"I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
Even when we can't see them, the stars and other wonders of the universe are always there, and the "grace of the world" — or the many worlds of our solar system — can offer inspiration. These NASA resources will help you find and enjoy some of that beauty.
Jupiter as seen by NASA's Juno mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill | › Full image and caption
Many things are taking place:
Planets And A 'Diamond In The Sky' Usher Early Equinox: What You Can See In The Night Sky This
The crescent moon and Jupiter are seen in a rare planetary alignment over Van province of Turkey on ... [+] October 31, 2019. (Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere's celestial highlights for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, eclipses and astronomy.
This Friday sees the spring equinox —equal day and night, and the beginning of astronomical spring. However, it's not a visual sight, so this week's stargazing is more about spotting a particularly close gathering of the moon and planets.
Researchers discovered a planet that rains iron
T he more exoplanets astronomers discover the more they find that the universe is filled with extraordinary and unusual worlds. A prime example would be WASP-76b, which an international team of astronomers led by researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have discovered possesses one-side that is brutally bombarded by iron-rains, whilst the other is mercilessly roasted by radiation from the planet's star.
The giant exoplanet — part of a new category of bodies called 'ultra-hot Jupiters' — has a scorching hot 'dayside' where temperatures can reach in excess of 2,40⁰⁰C, and a 'nightside' which is cooler by at least 1,00⁰⁰C. This means that on the former side, metals are vaporized by the ultra-hot temperatures and then carried across the planet by powerful winds. Once reaching the cooler side, the resulting iron vapor condenses into droplets of iron which rain down onto the surface of the planet.
The strange orbits of 'Tatooine' planetary disks -- ScienceDaily
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found striking orbital geometries in protoplanetary disks around binary stars. While disks orbiting the most compact binary star systems share very nearly the same plane, disks encircling wide binaries have orbital planes that are severely tilted. These systems can teach us about planet formation in complex environments.
In the last two decades, thousands of planets have been found orbiting stars other than our Sun. Some of these planets orbit two stars, just like Luke Skywalker's home Tatooine. Planets are born in protoplanetary disks -- we now have wonderful observations of these thanks to ALMA -- but most of the disks studied so far orbit single stars. 'Tatooine' exoplanets form in disks around binary stars, so-called circumbinary disks.
And here's another article:
Brutally Hot Mercury Produces Ice Even Though It's The Closest Planet to The Sun
Mercury has a reputation, one largely informed by where it exists - closer to the Sun than any other planet in the Solar System. That unforgiving proximity means Mercury gets hot. Really hot.
Daytime temperatures on Mercury can reach a scorching 430 °Celsius (800 °Fahrenheit), but they also plummet to –180 °C (–290 °F) at night. Then, there are the places on Mercury where the Sun don't shine, ever.
At its poles, Mercury - like the Moon - has what are called 'permanently shadowed regions' (PSRs): cratered recesses that exist in a state of eternal darkness, despite being relatively close to the Sun.
How to See Venus and Mercury at Their Brightest Next Week | Travel + Leisure
Have you seen the planet Venus in the last few months? It's been shining very brightly in the southwestern sky after sunset in its brightest apparition (a time when something is visible in the night sky) since 2012. Venus has been impossible to miss, but what about tiny Mercury? On Tuesday, both planets will be as far from the sun as they ever get, making them both relatively easy to see.
Here’s when and how you can see the "Swift Planet" and the "Evening Star" on Tuesday, though they'll be visible Monday and the rest of this week as well.
What if mysterious 'cotton candy' planets actually sport rings?
Some of the extremely low-density, "cotton candy like" exoplanets called super-puffs may actually have rings, according to new research published in The Astronomical Journal by Carnegie's Anthony Piro and Caltech's Shreyas Vissapragada
Super-puffs are notable for having exceptionally large radii for their masses -- which would give them seemingly incredibly low densities. The adorably named bodies have been confounding scientists since they were first discovered, because they are unlike any planets in our Solar System and challenge our ideas of what distant planets can be like.
Scientists Discover 139 New "Minor Planets" in Our Solar System
While the coronavirus outbreak is dominating the global news cycle, a team of astronomers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered 139 minor planets — too small to be a proper a planet, but not a comet or space rock either — orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, as detailed in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal last week.
The so-called "trans-Neptunian Objects" (TNOs), the most famous of which is Pluto, orbit celestial bodies in the Kuiper belt, a region in our Solar System that stretches beyond our system's eight major planets. Extending outward by some 50 astronomical units — that's 50 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun — the Kuiper belt is far larger than the asteroid belt.
Happening on Twitter
Even when we can't see them, the stars are always there, and they can offer inspiration. These NASA resources will… https://t.co/V8XKhCmXzn NASASolarSystem (from Milky Way galaxy) Fri Mar 20 23:33:20 +0000 2020
Even when we can't see them, the stars and other wonders of the universe are always there, and they can offer inspi… https://t.co/wA0RINViGl NASASolarSystem (from Milky Way galaxy) Sat Mar 21 16:47:48 +0000 2020
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