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NASA
Course: NASA > Unit 2
Lesson 1: Modeling the solar systemConjunctions
The three brightest planets in the night sky on May 26th, 2013 lined up for a beautiful sunset conjunction. Created by Brit Cruise.
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- Hey! How can we find out the date and time for Conjunctions for other countries?
Ex- India(12 votes)- I don't know if this will help but, you can look up other astronomy things in different parts of the world. There might be something about what you need.
http://www.timeanddate.com/
Not sure it will work for this particular thing but if you need to look up something else it might help : )(5 votes)
- Wow, it seems like I missed out on this amazing event. How can I learn when these sorts of things happen?(10 votes)
- http://www.spaceweather.com/
This site usually lets you know when and how long these things last.(7 votes)
- Is there an online tool to help know when conjunctions and other formations will happen?(5 votes)
- It is no online tool, but it is a free programm for computer planetarium.
http://www.stellarium.org/
"Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go."(11 votes)
- That's awesome that we can see these so easily. How often do the planets that we can't see so easily form conjunctions?(7 votes)
- Given the number of planets in the universe, I would assume that they form conjunctions like this all the time.(3 votes)
- How was gravity invented or what made Gravity?(2 votes)
- It is a force caused by mass and how it relates to other objects. Every single tiny piece of matter has a gravitational pull, it is just not noticable. For example, if you were to stand next to one of your friends (assuming you are not a stereotypical homeschooler like me who has absolutely no contact with the outside world, lol) you would not be pulled towards him/her very much. It is so incredibly tiny, that you would not notice. Also, the planets and even the asteroids and pieces of space dust, along with the sun, keep all the planets in a fairly consistent orbit. For even more information for a hungry brain, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation(3 votes)
- How can you capture pictures of these events, where you can see the planets and stars?(2 votes)
- The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. With a 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. The telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to take extremely high-resolution images with almost no background light. Hubble's Deep Field has recorded some of the most detailed visible-light images ever, allowing a deep view into space and time.(1 vote)
- so what is a conjunction ?(2 votes)
- A conjunction is when a planet(s), Earth, and Sun are in a straight or nearly straight line. If the planet(s) are in a straight or close line in between the Earth and Sun (Mercury/ Venus), it is called an inferior conjunction. However, if the Earth and another planet are on opposite sides with the Sun in the center of them, in a nearly or straight line, this is called a Superior conjunction.(1 vote)
- Atis n't the background from Stellarium ? (Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.) It is a Ubuntu based Space Application which shows planets and the outer space ! 0:33(2 votes)
- So I assume the next one after 2015 will be in 2017 anyone know what date?(1 vote)
- Yes, I believe it will be in 2017, but I'm not sure the exact date.(1 vote)
- When the next conjunction will happen?(1 vote)