April kicks off with a celestial showcase! The crescent moon dances through the Pleiades, meets Jupiter in Taurus, and shows off its spectacular lunar craters. As the first quarter moon approaches, it sets the stage for prime lunar viewing alongside Mars and Gemini's bright stars. Meanwhile, the Winter Triangle lingers in the southwest, offering one last dazzling display before fading into spring's twilight.
Here's everything you need to know to make the most of this week's night sky!
Look west after sunset to see the crescent moon passing close to the Pleiades star cluster. In Europe and Africa, the moon will move through the cluster, while in the Americas and the Pacific, it will appear just above. A beautiful sight for binoculars and photography!
On Wednesday evening, the waxing crescent moon will shine near Jupiter in Taurus. The two will be visible in the same binocular view and offer a stunning pairing until they set around midnight local time.
A trio of craters, Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina, will be well-lit along the moon's terminator. The youngest, Theophilus, has sharp rims and a central peak, while Cyrillus and Catharina show signs of age and erosion.
The first quarter moon will shine near Mars and the bright stars Pollux and Castor in Gemini. The moon reaches first quarter at 10:15 p.m. EDT (0215 GMT, April 5), offering excellent views of its rugged terrain. Watch for it in the afternoon daytime sky, too!
Look southwest after dark to spot the Winter Triangle, a striking asterism formed by Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse. Though fading into twilight by late April, this celestial trio remains visible this week, even with the moon nearby. Jupiter will shine off to its right.
The most notable moon phase to look out for this week will be the First Quarter Moon on April 4. I particularly enjoy this moon phase because it is visible in the daytime sky too. The First Quarter Moon rises around noon and sets about midnight, which means it'll be nice and high in the evening sky making it an excellent time of the month for some lunar viewing.
Feeling inspired to take a more in-depth moonlit tour of our rocky companion? Our ultimate guide to observing the moon will help you plan your next skywatching venture, whether it be exploring the lunar seas, mountainous terrain, or the many craters that blanket the landscape. You can also see where astronauts, rovers and landers have ventured with our Apollo landing sites observing guide.
Space.com astronomy editor, Monisha Ravisetti, dives into how a total solar eclipse on April 1. 2471 B.C. contributed to a major shift in Egyptian tradition.
Though geomagnetic activity looks relatively quiet for now, with the northern lights mostly confined to high latitudes, two sunspot regions could disrupt the peace.
Both sunspot regions will be rotating into the 'Earth-strike zone' this week, when pointing at Earth, any CME released at that time will be more likely to impact our planet, potentially triggering geomagnetic storms and subsequent impressive auroras.
Space weather forecasters will be keeping a watchful eye on the two regions.
1st orbital rocket from Europe explodes seconds into flight | Space Quiz! How many astronaut missions have flown over Earth's poles? | This Week In Space: Episode 154 - The View From On High
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Germany-based Isar Aerospace attempted to launch the first orbital rocket from European soil on Sunday morning (March 30). The company's Spectrum rocket lifted off from Europe's Andøya Spaceport in Norway, but suffered an anomaly 18 seconds into the flight. Dramatic video from the launch shows the rocket tumbling just seconds into flight before plummeting to the icy ground below and exploding in a brilliant fireball.
On Episode 154 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Space TV director Liam Kennedy about bringing content and video from the International Space Station down to Earth.
Zena Cardman didn't have to wait too long to get a seat on another spacecraft after being removed from SpaceX's Crew-9 mission last year. The NASA astronaut is one of the four members of SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), agency officials announced on Thursday (March 27).
A super-Earth that could explain the universe's mysterious lack of certain exoplanets has been found by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the planet-measuring ESPRESSO instrument on the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
The Fram2 crew will attempt to grow oyster mushrooms in microgravity as part of an experiment called Mission MushVroom, which is led by the Australian company FOODiQ Global. Mushrooms could offer a nutritious, delicious and sustainable food source for long-duration missions to the moon, Mars and beyond, according to a statement from the company.
Hiroyasu Tsukamota, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has developed a deep-learning-based guidance and control framework called Neural-Rendezvous that could allow spacecraft to safely encounter ISOs. The project, a collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tackles the two main challenges of approaching an ISO: the extraordinary speed of these objects and their poorly constrained trajectories.
