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JMG reader Inga sends us her stunning photo of last night's Manhattanhenge.
This Saturday the moon makes its closest approach to Earth in 18 years in what astronomers call an "extreme supermoon."
If no clouds get in the way, it should be a great night for stargazers. But the moon, which will appear about 10 to 15 percent larger than normal, could create abnormally high tides from Friday through Sunday, experts say. And that could mean beach erosion and minor flooding along the shoreline. "The tides are definitely going to be higher, not only in Florida, but worldwide," said astronomer Arnold Pearlstein. The best time to view the moon will be at sunset — about 7 p.m. — on Saturday, when it will be closest to the horizon and should look "huge and orangey," Pearlstein said.There's a moon in the sky (called the supermoon.)
Astrophysicists at the University of Louisiana said today they are close to proving the existence of an enormous gas planet on the far outer edges of the solar system. The long-pondered tenth planet (if you still count Pluto) could be four times larger than Jupiter and its existence would explain the behavior of nearby comets.
The potential new planet has been nicknamed Tyche after the Greek goddess believed to have influenced the fortune of cities. Matese and Whitmire published a paper about it in the journal Icarus in November, predicting the planet's location orbiting the innermost region of the outer Oort cloud, a spherical shell of cometary bodies believed to surround the sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto. The paper suggested evidence of the new planet would have been recorded by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope, launched in 2009, which is releasing its first batch of data in April. The researchers told The Independent this week that they believe the data could reveal the new planet within two years.According to Wikipedia, ancient Greeks blamed Tyche for natural disasters such as floods and droughts. We totally need to launch a gay rights group with that name.
Astronomers say that position of the Earth is totally different than when astrology was dreamed up 3000 years ago. Therefore, your sign isn't really what you think it is.
"This is not something that happened today. This has gone on for thousands of years," said astronomer Parke Kunkle. The star doctors say Earth is currently in a different spot in relation to the Sun, and its equatorial alignment has changed from 3,000 years ago when the study of astrology began -- back when 12 zodiac signs were assigned to 12 different periods of the year. Those signs you were born into are different now because the Earth's wobble on its axis has created a one-month bump in the alignment of the stars, according to Kunkle. "Because of this change of tilt, the Earth is really over here in effect and Sun is in a different constellation than it was 3,000 years ago."So you're supposed to subtract one month to get your "real" sign. This is where you say, "Oh, I just knew I was really a Virgo!"
The Boston Globe's Big Picture blog has a great series of photos of Tuesday's solar eclipse. The above image was taken by a telescope on a low-orbit satellite.
RELATED: The Big Picture has been named to Regator's Top Ten Blogs Of 2010. And so has this here website thingy.
