Check out Uranus! The ice giant is expected to make a rare TONIGHT view as it hangs between the moon and Mars
- The ice giant appears very rare after falling on January 20th
- To see Uranus, find Mars and then scan slowly towards the Crescent Moon
- You may need binoculars but it should appear as a blue disk
- Mercury enters the second two weeks of January, according to NASA
Uranus is to be seen to see the world tonight.
NASA reports that the ice giant will be visible on Jan. 20 a few hours after it collapsed.
The seventh planet from the Sun shines at the edge of the visibility of the naked eye, especially in areas with light pollution, so it is very difficult to see.
But stars with a telescope or binoculars should be able to see them hanging in the night sky between the moon and Mars.
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Uranus will appear from Earth as a medium bluish disk between the Moon and Mars after falling on January 2020
‘That evening, the crescent moon and the Red Planet were discovered two hours after dark,’ advises NASA’s skywatching guide, De
Mars will stand out in the night sky with an orange, red tint near the moon, reports Axel Diaz, Solar System Ambassador for NASA.
‘People say you can’t find the planet Uranus – it’s very hard to find, it’s very weak, it’s very small,’ says Diaz.
‘The best way to find it is to look at the moon. Take a look at the moon and look at Mars. ‘
Wednesday will also see a moon in the first quarter that was already well above the horizon at sunset.
On the northern hemisphere of the moon, filters like Aristotle, Atlas, and Hercules should be easy to select.
And tonight, Pisces will be seen near the boardwalk he shares with Cetus and Aries constella.
About 1.82 billion miles from us, Uranus has only been visited by one spacecraft on Earth so far, NASA ‘s Voyager 2, in 1986.
That may not be a bad thing: A 2018 report from Oxford University confirmed that hydrogen sulfide gas circulating around its upper atmosphere gives egg decay stench to Uranus.
‘If an unfortunate man ever descended through the clouds of Uranus, they would encounter situations that were very unpleasant and spotless,’ astronaut Patrick Irwin warned, ‘
What’s worse, NASA says the magnetic bubble around Uranus sends the humid atmosphere out into space.
The loss of atmosphere is due to the complex magnetic field on the planet which causes the magnetosphere to move ‘like a badly thrown football,’ the group said in a spring statement on last year.
As a result, parts of the Uranus atmosphere emit in plasma bubbles called plasmoids, which erupt away from the magnetic field as it is moved around by the Sun.
Scientists have determined that the plasmoid around Uranus measures about 127,000 miles by 250,000 miles and has drawn between 15 to 55 percent of the Uranus atmosphere out of the planet.
The seventh planet from the Sun shines at the edge of the visibility of the naked eye, especially in areas with light pollution, so it is very difficult to see. But stars with a telescope or binoculars should be able to see them hanging in the night sky between the moon and Mars
For a little less astronomy, NASA also pointed out that Mercury will appear in the last two weeks of January.
Mercury does not contain much air and does not smell much.
You need an unobstructed view to the west to see the planet, as it will appear just a few levels above the horizon after sunset, starting in the middle of the month.
‘This small planet moves much closer to the Sun than the Earth, meaning it also orbits the sun much faster, ending the year’ in orbit on a quarter of the time it takes the Earth to orbit once, ‘according to the agency.
‘That’s why we get to see Mercury in the sky every three months or so, because it seems to be jumping back and forth from one side of the Sun to the other.’