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Ephemeris: 11/21/2024 – Fomalhaut’s planet that wasn’t

November 21, 2024 Comments off

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, November 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 5:08, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:49. The Moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 10:56 this evening.

The lonely bright star low in the south-southeast at 8 p.m. these evenings is Fomalhaut, the harbinger of autumn in my book, and will leave as winter arrives. Fomalhaut is a young white star only about 400 million years old with a protoplanetary disk surrounding it. Near an outer dust ring, in 2008, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a spot. Four years later, astronomers discovered that the spot had moved along the dust lane and announced the first direct discovery of an exoplanet. In 2010 and 2012 the planet now dubbed Fomalhaut b or Dagon was observed again. However, it appeared to be dissipating. It seems that it might actually be an expanding cloud of debris, the result of two asteroids or proto-planets colliding.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum:

Fomalhaut animated finder
Fomalhaut animated finder for 8 PM tonight. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.
Hubble Space Telescope image of Fomalhaut’s ring and model of the disappearing dust cloud that was first thought to be a planet
Hubble Space Telescope image of Fomalhaut’s ring and model of the disappearing dust cloud that was first thought to be a planet. Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Exoplanets Tags: ,