Bakersfield Night Sky — February 15, 2025
The “parade of planets” in the evening sky continues. Starting the evening of February 22, Mercury will join the line-up but it will be very low near the horizon shortly after sunset, so you might need binoculars to pick it out in the twilight glow. With the addition of Mercury, all of the planets will be above the horizon at the same time—a truly grand parade!
The lowest planet in the west is going to be the limiting factor in seeing the entire line-up for a given evening. Because of the usual haze layer we have here in Bakersfield, the lowest planet in the west will need to be above about 5 degrees altitude. With those constraints in mind, on February 22, Mercury will be visible (above 5 degrees altitude) until 6:09 p.m.. On February 23, Mercury will be visible until 6:14 p.m.. On February 24 Mercury and Saturn will be right next to each other, about a thumb-width at arm’s length apart. Mercury will the brighter one of the pair to the right. Mercury and Saturn will be visible until 6:19 p.m.. On February 25 Saturn will be the lowest planet and visible until just 6:18 p.m. On February 26 Saturn will be visible until 6:14 p.m.
What this means is that the grand parade with all planets above the horizon at once is going to happen between just a few days, February 22 to 26. After February 26, Saturn will be too low, either lost in the haze layer or in the sunset twilight glow. Mercury will continue climbing upward in the western sky for the next few weeks. On March 11, it will be next to Venus but Venus and Mercury are going to be about five times farther apart than the conjunction of Mercury and Saturn on the February 24.
Here’s the rest of the planet line-up for February from west to east (right to left as you face south). Neptune will be above Mercury-Saturn near the right (west) edge of Pisces but you’ll need a telescope to see it. Venus will be the blazing bright “star” in the west next to the Great Square of Pegasus. Uranus is next but you’ll need binoculars to see it on the right edge of Taurus in the south. Next is super-bright Jupiter at the head of Taurus. The last one in the line-up is Mars at the heads of the Gemini twins.
I zoomed out farther with the star chart a bit more than I usually do to get the entire line-up. It shows the sky for the grand parade and the Mercury-Saturn conjunction on February 24. The view is facing southwest at 6:15 p.m.
Tonight the moon is a waning gibbous, rising about 9:15 p.m. with the stars of Virgo. On the night of February 19/20, it will be at last (third) quarter phase rising about 1:30 a.m. near the head of Scorpius. The new moon will be at the end of the month to start the cycle again.
Among the astronomy research news was an announcement from the OSIRIS-REx team of the sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu containing life’s key building blocks. The Bennu sample has a lot of carbon, nitrogen, and ammonia. The team found 33 amino acids, including 14 of the 20 that make up the proteins of life on Earth, and all five nucleobases that make up DNA and RNA.
While amino acids and other organic molecules have been found in meteorites before, there is the possibility that the rocks were contaminated as they fell to the ground after reaching the ground. The Bennu material is absolutely pristine, with no contamination possible. Assuming that other carbon-rich asteroids are like Bennu, the building blocks of life could have been delivered all over the solar system. In addition, the sample indicates that the parent body from which Bennu broke off had saltwater on it. A briny broth could have allowed the building blocks of life to combine and intermingle. The ingredients and environments for life are indeed found beyond Earth. Did the transition from chemistry to biology happen in those suitable environments is the big question that we can only answer by bringing back samples from the planets and moons (particularly, Mars, Europa, Titan, and Enceladus). See the OSIRIS-REx website for more details.
Another near-Earth asteroid called 2024 YR4 (discovered in late December 2024 by the NASA-funded ATLAS program) has made news as being the asteroid with the largest chance of hitting Earth within the century, though the chance is just above 1%. It is 40 to 90 meters in size and could possibly hit Earth on December 22, 2032 at 17 km/sec. The risk corridor is a narrow strip extending across the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 is now moving away from Earth and will be too dim to see with ground-based telescopes after early April. It will come back to Earth’s neighborhood in 2028 for us to get the observations we need to narrow the uncertainties even more. Using the “Impact Earth” website calculator , an asteroid of 2024 YR4’s size would create an airburst with energy between 1.90 and 5.14 Megatons TNT. It wouldn’t hit the surface to make a crater but that airburst can still cause significant damage if the airburst is over a major metropolitan area. See the Center for Near Earth Objects Studies for updates!
I hope to see you at the February 20 showing of “Ice Worlds" or “Moon Base” on March 6.
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Director of the William M Thomas Planetarium at Bakersfield College
Author of the award-winning website www.astronomynotes.com
