© Mike Brown et al., CalTech and Keck Observatory

136108 Haumea at solar conjunction

Dominic Ford, Editor
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The sky at

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 50.81 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 2024 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 14h34m40s 14°05'N Bootes 0.0"
Sun 13h56m 11°54'S Virgo 32'09"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 24 Oct 2024

The sky on 24 October 2024
Sunrise
07:26
Sunset
18:18
Twilight ends
19:47
Twilight begins
05:56

22-day old moon
Waning Crescent

42%

22 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 08:47 13:49 18:51
Venus 10:36 15:18 20:01
Moon 23:34 07:21 14:57
Mars 23:27 06:48 14:08
Jupiter 20:54 04:16 11:37
Saturn 16:19 21:53 03:28
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

20 Apr 2024  –  136108 Haumea at opposition
21 Apr 2025  –  136108 Haumea at opposition
23 Apr 2026  –  136108 Haumea at opposition
24 Apr 2027  –  136108 Haumea at opposition

Image credit

© Mike Brown et al., CalTech and Keck Observatory

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39.04°N
77.49°W
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