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In the Sky This Week – October 13, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  13 Oct 2020

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This entry is part 169 of 248 in the series In the Sky This Week

Conjunction

Venus appears in the eastern predawn sky all week; the waning crescent Moon appears near Venus on the mornings of Oct. 13th and 14th.

Saturn and Jupiter appear in the southern sky after sunset.

Conjunction Saturn and Jupiter appear in the southern sky after sunset, and set in the southwest around midnight. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mars is at opposition – when it and the Earth are in-line with the Sun; this is also when Mars is closest to the Earth in their orbits, so now is a great time to go observe Mars!

Eastern sky after sunset Mars appears in the eastern sky after sunset, is high in the southeastern sky at midnight, and sets in the west with the sunrise. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Here’s a close-up of the Mars opposition:

Opposition Mars Opposition on 2020-10-13. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

The Moon is a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise.

The new Moon occurs on Oct. 16th – the Moon will not be visible at this time… unless it get’s smacked by an asteroid…

The Moon returns to the southwestern sky at dusk as a waxing crescent by early next week.

Moon The Moon from 2020-10-13 – 2020-10-19. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you click the image on that page, you will download a high-rez TIF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your observations!

Moon Annotated close-up of a section of the Moon on Oct. 14th. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Moon News

BIG NEWS: #NASA and #JAXA to send Planetary Society-supported sample technology to the Moon and Phobos!

PlanetVac, developed by Honeybee Robotics, is designed to be a reliable, flexible, low-cost sample collection technology.

Full story at https://t.co/hzrDzOiXk5 pic.twitter.com/O6im3X2iAz

— Planetary Society (@exploreplanets) October 12, 2020

The Sun has a spot! AR2775 was indicated on SpaceWeather.com, but I could not see it even in the 4K hi-rez image – you can see where it is in the video below, it’s in the lower right, with a lot of coronal loop activity. Large coronal holes are open at both poles.

The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) October 12, 2020:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/10/12/20201012_1024_0193.mp4

Prominences galore… again! Lots of  activity over the last several days!

The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) October 12, 2020:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/dailymov/2020/10/12/20201012_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.

Solar Activity on Facebook – Run by Volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Pamela Shivak

The SOLARACTIVITY PICTURE OF THE DAY for October 13th, 2020 is this full disk image by Rossana Miani.
Equipment details: Skywatcher AZEQ5, ASI 174MM, SolarMax II 60mm, Barlow2x.

Solar Corona

Solar wind speed is 292.8 km/sec (↓), with a density of 15.7 protons/cm3 (↑↑) at 1204 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

Sun News

This SUNday, explore how observations of our own star, the Sun, can help us recognize stellar activity on distant stars — and understand whether they might host planets with conditions for life. https://t.co/eciKII3d1f pic.twitter.com/PVA2meyv1a

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) October 11, 2020

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 78, this year: 2160, all time: 24,009  (+77)
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2037  (last updated  June 2, 2020)
Total Minor Planets
discovered: 995,755  (+377)

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Velocity (km/s)
Diameter (m)
2020 TA3
2020-Oct-13
13.2 LD
6.4
18
2018 GD2
2020-Oct-13
16.4 LD
6.7
5
2020 TD
2020-Oct-14
18.9 LD
14.4
47
2020 TO2
2020-Oct-14
3.2 LD
12.8
18
2020 TU2
2020-Oct-14
16.5 LD
13.5
55
2020 RM6
2020-Oct-15
13 LD
7.7
37
2020 TE2
2020-Oct-16
6.4 LD
5.8
19
2020 TG
2020-Oct-17
16.7 LD
5.8
26
2020 TJ2
2020-Oct-19
5.3 LD
14.6
29
2017 UH5
2020-Oct-20
8.9 LD
5.9
18
2020 TC3
2020-Oct-20
13.4 LD
12.2
34
2020 SG3
2020-Oct-20
19.5 LD
5.3
37
2018 VG
2020-Oct-21
15.1 LD
6.7
12
2020 TX1
2020-Oct-22
16.1 LD
8
23
2020 TG1
2020-Oct-22
18.4 LD
13.7
63
2017 TK6
2020-Oct-24
17.3 LD
12.4
41
2008 GM2
2020-Oct-25
17.7 LD
3.6
8
2020 QD5
2020-Oct-26
10.1 LD
8.6
80
2020 TQ2
2020-Oct-27
16.3 LD
5.2
26
2020 OK5
2020-Oct-29
6.4 LD
1.3
28
2020 TR2
2020-Oct-29
8.9 LD
14.5
54
2018 VP1
2020-Nov-02
1.1 LD
9.7
2
2020 HF4
2020-Nov-03
16.2 LD
2.9
11
2010 JL88
2020-Nov-05
10.5 LD
15.7
16
2020 TY1
2020-Nov-07
14.9 LD
13.2
106
2019 XS
2020-Nov-07
15.5 LD
9.4
51
2018 VS4
2020-Nov-09
14.9 LD
10.1
25
2020 ST1
2020-Nov-14
19.1 LD
8.1
154
2019 VL5
2020-Nov-15
8.5 LD
8.2
23
2017 WJ16
2020-Nov-23
5 LD
4.8
49
2018 RQ4
2020-Nov-26
8.1 LD
7.4
15
2020 KZ2
2020-Nov-28
5.7 LD
3.9
10
153201
2020-Nov-29
11.2 LD
25.1
490
2020 SO
2020-Dec-01
0.1 LD
3.9
7
2019 XH2
2020-Dec-02
16.1 LD
6.4
6
2018 PK21
2020-Dec-08
12.2 LD
3.1
23

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

Asteroid News:

What looks like an asteroid that is expected to be pulled into Earth's orbit next month in fact may be an old rocket from a failed 1966 moon-landing mission, NASA’s leading asteroid expert says. The object is not expected to hit Earth. https://t.co/8sbCIFPU3B

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 11, 2020

On October 12, 2020, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 21 fireballs. 
(20 sporadics, 1 Southern Taurid)

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 News: Meteorite Fall in Northeastern Mexico!

CAE METEORITO EN #VICTORIA, #TAMAULIPAS.
Reportan caída de meteorito en Ejido Lázaro Cárdenas en #CdVictoria, como en varias partes del norte del País. pic.twitter.com/AL10tLzCeP

— ¡México Se Entere!? (@MxSeEntere) October 7, 2020

Position of the planets in the inner solar system:

Inner Solar System Position of the planets in the inner solar system, 2020-10-13. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets in the middle solar system:

Middle Solar System Position of the planets, and dwarf planet Ceres in the inner solar system, 2020-10-13. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Position of the planets, some dwarf planets and some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system – the orbit of transneptunian object (TNO) Eris is highlighted.

Outer Solar System Position of the planets and several transneptunian objects in the outer solar system, 2020-10-13. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

 

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission:

Want to know asteroid Bennu better? Take a tour of this small world I've been hanging out with. #ToBennuAndBack pic.twitter.com/1bOipvGmf9

— NASA's OSIRIS-REx (@OSIRISREx) October 12, 2020

International Space Station:

The Soyuz rocket that will launch three Exp 64 crewmates to the station on Wednesday rolled out to its launch pad in Kazakhstan. More… https://t.co/QJNGlCe4vI pic.twitter.com/2UZeNuhOCW

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) October 12, 2020

Three Exp 64 crew will begin a 6-month space research mission on the station on Oct. 14 at 3:54am ET just over 3 hours after launching. https://t.co/qpyi2LM11l pic.twitter.com/kzcA1NIjtd

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) October 11, 2020

Mars HiRISE:

A Chasm in Gale Crater's Interior Mound on Mars. Created with @HiRISE DTM data and artificially colorized imageryhttps://t.co/wVPDvbV8lkhttps://t.co/TLYVIhAFLBhttps://t.co/Tk4c4c9IIR pic.twitter.com/M8oeWaiapH

— Kevin M. Gill (@kevinmgill) October 13, 2020

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

As you enjoy Mars glowing in the eastern sky this evening, just remember that bright, red dot is actually an active world. The HiRISE camera aboard our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has even caught avalanches in progress! More: https://t.co/Er7dUDDa00 pic.twitter.com/XaTeYo6YS7

— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) October 6, 2020

Climate: Having a grandchild changes the way you look at Earth’s future

Did you know that carbon dioxide from human activity is increasing more than 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age?

The evidence for climate change is compelling. Learn more at our updated "Evidence" page. https://t.co/UgU4KgxtMW

— NASA Climate (@NASAClimate) October 8, 2020

Meet some of the people behind the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite. This international effort will help us further understand our changing climate and rising sea levels. https://t.co/JAw2xkCJxB#SeeingTheSeas pic.twitter.com/Jor6pmgmfu

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) October 7, 2020

See a list of current NASA missions here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/?type=current

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

All Exoplanets 4292  (+8)
Confirmed Planets with Kepler Light Curves for Stellar Host 2412
Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler 2392
Kepler Project Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 2368
Confirmed Planets with K2 Light Curves for Stellar Host 443
Confirmed Planets Discovered by K2 422
K2 Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 889
Confirmed Planets Discovered by TESS 79  (+5)
TESS Project Candidates Integrated into Archive (2020-10-12 13:00:02) 2330  (+14)
Current date TESS Project Candidates at ExoFOP 2330  (+9)
TESS Candidates Yet To Be Confirmed 1409 1415  (+6)

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.

#AstroNews The IDA Dark Sky Defender Award awarded to the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach project Globe At Night – Sky Brightness Monitoring Network, a multinational project for long-term monitoring of night sky conditions around the world. https://t.co/ZRRUJLmLOP

— IAU OAO (@IAU_Outreach) November 18, 2018

 

Hubble: Beautiful Universe

?️ Sometimes when we look out into the shadowy depths of the cosmos, we find it looking right back! ? @NASAHubble captured stunning detail in this spine-chilling cat’s eye here: https://t.co/07UuV1bvmu pic.twitter.com/ibTkGdnmNB

— NASA Universe (@NASAUniverse) October 12, 2020

Tour of the Local Stellar Neighborhood

Continuing with my visual tour of nearby stars and their systems, we travel to the Gliese 229 system, about 19 light years distant.

Gliese 229 is about 19 light years from Sol; the plane (green) is aligned with the orientation of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Gliese 229

Gliese 229 (also written as Gl 229 or GJ 229) is a binary system composed of red dwarf and brown dwarf about 19 light years away in the constellation Lepus. Primary component has 58% of the mass of the Sun, 69% of the Sun’s radius, and a very low projected rotation velocity of 1 km/s at the stellar equator.

The star is known to be a low activity flare star, which means it undergoes random increases in luminosity because of magnetic activity at the surface. The spectrum shows emission lines of calcium in the H and K bands. The emission of X-rays has been detected from the corona of this star. These may be caused by magnetic loops interacting with the gas of the star’s outer atmosphere. No large-scale star spot activity has been detected.

The space velocity components of this star are U = +12, V = –11 and W = –12 km/s. The orbit of this star through the Milky Way galaxy has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an orbital inclination of 0.005.

A substellar companion was discovered in 1994 by Caltech astronomers Kulkarni, Tadashi Nakajima, Keith Matthews, and Rebecca Oppenheimer, and Johns Hopkins scientists Sam Durrance and David Golimowski. It was confirmed in 1995 as Gliese 229B, one of the first two instances of clear evidence for a brown dwarf, along with Teide 1. Although too small to sustain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion as in a main sequence star, with a mass of 21 to 52.4 times that of Jupiter (0.02 to 0.05 solar masses), it is still too massive to be a planet. As a brown dwarf, its core temperature is high enough to initiate the fusion of deuterium with a proton to form helium-3, but it is thought that it used up all its deuterium fuel long ago. This object now has a surface temperature of 950 K.

In March 2014, a super-Neptune mass planet candidate was announced in a much closer-in orbit around GJ 229. Given the proximity to the Sun, the orbit of GJ 229Ab might be fully characterized by the Gaia space-astrometry mission or via direct imaging. In 2020, a super-Earth mass planet was discovered around GJ 229. It orbits the star closer in than GJ 229Ab, and is located in the star’s habitable zone.  – Wikipedia

Orbit of Red Dwarf Gliese 229 A

This is a REALLY unusual system! When I was composing the images below, I centered on the exoplanet, and time-accelerated until the companion brown dwarf was in the frame with the band of the Milky Way; because the brown dwarf orbits so far away from the red dwarf, it does not move very fast across the sky. BUT! Because of the high inclination of the exoplanet, the brown dwarf appears to loop up and down! Very strange!

Gliese 229 Orbit of Exoplanet Gliese 229 A b (red) around Red Dwarf Gliese 229 A, and orbit of Gliese 229 A (green) around the Gliese 229 Barycenter. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Orbit of Brown Dwarf Gliese 229 B

Gliese 229 Orbit of Brown Dwarf Gliese 229 B around Gliese 229 Barycenter. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Artist’s Rendering of a Neptune-like Exoplanet Orbiting Red Dwarf Gliese 229 A

Gliese 229 Artistic rendering of Exoplanet Gliese 229 A b – Brown Dwarf Gliese 229 B is in the distance to the right. Credit: SpaceEngine / Bob Trembley.

Artist’s Rendering of Brown Dwarf Gliese 229 B

Gliese 229 Artistic rendering of Brown Dwarf Gliese 229 B – Red Dwarf Gliese 229 A is in the distance to the left. Credit: 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?

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

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168  |  In the Sky This Week – October 6, 2020

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170  |  In the Sky This Week – October 20, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  20 Oct 2020

171  |  In the Sky This Week – October 27, 2020

By Robert Trembley  |  27 Oct 2020

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