November 27, 2017 - The Mouth of the Beast
The Mouth of the Beast Like the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature, the cometary globule CG4 glows menacingly in this image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope. In 1976, several elongated comet-like objects were discovered on pictures taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia. Because of their appearance, they became known as cometary globules even though they have nothing in common with comets. The exact nature of cometary globules remains a mystery, but theories suggest that they may have been spherical nebulae that acquired their new unusual form because of the effects of nearby supernova explosions, or perhaps they were shaped by stellar winds and ionizing radiation from nearby hot stars. CG4 is located about 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Puppis.
Image credit: European Southern Observatory
Weekly Calendar
November 27 - December 3, 2017
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 27
Neptune 1.2° north of Moon
Mars 3° north of Spica
1885: First photo of a meteor shower
1971: Mars 2 probe becomes first artificial object to hit Mars
1997: Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission launched
Tuesday 28
Mercury 3° south of Saturn
1964: Mariner 4 launched
1983: STS-9 Columbia launched
2017: Voyager 1 fired backup thruster for first time in 37 years
Wednesday 29
1967: First Australian satellite launched
Thursday 30
Uranus 4° north of Moon
1954: Elizabeth Hodges bruised by a ten-pound meteorite in Alabama
2000: STS-97 Endeavour launched
Friday 1
1957: Ballistic shape of Mercury spacecraft proposed by Max Faget
2013: Chang'e-3 spacecraft launched to Moon
Saturday 2
1974: Pioneer 11 closest approach to Jupiter during flyby
1988: STS-27 Atlantis launched
1990: STS-35 Columbia launched on Astro-1 mission
1992: STS-53 Discovery launched
1993: STS-61 Endeavour launched
1995: SOHO launched
Sunday 3
First Sunday in Advent
Mercury appears stationary
Aldebaran 0.8° S of Moon
Full Moon 10:47 AM ET
1973: Pioneer 10 closest approach to Jupiter during flyby
2014: Hayabusa 2 launched on asteroid sample return mission