December 23, 2024

Worrying Solar Storm Data, Falcon Heavy is Back, Total Lunar Eclipse

As constantly, if you prefer to have the current area and astronomy news being videoed at you, enjoy todays episode of Space Bites.

Falcon Heavys back after 40 months of absence. Theres a meteor shower and an overall lunar eclipse in the coming days.

More Pillars of Creation by Webb

Another remarkable image from JWST. This time were taking a look at the Pillars of Creation (again), but with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). MIRI is delicate to the giant clouds of gas and dust surrounding the freshly forming stars in the area. In this view, you can see the faint background clouds in red, which are undetectable in other wavelengths. The blue-looking stars have actually already cleared their environments of gas and dust. The densest dust regions reveal up as the darkest tones of grey– anyhow, time to switch out your phones background for this one.

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More about MIRIs Pillars of Creation.
Meteor Shower and Total Lunar Eclipse
May 2022s overall lunar eclipse. Credit: Filipp Romanov
Keep your eyes on the sky next week; you might see a couple of fireballs as part of the annual Taurid meteor shower. Typically this meteor shower is disappointing, offering us about 5 meteors/hour at the peak.
On Tuesday, November 8th, Eastern Asia and Western North America will be dealt with to a total lunar eclipse. This is when the Earths shadow falls onto the Moon, obscuring it and turning it into a deep shade of red. The entire eclipse will last for 5 hours and 54 minutes, with the Moon travelling through the dark inner region of the shadow for 1 hour and 24 minutes. Unfortunately, this will be the last overall lunar eclipse up until March 14th, 2025. Read our total guide.
More about Taurids and the Total Lunar Eclipse.
Star Storms in Tree Rings
Image Credit: Rbreidbrown/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Solar storms are one of them. Does it suggest that solar storms of the past were much more disastrous?
More about solar storm records.
Heavy Elements from Neutron Stars Merger
Artists conception of a neutron star merger. Credit: Tohoku University
In 2017 astronomers detected the very first kilonova collision of two neutron stars, and their impact was seen in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation. Astronomers also experienced a huge cloud of gold generated by the clashing neutron stars. Scientist simulated the merger on a supercomputer and anticipated that other heavy aspects, like cerium, lanthanum, and strontium, must be noticeable in the wreckage. Then they imaged the region with effective telescopes and discovered the aspects as anticipated.
More about kilonova aftermath.
InSight Felt a Meteor Strike on Mars
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
Unlike the hundreds of other tremblers felt so far, this one resulted from a house-sized meteorite crashing into Mars. The impact site was found using NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which determined about 150-meters across and 21 meters deep.
More about InSights discovery.
Falcon Heavy Is Back
Credit: SpaceX/Space Force
Its been 40 months since SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket last blasted off. On November 2, we viewed the mighty rocket carry a classified payload for United States Space Force. The twin side boosters went back to the launch website through the thick fog, however the central core wasnt recycled because it was helping to loft the cargo into a geostationary transfer orbit. This was SpaceXs 50th launch in 2022, meeting a pace of one rocket launch every 6.1 days.
More about Falcon Heavy launch.
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Theres a meteor shower and a total lunar eclipse in the coming days. Keep your eyes on the sky next week; you might see a few fireballs as part of the yearly Taurid meteor shower. Usually this meteor shower is frustrating, offering us about five meteors/hour at the peak. On Tuesday, November 8th, Eastern Asia and Western North America will be treated to an overall lunar eclipse. The whole eclipse will last for 5 hours and 54 minutes, with the Moon passing through the dark inner region of the shadow for 1 hour and 24 minutes.