A dimming Mars, and a bright Mercury appear low in the west-northwestern sky at dusk.
A dim Mars and a bright Mercury in the west-northwestern sky just before sunset on June 11th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon appears near the star Spica on June 15th and 16th.
The Moon appears near Jupiter and the star Antares on June 15th and 16th.
Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares appear in the southern sky before dawn. Jupiter, currently at opposition, rises in the southeast with the sunset. Saturn rises in the southeast around 11:20 PM.
Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares in the southern predawn sky on June 11th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Venus is very low on the horizon just before sunrise all week.
Venus low in the east-northeastern sky just before sunrise on June 11th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Summer Triangle
The Summer Triangle is an astronomical asterism in the northern celestial hemisphere. The defining vertices of this imaginary triangle are at Altair, Deneb, and Vega, each of which is the brightest star of its constellation (Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra, respectively).
The term was popularized by American author H. A. Rey and British astronomer Patrick Moore in the 1950s. The name can be found in constellation guidebooks as far back as 1913.
Summer Triangle over the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope – see if you can spot it through all the stars! Credit: Jim Scotti.There is a very detailed article about the Summer Triangle at Sky and Telescope.
The Moon is a waxing gibbous, just past first quarter – it will be visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.
The full Moon occurs on June 17th, rising with the sunset, visible high in the sky around midnight, and visible all night.
The Moon from June 11-17, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Moon News
I will not be posting ANY Moon news this week…
The Sun has been spot-free for 23 days. The “something with a lot of coronal loop activity” that rotated into view last week is still there, and will soon be rotating out of view. Coronal holes remain open at both poles – a long tendril stretching from north polar region towards the equator:
SpaceWeather.com says: “A stealthy CME might hit Earth’s magnetic field on June 12th. Four days ago a magnetic filament on the sun exploded. No CME was observed leaving the blast site, but NOAA forecasters think it might exist anyway–a faint storm cloud moving slowly across the sun-Earth divide. If the CME does exist, its impact could spark minor geomagnetic storms and high-latitude auroras on Wednesday”
The solar wind speed is 315.2 km/sec (↓), with a density of 4.7 protons/cm3 (↓).
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechYou 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.
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 KG3 |
2019-Jun-11
|
16.3 LD
|
6.8
|
26
|
| 2019 LB |
2019-Jun-12
|
9.1 LD
|
6.1
|
32
|
| 2013 YA14 |
2019-Jun-14
|
14.7 LD
|
11.1
|
65
|
| 2019 KJ |
2019-Jun-14
|
12.6 LD
|
8.1
|
68
|
| 2019 LU |
2019-Jun-16
|
4.1 LD
|
8
|
35
|
| 2019 LR |
2019-Jun-16
|
18.3 LD
|
15
|
34
|
| 441987 |
2019-Jun-24
|
7.7 LD
|
12.6
|
178
|
| 2008 KV2 |
2019-Jun-27
|
17.8 LD
|
11.4
|
195
|
| 2016 NN15 |
2019-Jun-28
|
9.6 LD
|
8.4
|
16
|
| 2015 XC352 |
2019-Jul-01
|
11.9 LD
|
4.1
|
26
|
| 2016 OF |
2019-Jul-07
|
12.8 LD
|
8.5
|
85
|
| 2016 NO56 |
2019-Jul-07
|
3.4 LD
|
12.2
|
26
|
| 2019 KD3 |
2019-Jul-12
|
15.5 LD
|
8
|
89
|
| 2016 NJ33 |
2019-Jul-12
|
15 LD
|
4.5
|
32
|
| 2015 HM10 |
2019-Jul-24
|
12.2 LD
|
9.5
|
68
|
| 2010 PK9 |
2019-Jul-26
|
8.2 LD
|
16.5
|
155
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1983 (last updated May 8, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 795,893 (+83)
Asteroid News
Asteroid 2006 QV89 will fly-by Earth on Sept. 8-9, 2019 with a 1/7000 chance of an impact – from The Evening Standard.
Asteroid 2006 QV89 – Sept. 8, 2019. Credit: JPL Small Body Database Browser.
On June 10, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 2 fireballs.
(2 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 & Meteor News:
This is the position of the planets and a couple bodies in the solar system:
Solar System News: Large Organic Molecules Found in Enceladus’ Plumes!
Would You Like to Visit the ISS?
OSIRIS-REx
Juno Looks into the Abyss!
Landsat
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
Exoplanet News
Exoplanet Artwork by Bob Trembley
Hypothetical Exoplanet with a tidally-locked exomoon orbiting a red giant star in the Halo of M51. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
A Beautiful Pinwheel
Coronal Mass Ejection Detected on Another Star!
SpaceEngine Has Been Released on Steam – TODAY!
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.
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 coming soon!
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
The Universe – Universe Today
2018 is NASA’s 60th Anniversary!
July 20, 2019 is the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.