Saturday: Lieutenant Worf, the Klingon Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, might say “Today is a good day to die.” But Deneb, the bright supergiant star in Cygnus the Swan would say “two million years from now is a good day to die.” This may seem like a long time. But, compared to the lifespan of most stars, two million years from now is as close as tomorrow. For example, the Sun will last about five billion years. Small stars known as red dwarfs may last trillions of years. Prepare your astronomically short goodbyes to Deneb tonight at 6:30 o’clock when it is seven and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due west.
Sunday: The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow
morning. There will be increased activity for the next few days. These meteors
appear to come from a point in the constellation Leo the lion. This point is
about five and a half fists above the southeastern horizon at 5:00 a.m. The
Moon is close to new, so it won't interfere with the dimmer meteors. The Leonid
meteors are particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet discovered
by Ernst Tempel and Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1866. These are exceptionally fast-moving
meteors – over 150,000 miles per hour! Go to https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-leonid-meteor-shower/
to read everything you need to know about the Leonid meteor shower. As your mother
might say, dress warmly and sit in a comfortable chair for maximum enjoyment.
Monday: “It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.”
Constellations can be considered neighborhoods in the nighttime sky. But the
stars in those constellations are not necessarily neighbors in real life. For
example, the bright stars in the constellation Cassiopeia range from 19 light
years to over 10,000 light years away from Earth. One constellation that
consists of real neighbors is Ursa Major. Or, more specifically, the Big
Dipper. Five stars in the Big Dipper are all moving in the same direction in
space, are about the same age, and are all about 80 light years from Earth.
“Please won’t you be my neighbor?” Skat, the third brightest star in the
constellation Aquarius is a neighbor to these five Big Dipper stars, all of
which are about 30 light years from each other. They are thought to have
originated in the same nebula about 500 million years ago. Just like human
children do, these child stars are slowly moving away from home. Skat is about
three fists above due south at 7:00 p.m. The much brighter Fomalhaut is a fist
and a half below Skat. And it’s not fun being below Skat.
Tuesday: At 6:30 a.m., Venus is to the lower left of the
waning crescent just above the east-southeastern horizon.
Wednesday: Are you thankful that you live in a solar system
with multiple planets? You should be. A giant planet like Jupiter cleans up
planetary debris that could have collided with Earth and hindered the formation
of complex life. Any inhabitants of the planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae are
thankful for this, as well. Upsilon Andromedae, a star in the constellation
Andromeda, was the first Sun-like star discovered to have multiple planets
orbiting it. So far, all its discovered planets are giant planets like Jupiter.
But the system is likely to also contain smaller planets. The dim star, but
certainly not its planets, is barely visible overhead at 10:00 p.m. Our Jupiter
is one and a half fists above the eastern horizon at this time.
Thursday: Saturn is nearly four fists above due south at
7:30 p.m.
Friday: Have you ever sat around waiting for a long-distance
call from another state? Another country? How about another star system? In
2019, astronomers thought they heard a radio signal from a planet orbiting
Proxima Centauri, our Sun’s nearest neighbor at about 4.2 light years away.
This signal showed many signs of being extraterrestrial in origin, including
coming from a specific location in the sky, having a pure tone, and changing in
frequency like something moving exactly towards or exactly away from the Earth.
However, an analysis two years later showed that the signal was more like a
crank call. Read more about the discovery and undiscovery at https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/the-true-nature-of-the-candidate-et-signal-from-proxima-centauri/.
Proxima Centauri is part of the three-star Alpha Centauri system, the third
brightest star in the sky. You need to go down to the southern tip of Texas or
Florida to see Alpha Centauri.
The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up-to-date information
about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
All times are Pacific Time unless noted.
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