Image source: Space.com
Betelgeuse, Artemis II, & Leo the Lion
You may have read an article floating around the various media we have at our fingertips that the red supergiant star in Orion’s left shoulder is going to go supernova, which made you anxious for your future. Unless you are going to be living on planet earth for 100,000 years, please don’t give it another thought. Scientists who observed the decidedly (as much as one-third of its brightness) dimming of Betelgeuse in 2019 thought it was beginning its ‘death throes.’ However, they continued to observe over the succeeding years and have decided that it merely had a gas problem. The hot gas expelled cooled and condensed as a cloud of dark dust which obscured as much as one-fourth of the star’s surface. Keep in mind that as longer studies of almost everything we ‘know or think we know is so,’ often is not so. With the dissipation of the gas, Betelgeuse returned to its normal peak brightness. Aren’t you glad to learn you have one less thing to fret over this week?
Space fans are excitedly anticipating the launch of the long-anticipated launch of Artemis II. If you haven’t heard, NASA is launching four astronauts to test out the Orion spaceship and its capabilities before sending a different crew to actually land on the Moon. This mission has veteran astronaut Victor Glover as pilot, Reid Wiseman as mission commander, and two mission specialists. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/our-artemis-crew/ If you were glued to a black and white television holding your breath waiting to hear the voices of the first NASA astronaut pioneers you will never forget that feeling of ‘will they make it home again’ and that deep breath you took as their voice came across the miles to reassure us that they did.
Space travel is not a ho-hum thing. Each mission is fraught with danger and possible problems and those who venture to serve in exploration are a special group of people. The flight window for this first mission has several launch windows during February, March, and April, depending on geometry between the Moon and Earth, plus the weather, and any possible last-minute glitches of course.
February is a good month for viewing the planets, especially bright Jupiter which is in view almost all night, shining brightest of the points of light except for the Moon, and by the end of the month, Venus. On Monday look for the Moon crowding into the Pleiades star cluster. If you use binoculars to scan around the Moon you may be able to detect the dipper shape group-but the real Big and Little Dipper asterisms will be in the north-always. By Thursday Jupiter will be hanging around with the Moon that has moved along the ecliptic as Earth travels its orbit around the Sun. On Friday night look for the Gemini Twins above the Moon. Pollux will be closest to the Moon and Jupiter to the right of the Moon. What a sight to see-no wonder KLU is part of my columns. If we don’t look up, we miss a lot.
Leo the lion is well into the sky following Orion now. The brightest star in Leo is Regulus, the heart of the Lion King. This star is actually four stars, a large blue star with a white dwarf companion and two red dwarf stars. This link will provide you with a good resource about Leo. https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/best-regulus-the-heart-of-the-lion/ You might decide to check out Earthsky.org and sign up for the regular email they send. It has provided me with reliable information over the years. Leo looks like a backward question mark in the sky or an old-fashioned sickle outlining his head, followed by a large triangle for the hindquarters. The star at the left vertice of the triangle is Denebola, which, to no one’s surprise, means ‘tail.’
Since Leo is following Orion it is also near Gemini. In Gemini there is a planetary nebula labeled NGC2392. It has been given a popular name of the Lion nebula. People thought these objects were planets before we had really good telescopes. They are actually glowing shells of gases that have nothing to do with planets. https://youtu.be/XLIPMi2QnRc will let you decide how lion-like it is.
Until next time, KLU and enjoy Charro Days events in Brownsville this weekend and PS: here is a sombrero for you. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090503.html
