[Chelsea Gohd] Mars and Mercury have a cozy conjunction,
the Leonid meteor shower delights,
and Saturn's rings are... disappearing?
That's What's Up for November.
Mars and Mercury will cozy up together
in the night sky
just after sunset on November 12th.
The planets will experience what is known as a conjunction,
meaning they appear close together in the sky
from our view
(even though in real life, Mars and Mercury
are well over 100 million miles apart).
But you can see these two long distance pals close together
if you look slightly southwest just after sunset
in the early evening sky on November 12th.
Mars will be just to the right above Mercury,
and you'll know it's Mars by its distinctive
reddish-orange color.
The Leonid meteor shower
will sparkle across the skies this month,
peaking on November 17th.
While the meteor shower stretches from November 3rd
through December 2nd, it will be at its most visible
late on the night of November 16th
into the dawn of November 17th,
even into the early morning of November 18th.
Look for meteors coming from the shower's radiant point
within the constellation Leo in the eastern sky.
With dark skies, you might see 10-15 meteors
per hour with this shower
which happens when we travel
through the debris trailing the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.
Saturn's rings
will disappear from view this November!
Saturn orbits the sun leaning
at an angle of 26.7 degrees.
This means that from our view,
its rings shift up and down over time.
On November 23, Saturn will be angled
in such a way that its rings face us, and
since they are so thin they'll just disappear from view.
But don't worry,
the rings aren't gone from view forever.
As the planet continues to orbit,
its rings will gradually become
more visible again.
Here are the phases of the Moon for November.
You can stay up to date on all of NASA's missions
exploring the solar system and beyond
at science.nasa.gov.
I'm Chelsea Gohd from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
and that's What's Up for this month.