[ad_1]
July 2018 is the best time for March. Those of you who stay after 11 pm will see a bright red-orange "star" that is even brighter than the planet king, Jupiter, which you see in the south at sunset. This star is actually Mars on its way to its closest approach to Earth since 2003. Mars has an elliptical orbit that is almost nine times more eccentric than our orbit around the sun. Usually, we go through Mars when Mars is at a point farther from its orbit. Not this time. We will go through Mars when Mars is close to its perihelion point (when it is closest to the sun).
Also July 6 is an aphelion day for Earth, when we are farther away from the sun (at 94.51 million miles). Put these two things together and it means a close approach this time around. Mars will be closest to Earth at the end of July
If the closest approach is July 30/31, why did we launch Mars InSight during the first week of May? Unlike Hollywood, NASA (and other space agencies) works in the realm of reality where the distances traveled by the solar system are measured in millions of kilometers, where rockets have a limited supply of fuel and where the planets are constantly moving. Our spacecraft must be orbited around the sun and the coast as often as possible, allowing the gravity of the sun and planets to guide the craft towards its destination. We need to time things as they should, so this freewheeling trajectory brings the spacecraft and Mars to the same point on the orbit of Mars at the same time.
I hope that the global storm of dust raging on Mars is thinning InSight reaches Mars in November. The dust storm has been going on for more than a month (reaching "the global scale" a few weeks ago). The dust storm has so blocked sunlight that the Opportunity rover has long been in sleep mode to save the energy of the heaters, so that the electronics do not freeze (and "kill" the mobile) and that his clock can continue to run. The clock has to keep running, so Opportunity knows when to wake up every few days and check the power levels. If the power levels are too low, he goes back to sleep.
Unlike the Curiosity rover, Opportunity runs on solar power and only works with its batteries. If the storm drops too much dust on its panels, Opportunity may not be able to wake up. The initial estimate of 90 days for the lifetime of the opportunity was based on estimates of how fast the Martian dust would cover its solar panels. Fortunately, dust devils were occasionally blown, which allowed him to continue to study his part of Mars since 2004.
Curiosity is nuclear energy, so it is less affected by the reduction of sunlight. We do not have to worry about global dust storms on Earth because of several factors: a denser atmosphere, a stronger gravity, a rain that sucks dust from the air and vegetation that covers the ground. its roots and blocks the wind that sweeps the surface.
Aphelion's day falls just in the middle of our summer. Our warm temperatures during the summer are caused by the more direct angle of sunlight hitting our part of the earth (the sun rises higher in our sky) and the longer hours of the day. The more direct angle of sunlight gives the sun greater cooking power for us and more daylight means more cooking time. In the night sky
Tuesday night after sunset, you will see Venus less than 1 degree (thumb width at arm's length) of Regulus, the brightest star of Leo. The next morning, the early risers will see a thin crescent moon crescent right next to Aldebaran, the brightest star of Taurus. In parts of Canada, the moon will cover the star. The night of July 10 will see Jupiter stop his retrograde move to the west and begin his drift to the usual east among the stars. In the early evening of July 15, shortly after sunset, a thin crescent crescent moon will be within 2 degrees of luminous Venus – a beautiful view through binoculars!
On June 21, the Kern Astronomical Society will return to Park at River Walk for a free public party. Put it now on your calendar and come see the telescopes!
Source link
