Science
The ‘Blue Moon’ Won’t Be The Only Rare Sight In The Night Sky This Week
August began with a dazzling supermoon and will close with another, lighting up the night sky this week. With its rings, Saturn will also make its closest and brightest appearance of the year near the moon.
According to NASA, the full moon will peak at 9:36 p.m. ET on August 30 but will be visible until Friday morning.
The dazzling glow of Saturn will appear roughly 5 degrees to the upper right of the moon towards the end of evening twilight on Wednesday, about 8:42 p.m. ET. According to NASA, Saturn will appear to rotate clockwise around the moon during the evening. According to EarthSky, the two will look to be approximately the breadth of four full moons apart at their closest.
Saturn reached opposition on August 27, when Earth passed between it and the sun, indicating that the ringed planet is at its closest point in its orbit to Earth and, hence, visible in our night sky.
According to EarthSky, both of the full moons in August are supermoons. Supermoon definitions vary, but the word commonly refers to a full moon closer to Earth than usual and, hence, appears larger and brighter in the night sky. The moon will be 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) from Earth, roughly 18,000 miles (28,968 kilometers) closer than it is now.
According to some astronomers, the phenomenon occurs when the moon is within 90% of perigee, its closest orbital approach to Earth.
The supermoon could impact Hurricane Idalia, which is expected to make landfall Wednesday morning, by increasing tides and intensifying storm surge. Because of the proximity of this supermoon to Earth, its gravity will have a greater impact on the oceans.
According to National Hurricane Centre Deputy Director Jamie Rhome, it could raise high tide by almost a foot.
According to NASA, the second full moon in a month is known as a blue moon, as in the expression “once in a blue moon.” However, don’t expect it to turn blue.
Full moons typically occur every 29 days; however, most months in our calendar last 30 or 31 days. Therefore, the months and moon phases do not always coincide. This results in a blue moon every 2.5 years, with the most recent occurring in August 2021.
The second full moon in August also coincides with the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan, which honors the relationships between brothers and sisters.
Supermoons and full moons
On September 29, 2023, the fourth and final supermoon will rise.
According to the Farmer’s Almanack, the following full moons will occur in 2023:
Harvest moon on September 29
28th of October: Hunter’s moon
Beaver moon on November 27
December 26: Full moon
Solar and lunar eclipses
An annular solar eclipse will be visible across North, Central, and South America. The moon will pass between the sun and Earth at or near its farthest point from Earth during the solar eclipse. The moon will be smaller than the sun, surrounded by a dazzling halo.
Viewers should wear eclipse glasses to protect their eyes while viewing the phenomena.
On October 28, there will also be a partial moon eclipse. Because the sun, Earth, and moon are not perfectly aligned, just a portion of the moon will be in shadow. Parts of Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and much of South Africa will be able to see this partial eclipse.
Showers of meteors
Each of the remaining meteor showers projected to peak this year will be most visible in regions without light pollution from late evening to morning. The following are the peak dates for the events:
Orionids: 20-21 October
Southern Taurids: November 4th and 5th
Northern Taurids: 11-12 November
Leonids: November 17th and 18th
December 13-14, Geminids
Ursids: December 21st and 22nd
SOURCE – (CNN)
Science
A Spacecraft Is On Its Way To A Harmless Asteroid Slammed By NASA In A Previous Save-The-Earth Test
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – A spacecraft launched Monday to probe the site of a cosmic accident.
The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft launched on a two-year trip to the little, harmless asteroid slammed by NASA two years ago as a practice run for the day when a murderous space rock threatens Earth. It’s the second phase of a planetary defense experiment that could one day save the globe.
SpaceX’s Falcon rocket vanished with Hera into the late morning clouds. An hour later, cheering erupted in the control center in Germany as the spacecraft split from the rocket’s upper stage and returned home. “It’s an amazing day,” the space agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, said later.
The 2022 crash of NASA’s Dart spacecraft reduced Dimorphos’ orbit around its larger companion, indicating that if a harmful rock was heading our way, it might be pushed off course with adequate warning.
nasa
A Spacecraft Is On Its Way To A Harmless Asteroid Slammed By NASA In A Previous Save-The-Earth Test
Scientists are eager to analyze the aftermath of the impact up close to determine how effective Dart was and what improvements may be required to protect Earth in the future.
“The more detail we can glean the better as it may be important for planning a future deflection mission should one be needed,” University of Maryland astronomer Derek Richardson stated before launch.
Researchers want to know if Dart (short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test) created a crater or changed the 500-foot (150-meter) asteroid more dramatically. It seemed to be a flying saucer before Dart’s blow and may now resemble a kidney bean, according to Richardson, who participated in the Dart mission and is assisting Hera.
Dart’s wallop sent rubble and boulders hurtling off Dimorphos, adding to the impact’s momentum. For months, the debris track extended thousands of miles (almost 10,000 kilometers) into space.
According to flight director Ignacio Tanco, some rocks and debris may still be hovering about the asteroid, posing a threat to Hera.
A Spacecraft Is On Its Way To A Harmless Asteroid Slammed By NASA In A Previous Save-The-Earth Test
“We don’t really know very well the environment in which we are going to operate,” Tanco informed me. “But that’s the whole point of the mission is to go there and find out.”
European authorities refer to the $400 million (363 million euros) effort as a “crash scene investigation.”
“Hera is going back to the crime scene and getting all the scientific and technical information,” said project manager Ian Carnelli.
Carrying a dozen science instruments, the compact car-sized Hera must swing past Mars in 2025 for a gravitational boost before landing at Dimorphos by the end of 2026. It’s a moonlet of Didymos, the Greek word for twin, a five-times larger asteroid that spins quickly. At that point, the asteroids will be 120 million miles (195 million kilometers) from Earth.
Hera will attempt to enter orbit around the rocky duo, progressively reducing flyby distances from 18 miles (30 kilometers) to a half-mile (1 kilometer). The spacecraft will examine the moonlet for at least six months to determine its mass, shape, composition, and orbit around Didymos.
Before the crash, Dimorphos circled its larger partner from three-quarters of a mile (1,189 meters) away. Scientists believe the orbit has become tighter and more oval-shaped, and that the moonlet may be tumbling.
Two shoebox-sized Cubesats will launch from Hera for even closer drone-like examinations, with one employing radar to peek beneath the moonlet’s boulder-strewn surface. Scientists believe Dimorphos was produced from particles shed by Didymos. The radar measurements should assist in determining whether Didymos is the small moon’s parent.
A Spacecraft Is On Its Way To A Harmless Asteroid Slammed By NASA In A Previous Save-The-Earth Test
After their survey, the CubeSats will attempt to land on the moonlet. If the moonlet tumbles, the situation will become more complicated. Hera may potentially conclude its mission with a perilous touchdown but on the bigger Didymos.
Asteroids, which are remnants of the solar system’s origin 4.6 billion years ago, circle the sun principally between Mars and Jupiter in what is known as the main asteroid belt, where millions of them live. When they fall from the belt and land in our area, they become near-Earth objects.
NASA now has around 36,000 near-Earth objects, the majority of which are asteroids, although there are also some comets. More than 2,400 of them are deemed potentially dangerous to the Earth.
SOURCE | AP
NEW YORK — Prepare to spot a rare and dazzling comet.
The space rock is hurling toward Earth from the far reaches of the solar system and will make its closest approach on Saturday. It should be visible through the end of October, assuming clear skies.
A Rare Comet Brightens The Night Skies In October
Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas should be visible to the naked eye, but binoculars and telescopes will provide a clearer view.
“It’ll be this fuzzy circle with a long tail stretching away from it,” explained Sally Brummel, planetarium manager at the Bell Museum in Minnesota.
What is a comet?
They are frozen remains from billions of years ago when the solar system was formed. They heat up as they swing toward the sun, revealing their distinctive streaming tails.
In 2023, a green one that had last visited Earth 50,000 years ago flew past again. Other significant flybys were Neowise in 2020 and Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the mid to late 1990s.
Where did Tsuchinshan-Atlas come from?
Also known as C/2023 A3, was found last year and named after the observatories in China and South Africa that spotted it.
It originated in the Oort Cloud, which extends far beyond Pluto. After making its closest approach to Earth at 44 million miles (71 million kilometers), it will not return for another 80,000 years, provided it survives the journey.
A Rare Comet Brightens The Night Skies In October
Every year, several comets are detected, but many of them burn up near the sun or are too far away to be observed without special equipment, according to Larry Denneau, a key researcher with the Atlas telescope that helped discover it.
How to View
Those seeking to see Tsuchinshan-Atlas should go outside about an hour after sunset on a clear night and look to the west.
The comet should be visible from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
SOURCE | AP
NEW YORK — To save power, NASA turned off another scientific equipment on its long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft.
NASA Switches Off Instrument On the Spacecraft To Save Power
The space agency announced on Tuesday that 2’s plasma science instrument, meant to study the movement of charged atoms, was turned off in late September to allow the spacecraft to continue exploring for as long as possible, which is estimated to be into the 2030s.
NASA turned off a suite of instruments on Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, after exploring the gas giant planets in the 1980s. Both are currently in interstellar space or the region between stars. The plasma instrument on Voyager 1 stopped working years ago and was finally shut off in 2007.
The remaining four instruments on 2 will continue to collect data on magnetic fields and particles. Its mission is to investigate the regions of space beyond the sun’s protective sphere.
NASA Switches Off Instrument On Voyager 2 Spacecraft To Save Power
It launched in 1977, is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. It is now more than 12 billion miles (19.31 billion kilometers) from Earth. 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) beyond Earth.
SOURCE | AP
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