuse would look rather "lumpy."
Artist conception of Betelgeuse seen from a hypothetical hot gas giant exoplanet and molten exomoon. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
The Moon is a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise - I saw this the last couple mornings, with earthshine!
The new Moon occurs on Dec. 26th.
After Dec. 26th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The Moon from Dec. 24-30, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
The Sun has been spotless for 40 days - continuing a long spot-free stretch. Large coronal holes remain open at both poles, and a small hole appears near the equator.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 23, 2019:
Light prominence activity over the last couple days - if you watch the video below closely, you will see several tall and short-lived prominences popping-up all over the Sun's limb.
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 23, 2019:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Solar wind speed is 364.8 km/sec (↑), with a density of 6.0 protons/cm3 (↓) at 1000 UT.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Solar Corona
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
It's getting hot in here! 🔥 We’re opening our doors for social media users to come behind-the-scenes of @NASAKennedy for the Feb. 5 launch of a @ULALaunch #AtlasV rocket carrying the @ESASolarOrbiter spacecraft that will study the Sun. Get more details: https://t.co/Nxam8LqlQW pic.twitter.com/NERyxIz0ul
— NASA (@NASA) December 24, 2019
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 XP3 |
2019-Dec-23
|
18.3 LD
|
8.9
|
42
|
| 2019 WB7 |
2019-Dec-23
|
2.8 LD
|
6.9
|
43
|
| 2019 YO |
2019-Dec-24
|
15.5 LD
|
3.6
|
18
|
| 2019 YE1 |
2019-Dec-24
|
13.6 LD
|
6.2
|
32
|
| 2019 YU |
2019-Dec-24
|
19.5 LD
|
16.4
|
85
|
| 2019 YB1 |
2019-Dec-25
|
4.2 LD
|
5.6
|
17
|
| 310442 |
2019-Dec-26
|
19 LD
|
12.3
|
372
|
| 2019 YQ |
2019-Dec-28
|
13.6 LD
|
3.4
|
9
|
| 2019 YX |
2019-Dec-29
|
18.5 LD
|
5.9
|
33
|
| 2019 WR4 |
2019-Dec-31
|
11.7 LD
|
4.2
|
21
|
| 2019 YK |
2020-Jan-01
|
14.1 LD
|
7.3
|
45
|
| 2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
| 2019 YV |
2020-Jan-10
|
17.3 LD
|
4.5
|
64
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
339
|
| 2019 WC5 |
2020-Jan-11
|
6.4 LD
|
13
|
107
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2019 YG1 |
2020-Jan-17
|
17.5 LD
|
4.4
|
30
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
14.9 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2018 BU1 |
2020-Feb-02
|
19.4 LD
|
10
|
41
|
| 163373 |
2020-Feb-15
|
15.1 LD
|
15.2
|
589
|
| 2018 CW2 |
2020-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
10.2
|
28
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 131 (+61), this year: 2369 (+62), all time: 21,760 (+62)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 888,910 (+9,216)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 888,910 (+9,216)
On Dec. 23, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 14 fireballs.
(13 sporadics, 1 Leonis Minorid)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Comet 46P/Wirtanen streaking across our night sky in this 3 hour time-lapse.
©Alex Cherney. #Santa #Astronomy #Space #Christmas pic.twitter.com/rMN2FOHIOB
— J E N N A ♀️ (@Science2_Space) December 23, 2019
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system - note how close the Parker Solar Probe is to Venus:
Position of the planets and some spacecraft in the inner solar system, Dec. 24, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
The Parker Solar Probe will flyby Venus the day after Christmas:
Parker Solar Probe Venus Flyby - 2019 Dec. 26. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Dec. 24, 2019. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, transneptunian object (TNO) and possible dwarf planet 2010 TJ is highlighted:
Outer Solar System Dec. 24, 2019 - Orbit of transneptunian object 2010 TJ is highlighted - vertical lines show distance above and below the plane of the ecliptic. Credit: JPL Small Body Database Browser / Bob Trembley.
2010 TJ
2010 TJ is a trans-Neptunian object from the scattered disc in the outermost region of the Solar System and measures approximately 460 kilometers in diameter. It was first observed by American astronomers David Rabinowitz, Megan Schwamb, and Suzanne Tourtellotte at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile on 2 October 2010.
2010 TJ is a probably a dwarf planet, based on Michael Brown's classification. Typical for scattered disc objects, it has an elliptical and inclined orbit: the object orbits the Sun at a distance of 39.9–84.9 AU once every 492 years and 9 months (179,965 days; semi-major axis of 62.4 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.36 and an inclination of 39° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with its first observation at La Silla in October 2010. - Wikipedia
Artist's conception of transneptunian object 2010 TJ. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
International Space Station
Our @ISS_Research in 2019 is helping us understand Parkinson’s disease, aging, microbes and more benefiting us on Earth and preparing us for missions to the Moon and Mars. https://t.co/4IXREBNGkM
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) December 23, 2019
Mars InSight
My latest round of hammering with the robotic mole has it heading further in the right direction. I’ll take a rest from digging while my team enjoys a holiday break, and meanwhile keep an ear out for more #marsquakes. pic.twitter.com/iYT4cgDccP
— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 23, 2019
NASA Climate
A new study finds that the Greenland Ice Sheet has lost 3.8 trillion tons of ice between 1992 and 2018. The study uses 26 satellite datasets to track global warming's effect on one of Earth's largest ice sheets and on rising sea levels: https://t.co/WEWHpqysTE pic.twitter.com/0Y1fkRkSel
— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) December 11, 2019
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Mexico has passed new legislation that makes #lightpollution subject to regulation under existing environmental laws. This is a historic event worldwide as it's the 1st instance of a country explicitly defining light pollution as an environmental pollutant https://t.co/kLvRqpF5xB
— IDA Dark-Sky (@IDADarkSky) December 19, 2019
.@NASASpitzer spies with its infrared eye… 👀
The Perseus Molecular Cloud over 500 light-years wide! This region has drawn the attention of astronomers for decades, with clusters of stellar infants, adolescents & adults defying ideas of star evolution: https://t.co/1Rx0HLCIOc pic.twitter.com/PdhvPPe0Tv
— NASA (@NASA) December 23, 2019
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Kerbal Space Program: Create and manage your own space program; build and launch rockets, aircraft, space planes, space probes, landers, rovers and more!
Stellarium v0.19.3 has been released! https://t.co/n69DRbtBE6
— Stellarium Dev. Team (@StellariumDev) December 24, 2019
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
In the Sky This Week – December 17, 2019
Saturn and Venus move away from each other each evening in the southwestern sky after sunset this week - by early next week, Saturn will be very low on the horizon.
-
- Saturn and Venus in the southwestern sky around 6:00 PM on Dec. 17th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
-
- Saturn and Venus in the southwestern sky around 6:00 PM on Dec. 23rd. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Mercury, Mars and the star Spica continue to align above the southeastern horizon before sunrise this week - Mercury is very low, and may be challenging to observe.
Mercury, Mars and the star Spica align above the southeastern horizon before dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The waning gibbous Moon appears in the eastern sky around midnight on Dec. 18th, the star Regulus nearby.
Waning gibbous Moon in the eastern sky around midnight on Dec. 18th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
A waning crescent Moon appears near the star Spica in the eastern sky around 4:00 AM on Dec. 21st.
Waning crescent Moon in the eastern sky near the star Spica at 4:00 AM on Dec. 21st. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Asteroid Occultations
More often than I thought, asteroids and transneptunian objects pass in front of stars, causing them to monetarily wink-out. This observing challenge is a rather more advanced than most, as it is best done with an 8 inch+ telescope, and if you intend on reporting your timings (kinda the point) you'll need video recording equipment with time-insertion hardware, and the ability to create AVI video files.
If enough observations are made from different locations, the data can be merged, revealing an outline of the object - this is how it was discovered that transneptunian object 2014 MU69 was a bilobed object; the binary nature of asteroid 90 Antiope can easily be seen in a profile image.
-
- Profile of 2014 MU69. Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / James Tuttle Keane
-
- Profile of 90 Antiope. Credit: http://occultations.org
Here's a video showing the efforts to observe the 2014 MU69 occultation in 2017:
There will be an occultation of a star by a main-belt asteroid on Dec. 20th at 5:14 UTC - the shadow will pass directly over lower Michigan!
-
- Occultation of UCAC4 540-026656 by 834 Burnhamia on 2019 Dec 20. Credit: www.poyntsource.com
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- Occultation of UCAC4 540-026656 by 834 Burnhamia on 2019 Dec 20 – Close-up. Credit: www.poyntsource.com
You can find a list of occultations here: http://www.poyntsource.com/New/Regions.htm
You can report occultation observations here: http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/Results/
The Moon is a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
The third quarter Moon occurs on Dec. 19th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.
After Dec. 19th, the Moon will be a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise.
The Moon from Dec. 17-23, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
The Sun has been spotless for 34 days - the longest stretch for quite some time. Large coronal holes appear at both poles, and a couple smaller holes appear near the center for the Sun's face.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 16, 2019:
Light prominence activity, but still good enough to point your solar telescope at.
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 16, 2019:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Solar wind speed is 351.1 km/sec (↓), with a density of 7.1 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1531 UT.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Solar Corona
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
Our Solar Dynamics Observatory has spotted a new kind of explosion on the Sun ☀️💥
A large loop of material, called a prominence, started falling back to the Sun's surface — but it ran into a snarl of magnetic field lines, sparking a magnetic explosion: https://t.co/s3ke3lejVl pic.twitter.com/g2XwyKMudi
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) December 17, 2019
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 XF |
2019-Dec-18
|
9.3 LD
|
24.1
|
79
|
| 216258 |
2019-Dec-20
|
15.3 LD
|
11.8
|
324
|
| 2013 XY20 |
2019-Dec-21
|
18.3 LD
|
1.9
|
28
|
| 2017 XQ60 |
2019-Dec-22
|
11 LD
|
15.6
|
47
|
| 310442 |
2019-Dec-26
|
19 LD
|
12.3
|
372
|
| 2019 WR4 |
2019-Dec-31
|
11.7 LD
|
4.2
|
21
|
| 2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
341
|
| 2019 WC5 |
2020-Jan-11
|
6.4 LD
|
13
|
107
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
15.3 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2018 BU1 |
2020-Feb-02
|
19.4 LD
|
10
|
41
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 70 (+15), this year: 2307 (+17), all time: 21698 (+18)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 879,694 (+23,220!!)
I created a trend-line chart using the totals for each week since last July - this shows the 1,000,000 point being crossed in 2023 - but if we keep getting these HUGE new additions each week, that will push that date way back!
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 879,694 (+23,220!!)
I created a trend-line chart using the totals for each week since last July - this shows the 1,000,000 point being crossed in 2023 - but if we keep getting these HUGE new additions each week, that will push that date way back!
On Dec. 15, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 113 fireballs.
(86 Geminids, 26 sporadics, 1 Dec. Monocerotid)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Fireball News
Scores of bright, fast Geminids could be seen over the UK last night, including this one seen through clouds from London. pic.twitter.com/lKPq1wMfv5
— UK Meteor Network (@UKMeteorNetwork) December 15, 2019
These two images, taken by Hubble, capture comet 2I/Borisov streaking though our solar system and on its way back to interstellar space. This mysterious visitor from the depths of space is the first identified comet to arrive here from another star: https://t.co/PwF4ykArGa pic.twitter.com/GMi6mvJa1T
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) December 12, 2019
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and some spacecraft in the inner solar system, Dec. 17, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system - the asteroid named after my wife is highlighted in red:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Dec. 17, 2019 - the orbit of main-belt asteroid 117852 Constance is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, transneptunian object (TNO) and possible dwarf planet (225088) 2007 OR10 is highlighted in red:
Outer Solar System Dec. 17, 2019 - Orbit of binary transneptunian object (225088) 2007 OR10 is highlighted in red. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley
(225088) 2007 OR10, proposed to be named Gonggong, is a likely dwarf planet orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. It is a member of the scattered disc, a high-eccentricity population of trans-Neptunian objects. 2007 OR10 is in a 3:10 orbital resonance with Neptune, in which it completes three orbits around the Sun for every ten orbits completed by Neptune. As of 2019, its distance from the Sun is 88 astronomical units (1.32×1010 km; 8.2×109 mi), and is the sixth-farthest known Solar System object. It was discovered in July 2007 by American astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz at the Palomar Observatory. The discovery was announced in January 2009.
At 1,230 km (760 mi) in diameter, 2007 OR10 is approximately the size of Pluto's moon Charon and is the fifth-largest known trans-Neptunian object in the Solar System. It is sufficiently massive to be gravitationally rounded, thereby qualifying for dwarf planet status. Its large mass also makes retention of a tenuous atmosphere of methane just possible, though such an atmosphere would slowly escape into space. 2007 OR10 is currently the largest known body in the Solar System without an official name, but in 2019, the discoverers hosted an online poll for the general public to help choose a name for the object, and the name Gonggong won. The winning name is derived from Gonggong, a Chinese water god responsible for chaos, floods and the tilt of the Earth.
2007 OR10 is red in color, due to the presence of organic compounds called tholins on its surface. Water ice is also present on its surface, which hints at a brief period of cryovolcanic activity in the distant past. 2007 OR10 rotates slowly compared to other trans-Neptunian objects, which typically have rotation periods around 12 hours. It has one known natural satellite, provisionally designated S/2010 (225088) 1, which may be responsible for its slow rotation. - Wikipedia
Artist conception of transneptunian object (225088) 2007 OR10 / Gonggong. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Orbit of S-2010 (225088) 1 around (225088) 2007 OR10 / Gonggong. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
(225088) 2007 OR10 / Gonggong seen from S-2010 (225088) 1. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
Solar System News
A new time-lapse movie reveals five of Saturn’s inner moons circling the gas giant. The closer moons orbit faster than those farther away, according to the laws of orbital motion. The video is composed of 33 Hubble snapshots taken over an 18-hour period: https://t.co/dLPXkCM3wI pic.twitter.com/rf8qnvIAEt
— HubbleTelescope (@HubbleTelescope) December 16, 2019
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
There’s definitely work to do before touching down on Nightingale’s surface… pic.twitter.com/weJAVs8wCS
— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) December 12, 2019
International Space Station
The first 3D printer made the trip to the @Space_Station in 2014.
Since then, we have learned a lot about how 3D printing works in microgravity, and how we might be able to recycle 3D printed parts.
Learn more: https://t.co/m0O5UwCplJ pic.twitter.com/ZEDx6IgydN
— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) December 16, 2019
Mars InSight
Digging a little deeper -
The mole has moved further down. With help from @NASAJPL and @DLR_en, my latest efforts to help the heat probe seem to be working. More digging to come. pic.twitter.com/JumZaqAecY— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 16, 2019
Juno Mission at Jupiter
This discovery would not have happened without the creativity and sharp thinking of my navigators and engineers, who steered me clear of a potentially mission-ending trip through Jupiter's shadow. Learn how: https://t.co/0q7Fuev92s pic.twitter.com/gVTM7tAsWB
— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) December 12, 2019
NASA Climate
The monthly GISTEMP surface temperature analysis update has been posted. The global mean temperature anomaly for November 2019 was 1.02°C above the 1951-1980 November average. https://t.co/EDTZWL4pYk pic.twitter.com/DM8EvalJWq
— NASA GISS (@NASAGISS) December 16, 2019
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
I did not want to edit this photo so I could show you the "light pollution" from Las Vegas seen from 130 miles at Death Valley. It will only get worse as population continues to sky rocket and urban sprawl destroys what is left of astronomy. pic.twitter.com/tbGRF7UMoQ
— Antonio Paris (@AntonioParis) December 4, 2019
Old sky photos show 100 reddish objects that have mysteriously vanished. Collapsing stars? Flaring black holes? Alien signals? Astronomers are investigating. https://t.co/RccIuohUrN pic.twitter.com/oymJeWJ9KL
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) December 17, 2019
Our latest DevLog takes an early look at our work on a new method (SPH) for simulating detailed object collisions, fragmentation, formation, and more.
Spoiler: it's very cool. https://t.co/0g6jReAAsF pic.twitter.com/eisCfWngMD
— Universe Sandbox (@UniverseSandbox) December 13, 2019
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Kerbal Space Program: Create and manage your own space program; build and launch rockets, aircraft, space planes, space probes, landers, rovers and more!
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
In the Sky This Week – December 10, 2019
I mentioned the Starlink satellite constellation to students in my after-school astronomy and space science club, and afterwards got into a discussion about space junk. I told the students that when I was their age, there were only a handful of man-made objects in Earth orbit. Today, there are thousands of objects in orbit - some useful, many not so much.
Animation showing different types of space debris objects and different debris sizes in orbit around Earth. Credit: ESA
Many satellites and space probes require multi-stage rockets to get them into orbit and/or to their destination. When a rocket stage is spent, it decouples - and continues in whatever orbit the vessel was currently in at that moment. If the vessel was in a sub-orbital trajectory, the spent stage either burns up, or is guided back to a safe landing - as has been known to happen. If the vessel was in orbit at the moment of decoupling, the spent stage remains in that orbit, becoming space debris. When a satellite or space probe has reached the end of its life, it can simply stay where it is, or if it is in low-Earth orbit, it can be de-orbited. It the satellite is in high-Earth orbit, it can be moved outward into a graveyard orbit. Note the use of the word "can;" there really aren't any "rules or regulations" or international governing agencies to cover this.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has a "Space debris by the numbers" website: https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers. At the time of this writing, the final statistics on that page show the number of debris objects estimated by statistical models to be in orbit:
- 34,000 objects >10 cm
- 900,000 objects from 1 cm - 10 cm
- 128 million objects from 1 mm - 1 cm
One might wonder, with so much junk in orbit, have there been any satellite collisions? The simple answer is yes, several.
Kessler Syndrome
The Kessler syndrome (also called the Kessler effect, collisional cascading, or ablation cascade), proposed by the NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978, is a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions. One implication is that the distribution of debris in orbit could render space activities and the use of satellites in specific orbital ranges difficult for many generations. - Wikipedia
The Kessler syndrome is illustrated effectively, if a bit theatrically, in this clip from the movie Gravity:
One of the things I learned from a NASA lecturer at a science fiction convention was:
Everything is space is moving REALLY FAST relative to everything else in space.
All that debris whizzing by the shuttle... yea, it's actually going several kilometers per second relative to them... Ain't no one gonna "get a visual" on that stuff... That speed is also the big problem: a grain of sand travelling at orbital velocities is a projectile with enough kinetic energy to damage satellites or, heaven forbid, an astronaut.
In an encouraging note, I saw this tweet last week from the European Space Agency discussing a mission to de-orbit space junk:
ESA commissions world’s first space debris removal!
ClearSpace-1 will be the first space mission to remove an item of debris from orbit, planned for launch in 2025
Find out more: ➡️https://t.co/aP9zZdfPdA#SpaceDebris#CleanSpace pic.twitter.com/xtY5qfzo8N
— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) December 9, 2019
This video shows several different concepts for removal of space debris:
As a player of Kerbal Space Program, I try to design my rockets to clean up their own garbage, but I still end up with spent stages and rocket bodies in high orbit when sending missions to far-off destinations.
A great resource to visualize all the stuff in space is with the interactive website: Stuffin.Space - the image below shows stuff orbiting near-ish the Earth, with the orbit of a Falcon rocket body highlighted in blue. You can just make out the nighttime lights of the U.S. beneath all the gray and red dots.
Stuff in Space (red=satellite, blue=rocket body, gray=debris), a Falcon rocket body orbit is highlighted in blue. Source: http://stuffin.space
There will be a conjunction of Saturn and Venus in the southwestern sky after sunset (~5:30 PM) for the next week.
Conjunction of Saturn and Venus in the southwestern sky at 5:30 PM from Dec. 10-16, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Mercury, Mars and the star Spica align above the southeastern horizon before sunrise this week - Mercury moves down toward the horizon a bit with each morning.
Mercury, Mars and the star Spica align above the southeastern horizon before dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The Moon appears near the star Aldebaran above the eastern horizon after sunset on Dec. 11th; a bit higher above the horizon is star Capella and the Pleiades star cluster.
The Moon near the star Aldebaran above the eastern horizon after sunset on Dec. 11th; the Pleiades and the star Capella are also prominent. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
NGC 6910
NGC 6910: stacked images from modded Canon 500D using OIII and Ha filters. Image credit: Erik Larsen derivative work: Roberto Mura / Creative Commons CC BY 2.0
NGC 6910 is an open cluster in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered by William Herschel on October 17, 1786. The cluster was also observed by John Herschel on September 18, 1828. It is a poor cluster and with prominent central concentration, with Trumpler class I2p. NGC 6910 is the core cluster of the stellar association Cygnus OB9.
NGC 6910 is located half a degree east-north east of Gamma Cygni, also known as Sadr. It may be physically related with the nebula IC 1318, which is also known as the Gamma Cygni nebula complex and lies at a similar distance, behind the galactic Great Rift. Cygnus OB9 is located within the Orion arm of the Milky Way. Cygnus OB9's dimensions in the sky are 2.5 degrees by 1.5 degrees, which corresponds at its distance to 175×105 light years across. It includes many OB stars, along with supergiant stars, like the red supergiant RW Cygni. Gamma Cygni is a foreground star, lying at a distance of approximately 1,500 light years. Because it lies behind a number of molecular clouds, the light from NGC 6910 is dimmed by more than one magnitude. - Wikipedia
I discovered NGC 6910 quite by accident, scanning my 8" Dobsonian reflector telescope around the star Sadr:
Location of NGC 6910, the Inchworm cluster, in the constellation Cygnus. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
This is pretty much what the cluster looks like in my 8" Dob:
NGC 6910 through a small telescope. Image credit: Peter Wienerroither, http://homepage.univie.ac.at/~pw/
The Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night.
The full Moon occurs on Dec. 12th, rising at sunset, visible high in the sky around midnight, and visible all night.
After Dec. 12th, the Moon will be a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
The Moon from Dec. 10-16, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Moon News
My wife has used this countless times in her classroom at at conventions:
This is our favorite way to celebrate #NationalCookieDay.
Here's how to make your own cookie Moon phases: https://t.co/bBzlwP1UB5 pic.twitter.com/mgxBsJr8Ik
— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) December 4, 2019
The Sun has been spotless for 26 days; coronal holes appear at both poles - the southern hole remains very large .
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 9, 2019:
I seemed to have timed this post well - I got a disconnected prominence and some loops on the Sun's today!
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 9, 2019:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
The solar wind speed is 426.6 km/sec (↑↑), with a density of 5.6 protons/cm3 (↑) at 2359 UT.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO
Sun News
Scientists have just announced the first discoveries from #ParkerSolarProbe’s daring mission to the Sun. What they’ve learned has changed our understanding of the way the Sun releases material and particles, influencing Earth and the entire solar system: https://t.co/3WFfZStojM pic.twitter.com/Q3BZAV7lrT
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) December 4, 2019
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 WO2 |
2019-Dec-09
|
4.8 LD
|
7.6
|
32
|
| 2019 XW |
2019-Dec-10
|
10.8 LD
|
15.6
|
59
|
| 2019 XO1 |
2019-Dec-13
|
7.9 LD
|
7.9
|
44
|
| 2019 WP6 |
2019-Dec-14
|
6.4 LD
|
4.4
|
22
|
| 2019 XF |
2019-Dec-18
|
9.4 LD
|
24.1
|
77
|
| 216258 |
2019-Dec-20
|
15.3 LD
|
11.8
|
324
|
| 2013 XY20 |
2019-Dec-21
|
18.3 LD
|
1.9
|
28
|
| 2017 XQ60 |
2019-Dec-22
|
11 LD
|
15.6
|
47
|
| 310442 |
2019-Dec-26
|
19 LD
|
12.3
|
372
|
| 2019 WR4 |
2019-Dec-31
|
11.7 LD
|
4.2
|
21
|
| 2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
356
|
| 2019 WC5 |
2020-Jan-11
|
6.3 LD
|
13
|
108
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
15.3 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
| 2018 BU1 |
2020-Feb-02
|
19.4 LD
|
10
|
41
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 55 (+55), this year: 2290 (+51), all time: 21680 (+49)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 856,474 (+16,004!!)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 856,474 (+16,004!!)
On Dec. 9, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
It's mind-boggling to imagine the interstellar journey that brought Comet Borisov from a distant star system to ours. This simulation shows just its last 300,000 years of travel. https://t.co/mSawdLacG9 pic.twitter.com/FP4uiRtKfR
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) December 9, 2019
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and some spacecraft in the inner solar system, Dec. 10, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Dec. 10, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, transneptunian object (TNO) and possible dwarf planet 120347 Salacia is highlighted in red:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, Dec. 10, 2019 - the orbit of transneptunian object 120347 Salacia is highlighted in red. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
120347 Salacia, provisional designation 2004 SB60, is a trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper belt, approximately 850 kilometers in diameter. As of 2018, it is located about 44.8 astronomical units from the Sun, and reaches apparent magnitude 20.7 at opposition.
Salacia was discovered on 22 September 2004, by American astronomers Henry Roe, Michael Brown and Kristina Barkume at the Palomar Observatory in California, United States. It has been observed 124 times, with precovery images back to 25 July 1982. Salacia orbits the Sun at an average distance that is slightly greater than that of Pluto. It was named after the Roman goddess Salacia and has a single known moon, Actaea.
Brown estimated that Salacia is very likely a dwarf planet. However, William Grundy et al. argue that objects such as Salacia, in the size range of 400–1000 km, with albedos less than ≈0.2 and densities of ≈1.2 g/cm3 or less, have likely never compressed into fully solid bodies, let alone differentiated or collapsed into hydrostatic equilibrium, and so are highly unlikely to be dwarf planets. - Wikipedia
Orbital plane of Actaea around 120347 Salacia compared to the plane of the ecliptic. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Artist conception of 120347 Salacia seen from above Actaea - with planetshine on Actaea from Salacia. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Artist conception of Actaea seen from the surface of transneptunian object, 120347 Salacia. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
Solar System News
📷 This image shows what appears to be a large patch of fresh, untrodden snow – but it's probably a bit too far away for a spontaneous snowball fight 😉. This is #Korolev crater on #Mars, seen by ESA's Mars Express on 4 April 2018 👉 https://t.co/1XkuyXCGAU pic.twitter.com/8aXELRWHkd
— ESA (@esa) December 9, 2019
Saturn’s moon Enceladus blasts a plume of material from its underground ocean into space, and our Cassini spacecraft flew right through the material to sample it. Now, an ongoing deep-dive into Cassini data has found new kinds of organic molecules there: https://t.co/VPM4VGLRQS pic.twitter.com/ThKMdWF6cx
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) October 2, 2019
Announcing our speakers for #IceGiants2020 Day 2 (January 21st) @RoyalSociety:
Heidi Hammel (@hbhammel of AURA) helps us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune, and looking ahead to future missions.https://t.co/hXML141SuLhttps://t.co/awWhFRnigW pic.twitter.com/XEjeZKf48o
— IceGiants (@IcyGiants) December 5, 2019
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
After discovering Bennu’s mysterious particle ejections, our science team investigated possible causes of this activity.
Learn more about what they found: https://t.co/kbLlu03pEe pic.twitter.com/LmDWeN2aNj— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) December 5, 2019
International Space Station
The Exp 61 crew has begun unpacking several tons of new supplies from the @SpaceX and @Roscosmos space freighters. Read more... https://t.co/q54wsgToYX pic.twitter.com/fWlp10NBqu
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) December 9, 2019
Juno Mission at Jupiter
This is the kind of view you can get when you skim just 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops. Image processed by Björn Jónsson. See details: https://t.co/k5K3Z8ESXS pic.twitter.com/51ly0ziCOh
— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) December 6, 2019
NASA Climate
Australia is burning.
Downtown Sydney was partially evacuated due to the smoke. Ferry service was cancelled due to low visibility. Fire alarms are randomly going off inside buildings. Schools are keeping children inside.
This is a climate emergency.https://t.co/DjL7YueIQw
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) December 10, 2019
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Beaver Island Seeking Dark-Sky Designation
This get's a LARGE thumbs up from me! You guys need any help?
Michigan’s Beaver Island seeks international dark sky designation https://t.co/JtGojOheG7
— MLive (@MLive) November 25, 2019
We are all made of stardust. Now, chemical sleuthing can even tell us what *kind* of stardust: Earth in particular is full of dust from dying, red giant stars. https://t.co/Utuw41kCCk pic.twitter.com/rFGqf4ZYKC
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) December 10, 2019
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Kerbal Space Program: Create and manage your own space program; build and launch rockets, aircraft, space planes, space probes, landers, rovers and more!
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
In the Sky This Week – December 3, 2019
At last night's meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society, the topic of the Starlink satellite constellation came up during the "In the News" segment, and a groan of dismay could be heard from the entire audience. If you are unfamiliar with Starlink, it is a constellation of potentially tens of thousands of communication satellites created by SpaceX with the goal of providing global high-speed internet - that concept sounds great!
Starlink satellites during a meteor shower on Nov. 22. pic.twitter.com/wJVk1qu49E
— Patrick Treuthardt, Ph.D. (@PTreuthardt) November 25, 2019
The first time I became aware of Starlink was after the 2nd satellite deployment mission of May of 2019, when 60 satellites were put into a 53° Earth orbit. Almost immediately satellite sightings started pouring in from around the world. Videos show a long trail of lights traversing the sky, virtually painting the orbits of the satellites in your mind's eye, and literally painting them in the cameras of astronomers and astrophotographers - who have started complaining loudly!
The NGC 5353/4 galaxy group is obscured by more than 25 Starlink satellite trails in this May 2019 image, taken from Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Credit: Victoria Girgis/Lowell Observatory
The International Astronomical Union posted this statement on June 3, 2019:
Over the past decades, considerable effort has gone into designing, building, and deploying satellites for many important purposes. Recently networks, known as satellite constellations, have been deployed and are planned in ever greater numbers in mainly low-Earth orbits for a variety of purposes, including providing communication services to underserved or remote areas. Until this year, the number of such satellites was below 200, but that number is now increasing rapidly, with plans to deploy potentially tens of thousands of them. In that event, satellite constellations will soon outnumber all previously launched satellites.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is concerned about these satellite constellations. The organisation, in general, embraces the principle of a dark and radio-quiet sky as not only essential to advancing our understanding of the Universe of which we are a part, but also as a resource for all humanity and for the protection of nocturnal wildlife. We do not yet understand the impact of thousands of these visible satellites scattered across the night sky and despite their good intentions, these satellite constellations may threaten both.
The scientific concerns are twofold. Firstly, the surfaces of these satellites are often made of highly reflective metal, and reflections from the Sun in the hours after sunset and before sunrise make them appear as slow-moving dots in the night sky. Although most of these reflections may be so faint that they are hard to pick out with the naked eye, they can be detrimental to the sensitive capabilities of large ground-based astronomical telescopes, including the extreme wide-angle survey telescopes currently under construction. Secondly, despite notable efforts to avoid interfering with radio astronomy frequencies, aggregate radio signals emitted from the satellite constellations can still threaten astronomical observations at radio wavelengths. Recent advances in radio astronomy, such as producing the first image of a black hole or understanding more about the formation of planetary systems, were only possible through concerted efforts in safeguarding the radio sky from interference.
The IAU is a science and technology organisation, stimulating and safeguarding advances in those areas. Although significant effort has been put into mitigating the problems with the different satellite constellations, we strongly recommend that all stakeholders in this new and largely unregulated frontier of space utilisation work collaboratively to their mutual advantage. Satellite constellations can pose a significant or debilitating threat to important existing and future astronomical infrastructures, and we urge their designers and deployers as well as policy-makers to work with the astronomical community in a concerted effort to analyse and understand the impact of satellite constellations. We also urge appropriate agencies to devise a regulatory framework to mitigate or eliminate the detrimental impacts on scientific exploration as soon as practical.
The IAU’s Commission B7 Protection of Existing and Potential Observatory Sites welcomes the opportunity to work proactively with everyone involved in these efforts. - IAU
Elon Musk initially dismissed astronomer's complaints, but has since agreed to take steps to reduce the albedo of the satellites; I've seen comments by supporters (or quite possibly internet trolls) accusing detractors of being Luddites - these Luddites would include astronomers who use high-tech multi-million dollar equipment... While I was researching the Starlink launch date for this post, I was surprised at the rather lengthy history section of the Wikipedia entry, and embarrassed at my near total lack of knowledge of that history. This story certainly has my attention now; I'm certain this story will be on-going and developing over the next several years.
The Moon appears in the sky at 3:00 PM for several days this week - about the time schools get out. If it's clear, I want to bring my 'scope to my after-school club and have the students see it.
The Moon appears above the east-southeastern horizon at 3:00 PM from Dec. 3-6th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Mercury, Mars and the star Spica align above the southeastern horizon before sunrise this week.
Mercury, Mars and the star Spica align above the southeastern horizon before dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Several planets appear above the southwestern horizon shortly after sunset this week. Jupiter sets soon after sunset, leaving Saturn and Venus above the southwestern horizon - great observing targets!
-
- Jupiter is very low, Venus and Saturn are higher above the southwestern horizon after sunset this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
-
- Shortly after sunset, Venus and Saturn appear above the southwestern horizon this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The Moon appears high above the south-southeastern horizon after sunset for several days this week - this is an ideal time to observe the Moon with binoculars or a telescope.
The Moon high above the south-southeastern horizon after sunset for several days this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The Andromeda galaxy appears almost directly overhead around 8:30 PM this week - as do the constellations Andromeda and Pegasus.
The constellations Pegasus and Andromeda appear directly overhead around 8:30 PM this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Starlink Satellites
Let me know if you have an observing session this week where you do NOT see a Starlink satellite.
The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening - the Moon is a great observing target this week!
The Moon will be at first quarter on Dec. 4th, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
After Dec. 4th, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night.
Moon News
These fractures in Komarov crater were made by magma – yes, you read that right – magma. Molten material bubbled up below the surface, pushing the Moon’s crust up and fracturing it in the process. This image shows an area just over 9 miles (15 km) wide. https://t.co/SCN9z6S1C3 pic.twitter.com/jzuVbLU92B
— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) December 3, 2019
The Sun has been spotless for 20 days; large coronal holes appear at both poles - the southern hole has gotten very large .
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 2, 2019:
Several prominences on the Sun's l today! I'm going to have to crack out my solar telescope when I finish this post!
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 2, 2019:
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
The solar wind speed is 297.0 km/sec (↓), with a density of 4.5 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1550 UT.
Facebook: SolarActivity
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Sun News
On Dec. 4, scientists are sharing new discoveries about the Sun from #ParkerSolarProbe — and we’ll discuss with experts during #NASAScience Live!
🗓️ Dec. 4
🕒 3pm ET / 12pm PT
🔗 https://t.co/Uqi7MpLDD7
❓ #askNASA pic.twitter.com/sx31rGLa11— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) December 3, 2019
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2017 AP4 |
2019-Dec-03
|
8.5 LD
|
7.5
|
15
|
| 2019 WW |
2019-Dec-05
|
8.6 LD
|
9.8
|
43
|
| 2019 WB5 |
2019-Dec-06
|
18.7 LD
|
22
|
48
|
| 2019 WR3 |
2019-Dec-06
|
14.2 LD
|
7.5
|
98
|
| 2019 WJ6 |
2019-Dec-07
|
7.5 LD
|
21.1
|
47
|
| 2018 XW2 |
2019-Dec-07
|
17.4 LD
|
13
|
28
|
| 2019 VH5 |
2019-Dec-08
|
18 LD
|
9.8
|
73
|
| 2019 XB |
2019-Dec-09
|
17.4 LD
|
7.9
|
67
|
| 2019 WT3 |
2019-Dec-09
|
9.8 LD
|
11
|
41
|
| 2019 WO2 |
2019-Dec-09
|
4.8 LD
|
7.6
|
34
|
| 2019 XF |
2019-Dec-18
|
9.5 LD
|
24.4
|
78
|
| 216258 |
2019-Dec-20
|
15.3 LD
|
11.8
|
324
|
| 2013 XY20 |
2019-Dec-21
|
18.3 LD
|
1.9
|
28
|
| 2017 XQ60 |
2019-Dec-22
|
11 LD
|
15.6
|
47
|
| 310442 |
2019-Dec-26
|
19 LD
|
12.3
|
372
|
| 2019 WR4 |
2019-Dec-31
|
11.7 LD
|
4.3
|
21
|
| 2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
361
|
| 2019 WC5 |
2020-Jan-11
|
6.4 LD
|
13
|
112
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
15.3 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
| 2018 AL12 |
2020-Jan-30
|
18.2 LD
|
17.7
|
39
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 0, this year: 2239 (-398), all time: 21631 (+88)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 840,470 (+178)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 840,470 (+178)
Asteroid News: Hera Mission to Deflect an Asteroid Funded!
So proud! The #HeraMission was just approved by @esa during #Space19plus. Here is our official statement! Representing 1,600 scientists includibg Lord Martin Rees and @DrBrianMayhttps://t.co/stCiOINFCd pic.twitter.com/W8tOnvDeMP
— supportHera (@SupportHera) November 28, 2019
More on the Hera Mission:
Go for Didymoon! ESA's #asteroid #HeraMission for #PlanetaryDefense has been approved by Europe's space ministers at #Space19plus. The spacecraft will be Europe's contribution to the international #AIDA4Asteroids endeavour, teamed with @NASA's DART mission https://t.co/vEcmuPbfQw pic.twitter.com/PBBBurDRM1
— ESA Technology (@ESA_Tech) November 29, 2019
#HeraMission will be an extremely agile, 'self-driving' spacecraft to navigate around the double #DidymosAsteroid system, with a 780 m body orbited by a 160 m moon - seen here by #SagradaFamília in #Barcelona. It will carry 2 tiny #CubeSats to go closer https://t.co/vEcmuPbfQw pic.twitter.com/P3xZ6oZzud
— ESA Technology (@ESA_Tech) November 29, 2019
On Dec. 3, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 50 fireballs.
(47 sporadics, 2 Nov. omega Orionids, 1 Quadrantids)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Interstellar comet 2I/Borisov might break apart as it goes around the Sun - https://t.co/XIn47xQxTn pic.twitter.com/PkNq8cHNdg
— Fraser Cain (@fcain) December 3, 2019
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and some spacecraft in the inner solar system, Dec. 3, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Dec. 3, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, transneptunian object (TNO) and possible dwarf planet 420356 Praamzius is highlighted in red:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, Dec. 3, 2019, with the orbit of transneptunian object 2012 BX85 / (420356) Praamzius highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley
420356 Praamzius, provisional designation 2012 BX85, is a trans-Neptunian object from the classical Kuiper belt, located in the outermost region of the Solar System, approximately 190–320 kilometers (120–200 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 23 January 2012, by astronomers Kazimieras Černis and Richard Boyle with the Vatican's VATT at Mount Graham Observatory in Arizona, United States. The cold classical Kuiper belt object is a weak dwarf planet candidate and possibly very red in color. It was named after the chief god Praamžius from Lithuanian mythology. - Wikipedia
Artist conception of transneptunian object 2012 BX85 / (420356) Praamzius. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
Solar System News
Space Debris orbiting Earth
Credit: Technical University Braunschweig pic.twitter.com/UJSYe7oSR8
— Universal-Sci (@universal_sci) December 2, 2019
Another resource for space junk is http://stuffin.spaceli
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
Wowza. Today marks one full year at Bennu 🎉
Celebrating everything that’s happened so far! #ToBennuAndBack pic.twitter.com/REekmfkjGG
— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) December 3, 2019
International Space Station
The Exp 61 crew is focusing on U.S. and Russian space shipments after completing a spacewalk on Monday. Read more... https://t.co/JkBWZSseHX pic.twitter.com/zt7JreFOKH
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) December 3, 2019
Juno Mission at Jupiter
Today, our @NASAJuno spacecraft orbits Jupiter, studying its magnetic field, atmosphere and deep interior. Image processed by Gerald Eichstädt.https://t.co/MrABgEFES8 pic.twitter.com/SFYhee52No
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) December 3, 2019
NASA Climate
A vast animal migration – the largest on the planet and a critical part of Earth’s climate system – has been observed globally for the first time, thanks to an unexpected use of a space-based laser: https://t.co/8HtvKD4vTZ pic.twitter.com/NhNN1lfoh0
— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) December 3, 2019
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
We're in good company on this list of 13 nonprofits working on pollution solutions! Luckily, #lightpollution is the easiest form of pollution to reverse; the actions we take today have an impact on our night tomorrow. @1PercentFTP https://t.co/4xW4iskAKg
— IDA Dark-Sky (@IDADarkSky) November 27, 2019
NASA Using Virtual Reality in 1993!
In preparation for STS-61, the first @NASAHubble Space Telescope servicing mission, which launched #OTD in 1993, @NASA Astronaut Jeff Hoffman wears a virtual reality helmet and gloves to practice positioning the Space Shuttle Endeavour's robotic arm.
VR - not new for NASA. pic.twitter.com/Sx73qKlIcd
— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) December 2, 2019
New, Scattered-Light View of Planet-Forming Disks
A New, Scattered-Light View of Planet-Forming Disks https://t.co/xb9Ebex9hC pic.twitter.com/VP2VROwgxw
— Prof. Abel Méndez (@ProfAbelMendez) December 3, 2019
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Kerbal Space Program: Create and manage your own space program; build and launch rockets, aircraft, space planes, space probes, landers, rovers and more!
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today
In the Sky This Week – November 26, 2019
Last week I had students in my after-school astronomy and space science club build and fly rockets in Kerbal Space Program. I had them launch and recover a small pre-made rocket, and build-from-scratch a sub-orbital crewed rocket, similar to a Mercury Redstone. The very next day, I gave the "In the News" report at the meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society - I shamelessly pulled material from my previous "In the Sky" post; I included a slide about the Europa Clipper mission, and a couple about mid-ocean rift ecosystems and extremophiles.
There will be a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter low on the southwestern horizon all week; Saturn continues to appear high above the southwestern horizon, and makes for an excellent observing target after Jupiter and Venus have set.
Saturn is high, and Venus and Jupiter are both very low and near each other above the the southwestern horizon after sunset this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Kerbal Space Program has been posting bits of astronomy news and space history on their social media feeds lately - I approve!
There's a Venus & Jupiter conjunction on Nov 24th. A conjunction is when any two astronomical objects appear closer together in the sky, as observed from Earth. Look for this impressive sight in the western sky just after sunset. #LessonsWithLinus pic.twitter.com/ZVkdpSTUBg
— Kerbal Space Program (@KerbalSpaceP) November 23, 2019
A very thin waxing crescent Moon joins the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter on November 28th.
The Moon appears near Venus low above the southwestern horizon after sunset on Nov. 28th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob TrembleyOn Nov. 29th, the Moon appears near Saturn; Jupiter and Venus will have moved away from each other.
The Moon appears near Saturn high above the southwestern horizon after sunset on Nov. 29th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Mercury appears above the southeastern horizon before sunrise this week, with Mars and the star Spica lining up with each other. I actually went outside to see if I could see Mercury this morning, but there was so much haze in the air that I could barely see Mars - the horizon was completely obscured.
Mercury, Mars and the star Spica appear in a line above the southeastern horizon before dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
What's that bright star in the southern sky after sunset? Fomalhaut.
The star Fomalhaut is the bright star to the south after sunset this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The constellation Canis Major and Sirius, the brightest star in our skies, rises in the southeastern sky at midnight.
The constellation Canis Major rising in the southeastern horizon at midnight on Nov. 26, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
As I was writing this post, I wondered what the sky from the south pole would look like, so I set Stellarium's location there, and had a eye-blink moment when I saw "north" as the only cardinal coordinate all the way around me.
M 41
Messier 41 (also known as M41 or NGC 2287) is an open cluster in the constellation Canis Major. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 and was perhaps known to Aristotle about 325 BC. M41 lies about four degrees almost exactly south of Sirius, and forms a triangle with it and Nu2 Canis Majoris—all three can be seen in the same field in binoculars. The cluster itself covers an area around the size of the full moon. It contains about 100 stars including several red giants, the brightest being a spectral type K3 giant of apparent magnitude 6.3 near the cluster's center, and a number of white dwarfs. The cluster is estimated to be moving away from us at 23.3 km/s. The diameter of the cluster is between 25 and 26 light years. It is estimated to be 190 million years old, and cluster properties and dynamics suggest a total life expectancy of 500 million years for this cluster, before it will have disintegrated. - Wikipedia
Messier 41. Credit: WikiSky
Location of M 41 in the constellation Canis Major. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The new Moon occurs on Nov. 26th, and will not be visible for a couple days.
After Nov. 26th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The Moon from Nov. 26-Dec. 2, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Kerbonauts, which moon phase is best for viewing faint stellar objects?
🌚We'll give you a hint, it's happening tomorrow!#LessonsWithLinus pic.twitter.com/RcbTS567Ew— Kerbal Space Program (@KerbalSpaceP) November 25, 2019
Moon News
OK... this would completely creep-out my arachnophobic wife, but I can see why multi-legged insect-like robot designs would have a lot of potential for planetary exploration.
The UK is sending a small, four-legged robot to the Moon in 2021. The tiny rover, which looks like a cross between a spider and a children’s toy, will be the first Moon rover for the U.K. It will also be the first rover with legs to walk on the Moon. https://t.co/KB9VMf4T9y
— Dylan Taylor (@SpaceAdvisor) November 25, 2019
The Sun has been spot-free for 13 days; the northern coronal hole seems to have enlarged from last week, and there is a large southern hole this week. A smaller coronal hole appears below the equator - where there is also a region of coronal loop activity.
Sun in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Nov. 19, 2019. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
A rather large set of prominences on one limb of the Sun today! I'm going to have to crack out my solar telescope when I finish this post!
Sun in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Nov. 19, 2019. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
Facebook: SolarActivity
The solar wind speed is 412.1 km/sec (↑), with a density of 4.4 protons/cm3 (↓) at 1550 UT.
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Sun News
Each second, 1.5 million tons of solar material shoot off the Sun into space. The magnetosphere shields Earth, but the solar wind can get in near the poles and disrupt satellite, radio & GPS signals. 3 new missions aim to improve this technology problem: https://t.co/EER7pSZWZM pic.twitter.com/YO3CuTXnHi
— NASA (@NASA) November 24, 2019
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 WN1 |
2019-Dec-01
|
4.3 LD
|
10.1
|
18
|
| 2017 AP4 |
2019-Dec-03
|
8.5 LD
|
7.5
|
15
|
| 2019 WW |
2019-Dec-05
|
8.6 LD
|
9.8
|
41
|
| 2018 XW2 |
2019-Dec-07
|
17.4 LD
|
13
|
28
|
| 2019 VH5 |
2019-Dec-08
|
18 LD
|
9.8
|
72
|
| 216258 |
2019-Dec-20
|
15.3 LD
|
11.8
|
324
|
| 2013 XY20 |
2019-Dec-21
|
18.4 LD
|
1.9
|
28
|
| 2017 XQ60 |
2019-Dec-22
|
11 LD
|
15.6
|
47
|
| 310442 |
2019-Dec-26
|
19 LD
|
12.3
|
372
|
| 2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
367
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
| 2009 BH2 |
2020-Jan-18
|
14.6 LD
|
17.9
|
118
|
| 2013 DU |
2020-Jan-20
|
15.3 LD
|
6.4
|
59
|
| 2019 TF2 |
2020-Jan-23
|
16.2 LD
|
1.6
|
18
|
| 2018 BM5 |
2020-Jan-23
|
13.1 LD
|
8.6
|
12
|
Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 135 (+28), this year: 2637 (+29), all time: 21543 (+27)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 840,292 (+164)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 840,292 (+164)
Asteroid News: Possible Asteroid Impact Ejecta Blanket on Mars
HiPOD 25 Nov 2019: Asymmetry
With an asymmetric, butterfly pattern-like, ejecta blanket, this may be indicative of a low angle asteroid impact. Our imaging will allow us to determine if that’s the case, or if the asymmetry is due to erosional processes.https://t.co/QXY4KswIcg pic.twitter.com/bagY2p2VZ2
— HiRISE (NASA) (@HiRISE) November 25, 2019
On Nov. 25, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 25 fireballs.
(20 sporadics, 3 omicron Eridanids, 1 Leonids, 1 Nov. omega Orionid)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.com
Fireball News
#Meteor over #Madison #LakeMendota Saturday night! Captured by rooftop cameras on our building at @UWMadison. HT @PTH1 for finding the footage! https://t.co/rqegt1vM21 pic.twitter.com/xD8USej8U5
— UW-Madison CIMSS (@UWCIMSS) November 24, 2019
Another day, another meteor caught on MCTS bus cameras! Check out the view looking north over Milwaukee around 5:42 p.m. on Saturday, November 23rd. https://t.co/EYMCE08Iw4 pic.twitter.com/ojtZblnN4q
— RideMCTS (@RideMCTS) November 24, 2019
It's great to announce that @DrBrianMay is joining our mission's science team! ESA Study Scientist for Comet Interceptor @mggtTaylor welcomes Brian on board... pic.twitter.com/DPvHqvkaRx
— CometInterceptor (@CometIntercept) November 26, 2019
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and some spacecraft in the inner solar system, Nov. 26, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Nov. 26, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets and a several bodies in the outer solar system:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, Nov. 26, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of binary transneptunian object (TNO) and possible dwarf planet 38628 Huya and its satellite in the outer solar system:
Orbit of transneptunian object Huya. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
38628 Huya (/huːˈjɑː/ hoo-YAH), provisional designation 2000 EB173, is a trans-Neptunian object with a large satellite. It is located in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy objects orbiting beyond Neptune in the outer Solar System. Huya is classfied as a plutino, a dynamical class of trans-Neptunian objects with orbits in a 3:2 orbital resonance with Neptune. It was discovered by the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team and was identified by Venezuelan astronomer Ignacio Ferrín in March 2000. It is named after Juyá, the mythological rain god of the Wayuu people native to South America.
Huya's surface is moderately red in color due to the presence of complex organic compounds on its surface. Water ice has been suspected to be also present on its surface, although water ice has not been directly detected on Huya. Huya is considered as a mid-sized trans-Neptunian object, with an estimated diameter of about 400 km (250 mi). Huya was considered to be a possible dwarf planet, though its relatively small size and dark surface imply that it never collapsed into a truly solid body and thus may never have been in hydrostatic equilibrium. - Wikipedia
Like Pluto and Charon, Huya and its satellite orbit around a barycenter; the Huya system's barycenter is just below the surface of Huya:
Artist conception of the Huya System: the orbit of its satellite S/2012(38628) 1 is shown in red - the system's barycenter also shown in red. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Huya's satellite, S/2012 (38628) 1, orbits about 1,740 km from Huya - that's pretty close! Huya would appear huge on the horizon of S/2012 (38628) 1:
Artist conception of transneptunian object Huya and the Sun seen from Huya's satellite S/2012(38628) 1. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
NASA's Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
Solar System News
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
The team is in the midst of selecting the final primary and backup sample collection sites! Each site has its particular perks — and its own obstacles. The team is mulling over all of these as they make their decision.
So… how’s Sandpiper looking?https://t.co/hXZgFdKL9x pic.twitter.com/xaA02v1nux
— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) November 22, 2019
Next up for the judges…
Site Osprey 🔎👀
Learn more: https://t.co/EA5JlSSRgO pic.twitter.com/OyUnofF1lZ
— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) November 25, 2019
International Space Station
The three NASA astronauts on board the station, @Astro_Christina, @Astro_Jessica and @AstroDrewMorgan, share what #Thanksgiving means to them and get a look at what the holiday in space will be like in 2019. pic.twitter.com/fEgZIHIrf7
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) November 25, 2019
NASA Climate
Last month's global average concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) was nearly 412 parts per million (ppm), up approximately 24 ppm from October 2009. #2009vs2019 https://t.co/qjYgQZqqbL
— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) November 19, 2019
NASA, NOAA & European agencies are preparing to launch a joint 10-year satellite mission to continue to study the clearest sign of global warming — rising sea levels. The Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission will extend sea level records to nearly 40 years. https://t.co/Lbcib7au87
— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) November 21, 2019
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
Exoplanet Artwork by Bob Trembley: Brown Dwarf Luhman 16 A
Artist conception of brown dwarf Luhman 16 A, its companion is highlighted in the distance. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
A brown dwarf is a type of substellar object occupying the mass range between the heaviest gas giant planets and the lightest stars, having a mass between approximately 13 and 75–80 times that of Jupiter (MJ), or approximately 2.5×1028 kg to about 1.5×1029 kg. Below this range are the sub-brown dwarfs (sometimes referred to as rogue planets), and above it are the lightest red dwarfs. Brown dwarfs may be fully convective, with no layers or chemical differentiation by depth.
Unlike the stars in the main sequence, brown dwarfs are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen (1H) to helium in their cores. They are, however, thought to fuse deuterium (2H) and to fuse lithium (7Li) if their mass is above a threshold of 13 MJ and 65 MJ, respectively. It is also debated whether brown dwarfs would be better defined by their formation processes rather than by their nuclear fusion reactions.
Stars are categorized by spectral class, with brown dwarfs designated as types M, L, T, and Y. Despite their name, brown dwarfs are of different colors. Many brown dwarfs would likely appear magenta to the human eye, or possibly orange/red. Brown dwarfs are not very luminous at visible wavelengths.
There are planets known to orbit brown dwarfs: 2M1207b, MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, and 2MASS J044144b.
At a distance of about 6.5 light years, the nearest known brown dwarf is Luhman 16, a binary system of brown dwarfs discovered in 2013. HR 2562 b is listed as the most-massive known exoplanet (as of December 2017) in NASA's exoplanet archive, despite having a mass (30±15 MJ) more than twice the 13-Jupiter-mass cutoff between planets and brown dwarfs. - Wikipedia
Orbits of Binary Brown Dwarfs of the Luhman 16 System:
Orbits of binary brown dwarfs Luhman 16 A and Luhman 16 B. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Brown Dwarf News
Figure 21 says it all. When you split up the population of substellar imaged companions by mass or mass ratio, the eccentricity distributions are distinct. This points to different formation mechanisms. pic.twitter.com/hIPTz7ab28
— Sarah Blunt (@SarahCBlunt) November 26, 2019
In an urban environment, people sometimes forget about the beauty of the night sky. A new exhibit called "Chicago's Night Sky" at the Adler Planetarium wants to change that. https://t.co/fYJcmiHc2q
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) November 25, 2019
Hubble Deep Field South!
#HubbleClassic Have you heard of the Hubble Deep Field, showing galaxies in a tiny part of sky near the Big Dipper? Did you know there's a Hubble Deep Field South? This image, released in November 1998, shows galaxies in the southern constellation Tucana. pic.twitter.com/i0y6IXxEcr
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) November 26, 2019
Apps used for this post:
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator - free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It's a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Kerbal Space Program: Create and manage your own space program; build and launch rockets, aircraft, space planes, space probes, landers, rovers and more!
Section header image credits:
The Sky - Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target - Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon - NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids - NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs - Credited to YouTube
Comets - Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News - NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets - Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution - NASA's Black Marble
The Universe - Universe Today