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In the Sky This Week – January 21, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  21 Jan 2020

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This entry is part 9 of 253 in the series In the Sky This Week

Moon


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The constellation Orion appears high in the southwestern sky at midnight this week; at the latest meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society, the dimming of the star Betelgeuse was discussed – members mentioned that the star had almost dimmed to the level of the other three major stars in the constellation… which was “just weird.”

Dimming Betelgeuse Orion with dimming Betelgeuse appears high in the southwestern sky at midnight this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Here's another comparison showing the dimming of #Betelgeuse – this time shot at 50mm focal length (and cropped in on Orion). At left is a shot from Jan 2019, right is the one from last night. Identical equipment/exposures/apertures etc.

HQ version here: https://t.co/V2PGbskgVI pic.twitter.com/ailwKLfAdn

— Will Gater (@willgater) January 19, 2020

Jupiter makes a return to the southeastern at dawn! Jupiter will appear very low on the horizon this week. Mars continues to appear near the star Antares in the southeastern horizon before dawn – a waning crescent Moon joins the planets on January 23 & 24th.

Venus continues to appear high above the southwestern horizon at dusk this week – a thin waxing crescent Moon joins Venus from Jan. 26-29th.

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

The new Moon occurs on Jan. 24th

After Jan. 24th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Moon The Moon from 2020-01-21 – 2020-01-27. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

 

Moon News

On Feb. 10, join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re developing and advancing the #Artemis missions to the Moon. Learn about astronaut life in space and tour facilities where engineers design and test the Orion spacecraft and Gateway outpost! https://t.co/6a0qRmuYdz pic.twitter.com/rpoTldLg5t

— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) January 20, 2020

The Sun has been spot-free for 9 days; coronal holes continue to appear at both poles – the northern hole has reduced in size quite a bit from previous weeks. A small coronal hole appears near the equator; Spaceweather.com says “Solar wind flowing from this minor coronal hole could reach Earth on Jan. 21.”

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 20, 2020:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/01/20/20200120_1024_0193.mp4

Several short-lived pillar prominences appeared and vanished over the last couple days:

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 20, 2020:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/01/20/20200120_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.

Facebook: SolarActivity

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218862373824134&set=gm.2933456809998977&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 303.5 km/sec (↑), with a density of 3.7 protons/cm3 (↑) at 0955 UT.

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

#ParkerSolarProbe's measurements of the solar wind reveal a chorus of plasma waves that hold clues to the wind's origins — and scientists have turned some of this data into sound. Listen ⬇️ and read more from @JHUAPL: https://t.co/tPW5TnZrUt https://t.co/1B1xPbQvbd

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) January 15, 2020

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 114  (+52), this year: 114  (+52), all time: 21,938 (+44)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 930,664 (+8,762) – I still want to know why this number has been so consistently huge for the last several months…

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 BP
2020-Jan-21
3.7 LD
16.7
28
2020 BB
2020-Jan-21
2 LD
3.7
6
2020 BY
2020-Jan-21
3.8 LD
16.7
46
2020 BN
2020-Jan-21
9.8 LD
6.1
10
2020 BU
2020-Jan-22
19.4 LD
4.2
23
2019 TF2
2020-Jan-23
16.2 LD
1.6
19
2020 BB1
2020-Jan-23
2.6 LD
11.4
8
2018 BM5
2020-Jan-23
13.1 LD
8.6
12
2020 BF1
2020-Jan-24
7.8 LD
4.6
22
2020 AK3
2020-Jan-25
8.3 LD
6.9
22
2018 AL12
2020-Jan-30
18.2 LD
17.7
39
2017 AE5
2020-Feb-01
13.6 LD
9
123
2018 BU1
2020-Feb-02
19.4 LD
10
41
163373
2020-Feb-15
15.1 LD
15.2
589
2018 CW2
2020-Feb-17
6 LD
10.2
28
2019 BE5
2020-Feb-20
13.9 LD
14.8
34
2011 DR
2020-Feb-23
14.7 LD
5.8
25
2016 CO246
2020-Feb-23
18.4 LD
5.9
25
2012 DS30
2020-Feb-26
12.3 LD
5.4
22
2015 BK509
2020-Feb-29
18.7 LD
12.5
118
2017 BM123
2020-Mar-01
10.5 LD
8.1
65
2018 RF6
2020-Mar-10
11.2 LD
12.6
36
2008 UB95
2020-Mar-11
18.5 LD
7.6
41
2018 GY
2020-Mar-15
6.2 LD
9.5
39

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

Jupiter is the shepherd for many, many asteroids – this dance of gravity just amazes me!

Millions of asteroids being shepherded by Jupiter. We call them Trojans and Hildas. https://t.co/FjfmZb9eCz https://t.co/KTQ5HHybKZ pic.twitter.com/ioC7OAJjvI

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 16, 2020

On Jan. 20, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 13 fireballs. 
(13 sporadics)

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

https://twitter.com/LouisVtweeter/status/1218286337092091909

Satellite loop appears to show the flash of the meteorite seen in Puerto Rico this evening! ☄️ @StormHour pic.twitter.com/Mepq8UBUVG

— Collin Gross (@CollinGrossWx) January 17, 2020

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system – the Parker Solar Probe has re-crossed the orbit of Mercury.

Inner Solar System Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-01-21. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system – the Earth’s orbit is bringing it around the Sun, and Jupiter is coming back into view at dawn.

Middle Solar System Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-01-21. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the outer solar system – the orbit of transneptunian object (174567) Varda-Ilmarë is highlighted:

Outer Solar System Outer Solar System 2020-01-21 – Orbit of binary transneptunian object 174567 Varda-Ilmarë is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

(174567) Varda-Ilmarë

174567 Varda (provisional designation 2003 MW12) is a binary trans-Neptunian object of the resonant hot classical population of the Kuiper belt, located in the outermost region of the Solar System. Its moon, Ilmarë, was discovered in 2009.

Brown estimates that, with an absolute magnitude of 3.5 and a calculated diameter of approximately 700–800 kilometers (430–500 miles), it is likely a dwarf planet. However, Grundy et al. argue that objects such as Varda, in the size range of 400–1000 km, with albedos less than ≈0.2 and densities of ≈1.2 g/cm3 or less, have likely never compressed into fully solid bodies, let alone differentiated, and so are highly unlikely to be dwarf planets.

…

Varda has at least one satellite, Ilmarë (or Varda I), which was discovered in 2009. It is estimated to be about 350 km in diameter (about 50% that of its primary), constituting 8% of the system mass, or 2×1019 kg, assuming its density and albedo the same as that of Varda.

The Varda–Ilmarë system is tightly bound, with a semimajor axis of 4809±39 km (about 12 Varda radii) and an orbital period of 5.75 days. – Wikipedia

174567 Varda-Ilmarë 174567 Varda seen from above Ilmarë – the system’s barycenter is the gray diamond, and the orbit of Varda around that barycenter is shown in red. 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=””]

SpaceX Dragon In-Flight Abort Test

Test complete! Today, @SpaceX completed its In-Flight Abort Test designed to show the #CrewDragon spacecraft’s capability to safely separate from the rocket in the unlikely event of an inflight emergency: https://t.co/j7v2y8svOk pic.twitter.com/VbKh9E2BAQ

— NASA (@NASA) January 19, 2020

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

On Tuesday, Jan 21, I’ll fly closer to site Nightingale than ever before.
Time to start preparing for #TAG2020
Let’s do this 😎 pic.twitter.com/ZyjBIyeUsG

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) January 17, 2020

International Space Station

At 1:33pm EST, @Astro_Jessica and @Astro_Christina concluded today's spacewalk. After working 6 hours and 58 minutes the two successfully completed the battery upgrade for one channel on one pair of the station’s solar arrays. #AskNASA | Read more… https://t.co/GQfO9zyIGP pic.twitter.com/e3mHSeM8l3

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) January 20, 2020

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

The final speaker of the #AAS235 @NASA_TESS splinter session is Eliza Kempton. She highlighted how many of the exoplanets being discovered by TESS are prime targets for @NASAWebb – JWST can be used to reveal the properties of the atmospheres of exoplanets! pic.twitter.com/e3r199OeWn

— NASA_TESS (@NASA_TESS) January 7, 2020

Hubble Space Telescope

ESA/Hubble #Flashback: Within this galaxy, NGC 4993, Hubble discovered the first visual counterpart of a gravitational wave event — the merger of two neutron stars.

Credit: @NASA / @ESA , Digitized Sky Survey 2 https://t.co/mQ290mRWvA pic.twitter.com/9EanqATBdQ

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) January 21, 2020

Climate

LIVE: NASA and @NOAA climate experts discuss the annual global temperatures analysis for 2019 in a teleconference: https://t.co/PWJkcuQ2Jt
Earth's global surface temperatures in 2019 were the second warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880: https://t.co/ZRrydb1PiR pic.twitter.com/aA4kbtaWJU

— NASA (@NASA) January 15, 2020

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4108  (+4) 
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 426  (+1)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 393  (+1)
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 891  (-1)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 37
TESS Project Candidates 1517
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1057  (+7)

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

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