Rishi Shah

The night skies during the month of September offer the opportunities to witness the cosmic wonders of planets, stars, constellations and many other celestial entities that are peppered all over the heavens. The elusive planet Mercury would stay out of sight due to its proximity to Sun. It would be high in the sky in constellation Virgo (maiden) during daytime. The romantic planet Venus would be sparkling splendidly in eastern sky for few hours time before sunrise. It would be sliding serenely across the faint constellation Cancer (crab).
The red planet Mars could be marveled from late night in eastern sky till morning before dawn in southwestern sky. Mars would gleam gorgeously above the scintillating binary star Alrescha (meaning chord in Arabic) that would be dwelling dramatically on southern tip of V-shaped constellation Pisces (fishes). The two stars system would allegedly require circa 700 years for revolving one another. They could be ostensibly 311 light-years away.

Mighty Jupiter
The mighty planet Jupiter and ringed planet Saturn would be entering the eastern sky after sunset and could be seen sailing until after midnight to southwestern sky and slide out of view. They would be cavorting convivially with shimmering stars stationed in north eastern section of teapot-akin constellation Sagittarius (archer). Dwarf planet Pluto could be glimpsed gracefully through optical aids between these two prodigious planets. The far-away greenish planet Uranus could be perceived from very late night in eastern sky till early morning in southwestern sky. It could be located in the empty southern expanse of cute constellation Aries (ram).
The distant blue giant planet Neptune would be at opposition to Sun and would be drifting near earth on 11 September. It would be fully illuminated and appear brighter than any other time of the year. Neptune could be followed all through the entire night. It would be climbing the eastern sky after sundown and be setting in southwestern horizon at daybreak the next day. Because of its extreme span from earth, it would be manifested as star-alike teeny tiny blue dot even when it would be peered at through powerful telescopes.
Neptune would be sporting with stars in the northeastern sector of commanding constellation Aquarius (water bearer) and be whooping 4.327 billion kilometers from earth. Neptune could still be chased cheerfully this month from dusk till dawn. The charming constellation Cetus (sea monster) would be unfurling below Uranus, Mars and Neptune. Cetus would be sharing the area of sky where other water-related constellations like Aquarius, Pisces and Eridanus (river) have inhabited impressively. The mysteriously variable star Mira (nicknamed the wonderful) would be pulsating puzzlingly in Cetus.
It would be plausibly 420 light-years from earth and was discovered by German pastor and astronomer David Fabricius in 1596. The largest dwarf planet 1-Ceres in the asteroid belt could be wowed late in evening in southeastern sky till after midnight in southwestern sky. It could be spotted among the background stars that describe southern segment of Aquarius and the northern stretch of constellation Pisces Austrinus (southern fish) with fabulously flickering star Fomalhaut (fish-mouth in Arabic).
It would be twenty four light-years away. The full moon would befall on 02 September. It is popularly known as the corn moon, because corn would be generally harvested during this time of the year. The dark new moon would be on 17 September. The September equinox would occur on 22 September. On this day the Sun would shine directly over the equator and consequently almost equal amounts of day and night throughout the world would be peculiarly palpable. It would pronounce the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere. Revered Indra Jatra festival would be celebrated on 01 September.
Asteroid Hurtling Towards Earth
It was recently revealed that perplexingly puny asteroid 2018VP1 has been heading towards earth and would intersect earth’s path. It has not been theoretically considered potentially hazardous because computer simulations have not foretold any imminent impact with earth. The asteroid would be approximately two meters across.
It is estimated that the chance of the asteroid 2018VP1 zapping earth would be insignificantly low. If it would even strike earth on 02 November 2020, the day before US president Donald Trump and presidential candidate Joe Biden would be facing off in the US presidential elections, due to its diminutive dimension, the asteroid would not pose any threat to us. It would probably whizz harmlessly by our planet.
At the worst, it could burn up innocuously in our atmosphere and create fantastic firework show for lucky meteor-shower-enthusiasts. Based on short observations, the asteroid has been classified as the near-earth object dubbed Apollo asteroid, which would spend most of the time beyond earth’s orbit, but would swing inwards across our planet’s lane during its innermost part of the journey around the Sun. 2018VP1 would take two years to encircle the Sun and would tumble inside earth’s trail and be reaching at so-called perihelion (its closest approach to our star).
Anything from a dire hit to mammoth miss could then happen during perihelion, when it would be at dismaying distance of perhaps sixty thousand kilometers from earth on 01 November 2020. On next day it would zoom away and be possibly 420 thousand kilometers from us. Experts have been working meticulously and incessantly to find out and precisely predict asteroid’s exact way through our solar system and calculate its position in future (or even where it was in the past).
The forecasted probability of the asteroid smacking earth was divulged to be ostensibly 0.41 percent or in odds expressed, it would indicate roughly to be 1 in 240. It is most likely that the asteroid 2018VP1 would slip serenely away without causing any harm to earth or even be unseen while it would be trudging back towards the deep depths of space.
However, huge asteroids could inflict destruction to earth on the event of an unfortunate whack. As a chilling reminder of the incident that had taken place in February 2013, when an asteroid around twenty meters across had exploded in the atmosphere above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, Siberia. The explosion-airburst was so immense that the shockwaves had damaged many buildings and more than fifteen hundred people were injured. This extra-terrestrial entity was assumedly ten times bigger than the diameter of 2018VP1, which could burn up before it would reach the ground.

Fascinating Fireball
It could detonate above the ground and leave tiny fragments to drizzle down to the surface of earth. 2018VP1 could particularly be resiliently robust metal asteroid, rather than being stony or icy one. It would be too minute to cause any significant problem, if it would crash on earth, after disintegrating through our sky displaying fascinating fireball. Coincidently, last month a small car-sized asteroid 2020QG flew-by supposedly close to earth than any other asteroid on record without slamming our planet.
Though 2020QG had survived the encounter with earth, its trajectory through space was altered awesomely. It was bent by forty-five degrees by earth’s gravity as it swung by our planet. It was racing at average speed of stunning thirteen kilometers per second and had come within 2.945 thousand kilometers to earth with its orbital period of fairly 964 days. If it would have collided with earth, it would have demonstrated its fiery-descent, after it would have broken-up in earth's atmosphere.
Millions of near-earth asteroids-esque 2020QG could be sparsely three to six meters wide. They would not be easily detected. They would not also endanger any living being on earth. But worrisomely big asteroids have to be recognized on time.
It has been postulated that queerly quirky rock about ten-kilometer-wide had barreled into earth triggering devastating demise and extinction of dinosaurs sheer sixty six million years ago. NASA has identified and tracked more than ninety five percent of the mountain-mimicking asteroids in earth's neighborhood and none of them would connote any collision risk in foreseeable future. Furthermore, it has been compiling comprehensive catalog of potential near-earth asteroids, which could wreck us if they would buffet earth.

(Shah writes about astronomy regularly)