April 9, 2026

April Skies: Celestial Wonders and Planetary Alignments Await

April Skies: Celestial Wonders and Planetary Alignments Await
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Season 29
SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 43 *Climate change is slowing Earth's spin at an unprecedented rate A new study has found that climate change is slowing the Earth rotation at an unprecedented rate compared to past 3.6 million years *Magnetic waves discovered deep inside the Sun Scientists have detected large scale magnetic waves moving deep inside the Sun. The discovery reported in the journal Nature Astronomy could help scientists predict solar activity. *Mystery medical evacuation from space station finally explained That mystery medical evacuation from the International Space Station earlier this year has finally been explained. *April SkyWatch The splendours of the Southern Cross and its two pointer stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, the blue Supergiant Canopus and the Lyrids meteor shower are among the highlights of the April night skies on SkyWatch. Our Guests This Week: Artemis lunar science lead Kelsey Young from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre And our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics And Senior science writer and Sky and Telescope magazine contributor Jonathan Nally 🌏 Get Our Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.bitesz.com/nordvpn . The discounts and bonuses are incredible! And it’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌ If you’d like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content by becoming a SpaceTime crew member, you can do just that through premium versions on Patreon, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Details on the Support page on our website https://www.bitesz.com/show/spacetime/support/

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

WEBVTT

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This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, Episode forty three, broadcast

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on the tenth of April twenty twenty six. Coming up

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on Spacetime, climate change now slowing Earth's spin at an

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unprecedented rate, magnetic waves discovered deep inside the Sun, and

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that mystery medical evacuation from the International Space Station earlier

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this year finally explained all that and more. Coming up

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on space Time.

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Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.

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A new study has found that climate change is slowing

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Earth's rotation at an unprecedented rate compared to the past

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three point six million years. A report in the Journal

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of Geophysical Research has found that climate change is lengthening

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Earth's stay because rising sea levels slow Earth's rotation, increasing

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the average length of the day by one point three

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to three milliseconds per century. The author's reconstructed ancient day

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length fluctuations using fossil remains of single submarine organisms known

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as benthic for aminifera. An exact twenty four hour day

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is not a given. The length of day changes due

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to gravitational effects of the Moon, as well as numerous

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geophysical processes on Earth acting within its interior, its surface,

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and in the atmosphere, but today's climate change also affected

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the length of the day. Previous studies by the same

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researchers had already shown that between the years twenty twenty twenty,

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an average Earth day had lengthened by a rate equivalent

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to one point three to three milliseconds per century due

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to climate change related factors, especially the redistribution of continental

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ocean mass due to the melting of polar ice sheets

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and mountain glaciers. The new study builds on that, showing

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that this now is happening faster than at any previous

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time over the past three point six million years.

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One of the.

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Studies authors was the Vaciani Chavati from the University of Vienna.

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Says the planet's spinning causes centrifugal force to move more

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water towards the equator, and that slows down the planet's

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rotational rate. It's exactly the same as figure skaters, who

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spin more slowly once they stretch their arms out and

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move more rapidly once they bring their hands closer to

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their bodies. But what remained unclear until now was whether

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there were earlier periods when climate increased the length of

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the day at a similarly rapid pace. To answer that question,

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sherivandian colleagues use the fossilized remains of benthic for a

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minute fera. The chemical composition of these fossils allow scientists

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to inferse sea level fluctuations and then mathematically derived the

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corresponding changes in day length. But to draw more robust conclusions,

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the authors also used a probabilistic deep learning algorithm, a

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physics informed the fusion model, which captures the physics of

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sea level change or remaining robust to the large uncertainties

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inherent in paleoclimate data. The growth and melting of large

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continental ice sheets repeatedly cause significant day length variations through

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sea level changes. Chevandi says that compared to values from

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the twenty first century, however, it's clear that today's increase

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in day length stands out in the climate history of

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the past three point six million years. Only once, around

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two million years ago, did the rate of change in

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the length of the day even come close to the

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current rate. The authors say that by the end of

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the twenty first century, climate change is expected to affect

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the length of the day even more strongly than the

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moon now, although these changes are only in milliseconds. They

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can cause problems in many areas, including time keeping and navigation,

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which requires very accurate information on Earth's rotation. This space

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time still to come. Magnetic waves discovered deep inside the Sun,

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and that mystery medical evacuation from the International Space Station

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back in January has finally been explained. All that and

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more still to come on space time. Scientists have detected

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large scale magnetic waves moving deep inside the Sun. The discovery,

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reported in the General Nature Astronomy, could help scientists predict

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solar activity. The waves, which are driven by powerful magnetic

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fields far below the solar surface, provide a new window

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into parts of the Sun that are otherwise inaccessible, thereby

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giving astronomers a new tool to study how our local

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star's magnetic field is formed and how it evolves over time.

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The Sun's interior is the dynamic ocean of hot, electorally

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charred gas known as plasma, which is shaped by rotation

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and magnetic forces. These magnetic fields drive the Sun's eleven

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year solar cycle, sunspots and powerful eruptions such as solar flares,

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a coronal mass ejections which can disrupt satellites, communication and

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navigation systems, and affect power grids on the Earth. Until now,

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the magnetic behavior deep inside the Sun was largely hidden

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from observation. But in this new study, scientists from New

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York University analyzed more than a decade of the Sun's

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natural vibrations, a process known as helio was still a seismology.

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Their work revealed evidence of previously undetected global scale magnetic

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waves influenced by the Sun's internal magnetism. By measuring how

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these waves move, the authors can infer the strength and

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structure of magnetic fields deep below the Sun's surface. So

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the findings are providing a new approach for studying the

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Sun's interior and its magnetic evolution over time, with implications

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for improving space weather forecasting, as well as understanding magnetic

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activity in other stars throughout the universe. This is space

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time still to come. That mystery medical evacuation from the

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International Space Station earlier this year has finally been explained,

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and the splendors of the Southern Cross and it's two

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pointer stars out from Bittersentry, the super giant Canopus, and

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the Lyrid's meteor shower are among the highlights of the

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April night skies on SkyWatch. Well it seems that medical

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evacuation from the International Space Station earlier this year has

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finally been explained at the Center. It was four time

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nasarats Michael Fink. Apparently he suddenly fell ill while eating

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dinner after preparing for a spacewalk. He couldn't talk and

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remembers no pain, but after seeing him in distress, his

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crewmate's requested help from flight surgeons on the ground. Fink

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says it came completely out of the blue and was

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amazingly quick. The fifty nine year old retired Air Force

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colonel says the episode lasted about twenty minutes and he

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felt fine afterwards, and it still does today, and he's

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never experienced anything like that, either before or since. Doctors

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have ruled out a heart attack. Think and his fellow

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SpaceX crew eleven Expedition seventy four astronauts were some five

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and a half months into their stay aboard the International

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Space Station when the episode occurred. The space station's ultrasound

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machine was initially used in orbit, and then follow up

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tests were conducted when he returned to Worth. NASA are

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now pouring through other astronauts and medical records to see

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if any similar events may have affected other crew members.

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Although it's not uncommon for astronauts to get sick in space,

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this was the first time ever that a medical emergency

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evacuation had to be carried out from the International Space

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Station this space Time SkyWatch is next, and time Matter

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check out the night skies of April on SkyWatch. April

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is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian

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calendar and the fifth in the Early Julian calendar. The

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Romans gave this month the Latin name of Prilus. Although

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the name's origins aren't certain, traditional entomology suggest as from

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the verb aparia to open, as in it being the

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season when the trees and flowers begin to open as

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the northern hemisphere moves into spring. April is also Prevention

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of Cruelty to Animals month, and so it's a good

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time to consider adopting a shelter pit or donating to

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an animal welfare charity. High in the southern sky during April,

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you'll find the Southern Cross and its two pointer stars,

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Alpha and Beta Centauri. The more distant of the two

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pointer stars from the Southern Cross is Alpha Centauri, which

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also happens to be the nearest star system to our

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own located some four point three light years away. Alpha

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Centauri actually consists of three stars. There's Alpha's scentaury A

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in B, which orbit each other, and proximate centaury which

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orbits the pair, and at four point twenty five light

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is distant. Is currently the nearest start of the Earth

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other than the Sun. A light year is about ten

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trillion kilometers, the distance of photon can travel in a

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year at three hundred thousand kilometers per second, the speed

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of light in a vacuum, and the ultimate speed limit

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of the universe. Like the Sun, Alpha centaury A is

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a specual type G yellow dwarf star. It's slightly bigger,

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having about a tenth more mass than the Sun and

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is about fifty percent more luminosity. Astronomers describe stars in

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terms of spetual types, a classification system based on temperature

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and characteristics. The hottest, most massive, and most luminous stars

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are known are spectual type of blue stars. They are

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followed by spectual type B blue white stars, then spetual

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type A white stars, specual type F whitish yellow stars,

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spetual type G yellow stars. That's where our Sun fits

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in spectrotype K orange stars, and the coolest and least

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massive stars of all are spectual type M red dwarf stars.

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Each spetual classification is further subdivided using a numeric digit

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to represent temperature, with zero being the hottest and nine

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the coolest, and then a Roman numeral to represent luminosity.

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So our Sun is a spectrotype G two V or

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G two five yellow dwarf star. Also included in the

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stellar classification system are special types LT and Y, which

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are assigned to failed stars called brown dwarves. These is

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sometimes born a spectual type M red dwarf stars, but

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become brown dwarves after losing some of their mass. Brown

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dwarves fit into a category between the largest planets, which

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are about thirteen times the mass of Jupiter, and the

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smallest spectrotype M red dwarf stars, which are around seventy

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five to eighty times the mass of Jupiter or about

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zero zero point zero eight Solar masses orbiting in a

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binary system with alpha centaury a is alpha centaury b,

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a spectrotype K orange dwarf star, a little smaller and

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cooler than the Sun, with about zero point nine times

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the Sun's mass. And about half its luminosity. Alpha centaury

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A and b aorbit each other around a common center

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of gravity every seventy nine point nine to one earth years.

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The distance between the two stars varies between roughly that

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of Pluto and the Sun and that of Satin in

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the Sun. The third star in the system, Proxima centaury,

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sometimes called Alpha centaury C, is a spectuotype m red

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dwarf star with roughly a seventh diameter and about an

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eighth the mass of the Sun. It takes around five

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hundred and fifty thousand earth years to orbit Alpha centaury

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A and B. The nearer of the two pointer stars

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to the southern cross is Beta centaury also a triple

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star system, but this one located a far more distant

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three hundred and ninety.

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Light years away.

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All three are massive, young blue stars, far larger and

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more luminous than the Sun. Two of the stars, name

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Beta centaury Aa and Beta century AB, orbit each other,

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while the third star, Betasentory B, orbits the primary pair

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every fifteen hundred earth years. Bettersentory AA and AB are

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known as a spectroscopic binary, orbiting each other every three

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hundred and fifty seven Earth days. Spectroscopic binaries are double

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star systems orbiting each other so closely and at such

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an angle that they can only be visually separated from

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our point of view here on Earth, at least by

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their spectroscopic signatures. Both these stars are now reaching the

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end of their time on the main sequence and will

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soon run out of the core hydrogen they use for fusion,

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the process which makes stars like the sunshine. The two

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point of stars Alpha and Bettersentaury and named after Cirron

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the Centaur, a mythological Greek being half man half horse.

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Sirron taught many the gods and heroes, but was placed

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among the stars after accidentally being shot with a poison

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arrow by Hercules. Next to the pointer stars is the

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spectacular Southern Cross or Crux, the smallest but one of

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the best known of the eighty eight constellations in the sky.

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The Southern Cross is considered an important constellation for navigation,

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and is featured on the flags of several nations, including Australia, Brazil,

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New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa. In April, the

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Southern Cross relies on its side in the early evening

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but becomes more and more upright as the night progresses.

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The bottom and brightest star in the Southern Cross is

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Alpha Crusis or a Crux, which is actually a multiple

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star system located three hundred and twenty one light years away.

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It consists of three stars, A one Crusus, which is

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a spectroscopic binary, and A two Cruises. A two Crusus

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in the primary star in A one Crusus are both

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spectral type B blue stars with the surface temperatures of

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twenty six thousand and twenty eight thousand kelvin respectively. The

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two components orbit each other every fifteen hundred earth years

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at an average distance of around four hundred and thirty

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astronomical units. An astronomical unit is the average distance between

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the Earth and the Sun roughly one hundred and fifty

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million kilometers or eight point three light minutes. The spectroscopic

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binary A wine Cruises is thought to comprise two stars

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with about ten and fourteen times the mass of the Sun, respectively.

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The pair orbit each other every seventy six earth days

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at a distance of around one hundred and fifty million kilometers.

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In other words, one astronomical unit the masses of a

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two cruises and the larger component of A Wine Cruises

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are expected to eventually explode as core collapse supernovae, ending

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up as neutron stars, while the smaller component of A

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one cruises could survive as a white dwarf. The left

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hand and second brightest star in the Southern Cross is

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called Beta cruss There's also a spectroscopic binary consisting of

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two stars orbiting each other every five earth years at

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an average distance which varies between five point four and

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twelve astronomical units. Beta Crusus is located some two hundred

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and eighty light years away. The primary star, Beta Crusus A,

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is a special type B beta cefi variable blue star

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which changes in brightness over a period of around four

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to four and a half hours. It has about sixteen

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times the Sun's mass, about eight times its diameter, and

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a surface temperature of some twenty seven thousand kelvin. By comparison,

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our Sun is a surface temperature of just six thousand.

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The second star in the system, BITA Crucis B, has

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about ten solar masses. A third companion has also been

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detected in the system. However, it appears to be a

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low mass pre main sequence star. Which hasn't yet commenced

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nuclear fusion. Need Beta Crusus is This spectacularly young open

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star cluster, known as the Kappacrusus cluster or in GC

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forty seven fifty five, are more commonly referred to as

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the jewel Box, the name given to it by a

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famous eighteenth century astronomer, John Herschel. Open star clusters are

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groups of stars which were originally all born at the

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same time out of the same collapsing molecular gas and

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00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:22.159
dust cloud. Although somewhat still gravitationally bound to each other,

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stars in open clusters eventually separate, moving to other parts

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of the galaxy. As the name suggests, the jewel Box

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is a stunning collection of more than one hundred bright,

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colorful stars located some six four hundred and forty light

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years away, although its exact distance is somewhat difficult to

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determine because of the nearby Coalsack nebula, which obscures some

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of the light. The Coalsack is a dark nebula containing

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lots of gas and dust blocking out background stars. In

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Australian Aboriginal dream time legend, the Coalsack forms the head

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00:16:54.919 --> 00:16:58.000
of the Emu constellation with the dark dust la into

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the Milky Way, forming the emu's body and legs. The

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central parts of the jewel box are framed by bright stars,

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making up an a shaped asterism. These are among the

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brightest known blue, white, and red supergiants in the Milky Way.

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Gamma Cruisius, which is located at the top of the

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Southern Cross, is the third brightest star in the constellation.

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It's also one of the nearest red giants to our

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solar system, located just eighty eight point six light years away.

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Although only thirty percent more massive than the Sun, it's

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expanded outer envelope has bloated out to some eighty four

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00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:37.519
times the Sun's radius and is radiating some fifteen hundred

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times more luminosity than the Sun. As a red giant

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no longer on the main sequence, Gamma Crusis is nearing

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the end of its life. Its surface temperature is some

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three thousand, six hundred and twenty six kelvin, and it

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00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:54.759
has a prominent reddish orange appearance. The star on the

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right hand side of the Southern Cross is Delta crusis,

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a massive, hot, and rapidly rotating star that's in the

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process of evolving into a red giant and will eventually

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end up as a white dwarf. The stellar corpse of

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sun like stars, Dilda Crusus, is located some three hundred

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and forty five light years away. It is about nine

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times the Sun's mass and eight times it's radius. It's

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presently radiating at around ten thousand times the luminosity of

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the Sun at an effective temperature of twenty two thousand,

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five hundred and seventy kelvin, causing it to glow with

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a blue white hue. The smallest star in the Southern

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Cross is Epsilon Cruisis, which is located in the space

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between Delta and Alpha Crusus. It's a red giant some

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two hundred and twenty eight light years away.

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It is about one.

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Point four to two times the mass of the Sun

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and about thirty two times it's radius. Its surface temperature

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of four one hundred and forty eight kelvin means it's

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sometimes referred to as an orange giant. The Southern Cross

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00:18:54.359 --> 00:18:56.400
is at its highest point in the southern sky this

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time of year, and he's pointing directly at the southern

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celestual pole. It's within the constellation Centaurus. The Centaur, the

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half man half horse of Greek mythology we mentioned earlier.

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The creature is holding a bow loaded with an arrow.

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The centaur's front leg is marked by the two pointer

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stars Alpha and Beta Centaurus. His back arches over the

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southern cross, and just above this is Amiga Centauri, a

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00:19:22.519 --> 00:19:27.400
spectacular globular cluster visible with the unaided eye from dark locations.

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00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:32.920
Unlike open star clusters, globular clusters are tightly packspiest containing

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thousands to millions of stars which were originally all thought

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00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:38.920
to have been born at the same time from the

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00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:43.319
same molecular gas and dust cloud. Amiga Centauri is about

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00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:47.119
sixteen thousand light years away. It's one of the largest

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and brightest of the hundreds of globular clusters known to

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orbit around the Milky Way Galaxy. Centaurus was included among

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the forty eight constellations listed by the second century astronomy

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a Ptolemy, and it remains one of the eighty eight

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modern day constellations. The constellation Orion the Hunter is still

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clearly visible in the northwestern sky this time of year,

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with its rectangle of four stars surrounded by a central

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trio of stars which form Orion spilt To the right

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or east of Orion is the constellation Gemini and its

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two brightest stars, paul Axe and Casta. This time of year,

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the Gemini twins are almost directly due north for Southern

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Hemisphere sky watchers. The higher of the two stars, paul Axe,

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is a red giant some eleven times that I Am

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of the Sun and located just thirty four light years away.

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The other star, Castor, is much further away, some fifty

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one light years. Look to the east and you'll see

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the star Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation of Leo.

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The lion Regulus, which means little King, is located seventy

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seven light years away, and it's about three and a

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half times as massive as the Sun. At about one

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00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:00.480
hundred and forty times is luminous. Regulus is a binary

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00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:03.759
companion star which takes one hundred and thirty thousand years

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00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:07.519
to orbit. The primary to the right of Regulus and

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virtually due east in the sky right now is the

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star Spiker, located directly below the four stars in the

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constellation Corps. The crow Spiker is the brightest star in

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the constellation Virgo, also known as Alpha Virginis. It's the

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sixteenth brightest star in the night sky, and is another

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spectroscopic binary comprising two stars closely orbiting each other every

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00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:34.079
four earth days. In fact, the two stars in Spiker

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00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:37.759
are orbiting so close together that the gravitational interaction between

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them has caused them to become rotating epsiloidal variables, distorting

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them into the shape of a rugby league or gridiron football.

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Light from this binary changes in brightness as the two

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stars orbit each other, exposing their elongated hemispheres to us.

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Spiker is located some two hundred and sixty light years away.

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It is some two thousand times as luminous as the Sun.

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Spiker means ear of wheat, which Virgo is holding in

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a hand. It's so named because it marks the start

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of the harvest season in the northern hemisphere. The primary

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00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:15.640
is a blue giant variable better Cepheid, which undergoes small

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00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:19.559
rapid variations in brightness because of pulsations in the star's

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surface thought to be caused by the unusual properties of

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iron at temperatures of two hundred thousand degrees in the

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stellar interior. It is about ten times the Sun's mass

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and about seven and a half times its diameter. Once

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00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:35.200
a spectral type B blue white main sequence star, it's

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now pulsating rapidly, rotating at more than one hundred and

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ninety nine kilometres per second over a zero point one

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seven three eight earth day period. It's one of the

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nearest stars to the Earth, which is expected to end

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its life as a type two core collapse supernova. The

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second star in the system is also thought to be

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a spectual type B blue white giant about seven solar

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masses and three point six times the sun star diameter. Okay,

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going back to the southern cross and looking to the

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00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:07.680
right or west, you'll see the star Canopus. It's the

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second brightest star in the night sky after Sirius. Even

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though Canopus is three hundred and twelve light years away,

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it looks incredibly bright because it's huge one hundred times

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the diameter of the Sun and ten thousand times is luminous.

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This year's second major meteor shower, the Lyriids, will peak

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on April the twenty second and twenty third. The Lyroids

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appear to radiate out from the constellation Lyra close to

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the star Vega, one of the brightest stars in the

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sky this time of year. The source of the meteor

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shower are particles of dust and debris shed by the

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long period Comet c. Eighteen sixty one g one thatcher

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sky watches in the northern Hemisphere get the best view

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of the Lyriids. However, listeners at mid southern Hemisphere latitudes

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can also see the shower between midnight and dawn. Patient

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00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:58.720
observers will be rewarded with around eighteen meteors per hour

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before dawn from dark sky locations and joining us now

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for the rist of our tour of the April night skies.

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Senior science writer and Sky and tell Us About magazine

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00:24:08.119 --> 00:24:09.640
contributor Jonathan Nally.

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Got a shirt all its April. So after nightfall and April,

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we've got the milky Way, which to be seen spanning

397
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the sky from horizon to horizon, or at least stop

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holding it, can they Stuart? Well, Yes, after nightfall on

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April evenings, we've got the milky Way which can be

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00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:28.039
seen spanning the sky from horizon to horizon, or at

401
00:24:28.119 --> 00:24:30.480
least it does. You can see it if you're lucky,

402
00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:33.759
because it depends on what your local light pollution situations like.

403
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:36.319
So far, I live in the suburbs of the big city.

404
00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:38.400
I can't actually see the Milky Way. I cannot see

405
00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.000
the glow of our galaxy scene from the inside, which

406
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:42.960
is what the Milky Way is, our view of our

407
00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:44.359
galaxy from the inside.

408
00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:47.640
I used to work in Darwin in the Northern Territory

409
00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:50.519
at the local radio station there, and I used to

410
00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:53.000
live in Sydney, so go down for holidays to Sydney

411
00:24:53.079 --> 00:24:55.400
and drive between the two, which is about I think

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00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:57.720
three and a half four thousand kilometers, which is a

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00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:00.039
long drive, and so I didn't get to see the

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00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:03.680
Milky Way until I was in the Australian outback where

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00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:06.759
there's no lights other than what the sky provides.

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00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:08.440
Then it is spectacular.

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00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:11.000
Yeah, if you're away from sources of light pollution, you

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00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:12.799
can see the Mooky Way and it's amazing. But for

419
00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:15.480
so many people that live in the city, myself included,

420
00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:18.000
it just just cannot see the thing because of the

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00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:20.640
light pollution. It's really really bad. But you know, if

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00:25:20.680 --> 00:25:22.519
you're lucky and you do live in a darker location,

423
00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:24.519
or you're on going on holidays or driving through the

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00:25:24.519 --> 00:25:26.240
outback or whatever, you should be able to see it

425
00:25:26.279 --> 00:25:28.240
at this time of year. Stretching across the sky from

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00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:30.279
the southeast to the northwest. But even if you can't

427
00:25:30.279 --> 00:25:31.759
see the glow of the Monky Way, you can still

428
00:25:31.799 --> 00:25:34.359
trace its part by virtue of some of the bright

429
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:37.480
stellar signposts along its length. These are the bright stars

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00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:40.599
that can be seen even under the worst light pollution scenarios.

431
00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:42.599
You can't see the faint glow of the Milky Way,

432
00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:45.680
which is the accumulation of millions and millions of stars

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00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:47.559
that you can't make out with the naked eye, but

434
00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:50.240
there are certain bright stars and the constellations along the

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00:25:50.279 --> 00:25:52.200
length of the Mooky Way. You can always see them.

436
00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:54.559
So starting way down in the south, as we can

437
00:25:54.599 --> 00:25:56.759
see it from down the southern part of the planet

438
00:25:56.799 --> 00:25:59.680
from below the equator, they've got Alpha and Beta Centauri,

439
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:02.599
a pair of stars known as the Pointers. That's because

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00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:04.240
if you draw a line between the two of them

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00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:07.519
and extend it onwards, it points that line points roughly

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00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:10.759
to the next collection of brightish stars, which is the

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00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:14.359
constellation of the Southern Cross. The Alpha and Beta two

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00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:17.519
Pointer stars. They are the third and the eleventh froight

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00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:19.640
of stars in the night sky. Alp and Vita, third

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00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:22.240
and eleventh brightest stars, and the two brighter stars in

447
00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:25.119
the southern Cross are the thirteenth and the twentieth brightest.

448
00:26:25.319 --> 00:26:27.359
Now moving further along the Lookie Way, and a little

449
00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:30.480
off its right hand edge is a star called Canopus,

450
00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:33.279
as is the brightest star in the constellation called Corina,

451
00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:35.839
and it's actually the second brightest star in the whole

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00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:37.799
night sky. And if we go still a little bit

453
00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:40.279
further along, we come to the brighter star in the

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00:26:40.359 --> 00:26:42.960
night star that's serious, which is the so called Dog

455
00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:45.440
star because it's the brightest star in the constellation of

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00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:49.680
Canus Major, which is the larger or greater Dog. So yeah, Venus,

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00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:51.200
you you got the second brightest star in this A

458
00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:53.039
little further along, you've got the brighter star in the

459
00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:55.200
night sky. And not far away from that is another

460
00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:57.640
star called pro Psion. A little bit further along the

461
00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:00.839
Lookie way, this is the brightest star in Canous Minor,

462
00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:03.920
the lesser or smaller God constellation, and it's the eighth

463
00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:06.440
brighter star that we can see from Earth. Then we're

464
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:08.319
going to look further along the Milky Way again, and

465
00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:10.680
we've got the two bright stars in the constellation Arah

466
00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:14.039
and you've got beetle juice Skars tenth brightest star, and

467
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:17.079
rye Gel the seventh brightest star. I think it's really

468
00:27:17.079 --> 00:27:19.880
interesting to note that all but one of those stars

469
00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:22.079
that I've just mentioned that they seem to be single stars.

470
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:23.359
You look up in the Knights Kind they just looked

471
00:27:23.400 --> 00:27:25.799
like a star, almost all of them, in fact, all

472
00:27:25.880 --> 00:27:29.480
but one in fact multiple star systems. So you've got

473
00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:32.920
Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, and they are both triple

474
00:27:32.920 --> 00:27:36.000
star systems. The Alpha star in the Southern Cross is

475
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:40.240
a seven star systems got seven stars, while it's sibling,

476
00:27:40.279 --> 00:27:42.559
the next brightest star in the Southern Cross, Beta is

477
00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:45.119
a triple star. You've got Sirius and Precion are both

478
00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:48.240
binary stars. Beetle Juice is a binary and rye Gel

479
00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:50.640
has at least four stars in its system. So out

480
00:27:50.640 --> 00:27:52.160
of all the stars we've just gone through along the

481
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:53.839
length of the Milky Way that you can see in

482
00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:55.839
the night Star during the April oft least in the evening,

483
00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:58.599
of all those ones I mentioned, only Canopus is a

484
00:27:58.599 --> 00:28:01.039
single star. And this actually pretty typical of the situation

485
00:28:01.079 --> 00:28:03.799
out there in space. Multiple star systems are the norm.

486
00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:07.400
So stars like Canopus, stars like our Sun solo stars,

487
00:28:07.799 --> 00:28:09.480
you know, they're not rare. I'm not trying to say

488
00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:11.200
they're rare, but they guess you might call on the

489
00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:13.799
exception a lot of stars out there are multiple stars.

490
00:28:13.880 --> 00:28:16.440
They don't seem like that to the naked eye, but

491
00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:19.119
some of them you can get even a small telescope

492
00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:21.119
on them, like Alphas Ontauri. You can get a small

493
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:22.920
telescope under that and you can see that. You can

494
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:25.480
see it's two main stars. There is a third tiny

495
00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:28.480
one called Proximus and Taure that is very faint and

496
00:28:28.599 --> 00:28:30.559
you have to know exactly where to look for a

497
00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:33.240
bigger telescope. But some of these stars you can see

498
00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:35.920
their double or triple nature if you get a telescape

499
00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:37.920
on anyhow, that's the little two of the Milky Way.

500
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:39.640
It's go closer to home now, and that what the

501
00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:42.039
planets are doing this month. As darkness begins to fall,

502
00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:44.759
there are two planets visible in the evening. Star hovering

503
00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:48.519
above the western horizon is Venus. It's bright, certainly, but

504
00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:52.920
it's a bit lost within the twilight glow, the sunset glow.

505
00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:55.759
At least before the first part of April. For the

506
00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:57.440
second half of the month, it's pretty much in the

507
00:28:57.480 --> 00:29:00.319
same spot in the sky because the sun is setting

508
00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:02.079
a little bit earlier each night. The sky is a

509
00:29:02.119 --> 00:29:05.680
bit darker, so Venus and slightly darker sky background, so

510
00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:07.519
it makes it a bit easier to see. The other

511
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:10.079
bright star lighting up the eaven sky is Jupiter. It

512
00:29:10.119 --> 00:29:12.519
forms a nice triangle with two of those stars I

513
00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:15.920
mentioned earlier, Prosion and Beetle Juice. But the big thing,

514
00:29:16.039 --> 00:29:18.480
the main planetary action happening this month, is in the

515
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:20.480
pre dawn sky, So you're going to be up early

516
00:29:20.599 --> 00:29:23.039
if you're up around about about five o'clock in the

517
00:29:23.079 --> 00:29:27.119
morning Australian Eastern time, whatever that works out to be

518
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:29.119
in your time zone. If you're up there and have

519
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:31.319
a look above the eastern horizon, not too far up,

520
00:29:31.359 --> 00:29:33.359
just just above the eastern horizon, you should see what

521
00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:36.559
looks like three stars in a row going vertically up

522
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:39.240
the sky. There are actually three planets. Starting from the

523
00:29:39.240 --> 00:29:42.640
lowest timbing going upwards. We've got Saturn, Mars, and Mercury.

524
00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:45.319
So that's pretty cool to see three planets all in

525
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:48.000
a row close to the horizon. But if you keep

526
00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:51.799
watching as each day goes by, you'll see them splot

527
00:29:51.799 --> 00:29:53.319
In fact, I was going to say slowly but quite

528
00:29:53.400 --> 00:29:57.279
rapidly slide towards each other, so much so that from

529
00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:00.319
the nineteenth to the twenty second they'll be really quite

530
00:30:00.359 --> 00:30:03.200
super close. A little tight training will only about three

531
00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:06.839
or four moon stands apart. It's going to look wordy spectacular,

532
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:10.000
probably people ringing up radio stating saying, what's that little

533
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:11.440
collection of life? So I can see out in the

534
00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:13.359
sky there. If you've got a pair of monoculars a

535
00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:15.960
small telescope, it'll be a really really great view. But

536
00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:17.799
if you don't have that, just own eyes is fine.

537
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:20.599
Go out about five o'clock in the morning between the

538
00:30:20.680 --> 00:30:22.839
nineteenth and twenty second, look to the east, straight to

539
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:24.400
the east where the sun's going to come up, and

540
00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:27.119
you see this tight little triangle of three dots of light,

541
00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:30.160
and that I actually the planets seven miles in Mercury.

542
00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:32.000
I have to say, Stuart, I'm not really a good

543
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:33.839
one for getting up early in the morning, but I'm

544
00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:35.759
going to make an exception in this case. I will

545
00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:37.440
be getting up to have a look at this inglish

546
00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:38.200
cross with the weather.

547
00:30:39.720 --> 00:30:40.759
Get up early in the morning.

548
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:43.160
I think the morning doesn't really exist to you, doesn't

549
00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:46.480
That's when they come home. What you're out just going

550
00:30:46.480 --> 00:30:48.039
all night, but they still have this goes are we

551
00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:48.759
showing our aids?

552
00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:50.440
That's called clubbing, clubbing.

553
00:30:50.160 --> 00:30:52.319
See again, shame mate and that's Stewart is the Night's

554
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:52.920
Night April.

555
00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:56.599
That's senior Science writer and Skye Telescope Magazine contributed Jonathan

556
00:30:56.680 --> 00:30:57.599
Nelly and this.

557
00:30:57.799 --> 00:31:15.599
Space Time and that's the show for now.

558
00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:19.640
Spacetime is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through at

559
00:31:19.640 --> 00:31:24.640
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560
00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:28.440
and from space Time with Stuart Gary dot com. Space

561
00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:31.920
Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation, on Science

562
00:31:31.960 --> 00:31:35.720
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563
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:38.640
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566
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569
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570
00:31:58.640 --> 00:31:59.720
for full details.

571
00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:03.720
You've been listening to space Time with Stuart Garry. This

572
00:32:03.839 --> 00:32:09.880
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