The upcoming transit of Venus will occur on June 5th in the Western Hemisphere and on June 6th in the Eastern Hemisphere. We bring you some facts and tips on how to make your skywatching more memorable.Why this is a rare event?The orbits
Scientists plan to use the moon as a mirror to watch this year’s June 5-6 transit of Venus with the Hubble Space Telescope. That’s because Hubble can’t look at the sun directly – the bright light could damage the telescope’s super-sensitive instruments.This
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed that movement in sand dune fields on the Red Planet occurs on a surprisingly large scale, about the same as in dune fields on Earth.This is unexpected because Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, is only about
A transit of Venus is the observed passage of the planet across the disk of the Sun. The planet Venus, orbiting the Sun “on the inside track,” catches up to and passes the slower Earth. Venus, appearing as a small dot in the foreground, will move from left to
This weekend will provide the full Moon’s closest approach of the year to Earth. On Saturday, May 5, 2012 the Moon could appear as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full Moons of 2012, according to some calculations.Every month, as the Moon circles the
On April 18th and 19th, a series of minor CMEs puffed away from the sun. Three of them are heading in our general direction. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab have prepared an animated forecast track of the ensemble:According to the forecast, the clouds are
Strange phenomenon spotted over Mars two weeks ago puzzled astronomy community. An unusual protrusion has appeared in the planet’s southern hemisphere, preceding the sunrise terminator. Astrophotographer Wayne Jaeschke reports on his website of a “strange feature”
On March 24th, 25th and 26th, Venus, Jupiter and crescent Moon will appear side by side again in the western sky at sunset. Best time for observing the sky show is before the sky fades completely black. These bright objects are extra-beautiful when they are framed by
Venus and Jupiter are the second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the Moon. Every evening Venus has appeared higher and Jupiter lower on the western sky. Now they’re about to cross paths. From now until March 17th the two planets will be within 5°
A recent study, appearing online in the Journal of Geophysical Research on February 29, 2012, has found clear evidence on Venus for a type of space weather outburst quite common at Earth, called a hot flow anomaly. These anomalies, also known as HFAs, cause a temporary
