In the Sky This Week – January 8, 2019

A thin crescent Moon will appear low in the southwestern sky at dusk on Jan. 8^th.

A thin crescent Moon appears low in the southwestern sky at dusk on Jan. 8, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

There will be a conjunction of Jupiter, Venus and the star Antares in the southeastern predawn sky all week – each morning, Venus will appear to creep slowly closer to Jupiter.

Mars remains high in southwestern sky after sunset all week; the Moon will appear near Mars on Jan. 12^th.

M51 – The The Whirlpool Galaxy

M51 is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with an active galactic nucleus. The galaxy is in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. Its distance is estimated to be between 15 – 35 million light-years.

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and companion galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

The Whirlpool’s most striking feature is its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms that make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge.

Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool’s arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool’s arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble’s clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.
– SpaceTelescope.org

Doug Bock is an astrophotographer I know who has been cranking out images for the last couple months – here’s Doug’s pic of M51:

https://twitter.com/Mars_1956/status/1079430761592356864

The Moon is a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening. The Moon will be at first quarter on Jan 14^th, visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

The Moon from Jan. 8-14, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright.

The Moon will be an excellent observing target for the next couple weeks!

The Sun has a small spot that is rotating out of view; the spot has been blowing off B-class and one C-class solar flares. The large coronal hole at the northern pole has a couple islands and a tendril reaching southward. The southern coronal hole appears to have opened back up.  SpaceWeather.com says “Over the weekend, a high-speed stream of solar wind buffeted Earth’s magnetic field, sparking big green auroras around the Arctic Circle. Last night in Utsjoki, Finland, Tiina Salonen of Aurora Holidays noticed something extra–a fringe of pink.“

Another beautiful, long-lasting, and large prominence can be seen in the lower-left side of the video below!

The solar wind speed is 453.7 km/sec (↑), with a density of 8.6 protons/cm³ (↑).

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle).

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 67, this year: 67, all time: 19457
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1947 (as of  Dec. 26, 2018 – up from 1936)
Minor Planets discovered: 789,069 (as of Oct. 30, 2018)

On Jan. 6, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 17 fireballs.
(12 sporadics, 3 Quadrantids, 1 lambda Bootid, 1 December Leonis Minorid)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits from Jan. 6, 2018 intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.com

Here’s a post related to the tweet above: Meteor Or Russian Satellite? Fireball In The Sky Raises Questions

*Ahem* Comet 46P/Wirtanen, again…

This is the position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the solar system.

Position of the planets in the inner solar system, Jan. 8, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

The Parker Solar Probe will be at perihelion on Jan 19, 2019 at 8:00 PM ET – the spacecraft will be 86,769,621.0 miles from the Sun, traveling at 37,712 mph.

Parker Solar Probe Perihelion 1 – Jan. 19, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Jan. 8, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Jan. 8, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

CubeSats 

OSIRIS-REx – In orbit around asteroid Bennu for 7 days

No change for last 2 weeks – most likely due to the U.S. government being shutdown.

-Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive

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.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.

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

July 20, 2019 is the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.

2018 was NASA’s 60th Anniversary!