- Astronomy.The meteorite discovered in Namibia a hundred years ago is still the largest in the world.
- Astronomy: a month to spot six comets in the sky
During the weekend of June 13 and 14 we can see Mercury after sunset, it is an opportunity that will not be repeated until the winter of 2021. During the second half of the night, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars are visible.
Our younger brother
Mercury has been the star of the sunsets for the past three weeks. At the end of May, in the company of Venus, he delighted us with beautiful pictures after the reddish evenings. But, little by little, Venus was losing its splendorous brightness and disappearing from our view, giving Mercury the entire twilight scene.
The younger brother of the planets of the solar system has been the only one visible after the late sunsets in June and, now, this weekend, we have the last chances to see it, since from Monday the 15th, Mercury will be too close to line of sight to the Sun as to be able to distinguish it with the naked eye. During this year it will not be seen again at sunsets; he will only make short appearances before the dawns of July and November. To see it again at sunset we will have to wait for the winter of 2021.
To locate Mercury this weekend, it's best to look west half an hour after sunset , at about 10:15 p.m. It is located in the Gemini constellation, just below the stars Castor and Pollux. Its apparent brightness has faded a lot since May and is now similar to Pollux (magnitude 1.2), so binoculars will help locate it.
The rocky planet is now relatively close, about 100 million km away (remember that the Sun is 150 million km from Earth). Although slightly larger than the Moon, Mercury's diameter is not greater than the dimensions of the European continent. Its surface is very similar to that of our satellite with numerous craters created by meteorite impacts.
And three other planets before dawn
During the second part of the night, it is interesting to observe from the southeast the group made up of an exceptional trio of planets: Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, in descending order of elevation and moving the gaze from south to southeast. The three planets are very close to each other (apparently) following the line of the ecliptic. Their magnitudes are -2.6, 0.4 and -0.2, with Jupiter being the brightest and Saturn the least brilliant. It is convenient to see them, for example, around 5:45 a.m., when they are relatively high above the horizon.
The Moon is in the waning quarter. We can see her leave at around 03:00 in the morning to start her journey to the west , but the sunrise surprises her high on the horizon before completing her journey. This weekend it will be very close to Mars. As the attached illustration shows, the two stars will be in conjunction on Saturday the 13th, in the constellation Aquarius, separated by just three degrees of angular distance. It is curious to note that, that same day, Neptune will be located only 1.5 degrees north of Mars, but the great distance that separates us from Neptune (about 4.5 billion kilometers) does not allow us to see it with the naked eye.
Rafael Bachiller is director of the National Astronomical Observatory (National Geographic Institute) and academic of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain.
In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- science
- Science and health
Covid-19 Superseis: the team of dogs that are being trained to detect the coronavirus by smell
Toxicology The risks of the mystical ritual with poison from the Sonoran toad that Nacho Vidal used
Research They baptize an Antarctic island with the name of the Spanish physicist Javier Cacho
See links of interest
- News
- Translator
- Programming
- Calendar
- Horoscope
- Classification
- League calendar
- Films
- Schools
- Masters
- Cut notes
- Rich
- Universities
- Themes
- Espanyol - Alavés
- SC Paderborn 07 - SV Werder Bremen
- 1. FC Köln - 1. FC Union Berlin
- VfL Wolfsburg - Sport-Club Freiburg
- Mallorca - Barcelona