Introduction and Monthly Reminders
January started off cold and wet, but now at midmonth, it's just cold! The Wasatch Front in Utah is experiencing its dreaded inversion, where warm air traps the cold, pollution-filled air in the valley below it. Visibility is limited, and air quality is horrible, with Utah sometimes ranking among the worst in the world during this time. Of course, this is bad for people with breathing conditions such as asthma or pneumonia. The limited visibility affects astronomy. It's like looking through a thin sheet of clouds. Despite these conditions, I have been able to see Jupiter shining brightly in Gemini, the stars of Orion, and the Moon.
The current weather forecast for Utah shows no storms, indicating the inversion will persist over the next week or two. Stargazers should still look up to see the bright points of light shining through the inversion. The conditions are less than ideal, but a telescope will still be able to show details on the Moon's surface, Saturn's rings, the Galilean Moons of Jupiter, and perhaps even Jupiter's cloud bands.
Current and Upcoming Missions
This year should be an exciting one for Space Missions. In 2025, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, named after the astronomer Vera C. Rubin, who studied the rotation of galaxies and helped discover dark matter, began operations in Chile. This observatory will conduct a 10-year survey of the southern hemisphere's sky, averaging 1000 images per night. Its main science goals include understanding dark matter and dark energy, mapping our Milky Way galaxy, discovering and characterizing small bodies in our solar system, and discovering and tracking exoplanets. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory should make many new and exciting discoveries in the coming months and years!
There are two separate missions bound for Mars. The first is NASA's ESCAPADE mission, which launched in 2025 but will use Earth as a gravity assist in late 2026 to get the rest of the way to Mars. This mission is intended to study atmospheric loss on the Red Planet. The MMX mission from Japan is scheduled to launch in late 2026 and will study the moons of Mars.
Several missions are heading towards the Moon in 2026. There will be two missions to the Lunar south pole, one from China and one from NASA, to study the resource potential of this area. NASA and ESA have a mission scheduled to launch late in 2026 that will send a rover to study the far side of the Moon.
I am most excited for the Artemis II mission. It's a joint mission between NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and is expected to launch in February. This mission will send four astronauts around the Moon and is the first mission of its kind since Apollo 17 in 1972. Although this procedure has been done before, NASA is testing new equipment and technology. The rocket is currently inside the Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida, but is scheduled to be moved to the launch pad on the 17th of January. Final tests and preparations will be made once it has been moved to the launch pad.
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| Now get outside and look up! |
