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Jupiter, Vesta, and the Milk
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| Title |
Jupiter, Vesta, and the Milky Way |
| Explanation |
In this gorgeous skyscape, gas giant Jupiter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070329.html ] along with the stars and cosmic dust clouds of the Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070330.html ] hang over the southern horizon in the early morning hours as seen from Stagecoach, Colorado, USA. Recorded on Thursday, Jupiter is the brightest object near picture center. Along with the stunning Milky Way, Jupiter is hard to miss, but a careful inspection of the view also reveals main belt [ http://www.solstation.com/stars/asteroid.htm ] asteroid Vesta [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060820.html ]. Of all the asteroids [ http://www.nineplanets.org/asteroids.html ] Vesta is the brightest and is now just bright enough to be visible to the naked eye from locations with very dark, clear skies. Vesta (as well as Jupiter) appears relatively bright now because it is near opposition, literally [ http://www.heavens-above.com/ gloss.asp?term=opposition ] opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky and closest to Earth in its orbit. For Vesta [ http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/feature_stories/ Vesta_chart_descrip.asp ], this opposition offers the best viewing in many years. The year 2007 also coincides [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1907Obs....30..103L ] with the 200th anniversary of the asteroid's discovery [ http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/DawnCommunity/ flashbacks/fb_06.asp ]. Starting late next month, NASA plans to launch the Dawn mission [ http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.asp ] intended to explore Vesta (and Ceres) and the main asteroid belt. |
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Saturn and Vesta in Taurus
| Title |
Saturn and Vesta in Taurus |
| Explanation |
Last November, while skygazing [ http://pages.prodigy.net/pam.orman/ JoeGallery.html ] toward the constellation Taurus [ http://hou.lbl.gov/~vhoette/Explorations/StarHop/ ], astrophotographer Joe Orman arranged this time exposure to include the lovely Hyades and Pleiades star clusters in the field of his telephoto lens. A distance of 400 light-years [ http://school.discovery.com/ schooladventures/universe/itsawesome/lightyears/ ] for the close-knit Pleiades [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010506.html ] and 150 light-years for the V-shaped [ http://www.aspsky.org/mercury/mercury/9803/hyades.html ] Hyades [ http://astro.estec.esa.nl/Hipparcos/hyades.html ] puts these clusters in the general galactic neighborhood [ http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/ 250lys.html ] of the Sun. Punctuating the Hyades' appearance, bright yellow Aldebaran [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/aldebaran.html ], 60 light-years away, is not actually a member of the cluster, but it is Taurus' brightest star. Above Aldebaran a yellower, even brighter Saturn [ http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?tbody=6& vbody=3&month=11&day=17¢ury=20&decade=0&year=1&hour=00& minute=0&rfov=30&fovmul=-1&bfov=30 ] is is seen about 1.2 light-hours [ http://casswww.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/Intro.html ] from our fair planet. Last and least massive [ http://aa.usno.navy.mil/hilton/asteroid_masses.htm ], one of the faint specks below Aldebaran is main-belt asteroid [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/ asteroids.html ] Vesta, a mere 13 light-minutes [ http://www.unmuseum.org/speed.htm ] away. Still cruising through Taurus, Vesta [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/95/20.html ] is steadily approaching a close alignment or conjunction [ http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/ Conjunction.html ] with Saturn on March 19. Need a program [ http://pages.prodigy.net/pam.orman/ JoeAlmanac2002.html ] to follow the players? Click on the image for a labeled version. |
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