It will appear to be its biggest and brightest compared to any other day this year.
They’re kind of like Earth’s auroras but even more intense.
Good morning, space fans. I know it’s been awhile since we posted a Look Up column (every winter, space takes a backseat to photography, as you know), but we have a few good bits for you today. Read on for once-in-a-lifetime launch viewing opportunities, how the Japan earthquake permanently altered the Earth, and some debunked space myths.
Look up to see an incredibly bright Jupiter this month. Tonight, in fact, the gaseous planet and Earth are closer than they will be for another 12 years.
Photo of Comet McNaught in 2007 by Peter Baker (via Creative Commons). The news is all about the planets this week. For fiery flashes on Jupiter, Mars and Venus aligning with stars, nearby comets, and possible alien life in our solar system, keep on reading. >> If you think NASA and professional astronomers are the only ones to make spectacular discoveries, just take a look at Jupiter. Amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley in Australia and…
Image courtesy NASA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory The Earth travels around the Sun at a brisk 18 miles per second. At the same time, the Sun, dragging the solar system with it, orbits around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at around 155 miles per second. The Milky Way orbits within our Local Group, which is being pulled by the gravity of the massive Virgo Cluster. And finally, we move relative to the…
Image of Atlantis the day before lift-off earlier this year; Tuesday’s launch will be of Space Shuttle Discovery. Photo by Heather Goss. It’s a regular week of summer nights coming up. No meteor showers or amazing celestial events mark the calendar, but with the waxing Moon and (hopefully) some clear nights, it should be a great time to put on some bug spray and check out the regulars — start with the Summer Triangle…
Photo by maxedaperture. That tiny dot on the very lower right is Jupiter. Click over to Flickr to see it better. Did you look up last Wednesday and Thursday to see two of the brightest objects in the sky — the Moon and Jupiter — trek ever so close to each other? It’s tough to say that maxedaperture’s photo above doesn’t really do it justice (because it sure as hell does the Moon itself…
We mentioned last week that the two brightest planets in our sky would soon converge together with the crescent Moon in the early evening, making their final swoop towards each other tonight. Flickr user (and our reliable astro-photographer) philliefan99 took this image on Saturday night, when they were still fairly far apart, but knowing the rain would make it tough to photograph on Sunday. We’re looking at partly to very cloudy skies tonight, but…
