What's up overhead  June 2023

The June Solstice, Mars and Venus, and Summer Stars! As the brilliant lights of the Northern Hemisphere summer rise each evening, the planets of love and conflict get nearer. Keep in mind that June 21 marks the solstice.

What Will June Bring? The Bee colony, your beautiful night stars, and how the Late Spring Solstice revealed the size of planet Earth are all affected by planets.

Mars will be in the Bee colony on June 1 and 2. The Colony of Bees Group, often referred to as Praesepe or M44, passes across the Red Planet. It's a famous open cluster of stars that may be found in the celestial body Disease, the crab, 600 light years away. With a glow of faint stars encircling Mars' rust-colored circle, the alignment will provide for an amazing optical or small telescope study.

On June 21, the crescent Moon will be visible in the evening sky close to Mars and Venus. NASA/JPL-Caltech credit

Throughout the entire month, look to the west after twilight to see Mars and Venus getting closer together in the sky. The centre of Leo, the lion, is the magnificent blue-and-white star Regulus, which is nearby. Additionally, the sickle Moon passes through from June 20 through 22, creating a very beautiful constellation at dusk on June 21.

Saturn and Jupiter rise in the morning sky before the sun rises, with the Ringed Planet rising about twilight and pushing brilliant Jupiter into the dawn. Throughout the entire month, ambitious people can find them on the eastern half of the sky before daybreak. Additionally, on June 14th, Jupiter will be climbing with the sickle Moon.

This sky map for June 14 shows Saturn higher up in the south and Jupiter with the Moon in the east before sunrise. NASA/JPL-Caltech credit

From the first June nights on, two very dazzling stars will be high in the sky, facing south. They are Arcturus and Spica.

The most beautiful star in the heavenly body of Virgo, the lady, is the blue-white Spica. It is located about 250 light years away and is actually two stars orbiting each other more closely than Mercury orbits our Sun.

Spica and Arcturus are two prominent stars that Northern Hemisphere observers will notice when looking south in the summertime. NASA/JPL-Caltech credit

The brightest star in Bootes, the herdsman, is orange massive Arcturus. In the sky, it is the fourth brightest star. At roughly 37 light years away, it is substantially closer than Spica. Being 7-8 billion years older than our Sun, it is likewise a very old star.

The Summer Triangle, which consists of the stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair, rises a few hours after sunset on June evenings, signaling the beginning of the long, warm nights of the Northern summer. As the summer goes on, The Triangle rises earlier each month.

summer's equinox

The Summer Solstice falls on June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice falls on June 21 in the Southern Hemisphere. As the Sun travels across the sky in its highest and longest path, it is the longest day of the year in the north. For the summer hemisphere of our planet, longer summer days and a more direct angle of the Sun above result in warmer summertime temperatures. For people who reside south of the equator, where the shortest day of the year occurs during the chilly winter months, the situation is inverted.

Another intriguing distinction associated with the summer solstice in June. 2,200 years ago, it aided the Ancient Greeks in their astoundingly accurate understanding of the size of our world. At midday on the day of the solstice, a scholar by the name of Eratosthenes observed the difference in the length of the shadows cast by poles buried in the ground in two cities that were 800 kilometers apart. The other created a sizable shadow, while the first created none at all. Eratosthenes determined that the distance between the two cities and the shadows indicated that the circumference of the Earth was around 40,000 kilometers, which is the real figure.

He was also the first to determine the tilt of the Earth's axis, which is ultimately what determines the solstices and the seasons.

The Moon's phases for June are listed here.

The phases of the Moon for June 2023. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Stay up to date with all of NASA’s missions to explore the solar system and beyond at nasa.gov. I’m Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.