Planets

Planets in Parade: Four planets visible to your naked eye

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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Planets in Parade: Four planets visible to your naked eye

When the western sky darkens in the evening after sunset, you can easily spot Venus because it shines more brightly. You can also see Saturn closer to Venus. Also, on days like January 17 and 18, Venus and Saturn are very close together. Then Saturn approaches the horizon and Venus is high in the sky.

The other 2 planets that you can only see with the naked eye are Jupiter, bright and high in the night sky, and Mars, red in the east after dark. Earth passes between Mars and the Sun on January 16th, so we have two years to see Mars. This is the best time! That’s why the January sky is so full of planets, it’s so special.

If you have a telescope, you can also see Uranus and Neptune in the January sky. Uranus and Neptune are difficult to see with the naked eye. Also, Mercury will be close to the Sun in the early morning sky.

Planets near the Moon in January 2025

⇒ On January 3, 2025, the Moon will be close to Venus.

⇒ On January 4th, the crescent moon will be close to Saturn.

⇒ By January 5, the Moon is near Neptune.

⇒ On January 9, the Moon is near Uranus.

⇒ On January 10, the Moon will be with Jupiter.

⇒ On January 13th and 14th, the full moon will be near Mars.

Generally, the best time to watch the planetary parade is after January 21, 2025 and before February 21, 2025. The best time is the week of January 29 during the new moon.

 (Image Source : Stellarium)

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Quadrantid Meteor Shower

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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Quadrantid Meteor Shower

The Quadrantid meteor shower will be active from 12 December to 12 January 2025, producing up to 70 meteors per hour at its peak activity at around 03:30 a.m. (+05.30GMT) on 04 January 2025.

Quadrantid best displays might be seen before dawn on 4 January and after the radiant rises on 4 January above your eastern horizon in the constellation of  Bootes.

This celestial event is visible to the naked eye.

Parker

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe provides the first detailed update of the Sun

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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NASA's Parker Solar Probe provides the first detailed update of the Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its closest approach to the Sun on record and began receiving the first telemetry, or housekeeping, data at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland on January 1. This is the first time a spacecraft has come this close to our star.

The latest telemetry transmission confirms that the Parker Solar Probe successfully executed commands programmed into its flight computers and that its science instruments operated during flight. That means the spacecraft collected valuable data about our star as it sped up to 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface.

The Parker Solar Probe is equipped with a 4.5-inch-thick (11.4-centimeter-thick) heat shield, and NASA has confirmed that it can withstand temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius).

The spacecraft is scheduled for two more flybys in 2025 at approximately the same speed and distance from the Sun on March 22 and June 19.

A visualization of the Parker Solar Probe in front of the sun. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

KSA

A piece of space rocket debris crashes into a Kenyan village

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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A piece of space rocket debris crashes into a Kenyan village

Officials from the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) reported that on December 30, a large metal ring weighing about half a ton and 8 feet (2.5 meters) in diameter crashed into the village of Mukuku in the southern region.

KSA “secured the area and retrieved the wreckage, which is now in the custody of the agency for further investigation.”

(Image credit: KSA)

67522b

JWST reveals details of another new Neptune-like planet

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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JWST reveals details of another new Neptune-like planet

Scientists studying the planet HIP 67522b with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found that it may be an entirely different planet, with an extensive atmosphere full of water vapor and carbon dioxide.

JWST observations showed that by further analyzing the thickness of the atmosphere, astronomers suggest that HIP 67522b weighs 14 times the mass of Earth despite its Jupiter-like size. That makes it one of the lightest giants ever discovered – and more like a sub-Neptune than Jupiter.

But unfortunately for HIP 67522b, its low mass dooms it to this harsh fate, according to the studies here. Today we see it as a giant, bloated planet, but its close proximity to its star and inability to hold onto its gas tightly means it would lose much of the gas we currently see around it. Its atmosphere is already boiling, and it will probably lose it in the next billion years. Only the shrunken core remains.

This detailed study shows (among many other things) how powerful JWST can be for measuring the masses of young exoplanets.

SpaceX

NASA and SpaceX plan to send astronauts to the ISS in mid-February

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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NASA and SpaceX plan to send astronauts to the ISS in mid-February

NASA and SpaceX are targeting mid-February for the launch of the next commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry a crew of four to orbit on Crew Dragon Endeavour, where the spacecraft will travel to the ISS for approximately six months of research and in-station maintenance.

Crew-6 is SpaceX’s tenth crewed flight, and the fourth for Dragon Endeavor, which launched Demo-2, Crew-2, and Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission.

Comet 2

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will soon be visible to the naked eye

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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A rare comet called C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will soon be visible to the naked eye

The comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), will make its first near-Earth trip since the Stone Age in late January and early February. It began its long journey in the far outer reaches of the Solar System, in the Oort Cloud, where it was last seen 50,000 years ago and was not seen again for millennia after it disappeared. It comes within 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) of the Sun when it approaches its closest approach to the Sun. The comet will make its closest approach to our planet when it passes us on February 2 at a distance of 26 million miles (42 million km).

Visible to Northern Hemisphere observers, Comet C/2022 E3 is best seen in the early morning a few hours before sunrise.

Image credit:  John Chumack/GalacticImages.com
Image credit:  Chris Schur
Ingenuity Mars helicopter

Ingenuity helicopter resting on sand dune

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured a photo of the Ingenuity helicopter resting on sand dune

In February 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter landed with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover in Jezero Crater on Mars. This six-wheeled Mars rover is carrying out various research activities as well as collecting samples of Mars to be sent to Earth by 2033.

The Ingenuity helicopter associated with the rover will assist the Perseverance Mars rover in deeper studies by taking short flights under the power of the thin Martian atmosphere to select the best routes through Jezero’s rugged landscape and provide mapping and data.

Ingenuity made its 39th Mars flight on Wednesday, covering 459 feet (140 meters) of ground in nearly 79 seconds. According to the mission’s flight log, the helicopter has flown a total of 25,690 feet on Mars to date.

Ingenuity helicopter (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Stephan’s Quintet (Image Credit - NASA)

The JWST explores the massive shock waves in Stefan’s Quintet

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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The James Webb Space Telescope explores the massive shock waves in Stefan's Quintet

Stephan’s Quintet in the constellation Pegasus is an optical group of five galaxies, four of which are the first compact galaxy group ever discovered.

Shock waves created by a collision between Stefan’s quintet galaxies and an invading galaxy drive various processes in the intergalactic medium, a thin cloud of hot hydrogen plasma that exists in the intergalactic space.

This violent intrusion of Stephan’s Quintet sets off a “recycling plant” for hot and cold molecular hydrogen gas between the five galaxies, triggering a shock wave several times the size of the Milky Way that flows through the interstellar plasma. In addition, astronomers discovered that a giant cloud of gas breaks up to form a less dense “fog” of hot gas. JWST/ALMA observations show the formation of a tail of hot gas that could be a collision between two clouds, and even the formation of a new galaxy.

Discovering these phenomena will help scientists better understand how turbulence affects the intergalactic medium and affects star formation and galaxy evolution in general.

Stephan’s Quintet (Image credit: NASA)
Discovery of hot and cold molecular hydrogen gas in Stephan’s Quintet (Image credit: ALMA)
JWST (Image credit: NASA)
ALMA (Image credit: ESO)
Zhurong Mars rover (Image credit CNSA)

China’s Tianwen 1 orbiter and Zhurong Mars Rover may have gone silent

ශ්‍රී ලංකා ග්‍රහලෝකාගාරය
இலங்கை கோளரங்கம்.
Sri Lanka Planetarium.

(+94)11 2586499

March 23, 2025
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China's Tianwen 1 orbiter and Zhurong Mars Rover may have gone silent

China launched Tianwen 1 in July 2020, and Zhurong, China’s first Mars mission rover, landed on the Red Planet in May 2021. The two explored Mars without interruption, and Zhurong entered hibernation in May 2022 to help it survive the low temperatures, dust storms, and sandstorms common in the Martian winter. The rover has a special anti-dust coating on its solar panels, which are angled before entering hibernation in anticipation of storms and then emerging from hibernation.

However, after the Zhurong rover went into hibernation, teams on Earth still did not receive signals and it is still unknown what the problem might be. The reason for this is often thought to be that the sandstorms have seriously impaired Zhurong’s ability to use its solar panels to generate power.The Tianwen 1 Mars Orbiter, which surveys, maps and works with the Zhurong rover, has also gone silent and lost communications. It is also stated that it will not happen.

China’s space agency has yet to comment on the problems with the Tianwen 1 Mars orbiter and the Zhurong rover.

Zhurong Mars Rover (Image credit: CNSA)
Tianwen-1 (Image credit:CNSA)