Dec 29 - Top Stories This Week

December 29 Top Stories This Week by:

Brightest star Sirius at culmination - its highest in the sky - via Project Nightflight. Highest in the sky doesn’t necessarily means overhead. Sirius’ height in your sky at culmination depends on your latitude. See brightest star Sirius at midnight on New Year's Eve Dog Star Sirius reaches its highest point in the sky - as seen from around the world - around midnight every New Year's Eve. Why are stars brighter at this time of year? There’s a reason the stars seem brighter in December, January and February. Is time travel possible? Sure it is, says this physicist, but only if you have an object with infinite mass. Why can’t we feel Earth’s spin? We can't feel Earth rotating because we're all moving with it, at the same constant speed. If you're drinking coffee in a steadily moving car or airplane, no problem. But if the car or plane speeds up or slows down, your coffee sloshes. Likewise, as long as Earth spins steadily, we can't feel it move. Image via H.C. Mayer and R. Krechetnikov.  What we're watching   Pluto craft to encounter Ultima Thule  New Horizons is the spacecraft that sent back those amazing images of Pluto in 2015. Ultima Thule is its next target, a billion miles beyond Pluto. The encounter is New Year's Day, but start watching now! Here's how to follow it. More top stories Eureka! Astronomers find a Big Bang fossil Speedy comet approaching Earth's vicinity 50th anniversary of 1st Earthrise photo from moon The case of the vanishing exoplanet

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Before sunup Sunday … Moon and Spica On December 29 and 30, 2018, let the waning moon introduce you to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo the Maiden. Read more.

EarthSky's most popular photos of 2018 Huge thanks to the EarthSky community for all the images you've contributed this year. This October 7 launch by SpaceX – from Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles, California – generated more than its fair share of awesome images. "That was amazing!" wrote Joaquin Baldwin on Twitter. "I took one long 9-minute photo. The stage 2 cloud was spiraling ... what a show!" See more photos of the October 7 night launch or visit EarthSky's most popular photos. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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