WEBVTT

00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:10.419
Howdy Star Gazers and welcome to this episode

00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:14.019
of Star Trails. Drew here, and I'll be your guide

00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:16.579
to the night sky for the week starting August

00:00:16.579 --> 00:00:20.719
3rd to the 9th. This week brings us a bright

00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.800
summer moon, planets in both the evening and

00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:28.199
morning skies, and a few lingering meteors. Later

00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:31.039
in the episode, we'll head to the frozen frontier

00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:34.079
of the solar system to meet a brand new world,

00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:37.460
nicknamed Ammonite, and explore what it means

00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:41.840
for the ongoing mystery of Planet Nine. So let's

00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.520
step outside and see what's happening overhead.

00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:50.280
Our first stop is always the Moon. Tonight it's

00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:54.600
a waxing gibbous, about 69 % illuminated. If

00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:57.079
you head out shortly after sunset, you'll find

00:00:57.079 --> 00:01:00.619
it sliding just beneath Antares, the bright red

00:01:00.619 --> 00:01:03.939
heart of Scorpius, making a perfect binocular

00:01:03.939 --> 00:01:07.680
target. Each night the moon grows fatter and

00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.819
brighter. By Saturday, August the 9th, we reach

00:01:10.819 --> 00:01:14.739
the full sturgeon moon. It rises already brilliant

00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:18.159
in the early evening. The sturgeon moon is the

00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:20.620
traditional name for the full moon in August,

00:01:21.019 --> 00:01:23.900
and it comes from Native American and colonial

00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:27.140
folklore, particularly from the Great Lakes and

00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:31.140
northeastern North America. According to Algonquin

00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:33.640
and other indigenous tribes in the northeastern

00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:37.019
U .S. and parts of Canada, August was the time

00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:39.700
of year when sturgeon were most readily caught

00:01:39.700 --> 00:01:42.260
in the Great Lakes and other large bodies of

00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:46.079
water. These massive ancient fish, some of which

00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:49.019
can grow more than six feet long, would surface

00:01:49.019 --> 00:01:51.700
in greater numbers during this time, making them

00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:55.719
easier to harvest. As a result, tribes that relied

00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:59.120
on fishing for sustenance saw August as a season

00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:02.060
of abundance, and they marked the full moon of

00:02:02.060 --> 00:02:04.840
this time with a name reflecting the height of

00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:08.729
the sturgeon fishing season. Binocular and telescope

00:02:08.729 --> 00:02:11.069
users will want to get in their observations

00:02:11.069 --> 00:02:13.590
early this week, especially if you want to see

00:02:13.590 --> 00:02:17.110
craters and mountain ranges along the lunar terminator.

00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:20.569
This week's planets are split between evening

00:02:20.569 --> 00:02:24.389
and dawn. Mars is fading into the western twilight,

00:02:24.710 --> 00:02:28.650
a small orange ember low on the horizon. Saturn

00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:31.750
rises in the east -southeast after sunset and

00:02:31.750 --> 00:02:34.729
remains visible all night. Through a telescope,

00:02:34.909 --> 00:02:38.629
its rings are stunning, and Neptune lurks nearby,

00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:43.150
a faint bluish dot best seen with optics. Just

00:02:43.150 --> 00:02:46.370
shift slightly up one to two degrees from Saturn

00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:50.710
to locate Neptune. In the pre -dawn sky, the

00:02:50.710 --> 00:02:54.469
real show begins. Venus dominates as the morning

00:02:54.469 --> 00:02:58.169
star blazing over the eastern horizon. Jupiter

00:02:58.169 --> 00:03:01.490
shines nearby, and the two planets inch closer

00:03:01.490 --> 00:03:04.060
each morning heading toward a tight conjunction

00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:08.900
on August 12. Uranus is faint but trackable just

00:03:08.900 --> 00:03:12.039
below the Pleiades star cluster. This is a good

00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:15.439
binocular challenge for dedicated early risers.

00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:20.000
The Southern Delta Aquarid and Alpha Capricornid

00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.080
meteor showers are tapering off this week. You

00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.800
might catch a handful of lingering streaks early

00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:29.180
in the week, with the Alpha Capricornids occasionally

00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:32.800
producing a bright fireball. The Perseids are

00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:35.699
already active and will peak next week around

00:03:35.699 --> 00:03:39.340
August 12th or 13th, but a bright moon will wash

00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:42.939
out many fainter meteors. Even so, pre -dawn

00:03:42.939 --> 00:03:45.960
observers under dark skies can still spot some

00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:49.120
early Perseids tracing long paths across the

00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.680
sky. Looking deeper into the cosmos, check out

00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:59.060
a few open clusters in Auriga, like M36, M37,

00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:03.080
and M38. They're visible overhead in the early

00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:06.620
evening. Auriga is high after dark and rich with

00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:10.620
bright stars like Capella. Scorpius crouches

00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:13.960
low in the southwest with Antares glowing red.

00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:17.000
Early in the week, watch the moon drift past

00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:20.920
it. In very dark areas, look along the Milky

00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:24.959
Way from Cygnus through Sagittarius. This region

00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:28.399
is rich with star clouds, dark nebula, and the

00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:32.579
Sagittarius teapot asterism pointing to the galactic

00:04:32.579 --> 00:04:36.579
center. Aim a small telescope or binoculars along

00:04:36.579 --> 00:04:39.720
this Milky Way stretch, where open clusters like

00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:44.620
M7 in Scorpius and M11 in Scutum sparkle amid

00:04:44.620 --> 00:04:49.100
the star fields. Coming up, a distant relic of

00:04:49.100 --> 00:04:51.560
the solar system is proving to be a bit of a

00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:54.220
troublemaker, shaking up theories that point

00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:57.779
to the existence of the fabled Planet Nine. That's

00:04:57.779 --> 00:05:12.370
after the break. Stay with us. This week we're

00:05:12.370 --> 00:05:16.269
venturing far beyond Neptune into the quiet frozen

00:05:16.269 --> 00:05:19.569
frontier of the solar system, where astronomers

00:05:19.569 --> 00:05:23.810
have discovered a mysterious new world. Its official

00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:30.110
name is 2023 KQ14, but scientists call it Ammonite

00:05:30.110 --> 00:05:34.370
after the coiled fossil. And its orbit is challenging

00:05:34.370 --> 00:05:37.230
one of the most tantalizing ideas in planetary

00:05:37.230 --> 00:05:41.839
science, the search for Planet Nine. Ammonite

00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:45.500
was discovered in March 2023 by astronomers using

00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:50.279
Japan's Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea. Recently

00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:53.240
detailed in a Nature astronomy paper published

00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:56.560
just last month, Ammonite's orbit is a highly

00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:00.300
elongated, tilted trajectory, stretching from

00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:05.800
66 AU at closest to more than 250 AU at farthest.

00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:08.980
That's hundreds of times farther from the Sun

00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:12.910
than Earth. Ammonite is estimated to be around

00:06:12.910 --> 00:06:17.550
220 to 380 kilometers across, making it comparable

00:06:17.550 --> 00:06:20.730
in size to other mid -sized trans -Neptunian

00:06:20.730 --> 00:06:24.529
objects. Not Pluto -class, but substantial enough

00:06:24.529 --> 00:06:28.050
to merit the dwarf planet tag. Interestingly,

00:06:28.350 --> 00:06:31.129
its orbit has remained stable for roughly four

00:06:31.129 --> 00:06:34.329
and a half billion years, making it a cosmic

00:06:34.329 --> 00:06:38.259
fossil of the early solar system. What might

00:06:38.259 --> 00:06:41.560
it look like? Well, picture a dark reddish -brown

00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:45.839
icy world, like a charcoal -toned snowball. Its

00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:48.639
surface is probably a mix of frozen water and

00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:51.899
rock, cratered and rugged after billions of years

00:06:51.899 --> 00:06:55.579
in deep freeze. In sunlight, a few patches of

00:06:55.579 --> 00:06:58.699
bright frost might glimmer on its horizon. No

00:06:58.699 --> 00:07:01.540
telescope on Earth can show us any details yet.

00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:05.420
It's far too small and faint, but its orbit tells

00:07:05.420 --> 00:07:09.490
its story. Ammonite is part of an elite family

00:07:09.490 --> 00:07:13.350
of worlds called Sednoids. Only three others

00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:17.310
are known, Sedna, Leila Kahuna, and one other

00:07:17.310 --> 00:07:21.730
smaller object called 2012 VP. All of them live

00:07:21.730 --> 00:07:25.310
beyond Neptune's influence, like fossils of the

00:07:25.310 --> 00:07:28.329
early solar system, untouched for billions of

00:07:28.329 --> 00:07:31.680
years. These objects suggest the presence of

00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.180
the elusive Planet Nine, a hypothetical object

00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:38.839
of maybe five to ten Earth masses orbiting hundreds

00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:42.500
of AU from the Sun. Its gravity could shepherd

00:07:42.500 --> 00:07:45.959
small icy bodies into similar orbits, creating

00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:49.100
a cluster pointing in the same direction. But

00:07:49.100 --> 00:07:52.399
here's the twist. Ammonite doesn't line up with

00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:56.189
the cluster. Its orbit points almost the opposite

00:07:56.189 --> 00:07:58.930
way, which weakens the main piece of evidence

00:07:58.930 --> 00:08:02.550
for the existence of Planet Nine. Does that mean

00:08:02.550 --> 00:08:05.990
Planet Nine isn't real? Well, maybe. Or maybe

00:08:05.990 --> 00:08:08.610
it's farther out or on a different orbit than

00:08:08.610 --> 00:08:11.870
we imagined. The good news is we're entering

00:08:11.870 --> 00:08:15.290
a golden age for discoveries like this. Over

00:08:15.290 --> 00:08:18.990
the next couple of years, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

00:08:18.990 --> 00:08:22.410
will begin the legacy survey of space and time.

00:08:22.670 --> 00:08:26.230
creating a decade -long movie of the night sky.

00:08:26.889 --> 00:08:29.709
It's expected to reveal hundreds of new distant

00:08:29.709 --> 00:08:32.529
objects, giving us the numbers we need to confirm

00:08:32.529 --> 00:08:37.250
or refute Planet Nine once and for all. No doubt

00:08:37.250 --> 00:08:40.669
there are many more tiny frozen worlds like Ammonite

00:08:40.669 --> 00:08:43.669
silently orbiting at the edge of our solar system.

00:08:44.169 --> 00:08:46.750
They are fossils of our solar system's youth,

00:08:46.929 --> 00:08:49.990
and each one whispers a story that might lead

00:08:49.990 --> 00:08:57.419
us to the next great discovery. If the stars

00:08:57.419 --> 00:08:59.840
spoke to you this week, or if a question's been

00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:02.320
on your mind, I'd love to hear it. Visit our

00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:05.879
website, StarTrails .Show, where you can contact

00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:09.799
me and explore past episodes. Be sure to follow

00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:13.100
us on Blue Sky and YouTube. Links are in the

00:09:13.100 --> 00:09:16.179
show notes. Until we meet again beneath the stars,

00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:17.659
clear skies everyone.