Saturday 9 December 2006

Planetary triple play on deck Sunday 10 DEC

Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars appearing to nestle together in the predawn skies. About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday those three planets will be so close that the average person's thumb can obscure all three from view. They will be almost as close together on Saturday and Monday, but Sunday they will be within one degree of each other in the sky. Three planets haven't been that close since 1925, said Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer. And it won't happen again until 2053, he said. The planets are actually hundreds of millions of miles apart, but the way the planets orbit the sun make it appear they are neighbors in the east-southeastern skies. They'll be visible in most parts of the world — in the Western Hemisphere, as far south as Buenos Aires and as far north as Juneau, Alaska, Horkheimer said. "It is a lovely demonstration of the celestial ballet that goes on around us, day after day, year after year, millennium after millennium," said Horkheimer. "When I look at something like this, I realize that all the powers on Earth, all the emperors, all the money, cannot change it one iota. We are observers, but the wonderful part of that is that we are the only species on this planet that can observe it and understand it." In ancient times, people thought the close groupings of planets had deep meaning, said Krupp. Now, he said, "it's absolutely something fun to look for."

Source: Associated Press

Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars appearing to nestle together in the predawn skies. About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday those three planets will be so close that the average person's thumb can obscure all three from view. They will be almost as close together on Saturday and Monday, but Sunday they will be within one degree of each other in the sky. Three planets haven't been that close since 1925, said Miami Space Transit Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer. And it won't happen again until 2053, he said. The planets are actually hundreds of millions of miles apart, but the way the planets orbit the sun make it appear they are neighbors in the east-southeastern skies. They'll be visible in most parts of the world — in the Western Hemisphere, as far south as Buenos Aires and as far north as Juneau, Alaska, Horkheimer said. "It is a lovely demonstration of the celestial ballet that goes on around us, day after day, year after year, millennium after millennium," said Horkheimer. "When I look at something like this, I realize that all the powers on Earth, all the emperors, all the money, cannot change it one iota. We are observers, but the wonderful part of that is that we are the only species on this planet that can observe it and understand it." In ancient times, people thought the close groupings of planets had deep meaning, said Krupp. Now, he said, "it's absolutely something fun to look for."

Source: Associated Press

5 comments:

LMLisbon said...

Amiga,
goza bem essa estadia.
Estou a gostar de ler este teu blogue..
bjs,
Luis

Koluki said...

Oh Luis (Silva?... porque ha um outro Luis entre os... "pouquissimos"... comentaristas, so far. Estou a ver que vai ser ainda mais dificil ter comentarios do que fazer o blog...) obrigadissima, mas a que estadia te referes? Eu ainda nao sai do planeta terra... Mas deu para perceber que te referias ao post anterior.
Bjs.

LMLisbon said...

My dear,
demora tempo até ganhares estatuto no mundo da blogosfera....mas o teu olhar sobre o mundo cedo cedo irá cativar a atenção e os comentários de muitos...
Bjs,
Luís

Koluki said...

Ah bon?!
Entao a blogosfera e' um mundo de "estatutos"? Je ne savais pas ça! Je croiez qu'il s'agissez du monde plus informal dans la net... Et je suis encore convencu de ce la (pardon mon French)!
De toute façon je continue a remercir les amis qui m'on envoié e-mails a propos du blog. Merci bien à tous!
E tu continuas sem dizer qual dos Luises és...
Bjs

Anonymous said...

Well, as Wilde put it, "we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking @ the stars"!

Stargeezer.