Posts by Bob Trembley

In the Sky This Week – April 7, 2020

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This entry is part 142 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

Last night, I gave the featured presentation during the Warren Astronomical Society's online WebEx/YouTube meeting: The Challenges of Interstellar Travel. I cannot believe how much I learned putting this presentation together; honestly, there's probably weeks more research I could do, and papers I could read.

I discussed sending small probes and giant generation ships to the stars, and the enormous amount of energy, resources and manufacturing it would require. I talked about physical and mental problems related to space travel, and what it would take to keep humans alive during an interstellar voyage. I concluded my presentation suggesting maybe we should make sure all the life-support systems are functioning properly on the generation ship we all share, and are travelling through interstellar space aboard.

NASA at Home
The NASA at Home page has links to lots of online NASA resources for things to do at home - here's a couple:

You'll see some redundancy; NASA is trying to put the lists out there on different sites where folks might typically go.

The three-planet conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in the early morning southeastern sky continues with Mars pulling away from Saturn each morning.

Conjunction of Saturn, Mars and Jupiter

Conjunction of Saturn, Mars and Jupiter in the southeastern predawn sky on April 7th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon joins the three-planet conjunction on the mornings of April 13-17.

Conjunction of Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and the Moon

Conjunction of Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and the Moon in the southeastern predawn sky on April 13th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Venus passed through the Pleiades star cluster on April 6th, and now appears "above" the Pleiades in the western sky at dusk.

Western sky after sunset

Venus now appears above the Pleiades star cluster, and the star Aldebaran is a short way away in the western sky after sunset this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Several members of the Warren Astronomical Society showed images they took of the conjunction of Venus and the Pleiades during our online meeting; Doug Bock, an avid astrophotographer, was able to share his screen and flip through several images he'd processed - that was very cool! Doug tweeted several of those images:

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 April 8th - it rises at sunset, is visible high in the sky around midnight, and is visible all night.

After April 8th, the Moon will be a waning gibbous - rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-04-07 - 2020-04-13. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

Moon News

I saw this and said "I didn't know that! I've got to include it!"

The end of the video states:

"The [lunar] seismograph network recorded more than 13,000 seismic events and delivered some of the most important scientific results of the Apollo missions."

I really wish we had a functioning network of lunar seismometers!

The Sun has been spot-free for 2 days, however the remnants sunspot AR2759 can be seen in the videos below as bright patches above the equator. The northern coronal hole has reopened; the southern coronal hole continues to be open and huge.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Apr. 6, 2020:

Several looping prominences on the Sun's limb over the last couple days.

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Apr. 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.

 

Facebook: SolarActivity

Take a close look at that loop - just WOW! Every time I see gorgeous amateur photography of the Sun like this, I can't help but think how much the solar astronomers of the mid-late 1800's would have LOVED to see these.

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 305.5 km/sec (↓↓), with a density of 2.0 protons/cm3 (↓↓) at 1136 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

 

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 48  (+48), this year: 764  (+114), all time: 22,596  (+114)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 957,783  (+187)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 GE1
2020-Apr-06
3.7 LD
4.6
14
2020 FQ6
2020-Apr-06
17.9 LD
11.2
37
2020 GN1
2020-Apr-06
7.7 LD
6.5
13
2020 GB1
2020-Apr-06
1.1 LD
8.3
15
2020 GQ1
2020-Apr-07
4.4 LD
16.9
16
2020 GW1
2020-Apr-08
5.9 LD
13.2
23
2020 GF1
2020-Apr-08
1.5 LD
6.1
21
2020 FL4
2020-Apr-09
10.4 LD
4.6
15
2015 GK
2020-Apr-09
12.2 LD
12.9
25
2020 FW4
2020-Apr-09
19.7 LD
18.6
161
2020 GE
2020-Apr-10
5.4 LD
2.2
8
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
2020 GM1
2020-Apr-11
10.2 LD
25.6
67
2020 GU1
2020-Apr-11
5.9 LD
6.9
10
2020 GG
2020-Apr-11
9.7 LD
5.5
17
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224
2020 FX3
2020-Apr-15
14.1 LD
10.3
56
2020 FZ6
2020-Apr-15
20 LD
21.7
189
2020 FV6
2020-Apr-19
10.8 LD
19.7
88
2019 HS2
2020-Apr-26
13.6 LD
12.6
17
2019 GF1
2020-Apr-27
18.7 LD
3.2
12
2020 FM6
2020-Apr-27
14.3 LD
16.9
156
52768
2020-Apr-29
16.4 LD
8.7
2457
2020 DM4
2020-May-01
18.4 LD
6.4
162
438908
2020-May-07
8.9 LD
12.8
282
2016 HP6
2020-May-07
4.3 LD
5.7
31
388945
2020-May-10
7.3 LD
8.8
295
2000 KA
2020-May-12
8.9 LD
13.5
162
478784
2020-May-15
8.5 LD
3.6
28
136795
2020-May-21
16.1 LD
11.7
892

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 Apr. 6, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 4 fireballs. 
(4 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). Credit: SpaceWeather.com

Fireball & Meteor News:

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-04-07. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system 2020-04-07. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

 

Position of the planets some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system - a small part of Sedna's orbit is highlighted.

Outer Solar System

Position of the planets in the outer solar system 2020-04-07- part of the orbit of transneptunian object Sedna is highlighted. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Hubble Space Telescope

International Space Station

Climate

Exoplanet
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.

All Exoplanets 4144  (+3)
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2357
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2348
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 889
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 45  (+2)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-04-01 04:30:02) 1766
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1766
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1112  (-1)

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.

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to Lacaille 9352, 10.73 light years distant.

Lacaille 9352

Distance to Lacaille 9352 from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Lacaille 9352

Lacaille 9352 is a red dwarf star in the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus. With an apparent visual magnitude of 7.34, this star is too faint to be viewed with the naked eye even under excellent seeing conditions. Parallax measurements place it at a distance of about 10.74 light-years (3.29 parsecs) from Earth. It is the eleventh closest star system to the Solar System and is the closest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The ChView simulation shows that its closest neighbour is the EZ Aquarii triple star system at about 4.1 ly from Lacaille 9352.

This star has the fourth highest known proper motion, (which was first noticed by Benjamin Gould in 1881) moving a total of 6.9 arcseconds per year. However, this is still a very small movement overall, as there are 3,600 arcseconds in a degree of arc. The space velocity components of this star are (U, V, W) = (−93.9, −14.1, −51.4) km/s. If the radial velocity (Vr) equals +9.7 km/s then about 2,700 years ago Lacaille 9352 was at its minimal distance of approximately 10.63 ly (3.26 pc) from the Sun.

The spectrum of Lacaille 9352 places it at a stellar classification of M0.5V, indicating it is a type of main sequence star known as a red dwarf. This was the first red dwarf star to have its angular diameter measured, with the physical diameter being about 46% of the Sun's radius. It has around half the mass of the Sun and the outer envelope has an effective temperature of about 3,626 K.- Wikipedia

As of this writing, Lacaille 9352 has no known exoplanets; when I traveled there in SpaceEngine, there were multiple procedurally generated planets, some large, several with moons. I probably spent way too much time poking around in the system to find good spots to take screen-shots. This star is exactly the type Project EDEN (and the VATT) would be looking at; I'll be discussing Project EDEN in a future post.

 

Stay safe, be well, and look up!

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 – March 31, 2020

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This entry is part 141 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

A three-planet conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn continues in the early morning southeastern sky; Mars passes very close to Saturn on March 31st, and by the start of next week will be well beyond Saturn.

Venus is high in the western sky well after sunset; each evening, Venus will move a bit upwards towards the Pleiades star cluster, until it appears to be part of the cluster itself on the evening of April 6th!

Western sky after sunset

Venus appears near the Pleiades star cluster in the western sky after sunset this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Venus appears to be part of the Pleiades star cluster in the western sky after sunset on April 3rd. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

 

The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

The first-quarter Moon occurs on April 1st, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

After April 1st the Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-03-31 - 2020-04-06. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.

Apollo 8 and 13 - Jim Lovell at 92

 

A small sunspot from solar cycle 25 is emerging on the limb of the Sun - the active region is visible on the upper left side of the videos below.

The northern coronal hole appears diminished; the southern coronal hole remains open and very large!

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 30, 2020:

Lots of small prominences on the Sun's limb over the last couple days; as I was writing this I had to laugh because those "small" prominences are larger than the Earth!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 30, 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.

 

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 463.3 km/sec (↑), with a density of 11.2 protons/cm3 (↑) at 0856 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

The SunRISE mission will fly six cubesats that will form a virtual radio antenna in Earth orbit to monitor solar activity at wavelengths that can't be studied from the Earth. Credit: Univ. of Michigan

As I'm writing this, I'm trying to track down an image of these cubesats - the articles I've seen discuss the mission, but don't have photos of the satellites themselves.

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 155  (+58), this year: 650  (+59), all time: 22,482  (+59)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 957,596  (+115) I wonder if this number is so much lower than the last couple months because of researchers staying at home?

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 FB4
2020-Mar-31
12 LD
6.2
16
2020 FA1
2020-Mar-31
18.3 LD
2.2
18
2020 FG6
2020-Apr-02
5.4 LD
7.1
14
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14
2020 FK3
2020-Apr-03
10.4 LD
9.7
27
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.5 LD
13.8
148
2020 FL6
2020-Apr-04
5.1 LD
12.1
32
2020 DT3
2020-Apr-05
17.6 LD
11.8
200
2020 FQ6
2020-Apr-06
17.9 LD
11.2
32
2020 FL4
2020-Apr-09
10.5 LD
4.6
16
2020 FW4
2020-Apr-09
19.7 LD
18.6
162
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224
2020 FX3
2020-Apr-15
14.1 LD
10.2
56
2019 HS2
2020-Apr-26
13.6 LD
12.6
17
2019 GF1
2020-Apr-27
18.7 LD
3.2
12
2020 FM6
2020-Apr-27
14.7 LD
17
147
52768
2020-Apr-29
16.4 LD
8.7
2457
2020 DM4
2020-May-01
18.4 LD
6.4
165
438908
2020-May-07
8.9 LD
12.8
282
2016 HP6
2020-May-07
4.3 LD
5.7
31
388945
2020-May-10
7.3 LD
8.8
295
2000 KA
2020-May-12
8.9 LD
13.5
162
478784
2020-May-15
8.5 LD
3.6
28
136795
2020-May-21
16.1 LD
11.7
892

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 Mar. 30, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 3 fireballs. 
(3 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). Credit: SpaceWeather.com

Fireball & Meteor News:

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-03-31. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

MIddle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-03-31- the orbit of asteroid 2 Pallas is highlighted. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

2 Pallas was recently imaged using the SEO's SPHERE instrument:

Image of 2 Pallas from ESO's Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (VLT-SPHERE). Credit: ESO/Vernazza et al.

Position of the planets and interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System

Side view of the outer solar system on 2020-03-30 showing the trajectory of interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov). Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Hubble Space Telescope

Climate

Exoplanet
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.

All Exoplanets 4141
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2357
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2348
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 889
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 43
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-03-18 04:30:02) 1766
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1766
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1113  (-2)

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.

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to the Epsilon Eridani system, 10.5 light years distant.

Epsilon Eridani Distance

Distance to Epsilon Eridani from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Epsilon Eridani

Epsilon Eridani (ε Eri, ε Eridani) is a star in the southern constellation Eridanus, just south of the celestial equator. It can be seen from most of Earth's surface.

It is 10.5 light years (ly) away, and has an apparent magnitude of 3.73. It is the third closest individual star or star system visible to the unaided eye.

Epsilon Eridani was the closest star known to host a planet until the unconfirmed discovery of Alpha Centauri Bb. Its age is less than a billion years. Because of its youth, Epsilon Eridani has a more active magnetic field than the present-day Sun. Its stellar wind is 30 times as strong. Its rotation period is 11.2 days at the equator. The star is smaller and less massive than the Sun, and has a lower level of metal elements. It is a main-sequence star of spectral class K2, which means that energy generated at the core through nuclear fusion of hydrogen is emitted from the surface at a temperature of about 5,000 K, giving it an orange hue.

Its planet, Epsilon Eridani b, was announced in 2000. The planet orbits in about 7 years. It is about 3.4 astronomical units (AU) away from its star.

The system includes two belts of rocky asteroids: one at about 3 AU and a second at about 20 AU, whose structure may be maintained by a hypothetical second planet, Epsilon Eridani c. Epsilon Eridani has an extensive outer debris disk of remnant planetesimals left over from the system's formation.

Epsilon Eridani may be a member of the Ursa Major Moving Group of stars that share a similar motion through the Milky Way. This suggests they share a common origin in an open star cluster. Its nearest neighbor, the binary star system Luyten 726-8, will have a close encounter with Epsilon Eridani in about 31,500 years when they will be separated by about 0.93 ly.

Epsilon Eridani has been the target of SETI searches. Epsilon Eridani appears in science fiction stories and has been suggested as a destination for interstellar travel. - Wikipedia

Epsilon Eridani system architecture:

Epsilon Eridani System Architecture

Epsilon Eridani System Architecture. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Orbit of exoplanet Epsilon Eridani b:

Exoplanet Orbit

Orbit of exoplanet Epsilon Eridani b. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Artist's concept of exoplanet Epsilon Eridani b:

Ringed Exoplanet

Artist's concept of exoplanet Epsilon Eridani b. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Stay safe, be well, and look up!

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. NOTE: Version v0.20.0 was released!
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

Fr. George Coyne “Virtual” Memorial

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We've already collected more than a dozen remembrances from people who knew and worked with Fr. Coyne on our Fr. Coyne memorial page. Many have mentioned what a wonderful person he was, how much they enjoyed working and talking with him. If you have memories of Fr. Coyne you'd like to share, please use this form.

We're about 20% of the way to our fundraising goal – thank you to everyone who has donated! Donations to the Fr. Coyne memorial fund are still being accepted, and will go towards the creation of a book with a selection of Fr. Coyne's writings and the remembrances posted on our site.

We were planning on having a memorial gathering for George at the University of Arizona back on St. Patrick's day, but alas the coronavirus led to the shutdown of the University, so that event has been postponed at least until the fall.

Meanwhile, however, Br. Guy has created a video to show at the memorial with a number of photos that people had sent to him of Fr. Coyne over the years; and so, since we couldn't show it there, here it is online:

You can view more videos featuring Fr. Coyne on our memorial page: https://www.vofoundation.org/fr-george-coyne/#videos.

In the Sky This Week – March 24, 2020

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 140 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

My wife and I have finished moving out of our home of 22 years, and are now living in her parent's basement; we were planning on taking our time looking for a new home, but with Michigan on COVID-19 lock-down, any home-hunting plans have gone out the window. My wife's school is having teachers interact with students via Google Classroom, and the Warren Astronomical Society held their first online "virtual meeting."

I saw a comment on a Solar System Ambassador (SSA) forum that the greatly increased streaming activity is putting a lot of pressure on the internet. In one SSA's community, she could not connect to Skype or Facebook Live because of internet congestion. With so many communities going to telework, tele-education, etc. and also streaming HD video around the clock, the internet is very congested on a limited bandwidth. Some people cannot stream a doctor's appointment; some doctors cannot get pages to load to refill much needed prescriptions. For educational purposes, a suggestion for SSAs was to create pre-recorded videos and load them in SD, that would help the situation and still meet the educational needs of families and communities. I've had ideas for a couple videos for quite some time - perhaps now is the time to start on them.

The three planets in the early morning southeastern sky are a much closer to each other this week; Mars appears very near Saturn by the weekend.

Venus is high in the western sky at sunset; the Moon appears near Venus in the western sky at dusk from March 27-30th.

Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

The Moon appears near Venus in the western sky at dusk from March 27-29th this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra rises in the northeastern sky around midnight this week.

Vega in the northeastern sky at midnight

The star Vega in the constellation Lyra rising in the northeastern sky around midnight on March 24th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

 

The new Moon occurs on March 24th - it will not be visible at this time... unless it eclipses the Sun and the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory catches it again.

After March 24th, the Moon will be an waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-03-24 - 2020-03-30. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown - many along the terminator.

The Moon as Art

 

The Sun has been spot-free for 14 days. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (does that date me?), the northern coronal hole remains open but small, while the southern coronal hole is enormous! A large coronal hole is rotating into view below the Sun's equator.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 23, 2020:

More beautiful large prominences on the Sun's limb over the last couple days!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 23, 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.

 

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 457.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 6.9 protons/cm3 (↑) at 0835 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 97  (+87), this year: 650  (+88), all time: 22,482  (+89)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 957,596  (+1938)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 FF
2020-Mar-24
15.9 LD
5.6
15
2020 FB
2020-Mar-25
8.6 LD
4.7
31
2020 FP
2020-Mar-27
14.7 LD
9.5
24
2012 XA133
2020-Mar-27
17.4 LD
23.7
235
2020 FE2
2020-Mar-28
4.5 LD
7.1
27
2010 GD35
2020-Mar-29
15.3 LD
12
43
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2020 FB1
2020-Mar-30
19.1 LD
10.5
27
2020 FA1
2020-Mar-31
18.3 LD
2.2
18
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.5 LD
13.8
148
2020 DT3
2020-Apr-05
17.6 LD
11.8
200
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224
2019 HS2
2020-Apr-26
13.6 LD
12.6
17
2019 GF1
2020-Apr-27
18.7 LD
3.2
12
52768
2020-Apr-29
16.4 LD
8.7
2457
2020 DM4
2020-May-01
18.4 LD
6.4
163
438908
2020-May-07
8.9 LD
12.8
282
2016 HP6
2020-May-07
4.3 LD
5.7
31
388945
2020-May-10
7.3 LD
8.8
295
2000 KA
2020-May-12
8.9 LD
13.5
162
478784
2020-May-15
8.5 LD
3.6
28
136795
2020-May-21
16.1 LD
11.7
892

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 Mar. 23, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 2 fireballs. 
(2 sporadics)

Fireball & Meteor News:

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and several asteroids in the inner solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets and several asteroids in the middle solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Side view of the inner and middle solar system, showing the alignment of the planets causing the conjunction in the eastern predawn sky.

Side view of the solar system

Side view of the position of the planets in the inner and middle solar system on 2020-03-24. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets, dwarf planets, transneptunian objects in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System

Position of the planets and several transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Juno Mission at Jupiter

International Space Station

I've never seen the word bioprinting before (neither has my spell-checker); my guess was close, but I was still surprised when I saw: "NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir activated a 3-D bioprinter that is being tested for its ability to manufacture human organs in space." My jaw hung slack for a moment there... Just WOW!

Hubble Space Telescope

Climate

Exoplanet
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.

All Exoplanets 4141  (+6)
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2357
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2348
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 889  (-1)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 43  (+1)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-03-18 04:30:02) 1766  (+29)
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1766  (+29)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1115  (+13)

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.

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to the red dwarf Ross 248, 10.31 light years distant.

Ross 248

Distance to Ross 248 from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Ross 248

Ross 248, also called HH Andromedae or Gliese 905, is a small star approximately 10.30 light-years (3.16 parsecs) from Earth in the northern constellation of Andromeda. It was first catalogued by Frank Elmore Ross in 1926 with his second list of proper-motion stars; on which count it ranks 261st in the SIMBAD database. It was too dim to be included in the Hipparcos survey.

Within the next 80,000 years, Ross 248 is predicted to be nearest star to the Sun for a brief time, overtaking the current nearest star and triple system, Alpha Centauri. Despite its proximity it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye. 

This star has about 12% of the Sun's mass and 16% of the Sun's radius, but only 0.2% of the Sun's luminosity. It has a stellar classification of M6 V, which indicates it is a type of main-sequence star known as a red dwarf. This is a flare star that occasionally increases in luminosity. With high probability, there appears to be a long-term cycle of variability with a period of 4.2 years. This variability causes the star to range in visual magnitude from 12.23 to 12.34. In 1950, this became the first star to have a small variation in magnitude attributed to spots on its photosphere. - Wikipedia

Artist's concept of a hypothetical exoplanet, exomoon and exocomet orbiting Ross 248. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Stay safe, be well, and look up!

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

Visit NASA’s Space Place YouTube Channel

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by

NASA's Space Place just updated their YouTube channel so you have a one stop shop for over 100 NASA videos at home via thematic playlists. You can use this link: https://www.youtube.com/user/nasaspaceplace?app=desktop, or watch the videos in the gallery below.

Launched in 1998, NASA Space Place's mission is to inspire and enrich upper-elementary-aged kids' learning of space and Earth science online through fun games, hands-on activities, informative articles and engaging short videos. With material in both English and Spanish and resources for parents and teachers, NASA Space Place has something for everyone.

Visit the Space Place website: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/
Follow the Space Place on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nasaspaceplace
Follow the Space Place on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nasaspaceplace

Space Place YouTube Channel:

In the Sky This Week – March 10, 2020

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 139 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

Times are interesting for me right now - we're packing to move out of our home of 22 years; the big stuff is all in storage, and there are only a couple rooms left to go. The house echoes, and my poor parrots are confused... My granddaughter is a month old, and visits frequently, I've got a bit yet to do for taxes, and I'm working on a presentation about interstellar travel for the Warren Astronomical Society... and I keep getting distracted by all the cool things I keep finding - like a paper about suspended animation research being done for Mars missions.

The three planets in the early morning southeastern sky are a bit closer than last week - Mars will appear much closer to Jupiter by week's end.

Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars

Saturn, Jupiter and Mars continue to appear across the southeastern predawn sky this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon appears high in the southeastern sky at midnight on March 10th.

East-southeastern sky

The Moon high in the east-southeastern sky at midnight on March 10th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

On March 12th, the Moon appears above the horizon near the star Spica.

Southeastern sky at midnight

Conjunction of the Moon near the star Spica in the southeastern sky at midnight on March 12th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon joins the planets in what I'm calling a "Mega-Conjunction" in the southeastern predawn sky from March 17-19th. This will likely be very distracting to commuters heading eastward on those mornings; drivers are urged to get a good look at this spectacle before they leave for their destinations!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Venus is high in the western sky at sunset, and will continue to be the "evening star" through mid-May.

Venus in the western sky

Venus appears high in the western sky at dusk this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

 

The full Moon occurred on March 9th - the Moon is now a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.

The last-quarter Moon occurs on March 16th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-03-10 - 2020-03-16. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown - many along the terminator.

Moon News

The Sun has a spot! However, sunspot AR2758 appears to be disintegrating. The northern coronal hole remains open but small, while the southern coronal hole is enormous!

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 9, 2020:

Some beautiful large prominences on the Sun's limb over the last couple days!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 9, 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.

 

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 334.9 km/sec (↓), with a density of 6.8 protons/cm3 (↓) at 1913 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 10  (+10), this year: 562  (+12), all time: 22,393  (+14)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 955,658  (+7396)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2018 RF6
2020-Mar-10
11.2 LD
12.6
36
2020 EE
2020-Mar-10
4.8 LD
7.9
14
2020 CA3
2020-Mar-10
13.7 LD
6.3
32
2020 ED
2020-Mar-11
7.6 LD
8.5
15
2008 UB95
2020-Mar-11
18.5 LD
7.6
41
2018 GY
2020-Mar-15
6.2 LD
9.5
39
2020 EF
2020-Mar-19
16.8 LD
4.5
18
2020 DP4
2020-Mar-22
3.5 LD
8.1
33
2012 XA133
2020-Mar-27
17.4 LD
23.7
235
2010 GD35
2020-Mar-29
15.3 LD
12
43
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.5 LD
13.8
148
2020 DT3
2020-Apr-05
17.6 LD
11.8
192
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224
2019 HS2
2020-Apr-26
13.6 LD
12.6
17
2019 GF1
2020-Apr-27
18.7 LD
3.2
12
52768
2020-Apr-29
16.4 LD
8.7
2457
2020 DM4
2020-May-01
18.6 LD
6.3
161
438908
2020-May-07
8.9 LD
12.8
282
2016 HP6
2020-May-07
4.3 LD
5.7
31

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

On Mar. 9, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 4 fireballs. 
(4 sporadics)

Fireball Orbits

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 & Meteor News:

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system - the Parker Solar Probe has crossed the orbit of Venus; from this viewpoint, STEREO Ahead  and Kepler appear to be "close," but they are 1.6 million miles from each other.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-03-10 - the orbit of asteroid 1998 QE2 is highlighted. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets, dwarf planets, transneptunian objects and far-reaching spacecraft in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System

Position of the planets, a few dwarf planets and spacecraft in the outer solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Pioneer 10

Pioneer 10

Side view of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Pioneer 10  is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing 258 kilograms (569 pounds), that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc.

Pioneer 10 was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a 2.74-meter (9 ft 0 in) diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of the antenna. Its electric power was supplied by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155 watts at launch.

It was launched on March 2, 1972, by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. Photography of Jupiter began November 6, 1973, at a range of 25,000,000 kilometers (16,000,000 mi), and about 500 images were transmitted. The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 kilometers (82,178 mi). During the mission, the on-board instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, the solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the Solar System and heliosphere.

Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 on January 23, 2003, because of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth. - Wikipedia

Pioneer 10

Pioneer 10 spacecraft looking back at the solar system - 2020-03-10. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Pioneer 10

Pioneer 10 spacecraft compared to a human. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

 

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Juno Mission at Jupiter: Merging Storms

International Space Station

Hubble Space Telescope

Climate

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4135  (+9)
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2357  (+1)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2348  (+1)
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420 
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 890  (-1)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 42  (+1)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-03-04 04:30:02) 1737  (+77)
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1737  (+3)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1102  (+15)

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.

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to the red dwarf Ross 154, 9.59 light years distant.

Ross 154

Distance to Ross 154 from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Ross 154

Ross 154 (V1216 Sgr) is a star in the southern zodiac constellation of Sagittarius. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 10.44, making it much too faint to be seen with the naked eye. At a minimum, viewing Ross 154 requires a telescope with an aperture of 6.5 cm (3 in) under ideal conditions. The distance to this star can be estimated from parallax measurements, which places it at 9.69 light-years (2.97 parsecs) away from Earth. It is the nearest star in the southern constellation Sagittarius, and one of the nearest stars to the Sun.

Ross 154 was found to be a UV Ceti-type flare star, with a mean time between major flares of about two days. The first such flare activity was observed from Australia in 1951 when the star increased in magnitude by 0.4. Typically, the star will increase by 3–4 magnitudes during a flare. The strength of the star's surface magnetic field is an estimated 2.2 ± 0.1 kG. Ross 154 is an X-ray source and it has been detected by several X-ray observatories. - Wikipedia

Ross 154

Artist's concept of a hypothetical (procedurally-generated) asteroid moon orbiting a procedural hot subjupiter exoplanet, orbiting the very real red dwarf star Ross 154 - with a bonus procedural comet! Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Ross 154

Artist's concept of a hypothetical (procedurally-generated) comet in the Ross 154 star system. 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 – March 3, 2020

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 138 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

Yesterday, I gave the "In the News / In the Sky" presentation at the meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society - how convenient that all the news I covered, and all the images I created for that presentation would appear today's post!

Early-risers continue to have Saturn, Jupiter and Mars to observe above the southeastern horizon.

Saturn, Jupiter and Mars

Saturn, Jupiter and Mars appear across the southeastern predawn sky this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The waxing gibbous Moon appears near the constellation Orion high in the southern sky on March 3rd.

Moon near Orion

The Moon near Orion high in the southern sky on Mar. 3rd. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

On March 5th, the Moon appears near the star Pollux.

Moon near Pollux

The Moon near the star Pollux high in the southern sky on Mar. 5th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon appears near the star Regulus on March 7th.

Moon near Regulus

The Moon near the star Regulus in the eastern sky on Mar. 7th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

 

The Moon is currently a waxing gibbous, one day past first quarter - it will be visible to the southeast in early evening, and be up for most of the night.

The Full Moon occurs on March 9th - rising at sunset, visible high in the sky around midnight, and up all night.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-03-03 - 2020-03-09. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown - many along the terminator.

Moon News: NASA is Accepting Astronaut Applications

The Sun has been spotless for 30 days. The northern coronal hole remains small, while the southern coronal hole continues to be huge.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 2, 2020:

Some large prominence activity on the Sun over the last couple days!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 2, 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.

 

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 423.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 7.5 protons/cm3 (↑↑) at 0947 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 0, this year: 550  (+45), all time: 22,379  (+45)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 948,262  (+5762!!)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 DA4
2020-Mar-04
2.5 LD
9
26
2018 RF6
2020-Mar-10
11.2 LD
12.6
36
2020 CA3
2020-Mar-10
13.8 LD
6.3
30
2008 UB95
2020-Mar-11
18.5 LD
7.6
41
2018 GY
2020-Mar-15
6.2 LD
9.5
39
2020 DP4
2020-Mar-22
3.5 LD
8.2
33
2012 XA133
2020-Mar-27
17.4 LD
23.7
235
2010 GD35
2020-Mar-29
15.3 LD
12
43
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.5 LD
13.8
148
2020 DT3
2020-Apr-05
17.6 LD
11.8
182
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224
2019 HS2
2020-Apr-26
13.6 LD
12.6
17
2019 GF1
2020-Apr-27
18.7 LD
3.2
12
52768
2020-Apr-29
16.4 LD
8.7
2457

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

There is a new Minor Planet Center circular with a few newly named asteroids:
https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2020/MPC_20200205.pdf

 

On Mar. 2, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 6 fireballs. 
(6 sporadics)

Fireball Orbits

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 & Meteor News:

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets, dwarf planets and transneptunian objects in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System

Position of the planets, a few dwarf planets and transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Oblique view of the orbits of the planets in the outer solar system.

Outer Solar System

Oblique view of the orbits of the planets in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and dwarf planets in the outer solar system.

Outer Solar System with Dwarf Planets

Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and dwarf planets in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Orbits of the planets and comets in the outer solar system.

Outer Solar System with Comets

Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and comets in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Orbits of the planets and asteroids in the outer solar system... yikes!

Outer Solar System with Asteroids

Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and asteroids in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Solar System News: Earth has a Temporary Mini-Moon

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Psyche Mission

Juno Mission at Jupiter

International Space Station

Hubble Space Telescope

Northrup Grumman Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1)

Climate

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4126
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2356
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2347
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420 
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 891
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 41
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-02-12 04:30:01) 1660
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1734  (-26)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1102  (+15)

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.

Infant Binary System with Twisted Protoplanetary disks

Astronomers Detect Gigantic Outburst from Center of a Galaxy 390 Million Light Years from Earth

A Fundamental Universal Constant Stays Constant by a Black Hole

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to Luyten 726-8, 8.74 light years distant.

Distance to Luyten 726-8

Distance to the Luyten 726-8 system from Sol. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Luyten 726-8

Luyten 726-8 (UV Ceti or Gliese 65) is a binary star which is one of Earth's nearest neighbours. It is about 8.7 light years from Earth in the constellation Cetus. One of the pair, UV Ceti, was the archetype for the class of flare stars.

The star system was discovered in 1948 by W.J Luyten in the course of compiling a catalogue of stars of high proper motion; he noted its exceptionally high proper motion of 3.37 arc seconds annually and catalogued it as Luyten 726-8.

The two stars are of nearly equal brightness, with apparent magnitudes of 12.57 and 11.99 as seen from Earth. They orbit one another every 26.5 years. The distance between the two stars varies from 2.1 to 8.8 AU. Its own nearest neighbour is Tau Ceti, 0.88 pc (2.87 ly) away from it.

Both the stars are variables. The most spectacular is Luyten 726-8B, which was given the variable star designation UV Ceti (the other star is also known as BL Ceti). Although UV Ceti was not the first flare star discovered, it is the most prominent example of such a star, and similar flare stars are now known as UV Ceti type variable stars. This star goes through fairly extreme changes of brightness: for instance, in 1952, its brightness increased by 75 times in only 20 seconds. UV Ceti is a red dwarf of spectral type M6.0e. - Wikipedia

Luyten 726-8 Star System Architecture:

Luyten 726-8 Star System Architecture

Luyten 726-8 Star System Architecture. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Orbits of the stars in the Luyten 726-8 star system - the system barycenter is highlighted:

Luyten 726-8

Top-down view of the orbits of the stars in the Luyten 726-8 star system in 2020. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Artistic view of the Luyten 726-8 System:

Luyten 726-8

Artist's concept of Luyten 726-8 B seen from near Luyten 726-8 A. 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

Trinity of Videos about the Vatican Observatory

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A trinity of new videos about the Vatican Observatory is available on YouTube! In these videos produced by Brady Haran and James Hennessy, Brother Guy Consolmagno shows you some of the Vatican Observatory's more notable meteorites, various items in the Vatican Observatory's Museum, and gives you a tour of the Vatican Observatory's historic telescopes. In an interview, Br. Guy answers numerous questions about faith and science, and discusses the role of the Vatican Observatory.

The Pope's Space Rocks

(YouTube:Objectivity #221 - 10:55)
Brother Guy Consolmagno gives Brady Haran a tour of the Vatican Observatory; he shows meteorites from the Vatican Observatory's collection, and tells some interesting stories behind a few of them. He shows a remarkable antique clock from the end of the 1800s - its pendulum filled with Mercury! Br. Guy also shows the Vatican flag that flew to the Moon on Apollo 17!

Before the advent of digital imaging technology, astronomical imaging was done using photographic plates; Br. Guy shows a room filled with historic photographic plates taken by Vatican telescopes - including antique plates from the historic Carte du Ciel sky survey of the late 19th century!

View an extended interview with Br. Guy on Sixty Symbols at: https://youtu.be/Z0DAKaR16cY

The Pope's Telescopes

(YouTube: Deep Sky Videos - 22:31)
Brother Guy Consolmagno gives Brady Haran a tour of Castel Ganfolfo and the Vatican Observatory; watch as Br. Guy fires up the vintage 1930s drive hardware for the Zeiss Double Astrograph Telescope - the telescope used to make the photographic plates seen in "The Pope's Space Rocks" video above. Next, the tour takes you to the second dome, currently under repairs - the refractor telescope in this dome has a 16 inch lens!

The tour continues with a drive through the Papal gardens to the Carte du Ciel and Schmidt telescopes - Br. Guy shows the not-so-vintage Xbox controller that can be used to control the recently upgraded drive hardware of the still very functional 1891 Carte du Ciel telescope!

Next up, the Schmidt telescope, which could be used to photograph the spectra of a large region of stars. This telescope is the location where Pope Paul VI watched the Apollo 11 Moon landings, and recorded a congratulatory message to the astronauts. Br. Guy explains how Pope Pius XII loved astronomy and paid for the Schmidt telescope with his personal family fortune!

Br. Guy explains how advancements in mirror technology led to the creation of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mt. Graham in Arizona.

The Pope's Astronomer

(YouTube:Sixty Symbols - 36:10)
Brady Haran, interviews Brother Guy Consolmagno and delves into the background of the Vatican Observatory. Br. Guy starts by explaining how he is the only astronomer who is directly appointed by the Pope. He goes on to say:

"Astronomy is the kind of thing you can't make a living at without a patron"

... which honestly made me laugh out loud because this is exactly my situation with the Vatican Observatory Foundation!

Br. Guy talks about the three Popes that he has served under, and their backgrounds in various fields of science. He tackles the question of "Why is there a Vatican Observatory," and explains that having a national observatory was one way for the Vatican to be recognized as an independent nation.

Br. Guy explains how the Jesuits of the Vatican Observatory operate in the boundary of the communities of theologians and scientists, and under John Paul II's insistence, the Vatican Observatory started a series of conferences on the nature of divine action in the physical universe. Br. Guy explains how the Vatican Observatory started a collaboration with Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in California, and published some deep theological books that are still being referenced.

Br. Guy tackles numerous questions about various aspects of faith and science - a couple times making me laugh pretty hard; he also talks the history of Galileo and other world events happening during that time period. He discusses the creation story of Genesis in the Bible, the conclusion of that story being the seventh day - a day of rest and a time for contemplation.

In the final segments, Br. Guy discusses some of the modern meteorite and astronomical research being done by the Vatican Observatory, and his desires for the Vatican Observatory to be "a place where people want to come to work - where people are happy doing the science they are doing, and excited to get up in the morning and go to the lab."

See these and other videos about the Vatican Observatory on the Vatican Observatory Foundation's YouTube channel:

In the Sky This Week – February 25, 2020

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This entry is part 137 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

The constellation Orion is moving slowly towards the west each evening; the star Betelgeuse has been dimming since last year, and is no longer in the top 25 brightest stars - which several of my astronomer friends have commented is "just weird!"

West-Southwestern sky at Midnight

Orion appears west-southwestern sky at midnight this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

As I was writing this post, I saw on SpaceWeather.com that apparently the dimming of Betelgeuse has stopped.

Betelgeuse hit bottom during the week of Feb. 7-13th with a magnitude slightly greater than +1.6. Based on observations, Betelgeuse has apparently stopped dimming and has started to slowly brighten. Credit: American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)

Predawn observers have three planets to choose from above the southeastern horizon: Saturn, Jupiter and Mars.

Southeastern predawn sky

Saturn, Jupiter and Mars appear across the southeastern sky at 6:00 AM this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The crescent Moon joins Venus above the western horizon at dusk from February 25th - 28th.

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The Moon appears near the star Aldebaran at 10:00 PM on March 1st - 2nd.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

The first quarter Moon occurs on March 2nd, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-02-25 - 2020-03-02. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown - many along the terminator.

Moon News: Historic NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Dies at Age 101

The Sun has been spot-free for 23 days. The northern coronal hole remains diminished, while the southern coronal hole remains wide open. The Solar Dynamics observatory was eclipsed by the Moon for the first few frames of the videos below.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 24, 2020:

Some beautiful large prominences on the Sun's limb over the last several days!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 24, 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.

Here's a still of the SDO eclipse image:

The Sun eclipsed by the Moon on 2020-02-24 as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 353.8 km/sec (↓), with a density of 1.8 protons/cm3 (↓↓) at 0947 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 140  (+55), this year: 505  (+57), all time: 22,334  (+59)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 942,500  (+8358!!)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 DT2
2020-Feb-25
5.2 LD
11.9
11
2012 DS30
2020-Feb-26
12.3 LD
5.4
22
2020 DZ1
2020-Feb-27
7.4 LD
14.1
56
2020 DM2
2020-Feb-28
5.9 LD
4.9
12
2015 BK509
2020-Feb-29
18.7 LD
12.5
118
2020 DV1
2020-Feb-29
10.5 LD
15.6
53
2017 BM123
2020-Mar-01
10.5 LD
8.1
65
2018 RF6
2020-Mar-10
11.2 LD
12.6
36
2020 CA3
2020-Mar-10
13.8 LD
6.3
30
2008 UB95
2020-Mar-11
18.5 LD
7.6
41
2018 GY
2020-Mar-15
6.2 LD
9.5
39
2012 XA133
2020-Mar-27
17.4 LD
23.7
235
2010 GD35
2020-Mar-29
15.3 LD
12
43
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.5 LD
13.8
148
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224

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: Pallas Imaged Using Adaptive Optics on the Very Large Telescope

On Feb. 24, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 6 fireballs. 
(6 sporadics)

Fireball Orbits

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 & Meteor News: Meteorite Strike May Have Killed a Man in India!

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-02-25. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system - asteroid 4 Vesta is highlighted:

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-02-25. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

4 Vesta

Image of Asteroid 4 Vesta

Asteroid 4 Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA

Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology.

Vesta is the second-most-massive and probably the second-largest asteroid, after the dwarf planet Ceres, and contributes an estimated 9% of the mass of the asteroid belt. It is probably slightly larger than Pallas, but is about 25% more massive. Vesta is the only known remaining rocky protoplanet (with a differentiated interior) of the kind that formed the terrestrial planets. - Wikipedia

I covered Vesta and Ceres extensively in my series about NASA's Dawn mission.

3D Model of Vesta - go ahead and grab-and-drag it with your mouse!

Position of the planets in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System

Position of the planets in the outer solar system, 2020-02-25. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

 

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Juno Mission at Jupiter

International Space Station

Hubble Space Telescope

Climate

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4126
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2356
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2347
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420 
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 891
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 41  (+3)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-02-12 04:30:01) 1660
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1760  (+40)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1087  (+31)

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.

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to Sirius, 8.44 light years distant.

Sirius

Distance to the Sirius star system from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the Milky Way galaxy's plane. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Sirius

Sirius (/ˈsɪriəs/, designated α Canis Majoris (Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, abbreviated Alpha CMa, α CMa)) is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word Σείριος Seirios "glowing" or "scorching". With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, Sirius is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. Sirius is a binary star consisting of a main-sequence star of spectral type A0 or A1, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B. The distance between the two varies between 8.2 and 31.5 astronomical units as they orbit every 50 years.

Sirius Star System Architecture

Architecture of the Sirius star system. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Sirius appears bright because of its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to the Solar System. At a distance of 2.64 parsecs (8.6 ly), the Sirius system is one of Earth's nearest neighbours. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slightly increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years. After that time, its distance will begin to increase, and it will become fainter, but it will continue to be the brightest star in the Earth's night sky for the next 210,000 years. - Wikipedia

Sirius Star System

View of the orbits of the stars in the Sirius star system as seen from Earth. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Sirius A & B

Sirius A (right) seen from near Sirius B (left) at closest approach in 2044. 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 – February 18, 2020

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This entry is part 136 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week
Bob Trembley's granddaughter

Bob Trembley's granddaughter, Alayanora Lee Festian, at 1 week old on 2020-02-16 - note the Star Wars blanket. Credit: Amanda Festian.

Remember how last week I mentioned that "Things have been a little exciting for me the last couple days?" Adding to the excitement of having a new granddaughter, our house sold the day after it went on the market! The inspector has come and gone, the appraisal takes place tomorrow, and now we're looking for a new home - whew!

My granddaughter, Alayanora Lee Festian, got to meet her aunt Rachel (my eldest) and her great-grandparents (my wife Connie's parents) last weekend - great grandma and grandpa were in heaven! Rachel left her niece a Star Wars blanket - which is awesome, but I would have expected something Harry Potter-themed from Rachel...

 

The planets splashed across the southeastern horizon before dawn are joined by the Moon for the next several mornings - the Moon will appear near Mars on Feb. 18th, Jupiter on Feb. 19th, and Saturn on Feb. 20th.

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The Moon actually occulted the planet Mars at dawn on Feb. 18th - it was cloudy where I was...

Occultation of Mars by the Moon

There will be an occultation of Mars by the Moon shortly after 7:00 AM on Feb. 18, 2020 - but (as luck would have it) the event may be lost in the glare of the Sun. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

This astrophysicist and astrophotographer tweeted a video of the Mars occultation:

Venus is high and BRIGHT in the west-southwestern sky a dusk; I've been seeing a lot of "what is that?" posts on social media. Mercury appears very low on the western horizon at dusk, and will leave the evening sky by the end of the week.

West-Southwestern sky at dusk

Venus high and bright in the western sky at dusk this week - Mercury is very low and will be gone by week's end . Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

 

The Moon is a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise. Be sure to watch for earthshine!

The new Moon occurs on Feb. 23rd.

After Feb. 23rd, the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-02-18 - 2020-02-24. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown - many along the terminator.

Moon News

Not sure how I missed this one:

The Sun has been spot-free for 16 days. The northern coronal hole remains open but appears diminished - it is much smaller than the southern coronal hole, which is large and wide open.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 17, 2020:

Some nice but short-lived prominences on the Sun's limb over the last several days - enough for some good photos tho!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 17, 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.

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 380.7 km/sec (↑), with a density of 10.6 protons/cm3 (↑↑) at 1431 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 85  (+33), this year: 448  (+321), all time: 22,275  (+35)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 934,142  (+39)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 DB
2020-Feb-18
3.8 LD
21.7
16
2020 BA10
2020-Feb-18
12.3 LD
9
29
2020 DD
2020-Feb-18
2.5 LD
38.6
71
2020 CX1
2020-Feb-19
14.1 LD
7.9
53
2020 DA
2020-Feb-19
7.9 LD
10.3
54
2020 BL7
2020-Feb-19
13.9 LD
8.5
36
2020 CO2
2020-Feb-19
3.9 LD
15.3
16
2020 CU2
2020-Feb-19
13.2 LD
8.3
12
2020 BC9
2020-Feb-20
13.9 LD
9.3
77
2020 DE
2020-Feb-20
3.5 LD
9.7
14
2019 BE5
2020-Feb-20
13.7 LD
14.8
34
2020 DC
2020-Feb-20
5.9 LD
5
15
2020 CP2
2020-Feb-20
5 LD
21
27
2011 DR
2020-Feb-23
14.7 LD
5.8
25
2016 CO246
2020-Feb-23
18.4 LD
5.9
25
2020 CY2
2020-Feb-23
11.1 LD
3.8
11
2020 BR10
2020-Feb-23
15.4 LD
15.1
101
2020 BW13
2020-Feb-24
9.1 LD
2.4
12
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
2012 XA133
2020-Mar-27
17.4 LD
23.7
235
2010 GD35
2020-Mar-29
15.3 LD
12
43
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.5 LD
13.8
148
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23
363599
2020-Apr-11
19.2 LD
24.5
224

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 Feb. 17, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 5 fireballs. 
(5 sporadics)

Fireball Orbits

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

I've seen reports ALL OVER Twitter about a "meteorite striking a factory in India;" the only video I've seen is one from a security cam showing a bolide in the air. I have NOT seen any pictures of the unfortunately located factory, or the alleged "twenty foot crater" left by this this impact. I'll wait to post anything about this until I see something more convincing.

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-02-18. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system:

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-02-18. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the outer solar system:

Outer Solar System

Position of the planets in the outer solar system, 2020-02-18 - the New Horizons spacecraft is about 1.25 billion miles from Pluto. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

I chose to highlight Neptune's moon Triton this week:

Global color mosaic of Triton, taken in 1989 by Voyager 2 during its flyby of the Neptune system. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. It is unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation―a retrograde orbit. - NASA

Triton's Retrograde Orbit

Retrograde orbit of Neptune's moon Triton compared to Neptune's inner moons. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Scientists think Triton is a Kuiper Belt Object captured by Neptune's gravity millions of years ago. It shares many similarities with Pluto, the best known world of the Kuiper Belt. - NASA

Comparison of Triton, Pluto and the Moon

Comparison of Triton, Pluto and the Earth's Moon. Credit: Universe Sandbox / Bob Trembley

Note: In the image above, the Moon and Pluto are represented accurately in Universe Sandbox - Triton is not. I used a randomly generated cold moon, with colors picked from a Voyager image of Triton. I was mainly going for a size comparison here anyway...

Like our own moon, Triton is locked in synchronous rotation with Neptune―one side faces the planet at all times. But because of its unusual orbital inclination both polar regions take turns facing the Sun.

Triton has a diameter of 1,680 miles (2,700 kilometers). Spacecraft images show the moon has a sparsely cratered surface with smooth volcanic plains, mounds and round pits formed by icy lava flows. Triton consists of a crust of frozen nitrogen over an icy mantle believed to cover a core of rock and metal. Triton has a density about twice that of water. This is a higher density than that measured for almost any other satellite of an outer planet. Europa and Io have higher densities. This implies that Triton contains more rock in its interior than the icy satellites of Saturn and Uranus.

Triton's thin atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen with small amounts of methane. This atmosphere most likely originates from Triton's volcanic activity, which is driven by seasonal heating by the Sun. Triton, Io and Venus are the only bodies in the solar system besides Earth that are known to be volcanically active at the present time.- NASA

Triton is one of the coolest objects in our solar system. It is so cold that most of Triton's nitrogen is condensed as frost, giving its surface an icy sheen that reflects 70 percent of the sunlight that hits it.

NASA's Voyager 2―the only spacecraft to fly past Neptune and Triton―found surface temperatures of -391° Fahrenheit (-235° Celsius). During its 1989 flyby, Voyager 2 also found Triton has active geysers, making it one of the few geologically active moons in our solar system. - NASA

Neptune Seen from Triton

Artist's conception of Neptune seen from the surface of Triton. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

 

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Juno Mission at Jupiter

While I was writing this post, I was playing around with NASA's Solar System Orrery website - I noticed the Juno spacecraft was REALLY CLOSE to Jupiter, so I took a couple screen shots:

International Space Station

Hubble Space Telescope

Climate

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4126  (+10)
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2356
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2347
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420 
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430 (+3)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397 (+3)
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 891
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 38  (+3)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-02-12 04:30:01) 1660
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1660
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1056

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.

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to WISE 0855−0714, 7.27 light years distant.

WISE 0855−0714

Distance to cold sub-brown dwarf WISE 0855−0714 from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the Milky Way galaxy's plane. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

WISE 0855−0714

WISE 0855−0714 is a sub-brown dwarf 7.27±0.13 light-years from Earth, the discovery of which was announced in April 2014 by Kevin Luhman using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). As of 2014, WISE 0855−0714 has the third-highest proper motion (8118±8 mas/yr) after Barnard's Star (10300 mas/yr) and Kapteyn's Star (8600 mas/yr) and the fourth-largest parallax (449±8 mas) of any known star or brown dwarf, meaning it is the fourth-closest extrasolar system to the Sun. It is also the coldest object of its type found in interstellar space, having a temperature in the range 225 to 260 K (−48 to −13 °C; −55 to 8 °F). - Wikipedia

The above images have a humorous evolution - I traveled to WISE 0855−0714 in SpaceEngine, and thought there was something wrong... I didn't see ANYTHING! So I traveled forward, and suddenly I'm on the "surface" of something totally black! I reset my zoom, and slowly moved around the object until I got the limb of the Milky Way behind it and my viewpoint, and there it was... or wasn't! Perhaps if I had a way to detect the gravitational warping of a 3-10 Jupiter-mass object, I'd have "seen it."

I turned up the brightness of the scene as far as it would go in SpaceEngine - still a black circle. I searched to see if SpaceEngine could display the scene in infrared, which is how the object was discovered. Sadly, all the posts I saw were requests for SpaceEngine to implement this feature. So... I fudged it! Using Universe Sandbox, I placed a hot brown dwarf in the scene, and oriented it with the rings in the image from SpaceEngine (yes, there are rings there). I then pasted the two images together to simulate WISE 0855−0714 in IR.

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 – February 12, 2020

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 135 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

Things have been a little exciting for me the last couple days - I'm a grandpa! My daughter Amanda and her husband Sam delivered Alayanora Lee Festian at home on Sunday Feb. 9th - under the full Moon. All are doing well - astronomy-related baby clothes suggestions are welcome! 🙂

Bob Trembley's granddaughter, Alayanora Lee Festian - daughter of Sam and Amanda Festian, born Feb. 9, 2020 under the full Moon.

The day after my granddaughter was born we put our house back on the market - calls for showings started pouring in while we were visiting our granddaughter.

When you show your house, you have to be away from the premises when prospective buyers are at a showing - and the house has to be cleaned... have I ever mentioned that I own parrots?

I also work from home, and I have a new granddaughter... I may have been a bit distracted the last couple days.

Jupiter and Mars nearly align with the star Antares above the southeastern horizon before dawn - follow those three to find Saturn, still low above the eastern horizon this week.

South-Southeastern horizon at dawn

Saturn low on the horizon, with Jupiter and Mars above the south-southeastern horizon at dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Here's the same patch of sky seen from Ushuaia, Argentina:

Seen from Ushuaia, Argentina, Saturn is low on the eastern horizon before dawn - Jupiter, Mars and the star Antares are aligned in the opposite direction as seen from the continental U.S. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The waning gibbous Moon appears near the star Spica before dawn on Thursday Jan. 13th.

Conjunction

The Moon appears near the star Spica before dawn on Jan. 13th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mercury appears low on the eastern horizon this week, joining Venus at dusk.

 

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 Feb. 15th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.

After Feb. 15th, the Moon will be a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-02-11 - 2020-02-17. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown - many along the terminator.

Moon News

The Sun has been spot-free for 9 days.

Colored HMI Intensitygram of the Sun from Feb. 11, 2020.

 

The northern coronal hole has reopened, and the southern hole remains wide open.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 11, 2020:

Prominences galore on the Sun's limb over the last several days! Very impressive!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 10, 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.

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 359.4 km/sec (↑), with a density of 3.7 protons/cm3 (↓) at 1257 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News

 

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 52  (-75), this year: 127  (-75), all time: 22,240 (+289)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 934,103 (+2069)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 CH
2020-Feb-12
11.6 LD
9.4
31
2020 CF
2020-Feb-12
14.8 LD
5.3
12
163373
2020-Feb-15
15.1 LD
15.2
589
2020 BL14
2020-Feb-16
18 LD
8.8
33
2020 CK1
2020-Feb-17
8.6 LD
8.1
16
2018 CW2
2020-Feb-17
6 LD
10.2
28
2020 BA10
2020-Feb-18
12.3 LD
9
28
2020 CX1
2020-Feb-19
14.1 LD
7.9
53
2020 BL7
2020-Feb-19
13.9 LD
8.5
36
2020 BC9
2020-Feb-20
13.9 LD
9.3
77
2019 BE5
2020-Feb-20
13.7 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
2020 BR10
2020-Feb-23
15.4 LD
15.1
101
2020 BW13
2020-Feb-24
9.1 LD
2.4
12
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
2012 XA133
2020-Mar-27
17.4 LD
23.7
235
2010 GD35
2020-Mar-29
15.3 LD
12
43
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14
2015 FC35
2020-Apr-04
10.4 LD
13.8
148
2019 HM
2020-Apr-10
7.2 LD
3.2
23

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 Feb. 10, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 9 fireballs. 
(9 sporadics)

Fireball Orbits

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

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-02-11. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-02-11. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the outer solar system - the orbit of transneptunian object (307261) 2002 MS4 is highlighted:

Outer Solar System

Outer Solar System 2002-02-11, orbit of transneptunian object (307261) 2002 MS4 highlighted in red. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

(307261) 2002 MS4

(307261) 2002 MS4 is a large classical Kuiper belt object and a possible dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. It was discovered in 2002 by Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown. (307261) 2002 MS4 has been observed 74 times, with precovery images back to 8 April 1954.

As of 2019, 2002 MS4 is 46.5 AU from the Sun. It will reach perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, in 2122. - Wikipedia

(307261) 2002 MS4

Artist's Conception of transneptunian object (307261) 2002 MS4 eclipsing the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

International Space Station

Hubble Space Telescope

https://twitter.com/NASAHubble/status/1227246162207559681/photo/1

Climate

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4116 
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2356
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2347
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420 
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 427 
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 394
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 891
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 38
TESS Project Candidates 1660
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1056  (-8)

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.

 

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to Wolf 359 - 7.9 light years distant

Nearby Stars

Stars up to ten light-years from the Sun. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Wolf 359

Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo, near the ecliptic. At a distance of approximately 7.9 light years from Earth, it has an apparent magnitude of 13.54 and can only be seen with a large telescope. Wolf 359 is one of the nearest stars to the Sun; only the Alpha Centauri system (including Proxima Centauri), Barnard's Star and the brown dwarfs Luhman 16 and WISE 0855−0714 are known to be closer. Its proximity to Earth has led to its mention in several works of fiction.

Wolf 359 is one of the faintest and lowest-mass stars known. At the light-emitting layer called the photosphere, it has a temperature of about 2,800 K, which is low enough for chemical compounds to form and survive. The absorption lines of compounds such as water and titanium(II) oxide have been observed in the spectrum. The surface has a magnetic field that is stronger than the average magnetic field on the Sun. As a result of magnetic activity caused by convection, Wolf 359 is a flare star that can undergo sudden increases in luminosity for several minutes. These flares emit strong bursts of X-ray and gamma ray radiation that have been observed by space telescopes. Wolf 359 is a relatively young star with an age of less than a billion years. Two planetary companions are suspected but as yet no debris disks have been unmasked. - Wikipedia

Wolf 359 Distance graphic

Distance to the star Wolf 359 from Sol; the plane is aligned with the orientation of the Milky Way galaxy's plane. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Wolf 359 System Architecture

Wolf 359 system architecture. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Wolf 359 Inner System

Wolf 359 inner system - showing the red dwarf star, and the orbit of exoplanet Wolf 359 c. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Wolf 359 c

Artist's Conception of Wolf 359 c, a hot subneptune exoplanet orbiting close to the red dwarf star Wolf 359. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Wolf 359 Outer System

Wolf 359 outer system - showing the orbit of exoplanet Wolf 359 b. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Wolf 359 b

Artist's Conception of Wolf 359 b, a frigid subjupiter exoplanet orbiting far from the red dwarf star Wolf 359. 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 – February 4, 2020

Sacred Space Astronomy avatarPosted on by
This entry is part 134 of 142 in the series In the Sky This Week

The Moon is the "star" of the sky this week, going from just past first-quarter through full, and having close encounters with several stars - this ought to make the Moon a great observing target all week!

Conjunction

Conjunction of the Moon and the star Regulus high in the southeastern sky at midnight on Feb. 10. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Saturn makes a return to the eastern morning sky, joining Jupiter and Mars - Saturn is a bit low on the horizon, and may be lost in the glare of the Sun for several weeks.

Conjunction

Saturn returns very low on the horizon! Jupiter is low and Mars high above the southeastern horizon at dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

M 22

Messier 22 or M22, also known as NGC 6656, is an elliptical globular cluster of stars in the constellation Sagittarius, near the Galactic bulge region. It is one of the brightest globulars that is visible in the night sky. The brightest stars are 11th magnitude, with hundreds of stars bright enough to resolve with an 8" telescope. M22 is located just south of the Ecliptic, and northwest of Lambda Sagittarii (Kaus Borealis), the northernmost star of the "Teapot" asterism.

M22 was one of the first globulars to be discovered, on August 26, 1665 by Abraham Ihle and it was included in Charles Messier's catalog of comet-like objects on June 5, 1764. It was one of the first globular clusters to be carefully studied first by Harlow Shapley in 1930. He discovered roughly 70,000 stars and found it had a dense core. Then Halton Arp and William G. Melbourne continued studies in 1959. Because of the large color spread of its red giant branch (RGB) sequence, which is similar to that observed in Omega Centauri, it became the object of intense scrutiny starting in 1977 with James E. Hesser et al.

M22 is one of the nearer globular clusters to Earth at a distance of about 10,600 light-years away. It spans 32' on the sky which translates to a spatial diameter of 99 ± 9 light-years. 32 variable stars have been recorded in M22. It is projected in front of the galactic bulge and is therefore useful for its microlensing effect on the background stars in the bulge. - Wikipedia

The center of globular cluster Messier 22. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Location of M22

Location of M22 in the southeastern predawn sky this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Artist's conception of M22 seen from above the plane of the Milky Way. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

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 Sunday Feb. 9, rising at sunset, visible high in the sky around midnight, and up all night.

After Feb. 9 the Moon will be a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.

Moon

The Moon from 2020-02-04 - 2020-02-10. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown - many along the terminator.

Moon News

The Sun has been spot-free for 1 day.

Colored HMI Intensitygram of the Sun from 2020-02-04. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.

The northern coronal hole remains diminished... but that southern hole has gone from huge to ginormous!

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 3, 2020:

More awesome prominences on the Sun's limb over the last several days! Loops and hedgerows galore!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Feb. 3, 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.

Facebook: SolarActivity

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 354.3 km/sec (↑), with a density of 6.4 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1257 UT.

Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun's limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHO

Sun News: Most Detailed Images of Granules on the Sun's Photosphere

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 127  (+0), this year: 127  (-1), all time: 21,951 (+0)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 932,034 (+148)

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2013 BA74
2020-Feb-04
3.7 LD
7.4
28
2020 CO
2020-Feb-04
11.5 LD
17.5
23
2020 CN
2020-Feb-04
4.8 LD
14.8
12
2020 CR
2020-Feb-04
2.6 LD
22.4
13
2020 CC
2020-Feb-05
1.9 LD
10.7
9
2020 BR11
2020-Feb-05
10.5 LD
3.2
9
2020 CT
2020-Feb-05
4.3 LD
13.2
8
2020 BY13
2020-Feb-05
10.8 LD
9.4
28
2020 BF10
2020-Feb-06
2.9 LD
8.6
12
2020 BF11
2020-Feb-07
16.8 LD
13.9
35
2020 BL8
2020-Feb-08
6.6 LD
3.2
25
2020 BQ11
2020-Feb-08
14.1 LD
21.3
46
2020 BW5
2020-Feb-09
5.2 LD
9
18
2020 BK10
2020-Feb-10
1.9 LD
11.5
21
2020 BC10
2020-Feb-10
15.2 LD
7.5
33
2020 CH
2020-Feb-12
11.6 LD
9.4
30
2020 CF
2020-Feb-12
14.8 LD
5.3
12
163373
2020-Feb-15
15.1 LD
15.2
589
2020 BL14
2020-Feb-16
18.1 LD
8.8
32
2018 CW2
2020-Feb-17
6 LD
10.2
28
2020 BA10
2020-Feb-18
12.3 LD
9
28
2020 BL7
2020-Feb-19
13.9 LD
8.6
36
2020 BC9
2020-Feb-20
13.9 LD
9.3
77
2019 BE5
2020-Feb-20
13.7 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
2020 BR10
2020-Feb-23
15.4 LD
15.1
100
2020 BW13
2020-Feb-24
9.1 LD
2.4
13
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
2012 XA133
2020-Mar-27
17.4 LD
23.7
235
2010 GD35
2020-Mar-29
15.3 LD
12
43
2006 FH36
2020-Mar-30
11.3 LD
5.1
93
2019 GM1
2020-Apr-02
9 LD
4.2
14

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

 

On Feb. 3, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 5 fireballs. 
(5 sporadics)

Fireball Orbits

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

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

Inner Solar System

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-02-04. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

Middle Solar System

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-02-04. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the outer solar system - the orbit of transneptunian object (55565) 2002 AW197 is highlighted:

(55565) 2002 AW197

Outer Solar System 2002-02-04, orbit of transneptunian object (55565) 2002 AW197 highlighted in red. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

(55565) 2002 AW197

(55565) 2002 AW197, provisional designation 2002 AW197, is a classical, non-resonant trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper belt in the outermost region of the Solar System, also known as cubewano. With a diameter of at least 700 kilometers (430 miles), Brown considers it a highly likely dwarf planet candidate. Tancredi notes that photometric observations suggest that it is a spheroid with a high albedo and small albedo spots. However, its low albedo suggests it does not have planetary geology. It was discovered at Palomar Observatory in 2002 and has a rotation period of 8.8 hours and a moderately red color. - Wikipedia

(55565) 2002 AW197

Artist's conception of transneptunian object (55565) 2002 AW197. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

International Space Station

Hubble Space Telescope

Climate

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4116  (+8) 
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2356
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2347
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420 
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 427  (+1)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 394  (+1)
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 891
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 38 (+1)
TESS Project Candidates 1660  (+143)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1064  (+18)

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.

 

The Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to Luhman 16 (WISE 1049-5319)

Nearby Stars

Stars up to ten light-years from the Sun. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Luhman 16

Luhman 16 is a binary brown dwarf in the southern constellation Vela at 6.6 light-years from the Sun. It is also known as WISE 1049-5319.

These are the nearest known brown dwarfs to the Solar System, and the closest system discovered since Barnard's Star in 1916.

The primary has a stellar classification of L8 ± 1, and the secondary is probably near the L/T transition. The pair orbit each other at a distance of about 3 AU with an orbital period of about 25 years. - Wikipedia

Luhman 16

Distance to Luhman 16 from Sol. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Luhman 16 A & B orbit a common barycenter.

Luhman 16

Orbits of the Luhman 16 binary brown dwarf system. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

A brown dwarf is an object which is made of the same things as stars, but does not have enough mass for hydrogen fusion (the combining of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms). Nuclear fusion is what makes stars glow. Brown dwarfs are not massive enough to do this, so they are not regular stars. On the other hand, they are not regular giant planets, because they do glow. They are thought to be many but few have been found because their absolute magnitude is small.

Their mass is between the heaviest gas giants and the lightest stars, with an upper limit around 75 to 80 times the mass of Jupiter (MJ). Brown dwarfs more massive than 13 MJ are thought to fuse deuterium and those above ~65 MJ, fuse lithium as well.

Despite their name, most brown dwarfs would appear magenta to the human eye. - Wikipedia

Luhman 16

Artist concept of brown dwarf Luhman 16 A - Luhman 16 B is in the distance. 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