This is the Saint Louis Science Center’s NIGHT SKY UPDATE for the week of Friday, March 11, 2022. Information updated weekly or as needed. Daylight saving time starts this week on Sunday March 13, 2022, which means sighting times will be posted in central daylight time starting the 13th. For definitions of terminology used in… Continue reading
March 12, 2022 This weekend Venus and Mars appear close together in the morning sky just before sunrise. The closest they will appear is 4° apart, with Venus just north of Mars. The best time to observe this pair is around 5 am tomorrow morning (March 13th). They are in the constellation of Capricornus just… Continue reading
March 11, 2022 On this date in 1960, NASA launched the Pioneer V spacecraft on its journey to explore the space between Earth and Venus. The last scientific measurements were transmitted back to Earth on June 26, 1960. Although the probe only transmitted sporadically for three and a half months, at almost 22.5 million miles… Continue reading
March 10, 2022 On this date in 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at Mars, successfully completing its orbit insertion. The MRO continues to send back data on the planet’s atmosphere, surface, and subsurface. The focus of this mission is to better understand the history of water on the Red Planet. Scientists have recently… Continue reading
This hawk is unique among North American raptors. Ospreys have a diet of live fish and the ability to dive into water to catch them – an ability that has earned osprey a separate family classification from other hawks. Ospreys also have an unusual reversible outer toe which allows them to grasp with two toes… Continue reading
March 9, 2022 The constellation Perseus is visible in the northwest sky tonight at 8 pm. The second brightest star in this constellation is called Algol, which is an eclipsing binary star system. It is comprised of a hot, more massive star and a cooler, less massive star. When the cooler star passes in front… Continue reading
March 8, 2022 Tonight at 8:30pm, the moon exhibits a waxing crescent phase and can be found to the West in the constellation of Taurus the Bull, between the Pleiades star cluster and the red star Aldebaran. The crescent moon has been associated with the constellation of Taurus since ancient times. The Sumerians, who worshiped… Continue reading
March 7, 2022 On this date in 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope was launched. The primary objective of this spacecraft was to detect exoplanets – or planets around stars other than our own. Kepler scoured a region of the Milky Way in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra and discovered over 2,600 exoplanets. Although the spacecraft… Continue reading
March 6, 2022 On this date 1937, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born. At only 26 years old, Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. Prior to travelling to space, she worked in a textile mill and trained as a parachutist, which aided in her cosmonaut selection. Following her spaceflight, Tereshkova continued… Continue reading
This is the Saint Louis Science Center’s NIGHT SKY UPDATE for the week of Friday, March4, 2022. Information updated weekly or as needed. Times given as local St. Louis time which is Central Standard Time (CST). For definitions of terminology used in the night sky update, click the highlighted text. If relying on times posted… Continue reading
