The Moon joins Mars and Saturn in the southern sky before sunrise.
A waning gibbous Moon with Mars and Saturn in the southern sky at 4:30 AM, June 6, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Jupiter is very close to the double-star Zubenelgenubi II (Alpha Librae) after sunset on June 5th – so close you might be able to get the double-star and Jupiter with its moons in the same view through a telescope!
Jupiter in the south sky near the double-star Zubenelgenubi II (Alpha Librae) at 10:30 PM, June 5, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Venus aligns with the stars Pollux and Castor on June 10th shortly after sunset.
Venus aligns with Pollux and Castor, 9:50 PM, June 10, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon
The Moon from June 5-11, 2018. Visualizations by Ernie WrightThe Moon is a waning gibbous, and will be at third quarter on June 6th. The Moon will be a waning crescent after the 6th, visible low in the eastern sky before dawn.
Observing Target: M57
The constellation Lyra is high in the eastern sky after sunset; the boxed area in the image below is the location of M57 – the Ring Nebula:
Location of M57, the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.M57 is a planetary nebula – expanding shells of luminous gas expelled by stars at the ends of their lives. Planetary nebulae can be some of the most beautiful objects in the sky.
M57, The Ring Nebula in Lyra. Image Credit: NASA/Hubble HeritageWhen viewed in infrared light, the Ring Nebula shows even older shells of gas expelled thousands of years ago. These ghostly shells appear almost like petals of a flower:
A composite image of the Ring Nebula combining visible-light observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona. Image Credit: Credit: NASA, ESAThe Sun
Active Region AR2712 is rotating out of view, leaving the Sun spot-free. AR2712’s coronal loop activity can be seen on the right side of the video below. There is a large coronal hole at the Sun’s north pole; the hole at the south pole appears to have reduced in size.
SpaceWeather.com says: “Earth is exiting a stream of solar wind that sparked G1-class geomagnetic storms and apparitions of STEVE during the weekend. NOAA forecasters have reduced the chance of additional storms on June 4th to 25% as the solar wind speed subsides.” The solar wind speed is 430.9 km/sec, with a density of 7.9 protons/cm3.
There are several long-lived prominences on the Sun’s limb, AR2712 is the bright orange area rotating out of view on the right side of the image below:
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.
Asteroids
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
We got HIT! Asteroid 2018 LA was discovered about 8 hours before it plowed into Earth’s atmosphere at around 38,000 mph and exploded over southern Africa. At the time of this writing, no strewn field or meteorites have yet been found – I’d bet by this time next week someone will have found something.
Now might be a good time to mention that June 30th is International Asteroid Day, with worldwide events held each year on the anniversary of the Tunguska impact of 1908, with the goal of raising public awareness about asteroid impact hazards.
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2018 KE1 |
2018-Jun-01
|
10.8 LD
|
16.2
|
33
|
| 2018 LA |
2018-Jun-02
|
0 LD
|
17
|
3
|
| 2018 LC |
2018-Jun-02
|
17.5 LD
|
5.7
|
33
|
| 2018 EJ4 |
2018-Jun-10
|
5.6 LD
|
6.2
|
195
|
| 2015 DP155 |
2018-Jun-11
|
9 LD
|
4.4
|
170
|
| 2018 KC3 |
2018-Jun-19
|
14.6 LD
|
8.8
|
87
|
| 2017 YE5 |
2018-Jun-21
|
15.6 LD
|
15.5
|
513
|
| 467309 |
2018-Jun-23
|
17.9 LD
|
14
|
355
|
| 441987 |
2018-Jun-24
|
7.3 LD
|
12.6
|
178
|
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: 6, this year: 762, all time: 18312.
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1912 (as of June 5, 2018)
Minor Planets discovered: 779,736 (as of June 5, 2018)
Fireballs
On June 4, 2018, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 12 fireballs.
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.comThe Solar System
This is the position of the planets in the solar system:
Position of the planets in the inner solar system, May. 29, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, May. 29, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Solar System from behind the Sun looking towards Earth May 29 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Exoplanets
Confirmed Exoplanets: 3,730 (5/24/2018)
Multi-Planet Systems: 613 (5/24/2018)
Kepler Candidate Exoplanets: 4,496 (8/31/2017)
TESS Candidate Exoplanets: 0
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
Apps used for this post:
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.
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.
