Skip to content
Vatican Observatory
  • About
    • Overview
    • Team
    • FAQ
  • Telescopes
    • Overview
    • Telescope Images
  • Latest
    • Overview
    • Resources
    • Press
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Research
    • Authors
      • FAQs
    • Newsletter
    • Tucson Meteor Cameras
  • Podcast
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Resource Center
    • Image Gallery
    • Summer School
    • Books
    • Software
    • Additional Resources
    • ACME
    • Ambassadors
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Overview
    • Donate Now
    • Smart Ways to Give
    • Sacred Space Astronomy
      • View Content
    • Fr. Coyne Fundraiser
    • Bequests / Trusts
    • The Foundation
      • Newsletters
      • Annual Reports
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
    • Contact
  • About
    • Overview
    • Team
    • FAQ
  • Telescopes
    • Overview
    • Telescope Images
  • Latest
    • Overview
    • Resources
    • Press
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Research
    • Authors
      • FAQs
    • Newsletter
    • Tucson Meteor Cameras
  • Podcast
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Resource Center
    • Image Gallery
    • Summer School
    • Books
    • Software
    • Additional Resources
    • ACME
    • Ambassadors
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Overview
    • Donate Now
    • Smart Ways to Give
    • Sacred Space Astronomy
      • View Content
    • Fr. Coyne Fundraiser
    • Bequests / Trusts
    • The Foundation
      • Newsletters
      • Annual Reports
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
    • Contact

In the Sky This Week – November 19, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  19 Nov 2019

Share:
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email

This entry is part 43 of 248 in the series In the Sky This Week

Inner Solar System

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 Trembley

Mercury 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 Trembley

The 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 Regulus Conjunction of the Moon and the star Regulus in the eastern sky early in the morning of Nov. 20, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley

The 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 Trembley

The constellation Gemini appears above the eastern horizon around 10:00 PM this week.

Gemini 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!

Moon The Moon from Nov. 19-25, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Moon News

Join Andrea Jones from @NASAGoddard and NASA’s LRO mission and Dr. @rachelbconnolly, WGBH Director of STEM Education, for a webinar on lunar science & digital media to connect students w/the Moon. Free #edWebinar for K–12 educators on 11/19 at 7pm EST: https://t.co/VaAKuWLms2 pic.twitter.com/AopaxVACXo

— NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) November 18, 2019

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.

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
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.

Sun News

Ny-Ålesund falls directly below Earth’s magnetic cusp once a day, so particles have a direct path between our planet and space, funneled by Earth’s magnetic field — making this spot uniquely suited for studying how our planet’s oxygen is slowly leaking into space. pic.twitter.com/WBiBq3jw13

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) November 15, 2019

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

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 107  (+13), this year: 2608 (+13), all time: 21516 (+13)
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.

This asteroid could be the most valuable thing in our entire Solar System. It's valued at $700 quintillion — that's many billion times more valuable than all of the money in the world today pic.twitter.com/Fm25G6UA7x

— CNET (@CNET) November 17, 2019


On Nov. 18, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 26 fireballs.
(12 sporadics, 11 Leonids, 3 northern Taurids)

Fireball 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). From: Spaceweather.com

Fireball News

A rock from space enters Earth's atmosphere at 50,000 mph lightning up the skies over Tasmania.

Credit: Aussie mom from victoria pic.twitter.com/V0QA7A8rru

— Milky Way Astronomers (@MAstronomers) November 17, 2019

Now that's a #fireball recorded from Loughborough and Norman Lockyer Observatory stations at 23:35 pic.twitter.com/fFGmB902R3

— UK Meteor Network (@UKMeteorNetwork) November 18, 2019

Astronomers have managed to find images of interstellar comet #2IBorisov up to almost a year before it was discovered, stretching back to December 2018 when it was beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Pretty neat!https://t.co/akMJNGSrqS pic.twitter.com/BPk14DxLCU

— Jonathan O’Callaghan (@Astro_Jonny) November 15, 2019

 

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

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:

Middle Solar System 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:

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

This is so very cool: Astronomers have confirmed that Europa blasts out geysers of water, sourced from the ocean deep beneath its surface!https://t.co/f98tneRLLU

— Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) November 19, 2019

A Kuiper Belt object spotted by @NASAHubble & visited by @NASANewHorizons was officially named this week. With consent from Powhatan Tribal elders and representatives, it is now known as "Arrokoth," meaning “sky” in the Powhatan/Algonquian language. Watch: https://t.co/MfxVuac4kf pic.twitter.com/jqGSC2KLHB

— NASA (@NASA) November 17, 2019

? A dynamic world of dunes, plains, craters & terrains is revealed in this first-ever geologic map of Saturn's moon, Titan. Lakes and seas are marked blue, but they aren't water! What rains down is methane and ethane in Titan's frigid climate. Zoom in: https://t.co/ufdpxYNEqP pic.twitter.com/lNoA7lkhjo

— NASA (@NASA) November 19, 2019

OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Here’s a 3D printed Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of site Sandpiper. The crater’s steep slopes stand out, along with the ruggedness of Bennu’s southern hemisphere where Sandpiper is located. pic.twitter.com/r45uZbaReK

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) November 18, 2019

JAXA Hayabusa 2 Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Our “Goodbye Ryugu” Campaign #SAYONARA_Ryugu:

We have been introducing messages from the Hayabusa2 Project staff, and the “Goodbye Ryugu” campaign will end today (11/19).

Everyone, please send us a message!https://t.co/13jELgeTrx

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) November 19, 2019

International Space Station

The Exp 61 crew researched advanced tech and space biology today while readying to deploy small satellites by midweek. Read more… https://t.co/jXQtWDycWP pic.twitter.com/z6cvkSVPMQ

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) November 19, 2019

Attention media:
On 11/20 we will hold a telecon to discuss research launching to @Space_Station including:

?A study analyzing flame behavior in confined spaces
⚛️A new tool for the Cold Atom Lab
?A study analyzing barely seeds in microgravity

Sign up: https://t.co/qZ7lArgte7 pic.twitter.com/XOjEF7Od5D

— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) November 18, 2019

NASA Climate

The monthly GISTEMP surface temperature analysis update has been posted. The global mean temperature anomaly for October 2019 was 1.04°C above the 1951-1980 October average. https://t.co/EDTZWL4pYk pic.twitter.com/8d83bhLBMa

— NASA GISS (@NASAGISS) November 15, 2019

Exoplanet

All Exoplanets 4093 
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2355
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2346
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2420 
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 425
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 392
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 892
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 34
TESS Project Candidates 1361
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 947  (+11)

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:

Exoplanet 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

Share:
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email

Sacred Space Astronomy

The Vatican Observatory’s official digital community and online magazine.

Become a Member

Recent Posts

From The Backyard: Seasons Change

By Fr. James Kurzynski  |  27 Mar 2023

Conjunction of the Moon and Pollux – March 29-30

By Robert Trembley  |  27 Mar 2023  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

Conjunction of the Moon and Mars – March 28

By Robert Trembley  |  27 Mar 2023  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

Ask an AI about the History of Astronomy

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  25 Mar 2023

Archives

      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • August
      • June
      • March
      • January
      • November
      • October
      • December
      • November
      • April
      • May
      • January
      • December
      • September
      • May
      • March
      • December
      • November
      • February

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

42  |  In the Sky This Week – June 11, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  11 Jun 2019

44  |  In the Sky This Week – July 9, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  9 Jul 2019

45  |  In the Sky This Week – December 3, 2019

By Robert Trembley  |  3 Dec 2019

Newsletter

Upcoming astronomical events, scientific breakthroughs, philosophical reflections… just a few reasons to subscribe to our newsletter!

Vatican Observatory
  • About
  • Telescopes
  • Latest
  • Podcast
  • Education
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
Privacy Policy  |   Cookie Policy  |   Disclosure Statement

Podcast:

  • Apple Podcasts Listen onApple Podcasts
  • Spotify Listen onSpotify
  • Google Podcasts Listen onGoogle Podcasts
  • Stitcher Listen onStitcher
  • Amazon Alexa Listen onAmazon Alexa
  • TuneIn Listen onTuneIn
Made by Longbeard