Dr. Rishi Shah

As darkness would descend on earth, the night skies of this month would come alive and offer sky-gazers the spectacular sights of the prominent planets, scintillating stars and confounding constellations along with other exceptional entities of the heavens. Planet Mercury would be marching in Sun's neighbourhood and would not be nonchalantly noticed among the stars twinkling in commanding constellation Taurus (bull).
Two pleasing planets Venus and Mars would be well placed for being viewed in the western sky after nightfall for few hours till almost midnight. They would be slowly sliding towards the southwestern horizon. They would be crossing comfortably through zodiacal constellation Cancer (crab) and Gemini (twins). Venus would make its close approach to Sun (perihelion) on 12 June. It would be circa 107.47 million kilometres from the Sun.

Castor And Pollux
Two shimmering stars Castor (Kasturi) and Pollux (Punarvasu) depicting the imaginary heads of legendary twins could be marvelled above these planets. Castor a stable sextuple star system would be sheer fifty-two light-years away. Orange-hued giant star Pollux with an extra-solar planet revolving around it would be purely thirty-four light-years away. Venus would be seen skirting the open star cluster M35 at the beginning of the month, while Mars would be gliding gorgeously across the iconic Beehive cluster M44 (dubbed perplexingly Praesepe) and baffling binary star Delta Cancri (Asellus Australis alias Pushya) during the middle of the month. It would be simply 180 light-years away.
The planets Jupiter and Saturn could be detected dramatically during dawn in the southeastern sky until daybreak. They could be spotted among the stars in the southwestern and northern sections of cosmic realms belonging to constellations Aquarius (water bearer) and Capricornus (sea goat) from a late night in the eastern sky. Far-flung planets Uranus and Neptune could be perceived peacefully in the southeastern sky shortly before sunup as lucent points of lights. They would be entering the eastern sky from the late wee hours after midnight. Uranus would be glinting in barren-alike extent unfolding towards the southeast of shiny star Hamal in captivating constellation Aries (ram) towards the end of the month. Bluish Neptune could be glimpsed in the northeastern area of the constellation Aquarius. The famed Circlet asterism of constellation Pisces (fishes) would be hovering above Neptune.

Strawberry Full Moon
It is also popularly known as the strawberry full moon because during this time of year the ripened strawberry would be harvested. This full moon would manifest memorably the last of three super-moons for 2021. The moon would be near its closest point at approximately 359.035 million kilometres to earth (perigee) and could appear awesomely thirteen per cent larger and fabulously forty per cent brighter than usual. The June solstice would transpire on 21 June 2021. The North Pole of the earth would be terrifically tilted toward the Sun, which would have ardently arrived at its most northernmost position in the sky and would be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at circa 23.44 degrees north latitude. This day would mark masterly the first day (or the longest day) of summer (summer solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day (or the most extended night) of winter (winter solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere.

Mars Rovers
China's first six-wheeled solar-powered rover Zhurong resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kilograms has begun to roam around the red, sandy soil of Mars. Zhurong's first successful drive would propel China as the second country after the United States to land and operate a rover on Mars. The United States has currently deployed the Perseverance rover and robust robotic helicopter (Ingenuity) for exploring the planet. NASA's rover would eventually gather a lunar sample for their dispatch to earth later. China's Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, a Lander, and a rover was launched on 23 July 2020. The Lander carrying the rover had touched down in the vast lava plain Utopia Planitia lately. The Lander had survived the treacherous and dangerously most challenging descent through the Martian atmosphere with a parachute to navigate through the so-called seven minutes of terror.
The complicated nail-biting landing experience would happen faster than radio signals could reach earth from Mars, meaning in real terms that the communications between Lander and earth would be limited and the landing would have to be undertaken automatically. The rover has been named after the fire deity described in ancient Chinese mythology. The name would echo with the Chinese name for the red planet, Huoxing (the planet of fire). The sobriquet Tianwen would roughly translate to the Questions to Heaven relating to the title of a poem by Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC).
With an expected lifespan of merely ninety Martian days, Zhurong would glean geographical data of Martian landscape with high-resolution three-dimensional images, analyze accurately the material composition of the planet's topology, scrutinize sub-surface structure and magnetic field, search for tantalizing traces of water ice and measure its meteorological environment. It has been equipped with ultra-modern scientific instruments.
The orbiter would relay messages to the rover while conducting its operations. Zhurong would trundle with a speed of fairly two hundred meters per hour. The solar panels of the rover have been optimally engineered to be big and remotely rotatable to follow the Sun. Since Mars has been notorious for its sandstorms, the dust could undermine the efficiency of power generation. Specially processed solar panels would avoid dust accumulation. Power generated by the solar panels during the daytime would be consumed partly for work and the rest would be stored in batteries for night use.
Additionally, ingeniously installed heat collecting windows on the rover could absorb solar energy and release heat to help the rover face the freezing temperatures, which could plunge to below minus one hundred degrees Celsius. Mars's average distance from the Sun has been 230 million kilometres and its orbital period would indicate just 687 earth days. The solar day (or sol) on Mars would be estimated to 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35.24 seconds. A Martian year would be eerily equal to 1.8809 earth years.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile scientists have recently identified the oldest spiral galaxy officially designated as BRI 1335-0417, which had been formed fascinatingly 12.4 billion years ago. Conventionally it has been postulated that galaxy formation had probably peaked 3.3 billion years after the bewildering Big Bang.
This new finding could update on how and when the galaxies had engrossingly evolved to become mesmerizing matured galaxies like our Milky Way with our Solar System. Statistically, it would not be the oldest-ever observed galaxy, because grand galaxy GN-z11, which was disclosed last year, had been allegedly developed 13.4 billion years ago, quirkily four hundred million years after Big Bang. It would reside in the northern constellation Ursa Major (great bear).

(Dr. Shah is academician at NAST and patron of Nepal Astronomical Society, or NASO)