© Mike Brown et al., CalTech and Keck Observatory

136108 Haumea at solar conjunction

Dominic Ford, Editor
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136108 Haumea will pass close to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it around the far side of the solar system from the Earth.

At closest approach, 136108 Haumea will appear at a separation of only 27° from the Sun, making it totally unobservable for several weeks while it is lost in the Sun's glare.

At around the same time, 136108 Haumea will also be at its most distant from the Earth – receding to a distance of 51.08 AU – since the two planets will lie on opposite sides of the solar system.

Over following weeks and months, 136108 Haumea will re-emerge to the west of the Sun, gradually becoming visible for ever-longer periods in the pre-dawn sky. After around six months, it will reach opposition, when it will be visible for virtually the whole night. A chart of the path of 136108 Haumea across the sky in 2021 can be found here, and a chart of its rising and setting times here.

The position of 136108 Haumea at the moment it passes solar conjunction will be:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
136108 Haumea 14h23m50s 15°02'N Bootes 0.0"
Sun 13h44m 10°48'S Virgo 32'08"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 21 Oct 2021

The sky on 21 October 2021
Sunrise
07:09
Sunset
18:03
Twilight ends
19:35
Twilight begins
05:36

15-day old moon
Waning Gibbous

97%

15 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 05:40 11:33 17:26
Venus 11:20 15:43 20:07
Moon 18:25 01:04 07:55
Mars 06:48 12:20 17:52
Jupiter 15:21 20:29 01:37
Saturn 14:35 19:27 00:19
All times shown in EDT.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

17 Apr 2021  –  136108 Haumea at opposition
18 Apr 2022  –  136108 Haumea at opposition
20 Apr 2023  –  136108 Haumea at opposition
20 Apr 2024  –  136108 Haumea at opposition

Image credit

© Mike Brown et al., CalTech and Keck Observatory

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41.14°N
73.26°W
EDT

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