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In the Sky This Week – May 19, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  19 May 2020

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This entry is part 149 of 248 in the series In the Sky This Week

Conjunction

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.

Conjunction 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.

Prof. Robert A. Millikan, Fr. Georges Lemaître and Prof. Albert Einstein at CalTech in January 1933.

 

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.

Moon 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

As @NASA leads a coalition of nations to the Moon, safety, transparency, and coordination are paramount. Hence, the Artemis Accords:https://t.co/liHjCpTQEk

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 15, 2020

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:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/05/18/20200518_1024_0193.mp4

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:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/05/18/20200518_1024_0304.mp4
Videos courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.
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):

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

 

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 92  (+73), this year: 1017  (+74), all time: 22,922  (+72)
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)

Orbits 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.com

Fireball & Meteor News

Large fireball seen from Hampshire last night at 21:34 GMT (22:34 BST) moving towards the NW. pic.twitter.com/sRxrgXpY6C

— Richard (@nova_foresta) May 12, 2020

New and special, isolation issue is here! https://t.co/TOVSyJgYjS

— MeteorNews (@eMeteorNews) April 30, 2020

Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system.

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.

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.

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

It’s #NationalPetMonth
Plz send pet pics ????

Here are a few of my pet rocks.https://t.co/hTU99arLOihttps://t.co/pRdXiHQ5Xp pic.twitter.com/JKAP0ka7UA

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) May 18, 2020

International Space Station

Plant growth has been researched for many years aboard the @Space_Station!?#SpaceStation20th#OTD in 2017, @AstroPeggy photographed Chinese cabbage plants during the Veg-03 experiment, which tested out a plant water delivery system. https://t.co/1Odc2Zq8B7 pic.twitter.com/laoxTXNxto

— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) May 18, 2020

Japan’s next mission to resupply the station is “go” to launch Wednesday at 1:30pm ET. The Exp 63 studied how planetary surfaces might affect future spacecraft. Read more… https://t.co/UHpHJxgK4K pic.twitter.com/hYsOZh1i2E

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) May 18, 2020

Hubble Space Telescope

#HubbleFriday This Hubble image captures the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 5861, located about 85 million light-years away in the constellation Libra. The galaxy has hosted two known supernovae, one discovered in 1971 and the other in 2017: https://t.co/cIrKTI7RTa pic.twitter.com/3RdSF5Q8kA

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) May 15, 2020

Juno Mission at Jupiter

I’ve teamed up with @NASAHubble and the ground-based @GeminiObs observatory to probe the powerful storms on Jupiter, including the "radio light show" produced by lightning flashes up to three times more energetic than Earth's largest bolts. See more: https://t.co/w3SkTkHiZS pic.twitter.com/jT7Ni5PqgJ

— NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) May 7, 2020

BepiColombo: ESA/JAXA Mission to Mercury

Want to popularize your space missions? Get them added into Kerbal Space Program!

The first new @KerbalSpaceP scenario is based on @BepiColombo. Players attempt to reach orbit and land on 'Moho', the equivalent of Mercury in the ‘Kerbal universe’, while performing various scientific tasks from the actual ESA/JAXA mission.

Cool.?️ https://t.co/PPpUqAE7FW

— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) May 18, 2020

HISTORY – Rosetta: ESA mission to comet 67/P

Late night treat. First draft of a time lapse showing Comet #67P as seen by #Rosetta over 90 minutes on 4 June 2015. As the comet rotates, different parts of the surface are exposed to sunlight & the inner coma changes.

1/

Images: @Rosetta_OSIRIS WAC, @esa/MPS for OSIRIS team pic.twitter.com/dd37VKtjXI

— Mark McCaughrean (@markmccaughrean) May 16, 2020

Climate

After California, Arizona and Nevada set mandatory stay-at-home restrictions to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, NASA's Aura satellite observed decreased nitrogen dioxide levels over certain cities. https://t.co/CWCrkX4xd5

— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) May 18, 2020

Initial results from a new NASA satellite suggest that winter Arctic sea ice has thinned by as much as 20% since 2008, contrary to existing studies that find sea ice thickness has remained relatively constant in the last decade. https://t.co/L5orZO9TLF

— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) May 15, 2020

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!

Big news, Kerbonauts: We’re partnering with @ESA for the 1.10 update #SharedHorizons!

We’re excited to add two cornerstone missions to the game, BepiColombo and Rosetta. Releasing on PC on July 1st. Coming soon to consoles. More info to come.
#ExploreFarther pic.twitter.com/k1W5QkofRH

— Kerbal Space Program (@KerbalSpaceP) May 18, 2020

Yes, we are adding comets to the game!
?

— Kerbal Space Program (@KerbalSpaceP) May 18, 2020

Exoplanet
ex·o·plan·et /ˈeksōˌplanət/, noun: a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.

All Exoplanets 4154 
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2360
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2351
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2418
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 430
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 397
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 889
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 46
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-05-16 13:00:02) 1835
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 1837  (+2)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1131  (-2)

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.

Shining a #darkskyfriendly light on the next judge in our #CaptureTheDark Contest: @mikeshawphoto.
Mike is an @IDADarkSky Delegate & Resident Artist at @BellMuseum exploring novel VR/AR experiences for making the #nightsky & #lightpollution more accessible to the general public. pic.twitter.com/lCgPYY3ess

— IDA Dark-Sky (@IDADarkSky) May 18, 2020

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.

Struve 2398 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 Struve 2398 system architecture. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Struve 2398 System Orbital Diagram

Struve 2398 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

Struve 2398 Artist’s concept of the Struve 2398 star system. SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley

Stay 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

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More Posts in this Series:
"In the Sky This Week"

78  |  What Do We Lose When We Sacrifice Science?

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  27 May 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

69  |  To err is human… to admit it, is science

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  25 Mar 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

148  |  In the Sky This Week – May 12, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  12 May 2020

150  |  In the Sky This Week – May 26, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  26 May 2020

151  |  In the Sky This Week – June 2, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  2 Jun 2020

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