The world is going wild today over the prospect that there could be a “double Moon,” the second being Mars, tonight. Unfortunately, this is just a hideous, resurrected hoax that refuses to die.
Mars will not be as big as the Full Moon tonight, sorry.
Okay, now that hopes for a double Moon are dashed, how about some real astronomy tonight featuring Earth's Moon, the king of the planets, and four sinful satellites?
Tonight, the Moon will be a waning gibbeous, just a few days past Full and still very bright. Right near the Moon will be what appears to be a bright star. However, that star is the planet Jupiter, 88,000 miles across and big enough to contain over 1,000 Earths. These two celestial bodies will be rising in the East just past sunset, but are well placed by midnight.
Okay, time to grab the telescope (or big binoculars).
Turning a telescope on Jupiter at low power will reveal tiny points of light around the planet. These are the moons that revolutionized the way we see ourselves in the universe. When Galileo first turned his telescope on Jupiter and observed the planet over the course of a few nights, he was quick to realize that these were moons, which meant that the geocentric solar system (everything goes around the Earth) that was held as fact for 2,000 years was dead wrong. This, among other discoveries, would eventually bring the wrath of the Inquisition down upon Galileo who, for revolutionizing science and helping us understand how the universe really works, was sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life.
Okay, there will be no Moon-sized Mars (if there was, we'd be in big, big trouble!) but there will be quite a celestial show with a dash of history in the sky tonight, so why not take a look?
Clear skies to all.
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