In the Sky This Week – January 12, 2021

Venus appears very low above the southeastern horizon before sunrise.

Venus appears very low above the southeastern horizon before sunrise. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury continue to form a triple conjunction in the southwestern sky at dusk – Saturn may be a bit difficult to see; Mercury appears slightly higher above the horizon each evening.

Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury form a triple conjunction on Jan 12th in the southwestern sky at dusk. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

Mercury appears in the southwestern sky at dusk – the Moon joins Mercury on the evening of Jan 15th.

The Moon joins Mercury in the southwestern sky at dusk on Jan 15th. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

Mars appears high in the southern sky after sunset; the constellations Orion, Taurus and Canis Major appear lower and to the east of Mars.

Mars appears very high in the southern sky after sunset. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

If you look almost straight up at 3:00 AM, you can sky-hop from the Big Dipper to Arcturus and Spica.

Sky Hopping with the Big Dipper at 3:00 AM. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.

The Moon is a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise.

The new Moon occurs on Jan. 13th – the Moon will be hidden in the glare of the Sun.

After Jan. 13th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent – visible toward the southwest in early evening.

The Moon from 2021-01-12 – 2021-01-18 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 TIF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your observations!

Moon News

The Sun has been spot-free for 9 days.

The northern coronal hole remains diminished; the southern coronal hole has opened up a bit, and has a very large tendril stretching up towards the equator that is rotating in to view. Above that tendril is a bright region of coronal activity without a sunspot.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) January 11, 2021:

A couple long-lived prominences appear on the Sun’s limb over the last couple days; that region of coronal activity appears like an orange scar seen in the video below.

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) January 11, 2021:

Solar Activity on Facebook – Run by Volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Pamela Shivak

The SOLARACTIVITY PICTURE OF THE DAY for Tuesday, January 12th, 202 1 goes out to Juan Payá for this awesome prominence image. Juan commented: “Crowned Solar Telescope. Camera CMOS ZWO ASI 120 MM.”

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 447.3 km/sec, with a density of 6.5 protons/cm³ at 1120 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-SOHO

Sun News

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

I’m not at all sure how I missed the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System account on Twitter, but I’m following them now!

On January 11, 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.com

Fireball 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, 2021-01-12. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.

Trajectory of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover on January 12, 2021:

Trajectory of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover on 2021-01-12. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system – the orbit of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is highlighted:

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2021-01-12. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.

Position of the planets, dwarf planets and some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system – the orbit of dwarf planet 225088 Gonggong (2007 OR10) is highlighted:

Position of the planets and some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2021-01-05. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.

Mars Perseverance Rover: #CountdownToMars

International Space Station:

HiRISE – on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

To read more on Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, see: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-named-for-mother-of-hubble-nancy-grace-roman/

Juno at Jupiter:

Hubble Space Telescope:

Climate:

The first of two identical satellites to be launched five years apart, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will make high precision ocean altimetry measurements to continue the work previously done by Jason-1, Jason-2/OSTM, and the Jason-3 missions. A secondary objective is to collect high resolution vertical profiles of temperature and water vapor through the Radio Occultation instrument. This is used to help numerical weather predictions.

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.

Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.

Exoplanet News

Sometimes, doing these posts, I come across something that makes me go “Oh WOW!” This is one of those!

The KOI-5 star system consists of three stars, labeled A, B, and C in this diagram. Star A and B orbit each other every 30 years. Star C orbits stars A and B every 400 years. The system hosts one known planet, called KOI-5Ab, which was discovered and characterized using data from NASA’s Kepler and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) missions, as well as ground-based telescopes. KOI-5Ab is about half the mass of Saturn and orbits star A roughly every five days. Its orbit is titled 50 degrees relative to the plane of stars A and B. Astronomers suspect that this misaligned orbit was caused by star B, which gravitationally kicked the planet during its development, skewing its orbit and causing it to migrate inward.

The KOI-5 star system. Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC).

This picture is the one my wife said “THAT one!” to:

Aurora taken by Marianne Bergli on November 25, 2020 @ Kvaløya, Tromsø, Norway

SpaceWeather.com Realtime Aurora Gallery: https://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html

Visit an International Dark Sky Park: https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/parks/

For Kids:

Hubble: Beautiful Universe

The galaxy NGC 6946 is nothing short of spectacular. In the last century alone, NGC 6946 has experienced 10 observed supernovae, earning its nickname as the Fireworks Galaxy. In comparison, our Milky Way averages just one to two supernova events per century. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the stars, spiral arms, and various stellar environments of NGC 6946 in phenomenal detail.

We are able to marvel at NGC 6946 as it is a face-on galaxy, which means that we see the galaxy “facing” us, rather than seeing it from the side (known as edge-on). The Fireworks Galaxy is further classified as an intermediate spiral galaxy and as a starburst galaxy. The former means the structure of NGC 6946 sits between a full spiral and a barred spiral galaxy, with only a slight bar in its center, and the latter means it has an exceptionally high rate of star formation.

The galaxy resides 25.2 million light-years away, along the border of the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus (The Swan).

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6946. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Leroy, K.S. Long.

What I was listening to when I was editing this:

Stay safe, be well, and look up!

Software 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.
Universe Sandbox: a space simulator that merges real-time gravity, climate, collision, and material interactions to reveal the beauty of our universe and the fragility of our planet. Includes VR support.
SpaceEngine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for Windows. Steam version with VR support available.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.

Section header image credits:
The Sky – Stellarium / Bob Trembley
Observing Target – Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon – NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun – NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids – NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs – Credited to YouTube
Comets – Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System – NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News – NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets – Space Engine / Bob Trembley
Light Pollution – NASA’s Black Marble
Aurora – Bob Trembley
The Universe – Universe Today