Venus will pass Jupiter shortly before sunrise on Feb 11th, according to Space.com. It’s visible with binoculars or even a backyard telescope if you are in the Calgary area. It’ll appear as a bright red circle. If Thursday is cloudy or you’re too busy it might be slightly visible on Wednesday the 10th.
Also on Thursday February 11th there will be a new moon. The moon takes approximately 1 month (29.5/29 days) to rotate through it’s full cycle. It starts with a new moon, then a waxing crescent when only a toenail of the moon is shown, then a first quarter (half moon), then a waxing gibbous when most of the moon is lit up but a crescent isn’t, then a full moon, then a waning gibbous, then a last quarter or third quarter (half moon), then a waning crescent then the cycle repeats. The difference between a waxing moon and a waning moon is when the moon is waxing it’s glowing on the right side (waxing means growing). When it’s waning, it’s lit up on the left side (waning means shrinking.) Basically Mr. Lee’s song the phases of the moon explains it all. On February 27th, the February full moon is called the snow moon. It’s called this because the moon shows no shadows, so the moon is fully luminated. It will reach its peak at 8:17 a.m. (Winter am I right?) Star of the Season: Orion After sunset, if it’s a clear night, if you go outside in Calgary you’ll see Orion rising at the east. It’s recognizable by the three stars in a row that represent his belt. On the left of it’s belt you’ll see Betelguese. Betelgeuse is believed to mean “armpit” or shoulder of Orion in Arabic. Betelguese is a red supergiant. The star is 10-20 times larger than our son and is 600 light years away. It used to be one of the brightest stars in the night sky, the brightness has been observed to vary since Betelguese is a variable star. The star has been reported to dim over the past few months, it could be a sign that it’s reaching the end of its life. Since Betelgeuse is a red giant, it burns a lot of fuel quickly and does not live a long life When the end of their lives are near they lose brightness. When Betelgeuse runs out of fuel, it will be subdued by gravity and will collapse itself. It leads to a catastrophic event called a supernova, which is what happens when the core of the sun collapses. Johannes Kepler was a german astronomer who spotted a supernova in our galaxy in 1604. It has been traced to a stellar remnant of the constellation Ophiuchus which was around 20,000 light years away. Betelgeuse will become a supernova anytime between the next 100,000 years or tomorrow. It’ll be nearly as bright as a full moon & will be seen for weeks to months. Thankfully the Earth isn’t less than 50 lightyears away or else the neutrino blast’s radiation result would sterilize earth from all it’s life. It’s rapid dimming could be a sign it’s bound to be a supernova...Or is there another explanation? Maybe a dimmer area on its surface has spun into our sight, similar events have happened but never have they dimmed this quickly. A lot of astronomers and scientists don’t believe this a sign of a precursor before a supernova. Humans have not observed such a large massive star this nearby (not really, just compared to others) and don’t know what will happen. More scientists and astronomers are studying this star.
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By Heather Park
I chose this topic of youth crime because I wanted people to understand how high crime rates are. I thought we should see how many people in different age groups have caused crimes. Another thing that caught my attention is the young people who have been victimized were increasing and I thought it was my job as a reporter to tell everyone of what's happening in Canada. |
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December 2022
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