There is a rocket launch scheduled for tonight at the NASA/Wallops Island facility and it may be visible to residents in the Mid-Atlantic region. A two-stage suborbital sounding rocket is scheduled to be launched in the window between 7 and 10 PM for a mission managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The purpose of this mission is to increase the understanding of the boundary layer transition, turbulent heating and drag on vehicles flying at hypersonic conditions.
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In early February, nearly 40 Starlink satellites fell out of the sky as the result of a minor geomagnetic storm which followed a coronal mass ejection from the sun. The Starlink constellation is designed by SpaceX - the world’s leading provider of launch services - to provide high-speed, low latency internet connectivity to people all over the globe, including in underserved and remote regions. Last Friday, February 25th, SpaceX launched a new batch of Starlink satellites to replace those lost in early February and these went successfully into low-orbit. In the very near future, there are two more scheduled launches of Starlink satellites including one set for later this week, March 3rd and another planned for next Tuesday, March 8th – both from the Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida.
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There will be a rocket launch on Thursday night, January 6th at the NASA/Wallops Island facility and it may be visible to residents in the Mid-Atlantic region. A sounding rocket is scheduled to launch in the window between 10 PM on Thursday night to 2 AM early Friday morning. This mission hopes to shed light on the sources of X-rays that push towards Earth from elsewhere in our galaxy.
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Comet Leonard is rapidly brightening as it approaches Earth for its closest approach on Sunday, December 12th (35 million kilometers). The comet has now reached the “6th magnitude” brightness level and is visible (barely) to the unaided eye. Between now and Sunday, December 12th, the comet could brighten another 5-fold to magnitude +4 according to spaceweather.com. If the weather cooperates, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings may be the best bets for viewing at around 6am in the eastern sky. On Monday, the comet will disappear from northern hemisphere viewers, but then return later next week in the early evening sky, as it heads towards the sun. Comet Leonard will reach perihelion - its closest point to the sun - on January 3rd, 2022.
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In the wake of the partial lunar eclipse that was enjoyed by many, there is growing hope for another celestial event in December that too can be a worthy celestial event for sky viewers. The brightest comet of the year is heading our way and it should become visible in December as it makes its closest approach to Earth. On December 12th, 2021, the comet will be just 35 million kilometers away and it could be visible in the early morning sky. After that, the comet will transition into the evening sky and it will reach perihelion, its closest point to the sun, around January 3rd, 2022.
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There will be a partial (actually nearly total at 97%) lunar eclipse very late tonight that will be visible along the east coast – weather permitting. The lunar eclipse is set to begin around 2:18 AM (EST) and last until 5:47 AM (EST) with a peak around 4:02 AM (EST). In fact, this will be the longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years.
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Activity on the sun has ramped up some this year compared to 2020 as solar cycle 25 tries to get going and it should continue to increase in the coming few years. The sun has been without sunspots 24% of the time this year which is below last year’s 57% and well below the 77% of spotless days in 2019 during the last solar minimum. That last solar minimum represented the end of solar cycle #24 which featured the fewest number of sunspots since solar cycle 14 peaked in February 1906. Some of the predictions for the just underway solar cycle #25 suggest that it may peak in July 2025 and continue the trend of weakening solar cycles that began around 1980 when solar cycle 21 peaked in sunspot activity. Even weak solar cycles, however, can produce significant solar storms. In fact, it was this same time of year back in 1859 when a super solar storm - now known as the “Carrington Event” - took place during another weak solar cycle (#10). The event has been named for the British astronomer, Richard Carrington, as he observed from his own private observatory the largest solar flare which caused a major coronal mass ejection (CME) to travel directly toward Earth.
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It was just about four years ago when America went crazy for the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse on US soil since 1918 and it provided a great opportunity for scientists. This Saturday marks the four-year anniversary of what was referred to as “The Great American Solar Eclipse” when, on August 21st, 2017, the moon passed between the sun and earth. The result was a 67-mile wide shadow that crossed the country all the way from Oregon-to-South Carolina. Total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth every year or so, but generally cast their shadows over oceans or remote land masses. If you missed the 2017 total solar eclipse or it turned out to be cloudy in your particular area then there will be another opportunity in the not-too-distant future during April 2024.
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The annual Perseid meteor shower began on July 17th and will continue through August 26th, but the peak viewing times will be the pre-dawn hours of August 11, 12 and 13 (Wednesday-Friday) in what promises to be a good show. This year’s peak viewing will come at a time when the moon will be just 13% illuminated and it’ll set well before the peak viewing time period begins (i.e., late night/pre-dawn hours). Of course, all success for viewing will depend on the sky conditions during those particular nights. The Perseid meteor shower comes every August as the Earth passes through a cloud of dust that comes from Comet Swift-Tuttle as it approaches the sun.
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It was this same time of year and during the height of the Cold War when a powerful solar storm could have led to a disastrous military conflict between the US and Soviet Union if not for the early efforts of the US Air Force to monitor solar activity. On May 23rd, 1967, a solar storm took place that was so powerful, it jammed radar and radio communications in polar regions and the US Air Force actually began to prepare aircraft for war thinking the nation’s surveillance radars were being jammed by the Soviet Union. Fortunately, space weather forecasters in the military suspected there might be another cause and they relayed information about the possibility that a solar storm could have been the reason for the disrupted radar and radio communications. As it turned out, this information was enough to keep the planes on the ground and the US avoided a potential nuclear weapon exchange with the Soviet Union.
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