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Skywatching

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Venus and Jupiter meet after sunset, the Moon passes in front of Venus, summer begins, and deep-sky treasures rise into view.

Skywatching Highlights

• June 9: Venus and Jupiter conjunction
• June 11–15: Mercury joins Venus and Jupiter after sunset
• June 17: Moon passes in front of Venus &  close Moon and Venus pairing
• June 21: June solstice &  start of astronomical summer
• June: Summer Triangle and deep-sky observing targets rise into view

Transcript

Planets gather after sunset, the Moon passes in front of Venus, summer officially begins and deep sky treasures rise into view. That’s What’s Up for June.

Early this month, look west shortly after sunset to see Venus and Jupiter. They are two of the brightest planets in our sky and around June 9th, they’ll appear close together after sunset. This is called a planetary conjunction—when two planets appear near each other from our point of view on Earth, even though they’re still millions of miles apart in space.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

From June 11th through June 15th, Mercury joins the scene, creating a mini parade of planets low in the western sky. This happens because the planets orbit the sun along nearly the same path in our sky, called the ecliptic. So from our point of view on Earth, they sometimes appear to gather in the same part of the sky.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Venus will be the brightest and easiest to spot with Jupiter nearby. Mercury will sit lower toward the horizon, so you will need a clear view to the west to catch it in the glow of twilight.

On June 17th, from some locations the Moon will pass in front of Venus. This is called a lunar occultation. For viewers in the right viewing path, Venus will look like it disappears behind the Moon, then reappears later. The event will be visible from parts of the United States, Canada, Brazil and Venezuela. Outside of the exact viewing path, many skywatchers may still see a close pairing of the Moon and Venus, but this comes with an important safety note. For many viewers this will happen during the daytime.

If you’re trying to observe the occultation, do not point binoculars, a telescope, or a camera near the sun unless you’re using proper solar safety equipment. Looking at or near the sun through optics can cause serious eye injury.

June also brings the summer solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice marks the start of the astronomical summer. In Pacific time, it happens on Sunday, June 21st at 1:24 a.m.

Around the solstice, the Northern Hemisphere gets its longest days and shortest nights of the year.

But here’s a fun fact, the longest day does not usually line up exactly with the earliest sunrise or latest sunset. For example, in Los Angeles, the earliest sunrise comes before the solstice, while the latest sunset comes after it.

And once the sky gets dark, summer brings some favorite targets for telescope users and astrophotographers. First, look for the Summer Triangle, formed by the bright stars Vega, Altair, and Deneb. Inside and around this region are deep sky objects like the Dumbbell Nebula, the Ring Nebula, the North America Nebula, and the Veil Nebula. The Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 27, was the first planetary nebula ever discovered.

These objects are not bright like planets, but with telescopes or long exposure photography, they reveal glowing gas, dying stars, and stellar nurseries in our galaxy.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Here are the phases of the Moon for June. You can stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Raquel Villanueva from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up this month.

NASA/JPL-Caltech Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

What’s Up

Skywatching

Galaxies

Stars

Skywatching

• Skywatching Home
• What’s Up
• Meteor Showers
• Eclipses
• Daily Moon Guide
• More

Venus and Jupiter meet after sunset, the Moon passes in front of Venus, summer begins, and deep-sky treasures rise into view.

Skywatching Highlights

• June 9: Venus and Jupiter conjunction
• June 11–15: Mercury joins Venus and Jupiter after sunset
• June 17: Moon passes in front of Venus &  close Moon and Venus pairing
• June 21: June solstice &  start of astronomical summer
• June: Summer Triangle and deep-sky observing targets rise into view

Transcript

Planets gather after sunset, the Moon passes in front of Venus, summer officially begins and deep sky treasures rise into view. That’s What’s Up for June.

Early this month, look west shortly after sunset to see Venus and Jupiter. They are two of the brightest planets in our sky and around June 9th, they’ll appear close together after sunset. This is called a planetary conjunction—when two planets appear near each other from our point of view on Earth, even though they’re still millions of miles apart in space.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

From June 11th through June 15th, Mercury joins the scene, creating a mini parade of planets low in the western sky. This happens because the planets orbit the sun along nearly the same path in our sky, called the ecliptic. So from our point of view on Earth, they sometimes appear to gather in the same part of the sky.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Venus will be the brightest and easiest to spot with Jupiter nearby. Mercury will sit lower toward the horizon, so you will need a clear view to the west to catch it in the glow of twilight.

On June 17th, from some locations the Moon will pass in front of Venus. This is called a lunar occultation. For viewers in the right viewing path, Venus will look like it disappears behind the Moon, then reappears later. The event will be visible from parts of the United States, Canada, Brazil and Venezuela. Outside of the exact viewing path, many skywatchers may still see a close pairing of the Moon and Venus, but this comes with an important safety note. For many viewers this will happen during the daytime.

If you’re trying to observe the occultation, do not point binoculars, a telescope, or a camera near the sun unless you’re using proper solar safety equipment. Looking at or near the sun through optics can cause serious eye injury.

June also brings the summer solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere, the June solstice marks the start of the astronomical summer. In Pacific time, it happens on Sunday, June 21st at 1:24 a.m.

Around the solstice, the Northern Hemisphere gets its longest days and shortest nights of the year.

But here’s a fun fact, the longest day does not usually line up exactly with the earliest sunrise or latest sunset. For example, in Los Angeles, the earliest sunrise comes before the solstice, while the latest sunset comes after it.

And once the sky gets dark, summer brings some favorite targets for telescope users and astrophotographers. First, look for the Summer Triangle, formed by the bright stars Vega, Altair, and Deneb. Inside and around this region are deep sky objects like the Dumbbell Nebula, the Ring Nebula, the North America Nebula, and the Veil Nebula. The Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 27, was the first planetary nebula ever discovered.

These objects are not bright like planets, but with telescopes or long exposure photography, they reveal glowing gas, dying stars, and stellar nurseries in our galaxy.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Here are the phases of the Moon for June. You can stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Raquel Villanueva from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up this month.

NASA/JPL-Caltech Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA

What’s Up

Skywatching

Galaxies

Stars

People with advanced pancreatic cancer taking an experimental daily pill lived nearly twice as long as those receiving chemotherapy infusions

People with advanced pancreatic cancer taking an experimental daily pill lived nearly twice as long as those receiving chemotherapy infusions

The physics of neutron stars are almost too fantastic to believe. Something the weight of two Suns compacted to a sphere the size of a city. Each teaspoon of its material would weigh billions of tons. If you’ve done any reading on the topic, you’ve heard these facts before. But despite the intense interest these extreme objects hold, we are still actively learning lots about them. One of the most pertinent outstanding questions is where is the line between becoming a neutron star and becoming a black hole when a star dies. A new paper by researchers at the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Hungary describes what they believe to be a definitive answer to that question - between 2.2 and 2.3 solar masses.

Turmeric is heralded for its anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, but columnist Alice Klein finds that the evidence for this is shaky. Taking high doses of its curcumin extract in supplement form can be risky

Turmeric is heralded for its anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, but columnist Alice Klein finds that the evidence for this is shaky. Taking high doses of its curcumin extract in supplement form can be risky

A new analysis of red lines inside a cave in Wales suggests they were made deliberately by ancient humans some 17,000 years ago

Mathematicians are stunned at the progress AI is making in solving advanced problems, leaving some questioning whether there will still be room for humans

Mathematicians are stunned at the progress AI is making in solving advanced problems, leaving some questioning whether there will still be room for humans

Alan Turing proposed a test for machine intelligence: could a computer convince a human it was human? We have begun conducting the same test on ourselves, writes Max Moser

Alan Turing proposed a test for machine intelligence: could a computer convince a human it was human? We have begun conducting the same test on ourselves, writes Max Moser

Agriculture is at risk of a crisis because of this Middle East conflict. The reason why has to do with how fertilizer is made

Jupiter helped create the different rocky bodies in the Solar System. The massive gas giant created a planet-induced pressure bump in the gas in the disk surrounding the young Sun. This pressure bump filtered different types of dust at different times, leading to the formation of planetesimals with different compositions at different times.

Andrew Scott plays World War II meteorologist James Stagg in a new film Pressure, which explores the crucial role weather forecasting played in D-Day

Fill your bingo card with fascinating science stories, discoveries and ideas all summer long for a chance to win prizes

China apparently didn’t issue any airspace or maritime notices ahead of the maiden launch of this rocket on Monday

4.5 billion years ago was an interesting time for the Earth. The atmosphere was thick and what we would now think of as toxic. The Moon, which was freshly formed, looks much more massive than it does today and faintly glows with the residual heat from its own creation. And the floor was literally lava. Everywhere. If there were any children alive at the time, they would have no chance of winning that game. But for a long time, scientists had thought this molten phase of the Earth didn’t last long. But according to a new paper, available in preprint on arXiv by researchers at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, it might have lasted for upwards of half a billion years.

Image: Webb's MIRI image of the interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS in three different light wavelengths