Libraries across the U.S. are looking for online presentations by NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors and NASA Night Sky Network members; my wife is having me give my presentation about the Sun (and possibly a tour of the solar system using SpaceEngine) to her science classes using Google Hangouts Meet. If you are an astronomy presenter and you have the equipment to present remotely, you may want to contact libraries and schools in your area to see if they would like you to do an online presentation.
Mars continues to pull away from Saturn and Jupiter in the southeastern predawn sky; the Moon joins the early morning planets at the beginning of next week.
Mars, Saturn and Jupiter in the southeastern predawn sky this week. The Moon joins the planets early next week for a couple days. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Venus appears a bit lower each evening at dusk in the western sky.
Venus appears a bit lower than last week above the western horizon after sunset – the orbit of Venus is shown in red. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Early next week, comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) will be in the same general region of the sky as Venus, however it will probably not be as spectacular as the depiction in the image below. Use the image below as a guide where to point your binoculars or telescopes.
The comet C/2019 (ATLAS) joins Venus above the western horizon after sunset early next week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon appears near the star Spica in the southern sky at midnight on May 6th.
The Moon appears near the star Spica in the southern sky at midnight on May 6th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.The Moon appears near the star Antares in the southwestern predawn sky on May 9th.
The Moon appears near the star Antares in the southwestern predawn sky on May 9th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.
The Moon is a waxing gibbous, visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night.
The full Moon occurs on May 7th; the Moon rises at sunset, is visible high in the sky around midnight, and is visible all night.
After May 7th, the Moon will be a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, visible high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise.
The Moon from 2020-05-05 – 2020-05-05. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Moon News: Three Companies Selected for Human Moon Landings
The Sun has been spotless for 3 days. Coronal holes remain open at both poles – the southern coronal hole has a snake-like tendril reaching up towards the equator.
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) May 4, 2020:
We got a monster prominence! A beautiful, long-lived looping prominence on the Sun for the last couple days.
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) May 4, 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=10219855439850164&set=gm.3171224552888867&type=3&theater&ifg=1
Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 302.6 km/sec (↑), with a density of 5.2 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1000 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: 958,258 (+116)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2020 HS9 |
2020-May-05
|
4.6 LD
|
18.1
|
31
|
| 2020 HR8 |
2020-May-05
|
9.1 LD
|
9.6
|
14
|
| 2020 HZ6 |
2020-May-05
|
10.2 LD
|
21.7
|
34
|
| 2020 HL |
2020-May-05
|
16.7 LD
|
9.1
|
35
|
| 2020 HF7 |
2020-May-05
|
9.3 LD
|
17.3
|
22
|
| 2020 HL6 |
2020-May-06
|
2.1 LD
|
5.4
|
9
|
| 438908 |
2020-May-07
|
8.9 LD
|
12.8
|
282
|
| 2020 JE |
2020-May-07
|
11.8 LD
|
12.1
|
21
|
| 2020 JF |
2020-May-07
|
5 LD
|
18.5
|
22
|
| 2020 HM4 |
2020-May-07
|
10.7 LD
|
18.1
|
42
|
| 2016 HP6 |
2020-May-07
|
4.3 LD
|
5.7
|
31
|
| 2020 HB6 |
2020-May-08
|
9.8 LD
|
9.1
|
52
|
| 2020 HC6 |
2020-May-09
|
2.9 LD
|
6
|
35
|
| 388945 |
2020-May-10
|
7.3 LD
|
8.8
|
295
|
| 2000 KA |
2020-May-12
|
8.9 LD
|
13.5
|
162
|
| 2020 HS6 |
2020-May-14
|
16.1 LD
|
23.6
|
131
|
| 478784 |
2020-May-15
|
8.5 LD
|
3.6
|
28
|
| 2020 HA9 |
2020-May-15
|
18.2 LD
|
15.8
|
31
|
| 2020 HG9 |
2020-May-18
|
15.6 LD
|
10.7
|
73
|
| 136795 |
2020-May-21
|
16.1 LD
|
11.7
|
892
|
| 163348 |
2020-Jun-06
|
13.3 LD
|
11.1
|
339
|
| 2013 XA22 |
2020-Jun-09
|
10.6 LD
|
6.5
|
98
|
| 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
|
| 2019 AC3 |
2020-Jul-01
|
10.5 LD
|
3.4
|
12
|
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 the Forth, NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 16 fireballs.
(8 eta Aquarids, 8 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, 2020-05-04. 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, 2020-05-04. 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 2020-05-04. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
International Space Station
Hubble Space Telescope
Mars Insight
Juno Mission at Jupiter
BepiColombo Mission to Mercury
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.
How to fix light pollution in a few pictures:
Image from: https://citiesatnight.org/index.php/light-pollution/
Binary Black Hole Merger!
Supernova!
https://twitter.com/Mars_1956/status/1254797353091022850
The Local Stellar Neighborhood
Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to the Procyon star system, 11.46 light years distant.
Distance to Procyon from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Procyon
Procyon (α CMi, α Canis Minoris, Alpha Canis Minoris) is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor. To the naked eye, it appears to be a single star, the eighth brightest in the night sky with a visual apparent magnitude of 0.34.
It is actually a binary star system of a white main-sequence star of spectral type F5 IV–V, named Procyon A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DQZ, named Procyon B.
The reason for its brightness is not its intrinsic luminosity but its relative closeness to the Sun. Its distance was worked out by the European Space Agency Hipparcos astrometry satellite. It is just 11.46 light-years (3.51 parsecs) away, and is one of our nearest stellar neighbours. Its closest neighbour is Luyten’s Star, about 1.12 ly (0.34 pc) away.
Procyon forms one of the three vertices of the Winter Triangle, along with Sirius and Betelgeuse. Its colour index is 0.42, and its hue has been described as having a faint yellow tinge to it. – Wikipedia
Procyon System Architecture
Procyon system architecture. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Procyon System Orbital Diagram
Top-down view of the orbits of the stars in the Procyon star system – the system barycenter is highlighted. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Artist’s view of the Procyon Star System
Artist’s concept of the Procyon 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.
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
