Yesterday, I gave the “In the News / In the Sky” presentation at the meeting of the Warren Astronomical Society – how convenient that all the news I covered, and all the images I created for that presentation would appear today’s post!
Early-risers continue to have Saturn, Jupiter and Mars to observe above the southeastern horizon.
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars appear across the southeastern predawn sky this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The waxing gibbous Moon appears near the constellation Orion high in the southern sky on March 3rd.
The Moon near Orion high in the southern sky on Mar. 3rd. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.On March 5th, the Moon appears near the star Pollux.
The Moon near the star Pollux high in the southern sky on Mar. 5th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon appears near the star Regulus on March 7th.
The Moon near the star Regulus in the eastern sky on Mar. 7th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Moon is currently a waxing gibbous, one day past first quarter – it will be visible to the southeast in early evening, and be up for most of the night.
The Full Moon occurs on March 9th – rising at sunset, visible high in the sky around midnight, and up all night.
The Moon from 2020-03-03 – 2020-03-09. 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.
Moon News: NASA is Accepting Astronaut Applications
The Sun has been spotless for 30 days. The northern coronal hole remains small, while the southern coronal hole continues to be huge.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 2, 2020:
Some large prominence activity on the Sun over the last couple days!
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Mar. 2, 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=10219230225700201&set=gm.3024539570890700&type=3&theater&ifg=1
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 423.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 7.5 protons/cm3 (↑↑) at 0947 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: 948,262 (+5762!!)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 DA4 |
2020-Mar-04
|
2.5 LD
|
9
|
26
|
| 2018 RF6 |
2020-Mar-10
|
11.2 LD
|
12.6
|
36
|
| 2020 CA3 |
2020-Mar-10
|
13.8 LD
|
6.3
|
30
|
| 2008 UB95 |
2020-Mar-11
|
18.5 LD
|
7.6
|
41
|
| 2018 GY |
2020-Mar-15
|
6.2 LD
|
9.5
|
39
|
| 2020 DP4 |
2020-Mar-22
|
3.5 LD
|
8.2
|
33
|
| 2012 XA133 |
2020-Mar-27
|
17.4 LD
|
23.7
|
235
|
| 2010 GD35 |
2020-Mar-29
|
15.3 LD
|
12
|
43
|
| 2006 FH36 |
2020-Mar-30
|
11.3 LD
|
5.1
|
93
|
| 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
|
182
|
| 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
|
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
Asteroid News
https://twitter.com/Aero_Jenna/status/1232777580924821504
There is a new Minor Planet Center circular with a few newly named asteroids:
https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2020/MPC_20200205.pdf
On Mar. 2, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 6 fireballs.
(6 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:
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Position of the planets in the middle solar system.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Position of the planets, dwarf planets and transneptunian objects in the outer solar system:
Position of the planets, a few dwarf planets and transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Oblique view of the orbits of the planets in the outer solar system.
Oblique view of the orbits of the planets in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and dwarf planets in the outer solar system.
Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and dwarf planets in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Orbits of the planets and comets in the outer solar system.
Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and comets in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Orbits of the planets and asteroids in the outer solar system… yikes!
Oblique view of the orbits of the planets and asteroids in the outer solar system, 2020-03-03. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Solar System News: Earth has a Temporary Mini-Moon
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
Psyche Mission
Juno Mission at Jupiter
International Space Station
Hubble Space Telescope
Northrup Grumman Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1)
Climate
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.
Infant Binary System with Twisted Protoplanetary disks
Astronomers Detect Gigantic Outburst from Center of a Galaxy 390 Million Light Years from Earth
A Fundamental Universal Constant Stays Constant by a Black Hole
The Local Stellar Neighborhood
Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to Luyten 726-8, 8.74 light years distant.
Distance to the Luyten 726-8 system from Sol. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Luyten 726-8
Luyten 726-8 (UV Ceti or Gliese 65) is a binary star which is one of Earth’s nearest neighbours. It is about 8.7 light years from Earth in the constellation Cetus. One of the pair, UV Ceti, was the archetype for the class of flare stars.
The star system was discovered in 1948 by W.J Luyten in the course of compiling a catalogue of stars of high proper motion; he noted its exceptionally high proper motion of 3.37 arc seconds annually and catalogued it as Luyten 726-8.
The two stars are of nearly equal brightness, with apparent magnitudes of 12.57 and 11.99 as seen from Earth. They orbit one another every 26.5 years. The distance between the two stars varies from 2.1 to 8.8 AU. Its own nearest neighbour is Tau Ceti, 0.88 pc (2.87 ly) away from it.
Both the stars are variables. The most spectacular is Luyten 726-8B, which was given the variable star designation UV Ceti (the other star is also known as BL Ceti). Although UV Ceti was not the first flare star discovered, it is the most prominent example of such a star, and similar flare stars are now known as UV Ceti type variable stars. This star goes through fairly extreme changes of brightness: for instance, in 1952, its brightness increased by 75 times in only 20 second
