Meteor showers, wandering planets, icy comets, eclipses, supermoons and much more – there's plenty of exciting astronomical phenomena to see in the
The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. This phase occurs at 01:37 UTC. This is also the third of four supermoons for 2023. The Moon will be near its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.
More supermoons
In 2023, there will be 13 supermoons. August will bring two supermoons, including a rare blue moon, which will be the closest to Earth this year. Circle September 29 on your calendars, as it marks the grand finale of the supermoon series for the year.
In the early hours of Saturday, June 17, 2023 an alignment of Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus and Mercury will be visible in the eastern night sky. All five planets will be spread out along the ecliptic—the plane of the solar system upon which all planets orbit closely to.
Mars sometimes appears bright in our sky and sometimes appears faint. In early 2023, Mars appeared as bright as the sky's brightest stars. By July 2023, Mars continues to fade dramatically in brightness and appear close to the sunset. By October, November and December, 2023, Mars will be lost from our view …
Comet C/2023 A3 is currently between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, as of March 2023, and will reach perihelion - the closest point to the Sun in its orbit - on 28 September 2024. We know that at the moment A3 is so faint it is only visible in large telescopes, and that won't change for months.
Mars will be 38,586,816 miles away from Earth --- yes, that's close for Mars -- and it won't be this close again until 2035. Mars in 2003 made its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years, coming within a distance of 34.65 million miles. Next week, Earth will swing between Mars and the sun.
The world could indeed end with a bang, not a whimper, as the poet prophesied. New supercomputer simulations predict that, in 3 billion to 4 billion years, there is a slight chance that Venus or Mars will slam into our planet thanks to the subtle gravitational interactions between Jupiter and Mercury.
Bottom line: Jupiter will reach opposition on November 2-3, 2023, when Earth will fly between the sun and Jupiter. It'll be closest to Earth on November 1-2, 2023.
The super blue blood moon features three different astronomical events. First, the blue moon, when there is two full moon falls in a calendar month, the second full moon is called Blue moon. The word came from the phrase 'Once in a Blue Moon' means something is rare. Blue Moon happens once in every two or three years.
The Black Moon in 2023 will occur on May 19. It is to note that Earth did not even record many Black Moons in 2021 as it is comparatively a rare occurrence. According to the seasonal definition of the term, the Black Moon for this year will take place on May 19, 2023.
The pink moon is the full moon in April that falls when the moss pink wildflower blooms in North America.
It's important to stress that 2023 PDC is a purely hypothetical object and it isn't on course to impact Earth. In fact, currently, there are no large asteroids predicted to hit Earth for the next 100 years.
The sun is becoming more active and may reach peak activity sooner than expected. Solar maximum was predicted to happen in 2025, but sunspot activity has changed that. An unusual burst of sunspots this year suggests solar maximum could hit by the end of 2023.
The technology required to travel between galaxies is far beyond humanity's present capabilities, and currently only the subject of speculation, hypothesis, and science fiction. However, theoretically speaking, there is nothing to conclusively indicate that intergalactic travel is impossible.
Astronomers think the collision between Earth and Theia happened at about 4.4 to 4.45 bya; about 0.1 billion years after the Solar System began to form. In astronomical terms, the impact would have been of moderate velocity. Theia is thought to have struck Earth at an oblique angle when Earth was nearly fully formed.
Such an impact would kill all life on our planet. Nothing would survive. By contrast, the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was likely just 6 miles in diameter; Mercury is 3,032 miles across. The last time an object about that size hit the Earth, the resulting debris formed our Moon.
In 2023, the nodes will shift onto the Aries-Libra axis for the first time since 2014. With the north node (the future) in passionate, spirited Aries and the south node (the past) occupying partnership-oriented Libra, themes will focus around autonomy, individuality, and goal-driven singularity.
The four zodiac signs, which are Pisces, Virgo, Leo, and Capricorn, are known to be very compatible with each other. However, they have a high probability of separating in May 2023. This warning is based on astrology and can be seen as a way to sharpen the focus of those concerned with this personality trait.
To make the 6-month flight to Mars and land by 2040, humans would have to leave Earth in 2039, a vision that was previously mentioned by NASA administrator Bill Nelson and former chief Jim Bridenstine. But the agency is finding it quite challenging to make that vision a reality in the next 16 years.
When can the first humans land on Mars? Several timelines for when the first humans will land on Mars have been planned. NASA is planning to land humans on Mars by the late 2030s or early 2040s, but Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, proposed that humanity could reach the Red Planet before the end of the 2020s.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has once again said that it is "highly likely" man will go to Mars within 10 years, putting his timeframe down to the fact he is "congenitally optimistic".