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In the Sky This Week – November 27, 2018

By Robert Trembley  |  27 Nov 2018

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This entry is part 123 of 246 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus and Spica

Venus and Spica continue their predawn conjunction in the southeastern sky.

Venus and Spica Venus near the star Spica in the predawn sky, Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mars is high in southern sky after sunset all week.

Mars Mars is high in the southern sky after sunset on Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The International Space Station will pass very near Saturn low in the southwestern sky at 5:42 PM ET on Nov. 27th.

ISS and Saturn The International Space Station passing near Saturn low in the southwestern sky at 5:42 PM ET on Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

To be honest, when I saw this in Stellarium I thought something was a bit weird – I knew there wasn’t going to be a bright star near Saturn … then I clicked on it to find it was the ISS. This ISS flyover will only be visible in southeastern Michigan (sorry). To check of you can see the ISS this week, go to heavens-above.com – you can get charts like this:

ISS ISS flyover passing near Saturn on Nov. 27 2018 around 5:42 PM ET – visible from southeastern Michigan.

The nearly third-quarter Moon will appear very near the star Regulus in the southeastern predawn sky on Nov. 29th.

Moon and Regulus The Moon near the star Regulus hight in the southeastern sky at 5:00 AM on Nov. 29th.

The Moon

The Moon is a waning gibbous, rising after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, and visible to the southwest after sunrise. On Nov. 30th the Moon will be at third-quarter, rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise. Starting in December, the Moon will be a waning crescent, low to the east before sunrise.

Moon The Moon from Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 2018. Visualizations by Ernie Wright.

The Sun

Fading Sunspot Vlosw-up of fading sunspot, Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.

Spaceweather.com claims the Sun has been spot-free for 1 day; I’m going to challenge that with this SDO close-up from Nov. 27th – There are two dark areas that happen to coincide nicely with the bright active region on the Sun’s equator in the animations below. They ARE tiny tho, and fading fast.

Coronal holes are still open at both poles; a large “>” shaped coronal hole is rotating into view, and a smaller equatorial hole is rotating out of view. SpaceWeather.com says “Geomagnetic storms (G1-class) are likely on Nov. 30th or Dec. 1st when a stream of solar wind is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. The gaseous material is flowing from a large hole in the sun’s atmosphere. This is a long-lasting hole that has lashed Earth with solar wind about once a month since July. The last time it happened on Nov. 4th, auroras were sighted in multiple northern-tier US states.”

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2018/11/26/20181126_1024_0193.mp4

Prominences galore! WOW the last couple days had some spectacular long-lived prominences, and some really tall short-lived pillars…

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2018/11/26/20181126_1024_0304.mp4

The solar wind speed is 372.4 km/sec, with a density of 8.5 protons/cm3.

A “sundiver” comet can be seen in this Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) video from Nov. 24, 2018!

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.

Observing Target: Sun-Grazing and Sun-Diving Comets

Sun-diving comet Sun-diving comet captured by NASA’s Solar & Heliospheric Observatory, Nov. 24, 2018. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When I was working on the Sun portion of this post (above), I noticed that the live-feed from NASA’s Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) showed a comet plunging in to the Sun! The SOHO website has a movie gallery of comets that have grazed the Sun and flown-by, and some others that did not survive the encounter.

You can “observe” these comets from the comfort of your office or living room.

[show_if device=desktop]I shamelessly copied and pasted the SOHO Comet Gallery below:

Two comets plunging into the solar corona
(June 2, 1998)

MPEG ( 1.2M), MPEG ( 189k), QT ( 1.8M), QT ( 190k)

 

Two sun-grazing comets racing towards the Sun (June 1/2, 1998)

MPEG (798k), MPEG (260k), QT (853k)
QT (219k), HD QT (6.1M)

 

 

Exclusive views of Comet 96P/Machholz swinging past the Sun

MPEG ( 2.0M), MPEG ( 352k), QT ( 3.0M), QT ( 810k)

 

CME’s and planet transit – LASCO C2 (Mar. 20 – Apr. 10, 1999)

MPEG ( 14M), MPEG ( 4.1M), QT ( 6.9M), QT ( 1.4M)

 

 

Sungrazing comet plunging towards the Sun. LASCO C2. (Apr. 30, 1998)

MPEG ( 1.4M), MPEG ( 185k), QT ( 562k), QT ( 87k)

 

 

Four planets and the Pleiades. LASCO C3 (May 15, 2000)

MPEG ( 11.6M), MPEG ( 1.5M), QT ( 9.8M), QT ( 962k)

 

 

Comet Neat (Feb.16-20, 2003)

MPEG ( 12M), MPEG (420K), MPEG (420K),
QT ( 32M), QT (2.2M), QT (216K)

 

 

The 2003 Mercury Transit

MPEG (726K) QT (759K)

 

 

Comet Hyakutake

MPEG (4.5M), MPEG (512K), QT (9.3M), QT (1.2M)

 

 

Christmas Comet (Dec. 22-28, 1996)

Movie available in the following formats and sizes:
MPEG (384K) MPEG (128K) QT (855K)

 

 

Sungrazing Comet & Venus from LASCO C3 (Jan. 3, 2010).

MPEG (3.6M), QT ( 31M), QT (2.1M)

 

 

Sungrazing Comet from LASCO C2
(Jan. 3, 2010).

MPEG (2.8M), QT (5.6M), QT (296K)

 

Asteroids

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2018 WD
2018-Nov-24
4.5 LD
13.6
49
2009 WB105
2018-Nov-25
15.2 LD
18.9
71
2018 VT7
2018-Nov-25
8.2 LD
2.3
10
2008 WD14
2018-Nov-27
7.4 LD
9.3
93
2001 WO15
2018-Nov-28
13.6 LD
11.7
107
2018 VE4
2018-Nov-30
15 LD
4.8
30
2018 WN
2018-Dec-01
14.9 LD
4.4
17
2018 TG6
2018-Dec-02
3.9 LD
1.4
13
2013 VX4
2018-Dec-09
4.1 LD
6.6
65
2001 XG1
2018-Dec-10
7.9 LD
14.2
78
2018 VX6
2018-Dec-10
16.5 LD
11.2
70
2015 XX169
2018-Dec-13
17 LD
5.8
12
2018 VO9
2018-Dec-15
2.6 LD
2.9
15
2017 XQ60
2018-Dec-21
11.3 LD
15.6
47
163899
2018-Dec-22
7.4 LD
6.2
1232
418849
2018-Dec-23
16.6 LD
17.6
269
2014 AD16
2019-Jan-04
12.9 LD
9.4
12
2016 AZ8
2019-Jan-07
11.6 LD
9.1
224
2013 YM2
2019-Jan-09
7.3 LD
4.3
20

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 184, this year: 1806, all time: 19204.
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1936 (as of Nov. 20, 2018)
Minor Planets discovered: 789,069 (as of Oct. 30, 2018)

Fireballs

On Nov. 26, 2018, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 29 fireballs.
(29 sporadics)

Fireball Orbits In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits from Nov 26, 2018 intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.com

Fireball seen over Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Île-de-France, Bretagne, Centre-Val de Loire, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie on Saturday, November 24th 2018, AMS Event: 5221-2018

The Solar System

This is the position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the solar system; The Parker Solar Probe has recrossed the orbit of Mercury, and InSight has successfully landed on Mars – more below!

Inner Solar System Position of the planets in the inner solar system, Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Middle Solar System Position of the planets in the middle solar system, Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Outer Solar System Position of the planets in the outer solar system, Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.

Spacecraft

Mars InSight – Lands Successfully!
Happy mission control specialists and engineers are happy! This NEVER gets old! I LOVE that they are all wearing custom logoed shirts! I think this needs to become “a thing” with NASA missions.

Our @NASAInSight spacecraft stuck the #MarsLanding!

Its new home is Elysium Planitia, a still, flat region where it’s set to study seismic waves and heat deep below the surface of the Red Planet for a planned two-year mission. Learn more: https://t.co/fIPATUugFo pic.twitter.com/j0hXTjhV6I

— NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018

The first image from the surface of Mars was returned in mere moments; I’m not sure if this is a tradition or what, but the first image returned for the last few landers seems to be the “dusty lens cover view of the horizon.”

? Wish you were here! @NASAInSight sent home its first photo after #MarsLanding:

InSight’s view is a flat, smooth expanse called Elysium Planitia, but its workspace is below the surface, where it will study Mars’ deep interior. pic.twitter.com/3EU70jXQJw

— NASA (@NASA) November 26, 2018

Jason Major posted this image processed to remove the dust

Here's a version of @NASAInSight's first #Mars image edited to remove the distracting debris from the lens cover and some barrel distortion. For aesthetic enjoyment only (and until we see a new version from the lander!) #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/Kdf9yxwPvX

— Jason Major (@JPMajor) November 26, 2018

Image from a camera on the lander’s robotic arm

There’s a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home. #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/mfClzsfJJr

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) November 27, 2018

The two MarCO CubeSat attendants preformed perfectly; you can expect to see more spacecraft like them in the future.

We'll always have #Mars.

After relaying live communications for @NASAInSight as it landed, the tiny #MARCO B cubesat sent back this farewell image of the planet. #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/EQzrLX8fsv

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) November 26, 2018

OSIRIS-REx

It now takes nearly 14 minutes round-trip for me to communicate with my team back on Earth. ? ↔️ ? My light time will increase as I approach #asteroid Bennu and will be more than 20 minutes during sample collection.

More on my progress: https://t.co/rACre4nDe4 pic.twitter.com/woYc8BmC38

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) November 26, 2018

Exoplanet
(No change from last week)

All Exoplanets 3838
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2344
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2327
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2426
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 377
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 355
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 473
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 1

-Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive


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.


2018 is NASA’s 60th Anniversary!
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More Posts in this Series:
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78  |  What Do We Lose When We Sacrifice Science?

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

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122  |  In the Sky This Week – November 6, 2018

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124  |  In the Sky This Week – November 20, 2018

By Robert Trembley  |  20 Nov 2018

125  |  In the Sky This Week – June 22, 2017

By Robert Trembley  |  21 Jun 2017

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