Category: Weekly Update

Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 12/20/2020

Next week’s night sky: The December full moon, traditionally known as the Oak Moon, Cold Moon, and Long Nights Moon, always shines in or near the stars of Gemini. Since it’s opposite the sun on this day of the lunar month, the moon is fully illuminated and rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. Full moons during the winter months reach as high in the sky as the summer noonday sun, and cast similar shadows. This is a great time to get a good look at the […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 12/13/2020

Next week’s night sky: Tomorrow, one of the most interesting and rare astronomy events happens! Jupiter and Saturn will be closer together than they ever have been since 1683. This event will not happen again until 2080!. Tomorrow, look towards the southwestern sky just after sunset. You should see a huge dot, brighter than any star in the sky. It should even be visible through clouds to the naked eye! With binoculars, you should be able to see the individual planets, Jupiter being the larger one.  The […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 12/6/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Monday, December 14, the Geminids meteor shower peaks! This is usually the most spectacular meteor shower in December. Meteor rates can reach up to 120 meteors an hour! Combined with the new moon, this shower should be a terrific finishing point for the astronomy of 2020. Two young planetary systems Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have discovered two new young planetary systems. They found that two stars not older than 320 million years, namely TOI-251 and TOI-942, are orbited […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 11/29/2020

Next week’s night sky: Tuesday is the last quarter moon. This is a great time to focus on the terminator to see minuscule detail in the surface of the moon. The terminator is the line that divides light from dark. On Monday, December 14, the Geminids meteor shower peaks! This is usually the most spectacular meteor shower in December. Meteor rates can reach up to 120 meteors an hour! Combined with the new moon, this whoer should be a terrific finishing point for the astronomy of 2020. […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 11/22/2020

Next week’s night sky: Monday marks the beaver moon, the last full moon of November. This beaver moon will be particularly special, as the moon will also undergo a penumbral eclipse! Although the difference may not be apparent at first, careful study of the moon will reveal that part of the moon is darker than the other. This is because the moon will actually be passing through Earth’s shadow! If you get up early in the morning of Friday (around 3 hours before sunrise), you can find […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 11/15/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Thursday, the golden handle appears on the moon. The “Golden Handle” effect is produced by the way the slanted sunlight lights up the prominent mountains of the moon. Best seen through some sort of magnification, the golden handle will appear as a small line trailing from the light side of the moon to the dark side. How do we detect invisible dark matter? Dark matter neither absorbs nor gives off light, which is why astronomers have named it dark. But because dark […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 11/8/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Monday the 16th, the Leonids Meteor shower peaks! The shower’s peak will occur at 6 PM, and will reach up to 20 meteors per hour!Also, the moon will be just a faint sliver, leaving the sky nicely dark for the meteors. Saturday the 21st is the first quarter moon. Observe the terminator (the line separating dark and light) to find details on the surface of the moon! Smoother Dark matter Analysis of a giant new galaxy survey by VLT suggests that dark […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 11/1/2020

Next week’s night sky: On Thursday, the Northern Taurids meteor shower peaks! Look at the sky just after midnight to catch a glimpse of up to 15 meteorites per hour! Sunday is the new moon. This is a great time to stargaze, as the moon will not block any of the dimmer stars. If you have a telescope, consider looking at mars on Sunday. It will stay in almost the same place the whole night, making it easy to find! Mountains on Mars How did Olympus Mons […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 10/25/2020

Next week’s night sky: On November 5, the Southern Taurids Meteor Shower peaks just after midnight! Stay up that late and you will be rewarded with almost 10 colorful meteors an hour! On Saturday, November 7, the moon will not rise for a few hours after sunset. This is a great time for some casual stargazing, as the moon will not ruin the view. Water on the Moon NASA’s flying Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has detected water molecules on the surface of the moon! Researchers […]

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Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 10/18/2020

Next week’s night sky: This week, Mars will be extraordinarily easy to stop. From October 28-30, about an hour after sunset, simply locate the moon. The reddish dot above it will be Mars! Halloween is a full moon! This is the perfect time to look at the moon for a great socially distanced holiday. Are non-spherical planets possible? Some of the planetary systems researchers have found experience extreme conditions. These large, gassy planets orbiting very close to their stars are called hot Jupiters. One of these hot […]

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