| | June 22
Tonight's Moon and Supergiant,
Next Supervolcano? | | | |
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 | | | Look for the moon and Antares, a bright red star, tonight. And see below for a chart showing Antares' place at the heart of its constellation, Scorpius. | | |
| | Tonight ... The moon and red supergiant Antares | | | Tonight, let the nearly-full waxing gibbous moon introduce you to the star Antares. It’s a red star and the brightest light in Scorpius the Scorpion. If the moon is too bright and washes Antares from view, place a finger in front of the moon. If you can’t see this star’s red color, wait a night or two until the moon has moved away. Or, aim your binoculars at Antares. Antares is a red supergiant, a star in the autumn of its years. It's expected to explode as a supernova one of these days ... maybe tomorrow ... or a million years from now. When it explodes, it won't hurt us, though. Antares lies way out there, at about 550 light-years distant. Read more. | | | | Taupo supervolcano needs monitoring, scientists say | | | When we in the U.S. think of supervolcanoes, we're likely to think of Yellowstone. But people in New Zealand think of Taupo, whose caldera has now become a large lake, with a good-sized town on its edge. Supervolcanoes are some 1,000 times bigger than normal volcanos. Earth's last supervolcanic eruption was Taupo, approximately 25,000 years ago. Taupo has erupted less violently at least 28 times since then, with the largest and most recent of these events occurring in 232 CE. A new study published this month suggests that Taupo is active and potentially hazardous. The study revealed that Taupo has an active reservoir of at least 60 cubic miles (250 cubic km) of magma beneath its caldera. The scientists said some 20-30% of this magma is molten. Read more. | | | | | |
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|  | | | Ruby red Antares is the Scorpion's Heart | | Antares is an eye-catching star, shining with a distinctive bright red sparkle on northern summer evenings. In the Southern Hemisphere, it's a red beacon in winter evening skies. This star, also known as Alpha Scorpii, is the brightest star in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius, which has figured prominently in the sky lore of ancient cultures. Read more about supergiant Antares, its companion Antares B, and its place in skylore. | | | | | |
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 | | | Stark reality of California drought from space | | Yesterday, the European Space Agency (ESA) released this stark comparison between satellite images taken this month, and in June 2020. The 2 images show the Angeles National Forest in California. Like vast swathes of the U.S. West, this forest is experiencing extremely dry conditions this year. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured both images. The image above is from June 12, 2021, and the image below is from June 22, 2020. ESA said the reservoirs in this region are about 50% lower than they should be at this time of the year, and the San Gabriel reservoir is "almost dry." According to ESA, "California is reported to have recorded its driest February in 150 years and 95% of the state is now a victim of ‘severe drought’, which, unfortunately, can only be bad news for the rest of the summer." Read more. | | |
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