Heavens Sparkle With Mysteries

The night skies of this warm summer month offer elegant charms of planets, stars, and constellations together with enigmatic conundrums of heavenly entities. The fleet-footed planet Mercury could be glimpsed after mid-month low in the western sky for a terse time after sunset. It would be scooting through the constellation Gemini (twins). The strange stars Castor (Kasturi) and Pollux (Punervasu) would be scintillating above Mercury. Castor with weird sextuple stars is supposedly 52 lightyears from us. Pollux is a peculiar orange-coloured star that is assuredlyly 34 light-years away. It proudly boasts of its eccentric extrasolar planet. The red planet Mars would mesmerise Mars-hunters in the western sky after sundown. 

It could be well recognised and cherished as a resplendent ruddy illumination until late at night. It would be cavorting with stars that dwell in the western flank of the constellation Leo (lion), with the famed flowing golden mane gloriously glistening to the east of Mars. The Ionic star Regulus (Magha) is twinkling below Mars. Regulus is the multiple blue-white star sparkling simplyly 77 light-years from us, which outlines the intrinsic part of the awesome asterism of stars signed as the Spring Triangle, together with star Arcturus in constellation Bootes (herdsman) and star Spica (Chitra) in constellation Virgo (maiden). 

The Leo constellation represents the ferocious Nemean lion from Greek mythology, although the constellation's association with the lion dates back to at least 4000 BC in Mesopotamia. Regulus fairly means little king in Latin. Regulus is located outstandingly at the base of the prominent pattern of Leo, which also depicts the imaginary sickle or the backward question mark of the crouching lion.

The red giant star Arcturus (Swati) is merelyly 37 light-years away. It is 25 times bigger than our Sun, extensively 1.5 times more massive, and ostensively 110 times more effulgent. Arcturus in ancient Greece was appreciated as the guardian of the bear, with the star beaming at the herdsman's left leg. Alluring Arcturus stream of stars is tumbling perpendicularly through the plane of the Milky Way. Arcturus is an important member of the odd Local Fluff alias the Local Interstellar Cloud, with an allegedly 30-light-year diameter through which the entire Solar System is sailing. Spica is the most coruscating star in Virgo. It belongs to a baffling binary system nestling just 260 light years from us. Its primary component is the blue-white star, approximately seven times more massive than the Sun, with 12100 times its luminosity.

The far-flung bluish gas planet Neptune could be relished as a shiny spot of light in the southeastern sky during the wee hours of the night before the breaking of dawn. Ravishing ringed planet Saturn would be gleaming gracefully below Neptune. Planet Venus is shimmering superbly to the east of Neptune. 

It would be venturing through the barren southern sector of the cute constellation Aries (the ram). All these perplexing planets are mingling mainly with the stars that sketch the southern section of the confounding constellation Pisces (fishes) near the commanding circlet contour. These three planets could be savoured succinctly before sunup. Venus could obstruct our view of numerous near-Earth asteroids that may pose the dire danger of impacting us. Innumerable asteroids are darting in sync with Venus and are dreadfully difficult to detect as they lurk in the Sun's irradiance. The asteroids 2020 SB, 524522, and 2020 CL1 are meticulously monitored due to their potential possibility of hitting us. They are maintaining their trail away from Earth. Alarmingly, circa twenty co-orbital asteroids of Venus are approaching it safely. They could encounter us menacingly in the future. NASA had recently ruled out the risk of asteroid 2024 YR4 smiting Earth.

The Hercules globular cluster (Messier 13) is probably 25usand light-years away. It is queerly 145 light years across and contains captivatingly 300 thousand stars. Another gigantic globular cluster (Messier 92) is nominally 27 thousand lightyears away and is estimated to be approximately 14.2 billion years old, making it almost like the universe itself in age. The legendary, sturdy Hercules from Greek and Roman tantalising tales rests lazily above the beguiling constellation Pisces. 

Planets Jupiter and grey-hued Uranus would be unseen this month. They are lost in the solar glare as they traverse the sky during the daytime. Mighty Jupiter would be marching through the congenial constellation Taurus (bull). Uranus would be hurtling through the desolate western region of Taurus.

The full moon would mystify moon lovers on 11 June. It has been known eponymously as the strawberry full moon because it would signal the time of year for gathering ripening fruit. It coincides with the strawberry harvesting season. The tenebrous new moon would bewitchingly betide on 25 June. The June solstice occurs on June 21 this year. 

The Earth's North Pole will be tilted toward the Sun, reaching its northernmost position in the sky and staying directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude. It will herald the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere (we experience our longest day) and the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere with the shortest day.

The sun unleashed a powerful flare dubbed X2.7 in May 2025. It had erupted from the Sun's eastern limb, where active sunspot region (AR) 4087 was residing. The flash of X- and gamma radiation was strong enough to induce brief radio blackouts on Earth's dayside. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections are common phenomena when the Sun presides over the most active phase of the quirky 11-year cycle. The extremely energetic flare of the current cycle was an X9.0 in October 2024. Solar maximum may not be waning. 

The fabulous flare is an explosive release of energy resulting from snapping and reconnecting mysterious magnetic field lines twirling within the Sun. The complex coronal mass ejection (CME) mimics a solar sneeze, hurling billions of tonnes of solar particles tangled up with magnetic fields through the solar system. Their spectacular effects we indulge in on Earth are the eerie auroras australis and borealis, which are induced by the ultra-high-speed incoming solar slivers interacting with petit substances ubiquitous in Earth's atmosphere. Flares and CMEs often crop up together, but their effects on Earth depend on the direction and strength. Eruptions from the middle of the Sun's disc can slam squarely into us, creating jaw-dropping displays of swirling lambent light in the sky. When a CME whacks the earth, geomagnetic storms can interact with the earth's atmosphere, generating electrical surges that disrupt the power supply with fluctuations. They wreck navigation and communication with radio outages. 

They disturb objects in near-Earth space, tormenting aircraft and satellites. The sun could emit rowdy flares during the solar maximum period. This is when the Sun's magnetic poles would switch positions. The escalating sunspots, flares, and CME activity period can track it. NASA, NOAA, and the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel have been monitoring solar weather painstakingly to inform us of taking precautions and preventive measures against any harm they could inflict.

As the Sun rotates anticlockwise, flares would drift across the face of the Sun, placing it in a position from where it could aim acrimoniously its outbursts towards us. The most violent cosmic event had been witnessed some 14300 years ago. It left questionably discernible dents on Earth with partially fossilised trunks of trees and on excavated cores of ice. This colossal space event happened putatively in 12350 BCE. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has lately announced the existence of a new dwarf planet that is quaintly 700 kilometres wide. It mirrors the size of the dwarf planet Pluto. Its path around the Sun is unusually elongated and stretched, unlike other objects in the outer Solar System. 

Planets like Neptune or Jupiter may have pushed it into this track. It could have originated from the outlandish Oort Cloud, a bizarre shell of icy reservoirs of comets surrounding the solar system. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is whizzing past Pluto but has not reached these distant realms yet. Still, many mysteries would be uncovered soon. By studying this 2017 OF201, we hope to learn more about the birth and history of our solar system.

(Dr. Shah is an academician at NAST and patron of NASO)