What's Up? The Space Place

Hey Space Placers! As we say good-bye to 2019 I wanted to share my fave astropics for the year...... My trip to Chile gets the nod for my fave pics: I hope 2020 will be good for the planet and humanity..... Enjoy the stars each night of the New Year to come as they are always there for us to see and contemplate. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Watch the planned test destruction of the Space Launch System (SLS) tank. The successful test takes us one step closer to the Moon, Mars and beyond..... Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! THANK YOU FOR THE THREE MILLION, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED NINETY-THREE (3,200,293) VIEWS!!!!!! What a milestone! Betelgeuse is the BRIGHT yellowish star in the upper left. Picture was taken in fog to highlight star colors. Credit: Greg Redfern Mighty Orion the Hunter is in the winter night sky rising in the East soon after it gets dark. Long with the Big Dipper it is perhaps the most recognized constellation in the heavens. The stars really do form the shape of a mighty hunter in the sky. The bright star known as Betelgeuse has rapidly dimmed in the past month and has fueled speculation as to its immediate future.   It is a variable star which means that its light input changes occasionally. But it is also a massive star which will end its life in a brilliant supernova explosion someday. Our Milky Way Galaxy has not had a supernova explosion visible from Earth for centuries - we are way overdue! Betelgeuse will be spectacular when it blows bu...

Hey Space Placers! No matter where you are on the planet there is a must see sky show tonight after sunset! The waxing crescent Moon and brilliant, beautiful Venus will be in the SW sky. The Moon will most likely exhibit Earthshine - that ghostly gray light that illuminates the portions of the Moon that are not in direct sunlight. It is reflected sunlight off of our planet's oceans and primarily  clouds. Be sure to get your camera out and try taking a pic as it gets dark. It will be easy to focus on Venus and pop a pic. Enjoy! Sky Guy Greg

Hey Space Placers! Hope the holidays are treating you well. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner returned safely to Earth last Sunday in a land-based touchdown. Starliner Calypso (Image: © NASA/Bill Ingalls) Although the spacecraft suffered an anomaly that kept it from achieving the proper orbit to dock with the International Space Station - see previous blog - the successful touchdown was a BIG step forward. The reusable spacecraft was given a name - Calypso- by the astronaut that will command the first Starliner crewed mission set for an undetermined launch date. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Today is the December Solstice so it is your 1st day of summer S of the equator or winter N of it. Get all the details here. I will be leaving the South Pacific today and headed to VA for winter, and glad for it. It has been all clouds and a lot of rain.....hoping for some clear winter nights. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Boeing's CST-100 Starliner successfully launched yesterday but suffered an orbital anomaly that will prevent its objective of docking with the International Space Station. The spacecraft is scheduled to remain aloft until Sunday. Sky Guy in Moorea

Hey Space Placers! Get all the details here for the launch attempt. Boeing's CST-100 is on the launch pad for a 12/20/19 launch attempt Credit: Boeing LIGHT THAT CANDLE! Sky Guy in Taha'a

Hey Space Placers! Check it ou t! In a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, engineers observed the first driving test for NASA's Mars 2020 rover on Dec. 17, 2019. Credit: NASA JPL Sky Guy in Society Islands

Hey Space Placers! The Sun has just set a new Space Age record for no sunspots. Sky Guy in Bora Bora

Hey Space Placers! Read all about the 2019 Geminids . I'm hoping the weather will clear here in the Society Islands in the South Pacific so I can see and photograph them. Sky Guy in Moorea

Hey Space Placers! Venus and Saturn will be at their closest tonight and visible right after it starts to get dark. Be sure to check it out! Sky Guy in Bora Bora

Hey Space Placers! Here's some advance notice on sky events for December 2019. Venus, Jupiter, Saturn Venus is getting higher in the SW daily as it gets dark after sunset while Jupiter and Saturn get lower. All 3 are visible now. Jupiter will remain visible until about mid-month. Venus and Saturn will be at their closest on the 10th, less than 2 degrees. The Full Cold Moon is on the 11th-12th. The Geminid Meteor Shower is predicted to be at maximum on Dec 13-14   but the almost Full Moon will drastically reduce the number of Geminids that can be seen. Geminid meteors appear to diverge from a single spot in the sky, called the radiant, located in the constellation Gemini. But you'll see as many as possible if you lean back and take in the whole sky — they can appear anywhere across the sky, traveling away from that point.  (Image credit:  Sky & Telescope /Gregg Dinderman) FROM SPACE.COM Hoping you have clear skies.... Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! The crash site for India's Vikram lander has been found by a citizen scientist using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) images. Before and after images show the Vikram impact point. NASA thinks the changes to the moon’s surface are more easily seen in the ratio image presented above. Image via  NASA / Goddard/Arizona State University. CREDIT: EarthSky.org  The   Chandrayaan 2 orbiter is operating and fulfilling science objectives. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! America's return to human spaceflight is getting closer and closer every day. Read about the launch date for the uncrewed Boeing Starliner spacecraft   currently set for 12/19/19. Then tune into some Artemis stories: Artemis Spacesuits We are going....... Sky Guy VA

Hey Space Placers! Happy Cyber Monday. Check out my advice for buying gifts for your favorite stargazer. Sky Guy Santa

Hey Space Placers! For my American audience - Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and your enjoy the blessings of today. For the whole world Mother Nature is providing a beautiful sky show the next several nights right after it starts to get dark. The thin waxing crescent Moon will pass by Jupiter, Venus and finally Saturn the next couple of days. The Moon will start to exhibit Earthshine - the "dark of the Moon" visible due to reflection of sunlight off our planet's clouds and to a lesser extent, oceans. This will be especially beautiful when the Moon is near Venus. Here is what the sky looked like on November 27, 2019: 31 Hour Old Moon Credit: Greg Redfern Venus, Jupiter, Crescent Moon Credit: Greg Redfern ENJOY THE VIEW!! Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Here is a view of a comet that has come to our solar system from elsewhere in our galaxy. Meet Comet  2l/Borisov. Left: A new image of the interstellar comet 2l/Borisov. Right: A composite image of the comet with a photo of the Earth to show scale. (Pieter van Dokkum, Cheng-Han Hsieh, Shany Danieli, Gregory Laughlin) CREDIT: Yale News Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Our star is still a mystery in lot of ways. Learn about our star and one of its biggest mysteries - how and why does the Sun's temperature go from 6,000 F to well over 1 MILLION F in the span of a few hundred miles? The Sun's Corona is visible as are Baily's Beads - sunlight coming through lunar features on the Moon's limb - during the July 2, 2019 total solar eclipse in Chile. Credit: Greg Redfern Enjoy this video of the Sun as you have probably never seen it before. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Be sure to take a glance tonight and tomorrow night - 11/23 and 11/24 - as it starts to get dark in the SW. Bright Venus and Jupiter will be closing to within 1.4 degrees of each other  - close - and  a striking site in the sky! Read More About It. Here is a pic I took on Queen Elizabeth in the south Atlantic Ocean of the pair and the Milky Way in a 50+ knot wind. Venus (lower) and Jupiter with the Milky Way as seen in the South Atlantic on Queen Elizabeth Credit: Greg Redfern Enjoy the view and look for the Milky Way too when it is dark. Sky Guy Greg

Hey Space Placers! So sorry I have been off-line. Being in the north and south Atlantic can do that! Here is my pic of the Mercury Transit taken while underway on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth - it was a hard but worthwhile shot to get: Mercury Transiting the Sun Credit: Greg Redfern Enjoy this video from ESA about a proposed planetary defense mission called Hera. Sky Guy BACK in VA

Hey Space Placers! Read the facts for yourself on climate change. We and life as we know it on this planet are in peril due to the activities of humans. Need more proof? See NASA Climate Change . Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Enjoy the view of our Milky Way Galaxy in the Southern Hemisphere courtesy of a planet hunter named TESS . Simply beautiful. NASA Goddard Sky Guy VA

Hey Space Placers! The second RS-25 main engine has been installed on the core stage of Artemis 1.   CREDIT: NASA Two more RS-25's have to be attached to complete the main engines of Artemis 1. Can hardly wait to see those candles get lit! Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! BOOOOOOOOOO.......... As you get ready for trick or treaters tonight the Cosmos is getting its Spooky Face on...... Arp-Madore 2026-424 Credit: NASA HST And perhaps most ghoulishly famous of all in the known Cosmos........ SPOOKY THE HALLOWEEN ASTEROID....... IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO TONIGHT that Spooky the Asteroid made its close approach to Earth. And for those of you who want to enjoy the ultimate Cosmic Halloween thrill, tune in to Orson Wells' 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. And finally........ You may not know that Halloween is in fact an ASTRONOMICAL HOLIDAY.   It has ancient historical roots that have passed down to us. Enjoy the night sky tonight on Halloween...... Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! BIG NEWS! NASA and Boeing recently announced that December 17, 2019, will be the anticipated launch date for Orbital Flight Test -1 of Boeing's CST 100 Starliner. It will be an uncrewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). This is a critical step forward for NASA's Commercial Crew Program which was designed to return human spaceflight capability to NASA via commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX/ Boeing's Orbital Flight Test - 1 CST 100 Starliner Being mated to its Service Module. Credit: Boeing via  Ars Technica.com Both Boeing and SpaceX are way behind schedule in returning American human spaceflight capability to NASA since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. A successful mission of Starliner would be a huge step forward. I will be at sea in the South Pacific when the planned launch date occurs but I will be watching! Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! The following story and video makes for a perfect Milky Way Monday! Learn about the European Space Agency's Gaia Mission that is rewriting the books on our Milky Way Galaxy. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Meet NASA's newest mission to explore the Moon - VIPER. Slated for December 2022 this lunar water prospector will go to the lunar South Pole to map water ice that we know exists there. Going to be interesting to see if a lander and this mission can meet such an ambitious deadline. I certainly hope it does. Sky Guy oil VA

Hey Space Placers! Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn James Webb Space Telescope's sun shield was successfully deployed 10/21/19! A previous test had developed tears in the layers and found too much slack in the cables, so this is a BIG accomplishment. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! The Orionid Meteor Shower is predicted to peak THE NEXT TWO NIGHTS and has been active the past few nights with some nice bright fireballs. If you have decent weather get and enjoy this sky spectacle. We are cloudy with much needed rain forecast. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! If this video doesn't leave you inspired and proud of our NASA team - well.......... I hope the U.S. Congress sees this and properly funds our space agency. Remember two things Space Placers: No bucks, no Buck Rogers...... The dinosaurs are dead because they didn't have telescopes and a space program. Watch and replay........ Sky Giuin VA

Hey Space Placers! Everybody knows we are totally dependent on the Sun for our very existence. But what people may not know is that the Sun does affect our planet in ways that can be dangerous to us and our electrical infrastructure. Credit: NASA/Steele Hill New research has found that extreme solar storms may be more frequent than previously thought and that can have big impact in us. The Sun is currently monitored using spacecraft and telescopes so hopefully we will have sufficient warning to protect our power grid and space-based assets if a "Big One" is headed our way. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Enjoy the Hubble Space Telescope's view of the second known interstellar comet to visit our solar system.    Use the "Loop" feature for a better look of the video. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Credit: ESA Want to help with the efforts to reduce light pollution around the planet? Well, you are in luck. Check this link for more information on how you can help using pictures of the Earth at night from the International Space Station. I hope you will help out..... Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Enjoy this roundup of upcoming sky events for the next month courtesy of NASA. Get out and enjoy the Full Moon and the planets! Sky Guy Greg

Hey Space Placers! Tune in to learn about asteroids  in this podcast . Sign up and subscribe to the entire season. We need to do more to protect ourselves from the threat and finally building an asteroid detecting spacecraft for the  Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission   will go a long way in doing so. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will lead the development of the mission as part of NASA's planetary defense mission. Sky Guy Greg

Hey Space Placers! Here is a short video showing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spacecraft and telescope being joined. Still on track for launch March 31, 2021. Sky Guy Greg

Hey Space Placers! Three Astronomers have won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for 1st exosolar planet discovery and structure of the Universe . Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Saturn has overtaken Jupiter as the solar system champ for total number of moons - 82 vs 69. It was just announced that 20 new moons were discovered An artist’s conception of the 20 newly discovered moons orbiting Saturn. These discoveries bring the planet’s total moon count to 82, surpassing Jupiter for the most in our Solar System. Studying these moons can reveal information about their formation and about the conditions around Saturn at the time. Illustration is courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science. (Saturn image is courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute. Starry background courtesy of Paolo Sartorio/Shutterstock.) Here is the article about the discovery.   Be sure to read the part about the contest to help name these new moons! Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Saturday night is “International Observe the Moon Night”   https://www.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night     or InOMN for short. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of this annual event  https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/international-observe-the-moon-night-celebrates-10-years     as well as taking place a few months after the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s landing on the Moon https://wtop.com/gallery/media-galleries/photos-apollo-11-the-1st-mission-to-the-moon/ . NASA also states,”This year, International Observe the Moon Night coincides with World Space Week! World Space Week is held annually on October 4-10. This year’s theme is “The Moon: Gateway to the Stars.” International Observe the Moon Night is sponsored by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)  https://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov     and the Solar System Exploration Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, with support from many partners. ...

Hey Space Placers! A VERY interesting paper came out recently that proposed that the theoretical Planet Nine   may in fact be a primordial black hole lurking in our solar system.   These types of black holes were formed early in the Universe and are thought to be quite numerous and have masses on the scale of our planet. The paper postulates that the Planet Nine black hole would be about five Earth masses and provides an actual to scale diagram (Figure 1 in the paper) of the size of such a body: Figure 1 What if Planet 9 is a Primordial Black Hole?  Jakub Scholtz 1  and James Unwin 2 This is an intriguing possibility that could be detected. The hunt is currently on for Planet Nine so time and observations will tell what is really "out there". Sky Guy in VA

Hey, Space Placers! In 1927 Nobel Prize Winner Albert Michelson  determined the speed of light was  299,796 Kilometers per second ,  just   3.542 Kilometers per second  off from the modern figure. He did this during experiments at Mount Wilson Observatory. The speed of light is fast but finite. The following gives you an excellent feel for how vast our solar system really is. Once we leave the Earth-Moon system we start to add up the minutes and hours it takes for light to reach us from the other planets. Oh, and don't forget to multiply the time "x2" to account for round trip time! It staggers the mind to contemplate the time necessary for light to reach us from even the closest star beyond our Sun - Proxima Centauri - 4.2 YEARS. Light travel time becomes even more incomprehensible when we look at the Milky Way - 27,000 years to the galaxy's center to BILLIONS of years for distant galaxies. Space is big and gets bigger by the second due to the expa...

Hey Space Placers! I'm back......Internet was iffy in the deep South Pacific. What a trip.... The great space simulators at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have done it again . They have released an amazing simulation of what a black hole looks like with an accompanying diagram. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittma Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittma Be sure to pick out your fave GIF and download it! Sky Guy Back In VA!

Hey Space Placers! Today I had the honor and privilege of seeing Iwo Jima, site of the bloodiest battle in the storied history of the United States Marine Corps. The view was from cruise ship Maasdam. It was a view seen by 74,000 Marines who hit the southern black sand beaches and fought 22,000 entrenched Japanese soldiers for over a month February into March 1945.  26,000 Marines were casualties.  861 Marines and 1,600 Japanese defenders died PER SQUARE MILE . Mount Sarabachi mesmerizes……..       The black sand beaches of death terrorizes……… Sky Guy WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER......

Hey Space Placers! Interesting read. Credit: NBC News I personally believe Pluto is STILL planet 9 in our solar system. Only 424 votes changed the definition of what a planet is......that definition is fatally flawed. Sky Guy Headed to Nagasaki

Hey Space Placers! Read the following update from NASA on the Mars 'copter. Mars Helicopter Installed on Rover NASA JPLCredit:  Close up of Helicopter Credit: NASA JPL Sky Guy in Hiroshima, Japan

Hey Space Placers! Sorry I've been off line the past few days but I did not have Internet as I made my way to Japan to board ship. In a HUGE  milestone, the Telescope and Spacecraft halves of the James Webb Space Telescope  (JWST) have been mechanically joined together! This is a MAJOR milestone and accomplishment for the 20 year project. Joined JWST Halves Credit: NASA Preparing to Join the Two Halves Credit: NASA Electrical components between the two halves will be assembled next and then tested. JWST will then undergo additional testing to prepare for its 2021 launch. Sky Guy in the Sea of Japan