December is an exciting month for those who like to look up, with a comet, a meteor shower, and a conjunction between the moon and Jupiter all featuring over the coming weeks.
First up, for those with a telescope with an aperture of at least 30 centimeters, this month offers a chance to view Comet 3I/ATLAS, the third object in history from outside of our own solar system to be spotted within our solar system, and one that’s been in the news quite a bit recently.
During its closest approach to Earth on December 19, look east to northeast in the early pre-dawn morning and you should be able to spot the comet directly beneath Regulus, a star at the heart of the constellation Leo, the lion.
If you have an observatory in your area, check to see if it’s holding any skywatching events to view the comet later this month.
NASA notes that Comet 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth. “On its closest approach to our planet on December 19, it will still be about 170 million miles away, or more than 700 times the distance between the Earth and the moon,” the space agency said on its website.
This year, the Geminid meteor shower peaks on the evenings of December 13 and 14.
NASA notes that this particular meteor shower, which is made up of debris trailing the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, is known for being “bright and colorful,” so it’s definitely one to watch.
To do so, look to the eastern sky anytime throughout the evenings of December 13 and 14. The meteors will appear near the bright planet Jupiter, which is easy to spot with the naked eye. With the darkest possible skies, and away from bright city lights, you may be lucky enough to witness as many as 120 Geminid meteors every hour.
The moon will appear close to Jupiter on the evening of December 7, a striking scene that you can easily enjoy with the naked eye.
“During a conjunction, objects in the sky — like planets and moons — appear close together even though they’re actually far apart,” NASA explained. “For example, while the moon and Jupiter will buddy up this month from our view, in space, they’re actually hundreds of millions of miles apart.”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.