[Energetic music]
[Preston Dyches] What’s Up for February?
The Moon's many engagements,
what's the right term for a planetary rendezvous,
and the goddess of love draws near.
Starting with the Moon's journey across the sky this month,
you'll find the slim crescent of Earth's natural satellite
cozied upto the planet Venus on the 1st.
It then visits the Pleiades on the 5th,
and hops over Jupiter on the 6th,
looking increasingly fuller, before arriving
right next to Mars on February 9th.
Jupiter and Mars rule the sky on February nights.
You'll find them high overhead in the evening, together
with the winter constellations of Orion, Taurus, and Gemini.
Astronomers sometimes get picky about their terminology.
For instance, the apparent close approaches of objects
on the sky, like two planets, or the Moon and a planet,
are commonly called "conjunctions,"
and we often use that term in this video series.
However, most of the time, the technically correct term
is an "appulse."
Conjunctions technically occur
when two objects have the same right ascension,
and they don't have to appear close together in the sky.
(Right ascension is a way of indicating
where an object is along the sky from east to west,
similar to how we measure longitude on Earth's surface.)
Appulses are simply the times when two objects appear
at their closest in the sky,
regardless of whether they
have the same "space coordinates."
The term comes from a Latin word
meaning "brought near" or "driven toward."
And now that you know the distinction,
you can choose to keep it casual or impress others
with some next-level astronomy knowledge.
Either way, it’s all about enjoying the view.
February is a month for love,
so what better time to spotlight Venus,
which is associated with the Roman goddess of love?
This month, Venus shines at its brightest for the year.
It'll remain dazzling through the start of March
as it slowly descends from its late-January
high point in the sky.
By mid-March, it will disappear
into the glare of sunset, only to reappear
as a morning object in April.
Now, you may have heard
that Venus goes through phases, just like the Moon.
You can see these phases with a modest telescope.
But there’s a surprising twist:
unlike the Moon,
Venus isn’t at its brightest when it’s "full."
Instead, it shines most brilliantly
in our skies when it’s a thinner crescent!
It all comes down to distance.
See, Venus only appears fuller when it’s
on the far side of the Sun, and much farther from Earth.
As it comes closer to us, its phase becomes a crescent,
but the planet also looks much larger in the sky.
Even as a crescent,
the light from its closer position
more than makes up for the smaller phase.
So, remember this Valentine's proverb:
"The goddess of love is at her most radiant when nearby!"
Here are the phases of the Moon for February.
Stay up to date on all of NASA's missions
exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov.
I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
and that's What's Up for this month.