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In the Sky This Week – December 17, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  17 Dec 2019

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This entry is part 47 of 248 in the series In the Sky This Week

Southeastern sky

Saturn and Venus move away from each other each evening in the southwestern sky after sunset this week – by early next week, Saturn will be very low on the horizon.

Mercury, Mars and the star Spica continue to align above the southeastern horizon before sunrise this week – Mercury is very low, and may be challenging to observe.

Southeastern sky Mercury, Mars and the star Spica align above the southeastern horizon before dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley

The waning gibbous Moon appears in the eastern sky around midnight on Dec. 18th, the star Regulus nearby.

Eastern sky around midnight Waning gibbous Moon in the eastern sky around midnight on Dec. 18th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

A waning crescent Moon appears near the star Spica in the eastern sky around 4:00 AM on Dec. 21st.

Eastern sky Waning crescent Moon in the eastern sky near the star Spica at 4:00 AM on Dec. 21st. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Asteroid Occultations

More often than I thought, asteroids and transneptunian objects pass in front of stars, causing them to monetarily wink-out. This observing challenge is a rather more advanced than most, as it is best done with an 8 inch+ telescope, and if you intend on reporting your timings (kinda the point) you’ll need video recording equipment with time-insertion hardware, and the ability to create AVI video files.

If enough observations are made from different locations, the data can be merged, revealing an outline of the object – this is how it was discovered that transneptunian object 2014 MU69 was a bilobed object; the binary nature of asteroid 90 Antiope can easily be seen in a profile image.

Pope Gregory XIII

Here’s a video showing the efforts to observe the 2014 MU69 occultation in 2017:

There will be an occultation of a star by a main-belt asteroid on Dec. 20th at 5:14 UTC – the shadow will pass directly over lower Michigan!

You can find a list of occultations here: http://www.poyntsource.com/New/Regions.htm
You can report occultation observations here: http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/Results/

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 Dec. 19th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.

After Dec. 19th, the Moon will be a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise.

Moon The Moon from Dec. 17-23, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

 

The Sun has been spotless for 34 days – the longest stretch for quite some time. Large coronal holes appear at both poles, and a couple smaller holes appear near the center for the Sun’s face.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 16, 2019:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2019/12/16/20191216_1024_0193.mp4

Light prominence activity, but still good enough to point your solar telescope at.

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Dec. 16, 2019:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2019/12/16/20191216_1024_0304.mp4
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.

Solar wind speed is 351.1 km/sec (↓), with a density of 7.1 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1531 UT.

Facebook: SolarActivity

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220653811556109&set=gm.2854098404601485&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Solar Corona

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

Our Solar Dynamics Observatory has spotted a new kind of explosion on the Sun ☀️?

A large loop of material, called a prominence, started falling back to the Sun's surface — but it ran into a snarl of magnetic field lines, sparking a magnetic explosion: https://t.co/s3ke3lejVl pic.twitter.com/g2XwyKMudi

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) December 17, 2019

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2019 XF
2019-Dec-18
9.3 LD
24.1
79
216258
2019-Dec-20
15.3 LD
11.8
324
2013 XY20
2019-Dec-21
18.3 LD
1.9
28
2017 XQ60
2019-Dec-22
11 LD
15.6
47
310442
2019-Dec-26
19 LD
12.3
372
2019 WR4
2019-Dec-31
11.7 LD
4.2
21
2019 AE3
2020-Jan-02
4.9 LD
8.2
13
2019 UO
2020-Jan-10
11.8 LD
9.4
341
2019 WC5
2020-Jan-11
6.4 LD
13
107
2011 EP51
2020-Jan-15
19.6 LD
7.1
32
2017 RZ15
2020-Jan-15
12.1 LD
7.4
14
2009 BH2
2020-Jan-18
14.6 LD
17.9
118
2013 DU
2020-Jan-20
15.3 LD
6.4
59
2019 TF2
2020-Jan-23
16.2 LD
1.6
18
2018 BM5
2020-Jan-23
13.1 LD
8.6
12
2018 AL12
2020-Jan-30
18.2 LD
17.7
39
2018 BU1
2020-Feb-02
19.4 LD
10
41

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

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 70  (+15), this year: 2307  (+17), all time: 21698 (+18)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 879,694 (+23,220‬!!)
I created a trend-line chart using the totals for each week since last July – this shows the 1,000,000 point being crossed in 2023 – but if we keep getting these HUGE new additions each week, that will push that date way back!

 


On Dec. 15, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 113 fireballs.
(86 Geminids, 26 sporadics, 1 Dec. Monocerotid)

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

Scores of bright, fast Geminids could be seen over the UK last night, including this one seen through clouds from London. pic.twitter.com/lKPq1wMfv5

— UK Meteor Network (@UKMeteorNetwork) December 15, 2019

These two images, taken by Hubble, capture comet 2I/Borisov streaking though our solar system and on its way back to interstellar space. This mysterious visitor from the depths of space is the first identified comet to arrive here from another star: https://t.co/PwF4ykArGa pic.twitter.com/GMi6mvJa1T

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) December 12, 2019

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

Inner Solar System Position of the planets and some spacecraft in the inner solar system, Dec. 17, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system – the asteroid named after my wife is highlighted in red:

Middle Solar System Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Dec. 17, 2019 – the orbit of main-belt asteroid 117852 Constance is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the outer solar system, transneptunian object (TNO) and possible dwarf planet (225088) 2007 OR10 is highlighted in red:

Outer Solar System Outer Solar System Dec. 17, 2019 – Orbit of binary transneptunian object (225088) 2007 OR10 is highlighted in red. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

(225088) 2007 OR10, proposed to be named Gonggong, is a likely dwarf planet orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. It is a member of the scattered disc, a high-eccentricity population of trans-Neptunian objects. 2007 OR10 is in a 3:10 orbital resonance with Neptune, in which it completes three orbits around the Sun for every ten orbits completed by Neptune. As of 2019, its distance from the Sun is 88 astronomical units (1.32×1010 km; 8.2×109 mi), and is the sixth-farthest known Solar System object. It was discovered in July 2007 by American astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz at the Palomar Observatory. The discovery was announced in January 2009.

At 1,230 km (760 mi) in diameter, 2007 OR10 is approximately the size of Pluto’s moon Charon and is the fifth-largest known trans-Neptunian object in the Solar System. It is sufficiently massive to be gravitationally rounded, thereby qualifying for dwarf planet status. Its large mass also makes retention of a tenuous atmosphere of methane just possible, though such an atmosphere would slowly escape into space. 2007 OR10 is currently the largest known body in the Solar System without an official name, but in 2019, the discoverers hosted an online poll for the general public to help choose a name for the object, and the name Gonggong won. The winning name is derived from Gonggong, a Chinese water god responsible for chaos, floods and the tilt of the Earth.

2007 OR10 is red in color, due to the presence of organic compounds called tholins on its surface. Water ice is also present on its surface, which hints at a brief period of cryovolcanic activity in the distant past. 2007 OR10 rotates slowly compared to other trans-Neptunian objects, which typically have rotation periods around 12 hours. It has one known natural satellite, provisionally designated S/2010 (225088) 1, which may be responsible for its slow rotation. – Wikipedia

(225088) 2007 OR10 Artist conception of transneptunian object (225088) 2007 OR10 / Gonggong. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
Orbit of S-2010 (225088) 1 Orbit of S-2010 (225088) 1 around (225088) 2007 OR10 / Gonggong. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
(225088) 2007 OR10 / Gonggong (225088) 2007 OR10 / Gonggong seen from S-2010 (225088) 1. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

NASA’s Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:

[iframe src=’https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/orrery/’ height=600 percent=100 style=””]

Solar System News

A new time-lapse movie reveals five of Saturn’s inner moons circling the gas giant. The closer moons orbit faster than those farther away, according to the laws of orbital motion. The video is composed of 33 Hubble snapshots taken over an 18-hour period: https://t.co/dLPXkCM3wI pic.twitter.com/rf8qnvIAEt

— Hubble Telescope (@HubbleTelescope) December 16, 2019

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

There’s definitely work to do before touching down on Nightingale’s surface… pic.twitter.com/weJAVs8wCS

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) December 12, 2019

International Space Station

The first 3D printer made the trip to the @Space_Station in 2014.

Since then, we have learned a lot about how 3D printing works in microgravity, and how we might be able to recycle 3D printed parts.

Learn more: https://t.co/m0O5UwCplJ pic.twitter.com/ZEDx6IgydN

— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) December 16, 2019

Mars InSight

Digging a little deeper –
The mole has moved further down. With help from @NASAJPL and @DLR_en, my latest efforts to help the heat probe seem to be working. More digging to come. pic.twitter.com/JumZaqAecY

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 16, 2019

Juno Mission at Jupiter

This discovery would not have happened without the creativity and sharp thinking of my navigators and engineers, who steered me clear of a potentially mission-ending trip through Jupiter's shadow. Learn how: https://t.co/0q7Fuev92s pic.twitter.com/gVTM7tAsWB

— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) December 12, 2019

NASA Climate

The monthly GISTEMP surface temperature analysis update has been posted. The global mean temperature anomaly for November 2019 was 1.02°C above the 1951-1980 November average. https://t.co/EDTZWL4pYk pic.twitter.com/DM8EvalJWq

— NASA GISS (@NASAGISS) December 16, 2019

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4104 
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 425
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More Posts in this Series:
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78  |  What Do We Lose When We Sacrifice Science?

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69  |  To err is human… to admit it, is science

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46  |  In the Sky This Week – July 16, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  16 Jul 2019

48  |  In the Sky This Week – July 23, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  23 Jul 2019

49  |  In the Sky This Week – December 31, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  31 Dec 2019

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