The sky is going to be a busy place this month, from The Perseids Meteor Shower to some great views of Jupiter. Lets take a closer look at what to expect from August’s astronomical events. Saturn at Opposition – August 2nd This means that relative to the earth, Saturn will be directly opposite to the sun. Earth is positioned directly between the Sun and the planet. So, when the sun sets, Saturn will rise in the sky. New Moon – August 8th The new moon is the first of the lunar phases. When a new moon occurs, we are seeing the moon as it is not lit up by the sun. So, it appears as if there is no ..read more

This past Monday July 5, 2021 our planet reached Aphelion at 6:27 p.m. EDT (3:27 p.m. PDT/22:27 UTC). At that time, the Earth was 94,510,886 miles (152,100,527 kilometers) from the Sun. Aphelion is the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is furthest from the sun. The astronomy picture of the day today is Perihelion to Aphelion taken by Richard Jaworski. The photos taken by Richard Jaworski show the sun as it appeared on the Perihelion earlier this year on January 5th, and as it appeared on Monday. A clear difference in size, the distance between the Earth and Su ..read more

Two teens have helped in the discovery of four new distant planets by participating in the Student Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). Through the program, high-school students work on independent research projects under the guidance of Harvard astrophysicists. Discovering a new planet isn’t an easy job. However, there are many different ways to go about finding a new planet. A few ways include watching for wobble, searching for shadows, taking pictures, gravitational microlensing, and astrometry. Illustration of TESS orbitin ..read more

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and NASA will be hosting a webinar on Wednesday February 10 at 10 a.m. EST. During the moderated virtual event, discussions will be focused on the technology innovations with NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover. Perseverance is the Mars rover that launched from Earth last summer. The Perseverance Mission’s main objective is to search for signs of ancient life on Mars and to collect samples of rock to possibly bring back to Earth. The Perseverance Rover will be landing at the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. An Illustratio ..read more

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to look out into space as an astronaut? There are many pictures taken by astronauts in space, that show that amazing point of view. And, this morning Astronaut Mike Hopkins added to the collection. In a Tweet Hopkins shared a selfie taken in space. In the photo, we can see the reflection of himself with the Earth all reflecting off his shiny space helmet. Also visible in the photo is a small piece of the ISS, the upper pieces of his spacesuit, and the curvature of the Earth! The view, according to Astronaut Hopkins, “Takes your breath away!” Ever ..read more

If you’re looking for some astronomical events to look forward to this month, no need to worry. Although February is a relatively quiet month of astronomically observable events, there are still a few great things going on that will be worth a look through your telescope. Here’s a list of events going on in the sky this month. February 6 – Venus Passes Saturn In the early morning, look toward the east-southeastern horizon before sunrise to see a bright planet Venus positioned just below Saturn, which will be much dimmer than Venus. You should be able to see it with the naked eye, with binocula ..read more

During a test of the Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket that will launch the Artemis I mission to the Moon, an unexpected engine shutdown occurred. The engine test was the first step in a series of preparations that will eventually send a spacecraft to the Moon. Artemis I is the name of the future flight test of the deep space exploration systems being developed at NASA. NASA’s Deep Space Exploration Systems include the Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket. The mission will prepare to send the Orion around the moon and will prepare and test technology that will be used by a crew in later Moon mis ..read more

A group of astronomers have observed the death of a far-away galaxy in an event they state is significant in understanding the grow and formation of galaxies can be affected by galaxy collisions. The study was led by scientists out of Durham University, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)-Saclay and the University of Paris-Saclay. Intense activity has been noted in what the astronomers are calling a “disruptive event,” that occurred in a distant starburst galaxy called ID2299. What exactly happened? Basically, starburst galaxies form quicker than other types of g ..read more

Rocket launches are one of the most popular and most frequently reported about space news pieces. But, we rarely hear about all of the science work actually going on in space. So, lets take a look at the ISS science experiments going on in space right now! Life Science Oct. 26 – Expedition 64 astronauts Kate Rubins, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Sergey Ryzhikov have been performing a variety of experiments including the collection and testing of microbe samples from surfaces aboard the ISS. Additionally, the astronauts frequently collect data on their own health and wellness to gauge the effe ..read more

In the early morning of October 6th, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2020 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics. The three winners announced are Roger Penrose for “the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity” and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez jointly for “The discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.” Penrose’s mathematically proved that black holes are resultant of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. His black hole research can be traced back decades. In 1 ..read more