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This Week’s Celestial Display: Witness the Flower Moon Illuminating the Night Sky for Three Enchanting Evenings

This week, the Flower Moon will grace the night sky, captivating observers for a remarkable three-day period. Expect its full brilliance to manifest at 9:35 a.m. ET on Thursday, with peak visibility occurring just 50 minutes after sunset.

Additionally, the term “flower moon” bears historical weight, symbolizing not just celestial beauty but also marking the tragic onset of the Reign of Terror against the Osage Nation during the 1920s. This era saw the reprehensible actions of white perpetrators, who perpetrated violence against Osage tribe members to seize control of their valuable oil assets.

The historical atrocities served as the inspiration for the 2017 book “Killers of the Flower Moon,” penned by journalist David Grann. This compelling narrative was subsequently adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese.

The Full Moon will grace the sky at 9:35 a.m. this Thursday, reaching its peak luminosity just 50 minutes after sunset. Below is an image capturing the stunning super Flower Moon phenomenon from May 25, 2023.

The Flower Moon, as noted in The Old Farmer’s Almanac, aligns with the blossoming of flowers in May, earning it the moniker “Mother’s Moon,” “Milk Moon,” or “Corn Planting Moon.”

Native Americans bestowed this lunar event with its name, recognizing it as the opportune time to commence crop planting.

Per The Old Farmer’s Almanac, moonrise is anticipated around 8:35 p.m. ET on Thursday, reaching its zenith at 1:14 a.m. before setting at 5:46 a.m. on Friday morning.

Observers will catch a glimpse of the Flower Moon’s early bloom on Wednesday, as it ascends just prior to sunset – those in the Americas can look to the eastern horizon.

The highlight unfolds on Thursday when the moon shares the sky with Antares, situated approximately 600 light-years from Earth – for perspective, one light year equals about five trillion miles.

Antares, characterized by its radiant ruby hue, nears the twilight of its existence as it approaches depletion of its energy source.

The Flower Moon will also shine near Antares, an aging giant star that is set to explode, located in the constellation Scorpius

Once this event occurs, Antares will undergo a dramatic transformation, culminating in a supernova – the breathtakingly powerful and radiant explosion characteristic of a dying star.

In 2017, scientists utilized the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLTI) to capture unprecedented images of Antares, offering the most intricate depiction to date.

These images unveiled a turbulent, low-density gas extending much farther from the star than previously anticipated. Contrary to expectations, this movement couldn’t be attributed to convection, the typical process responsible for energy transfer from a star’s core to its outer atmosphere.

This discovery suggests the necessity for a novel, presently unknown mechanism to elucidate these movements within the expansive atmospheres of stars like Antares.

 

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