Bob Drieslein

A debate continues among scientists about what to call, and how to classify, those recently-discovered, planet-like objects found moving around in our solar system.
Here’s the latest from NASA: Our solar system includes eight planets and five dwarf planets.

There have been several news items lately about an asteroid the size of a football field that might be headed our way. Now, scientists at NASA are certain that will miss Earth, but it may strike our Moon instead, possibly in December 2032.
Wow, this is beginning to sound like a sci-fi movie!

Designed and built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, Voyager 1 is now the farthest human-made object from Earth. Wikipedia.org reports that as of May 2025, this spacecraft was 15.5 billion miles away after 48 years in space!

There’s a lot to see before the Sun comes up and brightens the night sky during the month of August 2025. The good news is that temperatures are usually warm this time of year, and you won’t need a telescope, or even binoculars, to enjoy what’s coming.

There are eight planets orbiting the Sun in our solar system but, to the best of our knowledge, only one supports life as we know it.
Our Earth is sometimes referred to as the “goldilocks” planet because it orbits our Sun at a distance (93 million miles) where temperatures are not too hot, and not too cold, but just right!

I used to wonder, sometimes just before or just after a new moon phase: “Why can I see a faint glow of the Moon’s entire outline?”
After a brief search of the Internet, I found the answer on NASA’s website. It’s called “earthshine” and it’s basically the result of sunlight bouncing off Earth and hitting the Moon.

Most people are familiar with the Big Dipper even if they have little interest in astronomy. It is one of the “circumpolar” groups of stars which means, for those of us in northern latitudes, it never gets completely below the horizon.

Actually, that’s not completely true. Scientists tell us there is a slight wobble in the Moon’s rotation as it orbits the Earth. This wobble is called “libration” and as a result, we get to see about 59% of our Moon’s surface during a 29 1 ⁄2-day lunar cycle.