Spring forward.
To delete this message, click the X at top right.

Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

Post Reply
User avatar
Tiredretiredlawyer
Posts: 7541
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:07 pm
Location: Rescue Pets Land
Occupation: 21st Century Suffragist
Verified: ✅🐴🐎🦄🌻5000 posts and counting

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#101

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://news.yahoo.com/twin-meteor-show ... 34044.html
Twin meteor showers to send fireballs streaking through November sky
Both the Northern Taurid and Southern Taurid meteor showers peak during the first half of November, and each event will carry the possibility of unleashing dazzling fireballs across the nighttime sky.

November is one of the better months to view meteor activity from the Northern Hemisphere, the American Meteor Society (AMS) said. "While no major activity is expected this month, the two Taurid radiants plus the Leonids keep the skies active."

The Southern Taurids are the first of the two showers to peak, reaching maximum activity Thursday, Nov. 4, into the early hours of Friday, Nov. 5, according to the AMS. This is followed up by the Northern Taurids one week later on the night of Thursday, Nov. 11, into Friday, Nov. 12.
Fireball to Hubby meant "pit bull" as in the singer. Our conversations are...puzzling...mind boggling...interesting.

"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
User avatar
RTH10260
Posts: 14352
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:16 am
Location: Switzerland, near the Alps
Verified: ✔️ Eurobot

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#102

Post by RTH10260 »

User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#103

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... A4NTc4OAS2

A six-hour-long partial lunar eclipse—the longest lunar eclipse to occur within a span of 1,000 years—aligns with the full moon tonight into the early morning hours tomorrow. The last time a lengthy lunar eclipse took place was February 18, 1440, and the next longest lunar eclipse will not appear until February 8, 2669, reports Graham Jones for Time and Date.

Also known as a Frosty Moon or Beaver Moon, November’s full moon signals the beginning of the winter season. It is dubbed the Beaver Moon because traditionally, Native American hunters set traps for beavers during this time in the year to harvest their fur in preparation for winter, reports Passant Rabie for Inverse.

Total lunar eclipses happen when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon. Partial lunar eclipses occur when the Earth, sun, and moon are quite not lined up perfectly, so Earth’s shadow will only partly cover its natural satellite.

While technically only a partial eclipse, 97 percent of the moon will be covered by Earth’s shadow during the phenomenon’s peak. A tiny sliver of the moon will glow while the rest of it will appear a dim reddish-brown color characteristic of a lunar eclipse.

This eclipse’s duration is longer because the moon is near apogee, or at its furthest distance from the Earth, George Dvorsky reports for Gizmodo. The entire event will last about six hours from the moment the moon first enters Earth's shadow until it leaves.

The eclipse's peak will occur at 4:02 a.m. ET on Friday, November 19 and last for three hours and 28 minutes, the longest partial lunar eclipse of the century, Inverse reports. In comparison, the longest total eclipse of the century occurred on July 27, 2018, which lasted for 1 hour and 42 minutes, reports Michelle Robertson for SFGate.
Cross posted in Hijack thread.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
User avatar
Estiveo
Posts: 2302
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:50 am
Location: Inland valley, Central Coast, CA
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#104

Post by Estiveo »

Image Image Image Image
User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#105

Post by AndyinPA »

Cool!

Now to get the weather to cooperate.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
User avatar
johnpcapitalist
Posts: 809
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:59 pm
Location: NYC Area
Verified: ✅ Totally legit!

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#106

Post by johnpcapitalist »

Estiveo wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 10:06 am
I'm surprised that all the New Age nutjobs aren't crawling out of the woodwork to hail this as another version of the "Harmonic Convergence" from 1987 (also known as the "moronic convergence, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence). They claimed that the unusual alignment of all the planets was going to do ... something. It also turned out that the alignment of the planets was not actually all that unusual -- it happened all the time. I was living in Northern California, home of all sorts of crunchy New Age kooks, and it was everywhere at the time.
User avatar
pjhimself
Posts: 861
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:33 am

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#107

Post by pjhimself »

User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#108

Post by AndyinPA »

Thanks for posting. I don't think I'd heard of this.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
User avatar
RTH10260
Posts: 14352
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:16 am
Location: Switzerland, near the Alps
Verified: ✔️ Eurobot

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#109

Post by RTH10260 »

WHAT? What? It's the end of Earth again :?:
User avatar
MN-Skeptic
Posts: 3000
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:03 pm
Location: Twin Cities

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#110

Post by MN-Skeptic »

User avatar
Foggy
Dick Tater
Posts: 9554
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:45 am
Location: Fogbow HQ
Occupation: Dick Tater/Space Cadet
Verified: as seen on qvc zombie apocalypse

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#111

Post by Foggy »

Moving against the backdrop of the Milky, huh?

Seems to be something missing there, Mr. Planetary Guy. Where I come from, we call it the Milky Way. Are you trying to coin a nickname or sumpin'?
Out from under. :thumbsup:
User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#112

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/02/world/qu ... index.html
(CNN)The new year kicks off with the Quadrantid meteor shower, which is expected to peak in the overnight hours from Sunday to Monday.

The Quadrantids are typically among the strongest meteor showers of the year. Fortunately, a waxing crescent moon phase will practically render the moon invisible overnight, allowing for peak visibility of the meteors.

Still, the shower is notoriously hard to observe due to January's difficult weather and its short peak of only about six hours. It will be best seen in the Northern Hemisphere between the late-night hours Sunday and dawn on Monday, according to the American Meteor Society.
This is what they were saying was the likely culprit for the boom and shaking we experienced here yesterday. Even if it's what I felt yesterday, it's unlikely I'll see any of it given the rainy, overcast nights we are having.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
User avatar
pjhimself
Posts: 861
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:33 am

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#113

Post by pjhimself »

User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#114

Post by AndyinPA »

Thank you. I'll try tonight, but I'm not holding my breath.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#115

Post by AndyinPA »

Exploding meteor seems to be official.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nasa- ... ar-AASon43
NASA posted on its Meteor Watch Facebook page Sunday saying that a lightning mapper on a satellite picked up a strong meteor signature around the same time. A nearby infrasound station registered the blast wave as the meteor broke apart, and from the data, NASA estimates the blast had the energy of 30 tons of TNT.

NASA said the object’s size was about a yard in diameter with a mass close to half a ton. If it hadn’t been cloudy, NASA said a fireball would have been easily visible, about 100 times brighter than the full moon.
Now that would have been something to see!
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
User avatar
pjhimself
Posts: 861
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:33 am

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#116

Post by pjhimself »

Mercury in February 2022

At this February 2022 elongation of Mercury, the planet shines at around magnitude 0.1. Mercury will get a little bit brighter later in the month as it drops closer to the sun. But, of course, when it’s closer to the sun it will be harder to see in brighter twilight, as sunrise approaches.

Mercury’s greatest western elongation is on February 16 at 21 UTC. But the mornings before and after this are all great times to spot Mercury. In fact, Mercury’s highest altitude in the morning sky is on February 9.

Orangish morning sky with Venus, Mars and Mercury.
Look before sunrise for Mercury at its highest altitude on February 9, 2022, in a brightening sky. Image via Stellarium.
The planet is passing from the constellation Sagittarius into Capricornus in February. Venus and Mars will remain up in Sagittarius, but Saturn is lurking down in Capricornus. Mercury heads down to meet it, but Northern Hemisphere observers probably won’t get to see the pair. The moon will be near the duo on February 28. And in early March, Mercury and Saturn pull alongside each other before Mercury sinks even lower. Those in the Southern Hemisphere, however, get to witness these events.

Telescopic view of Mercury in February 2022

Those with telescopes will get to view Mercury at about 60% illumination, showing a gibbous phase like a waxing gibbous moon. Mercury’s phase will grow larger as the month progresses. But again, toward the end of the month it’s drowned out from the light of the rising sun.

On February 16, Mercury will be 6.9 arcseconds in size. Because Mercury is moving farther away from us in its orbit, the size will decrease over the following days.

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentia ... tion-west/
PaulG
Posts: 279
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:32 pm

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#117

Post by PaulG »

Breaking news: Vatican Observatory astronomer finds new member of the solar system
An astronomer at the Vatican Observatory (www.VaticanObservatory.org), together with his colleagues, has found a new member of the solar system orbiting beyond the planet Neptune. This “trans-Neptunian object,” or “TNO,” is currently is designated “2021 XD7.” It was first observed by Fr. Richard Boyle, S.J. on December 3, 2021, using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) on Mt. Graham in Arizona (USA).

Lithuanian astronomer and astrophysicist Kazimieras Černis analyzed the data from the VATT for the discovery. Peter Veres of the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center calculated the object’s orbit using observations Boyle acquired over time.

:snippity:

The first TNO, Pluto (originally classified as a planet but now considered a dwarf planet), was discovered in 1930. Like Pluto, TNO 2021 XD7 has an eccentric orbit that is significantly tilted with respect to the orbits of Earth and the solar system’s other planets. That orbit brings the object no closer to the sun than the distance of Neptune (which is 30 times the Earth’s distance from the sun) yet carries it more than twice that far out from the sun. 2021 XD7 takes roughly three centuries to complete one orbit around the sun. Because of its great distance, little is currently known about the object, but it is certainly much smaller even than Pluto, which itself is but a fraction of the size of Earth’s moon.

The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, also known as the Alice P. Lennon Telescope, was built in the 1990s under Pope St. John Paul II. The Vatican Observatory’s older telescopes, located at Castel Gandolfo, had become less useful for astronomical research, owing to light pollution from Rome.
I'm blanking on a funny name to suggest.
User avatar
Estiveo
Posts: 2302
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:50 am
Location: Inland valley, Central Coast, CA
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#118

Post by Estiveo »

10th anniversary of Cassini taking this photo of Enceladus in front of Saturn's rings, with Titan looming in the background.
Estiveoshot_20220312_122236.jpg
Image Image Image Image
User avatar
RVInit
Posts: 3830
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:48 am

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#119

Post by RVInit »

There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality.
--Colin Kaepernick
User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#120

Post by AndyinPA »

:clap:
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
User avatar
Tiredretiredlawyer
Posts: 7541
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:07 pm
Location: Rescue Pets Land
Occupation: 21st Century Suffragist
Verified: ✅🐴🐎🦄🌻5000 posts and counting

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#121

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

COOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
jcolvin2
Posts: 704
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:56 am
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#122

Post by jcolvin2 »

Every time an exoplanet is discovered, an angel gets his singing wine glasses.
User avatar
Tiredretiredlawyer
Posts: 7541
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:07 pm
Location: Rescue Pets Land
Occupation: 21st Century Suffragist
Verified: ✅🐴🐎🦄🌻5000 posts and counting

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#123

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

🍷🍷🍷
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
User avatar
northland10
Posts: 5596
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:47 pm
Location: Northeast Illinois
Occupation: Organist/Choir Director/Fundraising Data Analyst
Verified: ✅ I'm me.

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#124

Post by northland10 »

jcolvin2 wrote: Tue Mar 22, 2022 2:37 am Every time an exoplanet is discovered, an angel gets his singing wine glasses.


Well, Stars, not an exoplanet, but it has singing wine glasses.

ETA: Text by Sara Teasdale (music by Ēriks Ešenvalds) under the spoiler.
► Show Spoiler
101010 :towel:
User avatar
AndyinPA
Posts: 9854
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:42 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Verified:

Re: Planets, Comets, Asteroids, etc.

#125

Post by AndyinPA »

:lovestruck:
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
Post Reply

Return to “Astronomy”