What's Up There Now? And What Happened to Pluto?

Recently I have been asked: What planets can be seen from Earth via the naked eye or with binoculars, and when can they be seen?

Well, this week, gaze toward and slightly above the southwestern horizon approximately an hour after the sun sets. In the absence of obstructions or clouds, you will not miss the resplendent Venus, known during this phase of its orbit as the evening star. Other than the moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky. It therefore emerges first. The only way to miss it is to look too late. Just like the sun, moon and all southern constellations, Venus sets in the west. So if you wait until Sirius and other stars pop into view, Venus will have already dropped below the earth-sky border. Luckily, Venus undergoes eastward motion this month, so it will grow increasingly high and prominent as the month progresses. Put another way, with less of a rush, you can see more and more of Venus as November unfolds.

The prodigious planet Jupiter also stars this month — second only to Venus in luminosity. If you just miss Venus, look essentially in the same region of the sky but tilt your head a bit toward the left and up to the zodiac constellation known as Sagittarius. There, you will find another object that, even at its weakest moments, outshines all stars. This is the distant gas-giant Jupiter. Even cheap binoculars will reveal four of its more than 60 known moons. On Sunday, Nov. 16, in fact, those same binoculars — if employed about an hour after sunset (which will occur at approximately 4:30 since we have finally fallen back to Eastern Standard Time), will reveal an eclipse of Jupiter’s giant moon Ganymede. From our perspective, this moon will pass right behind Jupiter, much in the same way that ours, from the sun’s perspective, can pass behind Earth. Throughout November, Venus will be inching toward Jupiter until the evening goddess actually passes under that planet Nov. 30.

Now for some unfairly quick answers to some extremely fair questions: First, speaking of planets, Cameron from Indian Mountain School asked why Pluto is no longer considered a planet.After great and controversial debate among members of the International Astronomical Union, Pluto was benched in part for these reasons:

Way out there in the Kuiper Belt, objects (such as Eris) have been discovered that are significantly more massive than, Pluto we have never considered

themplanets. To keep Pluto on the team would then invite a bunch of other eager contestants to start suiting up. Pluto’s orbit, moreover, is shaped and angled so differently from that of the other eight, that it is not entirely fair to say that Pluto orbits our sun (as a planet is supposed to do)so Pluto is no longer considered a satellite of our "Sol."

As for storms in space, acently asked question, the answer is absolutely — as long as you do not expect a storm to involve thunder or other conventional features of a terrestrial squall. There are no air molecules (nor atoms) and therefore no sound in space. There are most certainly, however, electromagnetic winds and storms from, for example, our sun. Such tempests cause magnificent visuals such as the Northern Lights.

Daniel Yaverbaum teaches science at Berkshire School where he is director of the Dixon Observatory.