The evening dance of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter continues. This evening will see Jupiter and Venus draw to within 1°09′ of each other. Tomorrow will see the configuration shift a bit, Jupiter and Venus slightly closer at 1°05′ separation. Mercury will be about 3° above the close pair.
With Venus rising a little each day while Jupiter is heading into the sunset and superior conjunction, the pair will quickly separate after this close approach. After the end of the month Jupiter will depart the stage.
The Moon, Venus and Aldebaran join up for an evening conjunctionIf you have been watching the sunset for the last few days you have hopefully enjoyed the tight conjunction of the three brightest planets, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. Tonight this trio will continue to draw closer. Over the last few days Mercury and Venus have passed about 1°24′ away from each other. Now Jupiter is swinging down to join the pair, drawing within about 1° of Venus over the next few days. All three will remain within 3° of each other for three evenings, creating a triangle of very bright planets in the glow of sunset.
While Jupiter will leave the stage, exiting into the sunset after the end of the month, Mercury and Venus will continue the dance well into June.
This evening, and the next few evenings, will find Mercury, Venus and Jupiter in a tight triangle just above the sunset. The trio will be separated by less than 3° and will be well above the setting Sun, 14° at sunset, thus will remain in the sky for almost an hour after the Sun slides below the horizon.
Tonight will see Mercury and Venus even closer, separated by only 1°48′, tomorrow that will shrink to 1°26′ and 1°22′ on the 24th. The trio will all be quite bright, with Mercury shining around -1 magnitude, Jupiter at -2, and Venus around -4 magnitude. Keep watching as this trio will continue to be quite close through the end of the month.
The Moon, Venus and Aldebaran join up for an evening conjunctionThe three brightest planets are about to join up for an evening dance set. Currently Mercury is rising clear of the Sun’s glare into the evening sky. There it will join Venus and Jupiter for a conjunction that will continue, with various partners, for over a month. The three dancers will be well matched for brightness, with Mercury shining around -1 magnitude, Jupiter at -2, and Venus around -4 magnitude.
On the evening of May 24th Venus and Mercury will be about 2° apart with Jupiter 4° above. Closest approach of the three will occur the evening of May 26th with the trio forming a neat triangle about 2° on a side. On the 28th Venus and Jupiter will be just over 1° apart. During the first few days of June, the planet Jupiter will bow out of the dance, exiting the stage into the Sun’s glare. Venus and Mercury will join up one more time for a few days after June 17th, with a close approach on the 19th and 20th with about 2° separation between the two. When Mercury also heads into the sunset this dance will end during the last days of June.
On the 9th and 10th of June the Moon will run across the stage, a very thin crescent around 2% illuminated and 6° south of the planets.
Much of the dance will take place about 15° above the sunset, high enough to be nicely visible, low enough that the glow of sunset will provide a colorful backdrop to light the stage.
The sunset is getting crowded. This evening will see a trio of the sky’s brightest objects low in the shades of sunset. Venus is still quite low, ony 10.3° from the Sun, shining brightly at -4 magnitude and rising higher each day. Well above Venus can be seen Jupiter, somewhat dimmer at -2 magnitude and 23° from the Sun.
In between the two a pretty crescent Moon is positioned, 4.4% illuminated and about 5° below Jupiter. Tomorrow night will see the Moon above and south of Jupiter with about 7° separation.
This is just the start of a sunset dance that will play out over the coming month. Stay tuned for Mercury to join Venus and Jupiter.
Tonight a bright Jupiter, shining at -2.1 magnitude, will be just under 5° from a pretty crescent Moon. Look for a 20% illuminated Moon with Jupiter just above. The pair will be 50° above the western horizon at sunset.
Tonight the Moon and Jupiter will be close. Look for the pair about 40° above the western horizon at sunset. The Moon will be about 13% illuminated and about 7° below a bight Jupiter. Tomorrow the Moon will have moved to the other side of Jupiter but will be even closer, a little under 5° separation at sunset.
Observations of Europa from the W. M. Keck Observatory help NASA and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomers go one step further in demonstrating life may be possible in the ocean of one of Jupiter’s moons. In addition to the known existence of water, a paper published today shows hydrogen peroxide is abundant across much of the surface of the smallest of the Galilean Moons. The paper argues that if the peroxide on the surface of Europa mixes into the ocean below, it could be an important energy supply for simple forms of life. The paper was published online in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
(On March 14, a separate paper was published by the same team in Astronomical Journal, demonstrating the salty ocean of Europa makes its way through the frozen surface, introducing the possibility the ocean is habitable. Click here for that news release.)
“Life as we know it needs liquid water, elements like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, and it needs some form of chemical or light energy to get the business of life done,” said Kevin Hand, the paper’s lead author, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “Europa has the liquid water and elements, and we think that compounds like peroxide might be an important part of the energy requirement. The availability of oxidants like peroxide on Earth was a critical part of the rise of complex, multicellular life.”
This color composite view combines violet, green, and infrared images of Jupiter’s intriguing moon, Europa, image credit NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
The scientists think hydrogen peroxide is an important factor for the habitability of the global liquid water ocean under Europa’s icy crust because hydrogen peroxide decays to oxygen when mixed into liquid water. “At Europa, abundant compounds like peroxide could help to satisfy the chemical energy requirement needed for life within the ocean, if the peroxide is mixed into the ocean,” said Hand.
Co-author Mike Brown of Caltech in Pasadena, analyzed data collected from the Near-Infrared Echelle Spectrograph (NIRSPEC) and OH Suppressing Infra-Red Imaging Spectrograph (OSIRIS) instruments on the mighty Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, over four nights in September 2011. The highest concentration of peroxide found was on the side of Europa that always leads in its orbit around Jupiter, with a peroxide abundance of 0.12 percent relative to water. (This is roughly 20 times more diluted than the hydrogen peroxide mixture available at drug stores.) The concentration of peroxide in Europa’s ice then drops off to nearly zero on the hemisphere of Europa that faces backward in its orbit.
Hydrogen peroxide was first detected on Europa by NASA’s Galileo mission, which explored the Jupiter system from 1995 to 2003, but Galileo observations were of a limited region. The data from Keck Observatory shows that peroxide is widespread across much of the surface of Europa, and the highest concentrations are reached in regions where Europa’s ice is nearly pure water with very little sulfur contamination. The peroxide is created by the intense radiation processing of Europa’s surface ice that comes from the moon’s location within Jupiter’s strong magnetic field.
“The Galileo measurements gave us tantalizing hints of what might be happening all over the surface of Europa, and we’ve now been able to quantify that with our Keck telescope observations,” Brown said. “What we still don’t know is how the surface and the ocean mix, which would provide a mechanism for any life to use the peroxide.”
This evening will see the Moon and Jupiter quite close, about 2° apart at sunset. Look for the bright pair high in the western sky as the sky grows dark. The Moon will be about 36% illuminated and Jupiter will be quite bright at -2.2 magnitude.
