Latest news with #moon
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Here's what you might see in the sky this June
This June is filled with celestial events you won't want to miss. The summer equinox, the Strawberry full moon, and a meteor shower all happen this June. The meteor shower is first up on the calendar on June 7. The Daytime According to Star Walk, the Arietids is the strongest daytime meteor shower of the year. A daytime meteor shower is a meteor shower that occurs during the day. This, of course, means that visibility of the meteor shower will be difficult to impossible given that the sun is up! There will be a chance to see the meteors roughly one hour before dawn and leading up to dawn on the morning of June 7. The meteors will be located roughly 30° west of the sun. Therefore, estimate where the sun will come up over the horizon and shift your view slightly left. The full strawberry moon is on June 11 around 3 AM. This full moon is unique in that it will be the lowest on the horizon in 18 years (next: 2043). The June full moon is the strawberry moon because this is around the time Native Americans harvested strawberries. We change the season from spring to summer on June 20 at 9:42 PM. Conversely, the Southern Hemisphere will change from fall to winter. The summer equinox is the point when the Earth is tilted 23.5° towards the sun. The summer solstice is the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere, with a total daylight time of 14 hours and 44 minutes. It's the tilted angle of the Earth towards the sun that makes summer so hot. The Earth is located farthest from the sun during the Northern Hemisphere summer and closest during the winter. The new moon will happen just 5 days later on June 25. This will create the best stargazing conditions on the night of June 24 and June 25. This is because a new moon emits no light, therefore allowing stars to shine brighter, making them more visible than on a night when the moon is present. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Climate
- Forbes
See Jupiter Face Mercury Amid ‘Space Clouds:' The Night Sky This Week
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. As summer nears in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are short. This week, they're dominated by the moon, which enters its bulging gibbous phase in advance of next week's full strawberry moon. As well as its close brush with star Spica, there's a post-sunset view of giant Jupiter and tiny Mercury and, later at night, the chance of 'space clouds.' Here's everything you need to know about stargazing and astronomy this week: Monday, June 2: First Quarter Moon Stellarium At 10:41 p.m. EDT, the moon reaches its first quarter phase, appearing half-lit in the southern evening sky. It's a lovely sight, but it does mark the point where its brightness begins to bleach the night sky, making faint stars and constellations tougher to find. Look below the moon for Mars in the southwest and bright star Regulus in the constellation Leo between the two. Thursday, June 5: Moon And Spica Stellarium Tonight, the 77%-lit waxing gibbous moon approaches Spica, the constellation Virgo's brightest star (see below). They may appear close, but it's all an illusion — they're 261 light-years apart. Friday, June 6: Jupiter In Mercury In Conjunction Stellarium If you can find a clear view low to the northwest sky horizon, take your place shortly after sunset to try for a view of two planets just a few degrees from each other — Jupiter and Mercury. Technically, it's a naked-eye target, but binoculars may be essential given that it's so low on the horizon. They'll shine at a similar brightness, with Mercury on the way up just as Jupiter is on its way down. Tonight offers a second view of the planetary pair, with Mercury slightly higher in the northwestern sky and Jupiter marginally lower. It's likely your last look at Jupiter for a while. It will now enter the sun's glare, passing behind it from our point of view on June 24 before eventually reappearing in the morning sky in July. Darkness may be in short supply in June in northern latitudes, but as twilight deepens, there can often be something spectacular high in the northern sky. Look around 10 p.m. for noctilucent clouds, thread-like structures about 50 miles up close to the edge of space. They're the product of ice crystals forming around dust from meteors in the high atmosphere. Constellation Of The Week: Virgo Stellarium The constellation Virgo, 'the Maiden,' is high in the southern sky after dark this week. Its brightest star, Spica — close to the moon on Thursday — can be found using the Big Dipper. Follow the stars of its handle in an arc to go 'arc to Arcturus,' the bright reddish star in the constellation Boötes, 'the Herdsman,' then 'spike to Spica' (those it's usually pronounced 'speaker'). Virgo contains the Virgo Cluster, a group of galaxies about 54 million light-years from the Milky Way. 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.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Don't miss the crescent moon shining close to Mars on May 31
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The moon will appear to skip over Mars between the nights of May 31 and June 1, appearing to grow ever larger ahead of its first quarter phase next week. Stargazers in the U.S. can find the moon roughly 35 degrees above the western horizon an hour after sunset on May 31, with the stars of the constellations Leo (left) and Cancer (right) shining on either side. Mars will be visible as a bright reddish point of light approximately 7 degrees to the upper left of the sickle moon. Remember, you can judge distances in the night sky using nothing but your outstretched fist: The distance between your thumb and the other side of your clenched fist will take up around 10 degrees of sky, while the width of a single finger accounts for 1 degree. Aside from the Red Planet, the famous Beehive Cluster of stars will be visible to the lunar disk's lower right near the center of the cosmic crab, represented by the stars of the Cancer constellation. While the Beehive Cluster is visible to the naked eye under dark skies, a pair of 10x50 binoculars will bring out the majesty of the 1,000-strong 'hive' of stars. The moon is set to make its closest apparent approach to Mars at 6:52 a.m. EDT (1052 GMT) on June 1, at which time the two worlds will be separated by a little over 1 degree in the sky, according to stargazing site This will happen during the day for stargazers in the U.S., while the pair are hidden well below the horizon. TOP TELESCOPE PICK: Want to see the planets of our solar system for yourself? The Celestron NexStar 4SE is ideal for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 4SE review. By the time the sun sets on June 1, the moon will have skipped past Mars to appear on the Red Planet's upper left, with a little over 5 degrees separating the two solar system bodies. Regulus, one of the northern hemisphere's brightest stars, will be visible shining to the left of the moon soon after twilight falls. Its crescent form will appear to travel around the bright star as the night unfolds, before eventually setting atop it around midnight local time. The next night will see the moon appear fuller ahead of its first quarter phase on June 2, at which point half of its disk will be bathed in direct sunlight from the perspective of Earth. Photographers hoping to capture the wonders of our solar system after sunset should check out our guides on the best cameras and best lenses for astrophotography. Those looking to see the light cast out from distant stars and galaxies should also read up on our roundups of the best binocular and telescopes deals available in 2025. Editor's Note: If you snap a picture of the moon and Mars and want to share it with readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA plans to build a giant radio telescope on the 'dark side' of the moon. Here's why.
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA scientists are currently working on plans to build a giant radio telescope in a nearly mile-wide crater on the "dark side" of the moon. If approved, it could be constructed as early as the 2030s and cost more than $2 billion, project scientists told Live Science. Astronomers want to build the first-of-its-kind dish, known as the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT), to help unravel some of the universe's biggest mysteries — but also because they are concerned about growing levels of invisible radiation leaking from private satellite "megaconstellations," which could soon disrupt Earth-based radio astronomy. The proposed telescope will be built entirely by robots and consist of a giant wire mesh suspended via cables within a crater on the moon's far side, similar to the collapsed alien-hunting Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico or China's giant Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which were both built within natural depressions on Earth. This will shelter the dish from satellite signals, as well as prevent interference from solar radiation and Earth's atmosphere. The LCRT project is currently being investigated by a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology. It was first proposed in 2020 and was awarded $125,000 in "phase I" funding from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). In 2021, the project reached "phase II" and was awarded an additional $500,000 of NIAC funding. The team is preparing to apply for "phase III" funding, which could be granted as early as next year, and they are currently building a 200:1 scale prototype that will be tested at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California later this year, Gaurangi Gupta, a research scientist at JPL who is part of the LCRT project, told Live Science. If the funding is approved — and the project passes this final phase — it will become a fully-fledged mission and the telescope could potentially be built at some point in the 2030s, Gupta said. Related: Scientists may finally be close to explaining strange radio signals from beyond the Milky Way The most up-to-date plans for the telescope include a 1,150-foot-wide (350 meter) meshed reflector, which is larger than Arecibo's collapsed dish but smaller than FAST. This is around three times smaller than the 3,300-foot (1,000 m) reflector initially proposed in 2020, which would have been the largest single telescope ever built. The researchers have already selected their preferred crater — a 0.8-mile-wide (1.3 km) depression in the moon's Northern Hemisphere — but are keeping its exact location under wraps. This is not the first time that scientists have proposed putting a radio telescope on the moon. The idea dates back to at least 1984, Gupta said. However, due to the technical challenges of building such a structure, it has never been seriously considered until now. "But with state-of-the-art technology, LCRT can potentially solve all these issues and make this concept a reality," Gupta said. However, the latest "rough estimate" suggests the construction of the LCRT could cost around $2.6 billion, Gupta said. This might prove to be the final stumbling block, especially as NASA's budget is being severely slashed by the Trump administration. The number of satellites orbiting Earth is rising fast, thanks to the emergence of private satellites, particularly SpaceX's rapidly growing Starlink constellation. This can create several problems, including an increase in space junk, rising light pollution in the night sky and a build-up of metal pollution in the upper atmosphere from satellite reentries. A lesser-known issue is that private satellites are prone to accidentally leaking radiation into space, which can interfere with radio telescopes trying to study distant objects such as ancient galaxies, nearby exoplanets and supermassive black holes. Several radio astronomers recently told Live Science that, if the number of satellites around our planet reaches maximum capacity, we could reach an "inflection point" beyond which radio astronomy would be extremely limited, and even impossible in some wavelengths. If this were to happen, "it would mean that we are artificially closing 'windows' to observe our universe," Federico Di Vruno, an astronomer at the Square Kilometer Array Observatory and co-director of the International Astronomical Union's Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky, told Live Science. Having a shielded telescope on the moon could allow radio astronomy to persist even if this worst-case scenario comes to pass. However, this one telescope would only allow us to do a fraction of the science currently being achieved by radio observatories across the globe, meaning our ability to study the cosmos would still be drastically limited. Other researchers are also exploring the possibility of using a constellation of moon-orbiting satellites, as an accompaniment or alternative to the LCRT, Gupta said. However, these will likely have a much reduced window for observations than the larger telescope. In addition to preserving radio astronomy, LCRT could also allow us to scan wavelengths that Earth-based telescopes cannot. Radio signals with wavelengths greater than 33 feet (10 m), known as ultra-long wavelengths, do not easily pass through Earth's atmosphere, making them almost impossible to study from the ground. But these wavelengths are also vital in studying the very beginning of the universe, known as the cosmic dark ages, because signals from this epoch have been extremely red-shifted, or stretched out, before they reach us. "During this phase, the universe primarily consisted of neutral hydrogen, photons and dark matter, thus it serves as an excellent laboratory for testing our understanding of cosmology," Gupta said. "Observations of the dark ages have the potential to revolutionize physics and cosmology by improving our understanding of fundamental particle physics, dark matter, dark energy and cosmic inflation." The LCRT would also be shielded from solar radiation, which can also interfere with some other radio signals, allowing those wavelengths to be more easily studied on the moon. If LCRT is approved it will be a major coup for science. But it will not actually be the first lunar radio telescope. In February 2024, Intuitive Machine's Odysseus lander — the first private spacecraft to land on the moon and the first American lunar lander for more than 50 years — carried NASA's first Radiowave Observations on the Lunar Surface of the photo-Electron Sheath (ROLSES-1) instrument to the moon's near side. Despite the fact that the lander face-planted and ended up tilted on its side, the 30-pound (14 kilogram) telescope was still able to briefly collect the first lunar radio data. However, because ROLSES-1 was facing Earth, almost all the signals it collected came from our own planet, offering little astronomical value, according to a study uploaded March 12 to the pre-print journal arXiv. "This is a good demonstration of why we need to be on the far side for reliable measurements of the dark ages signal in a radio-quiet environment," Gupta said RELATED STORIES —Radio signal from 8 billion light-years away could reveal the secrets of the universe's 'dark age' —Astronomers discover new 'odd radio circle' near the center of our galaxy —Strange radio signals detected from Earth-like planet could be a magnetic field necessary for life Later this year, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost II lander will also attempt to land on the moon's far side. Among its scheduled payloads is the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE Night) — a mini radio telescope from the U.S. Department of Energy that will scan the sky for ultra-long-wavelength signals, Live Science's sister site previously reported. "The observations from these telescopes would be valuable for understanding the lunar environment, and the challenges and potential mitigation strategies to detect ultra-long wavelength signals," Gupta said.
National Post
5 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Daily Horoscope - Thursday, May 29, 2025
Article content Moon Alert There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The Moon is in Cancer. Article content Article content Aries (March 21-April 19) **** This is a fast-paced, stimulating day; and you're keen to get your point of view across to someone. (Today you're more of a talker than a listener.) It's an excellent time to start a new business venture, as well as exchange and learn ideas and plans related to business and commerce. Article content Article content Taurus (April 20-May 20) **** You are the financial wizard of the zodiac and today, you have moneymaking ideas! Or perhaps this stimulating influence taking place in your Money House will produce financial discussions with others? (You might be keen to make a special purchase.) Ka-ching! Article content Gemini (May 21-June 20) ***** Today both the Sun and your ruler Mercury are lined up in your sign, which stimulates your need to talk to others and share your ideas. You want to make plans for the future. Get out and travel! Be an active agent with respect to the world at large. Article content Cancer (June 21-July 22) **** The Moon is still in your sign boosting your good fortune over all the other signs. Take advantage of this! Why not ask the universe for a favour? Meanwhile, research of any kind will pay off for you today because you'll seek answers and information with determination. Article content Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) **** Today two different energies are at play: One will encourage you to get out and talk to everyone. You'll be enthused, extroverted and interested in talking to younger people in particular. You might share your goals for the future with someone. Nevertheless, part of you wants to stay private. Article content Article content Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) **** You have confidence to talk to bosses, teachers, parents and people in authority today, which is why you won't hesitate to express your views. You'll ask for what you want, which is why you might advance your agenda. You can demonstrate your knowledge. (You'll impress others.) Article content Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) ***** You're the most sociable sign in the zodiac; and today, you will love interacting with others, especially sharing exciting, fresh ideas. Discussions about politics, religion, philosophy and heady topics will turn your crank. You might make travel plans because you want to expand your horizons! Article content Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) **** You have determination and steely discipline, which is why you will be intrigued by deep, psychological truths today. You might have a profound effect upon someone, or you might attract someone who amazes you. Discussions about finances and shared property might also occur.
