In the Sky This Week – March 5, 2019

Planets are splashed across the south-southeastern predawn sky all week. With each morning, Venus and Saturn spread a little farther apart – Saturn getting a little higher and moving to the south, and Venus moving towards the east.

Planets splashed across the south-southeastern predawn sky Mar. 5, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mercury can be seen very low in the western sky at dusk this week. Look quick! Mercury will only be visible for a couple days, and will get dimmer with each passing day.

Mercury low in the western sky at dusk on Mar. 5th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

For an observing challenge, try to spot Mercury and a very thin crescent Moon on March 7^th at 6:46 PM!

Observing Challenge: Mercury and crescent Moon low in the western sky at dusk on Mar. 7th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mars and Uranus are high in the west-southwestern sky before midnight; Mars will slowly move away from Uranus all month.

Mars and Uranus high in the west-southwestern sky before midnight on Mar. 5th. Mars moves away from Uranus, toward the Pleiades star cluster all month. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon will appear very near Mars on Mar. 11^th!

The Moon near Mars in the west-southwestern sky on Mar. 11th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Rosette Nebula

Rosette Nebula. Credit: ESO/S. Brunier.

The spectacular Rosette Nebula, a glowing hydrogen-rich cloud, is located some 4,700 light-years away toward the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn).

In the middle of the nebula shines the open star cluster NGC 2244, full of massive young stars only about a million years old. The intense ultraviolet radiation produced by these newborn stars illuminates the surrounding belts of hydrogen, making the whole region glow red. Powerful stellar winds have carved a hole in the centre of the Rosette Nebula, allowing the young stars to peek out from their native environment. These vigorous winds also cause the compression of the interstellar medium, thus triggering dense clouds of gas to collapse under their own weight to form new stars. This star-forming process will continue over the next few million years as the nebula dissipates.

NGC 2244 is easily seen even with small telescopes, though the Rosette Nebula itself is more difficult to spot and requires telescopes with a larger diameter. The nebula measures over 100 light-years in diameter, and the total mass of the nebula is estimated to be around 10,000 solar masses. – ESO

A time-exposure through a much larger telescope reveals the Rosette Nebula being illuminated by radiation from hot young stars.

The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. Credit: John Corban & the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS Liberator

This infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Rosette nebula, a pretty star-forming region more than 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. In optical light, the nebula looks like a rosebud, or the “rosette” adornments that date back to antiquity.

But lurking inside this delicate cosmic rosebud are super hot stars, called O-stars, whose radiation and winds have collectively excavated layers of dust (green) and gas away, revealing the cavity of cooler dust (red). Some of the Rosette’s O-stars can be seen in the bubble-like, red cavity; however, the largest two blue stars in this picture are in the foreground, and not in the nebula itself.

This image shows infrared light captured by Spitzer’s infrared array camera. Light with wavelengths of 24 microns is red; light of 8 microns is green; and light of 4.5 microns is blue. – NASA

The heart of the Rosette Nebula seen in infrared from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ.of Ariz.

Location of the Rosette Nebula. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon is a thin waning crescent, visible very low to the east before sunrise. The new Moon occurs on Mar. 6^th. After that, the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.

The Moon from Mar 5-11, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

The Sun has been spot-free for 33 days; there is a small region of roiling activity in the northern hemisphere that looks like it wants to form into a sunspot. The coronal hole at the north pole seems to have closed, while the hole at the south pole remains wide open and large.

SpaceWeather.com says: “Earth is passing through a gap between solar wind streams. The next uptick in solar wind speed is expected on Mar. 7th when a minor hole in the sun’s atmosphere moves into geoeffective position. Geomagnetic unrest on that date could spark Arctic auroras.”

Light prominence activity for the past couple days – you can see several bright spots of activity develop near the equator in the video below.

The solar wind speed is 351.5 km/sec (↑), with a density of 0.7 protons/cm³ (↓).

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sun News

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com

On Mar. 02, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 17 fireballs.
(17 sporadics)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits from Mar. 02, 2019 intersect at a single point–Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue).Source: Spaceweather.com

I’ll see if I can get more info on this meteor over LA:

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

Crewed SpaceX Dragon Capsule Docks with International Space Station!

https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1102201607717089281

OSIRIS-REx – North Pole of Asteroid Bennu

OSIRIS-REx – Starts Detailed Survey of Asteroid Bennu

Mars InSight – Hammer Running into Rocks

Hayabusa2 – Video of Sample Acquisition

Mars Curiosity Rover – Safe Mode / Computer Reset / Back in Operation!

Climate

My wife is teaching her students about #PlasticPollution – it’s a BIG problem! Because of this, we’ve begun to eschew single-use plastic.

-Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive

Exoplanet Artwork by Bob Trembley

Aurora in the atmosphere of a moon orbiting a gas giant planet in the Large Megallantic Cloud – looking back at the Milky Way Galaxy. Credit: Space Engine / Bob Trembley.

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.
Space Engine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for the PC.

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

July 20, 2019 is the 50^th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.