Learn where to find Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in July. The bright star Fomalhaut and the Milky Way are great skywatching targets as well.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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00:00 What's up for July?
00:04 Mars and Venus go their separate ways.
00:07 Saturn cruises with a dusty young star, and it's prime time for the Milky Way.
00:12 You'll find Venus and Mars in the west after sunset throughout July.
00:17 The pair moved ever closer in the sky during June and they begin July appearing quite near
00:21 to each other, but it's time for them to part company.
00:24 You'll notice them trending lower as the month goes on, with Venus in particular being
00:29 noticeably lower each night.
00:31 During the second week of July, reddish-colored Mars will appear very close to the blue-white
00:35 star Regulus.
00:37 Mars is quite distant from Earth right now and appears at its dimmest for the year in
00:41 July and August.
00:43 This month it appears at about the same brightness as Regulus, and you should easily be able
00:48 to see the difference in their color with your eyes or a pair of binoculars.
00:52 They're closest together on July 9th and 10th.
00:55 And on the 20th, the Moon will pass through, appearing just next to Mars.
01:00 Mercury also pops up quite low in the sky in the second half of July for those with
01:05 views of the horizon.
01:08 During July, you'll have giant planets Jupiter and Saturn keeping you company in the late
01:13 night and early morning hours.
01:15 And notably, you'll find Jupiter shining brightly beneath the crescent moon on the
01:19 morning of July 11th.
01:21 Jupiter appears quite a bit brighter than Saturn, and it's not just because Jupiter
01:25 is a little bigger.
01:26 See, the farther away something is in space, the fainter it tends to be, and Saturn is
01:31 certainly farther away from Earth than Jupiter.
01:34 But it's also farther away from the Sun, and being more distant means it receives much
01:39 less sunlight than Jupiter to begin with.
01:42 So it's the combination of being both farther from the Sun and farther from Earth that makes
01:46 Saturn appear so much fainter.
01:49 Saturn cruises across the sky with bright star Fomalhaut in July.
01:53 At around 440 million years old, Fomalhaut is a fairly young star.
01:58 NASA's Webb Space Telescope recently revealed new details in the dusty debris disk that
02:04 surrounds it.
02:05 Webb showed that there's much more structure in the disk than was previously known, with
02:10 three distinct belts made of debris from collisions of larger bodies, probably not unlike the
02:15 asteroids and comets in our own planetary system.
02:19 And researchers think the belts most likely are carved by the gravitational forces produced
02:24 by unseen planets.
02:26 It's a nice reminder that most stars you gaze upon represent entire planetary systems.
02:32 Each one is a sun, and most have a family of worlds in orbit around them.
02:38 Finally, a reminder that July is prime time for viewing the bright core of our home galaxy,
02:44 the Milky Way.
02:46 The Milky Way core is visible looking toward the south in July as a faint, diagonal band
02:51 of light as soon as it's fully dark.
02:54 Packed with enormous numbers of stars along with dark clouds of dust, you can view its
02:59 faint glow with your own eyes from locations away from bright urban centers.
03:04 So if you have the opportunity to go camping or sky-watching away from the city, it's
03:10 truly one of the most awe-inspiring sights of the night sky, and not to be missed.
03:17 Here are the phases of the Moon for July.
03:22 Stay up to date with all of NASA's missions to explore the solar system and beyond at
03:26 NASA.gov.
03:27 I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that's What's Up for this
03:32 month.
03:32 [music]
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