Astro Bob

Chang'e 5 launches atop a Long March 5 rocket on Monday, Nov. 23.  CNSA  Earlier this week China launched its ambitious Chang'e 5 probe on a 23-day mission to the moon to collect and return lunar samples. Named for the Chinese moon goddess, it would be that country's first sample return mission and the first moon rocks brought back to Earth since 1976, when the Soviet Union's Luna 24 sent back a third of a pound (170 grams) from the Sea of Crisis (Mare Crisium). The China National Space Administration (CNSA) hasn't released a detailed timeline, but we know that the spacecraft is expected to enter lunar orbit on November 27 shortly after the sun rises on its target, the region surrounding Mons Rümker (Mt. Rümker). The lander will descend to the sampling site in the following few days and collect 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of rocks, both from the surface and up to 6 feet (2 meters) underground. The lander will use a drill to unearth (unmoon?) these deeper specimens.  ...

A firefly makes a statement during a 30-second time exposure of the International Space Station made on July 15, 2020 near Duluth, Minn. Bob King It's a pleasure to have the International Space Station (ISS) back in the evening sky. Since it always appears in twilight, and the sun sets early in November, you never have to stay up late to catch a look. Passes start as early as 5:15 p.m. and finish up around 7 p.m.  With the successful SpaceX launch of the Crew-1 mission on Nov. 15, the orbiting laboratory is now full up with seven souls aboard. They're all speeding across the sky at around 17,100 miles per hour (27,600 kph) at an average altitude of 250 miles (400 km). How the heck can you eat Thanksgiving dinner under those conditions? Same as eating a meal on an airplane. Since everything around you is traveling at the same speed, each item is at rest relative to the other as long as you maintain a constant speed. Standard space station menu. NASA Last year's Thanksgivin...

  This bright Leonid meteor flared low in the northern sky below the Big Dipper at the start of dawn. Bob King Maybe you felt the way I did when you got up at 4 a.m. to watch the Leonid meteor shower. The temperature was 14° F with a hearty wind. I donned all my warm weather gear, unlocked the door and snapped open a lawn lounger. As I eased back into the chair, the dotted outline of Leo the lion assumed a commanding position in the southeastern sky like Simba on the hilltop in the movie The Lion King . Venus shines inside the tilted cone of zodiacal light, a phenomenon caused by sunlight that scatters off comet dust in the plane of the solar system. The meteor at top is a bright non-Leonid called a sporadic. Sporadic meteors are seen every night. Light-pollution-illuminated clouds are visible at right.   Bob King Looking at the meteor-less sky I couldn't help but think "naw, this ain't gonna' happen." But not 10 minutes later a modest but spectacularly fast meteo...

Comet ATLAS is the green, fuzzy blob to the right of Orion's Belt. I took this photo on Nov. 9 with a 200mm lens set to f/2.8 and a time exposure of 40 seconds at ISO 800 on a tracking mount. The nebula NGC 2024 at left is part of a star-forming region in Orion.  Bob King Comet NEOWISE was the last bright comet easily visible from the northern hemisphere. Not that we're found a replacement for that incredible sight, but Comet ATLAS (C/2020 M3) is doing its best this month to fulfill that role. Currently the brightest comet in the sky, it's located in Orion the hunter and easy to find.  Comet ATLAS tracks north across Orion this week and next. This map shows its position nightly from Nov. 11-16 around 11 p.m. CDT. Stars are shown to magnitude 8.  Stellarium with additions by the author It glows at 8th magnitude this month, and while not visible with the naked eye, you can see it in a pair of 50mm or larger binoculars as a faint smudge under a dark sky. A 6-inch or larger t...

This illustration represents the legacy of NASA's Kepler space telescope which  discovered more than  2,800 confirmed exoplanets  of the known 4,374. It spent nine years collecting data from orbit before it ran out of fuel in 2018. NASA / Ames Research Center / W. Stenzel / D. Rutter And I thought there were a lot of beetles! But with "only" 350,000 species, beetles are far outnumbered by the estimated 300 million potentially habitable planets now thought to exist in the Milky Way Galaxy. According to new research using data from NASA's former Kepler space telescope, about half of the stars similar in temperature to our sun could have a rocky planet capable of supporting liquid water on its surface. Although it's not the only ingredient required for life, liquid water is the golden key that unlocks life's potential as we know it.  300 million is a conservative estimate according to the study released this week  by a team of scientists who worked on the Kepler ...

  This Halloween we get a visit from both the Great Pumpkin and the Blue Moon. Halloween Blue Moons occur 3-4 times on average per century. Illustration: Bob King Let the Halloween mischief begin. As the little ones fill their trick or treat bags, a bright full moon will light the way. All full moons are special, but this one is unique for a couple reasons. It's the second full moon in the month which makes it a Blue Moon. And it happens on Halloween. Enjoy it because the next one won't light up your pumpkin until 2039.  There are three types of Blue Moons — the monthly Blue Moon, the seasonal Blue Moon and a moon that actually looks blue. The time between successive full moons is approximately 29.5 days, so we normally get one full moon per month or 12 per year. To squeeze a second full moon (Blue Moon) in there, the first full moon has to occur at the start of the month to make room for a second full moon (Blue Moon) 29.5 days later at month's end.  October's fi...

The sunspot group AR2778 is the largest of the new solar cycle. This photo was taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) late Wednesday morning, Oct. 28.  NASA / SDO The largest sunspot group of new Solar Cycle 25 is getting out attention this week. If you have a small telescope equipped with a safe solar filter, take a look. Although the individual sunspots are only modest-sized, the group as a whole extends across 62,000 miles (100,000 km). Its official name is Active Region (AR) 2778.  The sun isn't a rigid body like the Earth but spins at rates that vary with latitude.  NASA Because the sun turns on its axis from east to west about once every 27 days, the sunspot group moves further to the west each day. It's currently in the southwestern part of the disk, so we have a few more days of observation before it rotates around to the backside. Notice I used the word "about" when describing the sun's rotation period. Unlike the rigid Earth, our star is a ...