My wife and I have finished moving out of our home of 22 years, and are now living in her parent’s basement; we were planning on taking our time looking for a new home, but with Michigan on COVID-19 lock-down, any home-hunting plans have gone out the window. My wife’s school is having teachers interact with students via Google Classroom, and the Warren Astronomical Society held their first online “virtual meeting.”
I saw a comment on a Solar System Ambassador (SSA) forum that the greatly increased streaming activity is putting a lot of pressure on the internet. In one SSA’s community, she could not connect to Skype or Facebook Live because of internet congestion. With so many communities going to telework, tele-education, etc. and also streaming HD video around the clock, the internet is very congested on a limited bandwidth. Some people cannot stream a doctor’s appointment; some doctors cannot get pages to load to refill much needed prescriptions. For educational purposes, a suggestion for SSAs was to create pre-recorded videos and load them in SD, that would help the situation and still meet the educational needs of families and communities. I’ve had ideas for a couple videos for quite some time – perhaps now is the time to start on them.
The three planets in the early morning southeastern sky are a much closer to each other this week; Mars appears very near Saturn by the weekend.
Venus is high in the western sky at sunset; the Moon appears near Venus in the western sky at dusk from March 27-30th.
The Moon appears near Venus in the western sky at dusk from March 27-29th this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra rises in the northeastern sky around midnight this week.
The star Vega in the constellation Lyra rising in the northeastern sky around midnight on March 24th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The new Moon occurs on March 24th – it will not be visible at this time… unless it eclipses the Sun and the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory catches it again.
After March 24th, the Moon will be an waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The Moon from 2020-03-24 – 2020-03-30. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Click this image to go to the NASA 2020 Moon Phase and Libration site. Click the image of the Moon on that site to download a high-rez image of the current Moon phase with the names of craters and other features shown – many along the terminator.
The Moon as Art
The Sun has been spot-free for 14 days. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (does that date me?), the northern coronal hole remains open but small, while the southern coronal hole is enormous! A large coronal hole is rotating into view below the Sun’s equator.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 23, 2020:
More beautiful large prominences on the Sun’s limb over the last couple days!
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 23, 2020:
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=10163245986400274&set=gm.3069960459681944&type=3&theater&ifg=1
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 457.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 6.9 protons/cm3 (↑) at 0835 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHOSun News
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 957,596 (+1938)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 FF |
2020-Mar-24
|
15.9 LD
|
5.6
|
15
|
| 2020 FB |
2020-Mar-25
|
8.6 LD
|
4.7
|
31
|
| 2020 FP |
2020-Mar-27
|
14.7 LD
|
9.5
|
24
|
| 2012 XA133 |
2020-Mar-27
|
17.4 LD
|
23.7
|
235
|
| 2020 FE2 |
2020-Mar-28
|
4.5 LD
|
7.1
|
27
|
| 2010 GD35 |
2020-Mar-29
|
15.3 LD
|
12
|
43
|
| 2006 FH36 |
2020-Mar-30
|
11.3 LD
|
5.1
|
93
|
| 2020 FB1 |
2020-Mar-30
|
19.1 LD
|
10.5
|
27
|
| 2020 FA1 |
2020-Mar-31
|
18.3 LD
|
2.2
|
18
|
| 2019 GM1 |
2020-Apr-02
|
9 LD
|
4.2
|
14
|
| 2015 FC35 |
2020-Apr-04
|
10.5 LD
|
13.8
|
148
|
| 2020 DT3 |
2020-Apr-05
|
17.6 LD
|
11.8
|
200
|
| 2019 HM |
2020-Apr-10
|
7.2 LD
|
3.2
|
23
|
| 363599 |
2020-Apr-11
|
19.2 LD
|
24.5
|
224
|
| 2019 HS2 |
2020-Apr-26
|
13.6 LD
|
12.6
|
17
|
| 2019 GF1 |
2020-Apr-27
|
18.7 LD
|
3.2
|
12
|
| 52768 |
2020-Apr-29
|
16.4 LD
|
8.7
|
2457
|
| 2020 DM4 |
2020-May-01
|
18.4 LD
|
6.4
|
163
|
| 438908 |
2020-May-07
|
8.9 LD
|
12.8
|
282
|
| 2016 HP6 |
2020-May-07
|
4.3 LD
|
5.7
|
31
|
| 388945 |
2020-May-10
|
7.3 LD
|
8.8
|
295
|
| 2000 KA |
2020-May-12
|
8.9 LD
|
13.5
|
162
|
| 478784 |
2020-May-15
|
8.5 LD
|
3.6
|
28
|
| 136795 |
2020-May-21
|
16.1 LD
|
11.7
|
892
|
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
On Mar. 23, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 2 fireballs.
(2 sporadics)
Fireball & Meteor News:
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.
Position of the planets and several asteroids in the inner solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Position of the planets in the middle solar system.
Position of the planets and several asteroids in the middle solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Side view of the inner and middle solar system, showing the alignment of the planets causing the conjunction in the eastern predawn sky.
Side view of the position of the planets in the inner and middle solar system on 2020-03-24. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Position of the planets, dwarf planets, transneptunian objects in the outer solar system:
Position of the planets and several transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2020-03-10. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
Juno Mission at Jupiter
International Space Station
I’ve never seen the word bioprinting before (neither has my spell-checker); my guess was close, but I was still surprised when I saw: “NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir activated a 3-D bioprinter that is being tested for its ability to manufacture human organs in space.” My jaw hung slack for a moment there… Just WOW!
Hubble Space Telescope
Climate
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
* Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS refers to the number planets that have been published in the refereed astronomical literature.
* TESS Project Candidates refers to the total number of transit-like events that appear to be astrophysical in origin, including false positives as identified by the TESS Project.
* TESS Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed refers to the number of TESS Project Candidates that have not yet been dispositioned as a Confirmed Planet or False Positive.
The Local Stellar Neighborhood
Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to the red dwarf Ross 248, 10.31 light years distant.
Distance to Ross 248 from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Ross 248
Ross 248, also called HH Andromedae or Gliese 905, is a small star approximately 10.30 light-years (3.16 parsecs) from Earth in the northern constellation of Andromeda. It was first catalogued by Frank Elmore Ross in 1926 with his second list of proper-motion stars; on which count it ranks 261st in the SIMBAD database. It was too dim to be included in the Hipparcos survey.
Within the next 80,000 years, Ross 248 is predicted to be nearest star to the Sun for a brief time, overtaking the current nearest star and triple system, Alpha Centauri. Despite its proximity it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.
This star has about 12% of the Sun’s mass and 16% of the Sun’s radius, but only 0.2% of the Sun’s luminosity. It has a stellar classification of M6 V, which indicates it is a type of main-sequence star known as a red dwarf. This is a flare star that occasionally increases in luminosity. With high probability, there appears to be a long-term cycle of variability with a period of 4.2 years. This variability causes the star to range in visual magnitude from 12.23 to 12.34. In 1950, this became the first star to have a small variation in magnitude attributed to spots on its photosphere. – Wikipedia
Artist’s concept of a hypothetical exoplanet, exomoon and exocomet orbiting Ross 248. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob TrembleyStay safe, be well, and look up!
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. A web-based version of Stellarium is also available.
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 available.
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
Light Pollution – NASA’s Black Marble
The Universe – Universe Today
