10 Astronomical Events
10 Astronomical Events That Will Happen In Your Lifetime
Supernova
On Average, A Supernova
Goes Off Twice A Century In A Galaxy The Size Of The Milky Way, So Scientists
Believe The Magnificent Astronomical Event Is Imminent. Supernovae Are
Explosions That Occur At The End Of Life For Stars More Massive Than Our Sun.
The Massive Star Explodes When It Has Used Up All Its Hydrogen Fuel And Its
Core Collapses Just Before It Explodes, Ejecting Most Of Its Mass Into Space. They
Are Triggered In Two Ways: Either By The Sudden Re-Ignition Of Nuclear Fusion
In A Compact Star, Or By The Collapse Of The Core Of A Massive Star. The Last
One Was Spotted Three Decades Ago, On February 23rd, 1987. Nicknamed ‘Supernova
1987a’, It Blazed With The Power Of 100 Million Suns For Several Months
Following Its Discovery And Was One Of The Brightest Exploding Stars In More
Than 400 Years. But When Will The Next Supernova Occur? Well, In 2013
Astronomers From Ohio State University Calculated That A Supernova Occurring
Within Our Galaxy Will Be Visible From Earth Sometimein The Next 50 Years.It
Would Be Visible To Telescopes But There’s Also A 20% Chance That The Supernova
Wouldbe Visible To The Naked Eye In The Night Sky.
Leonid Meteor Shower
First Noticed In 1833, This Rare Astronomical Phenomenon Occurs When Earth Passes Through The Orbit Of Periodic Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Leonid Meteors Are Caused By Tiny Meteoroids That Burn Up In Our Planet's Atmosphere As Earth Passes Close To The Dust-Strewn Orbit Of Tempel-Tuttle. Sky watchers Have Observed Major Leonid Meteor Showers Every 33 Years Or So From 1833, When The Meteor Shower Was Said To Have Produced A Whopping 100,000 Meteors An Hour. Most Years, Leonid Storms Are A Minor Event, Boasting No More Than 10 To 15 Shooting Stars Per Hour. But On Very Rare Occasions When This Dense Filament Of Dust Plows Directly Into Our Planet, Meteor Rates Can Soar To 100,000 Per Hour Or More. If You Want To Catch This Spectacular Sight, Tempel-Tuttle Will Next Cause A Major Leonid Meteor Shower In 2031.
In November 2016, Stargazers Worldwide Enjoyed A Rare Event, A Super moon That Was 14% Bigger Than Its Normal Size. This Was The Closest The Moon Had Been To Earth Since January 26th, 1948. If You Missed Out On Catching A Glimpse Of The 2016 Super moon, There’s An Even Better Astronomical Event On The Horizon. The Closest Super moon Of The Century Will Occur On December 6th, 2052, And It Will Be A Once In A Lifetime Experience. The Term “Super moon” Is Typically Defined As A Full Moon That Coincides With The Lunar Orb’s Closest Approach To Earth. In 2052 Our Celestial Neighbor Will Be Just Around 140,000 Milometers Away. But What Possible Impact Could It Have On Us? Well, Many Studies Over The Years Have Been Aimed At Finding Out Any Statistical Connection Between The Moon - Particularly The Full Moon - And Human Biology Or Behavior. Reliable Studies Comparing The Lunar Phases To Births, Heart Attacks, Deaths, Suicides, Psychiatric Hospital Admissions And Epileptic Seizures Among Other Things, Have Time And Time Again Found Little Or No Connection.
Halley’s Comet Was Named
After Astronomer Edmond Halley, Who Calculated Its Period Of Orbit, It Is The
Only Known Short-Period Comet That Is Regularly Visible To The Naked Eye From
Earth. It Is Seen From Earth Every 75-76 Years And So, Technically, Some Lucky
Humans Will Get To See It Twice In Their Lifetime. The First Halley's Comet
Witnessed In The Space Age – In 1986 – Saw Several Spacecraft Approach Its
Vicinity To Establish Its Composition. High-Powered Telescopes Also Observed
The Comet As It Swung By Earth. This Fly-By Provided The First Observational
Data On The Structure Of A Comet's Nucleus, The Mechanism Of Comets, And Tail
Formation. But For Those Of You Who Missed It In 1986, Don’t Worry Because
It’ll Next Appear In 2061. In The Meantime You Can See Its Remnants Every Year.
The Orionid Meteor Shower, Which Is Spawned By Halley's Fragments, Occurs
Annually In October.
Near Earth
Asteroid Flyby
On April 13th, 2029, An
Asteroid Called 99942 Apophis Will Pass Between The Moon And Earth. Following
Its Discovery In 2004, Apophis - Which Is The Size Of Three-And-A-Half Football
Fields - Gathered The Immediate Attention Of Scientists And The Media. Initial
Calculations Of Its Orbit By Astronomers Indicated A 2.7 Percent Possibility Of
An Earth Impact During The Close Flyby, So Naturally Humanity Feared For The
End Of The World. Fortunately Though, Further Analysis By Nasa Showed That
Apophis Will Miss Earth By 31,300 Kilometers. That's Actually Closer Than Some
Geostationary Satellites, Which Orbit The Earth At A Range Of 36,000 Km, But
Still Far Enough Away That We Don’t Need To Fear Forour Lives.The Flyby Will Be
One For The Record Books, As It Will Be The Closest Flyby Of An Asteroidof Its
Size In Recorded History - And It Could Be The Last Chance Astronomers Have To
Getan Up Close Look At Apophis For A Very, Very, Long Time.
Solar Eclipse
Okay, So We Are Slightly
Cheating With This One, As Solar Eclipses Can Usually Be Seen Somewhere On
Earth Each Year, But 2027 Has Something Special In Store. Solar Eclipses Occur
When The Moon Passes Between The Sun And The Earth, And It Fully Or Partially
Blocks The Sun. In A Total Eclipse, The Disc Of The Sun Is Fully Obscured By
The Moon, Whereas In Partial And Annular Eclipses Only Part Of The Sun Is
Obscured. Typically, The Duration Of A Total Eclipse Is In The Range Of 2-6
Minutes. But The Longest Solar Eclipse To Date Lasted For 7 Minutes, 28
Seconds. It Happened Around 743 Bc And Would Have Been Visible Across Southern
Africa. The Next Time A Solar Eclipse Will Have A Duration Of This Length Will
Be On 16th July 2186, But Most Of Us Won't Be Around To See That. So Instead
Set Yourself A Reminder For Monday 2nd August 2027, When The Second Longest
Solar Eclipse Of The Century Will Occur. It Will Have A Maximum Duration Of 6
Minutes And 23 Seconds.It Will Pass Through The Straits Of Gibraltar Then
Across The North African Coast, Beforedipping Down To Yemen And Somalia.
Venus Occults
Jupite
Rthe Last Time Venus And
Jupiter Passed In Front Of - Or Occult ed - One Another Was Nearly 200 Hundred
Years Ago, In January 1818. At This Time In History, The Battle Of Koregaon
Between The British East India Company And The Peshwa Faction Of The Maratha
Confederacy Was In Full Swing. Those Mid-Battle Were Probably Not Focusing On
The Night Sky, And Even If They Were, Only Observers In A Remote Island Of
Japan Were Likely To See The Occultation If They Made A Very Special Effort To
Look For It In The Bright Morning Twilight. Skip Ahead To The 21st Century And
For The First Time Since 1818, On 22nd November 2065, Venus Will Pass Directly
Before Jupiter And Form Into A Single, Bright Star, Low Down In The Dawn
Skyline. Get Your Telescope Ready For The Event, Because It Will Be Almost
Impossible To View With The Naked Eye, As It Will Be Occurring During The
Daytime And In Close Proximity To The Sun.
The Possibility Of An
Alignment Between All Of The Planets In The Solar System Is Very Rare. The
Closest That The Eight Planets Will Come To Being Aligned Will Occur On May
6th, 2492. But Unless We Figure Out How To Bring Cryogenically Frozen Corpses
Back To Life, None Of Us Will Be Alive To Witness That Astronomical Event. On
The Bright Side, Space Scientists Estimate That There Will Be A Rare Planetary
Alignment Of Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn And The Crescent Moon On
September 8th, 2040. That’s Just 23 Years Away, And Is Much More Doable. Clustered
Well To The East Of The Sun, The Planets Will Stage A Breathtaking Show At 7:30
Pm, So Mark Your Calendars Now!
Transit Of Earth From Mars
As Of 2017, Humans Are
Not Currently On Any Other Planets - Well, As Far As We Know – So If A Transit
Of Earth Were About To Occur Anywhere Soon, We Could Not See It. The One Noteworthy
Future Exception, Though, Is Mars. For Those Of You Unsure What We Mean By
‘Transit Of Earth From Mars’, It Essentially Means When The Earth Passes
Directly Between The Sun And Mars, Obscuring A Small Part Of The Sun's Disc For
An Observer On The Red Planet. No One Has Ever Seen A Transit Of Earth From
Mars, But If Nasa’s Plan To Get Humans Living On Mars By The 2030s Goes Ahead,
This Could Be Possible For The Next Such Transit, Which Will Take Place On
November 10th, 2084. This Transit Will Be The First And Only Time That This
Phenomenon Will Occur In The 21st Century, With The Next One
Predicted For 2394. And By Then, We Should Definitely Have Colonized The
Planet.
The Birth Of A
Star
Look Up To The Stars In
2022, Because One Of The Night Sky’s Most Visible Constellations, Cygnus, Will
Be Getting A New Addition, And Everyone On Earth Will Be Able To See It. Located
About 1,800 Light-Years Away, The Star System Kic 9832227 In Cygnus Has Long Been
A Focus Of Study. For Years, The Pair Of Glittery Specks In This System Have
Been Circling Around Each Other, Moving Closer And Closer, And Now Astronomers
Believe They Will Soon Merge In An Explosive Event Known As A Nova. It’ll Be A
Momentous Occasion For Scientists As It’s The First Time They Have Ever Been Able
To Predict The Birth Of A New Star And This Will Allow Them To Observe The
Process As It Unfolds. For Us Average Folks, It’s Going To Be Pretty Damn
Extraordinary Too, Being Able To Witnessa Once In A Lifetime Astronomical Event
Without The Use Of A Telescope.
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