See A ‘Smiley Face' Above As A ‘Supermoon' Strikes: The Night Sky This Week
A crescent moon rises behind the skyline of lower Manhattan in New York City on January 14, 2018, as ... More seen from West Orange, New Jersey. (Photo by)
Each Monday, I pick out North America's celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere). Check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more.
There's a lot going on in the night sky this week. It begins with a new moon, which may mean high tides and potential flooding in coastal areas. In its wake, a new orbit of the moon around Earth will begin in striking fashion, with several nights to see a beautiful waxing crescent moon close to Jupiter, then Mars. Here's everything you need to know about stargazing and the night sky this week.
Today brings a new moon, when our natural satellite is roughly between the Earth and the sun, so completely invisible to us. That happens at precisely 10:02 p.m. EDT, and this month, it's rather special because it's also a 'supermoon.' Called a perigee moon by astronomers, it means a moon that is as close as possible in any given orbit. It occurs because the moon's orbit around Earth is elliptical, so it must have a farthest (apogee) and closest (perigee) point. This month's new moon is actually the third-closest new moon of the year at 223,720 miles (360,044 km) from Earth. More importantly, perhaps, a new moon means no moonlight, so perfect conditions for stargazing.
Tuesday, May 27: Young Moon And Jupiter
If skies are clear about 45 minutes after sunset, scan the northwestern horizon for a razor-thin crescent moon — just over 1%-lit — hanging delicately near brilliant Jupiter. Binoculars will likely be necessary to catch the moon's razor-thin crescent.
Wednesday, May 28: Crescent Moon And Jupiter
The waxing crescent moon will have moved slightly eastward in its orbit, growing to about 5%-lit and positioned slightly higher in the sky after sunset. Tonight, it will sit just above Jupiter in the west-northwest sky during twilight. Earthshine — the faint illumination of the moon's dark side by reflected sunlight from Earth — may be visible.
Thursday, May 29: 'Smiley Face' Moon In Gemini
Tonight, you'll see one of the most delightful lunar alignments of the year. About 45 minutes after sunset, look west for a 12%-illuminated crescent moon forming the 'smile' beneath two bright 'eyes' — the twin stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini. The moon will set shortly after twilight ends.
Saturday, May 31: Moon, Mars And Regulus
A 29%-lit crescent moon will meet Mars in the west shortly after sunset. Look just beyond the pair for Regulus, the bright blue-white star in the constellation Leo.
Sunday, June 1: Crescent Moon And Regulus
Now 39%-lit, the now very bright waxing crescent moon will be seen very close to Regulus high in the southwestern sky after sunset. From North America, the moon will appear to be much closer to Regulus than to Mars.
The times and dates given apply to mid-northern latitudes. For the most accurate location-specific information, consult online planetariums like Stellarium.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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We will take the myopic stance that AGI is absent from any physical form and completely confined to running on servers in the cloud someplace. I might add that this is an especially silly assumption since there is also a great deal of work going on known as Physical AI, see my coverage at the link here, entailing embedding AI into assembly lines, building maintenance systems, and all manner of physically oriented devices. Anyway, let's go with the flow and pretend we don't recognize any of that. It's a Yoda mind trick to look away from those efforts. Recent reports have exhorted that during an interview with two AI researchers, the pair indicated that since AGI won't have physical capabilities, a scary scenario is that AGI will opt to enlist humans into acting as the arms and legs for AGI. Humans would be outfitted with earbuds and smart glasses that would allow the AGI to give those enlisted humans instructions on what to do. A quick aside. If we are going that despairing route, wouldn't it be a bit more sophisticated to indicate that the humans would be wearing a BCI (brain-computer interface) device? In that manner, AGI would be able to directly communicate with the brains of the enlisted humans and influence their minds directly. That's a lot more space-age. For my coverage of the latest advances in BCIs, see the link here. The humans that are acting under the direction of AGI would be chillingly referred to as meat robots. They are like conventional robots but instead of being made of metal and electronics, they are made of human form since they are actual, living breathing humans. I imagine you could smarmily say that AGI is going to be a real meat lover (Dad pun!). One angle to help make this vision more palatable would be to point out that humans might very well voluntarily be working with AGI and do so via earbuds, smart glasses, and the like. Here's the gist. Let's generally agree that AGI will be intellectually on par with humans. This includes having expertise across all domains such as legal expertise, financial expertise, medical expertise, and so on. In that case, it would behoove humans to readily tap into AGI. No matter what you are doing, whether for work or play, having immediately available an AI that can advise you on all topics is a tremendous benefit. There you are at work, stuck on solving a tough problem, and you are unsure of how to proceed. Rather than turning to a coworker, you switch on your access to AGI. You bring AGI into the loop. After doing so, AGI provides handy solutions that you can consider enacting. You might use AGI via a desktop, laptop, or smartphone. The thing is, those devices aren't quite as mobility-oriented as wearing earbuds and a pair of smart glasses. 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May the force of goodness be strong within them. As Yoda has notably already pointed out: 'Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.' The ally of the meat robots is the Force and quite a powerful ally it is.
