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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.”
Orion with dimming Betelgeuse appears high in the southwestern sky at midnight this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.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.
The Moon from 2020-01-21 – 2020-01-27. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
Moon News
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:
Several short-lived pillar prominences appeared and vanished over the last couple days:
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 20, 2020:
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):
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: 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!
On Jan. 20, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 13 fireballs.
(13 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). From: Spaceweather.comFireball News
https://twitter.com/LouisVtweeter/status/1218286337092091909
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system – the Parker Solar Probe has re-crossed the orbit of Mercury.
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.
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 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 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
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
International Space Station
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Hubble Space Telescope
Climate
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
