For the next few mornings at least 30 minutes before sunrise check out the SE. You will see the BRILLIANT "Morning Star" Venus. You can't miss it.
Look to the lower left and you will see two "stars" that are the planets Mercury and Jupiter. They will be edging closer together and be closest 12/21 and 12/22.
Here are my pics from this morning.
Mercury is really easy to see right now which isn't usually the case. I know it is cold out for most of us but hey, I took these in 23 degree F temps ;-)
We have learned so much about the Cosmos around us it is sometimes easy to forget how little we know about our own backyard - the solar system. There are two big events that are going to add significantly to our knowledge of the family of the Sun.
First, two weeks from today the New Horizons spacecraft of Pluto flyby fame in July 2015 will be performing another solar system first - a flyby of Ultima Thule, a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO). This will be the farthest flyby ever accomplished of a planetary body in the solar system, a full billion miles farther than Pluto! New Horizons will also pass closer to Ultima Thule than it did at Pluto and we should really see this world up close and personal.
I'll be blogging on this as we get closer and after the flyby.
The second big event is "Farout" - the newly discovered 500km wide object located deep in the solar system that is 120 times farther from the Sun than Earth. To give you an idea of how far out "Farout" is from the Sun, Pluto is 34 times more distant from the Sun than Earth.
Movie using the two discovery images of 2018 VG18 "Farout".
Credit: Scott S. Sheppard/David Tholen.
Artist concept of 2018 VG18 "Farout" with scale of Solar System distances.
Credit Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science
More observations of Farout are planned in order to determine its precise orbit around the Sun which will take about a thousand years! Farout is thought to be spherical in shape with an icy surface composition. This discovery also might help in the ongoing search for Planet Nine
These events are truly historic in the timeline of our discoveries about the solar system. As we discover more exoplanets and alien solar systems in the process of being formed we will learn more about our own family of the Sun.
UPDATED: Here is my pic of Comet Wirtanen from last night.
This is an 8-second exposure with a 50mm lens and Digital SLR. The comet WAS NOT visible to the unaided eye and was somewhat dim even in 7x50 binoculars.
The ever increasing moonlight along with the comet now receding from the Sun and Earth will make the comet harder to see. If there is an outburst to make Comet Wirtanen brighter I will let you know.
Here are my pics of the comet from a suburban location in Central Virginia taken last night. The green color and the movement of the comet against the background stars can be easily seen.
I hope your skies are clear to see these two celestial spectacles.....
Artist's concept of Voyager 2 with 9 facts listed around it. Image Credit: NASA
Both spacecraft, even though they are traveling through interstellar space, HAVE NOT left the solar system. Our solar system extends at least 1 light year, 6 trillion miles, out into the Milky Way Galaxy. To travel to the realm beyond the solar system is at least 30,000 years in the future! Space is a VERY BIG PLACE - even our solar system.
The Voyagers should be able to continue sending back data for years to come.
WOW! I just can't help but look at all of the different types of rocks that are on this asteroid - it's like looking at a meteorite collection on display! The lack of impact craters and the appearance of BENNU reminds me of a rubble/sand pile - it just absorbs everything that it encounters. NASA's OSIRIS-Rex arrived at the space rock on 12/3/18and will settle into orbit to start its mission of discovery - can hardly wait.
NASA JPL had another success with the InSight landing11/26/18. We'll learn much about the interior of Mars - and the other rocky planets of our solar system - through this mission.
SpaceX also had a launch of a resupply mission to ISS on 12/5/18......
Busy times at ISS and space in general.
Tomorrow (US time) the Chinese are expected to launch their Chang'e 4 mission to the lunar far side for a landing. I'll be following that!
Sky Guy in VA
P.S.
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There is a comet that may be visible to the unaided eye from dark sky sites in the South after dark. It covers an area of the sky as large as the Full Moon but is dim. This comet does not have a huge tail or is as conspicuous as Hale-Bopp in 1997.
It is still worth looking for in the next few days before the Moon returns to the evening sky and makes the sky bright thereby negating being able to probably see it.
I have had cloudy weather for the past 2 weeks so I am hoping for a chance to see & photograph it.
Here are two links for you to read about 46P and both have finder charts to help you zero in on this green visitor.
As stated by the NASA Press Release, "NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with its targeted asteroid, Bennu, on Monday, Dec. 3 at approximately noon EST." Tomorrow, 12/3/18, NASA will air a live event from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. ESTon NASA Television, Facebook Live, Ustream, YouTube and the agency's website. NASA TV also will air an arrival preview program starting at 11:15 a.m. EST. This is an EXCITING mission to the asteroid belt that will give us an up close and personal view of this space rock we call Bennu. We will also be looking forward to the return sample scheduled to arrive in September 2023. Sky Guy in VA
Back from being at sea. Internet reception wasn't very good so I could not publish my blog - sorry about that but it does happen underway.
Read this story about NASA's new private partners in lunar exploration. NASA held a news conference this past week to announce the partners and plan as to how we will get back to the Moon in very short order. This is a very good thing especially with the Chinese missions that are due to launch in 2018 and 2019.
The best part of the story is that we will go to the Moon next year, probably with our Israeli partner, SPACEIL.
Here is the story about one of the oldest stars known. It is also the current record holder for the star with the fewest heavy elements which means it is OLD - perhaps forming with the first generation of stars after the Big Bang.
As a red dwarf star it will live for TRILLIONS of years.
I really am sorry to have gone silent the past week or so but I was under deadline to do the final proofs for my book which I just sent off last night - YAY!!!!!
The bookis supposed to be out Nov. 27, 2018. If you like the sea and sky this book is for you.
Tonight the waxing crescent Moon and Saturn will be close to one another in the SW after sunset and will be the first pic I post on my 18 day cruise on Holland America's Eurodam from San Diego to Hawaii and back.
Here is the incredible video showing the October 11, 2018 accident of the Soyuz MS-10 launch that I blogged about previously.
More details on the accident are here. The article also states that the next crew launch to the International Space Station will take place on December 3rd.
Have you ever wondered about how galaxies form and evolve? We live in the Milky Way Galaxy, one of 2+ TRILLION known galaxies in the observable Universe. Galaxies form and evolve over billions of years.
This is a LONG but easy to understand and insightful article written by an astrophysicist about his research into how galaxies form and evolve under the influence of dark matter. His ongoing research shows that galaxies seem to start out as "cosmic pickles" and evolve.
This computer simulation shows the evolution of particles representing stars. Note that after a number of stars have formed, the galaxy is “pickle” shaped—long, thin, and not rotating. A few satellite galaxies enter the visualization volume and merge with the central galaxy, but they do so along the main axis of the galaxy, so it continues to be long and thin. These images are all in the first (pre-"blue-nugget") stage of the evolution of this galaxy. Then the center becomes rounder and brighter, as gas flows toward the center and many stars form there (the "blue nugget" stage). Finally additional gas turns into stars to form a disk around the central region.
Simulation and video by Daniel Ceverino in collaboration with the author.
We can currently look back to the early Universe to about a billion years after the Big Bang and see young galaxies in their early stages of evolution. With new monster telescopes on the horizon we might be able to detect the very first galaxies to form!ex us
The enigmas of dark matter and dark energy still vex us as to what they are. We certainly can observe their effects on the Universe but are still in the dark - forgive the pun - as to what they truly are.
Astronomers have confirmed a 1961 observation of two dust clouds that are essentially "satellites" orbiting the Sun with the Earth at a distance similar to that of our Moon. These dust clouds have formed at two locations that are fairly stable gravitationally.
Artist’s impression of the Kordylewski cloud in the night sky (with its brightness greatly enhanced) at the time of the observations. Credit: G. Horváth
They are exceptionally faint which is why it took so long to confirm their presence. They consist of dust grains which could come from comets, asteroids and planetary impacts. Dust is very common and present everywhere in our solar system. Our Moon has a permanent lopsided dust cloud, the Zodiacal Light is composed of dust grains and Earth is bombarded daily by dust.
Mosaic pattern of the angle of polarization around the L5 point (white dot) of the Earth-Moon system. The five rectangular windows correspond to the fields of view of the imaging polarimetric telescope with which the polarization patterns of the Kordylewski dust cloud were measured. Credit: J. SlÃz-Balogh
Our own solar system is such an enigma.....we are searching for a major planet in its distant depths and will be flying by a denizen of the deep solar system on New Year's Day 2019 - Ultima Thule - with the New Horizons spacecraft.
Tonight is the Full Hunter's Moon. Take advantage of these beautiful fall evenings to see it rise at sunset in the East. You will probably see it rising in the Earth's Shadow, another beautiful sight to see.
Full Moon Rising Out Of The Earth's Shadow Shenandoah National Park Greg Redfern
Every clear night in the East at sunset and every clear dawn in the West at sunrise you can see our planet's shadow. It is accompanied by a pink band called the "Belt of Venus" and both are quite easy to see if you have a clear view of the horizon.
Be sure to look on October 24th when the Full Hunter's Moon is rising in the East.
Full Snow Moon Rising out of Earth's Shadow & Belt of Venus Taken at sea aboard Azamara Quest Tasman Strait off the Coast of N. Australia Greg Redfern
It is a daily reminder that you live on a planet that is in perpetual sunlight and as a result casts its shadow out into space. This is the "magic hour" of sunrise and sunset.
Take a look for yourself and contemplate the end and/or beginning of the day.
Hubble Space Telescope is in "Safe Mode" due to a gyro issue. The telescope is fine but ground controllers are assessing the situation. The gyro involved is probably "dead" but HST can continue doing science when it goes back on line as it still has 3 other gyros and can operate one one.
The Earthrise colour photograph taken by astronaut William Anders. It depicts the moment that our shiny blue Earth came back into view as the spacecraft emerged out of the dark from behind the grey and barren Moon. This is arguably the most famous picture taken by Apollo 8. It became iconic and has been credited with starting the environmental movement.
Two of the crates seen in this photo have just been named by the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) of the International Astronomical Union.
Credit:
NASA/IAU
I will be doing a special write up for Apollo 8's 50th, but suffice it to say this image is in all probability the most famous of all from Apollo.
Imaging using the the MUSE spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope reveals a universe full of gently glowing hydrogen clouds.
ESA/HUBBLE & NASA, ESO/ LUTZ WISOTZKI ET AL
This calming picture shows myriad galaxies amidst the soft glow of hydrogen gas caused by a well known process called Lyman Alpha emission (light). Essentially the hydrogen left over from the Big Bang fills the observable Universe and is constantly being energized from a lower to higher energy state causing the glow.
The hydrogen "cocoons" surround ancient galaxies in the early and distant Universe. This discovery will allow new observations of these clouds and their galaxies.
So the next time you look up at a dark, moonless sky, imagine the soft glow of hydrogen that fills our Universe.
Wanna' take a ride on the wild side - of supermassive black holes that is. These beasts are thought to reside at the center of most, if not all, galaxies. Our own Milky Way Galaxy has a 4.4 MILLION solar mass supermassive black hole at its center called Sagittarius A Star or Sgr A* for short.
Look at the first image taken by NASA's new exoplanet hunter - TESS.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) took this snapshot of the Large Magellanic Cloud (right) and the bright star R Doradus (left) with just a single detector of one of its cameras on Tuesday, Aug. 7. The frame is part of a swath of the southern sky TESS captured in its “first light” science image as part of its initial round of data collection.
Credits: NASA/MIT/TESS
I LOVE the first light image that shows the Large Magellanic Cloud! One of my fave places in the sky and Universe........
Here is the official statement from Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA, http://www.aura-astronomy.org) regarding the "X-File" - my term not theirs - regarding the solar observatory closure that I blogged on recently. The matter appears to be a law enforcement related matter..... Sorry, no aliens or Roswell unfortunately. Crime even strikes the science of astronomy.... Sky Guy in the Aleutians
Please click on this link to see more of this morning's (9/11/18) pics of Aurora off the coast of Seward, AK underway on Windstar Cruises' Star Legend.
At the completion of Orion’s first visit in 2024, the Gateway will consist of the three right-most modules in this artist’s concept: the power and propulsion module (far right, with solar arrays), ESPRIT (covered in gold insulation), and the U.S. utilization module (with robotic arm).
CREDIT: NASA IMAGE; Planetary Society caption
The long pole in the tent for all of this is the successful launch and flight in 2020 of the uncrewed EM-1. If that doesn't happen on schedule and successfully all of the foregoing will be affected.
Hope everyone in the U.S. had a GREAT & SAFE Labor Day.
I was off the grid for a few days but we are spooling back up today.
NASA's InSight Mars lander will carry a unique instrument capable of measuring heat flowing out of the planet. That could shed light on how Mars' massive mountains -- which eclipse Mt. Everest here on Earth -- first formed.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Here is a nifty video from NASA that discusses efforts to learn about Mother Earth's increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels using data from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2).
Wishing everyone a safe and wonderful Labor Day weekend!
If so, take your computer into a dark room or view at night this gorgeous video from NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization Studiomade with views my beloved Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
You won't be disappointed.
This is what the Moon looks like through a good telescope with no atmosphere to blur the view.
Water ice confirmed on the Moon.
This precious resource needs to be mapped in detail so we know where to go for mining it for water, oxygen and rocket fuel. If present in a great amount it will form the basis for a long lasting and thriving human presence on the Moon.
The image shows the distribution of surface ice at the Moon’s south pole (left) and north pole (right), detected by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument. Blue represents the ice locations, plotted over an image of the lunar surface, where the gray scale corresponds to surface temperature (darker representing colder areas and lighter shades indicating warmer zones). The ice is concentrated at the darkest and coldest locations, in the shadows of craters. This is the first time scientists have directly observed definitive evidence of water ice on the Moon’s surface.
At sea headed to Iceland and hopefully Aurora and Noctilucent Clouds. Really want to get pictures of them to add to my book which is at the publisher.
Side-by-side movies shows how dust has enveloped the Red Planet, courtesy of the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) wide-angle camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS