Venus and the Moon to Perform Weekend Sky Show

Early risers who have clear skies this weekend have a chance to see the two brightest objects in the night sky – the moon and the planet Venus – engage in a relatively wide, but still eye-catching rendezvous.

If you're up a couple of hours before sunrise on Saturday (Jan. 29), look to the southeast and you'll see Venus glowing about 8 degrees to the left (east) of a lovely waning crescent moon. Since your fist held at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of the sky, Venus and the moon will appear closer than your thumb and pinky finger.

By Sunday morning (Jan. 30), the moon will have shifted its position, appearing slightly closer – about 7 degrees – below and to the left of Venus.

Venus in February

Venus shines brilliantly in the dawn, though not quite as brightly as it has during the last couple of months, and in February it will sink about 5 degrees closer to the horizon.  

So during February, Venus will drop about half a fist lower to the horizon. Currently, Venus is rising about three hours before the sun, but it will shift closer to two hours by the end of February.

February, in fact, will be the last full month to observe Venusin a totally dark sky until next December.

Venus has also entered its "uninteresting season" for telescopic observers. 

For the rest of this year it will appear through telescopes like a very small, featureless, gibbous moon.  Venus is never really disappointing, though. Although it's a bit dimmer than it has been in recent weeks, it’s still immensely brighter than any other point of light. 

Venus is always brighter than anything in the sky apart from the sun and the moon. And what's more, you can have fun during February as Venus passes across the "Teapot" of Sagittarius in the southeast sky. Watch as this familiar star pattern glides below Venus in the starry background, moving toward the upper right as February progresses.

As a consequence, Venus will have some very close conjunctions with a few 3rd-and 4th-magnitude stars in Sagittarius on the mornings of Feb. 7, 16, 18 and 25. 

In all of these cases, the distance separating Venus from these moderately dim stars will be less than 0.2 degree (less than the apparent width of the moon), so you might not be able to see them with your unaided eye. But if you check these out with binoculars, you’ll see these stars shining close to the lantern-like Venus.

Climate change could happen much faster than previously thought

Humans are in danger of making large parts of the Earth uninhabitable for thousands of years because of man made climate change, according to new evidence based on geological records. The US study predicted that if society continues burning fossil fuels at the current rate, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide could rise from the current level of 390 parts per million (ppm) to 1,000 by the end of this century. The last time the world had such high levels of carbon dioxide temperatures were on average 29F(16C) above pre-industrial levels. Evidence has been found of crocodiles and palm trees at the Poles and only small mammals were able to survive.
Jeffrey Kiehl, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), who carried out the study, said the Earth could return to such temperatures over hundreds or even thousands of years. But unlike last time, when it happened over millions of years, temperatures will rise too fast for species to adapt and change. In the short term he said temperatures could rise by more than 10.8F (6C) by the end of the century, which will also wipe out species. "This is happening at such a rate how will species, including humans, respond? The implications for the biosphere is of great concern." Dr Kiehl not only looked at geological records but also computer models to predict what will happen if carbon dioxide levels rise at such a rate. He included 'feed back factors', such as melting sea ice, methane released from thawing permafrost and Amazon die-back.
This showed that temperatures will increase much faster than previously thought as a result of rising carbon dioxide. "If we don't start seriously working toward a reduction of carbon emissions, we are putting our planet on a trajectory that the human species has never experienced," he said. "We will have committed human civilization to living in a different world for multiple generations." Dr Kiehl hit back at critics who claim that acting on climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels will upset the world order. "A truly conservative position is to conserve what we have, to not radically change things and if we do not want to radically change the environment then the conservative approach is to conserve the Earth as the human species has known it ever since we have been around on this planet."

Comet Hartley 2

NASA's robotic space probe EPOXI/Deep Impact approached Comet Hartley-2 on November 4, 2010, for the fifth – and closest – time. The probe, which came within approximately 700 kilometers (435 miles), returned the first ever photographs of the comet’s nucleus. 

These images were taken around the approximate time of closest approach. Although this image is unprocessed, some surface features of the comet’s icy nucleus are visible. For instance, jets appear to be ejecting vapor into space along the comet’s bottom right-hand surface. (Further analysis will have to wait until higher resolution, processed photographs become available.)