As any stargazer knows, planets can appear quite close together in the night sky and seem to float across it more like stars do – their glow makes them easy to spot against its dark backdrop.
Venus can be seen best early this month; however, as evening twilight settles it becomes harder and harder to spot. Venus lies close to Mars and Jupiter this month.
Mercury
Stargazers should be able to spot Mercury, Venus and Saturn in the night sky within the next week. Look toward either the western or eastern horizon during evening hours to spot these planets; for beginners who may need assistance finding them or their locations more quickly use a stargazing app or chart to help find these planets and determine their positions. Mercury is closest of all planets to Earth with temperatures that reach up to 800F during daylight hours before dropping to minus290 at night; due to being without an atmosphere it fully absorbs sunlight during daytime while other planets would reradiate away their heat at night like other planets do reradiating away as other planets do reradiating away their heat during daylight hours unlike other planets with atmospheres would do this effect is full absorbed instead of being reradiated away like other planets with atmospheres would do this planet instead absorbing all its solar heat while other planets with atmospheres would reradiated away while fully absorbing any solar radiation that would otherwise occur from solar flares occurring between noontime and sunset each evening hours when Venus can be found nearer the western or eastern horizon during evening hours to spot these three planets as it appears from these three planets! Mercury stands alone among all of all three when it is closest, with surface temperatures sometimes reaching 800deg F during day and 290 in winter.
Mercury can be an inscrutable subject to study. Though large enough for its orbit to have similar characteristics to ours, its closeness to the sun means it often gets baked by solar radiation and becomes scorched by direct sunlight. Due to this phenomenon, it’s impossible to have long nights or cool days on earth; one side is always baking under the sun while the other remains freezing cold at night. Mercury’s surface is littered with thousands of craters, from massive basins that span 1300 kilometers (800 miles) in width to smaller craters that may only cover an inch or so in area, many with central peaks like those named Tycho or Copernicus. There are also scarps – steep cliffs rising a kilometer or higher – as well as scarps rising several hundred kilometers high and numerous scarps rising over one kilometer high, scarps (cliffs) rising steeper still and plains. Finally, MESSENGER found water ice in deep craters near its poles indicating geological activity on this side of our solar system!
Mercury stands alone as one of only a few rocky planets with a magnetic field, which is powered by its iron core. Scientists believe this magnetism helped keep Mercury small.
Mercury lacks moons and orbits the Sun faster than any other planet, making it challenging to observe from Earth; however, starting in September it should become possible. Best results can be had when viewing when Mercury lies low to the horizon before dawn.
If you are fortunate, you might see bright streaks moving through Mercury’s craters on its surface – these are known as crater rays and form when an asteroid or comet hits and creates an impact crater that also crushes up fine particles of rock which reflect more light than larger chunks, creating the bright streaks seen here.
Venus
Venus, our nearest and densest neighboring planet in terms of mass and size, is often referred to as our “sister planet.” Although Venus can appear bright in the evening sky as an Evening Star, its sunset actually occurs many hours after that of our Sun.
Venus is one of the hottest planets in our solar system and its atmosphere consists of thick layers of carbon dioxide gas that render life on it unlikely. Though temperatures were once more moderate on Venus, scientists believe runaway greenhouse effects caused its climate to become hotter and drier over time.
Venus is the brightest planet in our Solar System, reflecting more sunlight than any other object. Like Mercury, Venus also boasts a magnetic field produced by interaction between Sun radiation and gasses in its outermost layer and magnetic forces on Venus itself.
Over the next several months, Venus will become easily visible in the Western sky at sunset, around 9 degrees above the horizon (your fist held out at arm’s length is about 10 degrees wide). To witness its ascension out of darkness quickly with binoculars shortly after sundown.
At its closest distance from the Sun, Venus can best be observed on January 10. At that time it will be about one third of a degree away and shine at magnitude -4.4 with 51% illumination of its disk – just beneath a thin crescent Moon that’s only two percent illuminated at that time.
Use your telescope to explore Venus’ beautiful details, particularly near its equator where clouds and swirls of white or gray material can be seen. Thanks to its high magnification and fine resolution, a telescope allows for detailed examination of individual features on Venus as well as dark streaks piercing clouds at speeds reaching 224 mph due to storm-force winds; these mysterious streaks don’t move with other parts of its clouds like one would expect them to.
Mars
Mars has long captivated humanity’s imagination. Galileo’s early observations led him to speculate about whether or not life may exist there, while later on astronomers discovered polar ice caps and long, straight channels thought by some (Percival Lowell in particular) to represent artificial canals for irrigation on Mars’ surface.
Mars’ iron-rich crust covers an area between 6-30 miles (10-50 km), sitting above an iron, nickel, and sulfur-rich core that spans 930 to 1,300 miles (1.500 to 2,100 km).
As with Earth’s, Mars’ axis is tilted away from the Sun. This causes differences in how much sunlight hits various parts of its planet over the course of one year – leading to seasonal variations on Mars as well.
Mars’ surface is marked by mountains and valleys. Olympus Mons, its tallest peak, stands three times as high as Mount Everest while Valles Marineris forms one-fifth of its way around and is deeper than Grand Canyon.
Mars and Earth have not come this close since nearly 60,000 years, thanks to differences in their orbits: Mars has an elliptical orbit that spans out wider than that of Earth, so there will be times when Mars is farthest from the Sun (aphelion) and other times when it’s closest (perihelion).
Due to Earth and Mars having similar orbital parameters, both experience relatively short day/night cycles; however, even small variations could significantly alter Martian climate conditions.
This summer’s opposition of Mars provides scientists an unparalleled opportunity to study its surface in depth. The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 will offer stunning views of its surface as well as its polar ice caps, water ice clouds and dust storms. Meanwhile, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will carry an ultraviolet imaging instrument never before available on a mission that allows researchers to view wavelengths that reveal details about chemical composition of its surface.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and one of the brightest objects visible without using a telescope from Earth – visible alongside Venus and Mars as well. Jupiter boasts 79 known moons – four larger than our Moon were first observed with Galileo’s telescope in 1610; these four moons were later named Galilean satellites after him. Amalthea is Jupiter’s next-biggest satellite while most others fall smaller.
Jupiter’s surface is an intricate web of vibrant hues and swirling patterns that appear across its entire surface at different times, caused by solar wind flowing across its surface. Cyclonic storms also occasionally cross this planet en masse within days.
Jupiter, like its star cousins, is an enormous ball of hot gas that contains mostly hydrogen and helium in both liquid and gaseous forms. But unlike the Sun, its heat comes not from nuclear reactions but instead through chemical processes known as convection; when helium droplets sink toward Jupiter’s core they collide with liquid metallic hydrogen producing friction heat which radiates off from its surface surface.
Jupiter’s gravity is powerful enough to alter the orbits of space rocks due to its massive size, stopping asteroids from collapsing into planet-sized chunks like Earth and sending some back into an asteroid belt where they could potentially collide with our home planet. Furthermore, its gravitational influence was responsible for creating its thin ring.
Planet Jupiter’s massive magnetic field traps charged particles from the Sun, creating a deadly radiation environment for spacecraft that explore it. Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1 spacecraft managed to survive their flybys of Jupiter thanks to shielding protection, while NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been orbiting it since 2021, collecting invaluable information.