Category Archives: Astronomy

Night sky highlights for November 2024

Check out the night sky this month, November 2024. Here are videos and a list of websites highlighting the top sights to observe.

** What’s Up: November 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA – NASA JPL

What are some skywatching highlights in November 2024?

This month, catch planetary views of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, witness a close pass of the Parker Solar Probe by Venus, and get ready for an occultation of the bright star Spica by the Moon.

0:00 Intro
0:20 November planet highlights
1:38 Venus & Parker Solar Probe’s flyby
3:03 Occultation of Spica
4:25 October photo highlights
4:38 November Moon phases

Additional information about topics covered in this episode of What’s Up, along with still images from the video, and the video transcript, are available at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/skywatch….

** Comet A3, meteor showers and Solar System moons. What’s in the night sky, November 2024BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel reveal what’s in the night sky in November 2024, including where Comet C/2023 A3 will be, this month’s meteor showers and transits of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons.

00:00 Intro
00:15 Inner Solar System
03:20 Outer Solar System
10:16 Galilean Moons
12:18 Saturn’s moons
12:58 Face in Albategnius, Eyes of Clavius
13:58 Jupiter and 11th mag star
15:28 Northern Taurid meteor shower
16:05 Star Tipped Mountain and perigee full Moon
17:50 Leonid meteor shower
17:26 Titan shadow transit
18:46 Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
20:28 Deep sky

** Sky & Telescope’s Sky Tour Podcast – November 2024 | Meteor Showers, the Moon, and Mars – Sky & Telescope Youtube

Our monthly Sky Tour #astronomy #podcast provides an informative and entertaining 10-minute guided tour of the #night #sky. Join us for the November 2024 episode and get in sync with the #Moon’s phases, watch the #sky for all five bright #planets (#jupiter, #venus, #mars, #mercury, #saturn), get the lowdown on a #celestial queen, and get ready for three #meteorshower viewings.

Listen and subscribe to this podcast at https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/ and don’t forget to subscribe to S&T’s YouTube channel to get alerts about new videos, including this monthly podcast

Learn more about #observing and #stargazing on our website, https://skyandtelescope.org/ and subscribe to our monthly magazine at https://skyandtelescope.org/subscribe.

This video is sponsored by Celestron – https://www.celestron.com/.

See also

** What’s in the Night Sky: November 2024 – National Space Centre

What’s in the Night Sky: November 2024

Saturn’s moon Titan
Mars and the Beehive Cluster
Lacus Mortis
✨ Constellation of the Month: Cetus
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, looking at the night sky with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope, check out our Tour of the Night Sky to find out what you can see this month.
#WINS #Astronomy
#WhatsInTheNightSky

** What’s in the Sky this Month | November 2024High Point Scientific on Youtube

In this episode of What’s in the Sky this Month, Teagan reviews some of the beautiful celestial objects you can see in November 2024!

Read the full November 2024 Newsletter: https://www.highpointscientific.com/a…

Looking to expand your astronomy knowledge even further? The Astronomy Hub is the place to learn everything from what’s in the sky this month, to what gear can help you capture the best celestial images. Learn more here ➡️ https://www.highpointscientific.com/a…

Follow us on Instagram / highpointscientific
Follow us on Facebook / highpointscientific
Sign up for our email newsletter https://www.highpointscientific.com/c…

#highpointscientific #astronomy #november

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
00:38 – Andromeda Galaxy
01:27 – The Double Cluster
02:15 – Mesarthim
02:42 – The Little Dumbbell
03:27 – Nearest Neighbors
04:45 – Uranus at Opposition
05:36 – Conclusion

** Night Sky Notebook November 2024Peter Detterline

What’s happening in the sky for the month of November 2024.

** See also:

The phases of the Moon for November 2024. Credits: NASA

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Stellaris: People of the Stars

ESO: VLT telescope captures a dark wolf in the sky

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

New ESO image captures a dark wolf in the sky

Fittingly nicknamed the Dark Wolf Nebula, this cosmic cloud was captured in a 283-million-pixel image by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Located around 5300 light-years from Earth, the cold clouds of cosmic dust create the illusion of a wolf-like silhouette against a colourful backdrop of glowing gas clouds.

For Halloween, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) reveals this spooktacular image of a dark nebula that creates the illusion of a wolf-like silhouette against a colourful cosmic backdrop. Fittingly nicknamed the Dark Wolf Nebula, it was captured in a 283-million-pixel image by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Found in the constellation Scorpius, near the centre of the Milky Way on the sky, the Dark Wolf Nebula is located around 5300 light-years from Earth. This image takes up an area in the sky equivalent to four full Moons, but is actually part of an even larger nebula called Gum 55. If you look closely, the wolf could even be a werewolf, its hands ready to grab unsuspecting bystanders…

If you thought that darkness equals emptiness, think again. Dark nebulae are cold clouds of cosmic dust, so dense that they obscure the light of stars and other objects behind them. As their name suggests, they do not emit visible light, unlike other nebulae. Dust grains within them absorb visible light and only let through radiation at longer wavelengths, like infrared light. Astronomers study these clouds of frozen dust because they often contain new stars in the making.

Of course, tracing the wolf’s ghost-like presence in the sky is only possible because it contrasts with a bright background. This image shows in spectacular detail how the dark wolf stands out against the glowing star-forming clouds behind it. The colourful clouds are built up mostly of hydrogen gas and glow in reddish tones excited by the intense UV radiation from the newborn stars within them.

Some dark nebulae, like the Coalsack Nebula, can be seen with the naked eye –– and play a key role in how First Nations interpret the sky [1] –– but not the Dark Wolf. This image was created using data from the VLT Survey Telescope, which is owned by the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy (INAF) and is hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The telescope is equipped with a specially designed camera to map the southern sky in visible light.

The picture was compiled from images taken at different times, each one with a filter letting in a different colour of light. They were all captured during the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+), which has studied some 500 million objects in our Milky Way. Surveys like this help scientists to better understand the life cycle of stars within our home galaxy, and the obtained data are made publicly available through the ESO science portal. Explore this treasure trove of data yourself: who knows what other eerie shapes you will uncover in the dark?

Notes

[1] The Mapuche people of south-central Chile refer to the Coalsack Nebula as ‘pozoko’ (water well), and the Incas called it ‘yutu’ (a partridge-like bird).

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When the Heavens Went on Sale:
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Night sky highlights for October 2024

Check out the night sky this month, October 2024. Here are videos highlighting the top sights to observe.

** What’s Up: October 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA – NASA JPL

What are some skywatching highlights in October 2024?

A potentially bright comet (C/2023 A3) to look for after mid-month, good opportunities to spy the ocean world NASA’s launching to, and the monthly dance of four planets with the Moon.

0:00 Intro
0:21 October planet visibility
0:59 Viewing Europa
2:10 Moon & planet pairings
2:38 Comet C/2023 A3
3:58 September photo highlights
4:12 October Moon phases

Additional information about topics covered in this episode of What’s Up, along with still images from the video, and the video transcript, are available at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/skywatch….

** Tonight’s Sky: October 2024 – Space Telescope Science InstituteTonight’s Sky

Crisp, clear October nights are full of celestial showpieces. Find Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek myth, to pinpoint dense globular star clusters and galaxies, and keep watching for space-based views of M15, NGC 7331, and the Andromeda Galaxy.

About this Series … “Tonight’s Sky” is a monthly video of constellations you can observe in the night sky. The series is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning. This is a recurring show, and you can find more episodes—and other astronomy videos—at https://hubblesite.org/resource-gallery/tonights-sky.

** Comet C/2023 A3 and other October 2024 stargazing highlightsBBC Sky at Night Magazine

What’s in the night sky this month? Astronomers Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel reveal the best things to see in the sky in October 2024, including Comet A3, Saturn and Jupiter moon events, meteor showers and the deep sky.

00:00 Intro
00:14 Inner planets
03:45 Outer planets
10:42 Thin crescent Moon
12:37 Saturn and moon events
13:54 Southern Taurid meteor shower
14:48 Saturn and moons Titan and Dione
15:34 Perigee full Moon
16:48 moon and Pleiades
17:10 Orionid meteor shower
17:27 Ganymede shadow transit of Jupiter
19:00 Comet C/2023 A3
22:58 Stars, constellations and deep sky

** Sky & Telescope’s Sky Tour Podcast – October 2024 | A Comet, Andromeda, and Pegasus – Sky & Telescope Youtube

Our monthly Sky Tour #astronomy #podcast provides an informative and entertaining 10-minute guided tour of the #nighttime #sky. Join us for the October 2024 episode and ponder the #Moon’s whereabouts; spot a fast-moving #comet, learn what #andromeda and #pegasus have in common, circle around the pole star #Polaris, and watch for meteors shed by #halleyscomet.

Listen and subscribe to this podcast at https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/ and don’t forget to subscribe to S&T’s YouTube channel to get alerts about new videos, including this monthly podcast

See also

** What’s in the Night Sky: October 2024 – National Space Centre

What’s in the Night Sky: October 2024
Sea of Serenity
Mars
☄️ Possible Naked Eye Comet
✨ Constellation of the Month: Orion

** What’s in the Sky this Month | October 2024High Point Scientific on Youtube

In this episode of What’s in the Sky this Month, Teagan reviews some of the beautiful celestial objects you can see in October 2024!

Read the full October 2024 Newsletter: https://www.highpointscientific.com/a…

** Night Sky Notebook October 2024 Peter Detterline

** See also:

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Stellaris: People of the Stars

ESO: Planet discovered orbiting Barnard’s star, closest single star to our Sun

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

Scientists discover planet orbiting closest single star to our Sun

This artist’s impression shows Barnard b, a sub-Earth-mass planet that was discovered orbiting Barnard’s star. Its signal was detected with the ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), and astronomers were able to confirm it with data from other instruments. An earlier promising detection in 2018 around the same star could not be confirmed by these data. On this newly discovered exoplanet, which has at least half the mass of Venus but is too hot to support liquid water, a year lasts just over three Earth days.

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s star, the closest single star to our Sun. On this newly discovered exoplanet, which has at least half the mass of Venus, a year lasts just over three Earth days. The team’s observations also hint at the existence of three more exoplanet candidates, in various orbits around the star.

Located just six light-years away, Barnard’s star is the second-closest stellar system — after Alpha Centauri’s three-star group — and the closest individual star to us. Owing to its proximity, it is a primary target in the search for Earth-like exoplanets. Despite a promising detection back in 2018, no planet orbiting Barnard’s star had been confirmed until now.

The discovery of this new exoplanet — announced in a paper published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics — is the result of observations made over the last five years with ESO’s VLT, located at Paranal Observatory in Chile.

“Even if it took a long time, we were always confident that we could find something,”

says Jonay González Hernández, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain, and lead author of the paper. The team were looking for signals from possible exoplanets within the habitable or temperate zone of Barnard’s star — the range where liquid water can exist on the planet’s surface. Red dwarfs like Barnard’s star are often targeted by astronomers since low-mass rocky planets are easier to detect there than around larger Sun-like stars. [1]

Barnard b [2], as the newly discovered exoplanet is called, is twenty times closer to Barnard’s star than Mercury is to the Sun. It orbits its star in 3.15 Earth days and has a surface temperature around 125 °C.

“Barnard b is one of the lowest-mass exoplanets known and one of the few known with a mass less than that of Earth. But the planet is too close to the host star, closer than the habitable zone,” explains González Hernández. “Even if the star is about 2500 degrees cooler than our Sun, it is too hot there to maintain liquid water on the surface.

For their observations, the team used ESPRESSO, a highly precise instrument designed to measure the wobble of a star caused by the gravitational pull of one or more orbiting planets. The results obtained from these observations were confirmed by data from other instruments also specialised in exoplanet hunting: HARPS at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, HARPS-N and CARMENES. The new data do not, however, support the existence of the exoplanet reported in 2018.

In addition to the confirmed planet, the international team also found hints of three more exoplanet candidates orbiting the same star. These candidates, however, will require additional observations with ESPRESSO to be confirmed.

“We now need to continue observing this star to confirm the other candidate signals,”

says Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, a researcher also at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and co-author of the study.

But the discovery of this planet, along with other previous discoveries such as Proxima b and d, shows that our cosmic backyard is full of low-mass planets.”

ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction, is set to transform the field of exoplanet research. The ELT’s ANDES instrument will allow researchers to detect more of these small, rocky planets in the temperate zone around nearby stars, beyond the reach of current telescopes, and enable them to study the composition of their atmospheres.

Graphic representation of the relative distances between the nearest stars and the Sun. Barnard’s star is the second closest star system to the Sun, and the nearest single star to us.

Notes

[1] Astronomers target cool stars, like red dwarfs, because their temperate zone is much closer to the star than that of hotter stars, like the Sun. This means that the planets orbiting within their temperate zone have shorter orbital periods, allowing astronomers to monitor them over several days or weeks, rather than years. In addition, red dwarfs are much less massive than the Sun, so they are more easily disturbed by the gravitational pull of the planets around them and thus they wobble more strongly.

[2] It’s common practice in science to name exoplanets by the name of their host star with a lowercase letter added to it, ‘b’ indicating the first known planet, ’c’ the next one, and so on. The name Barnard b was therefore also given to a previously suspected planet candidate around Barnard’s star, which scientists were unable to confirm.

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ESO telescope captures most detailed infrared map of Milky Way ever

The latest report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

ESO telescope captures
the most detailed infrared map ever of our Milky Way

This collage highlights a small selection of regions of the Milky Way imaged as part of the most detailed infrared map ever of our galaxy. Here we see, from left to right and top to bottom: NGC 3576, NGC 6357, Messier 17, NGC 6188, Messier 22 and NGC 3603. All of them are clouds of gas and dust where stars are forming, except Messier 22, which is a very dense group of old stars. The images were captured with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) and its infrared camera VIRCAM. The gigantic map to which these images belong contains 1.5 billion objects. The data were gathered over the course of 13 years as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).

Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects ― the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,

says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile who led the overall project.

This record-breaking map comprises 200 000 images taken by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope’s main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA’s infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way’s most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings.

This gigantic dataset [1] covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons, and contains about 10 times more objects than a previous map released by the same team back in 2012. It includes newborn stars, which are often embedded in dusty cocoons, and globular clusters –– dense groups of millions of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Observing infrared light means VISTA can also spot very cold objects, which glow at these wavelengths, like brown dwarfs (‘failed’ stars that do not have sustained nuclear fusion) or free-floating planets that don’t orbit a star.

This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. It was taken as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey, which is currently scanning the Milky Way in a bid to map our galaxy’s structure and explain how it formed.

The observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, spanning a total of 420 nights. By observing each patch of the sky many times, the team was able to not only determine the locations of these objects, but also track how they move and whether their brightness changes. They charted stars whose luminosity changes periodically that can be used as cosmic rulers for measuring distances [2]. This has given us an accurate 3D view of the inner regions of the Milky Way, which were previously hidden by dust. The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars — fast-moving stars catapulted from the central region of the Milky Way after a close encounter with the supermassive black hole lurking there.

The new map contains data gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey [3] and its companion project, the VVV eXtended (VVVX) survey.

The project was a monumental effort, made possible because we were surrounded by a great team,”

says Roberto Saito, an astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and lead author of the paper published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the completion of the project.

The VVV and VVVX surveys have already led to more than 300 scientific articles. With the surveys now complete, the scientific exploration of the gathered data will continue for decades to come. Meanwhile, ESO’s Paranal Observatory is being prepared for the future: VISTA will be updated with its new instrument 4MOST and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) will receive its MOONS instrument. Together, they will provide spectra of millions of the objects surveyed here, with countless discoveries to be expected.

Notes

[1] The dataset is too large to release as a single image, but the processed data and objects catalogue can be accessed in the ESO Science Portal.

[2] One way to measure the distance to a star is by comparing how bright it appears as seen from Earth to how intrinsically bright it is; but the latter is often unknown. Certain types of stars change their brightness periodically, and there is a very strong connection between how quickly they do this and how intrinsically luminous they are. Measuring these fluctuations allows astronomers to work out how luminous these stars are, and therefore how far away they lie.

[3] Vía Láctea is the Latin name for the Milky Way.

Links

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When the Heavens Went on Sale:
The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach