What's Up? The Space Place

 Hey, Space Placers! Geminid meteors radiate from near the bright star  Castor  in the constellation  Gemini  the Twins, in the east on December evenings. And in 2025, the bright planet Jupiter is near the twin stars of Gemini.  Chart via  EarthSky The night of December 13-14 is the peak time for the best performing meteor shower of the year, the Geminids https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-geminid-meteor-shower/?mc_cid=7dde41a33d&mc_eid=9aeb2a4318   . I say best because it has been proven to reliably produce a large number of meteors per hour (120) in a dark sky and many of them are bright https://www.amsmeteors.org/2025/12/viewing-the-geminid-meteor-shower-in-2025/   . Plus the Geminids is the only major meteor shower where you can see a good number of meteors starting at 10 p.m. local time instead of the hours just before dawn. This year the moon will not interfere with the Geminids but the weather mos...

 Hey, Space Placers! Depiction of MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars NASA From NASA: NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6. Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet. After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal. The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available. More here. Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! Researchers using time-delay cosmography independently confirmed that the universe’s current rate of expansion, known as the Hubble constant (H₀), does not match values predicted from measurements from the universe when it was much younger. This “Hubble tension” may point to new physics governing the universe. Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory / Adam Makarenko Maunakea, Hawai ʻ i   – A team of astronomers using a variety of ground and space-based telescopes including the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, have made one of the most precise independent measurements yet of how fast the universe is expanding, further deepening the divide on one of the biggest mysteries in modern cosmology. Using data gathered from Keck Observatory’s Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) as well as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisp...

 Hey, Space Placers! NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope identified the source of a super bright flash of light known as a gamma-ray burst: a supernova that exploded when the universe was only 730 million years old. Webb’s high-resolution near-infrared images also detected the supernova’s host galaxy. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Andrew Levan (Radboud University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) FROM NASA: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has observed a supernova that exploded when the universe was only 730 million years old — the earliest detection of its kind to date. Webb’s crisp near-infrared images also allowed astronomers to locate the supernova’s faint host galaxy. The telescope took these quick-turn observations July 1 in support of an international group of telescopes that detected a super bright flash of light known as a  gamma-ray burst  in mid-March. NASA’s missions are part of a growing, worldwide network watching for fleeting changes in the skies to s...

 Hey, Space Placers! iPhone pic of November 2025 Aurora Greg Redfern In addition to the wonderful sky sights of December  https://wtop.com/the-space-place/2025/12/eyes-to-the-skies-for-december-2025-full-cold-supermoon-and-geminids-meteor-shower-steal-the-show/   we may, and I emphasize may, have the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora, tonight just after midnight towards dawn. Yesterday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC)  https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/   issued a forecast https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/strong-g3-geomagnetic-storm-watch-valid-09-dec-2025   for a G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation to occur on December 9. This forecasted event will not be like we experienced last month when we had Aurora visible for several nights https://wtop.com/the-space-place/2025/11/northern-lights-sightings-possible-next-few-nights-in-...

 Hey, Space Placers! Island making happening in real time. Tune in! Sky Guy in VA