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In the Sky This Week – December 4, 2018

By Robert Trembley  |  4 Dec 2018

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This entry is part 141 of 246 in the series In the Sky This Week

Conjunction

A very thin waning crescent Moon joins the weeks-long conjunction of Venus and Spica in the southeastern predawn sky on Dec. 4th.

Conjunction Conjunction of Venus, Spica and a very thin crescent Moon low in the southeastern sky before sunrise on Dec. 4, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mars remains high in southern sky after sunset all week; Mars is slowly fading in brightness as the Earth pulls away from it in its orbit (see solar system image below).

Mars Mars high in the southern sky after sunset on Dec. 4, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The very thin waxing crescent Moon will appear near Saturn in the southwestern sky at dusk on Dec. 8th.

Conjunction Conjunction of Saturn and a very thin crescent Moon low in the southwestern sky at dusk on Dec. 8, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The constellation Orion is high in the southeastern sky at midnight.

Orion Orion high in the southeastern sky at midnight, Dec. 4, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Observing Target: M33 – The Triangulum Galaxy

Messier 33 (or NGC 598) is a spiral galaxy located approximately 3 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum.

Location of M33 - Triangulum Galaxy Location of M33 – Triangulum Galaxy Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Andromeda Galaxy and our Milky Way. M33 is one of the most distant objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.

M33 M33 – The Triangulum Galaxy. Credit: Alexander Meleg / CC BY-SA 3.0.

NGC 604 is a large star-birth region within The Triangulum Galaxy. NGC 604 is similar to the Orion Nebula in our Milky Way galaxy, but nearly 100 times larger!

M33, NGC 604 Starbirth region in NGC 604. Credits: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI);
Acknowledgment: D. Garnett (U. Arizona), J. Hester (ASU), and J. Westphal (Caltech).

More than 200 bright blue stars ionize the gases within the cloud, which shines with more than 6000 times the luminosity of the Orion Nebula!

NGC 604 Close-up of starbirth region in NGC 604. Credits: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI);
Acknowledgment: D. Garnett (U. Arizona), J. Hester (ASU), and J. Westphal (Caltech).

The Moon

The Moon is a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise. The new Moon will be on Dec. 7th, after which the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Moon The Moon from Dec. 4-10, 2018. Visualizations by Ernie Wright.

The Sun

The Sun has been spot-free for 8 days. Coronal holes remain open at both poles – the northern hole appearing much larger than the southern hole; a large blotchy coronal hole is rotating along the Sun’s equator.

“NOAA forecasters say there is a 45% chance of G1-class geomagnetc storms on Dec. 5th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. CMEs are rare during solar minimum because their usual launching pads–that is, sunspots–are absent. This one was produced not by a sunspot, but rather by a filament of magnetism erupting from the sun’s southern hemisphere (movie). CMEs are very good at producing auroras, so even a glancing blow could light up the Arctic Circle this Wednesday night.” – SpaceWeather.com

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2018/12/03/20181203_1024_0193.mp4

Over the last couple days, a couple long-lived prominences appeared on the Sun, as well as several short-lived prominences, which popped up all over the Sun’s limb.

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2018/12/03/20181203_1024_0304.mp4

The solar wind speed is 467.2 km/sec (↑), with a density of 9.1 protons/cm3 (↑).

SOHO LASCO C2 Latest Image Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle).
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.

Around the D.C. area on Thursday? Our scientist will be at @librarycongress talking about heliophysics, the science of space. The public talk starts at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 6: https://t.co/NB01kOnsvt pic.twitter.com/As4b9ofvy3

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) December 3, 2018

Asteroids

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2018 WT1
2018-Nov-28
6.6 LD
9.8
29
2008 WD14
2018-Nov-28
9.5 LD
9.4
93
2001 WO15
2018-Nov-28
13.6 LD
11.7
107
2018 XA
2018-Nov-30
8.1 LD
15.3
72
2018 VE4
2018-Nov-30
15 LD
4.8
30
2018 WG2
2018-Nov-30
0.5 LD
6.8
3
2018 WN
2018-Dec-01
14.9 LD
4.4
17
2018 WF2
2018-Dec-01
2.8 LD
11.4
8
2018 WV1
2018-Dec-02
0.1 LD
5.2
3
2018 TG6
2018-Dec-02
3.9 LD
1.4
13
2018 WD2
2018-Dec-04
3.4 LD
7.6
22
2018 WX1
2018-Dec-07
4.8 LD
9
57
2013 VX4
2018-Dec-09
4.1 LD
6.6
65
2001 XG1
2018-Dec-10
7.9 LD
14.2
78
2018 VX6
2018-Dec-10
16.6 LD
11.2
73
2015 XX169
2018-Dec-13
17 LD
5.8
12
2018 VO9
2018-Dec-15
2.6 LD
2.9
14
2017 XQ60
2018-Dec-21
11.3 LD
15.6
47
163899
2018-Dec-22
7.4 LD
6.2
1232
418849
2018-Dec-23
16.6 LD
17.6
269
2014 AD16
2019-Jan-04
12.9 LD
9.4
12
2016 AZ8
2019-Jan-07
11.6 LD
9.1
224
2013 YM2
2019-Jan-09
7.3 LD
4.3
20
2013 CW32
2019-Jan-29
13.9 LD
16.4
148

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 1, this year: 1837, all time: 19236.
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1936 (as of Nov. 20, 2018)
Minor Planets discovered: 789,069 (as of Oct. 30, 2018)

Fireballs

On Dec. 3, 2018, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 26 fireballs.
(24 sporadics, 1 Geminid, 1 November omega Orionid)

Fireball Orbits In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits from Dec.3, 2018 intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.com

Bright Fireball above Toronto last night – 33 reports so far: https://t.co/0sKcNPT7ya – if you saw it please, report it here: https://t.co/qRilnZsyyF#fireball #Toronto #meteor #citizenscience pic.twitter.com/J4aJdDz8zY

— AMSMETEORS (@amsmeteors) November 29, 2018

Comets

Comet 41P/Wirtanen (and a supernova) – imaged by astrophotographer buddy Doug Bock, Nov. 30, 2018

It finally cleared for a few hours Friday November 30, 2018. Two objects for the night.
Comet 41P/Wirtanen and Supernova 2018 ivc in M77 pic.twitter.com/2FBuC5VLfm

— Doug Bock (@Mars_1956) December 2, 2018

The Solar System

This is the position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the solar system; the Parker Solar Probe will soon cross the orbit of Venus.

Inner Solar System Position of the planets in the inner solar system, Dec. 4, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Middle Solar System Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Dec. 4, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Spacecraft

OSIRIS-REx- Arrives at Asteroid Bennu!

For the past several months, Bennu has been coming into focus as I approached. Now that I’m here, I’ll fly around the asteroid and study it in detail. All the data I collect will help my team pick a spot to sample in 2020. #WelcomeToBennu ? Details: https://t.co/9pYBuYxA8X pic.twitter.com/CnzVwwRz5n

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) December 3, 2018

See my Bennu arrival post here: [Link]

Mars InSight – HAS THE POWER!

I’m beaming! During my first full day here, I broke my first record by generating more electrical power than any previous robot on the surface of #Mars. I’m in a sandy area with few rocks, soaking up the Sun. ?
More about where I landed: https://t.co/pdZytmWh6E pic.twitter.com/8K9CVM61UG

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) December 1, 2018

MarCO CubeSats – After InSight Landing

RHESSI Spacecraft Retired

After 16 years of solar flare observations, we've retired our RHESSI spacecraft. Read about what we've learned from RHESSI's data and how it laid the groundwork for science for years to come: https://t.co/MOzX07nqMh pic.twitter.com/IwPiu09oU9

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) November 24, 2018

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 3848
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2344
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2327
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2426
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 377
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 355
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 473
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 1

-Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive


Apps used for this post:

NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC /MAC.
I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.


2018 is NASA’s 60th Anniversary!
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"In the Sky This Week"

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