What's in the sky tonight?
June 3, 2013
-"Cassiopeia" usually means "Cold!". Late fall and winter are when this landmark constellation is high overhead (seen from mid-northern latitudes), but even on hot June evenings it's lurking low. After dark, look for it down near the north horizon. It's a wide, upright W. The farther north you are the higher it'll appear. But even as far south as San Diego and Atlanta it's completely above the horizon.
-Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter are still visible in the afterglow of sunset, forming a straight line pointing downward just above the west-northwest horizon as shown at the top of this page. Venus is the brightest. Jupiter, the bottom one, becomes harder to see each day and is gone by the end of the week. Mercury on top is having its best evening appearance of 2013.
Astro Picture of the Day:
June 3, 2013
Source:
Could life ever have existed on Mars? To help find out, humanity landed the Curiosity rover on Mars last August. To make sure the car-sized explorer survived the interplanetary trip and dramatic landing intact, the above image and others was taken peering at, under, and around Curiosity. Pictured above in this unusual vista are three of Curiosity's six wheels, each measuring about half a meter across. In recent months, Curiosity has been exploring the surroundings of an area dubbed Yellowknife Bay. Analyses of data taken by Curiosity's cameras and onboard laboratories has provided strong new evidence that Mars could once have supported life. In the distance is part of the slope to the central peak inside Gale Crater that Curiosity is scheduled to attempt to climb - Mt. Sharp.