This will be a thread where we can post interesting articles about our planet and whatever is "out there" in our skies and in space.
Fallstreak hole: Rare cloud formation pictured in the East - BBC News
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This will be a thread where we can post interesting articles about our planet and whatever is "out there" in our skies and in space.
Fallstreak hole: Rare cloud formation pictured in the East - BBC News
Like other satellites, BlueWalker 3 leaves a visible trail in time exposure images. Here, you see the satellites trail over the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. This satellite has now been shown to outshine 99% of all stars. Image via KPNO/ NOIRLab/ IAU/ SKAO/ NSF/ AURA/ R. Sparks.
Don't miss the bright waning gibbous moon glowing near Jupiter late tonight and tomorrow night. Jupiter is bright! It's the brightest starlike object in the evening sky. The lovely and delicate Pleiades star cluster - aka the 7 Sisters - will be nearby. The moon will rise tonight after all traces of twilight have left the evening sky. Afterwards, the moon, the planet and the Sisters will travel across the sky together until dawn. For more sky events, visit EarthSky's night sky guide.
The crest of the moon's full phase was early this morning in the Americas. And - for everyone across the Northern Hemisphere - the moon will rise shortly after sunset tonight. For the Southern Hemisphere, the moon will rise a longer time after sunset. From all of Earth, watch for bright Jupiter near tonight's moon. Read about 2023's super Harvest Moon.
No matter where you are on Earth, you can see tonight's full moon between 2 planets: Jupiter and Saturn. This is the full moon closest to the equinox. In North America, we call it the Harvest Moon. For all of us, it'll be the last of 4 full supermoons in a row in 2023. Chart via Stellarium.org. Used with permission.
Do you sleep less before a full moon?
The full Harvest Moon is coming up tomorrow night. And we know there are lots of superstitions about full moons. Scientists have debunked many, while others are still under study. But here's one that appears to be true: people do sleep less before a full moon. Read and watch a video.
There's a sample of an asteroid in the black container seen here. It just arrived home from space! The asteroid sample had a smooth descent and landing in the Utah desert on Sunday. It'll ultimately be divided up, with portions going to scientists around the world. Image via X/ NASA HQ Photo.
Artist's concept of the capsule containing bits of an asteroid - collected in the years-long OSIRIS-REx mission - currently streaking toward an Earth impact today. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample of asteroid Bennu in 2020. And today’s the day when the sample will land back on Earth, to be studied by scientists. Image via NASA. The NASA livestream coverage starts soon. Watch the livestream here.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | José Zarcos Palma in Portugal, created this composite from images captured on Tuesday. José wrote: “I planned to record the rise of Venus on its brightest morning of the year … You can also see the trail of the Chinese Space Station (Tiangong), which appears in the constellation Gemini, at the top of the frame. In the upper right corner, rising behind the ruins of an old cupric pyrite processing unit, is Orion.” Thank you, José! See more of the best photos of the week in this video.
Tomorrow's equinox ... All you need to know
The equinox is almost here! Autumn for the Northern Hemisphere. Spring for the Southern Hemisphere. The September equinox will fall overnight tonight in the Americas (1:50 a.m. CDT), at 6:50 UTC on September 23. Read - and watch a video - about tomorrow's equinox.
This image shows Shackleton crater, near the moon's south pole. NASA released the image on Tuesday. Nearby, permanently shadowed regions of the moon might contain water ice, a possible useful water source for future humans on the moon. But now a new study is suggesting there is less water ice on the moon than previously thought. Read more.
Tonight's thick waxing crescent moon will pass the bright red star Antares, the heart of the Scorpion in the constellation Scorpius. The moon will pass in front of, or occult, Antares around around 3 a.m. CDT (8 UTC) tomorrow morning, as seen from these locations: Japan, eastern Russia, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. Details on the occultation here. For more sky events, visit EarthSky's night sky guide.
Giant cosmic bug? No. It's one of the new images from Chandra X-ray Observatory, showing the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. This image is 1 of 5 new releases from Chandra. They're made from data gathered in X-rays, infrared, and radio, all types of "light" we can't see with our human eyes. This composite image is via NASA/ CXC/ SAO/ JPL-Caltech/ MSFC/ STScI/ ESA/ CSA/ SDSS/ ESO. See the rest of the images here.
Tonight might be one of your last chances to see Mars this year. Shortly after sunset, the thin waxing crescent moon will lie near the horizon in bright twilight. Mars will lie very close to the moon, and the star Spica will also be nearby, but on the opposite side of the moon. They'll be low in the sky and challenging to see in the bright twilight. So you'll need an unobstructed western horizon after sunset. And binoculars might help you spot them. Watch for earthshine on the unlit side of the moon. For more sky events, visit EarthSky's night sky guide.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Venus is now just days away from its September 19 greatest brilliancy. It's visible from around the globe. And - although it's fainter - you can find Mercury now, too, nearing its September 22 greatest elongation. This wonderful image is from Jean-Baptiste Feldmann in Gleizé, France. Thank you, Jean-Baptiste! Venus is wonderful to see! Mercury is more of a challenge, but worth it if you're in the Northern Hemisphere … and if you have a clear eastern sky before sunup. See the chart below. Watch a video. And visit EarthSky's night sky guide.
Left, the planets orbiting our sun (the largest ball, in yellow), plus the primary Kuiper Belt - a doughnut-shaped realm of small icy bodies - at a distance of 30-50 Earth-sun distances (30-50 AU). Right, a cutaway view of the Oort Cloud - really, a giant sphere of comets - between about 2,000 and 100,000 AU from our sun. Somewhere in the space between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort cloud, an undiscovered Earthlike planet might reside. Image via ESA. Read about the possible new planet.
Don't miss this early morning sky scene! Tomorrow and Tuesday mornings, the waning crescent moon will be sweeping past bright and unmistakable Venus. If your sky is dark, you can also see the Beehive star cluster above Venus. Watch for earthshine on the unlit portion of the moon. It’s light bounced from the nearly full Earth visible now in the lunar sky. For more night sky events, visit EarthSky's night sky guide.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Samir Patel in Portland, Maine, captured this beauty. It's morning twilight, from last Saturday. Thank you, Samir! This fabulous twilight scene was one of the best photos we received this week at EarthSky Community Photos. Watch this video for a roundup of some of this week's favorite community photos.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona, captured this image of comet Nishimura on Wednesday. Eliot said: “The tail of 2023 P1 (Nishimura) is one of the most remarkable I have seen or imaged. The solar wind and coronal mass ejections are producing discontinuities in the tail.” Thank you, Eliot, for these mind-blowing images! See more great images in our comet photo gallery here, and read how you can see the comet, too!
Where are our Earth and Milky Way galaxy in this illustration of the billion-light-years-wide bubble of galaxies, just discovered by astronomers in Hawaii? Notice the Milky Way at the bottom of the green area called Laniakea, which is a supercluster of galaxies, home to our Milky Way and approximately 100,000 other nearby galaxies. And the new bubble? The even-bigger enclosed bubble is on the left in this illustration. Individual galaxies are depicted as tiny, luminous specks. Image via Frédéric Durillon, Animea Studio/ Daniel Pomarède, IRFU, CEA University Paris-Saclay/ University of Hawaii.
The 6 red dots in these images are 6 galaxies in the early universe, seen by NASA's Webb telescope. Weirdly, they look old. But they're seen at a time when the universe was young. Scientists call them Webb's "impossible early galaxy" observation. As 2 scientists wrote recently: "The finding is akin to parents and their children appearing in a story when the grandparents are still children themselves." Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ I. Labbe. Is it one of the signs we need a new cosmology?