In last week’s session of my after-school club, the Endeavour Space Academy, I ran the students through a very quick tour of the solar system using both NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System app, and the NASA Solar System Exploration website. Only a couple of the students knew anything at all about the solar system, so I covered the most important points in the 25 minutes available… I wish I had several more hours to cover everything! I asked the students if any of them knew about the Earth’s mid-ocean rifts – one said they were covering that in science class. I asked the student if she heard about the ecosystems that exist around the mid-ocean rifts, and extremophiles? I talked about the students about the possibility that similar sub-ocean rift systems might exist on several of the icy moons in the outer solar system, and what that might mean for the search for life.
Saturn appears high above the southwestern horizon after sunset this week, Venus and Jupiter appear much lower towards the horizon.
Venus is very low on the horizon, Jupiter a bit higher and Saturn high above the southwestern horizon after sunset this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob TrembleyMercury is low above the southeastern horizon, and Mars a bit higher and near-ish the star Spica before sunrise this week.
Mercury and Mars are low on the southeastern horizon before dawn this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob TrembleyThe Moon appears very near the star Regulus in a conjunction occurring in the eastern sky early in the morning of Nov. 20th.
Conjunction of the Moon and the star Regulus in the eastern sky early in the morning of Nov. 20, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob TrembleyThe waning crescent Moon shares the eastern horizon with the star Arcturus before sunrise this weekend.
A thin waning crescent moon appears low on the eastern horizon before sunrise this weekend. Credit: Stellarium / Bob TrembleyThe constellation Gemini appears above the eastern horizon around 10:00 PM this week.
The constellation Gemini above the eastern horizon at 10:00 PM this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
IC 444
IC 444 is a small, 32 square arcminute reflection nebula in the constellation Gemini.
IC 444. Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
Location of IC 444. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley
The Moon is at third quarter on Nov. 19th, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.
After Nov. 19th, the Moon will be a waning crescent, visible low to the east before sunrise – keep an eye out for earthshine!
The Moon from Nov. 19-25, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.Moon News
The Sun has been spotless for 6 days; the northern coronal hole remains large, and a rather large coronal hole appears along the equator. There is a prominent region of coronal loop activity south of the equator.
Sun in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Nov. 19, 2019. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.“WOW! Just WOW!” Those were the first words to come to mind when seeing all the prominences on the Sun today!
Sun in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) Nov. 19, 2019. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220385215441374&set=gm.2788823817795611&type=3&theater&ifg=1
The solar wind speed is 345.2 km/sec (↓), with a density of 4.6 protons/cm3 (↑) at 1300 UT.
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechYou 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.
Sun News
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2019 UK6 |
2019-Nov-20
|
15.4 LD
|
7.8
|
64
|
| 2019 WF |
2019-Nov-20
|
1.6 LD
|
11.6
|
15
|
| 2019 WE |
2019-Nov-20
|
3.3 LD
|
8.5
|
16
|
| 481394 |
2019-Nov-21
|
11.3 LD
|
7.9
|
372
|
| 2019 VK |
2019-Nov-21
|
5.8 LD
|
7.6
|
43
|
| 2008 EA9 |
2019-Nov-23
|
10.5 LD
|
2.2
|
10
|
| 2019 VF1 |
2019-Nov-25
|
13.3 LD
|
17.2
|
89
|
| 2017 AP4 |
2019-Dec-03
|
8.5 LD
|
7.5
|
15
|
| 2018 XW2 |
2019-Dec-07
|
17.4 LD
|
13
|
28
|
| 2019 VH5 |
2019-Dec-08
|
18.1 LD
|
9.8
|
70
|
| 216258 |
2019-Dec-20
|
15.3 LD
|
11.8
|
324
|
| 2013 XY20 |
2019-Dec-21
|
18.4 LD
|
1.9
|
28
|
| 2017 XQ60 |
2019-Dec-22
|
11 LD
|
15.6
|
47
|
| 310442 |
2019-Dec-26
|
19 LD
|
12.3
|
372
|
| 2019 AE3 |
2020-Jan-02
|
4.9 LD
|
8.2
|
13
|
| 2019 UO |
2020-Jan-10
|
11.8 LD
|
9.4
|
377
|
| 2011 EP51 |
2020-Jan-15
|
19.6 LD
|
7.1
|
32
|
| 2017 RZ15 |
2020-Jan-15
|
12.1 LD
|
7.4
|
14
|
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
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2018 (last updated Oct. 1, 2019)
Minor Planets discovered: 840,182 (+404)
Asteroid News
A fair number of the science fiction stories I’ve listened to recently have a basis in the exploitation of asteroid mineral and outer-system ice resources. Imagine the consequences, both societal and economic, of a single entity (corporation, human, free AI or whatever) having access to that much wealth and resources. The old tabletop role-playing game Traveller called them Megacorporations, as does the more recent “Grand Strategy” game Stellaris.
On Nov. 18, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 26 fireballs.
(12 sporadics, 11 Leonids, 3 northern Taurids)
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 News
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and some spacecraft in the inner solar system, Nov. 19, 2019. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Position of the planets and a couple bodies in the middle solar system – the orbit of comet 103P/Hartley 2 is highlighted:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Nov. 19, 2019- the orbit of comet Hartley 2 is highlighted. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Comet 103P/Hartley 2
Comet 103P/Hartley (Hartley 2) is a small, oval (or peanut) shaped comet — its nucleus measures approximately one mile (1.6 kilometers) in diameter. It takes Hartley 2 about 6.47 years to orbit the Sun once. Hartley 2 last reached perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) in 2017.
Hartley 2 orbits the Sun within the asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Hartley 2 is a Jupiter-family comet. A Jupiter-family comet is defined as having an orbital period of less than 20 years and one that has been modified by close passages with the gas giant.
One spacecraft has encountered this comet: Deep Impact (EPOXI) in 2010. During its flyby, the spacecraft came within 431 miles (694 kilometers) of the comet. Hartley 2 was the fifth comet to be visited by spacecraft and was the second encounter made by this particular spacecraft. Deep Impact had previously visited comet 9P/Tempel 1 in 2005. – NASA
Position of the planets and a several bodies in the outer solar system:
Position of the planets in the outer solar system, Nov. 19, 2019- the orbit of TNO 2014 MU69 is highlighted. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.NASA’s Interactive Real-Time Web-based Orrery:
[iframe src=’https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/orrery/’ height=600 percent=100 style=””]
Solar System News
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
JAXA Hayabusa 2 Asteroid Sample Return Mission
International Space Station
NASA 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.
Exoplanet Artwork by Bob Trembley
I looked at the “list of nearest terrestrial exoplanet candidates,” and saw Ross 128 b; I’ve never been there in SpaceEngine, so I went there:
Artist conception of exoplanet Ross 128 b. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.Ross 128 b is a confirmed Earth-sized exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the inner habitable zone of the red dwarf Ross 128, at a distance of about 11 light-years
