Mars continues to pull away from Saturn and Jupiter in the southeastern predawn sky; Saturn and Jupiter are getting a little closer with each passing day.
Mars continues to pull away from Saturn and Jupiter in the southeastern predawn sky this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Mercury and Venus in the west-northwestern sky are joined by a thin crescent Moon at sunset on May 23-25th.
The Moon is a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise.
The new Moon occurs on May 22nd.
After May 22nd the Moon will be a waxing crescent, visible toward the southwest in early evening.
The Moon from 2020-05-19 – 2020-05-25. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Moon News: NASA unveils new rules to guide behavior in space and on the lunar surface
The Sun has 2 spots rotating into view – you can see the active regions in the videos below – both above and below the equator on the left-hand side. Coronal holes remain open at both poles, and s smaller hole appears between the equator and the south pole.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) May 18, 2020:
Lots of prominence activity on the Sun with these two active regions rotating into view.
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) May 18, 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=10219993725947230&set=gm.3209247282419927&type=3&theater&ifg=1
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 380.0 km/sec (↑), with a density of 10.1 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1136 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-SOHO
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Total Minor Planets discovered: 958,393 (+115)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 KA |
2020-May-19
|
2 LD
|
5.8
|
12
|
| 2020 JD2 |
2020-May-19
|
10 LD
|
9.5
|
28
|
| 136795 |
2020-May-21
|
16.1 LD
|
11.7
|
892
|
| 2020 JE1 |
2020-May-22
|
14.4 LD
|
7.5
|
35
|
| 2020 JH2 |
2020-May-22
|
10.8 LD
|
15.1
|
46
|
| 2020 JY1 |
2020-May-22
|
3.1 LD
|
8.7
|
31
|
| 2020 JR1 |
2020-May-23
|
3.8 LD
|
6.2
|
9
|
| 2020 KJ |
2020-May-23
|
9 LD
|
15.7
|
45
|
| 2020 JX |
2020-May-23
|
19.4 LD
|
7.9
|
62
|
| 2020 JZ1 |
2020-May-24
|
11.7 LD
|
5.7
|
24
|
| 2020 JP2 |
2020-May-27
|
11.6 LD
|
8.6
|
20
|
| 2020 JM1 |
2020-May-28
|
9.5 LD
|
5.8
|
21
|
| 2020 JV2 |
2020-May-29
|
9.2 LD
|
11.5
|
26
|
| 2020 KB |
2020-May-29
|
7.5 LD
|
12.2
|
40
|
| 2020 KF |
2020-Jun-02
|
12.1 LD
|
10.8
|
26
|
| 163348 |
2020-Jun-06
|
13.3 LD
|
11.1
|
339
|
| 2013 XA22 |
2020-Jun-08
|
7.6 LD
|
6.7
|
98
|
| 2020 JQ2 |
2020-Jun-11
|
15.2 LD
|
4.5
|
24
|
| 2020 JS1 |
2020-Jun-11
|
9.9 LD
|
5
|
19
|
| 2020 JU1 |
2020-Jun-13
|
19.1 LD
|
6.6
|
47
|
| 2017 MF7 |
2020-Jun-14
|
3.7 LD
|
10.9
|
23
|
| 2018 PD22 |
2020-Jun-19
|
17.2 LD
|
14.6
|
56
|
| 441987 |
2020-Jun-24
|
9.8 LD
|
12.9
|
186
|
| 2017 FW128 |
2020-Jun-25
|
6.9 LD
|
5.4
|
11
|
| 2020 JX1 |
2020-Jun-29
|
3.3 LD
|
5
|
58
|
| 2019 AC3 |
2020-Jul-01
|
10.5 LD
|
3.4
|
12
|
| 2007 UN12 |
2020-Jul-04
|
16.7 LD
|
2.9
|
6
|
| 2009 OS5 |
2020-Jul-13
|
17.6 LD
|
2.6
|
45
|
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 May 18, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 7 fireballs.
(7 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). Credit: 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, 2020-05-19. 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, 2020-05-19 – the orbit of dwarf planet Ceres. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Position of the planets some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system.
Position of the planets in the outer solar system on 2020-05-19 – the orbit of dwarf planet and transneptunian object Sedna is highlighted. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
OSIRIS-REx: NASA’s Asteroid Sample Return Mission
International Space Station
Hubble Space Telescope
Juno Mission at Jupiter
BepiColombo: ESA/JAXA Mission to Mercury
Want to popularize your space missions? Get them added into Kerbal Space Program!
HISTORY – Rosetta: ESA mission to comet 67/P
Climate
Kerbal Space Program
This one IS spacecraft news… kinda… A new KSP update is due out July 1 will include content mirroring two actual ESA missions!
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 Struve 2398 star system, 11.6 light years distant.
Distance to Struve 2398 from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Struve 2398
Struve 2398 (Gliese 725) is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Draco. Struve 2398 is star number 2398 in the Struve Double Star Catalog of Baltic-German astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve. The astronomer’s surname, and hence the star identifier, is sometimes indicated by a Greek sigma, Σ. Although the components are too faint to be viewed with the naked eye, this star system is among the closest to the Sun. Parallax measurements by the Hipparcos spacecraft give them an estimated distance of about 11.6 light years away.
Both stars are small red dwarfs, with each having around a third the Sun’s mass and radius. They each display the type of variability common to flare stars, and their active surfaces are sources of X-ray emission. The orbital period for the pair is about 295 years, with an average distance of about 56 astronomical units, and the eccentricity of their orbit is 0.70.
The pair has a relatively high proper motion of 2.2 arc seconds per year. The system is on an orbit through the Milky Way that has an eccentricity of 0.05, carrying them as close as 8 kpc and as far as 9 kpc from the Galactic Center. The plane of their galactic orbit carries them as far as 463−489 pc away from the galactic plane. – Wikipedia
Struve 2398 System Architecture
Struve 2398 system architecture. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Struve 2398 System Orbital Diagram
Top-down view of the orbits of the stars in the Struve 2398 star system – the system barycenter is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Artist’s view of the Struve 2398 Star System
Artist’s concept of the Struve 2398 star system. 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.
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.
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.
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
