Rishi Shah

The night skies of this month would provide overwhelming opportunities to marvel at planets, constellations and stars that would be dramatically decorating the heavens. The fleet-footed planet Mercury would reach its greatest western elongation from the Sun on 04 July. This would be the best time to view Mercury. It would be emerging low in eastern sky shortly before the sunrise and be gliding from constellation Taurus (bull) towards Gemini (twins). The waning crescent moon could be cherished above Mercury on around 07 July. Mercury would be lost quickly in southeastern horizon during the end of the month. Planets Venus and Mars could be observed in western sky after dusk at the beginning of the month. They would be drifting through the star-fields of constellations Cancer (crab) and Leo (lion).

Beehive Cluster
They would be pleasantly passing by the Beehive Cluster (M 44 or Prasepe) in Cancer. Venus could be appreciated till late in the night, but as the month would progress Mars would stay out of sight. Waxing crescent moon could be noticed east of Venus on 12 July. The resplendent star Regulus (Magha) could be applauded below Venus. The planet Jupiter would be climbing the eastern sky late at night. It would be shimmering among the stars dwelling in the southwestern expanse of constellation Aquarius (water bearer). It would be evanescing in southwestern sky in the morning. The ringed planet Saturn would be entering the southeastern sky in late evening and would be shining with stars scattered in northern segment of constellation Capricornus (sea goat). Glimpsing it would be cumbersome in solar glare in southwestern sky at daybreak.
The far-flung planet Neptune could be admired from almost midnight in eastern sky till day break over southwestern horizon. It would be nestling with the stars sketching the eastern section of Aquarius and coruscating below the comely circlet asterism of constellation Pisces (fishes). Far-away greenish planet Uranus could be perceived from about mid-night in the eastern sky till morning in southern sky. It would be scintillating in sparse southern sector of constellation Aries (ram). The dwarf planet Pluto could be discerned from late night after sundown in southeastern sky among the stars in the eastern region of constellation Sagittarius (archer). It could be watched as star-light dot through telescopes till wee hours of night.
It would be sinking in southwestern horizon. At opposition on 18 July Pluto would be opposite to the Sun and be closest to earth (perigee). Pluto would encircle the Sun in excitingly 248 years. At opposition the earth (at merely 4.984 billion kilometers) would come between Sun and Pluto (which would be barely 5.1358 billion kilometers apart). Pluto would rise as the Sun would set and spend all night crossing the night sky.
Asteroid 4 Vesta could be chased as scurrying pin-point of light in western sky after sunset. It would be scooting eastwards through the western area of constellation Virgo (maiden). It would be skirting deep sky objects as M 61 and rushing by stars as Zavijava and Zaniah till midnight. It would then descend towards western horizon. M 61 would be baffling barred spiral galaxy belonging to Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
It was first ascertained by Italian astronomer Barnaba Oriani in 1779 just six days before famed French astronomer Charles Messier had distinguished it. It would be basically 45.61 million light-years from our Milky Way Galaxy. Stars Zavijava and Zaniah would be fairly 35 and 265 light-years away. Their nomenclatures could be translated roughly to corners in Arabic. NASA's Dawn spacecraft had scrutinized Vesta in 2011 before flying away towards asteroid 1 Ceres. The new moon would befall on 10 July, while the full moon (Guru Purnima) would mesmerize moon-lovers on 24 July 2021. This full moon’s popular moniker would be the buck full moon because during this time of year the male buck deer would begin to grow new antlers. An average Delta Aquariid meteor shower, which could be manifested annually from 12 July to 23 August, would peak this year on the night of 28 July till the morning of July 29 producing up to twenty meteors per hour.
The glossy waning gibbous moon could probably wash out and obtrude dim meteors. Notwithstanding fancy flashes of shooting stars could be relished from leaden locations after midnight till sunup. The radiant from where the shower emanate would align with startling star Skat alias Delta Aquarii. This shower would allegedly originate from the parent Comet 96P/Machholz. American astronomer Donald Machholz had acknowledged this comet in 1986 with orbital period of paltry 5.29 years. Interestingly for record it was once argued that the progenitor of Delta Aquariids could have been the bizarre broken-up Marsden and Kracht sun-grazing comets.

Three Space Missions
There are currently three space missions being planned to explore Venus, two by NASA (VERITAS and DAVINCI+) and one nicknamed EnVision by the European Space Agency (ESA). They would help to deepen our understanding of how Venus has evolved enigmatically to become inhospitable. VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy) would map Venus' surface to determine the planet's geological history. With synthetic aperture radar, VERITAS would chart elevations to create 3D reconstructions of topography and study plate tectonics and volcanism activity.
VERITAS would investigate infrared emissions and recondite rock type and find out whether active volcanoes are releasing water vapor into the atmosphere. DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging) would measure the composition of Venus' atmosphere to fathom how it had formed and clarify if the planet had ever possessed ocean that even ever harbored quirky life. A sphere would plunge through the planet's atmosphere and appraise noble gases. DAVINCI+ would relay the high resolution pictures of the unique geological features known as tesserae. NASA would award US Dollars 500 million each to the two selected escapades for their development and launch within 2028-2030.
EnVision, an orbital venture to Venus, would undertake high-resolution radar mapping and atmospheric studies. Scientists would comprehend the relationships between its geological activity and atmosphere and attempt to unravel why Venus and earth went on different divergent evolutionary paths. With its launch tentatively scheduled for 2031 the quest would be closely collaborating with NASA. The expected expedition cost would be 610 million Euros.

Venus And Earth
Although Venus and earth have been deemed as terrestrial sister planets with similar size and existing in so-called the Solar System’s Goldilocks Zone, they exhibit disparate dissimilarities. Venus would be the Solar System’s hottest planet, with surface temperatures exceeding even those on Mercury. It has been named after the Roman deity of love and beauty.
Venus is devoid of any moon. The Venus atmosphere would be terribly toxic consisting primarily of carbon dioxide (96.5 percent) with small amounts of nitrogen and traces of gases like sulfur dioxide.
It would rotate on its axis (with tilt of meager 2.64 degrees) in sheer 243 earth days. Consequently the scorching average temperatures of 462 degrees Celsius on Venus would not alter significantly but could vary at elevations. Due to this retrograde rotation of Venus the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east. Venus was the first planet visited by US Mariner-2 in 1962.
Soviet Union’s Venera-7 landed first on Venus in 1970. Detailed maps of Venus were first made with NASA’s Magellan orbiter in 1991. Venus Express mission was deployed between 2006 and 2014 by ESA. The Japanese Akatsuki mission to Venus since 2015 would be wrapped-up soon.

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