What’s Up for November: Venus at sunset, Jupiter at dawn, your last evening glimpse of Saturn until spring, and more meteors!
Through November 3, catch glimpses of a gibbous Venus, a crescent moon and ringed Saturn in the southwest sky just after sunset.
Wake up before sunrise every day this month to see Jupiter just above Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, shining in the east-southeast sky.
Just before dawn on November 23-24, see the waning crescent moon just above Jupiter.
November is a great time to see the constellation Ceres as it glides past Cetus, the Whale and you will be able to see the dwarf planet move relative to the background stars, but you’ll need a telescope for this one.
This month, just like last month, there will be three meteor showers–the Northern Tuarids, the Leonids and the November Orionids.
Learn about Earth’s nearest neighbors, the moon, near Earth asteroids, and more this week.
1. Cosmic, Man
The fifth International Cosmic Day will take place on Nov. 2. This event will bring students, teachers and scientists together to talk and learn about cosmic rays, energetic particles from deep space. Participants will learn more about cosmic rays, and can also carry out their own measurements and get in contact with groups all over the world to compare and discuss their results.
The number of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) discovered now tops 15,000, with an average of 30 added each week. “While no known NEA currently poses a risk of impact with Earth over the next 100 years,” says NASA Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson. “We’ve found mostly the larger asteroids…we have a lot more of the smaller, but still potentially hazardous ones, to find.”
The moon wasn’t always so lucky when it came to avoiding impacts. New results from our Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission are providing insights into the huge impacts that dominated the early history of Earth’s moon–and other solid worlds like Earth and Mars.
Our Cassini spacecraft regularly returns spectacular images from Saturn. What you may not realize is that even before they’ve been processed by Cassini imaging specialists, these pictures are published online in raw, unprocessed form, almost the moment they come down to Earth.
On Oct. 30, 2016, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, experienced a partial solar eclipse in space when it caught the moon passing in front of the sun. The lunar transit lasted an hour, with the moon covering about 59 percent of the sun at the peak of its journey across the face of the sun. The moon’s shadow occasionally obstructs SDO’s otherwise constant view of the sun. The shadow’s edge is sharp and distinct, since the moon has no atmosphere that would distort sunlight.
Discover the full list of 10 things to know about our solar system this week HERE.
For many years, Canadians have maintained their inhuman friendliness by channeling all of their animosity into their geese. Now though, something is wrong.
