From now through next week, there will be an astounding mega-conjunction of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the in the east-southeastern sky morning sky. The planets change positions quite a bit each morning, with Venus dancing with Saturn on Feb. 5th and 6th and then with Jupiter on Feb. 11th. Mercury joins the planet party on Feb. 8th, gaining altitude each morning until it appears much higher above the horizon than the other three planets by Feb 16th.
Jupiter and Saturn reappear in the morning sky and do a dance with Venus. Mercury joins the planet party starting on the 8th. Note: Image created with Earth’s atmosphere turned off. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.This mega-conjunction would be even better if it was visible to us humans living on the planet, but that pesky atmosphere makes the planets invisible to all but the most determined daytime planet hunters (and I do happen to know some of those).
Hidden Mega-Conjunction in the east-southeastern sky on Feb. 8th. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.On Feb. 16th Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are all aligned along the plane of the Ecliptic… and then there’s Mercury – hanging out high above Jupiter.
Venus, Jupiter and Saturn align along the plane of the ecliptic while Mercury appears much higher than the other planets on Feb. 15th. Note: Image created with Earth’s atmosphere turned off. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.Seen from this vantage point, Mercury’s orbital inclination is highly evident! Maybe NASA’s SOHO or those living on the ISS will be able to get some real images of the planets during this alignment.
Venus, Jupiter and Saturn align along the plane of the ecliptic, while Mercury’s orbital inclination is highly evident on Feb. 15th. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.The Moon appears in the southern predawn sky all week. The waning gibbous Moon appears near the star Spica on the morning of Feb. 3rd. The waning crescent Moon appears near the star Antares on the morning of Feb. 6th.
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 Feb.4th – rising around midnight, and is visible to the south after sunrise.
After Feb. 4th, the Moon will be a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise.
The Moon from 2021-02-02 – 2021-02-08 Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2021 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you click the image on that page, you will download a high-rez TIFF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your lunar observations!
Moon News
This article labels Moon dust as “pesky” – that description may be a little… tame… but it IS interesting to see NASA asking university teams to brainstorm this problem. It will also be interesting to watch those ideas put into action, and how they handle “contact with the enemy.” I’m sure scientists and university students will need to “Science the s**t out of this!” A thought while I’m writing this – I wonder what other international space agencies are thinking/doing about the issue of Moon dust?
The Sun has a tiny dual spot that just popped up in the northern hemisphere, and will be soon rotating out of view. Yesterday, Spaceweather.com showed the Sun being spot-free for 4 days.
Sunspot 2021-02-02. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.Coronal holes galore! Both polar holes are open – the southern one has a large open portion facing Earthward. Two large and one smaller hole appear on the Sun’s face.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) February 1, 2021:
Moderate prominence activity over the last couple days; the prominences on the lower left and right have remained for several days, appearing as a big disconnected cloud, and morphing into multiple loops jumping all around!
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) February 1, 2021:
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 Activity on Facebook – Run by Volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Pamela Shivak
The SOLARACTIVITY PICTURE OF THE DAY for February 2, 2021 is this awesome prominence image by Stephen Wong.Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 519.1 km/sec (↑↑), with a density of 9.7 protons/cm3 at 1150 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHOSun News
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2037 (last updated June 2, 2020)
Total Minor Planets discovered (NASA): 1,045,696
Total Minor Planets discovered (MPC): 1,026,572 (This value has not been updated in several weeks)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
I noticed 2020 SO is passing within 0.6 Lunar Diameters – which is pretty close, but its velocity is only 1.8 km/s – which is “pretty slow” compared to most of the other objects buzzing around. I got to wondering what would happen if a 9 meter asteroid hit the Earth going only 1.8 km/s?
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 SO |
2021-Feb-02
|
0.6 LD
|
1.8
|
9
|
| 2018 PN22 |
2021-Feb-05
|
12.8 LD
|
2.5
|
11
|
| 2018 CH2 |
2021-Feb-05
|
14.6 LD
|
9.9
|
9
|
| 2021 BT |
2021-Feb-07
|
18.7 LD
|
14
|
75
|
| 2008 DB |
2021-Feb-10
|
13.1 LD
|
6
|
25
|
| 2019 YP5 |
2021-Feb-10
|
8.2 LD
|
13.5
|
123
|
| 2021 BM |
2021-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
2.9
|
31
|
| 2020 CX1 |
2021-Feb-18
|
4.9 LD
|
8.3
|
55
|
| 2020 BV9 |
2021-Feb-22
|
14.7 LD
|
7.6
|
22
|
| 2020 XU6 |
2021-Feb-22
|
10.7 LD
|
8.4
|
210
|
| 2015 EQ |
2021-Feb-23
|
18 LD
|
10.5
|
21
|
| 2011 DW |
2021-Mar-01
|
13.9 LD
|
13.6
|
89
|
| 2011 EH17 |
2021-Mar-02
|
9.6 LD
|
16.8
|
43
|
| 2016 DV1 |
2021-Mar-02
|
3.9 LD
|
18.4
|
39
|
| 1999 RM45 |
2021-Mar-02
|
7.7 LD
|
20
|
468
|
| 2020 SP |
2021-Mar-03
|
18.4 LD
|
3.9
|
14
|
| 535844 |
2021-Mar-10
|
14.2 LD
|
7.3
|
162
|
| 2020 FM |
2021-Mar-10
|
18.2 LD
|
13.3
|
57
|
| 2011 YW10 |
2021-Mar-12
|
19.8 LD
|
13.2
|
45
|
| 231937 |
2021-Mar-21
|
5.3 LD
|
34.4
|
1024
|
| 2020 GE |
2021-Mar-27
|
12.7 LD
|
1.5
|
8
|
| 2019 GM1 |
2021-Mar-31
|
15.1 LD
|
3.9
|
14
|
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
Asteroid News
On January 21, 2021, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 4 fireballs!
(4 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). Credit: SpaceWeather.comFireball News
If you see a bright meteor or a fireball, please REPORT IT to the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization!
Position of the planets and several spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2021-02-02. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.Position of the planets in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2021-02-02. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.Position of the planets, dwarf planets and some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system:
Position of the planets and many transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2021-02-02. Credit: Bob Trembley / SpaceEngine.
Mars Perseverance Rover: #CountdownToMars
Check out NASA’s M2020 EDL simulation!! https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/mars2020/
International Space Station:
HiRISE – on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:
Juno at Jupiter:
Juno’s Radiation Monitoring Investigation used the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) star camera to collect this image of Jupiter’s ring — half in Jupiter’s shadow — during Juno’s 13th science orbit on July 16, 2018. The image was collected from a unique high latitude vantage point (55 degrees north latitude) just as Juno flew inside the ring. The bright inner band is Jupiter’s main ring, the halo ring is to its left, and the gossamer rings are to its right. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRIHubble Space Telescope:
Climate:
See a list of current NASA missions here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/?type=current
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.
