Day: March 28, 2016

Astronomy Picture of the Day – Orion’s Belt and Sword over Teide’s Peak

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2016 March 28

Orion’s Belt and Sword over Teide’s Peak
Image Credit & Copyright: Cesar & Carlos Tejedor

 

Explanation: The southern part of Orion, the famous constellation and mythical hunter, appears quite picturesque posing here over a famous volcano. Located in the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa, the snow-peaked Teide is one of the largest volcanoes on Earth. Lights from a group planning to summit Teide before dawn are visible below the volcano’s peak. In this composite of exposures taken from the same location one night last month, the three iconic belt stars ofOrion are seen just above the peak, while the famous Orion Nebula and the rest of Orion’s sword are visible beyond the volcano’s left slope. Also visible in the long duration sky image are the Horsehead Nebula, seen as a dark indentation on the red emission nebula to the belt’s left, and the Flame Nebula, evident just above and to the right of the Horsehead.

Earth Sky News for March 28th: Moon, Saturn, Mars on March 28-29

Moon, Saturn, Mars on March 28-29

Late night Sunday and before dawn Monday morning, the moon was close to Mars on the sky’s dome. Late night tonight – and before dawn on March 29, 2016 – expect to see this lovely waning gibbous moon closer to the planet Saturn and star Antares, brightest light in constellation Scorpius the Scorpion.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, look southward. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, look closer to overhead.

Mars is the brightest of the three starlike objects, and you’ll have no trouble spotting it. If you don’t already know Antares, whose location within the constellation Scorpius makes it very noticeable, you can distinguish Saturn from Antares by color. Saturn shines steadily with a golden hue, while Antares sparkles more and appears redder in color.

If the bright moon makes it hard to discern color, try looking with binoculars.

Mars, Saturn and Antares will make a triangle in our sky for months to come.

And what of Antares, the bright star near the planets?

This bright red star is considered the Scorpion’s ruby heart. It’s a red supergiantstar, located roughly opposite in the sky from another famous red supergiant star,Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion the Hunter. In skyline, it’s said that the Scorpion and the Hunter never appear in the sky at the same time. And indeed … they don’t! As a rule of thumb, when you see Antares in the sky, Betelgeuse will be below the horizon. Why? Simply because these two stars are located on opposite sides of Earth in the grand space of our Milky Way galaxy.

Still, Antares and Betelgeuse provide an interesting comparison. Both Antares and Betelgeuse can clearly be seen as reddish stars.

Both Antares and Betelgeuse are near the end of their lifetimes. Massive supergiant red stars are expected to explode as supernovae. The supernova could happen tomorrow or millions of years in the future. Astronomers don’t really know for sure. These stars are far enough from us (hundreds of light-years) that the deadly radiation probably won’t harm Earth.

Antares is truly an enormous star, with a radius in excess of 3 Astronomical Units (AU). One AU is the Earth’s average distance from the sun. If by some bit of magic Antares was suddenly substituted for our sun, the surface of the star would extend well past the orbit of Mars!

Antares is classified as an M1 supergiant star. The “M1” designation says that Antares is reddish in color and “cooler” than many other stars. Its surface temperature of 3500 kelvins (about 5800 degrees F.) is in contrast to about 10,000 degrees F. for our sun. Even though Antares’ surface temperature is relatively low, Antares’ tremendous surface area – the surface from which light can escape – makes this star very bright. In fact, Antares approaches 11,000 times the brilliance of our puny sun, a G2 star – but that is just in visible light. When all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation is considered, Antares pumps out more than 60,000 times the energy of our sun!

Bottom line: The planet near the moon on the morning of March 29, 2016, is Saturn. The star Antares – Heart of the Scorpion in the constellation Scorpius – is also nearby and so is the planet Mars. Antares is a red supergiant star, destined to explode someday.

 

Source

Larry Sessions

Larry Sessions

Larry Sessions writes for EarthSky about astronomy and other topics related to physical science, emphasizing observations that can be made with little or no equipment. He also writes and maintains his own astronomy website, as well as class websites for the classes he teaches. His North American Skies website has earned a one of “Ten Cool Sites” recognition by the Exploratorium, and the Griffith Observatory Star Award.

A former planetarium director in Little Rock, Fort Worth and Denver, Larry currently is an adjunct faculty member at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and at the Community College of Aurora (CCA, Colorado). He is a co-recipient of the 2010 Tom Brosh Adjunct Faculty Award at CCA, and a former longtime member of “Solar System Ambassadors” program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For six years he was a contributing writer for the Sky Calendar on Space.com. In addition, he was formerly the managing editor at the Denver Museum of Natural History, as well as for the award-winning “Weather Guide” calendar from Accord Publishing. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Sky & Telescope, Astronomy and Rolling Stone. His small book on world star lore, Constellations, was published by Running Press.

Larry is a former member the SouthWestern Association of Planetariums. He lives in Denver with his wife, Marlene, and their two dogs, Mikatsuki (“New Moon”) and Yoshi (“Lucky”).

 

Article published on EarthSky

Your Daily Influences for March 28

Your Daily Influences
March 28, 2016

 

Seven of Swords
Plans may fail. Distrust and dishonesty are possible. Success will not be complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dagaz
Dagaz represents the fresh light of a new day. You are close to making a breakthrough. You have the will to change whatever you deem necessary. You may see the world with absolute clarity at this time.

 

 

 

The Buckle of Isis
Someone will, or has told a lie about you regarding this aspect and damaged your reputation in ways that may not become apparent to you for many weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Daily Influences represent events and challenges the current day will present for you. They may represent opportunities you should be ready to seize. Or they may forewarn you of problems you may be able to avoid or lessen. Generally it is best to use them as tips to help you manage your day and nothing more.