A blood moon, an evocative nickname for a total lunar eclipse, hangs over Mount Rainier in Washington State.
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Despite a year filled with lockdowns and social isolation, the starry skies of 2020 gave us solace and enthralled us with a parade of eye-catching celestial events. The astronomical calendar this past year was packed full of memorable sights, including the surprise appearance of the bright comet NEOWISE , the decade's best views of Mars , a Halloween blue moon, and a much-anticipated historically close encounter between Jupiter and Saturn .
This may worth something:
Astronomical highlights of 2021: From lunar eclipses to meteor showers
If you see a bright star next to the moon at night, chances are it is a planet. Just before sunrise on Jan. 11, face southeast and just above the horizon you will see a slim crescent moon to the right of dazzling Venus. Venus will then slowly make its way behind the sun and become invisible for several months. It will pop out in the evening sky at the end of May and blaze as the brightest star-like object all summer and fall.
Jan. 20 and 21, it will be Mars's turn. The first quarter moon will pass by the red planet on each of those nights. Our two largest planets get a guest in the morning sky when the moon cozies up to Saturn on April 6 and Jupiter on April 7.
New Year's Resolutions for the Planet - The New York Times
In December, we asked the readers of our newsletter Climate Fwd: and our Twitter followers what they were planning on doing differently in 2021. We got some amazing responses. If you're thinking of making a "green" New Year's resolution, here are a few ideas, collected from those replies.
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Self-improvement is a classic theme of New Year's resolutions. But to improve the planet, collective action is important. And the best thing you can do is get involved. At the national and state level, that means voting, for starters. And locally, it means helping to make changes in your community: in schools, in local groups or at the town hall.
Science News Briefs from around the Planet - Scientific American
Here are some brief reports about science and technology from around the world, including one from Panama about the toll lightning takes on tropical trees.
I’m Scientific American assistant news editor Sarah Lewin Frasier. And here’s a short piece from the December 2020 issue of the magazine, in the section called Advances: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Science, Technology and Medicine.
The article is titled “ Quick Hits ,” and it’s a rundown of some noncoronavirus stories from around the globe.
And here's another article:
Hello, Venus! Solar Orbiter spacecraft makes first swing past planet | Space
The joint U.S.-European Solar Orbiter spacecraft had an appointment with Venus this morning (Dec. 27), the first in a series of planetary flybys to hone the probe's orbit on its journey to the sun.
Solar Orbiter reached its closest approach to Venus at 7:39 a.m. EST (1239 GMT), when the spacecraft was about 4,700 miles (7,500 kilometers) from the top of the planet's cloud tops. The probe, a partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in February, bound to spend seven years studying our sun . But to get as close to our star as scientists want to, the spacecraft needs to make some loops, starting with today's flyby of Venus.
Planetary Researchers Create Map of Early Mars' River Systems | Planetary Science, Space
Using data from the Context Camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , planetary researchers have generated an 8-trillion-pixel global map of Mars and performed the first systematic global survey of Martian fluvial (river) ridges.
This image shows a suite of fluvial ridges on Mars (at –67.64 °E, 43.37 °S). Image credit: J. Dickson.
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The Martian river ridges were formed between 4 and 3 billion years ago (the Noachian to Hesperian period), when large rivers deposited sediments in their channels, rather than only having the water cut away at the surface.
The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News | End of the Year Planets
The planets Jupiter and Saturn continue to appear close together. Look low in the southwestern sky after sunset. The scene is fleeting, as they both set together about an hour after sunset.
Jupiter is the brighter of the two and has moved east of Saturn. The conjunction, the appearance of these two large planets together, will continue. The two planets will appear in fairly close proximity well into the New Year.
The red planet Mars appears high in the sky after sunset. It has a dull red color compared to when it was brighter two months ago.
'Great conjunction' of Jupiter and Saturn will form a 'Christmas Star' on the winter solstice |
On the last solstice of 2020 (Dec. 21), Jupiter and Saturn will appear the closest together in the night sky in 4 centuries.
Some parts of Earth's Northern Hemisphere have been feeling chilly weather for weeks now, but the official beginning of winter occurs on the solstice. This is the point when the daytime is at its shortest in one hemisphere and when daytime is the longest in the other hemisphere. Dec. 21 is the summer solstice for the southern half of planet Earth.
Happening on Twitter
These clouds of gas, in the process of gravitationally collapsing into new stars, offer spectacular sights for owne… https://t.co/XlOD2oBsQ0 AlbertEinstein Thu Dec 24 21:17:01 +0000 2020
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🕷🐖 We've got 10 of these Spectacular Spider-Ham Q-Figs from @QMxInsider to give away over on our Instagram page. Po… https://t.co/dY05lh0Vo4 MarvelChampions (from Vancouver, BC) Thu Dec 24 20:00:30 +0000 2020
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