Moon-Mars conjunction to dazzle skywatchers
BENGALURU: Skywatchers are in for a celestial event in the early hours of June 30, when the Moon and Mars will appear unusually close to each other in what astronomers call a conjunction. While such alignments between the Moon and planets occur regularly, this particular one stands out for its timing as Mars edges closer to its opposition later this year, gradually becoming brighter in the night sky.
In this phenomena, in the pre-dawn hours, observers with clear skies may witness a slender crescent Moon paired with the reddish glow of Mars, both positioned in the same region of the sky — separated by just about 3 degrees. Although the two bodies are actually million of kilometres apart, they will appear side by side from Earth due to a quirk of orbital alignment.
Despite the event's potential, seasoned skywatchers and experts caution that those in Bengaluru and much of India may miss out due to monsoon conditions. 'Cloud cover and moisture-laden air during the early mornings can obscure the eastern horizon where the Moon and Mars will rise,' said an official from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), adding that even a thin veil of clouds can completely wash out the view of the crescent Moon.'
A conjunction happens when two celestial bodies appear to align in the sky from Earth's perspective. In this case, the Moon, which moves faster along its orbit, catches up and passes near Mars in the background sky. Such close approaches often go unnoticed, but when they involve bright planets and occur during dark-sky hours - like this one - they can create dramatic views.
'This conjunction is unique because of the geometry involved — the thin waning crescent Moon rising shortly before dawn, with Mars just above it, makes for a particularly delicate arrangement,' an official from the IIA said, adding that such well-positioned conjunctions are infrequent.
While Moon-planet conjunctions are common, most are either obscured by daylight, occur too close to the horizon, or involve planets that are faint or too close to the Sun. What makes the June 30 event rare is a combination of factors - Mars is steadily brightening, the Moon is in a delicate crescent phase, and the timing - just before sunrise - provides a dark enough sky for good contrast, a senior official from the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium explained.
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New Indian Express
5 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Moon-Mars conjunction to dazzle skywatchers
BENGALURU: Skywatchers are in for a celestial event in the early hours of June 30, when the Moon and Mars will appear unusually close to each other in what astronomers call a conjunction. While such alignments between the Moon and planets occur regularly, this particular one stands out for its timing as Mars edges closer to its opposition later this year, gradually becoming brighter in the night sky. In this phenomena, in the pre-dawn hours, observers with clear skies may witness a slender crescent Moon paired with the reddish glow of Mars, both positioned in the same region of the sky — separated by just about 3 degrees. Although the two bodies are actually million of kilometres apart, they will appear side by side from Earth due to a quirk of orbital alignment. Despite the event's potential, seasoned skywatchers and experts caution that those in Bengaluru and much of India may miss out due to monsoon conditions. 'Cloud cover and moisture-laden air during the early mornings can obscure the eastern horizon where the Moon and Mars will rise,' said an official from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), adding that even a thin veil of clouds can completely wash out the view of the crescent Moon.' A conjunction happens when two celestial bodies appear to align in the sky from Earth's perspective. In this case, the Moon, which moves faster along its orbit, catches up and passes near Mars in the background sky. Such close approaches often go unnoticed, but when they involve bright planets and occur during dark-sky hours - like this one - they can create dramatic views. 'This conjunction is unique because of the geometry involved — the thin waning crescent Moon rising shortly before dawn, with Mars just above it, makes for a particularly delicate arrangement,' an official from the IIA said, adding that such well-positioned conjunctions are infrequent. While Moon-planet conjunctions are common, most are either obscured by daylight, occur too close to the horizon, or involve planets that are faint or too close to the Sun. What makes the June 30 event rare is a combination of factors - Mars is steadily brightening, the Moon is in a delicate crescent phase, and the timing - just before sunrise - provides a dark enough sky for good contrast, a senior official from the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium explained.
Hans India
7 hours ago
- Hans India
Earth trapping heat has doubled in 20 years
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Worse still, this worrying imbalance is emerging even as funding uncertainty in the United States threatens our ability to track the flows of heat. Energy in, energy out: Earth's energy budget functions a bit like your bank account, where money comes in and money goes out. If you reduce your spending, you'll build up cash in your account. Here, energy is the currency. Life on Earth depends on a balance between heat coming in from the Sun and heat leaving. This balance is tipping to one side. Solar energy hits Earth and warms it. The atmosphere's heat-trapping greenhouse gases keep some of this energy. But the burning of coal, oil and gas has now added more than two trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. These trap more and more heat, preventing it from leaving. Some of this extra heat is warming the land or melting sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. But this is a tiny fraction as 90 per cent has gone into the oceans due to their huge heat capacity. Earth naturally sheds heat in several ways. One way is by reflecting incoming heat of clouds, snow and ice and back out to space. Infrared radiation is also emitted back to space. From the beginning of human civilisation up until just a century ago, the average surface temperature was about 14°C. The accumulating energy imbalance has now pushed average temperatures 1.3-1.5°C higher. Tracking faster than the models: Scientists keep track of the energy budget in two ways. First, we can directly measure the heat coming from the Sun and going back out to space, using the sensitive radiometers on monitoring satellites. This dataset and its predecessors date back to the late 1980s. Second, we can accurately track the build-up of heat in the oceans and atmosphere by taking temperature readings. Thousands of robotic floats have monitored temperatures in the world's oceans since the 1990s. Both methods show the energy imbalance has grown rapidly. Doubling of the energy imbalance has come as a shock, because the sophisticated climate models we use largely didn't predict such a large and rapid change. Typically, the models forecast less than half of the change we're seeing in the real world. Why has it changed so fast? We don't yet have a full explanation. But new research suggests changes in clouds is a big factor. Clouds have a cooling effect overall. But the area covered by highly reflective white clouds has shrunk, while the area of jumbled, less reflective clouds has grown. It isn't clear why the clouds are changing. One possible factor could be the consequences of successful efforts to reduce sulphur in shipping fuel from 2020, as burning the dirtier fuel may have had a brightening effect on clouds. However, the accelerating energy budget imbalance began before this change. Natural fluctuations in the climate system such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation might also be playing a role. Finally – and most worryingly – the cloud changes might be part of a trend caused by global warming itself, that is, positive feedback on climate change. What does this mean? These findings suggest recent extremely hot years are not one-offs but may reflect a strengthening of warming over the coming decade or longer. This will mean a higher chance of more intense climate impacts from searing heatwaves, droughts and extreme rains on land, and more intense marine heatwaves. This imbalance may lead to worse longer-term consequences. New research shows the only climate models coming close to simulating real world measurements are those with a higher 'climate sensitivity'. We don't know yet whether other factors are at play, however. It's still too early to definitively say we are on a high-sensitivity trajectory. We've known the solution for a long time: stop the routine burning of fossil fuels and phase out human activities causing emissions such as deforestation. Keeping accurate records over long periods of time is essential if we are to spot unexpected changes. Satellites are our advance warning system, telling us about heat storage changes roughly a decade before other methods. But funding cuts and drastic priority shifts may threaten essential satellite climate monitoring. (Steven Sherwood is from UNSW Sydney, Benoit Meyssignac is with the Université de Toulouse and Thorsten Mauritsen is from Stockholm University)
The Hindu
14 hours ago
- The Hindu
IIA researchers use commercial dish TV antennas to measure Sun's magnetic field
A team of scientists and engineers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) radio astronomy group has used a novel technique to measure the Sun's magnetic field using commercial dish TV antennas. The technique involves measuring the magnetic field in the solar chromosphere, the region between the Sun's photosphere and corona, using the commercial dish TV antennas. The team demonstrated the technique recently. According to the team, the antennas operate at a frequency of 11.2 GHz, which is in the radio astronomy band of the electromagnetic spectrum. They said that this novel and unique effort has paved the way for regular measurement of the Sun's magnetic field from its surface to the outer layers of its atmosphere. 'Measurement of the magnetic field in the solar chromosphere is a key link to establish the connection between the Sun's surface and its corona from where the space weather disturbances originate. We are glad to have established a comparatively low-cost facility in the institute's Radio Astronomy Field Station in Gauribidanur for this purpose,' R. Ramesh, senior IIA professor and in charge of the Gauribidanur radio astronomy field station, told The Hindu. Spurring other experiments Prof. Ramesh said that the affordable set-up is expected to spur the educational institutions in the country to establish a similar facility on their campus, thereby paving the way for affordable astronomy that can provide valuable scientific quality data in addition to being a test bed to develop new technology within the country. Students from BMS College of Engineering, Bengaluru, and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetam, Bengaluru Campus, were involved in the set-up in Gauribidanur as part of their academic project work. He said the set-up will cost ₹20 lakh. 'This is a paltry sum compared to the budget required to establish a similar facility for measuring the Sun's magnetic field via conventional optical astronomy techniques, either from ground or space platforms,' he added.
