Watch the moon meet up with Jupiter in the night sky tonight - Space.com

The moon makes its close approach to Jupiter on Wednesday (Feb.22) with the two celestial objects also sharing the same right ascension in the afternoon sky, an arrangement called a "conjunction."

According to In the Sky (opens in new tab) from New York City the conjunction between the 2-day-old waxing crescent moon and the solar system's largest planet will be visible soon after the almost new moon rises at 08:12 EST (1312 GMT). The conjunction will be visible until around 8:38 p.m. EST (0138 GMT). 

During the conjunction, the moon will be in the constellation Cetus while the massive gas giant planet Jupiter will be in the constellation Pisces. The crescent moon will be quite bright with a magnitude of -10.2, while Jupiter will have a magnitude of -2.1. The minus prefix before the two magnitude values indicates particularly bright objects over Earth. 

If you can't make it outside to view the spectacle yourself or if conditions aren't right, you're in luck: the Virtual Telescope Project is hosting a free telescope livestream of the event starting at 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT).

Related: See a bright Venus and Jupiter hold a celestial meeting in the night sky this month
Read more: What is the moon phase today? Lunar phases 2023

Both the moon and Jupiter with have a right ascension of 00h39m10s during the conjunction, while the moon has a declination of +01°49' and Jupiter a declination of +03°00'.

Despite the fact that the objects will make a close approach, technically known as an appulse, the moon and Jupiter won't be close enough to be viewed in the narrow field of view of a telescope. The conjunction will be visible in the wider field of view of binoculars, however.

Conjunctions between the moon and Jupiter occur roughly once a lunar cycle, but the gas giant isn't the only planet in the solar system to regularly meet up with the moon. Earth's main natural satellite moves rapidly along an imaginary line in the sky over the planet called the ecliptic. The elliptic carries the moon past the constellations and the planets of the solar system, resulting in lunar conjunctions with the solar system planets that happen around once a month.

An illustration of Jupiter in the February night sky. (Image credit: Starry Night Software)

Solar system planets can also share the same right ascension, being they can be in conjunction to each other, but these planets move much more slowly along the ecliptic conjunctions between the planets are far rarer than conjunctions with the moon.

One notable example is the conjunction between Jupiter and its fellow gas giant Saturn, known as a "great conjunction." Such a planetary conjunction happens only around once every 20 years, and during a great conjunction, Jupiter overtakes Saturn in its orbit.

Some planetary conjunctions are even rarer than this, however. For example, conjunctions between Uranus and Neptune occur only once every 171 years, according to In the Sky (opens in new tab). This is because these two distant ice giants take 84 years and 165 years, respectively, to complete a trip around the sun.

The next planetary conjunction for Jupiter is on March 2, 2023, when it meets up with Venus, the second planet from the sun. 

If you're hoping to catch a glimpse of the moon and Jupiter individually during the conjunction our guides for the best telescopes and best binoculars are a great place to start. If you're looking to snap photos of the night sky, check out our guide on how to photograph the moon, as well as our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

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Editor's Note: If you snap the conjunction of the moon and Jupiter and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. 

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Scientists discover shocking new detail about Earth’s core - New York Post

The historic understanding of the earth’s inner core has been called into question by a group of scientists from the Australian National University after analysing earthquake data.

Seismologists from the university believe they have found evidence of a previously unknown layer inside Earth called the innermost inner core.

The layer, according to researchers, looks like a solid metallic ball, an article from ANU published on Wednesday said.

Findings uncovered by the researchers, published in Nature Communications, confirmed there are five layers to the earth’s core and not four like has been historically thought.

“The existence of an internal metallic ball within the inner core, the innermost inner core, was hypothesised about 20 years ago,” Dr Thanh-Son Phạm, from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, said.

Australian scientists have found evidence to support a previously unknown layer inside the Earth’s inner core.

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“We now provide another line of evidence to prove the hypothesis.”

The researchers analysed seismic waves that travel directly through the Earth’s centre and “spit out” at the opposite side of the globe to where the earthquake was triggered, also known as the antipode.

The waves then travel back to the source of the quake in what the scientists have likened to a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth.

It has previously been thought that Earth’s structure is comprised of just four distinct layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core.

But now, Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić, also from ANU, said new learnings about the earth’s inner core could reveal more about the planet’s past and evolution.

“This inner core is like a time capsule of Earth’s evolutionary history – it’s a fossilised record that serves as a gateway into the events of our planet’s past. Events that happened on Earth hundreds of millions to billions of years ago,” he said.

One of the earthquakes scientists studied originated in Alaska where seismic waves triggered by the quake “bounced off” somewhere in the south Atlantic Ocean, before travelling back to Alaska.

They found the bouncing seismic waves repeatedly probed spots near the Earth’s centre from different angles.

By analyzing the variation of travel times of seismic waves for different earthquakes, the scientists believe the crystallized structure within the inner core’s innermost region is likely different to the outer layer.

They say it might explain why the waves speed up or slow down depending on their angle of entry as they penetrate the innermost inner core.

According to the ANU team, the findings suggest there could have been a major global event at some point during Earth’s evolutionary timeline that led to a “significant” change in the crystal structure or texture of the Earth’s inner core.

“There are still many unanswered questions about the Earth’s innermost inner core, which could hold the secrets to piecing together the mystery of our planet’s formation,” Professor Tkalčić said.

The researchers analyzed data from about 200 magnitude-6 and above earthquakes from the last decade.

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See the moon and Venus dance together in Wednesday evening's sky - Space.com

As far as celestial objects in the night sky go, the moon is by far the brightest, with Venus coming in a distant second. On Wednesday (Feb. 22), you'll be able to spot the two making a close approach.

That approach, technically called an appulse, will be visible Wednesday from New York between 7:52 a.m. EST (1252 GMT) and 7:59 p.m. EST (0059 GMT on Feb. 23), according to skywatching site In-the-Sky.org (opens in new tab). Of course, the majority of that period is during daylight hours, which will make observing the appulse a little tricky. But since the sun sets at 5:38 p.m. EST (2238 GMT) in New York City, that gives you a few hours in the evening for solid viewing.

At the same time as the appulse, the moon and Venus will also reach conjunction, which happens when they share the same right ascension (basically, a celestial body's "east-west" position in the sky).

Related: Night sky, February 2023: What you can see tonight 

The moon will be just two days old — an extremely thin crescent moon — but it will still appear at magnitude minus 9.7 in terms of brightness. Venus, on the other hand, will be at magnitude minus 4.0. Venus is so bright thanks to its thick, cloud-filled atmosphere that reflects much of the sunlight that reaches it. (On the magnitude scale used by astronomers, lower numbers indicate brighter objects.)

Jupiter is the next brightest celestial body in the night sky, and on Wednesday, it will be at magnitude minus 2.12. The planet will also be near the moon — in fact, the moon will be sandwiched between Jupiter and Venus. (On March 1, the two planets will make their closest approach.)

If you want to get an up-close look at the moon and Venus during their conjunction and appulse — plus a view of nearby Jupiter — our guide to the best binoculars is a great place to start. And though you won't be able to see both the moon and Venus within the field of view of a telescope, you can still get excellent views of each individually — take a peek at our guide to the best telescopes.

And if you're looking to photograph the celestial event, gear up with our guides to the best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography, then check out our guide on how to photograph the moon,

Editor's Note: If you snap the conjunction of the moon and Venus and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Stefanie Waldek on Twitter @StefanieWaldek (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).

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Earth's innermost layer is a 400-mile-wide ball of iron, new study suggests - CNN

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.

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Scientists have long wondered what lies at the very center of the Earth, and the latest research is putting weight behind a theory that our planet has a distinct ball of iron within its metallic core.

Beneath the outermost crust, the mantle and the molten-liquid outer core lies the Earth’s solid metal center — which actually has a hidden layer, or an “innermost inner core” within, according to a new study.

The monumental finding suggests the Earth has five major layers instead of four, and offered new details scientists could use to help unlock some of the oldest mysteries about our planet and how it was formed.

Geoscientists first suggested that the Earth’s core might have an additional, imperceptible layer about 20 years ago, according to a news release. Now, using new data sets collected by measuring the seismic waves of earthquakes as they passed through the Earth’s center, researchers have finally detected that innermost core, the new study said.

Seismic waves are vibrations that run within or along the surface of the Earth and through its inner layers as a result of earthquakes, volcanoes or other means.

“In this study, for the first time, we report observations of seismic waves originating from powerful earthquakes traveling back and forth from one side of the globe to the other up to five times like a ricochet,” study coauthor Dr. Thanh-Son Phạm, a seismologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra, in an email.

Detection through quake activity

The reason this layer had not been previously observed in more detail is because its composition is so similar to what lies above it, Pham said. Both this newly detected center — which the study reports is likely a 400-mile-wide (644-kilometer-wide) ball of metal — and its outer shell are made of iron-nickel alloy, with trace amounts of other elements.

“Additionally, the transition from the innermost (solid) ball to the outer shell of the inner core (also solid shell) seems rather gradational than sharp,” Pham said. “That is why we cannot observe it via direct reflections of seismic waves from it.”

The rotation of Earth's core may have paused, scientists in China have suggested.

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Earth's inner core may have stopped turning and could go into reverse, study suggests

Using instruments that detect the vibrational waves, researchers found the innermost inner core has a distinct anisotropy, which is a property of a substance that allows it to take on different characteristics depending on the angle from which it’s approached. An example of an object that’s anisotropic is a piece of wood: It’s much easier to hack a piece of firewood apart by hitting it along the direction of its grain than against it.

It is that feature that distinguishes the innermost core.

When it came to assessing the Earth’s core, researchers looked at how fast seismic waves traveled through it in different directions, and they found the innermost inner core changed the speed of those waves in a different way than the layer above it, the center core’s outer shell.

Detecting the new layer more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) beneath our feet is significant. The presence of a distinct innermost core could give scientists a better understanding of Earth’s magnetic field, how it has evolved and will continue to do so.

The new finding also “gives us a glimpse of what might have happened with other planets,” Pham said. “Take Mars as an example. We don’t understand yet why (Mars’ magnetic field) ceased to exist in the past.”

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NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Enters Third Year in Search for Signs of Life at Jezero Crater - SciTechDaily

Looking Back at Perseverance’s Second Science Campaign: This image of the floor of Jezero Crater was taken by one of the Navcam imagers aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on February 5, 2023, the 698th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

After completing the first sample depot on another world, the rover continues its hunt for Mars rocks worthy of study on Earth.

NASA’s Perseverance rover will celebrated its second anniversary on the surface of Mars on Saturday, February 18. Since arriving at Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been examining geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet that are central to the first step of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to study Martian samples with powerful lab equipment on Earth to search for signs of ancient microbial life and to better understand the processes that have shaped the surface of Mars.

High-Resolution Video of Perseverance’s Landing: This is a high-resolution version of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. Cameras aboard the rover captured these shots; a microphone captured the first-ever audio of a Mars landing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena. “Perseverance has inspected and performed data collection on hundreds of intriguing geologic features, collected 15 rock cores, and created the first sample depot on another world. With the start of the next science campaign, known as ‘Upper Fan,’ on February 15, we expect to be adding to that tally very soon.”

In addition to the rock cores, Perseverance has collected two regolith samples and one atmospheric sample, and it has sealed three “witness” tubes. (Learn more about all 18 samples taken so far.)

Numbers play a big role in the life of a Mars rover mission, not just because the team includes an impressive quantity of scientists (who don’t usually mind numbers) and engineers (who love them), but because statistics provide the best and most efficient glimpse of vehicle trends and performance.

For instance, the mission can tell you not only that the rover has driven 9.3 miles (14.97 kilometers), but also that as of February 14, its left front wheel has performed 9,423 revolutions. They can tell you not only that the MOXIE (short for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) technology demonstration has produced 3.25 ounces (92.11 grams) of oxygen, but also that the Gas Dust Removal Tool (gDRT) – the little gas-puffing device on the robotic arm – has puffed 62 times to clear residual dust and particles from rock-abrading activities.

“We deal with a lot of numbers,” said Perseverance deputy project manager Steve Lee from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We collect them, evaluate them, compare them, and more times than we want to admit, bore our loved ones with them during a family dinner.”

With that, here are some the most up-to-date statistics regarding Perseverance’s first two Earth years of Jezero surface operations. Some will seem obscure, while others are more immediate, but they all underscore how productive the mission has been.

Perseverance Science Statistics

The rover carries seven science instruments, and they’ve been busy.

• Laser shots fired by the SuperCam science instrument: 230,554
• Soundings performed by the RIMFAX (Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment) ground-penetrating radar to study underground rock layers: 676,828
• Mars audio recordings taken by SuperCam’s microphone: 662
• Hours of Mars weather data recorded by MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer): 15,769.1
• Hours the X-ray filament on the PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) instrument has operated: 298.2
• Laser shots by the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument: 4,337,010
• SHERLOC spectroscopy observations: 33

Perseverance Mobility and Operational Statistics

Along with the massive drill-toting robotic arm, the rover has a small sample handling arm inside its belly.

Perseverance’s Camera Statistics

Perseverance packs seven science cameras along with nine engineering cameras. Together, those cameras have taken more than 166,000 images. Here are the image tallies for several of them.

• Mastcam-Z: 86,660
• Navigation Cameras: 21,571
• Front Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 3,909
• Rear Hazard-Avoidance Cameras: 474
• Sampling and Caching System Camera:1,321
• SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager: 2,825
• SHERLOC WATSON: 5,754
• SHERLOC Context Imager: 2,260
• MEDA SkyCam: 1,831
• PIXL Micro-Context Camera: 1,012
• Entry, Descent, and Landing Cameras: 33,279

HiRISE Captured Perseverance During Descent to Mars: The descent stage holding NASA’s Perseverance rover can be seen falling thorough the Martian atmosphere in this image taken on February 18, 2021, by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An ellipse indicates where Perseverance touched down. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

“Behind each number is a lot of thought and effort from a very talented group of women and men on the Perseverance team,” said Art Thompson, Perseverance project manager at JPL. “We have come a long way together, and I can’t think of a better group to work with as we go even farther.”

In fact, when Perseverance marks its second landing anniversary, Mars will be 97 million miles (156 million kilometers) from Earth. The weather at Jezero Crater is expected to be sunny with a high of about 7 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 14 degrees Celsius). The rover has instructions to perform remote science and take images of a place in Jezero Crater called “Jenkins Gap.” And people on the mission team are expected to take at least one moment to recall where they were and how they felt two years ago, when Perseverance landed on Mars.

More About the Mission

Perseverance’s primary objective during its mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the retrieval of samples that could potentially contain evidence of ancient microbial life. The rover will analyze the planet’s geology and climate history, while also paving the way for future human exploration of Mars by being the first to gather and store Martian rock and regolith.

In subsequent missions, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will work together to send spacecraft to Mars to retrieve these sealed samples from the planet’s surface and bring them back to Earth for comprehensive analysis.

As part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration initiative, the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is accompanied by Artemis missions to the Moon, which will help prepare for human exploration of Mars.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by Caltech on behalf of NASA, constructed and operates the Perseverance rover.

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Russia targets February 24th for Soyuz MS-22 crew rescue launch - Engadget

Russia has set a new date for when it will send a rescue ship to the International Space Station to retrieve the three astronauts whose Soyuz return craft was compromised in December. The country’s Roscosmos space agency told AFP on Saturday it is targeting a February 24th launch for MS-23, the uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft that is scheduled to bring back cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, from the International Space Station.

Roscosmos delayed the mission last Monday after Progress 82, a supply ship that had been docked with the ISS since last October, began leaking coolant over the weekend. Petelin, Prokopyev and Rubio flew to the space station in September, and they were supposed to return on the same Soyuz spacecraft that brought them there. In December, however, the spacecraft sprung a leak, due to an apparent meteoroid strike. One month later, Roscosmos announced it would send a second Soyuz craft to retrieve the three astronauts. The timing of the leaks lead to some speculation that a manufacturing issue was at fault for the Soyuz leak, not an errant space rock as Roscosmos had said. Earlier this week, the agency shared images (seen above) showing the location of the coolant leak and reported micrometeoroid strike. 

NASA's Jeff Arend references the coolant leak on Progress MS-21, which occurred Saturday. Said no conclusions drawn about its cause. After the uncrewed vehicle undocks tonight it will rotate so astronauts can photograph the damage area before Progress enters Earth's atmosphere.

— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) February 17, 2023

On Saturday, Roscosmos said it had carefully inspected the rescue ship to ensure it was undamaged and ready for flight. One day earlier, Progress 82 separated from the ISS. Per Space News, video broadcast during the undocking procedure failed to show any obvious signs of damage to the resupply craft. According to NASA, Progress 82 will initiate a deorbit burn at 10:15PM ET tonight. Provided Roscosmos doesn’t delay MS-23’s launch, the spacecraft will arrive at the ISS two days before Space X’s Crew-6 mission is scheduled to launch on February 26th. That flight will bring two NASA astronauts, a United Arab Emirates astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the space station.

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Webb Space Telescope spies nearby galaxies with 'unprecedented' resolution - Fox News

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of three nearby galaxies with unprecedented resolution at infrared wavelengths, giving them a first look at star formation, gas and dust. 

Data has enabled researchers to pen 21 research papers, providing new insight into how the beginnings of star formation impact the evolution of galaxies. The data is part of an ongoing Webb survey of 19 spiral galaxies and observations of five of those targets have taken place. 

The targets include the galaxies shown in the photos, including NGC 1365, NGC 7496 and NGC 1433. 

The images from Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI, reveal the presence of highly-structure features, including glowing cavities of dust and huge cavernous bubbles of gas that line the spiral arms. In some regions, the features appear to be built from both individual and overlapping shells and bubbles where young stars are releasing energy. 

NASA’S WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN DETAILS IN PANDORA'S CLUSTER

New imagery from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is giving scientists their first look at high resolution into the fine structure of nearby galaxies and how that’s impacted by the formation of young stars. NGC 1433 is a barred spiral galaxy with a particularly bright core surrounded by double star forming rings. For the first time, in Webb’s infrared images, scientists can see cavernous bubbles of gas where forming stars have released energy into their surrounding environment.  (Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI))

Webb's high-resolution imaging can pierce through the dust, NASA notes, with wavelengths observable by MIRI and Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) sensitive to emissions from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – which play a critical role in the formation of stars and planets. 

The molecules were detected by Webb in the first observations by the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration, which is conducting the largest survey of nearby galaxies in Webb's first year of science operations.

The spiral arms of NGC 7496 are filled with cavernous bubbles and shells overlapping one another in this image from MIRI. These filaments and hollow cavities are evidence of young stars releasing energy and, in some cases, blowing out the gas and dust of the interstellar medium surrounding them.  (Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI))

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON SAYS JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE IS WINDOW TO UNIVERSE 'NEVER BEFORE ACHIEVED'

The team of more than 100 researchers from around the globe will work to create and release data sets that align Webb's findings to that obtained previously from other observatories.

In the MIRI observations of NGC 1365, clumps of dust and gas in the interstellar medium have absorbed the light from forming stars and emitted it back out in the infrared, lighting up an intricate network of cavernous bubbles and filamentary shells influenced by young stars releasing energy into the galaxy’s spiral arms.  (Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI))

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"Thanks to the telescope's resolution, for the first time we can conduct a complete census of star formation, and take inventories of the interstellar medium bubble structures in nearby galaxies beyond the Local Group," Janice Lee, Gemini Observatory chief scientist at NOIRLab and University of Arizona affiliate astronomer, said in a statement. "That census will help us understand how star formation and its feedback imprint themselves on the interstellar medium, then give rise to the next generation of stars, or how it actually impedes the next generation of stars from being formed."

Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News and Fox Business Digital. 

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