December 25, 2022
The brightest star we see at night is called Sirius. It is found in the constellation of Canis Major, the Great Dog. Sirius and Canis Major are best seen during the winter and will be visible rising in the east at about 9 pm this evening.
On this date in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope launched from Guiana Space Center. The Webb telescope reached its destination at the second Lagrange point (~1 million miles from Earth) about one month later. After several months of calibration, the telescope team began releasing scientific grade images of the cosmos. In the first year since launch, Webb has photographed not just distant galaxies and exoplanets, but also planets in our own solar system.