This Friday, multiple planetariums and observatories in Michigan will host evening astronomy outreach events during Statewide Astronomy Night (SWAN) – the Warren Astronomical Society among them. Observing is planned at all sites, and while activities and presentations may vary between sites, all will be held rain or moonshine!
Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares appear in south-southeastern predawn sky all week; I saw Jupiter this morning as the sky began to brighten.
Saturn and Jupiter in the south-southeastern predawn sky on Apr. 9, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The star Vega is high and bright in the east-northeastern sky in the early morning.
Vega high in the east-northeastern sky in the early morning on Apr. 9, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.A very thin waxing crescent Moon appears near the star Aldebaran and Mars in the western sky after sunset on Apr. 9th.
The waxing crescent moon near the star Aldebaran in the western sky after sunset on Apr. 9, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The first-quarter Moon appears near the constellation Gemini southwestern sky after sunset on Apr. 12th.
The first-quarter moon near the constellation Gemini high in the southwestern sky after sunset on Apr. 9, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
Elliptical Galaxy IC 1101
IC 1101 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy at the center of the Abell 2029 galaxy cluster, approximately 320 megaparsecs (1.04 billion light-years) from Earth. … IC 1101 is among the largest known galaxies, but there is debate in the astronomical literature about how to define the size of such a galaxy. – Wikipedia
IC 1101 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope; Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.How big is IC 1101?
IC 1101 Compared to our Milky Way Galaxy. Credit: Reddit.A commenter on cloudynights.com said this about IC 1101:
… it’s 14th magnitude, but the IC catalog has it at 15. It’s about 1.2 by 0.6 arc minutes, but that includes some of its outer regions. So look for a faint, stretched out, Jupiter-sized glow. I don’t think it’s hopeless in an 8-inch ‘scope if your skies are really excellent and your eyes fully adapted. I think magnification will be your friend, so the 9mm sounds like a good choice to me. But it’s going to be a tough target.
The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening; I saw this last night – with earthshine! The first-quarter Moon occurs on Apr. 12th, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening. After the 12th, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.
The Moon from Apr. 9-15, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Moon News
Ginormous sunspot AR2738 has rotated into view, bringing with it a substantial amount of coronal loop activity. Spaceweather.com says: “Big sunspot AR2738 is crackling with minor B-class solar flares. Minor? On the sun, it’s all relative. A typical B-class solar flare releases as much energy as 100 million WWII atomic bombs.”
The northern coronal hole remains closed (for the most part); the southern hole continues to remain open. Spaceweather.com says: “A minor solar wind stream is buffeting Earth’s magnetic field on April 9th, and this is causing geomagnetic unrest just below the level of a G1-class geomagnetic storm. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras mixed with waxing Spring twilight.”
A lot of prominence activity near sunspot AR2738, with another long-lived prominnece on the other side of the Sun’s limb. You can SEE flares crackling around the sunspot!
The solar wind speed is 411.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 6.1 protons/cm3 (↑).
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechYou can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Sun News
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 FU |
2019-Apr-09
|
5.3 LD
|
14.2
|
85
|
| 2014 UR |
2019-Apr-09
|
13 LD
|
4.6
|
17
|
| 2014 HD177 |
2019-Apr-10
|
6.1 LD
|
14
|
102
|
| 2016 GW221 |
2019-Apr-10
|
10.4 LD
|
5.3
|
39
|
| 2019 GQ |
2019-Apr-10
|
5.2 LD
|
8.4
|
17
|
| 2019 GE1 |
2019-Apr-11
|
3.9 LD
|
6.5
|
13
|
| 2019 FB3 |
2019-Apr-12
|
11.9 LD
|
14.2
|
42
|
| 2019 GQ1 |
2019-Apr-12
|
13.4 LD
|
12.7
|
40
|
| 2019 GN |
2019-Apr-13
|
1.7 LD
|
11.9
|
13
|
| 2019 FO1 |
2019-Apr-13
|
14.4 LD
|
9.7
|
28
|
| 2019 FH1 |
2019-Apr-13
|
18 LD
|
3.8
|
31
|
| 2012 XO134 |
2019-Apr-18
|
14.8 LD
|
11
|
56
|
| 2019 FN2 |
2019-Apr-18
|
4.1 LD
|
7.8
|
68
|
| 522684 |
2019-Apr-19
|
19 LD
|
11.5
|
214
|
| 2019 GM |
2019-Apr-21
|
19.4 LD
|
10.4
|
37
|
| 2019 FV2 |
2019-Apr-22
|
15.6 LD
|
2.3
|
33
|
| 2019 GF1 |
2019-Apr-27
|
4.7 LD
|
1.9
|
11
|
| 2018 KK1 |
2019-May-05
|
13.9 LD
|
13.9
|
71
|
| 2017 RC |
2019-May-09
|
14.5 LD
|
10.6
|
9
|
| 2008 HS3 |
2019-May-09
|
14.6 LD
|
5.3
|
162
|
| 2018 VX8 |
2019-May-12
|
6.2 LD
|
15.5
|
118
|
| 2019 GT1 |
2019-May-17
|
6.1 LD
|
4
|
36
|
| 2012 KT12 |
2019-May-18
|
3.3 LD
|
3.9
|
20
|
| 2015 KQ18 |
2019-May-25
|
10.7 LD
|
13.1
|
30
|
| 66391 |
2019-May-25
|
13.5 LD
|
21.5
|
1780
|
| 2003 LH |
2019-May-28
|
15.6 LD
|
7.4
|
32
|
| 2011 HP |
2019-May-30
|
12.3 LD
|
8.4
|
135
|
| 2014 MF18 |
2019-Jun-06
|
8.8 LD
|
3
|
22
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1967 (last updated Feb. 26, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 794,122 (+122)
Asteroid News
The IAU Minor Planet Center has released a new circular on April 6, 2019 containing several newly named asteroids: MPC_20190406.pdf
On Apr. 8, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 29 fireballs.
(29 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). From: Spaceweather.comFireball News
https://twitter.com/UKMeteorNetwork/status/1104465860922609666
This is the position of the planets and a couple bodies in the solar system:
Solar System News
OSIRIS-REx – Sees Rocky Equatorial Ridge
Mars InSight – Nominated for Webby Award
(But they’re still having issues with the drill…)
Mars Curiosity Rover – Sees Solar Eclipse
Climate
| All Exoplanets | 3926 (+7) |
| Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host | 2349 (+2) |
| Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler | 2342 (+4) |
| Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed | 2421 (-2) |
| Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host | 393 (+3) |
| Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 | 360 (+1)
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