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In the Sky This Week – January 28, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  28 Jan 2020

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This entry is part 14 of 246 in the series In the Sky This Week

"Big Dipper"

The handle of the “Big Dipper” asterism points nearly straight down toward the northeastern horizon at midnight this week.

The handle of the “Big Dipper” points down in the northeastern sky at midnight. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The waxing crescent Moon appears near at dusk on Jan 29th & 30th.

Paul Gabor, S.J.
Br. Guy Consolmagno, S.J.

The Moon appears near the star Aldebaran at dusk on the evenings of February 2nd-4th.

Jupiter appears low and Mars appears high above the southeastern horizon at dawn this week.

Southeastern morning sky Jupiter low and Mars high above the southeastern horizon at dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.


M 47

Messier 47 (M47 or NGC 2422) is an open cluster in the constellation Puppis. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 and independently discovered by Charles Messier on February 19, 1771. It was later independently discovered again, under the current name NGC 2422.

There is actually no cluster in the position indicated by Messier, which he expressed in terms of its right ascension and declination with respect to the star 2 Puppis. However, if the signs of Messier’s coordinate differences are changed, the position matches that of NGC 2422. Until the equivalency of M47 with NGC 2422 was found, M47 was considered a lost Messier Object. The discovery that M47 and NGC 2422 were the same cluster only came in 1959 with a realization by Canadian astronomer T. F. Morris.

M47 is at a distance of about 1,600 light-years from Earth with an estimated age of about 78 million years. The member stars of M47 have been measured down to about red dwarfs at apparent magnitude 19. There are around 500 members, the brightest being HD 60855, a magnitude 5.7 Be star. The cluster is dominated by hot class B main sequence and giant stars, but a noticeable colour contrast comes from several bright red giants.

Location of M 47. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
This spectacular image of the star cluster Messier 47 was taken using the Wide Field Imager camera, installed on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. This young open cluster is dominated by a sprinkling of brilliant blue stars but also contains a few contrasting red giant stars. Credit: ESO.

The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

The first quarter Moon occurs on February 2nd, it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

After February 2nd, the Moon will be a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.

Moon The Moon from 2020-01-28 – 2020-02-03. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Moon News

Proposed House bill pushes NASA's crewed moon landing back to 2028 https://t.co/lOj3iOp6m9 pic.twitter.com/4Uixl0PbSk

— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) January 28, 2020

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine expressed reservations Monday about a NASA authorization bill introduced in the House last week that he fears could constrain the agency’s approach to human space exploration. https://t.co/4rraLAEyFa pic.twitter.com/BecQzDZoOL

— SpaceNews (@SpaceNews_Inc) January 28, 2020

We have a spot! Sunspot AR2757 is a member of old Solar Cycle 24.

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/01/27/20200127_1024_HMII.mp4

The northern coronal hole remains small, while the southern hole is huge!

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 27, 2020:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/01/27/20200127_1024_0193.mp4

Some awesome prominences on the Sun’d limb over the last couple days – the location of sunspot AR2757 is easily visible as the bright orange region in the video below.

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Jan. 27, 2020:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/01/27/20200127_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=10221051272932395&set=gm.2949055088439149&type=3&theater&ifg=1

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 323.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 6.3 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1257 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

#SolarOrbiter, an @ESA & @NASA collaborative mission, launches in February! This spacecraft will study the Sun from a unique perspective: its tilted orbit carries it out of the plane of the planets so it can take the first-ever pictures of the Sun’s poles. https://t.co/rX55sMOpWf pic.twitter.com/W3oME8LtKg

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) January 27, 2020

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 127  (+13), this year: 128  (+14), all time: 21,951 (+13)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018  (last updated  Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 931,886 (+1222) 

 

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 BO2
2020-Jan-28
10.5 LD
10.7
19
2020 BJ7
2020-Jan-28
1.2 LD
20.2
8
2020 BG9
2020-Jan-28
12.5 LD
10.2
18
2020 BJ1
2020-Jan-29
15.5 LD
11
51
2018 AL12
2020-Jan-30
18.2 LD
17.7
39
2020 BV7
2020-Jan-30
5.9 LD
8.3
9
2020 BR8
2020-Jan-31
9.7 LD
29.4
27
2020 BZ4
2020-Jan-31
5.7 LD
9
10
2017 AE5
2020-Feb-01
13.6 LD
9
123
2020 BD9
2020-Feb-02
16.4 LD
7.6
39
2013 BA74
2020-Feb-04
3.7 LD
7.4
28
2020 BL8
2020-Feb-08
6.6 LD
3.2
29
2020 BW5
2020-Feb-09
5.2 LD
9
18
163373
2020-Feb-15
15.1 LD
15.2
589
2018 CW2
2020-Feb-17
6 LD
10.2
28
2020 BL7
2020-Feb-19
13.6 LD
8.7
35
2020 BC9
2020-Feb-20
14 LD
9.3
75
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

The latest Minor Planet Center circular is out with several newly named asteroids: https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2020/MPC_20200109.pdf

On Jan. 27, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 4 fireballs. 
(3 sporadics, 1 alpha Antilid)

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

185 reports and many videos about this 100t TNT #fireball that occurred over #Cyprus on January 21th – https://t.co/C2gb45n8Dp pic.twitter.com/pGdjTQtAVg

— AMSMETEORS (@amsmeteors) January 23, 2020

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system – the Parker Solar Probe will reach perihelion #4 on Jan. 29th at about 4:30 a.m. EST.

Inner Solar System Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-01-28. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system.

Middle Solar System Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-01-28. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the outer solar system – the orbit of transneptunian object 148780 Altjira is highlighted:

Outer Solar System Outer Solar System 2020-01-28 – Orbit of binary transneptunian object 148780 Altjira is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

(148780) Altjira

148780 Altjira /ælˈtʃɪrə/ is a binary classical Kuiper belt object (cubewano). The secondary, S/2007 (148780) 1, is large compared to the primary, 140 kilometres (87 mi) vs. 160 kilometres (99 mi). The Altjiran lightcurve is quite flat (Δmag<0.10), which is indicative of a "quasi-spherical body with a homogeneous surface”.

The satellite’s orbit has the following parameters: semi-major-axis, 9904 ± 56 km; period, 139.561 ± 0.047 days; eccentricity, 0.3445 ± 0.0045; and inclination, 35.19 ± 0.19°(retrograde). The total system mass is about 4 × 1018 kg.

It was named after the Arrernte creation deity, Altjira, who created the Earth during the Dreamtime and then retired to the sky.. – Wikipedia

148780 Altjira Artist’s conception of S/2007 (148780) 1 seen in the distance from above (148780) Altj

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More Posts in this Series:
"In the Sky This Week"

78  |  What Do We Lose When We Sacrifice Science?

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69  |  To err is human… to admit it, is science

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13  |  In the Sky This Week – August 13, 2019

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15  |  In the Sky This Week – February 4, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  4 Feb 2020

16  |  In the Sky Today: Clouds

By Robert Trembley  |  1 Apr 2019

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