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In the Sky This Week – June 18, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  18 Jun 2019

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This entry is part 38 of 248 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mercury and Mars almost appear to be almost touching low in the west-northwestern sky at dusk on June 18th – don’t miss this conjunction! By next week the two planets will have drifted apart.

Venus appears very low in the east-northeastern sky just before sunrise all week.

Venus low in the east-northeastern sky just before sunrise on June 18th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon appears between Saturn and Jupiter in the southern sky on June 18th; on June 19th, the Moon appears very near Saturn.

Conjunction of Mercury and Mars

As I was writing this, I posted my Mercury-Mars conjunction image from above on Twitter; I noticed a couple different versions of the same image – that kinda settled it as the observing target of the week!

Mercury passes 12' from Mars today at 18UT/2 PM EDT in the closest naked eye planet vs. planet conjunction for 2019 – the view tonight at dusk looking west: pic.twitter.com/CabfT1u3n3

— Dave 'Indoor Cat' Dickinson (@Astroguyz) June 18, 2019


The Moon is a waning gibbous, just past full – rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.

The third quarter Moon occurs on June 25th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.

Moon The Moon from June 18-24, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Moon News

How do you stock up an outpost that's 250,000 miles away?@NASA is working with American companies to supply the lunar Gateway that will help astronauts land on the Moon by 2024. Learn more! https://t.co/120PJgwIW8 pic.twitter.com/0hVfKbkFvD

— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) June 17, 2019

Large Mass Detected Under Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin

Phys.org reported this story on June 10th – almost immediately memes of 2001: A Space Odyssey started circulating on social media…

#LargeMassAnomaly #DiscoveredOn #PlanetLuna #GPD
"A mysterious large mass of material has been discovered beneath the largest crater in our solar system—the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin—and …"https://t.co/oxg0IetKjv pic.twitter.com/9Egvg7ePYK

— RyuZoku (@Ryu_Zoku) June 10, 2019

Did Monks Witness a Massive Lunar Impact in 1178?

June 18, 1178: 841 years ago #Today, five monks from Canterbury observed the Moon 'splitting in two'. Was this a huge meteor impact? https://t.co/jt6uREcuKV pic.twitter.com/qXT2vF9gga

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 18, 2019


The Sun has been spot-free for 30 days. Coronal holes pepper the Sun’s southern hemisphere, and although both poles have coronal holes, the south pole hole appears to have grown.

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/movies_1080/20190617_1080_0193.mp4

SpaceWeather.com says: “Images of the sun look like a big orange billiard ball–utterly blank. This is a sign of Solar Minimum, a phase of the solar cycle that brings extra cosmic rays, long-lasting holes in the sun’s atmosphere, and a possible surplus of noctilucent clouds“

WOW! Look at that monster prominence on the Sun’s limb evolve over several hours !

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/movies_1080/20190617_1080_0304.mp4

The solar wind speed is 324.2 km/sec (↑), with a density of 8.1 protons/cm3 (↑).

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
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.


Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2019 LU4
2019-Jun-18
2 LD
8.1
18
2019 LA5
2019-Jun-18
18.3 LD
7.7
29
2019 LC1
2019-Jun-19
19.2 LD
9.9
26
2019 LB2
2019-Jun-20
6.5 LD
3.4
15
2019 LM1
2019-Jun-23
9.8 LD
8.7
26
2019 LC5
2019-Jun-23
13.6 LD
11.1
42
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
2019 LR4
2019-Jun-29
11.3 LD
8.3
31
2019 LV1
2019-Jun-29
5.2 LD
6.2
26
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
2006 QQ23
2019-Aug-10
19.4 LD
4.7
339
454094
2019-Aug-12
17 LD
8.2
148

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: 188  (+172), this year: 1231  (-122?), all time: 20369 (+45)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1983  (last updated  May 8, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 795,985  (+92)

5th Annual International Asteroid Day – June 30th

#AsteroidDay is for people of all ages! From scientists, technologists, community leaders, and students – anyone interested in learning about asteroids and helping to raise #asteroid awareness! @asteroidday #AsteroidDay2019 pic.twitter.com/lyGI4PzL9H

— Asteroid Day ☄ (@AsteroidDay) June 17, 2019

I will be lecturing at the Cranbrook Institute of Science on June 29th as part of their AsteroidDay event.



On June 17, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 1 fireball.
(1 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 & Meteor News:

Michigan astronomer John Jack McGill captures a meteor in northern Michigan.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=264533094284701&set=a.143241556413856&type=3&permPage=1

This is the position of the planets and a couple bodies in the solar system:

Solar System News: Fresh Impact Crater Spotted on Mars!

Mars Impact Crater A new crater on Mars, which appeared sometime between September 2016 and February 2019, shows up as a dark smudge on the landscape in this high-resolution photo. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Mars Impact Crater article at Space.com. 


OSIRIS-REx

For more technical details on the new orbit, check out this week's Mission Status Update: https://t.co/eqqOpM0YM6 pic.twitter.com/XefXS694ap

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) June 17, 2019

International Space Station

Three Exp 59 crewmembers begin their final week aboard the station during human research activities and CubeSat deployments today. https://t.co/8zePyZeCNu pic.twitter.com/5HnEs8lgUb

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) June 17, 2019

Climate

As I often say… NASA is the best brand the United States has. https://t.co/BLewLehnFv

— Bill Nye (@BillNye) June 15, 2019

Pope Francis has declared a global climate emergency.#ClimateEmergency #ClimateBreakdown #EcologicalBreakdown #LaudatoSìhttps://t.co/KqjGkhSYGV

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) June 15, 2019

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4003  (+31)
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2351  (+1) 
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2343  
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2421
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 414  (+19)
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 381  (+19)
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 534 
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 20  (+5)
TESS Project Candidates 753  (+68)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 471  (+47) 

Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive

Exoplanet News – 4000 Known Exoplanets Threshold Crossed!

#Exoplanet4k was trending on Twitter on June 13 &14th.

WE DID IT! ??@NASAExoArchive just passed 4000 confirmed exoplanets. There are *4,003* worlds we know about orbiting other stars in our Galaxy. That's 4,003 chances for cyanide skies, lava oceans, magenta sunsets, supersonic cloud streams…

Here's to 4000 more!#exoplanet4K pic.twitter.com/NFYpCkw19a

— Dr. Jessie Christiansen (@aussiastronomer) June 13, 2019

Migrating Baby Exoplanet Sculpts Disk Around Newborn Star (Photos) https://t.co/MsgPjd5BKj pic.twitter.com/XLRUrUUWk6

— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) June 17, 2019

Exoplanet Artwork by Bob Trembley

Kepler-1047 c is transiting now in Cygnus. It's 1.0x the size of Earth and transits again in 3.2 days.

— Transiting Now (@transitingnow) June 18, 2019

Artistic representation of exoplanet Kepler-1047 c; exoplanet KOI-2004.03 with a cometary tail appears in the background. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

ESA/Hubble #Flashback: In 2013, astronomers highlighted NGC 6753, imaged here, as one of only two known spiral galaxies that were both massive enough and close enough to permit detailed observations of their coronas. https://t.co/dLFiGMKg3K pic.twitter.com/ij8vfCvwCM

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) June 17, 2019


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!
APOLLO 50th Anniversary July 20, 2019 is the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.
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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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By Robert Trembley  |  25 Jun 2019

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