Venus is obscenely bright this week

Hello, friends!

And a happy new year to you! I’ve been doing a bit more looking up since the year flipped over which has been extremely rewarding.

Venus hung right over a crescent Moon in a dramatic display last Friday, with Saturn joining the dance. (Check out the earthshine captured here.) The show continues into this week (as we’ll see in a bit), but before we get into the events listings…

💃🏽 It’s my party: Tom Scott’s Lateral podcast featured a question I wrote! Here it is:

“In some Scrabble sets, unscrupulous players could feel for the useful ‘blank’ tiles as they had no engraving on them. However, 1940s editions permitted a hack that was even more game-breaking. What was it?”

Listen to engineer Lucy Rogers, science communicator Molly Edwards and science content creator Trace Dominguez tackle the question here (it appears about 34 minutes in), or play this clip on YouTube.

Ok. Let’s go!

🍿 online talks and events 🐧

All times are GMT.

Tuesday 7 January

Who’s afraid of robots?, hybrid lecture by Gresham College, 18.00, free: Professor Victoria Baines discusses the complex relationship between humans and machines over the years, arguing that we’re still iffy on whether we want them to be like us.

Wednesday 8 January

Astronauts talk to NASA leaders, online event by NASA, 18.25, free: Last June astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off to the International Space Station on a test mission set to last eight days. Due to problems with the spacecraft, they’re still there.

On Wednesday Butch and Suni will be among those talking to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy about life aboard the ISS in this livestreamed event.

🔭 in a sky near you… 🤩

NB: Views from KFS HQ, London. See Stellarium for a personalised view of your night sky, after setting your location and time.

Venus is fire: Venus will be very bright this week, reaching greatest eastern elongation on Friday (10 January). This means that it will appear to us as far east as it’s going to get from the Sun, and that we’ll get to see it long after sunset. Phil Plait provides this helpful racetrack-and-car explanation of the mechanics on SciAm.

Look southwest from sunset to see Venus every evening this week – you won’t be able to miss it – along with Saturn just a few degrees away.

Venus’ position means that it displays phases to us here on Earth, just as the Moon does. At maximum eastern elongation, one side of its orb will be illuminated, giving it a ‘half-moon’ shape. You’ll be able to see this with binoculars (though only use them after the sun is down!).

🐦 closer to Earth 👀

Meet the dunnocks: Use the quieter winter days to get to know the dunnock, a shy little bird that’s in the UK all year round. A robin-sized brown bird with a grey breast, the dunnock is often mistaken for the unrelated sparrow, though there are some key differences – see this video for tips on how to tell them apart.

Look for the dunnock under hedgerows and in gardens as it searches the ground for insects, moving in a “rather nervous, shuffling way, often flicking its wings as it goes”, according to the RSPB. (In years gone by it was known as the shufflewing.)

💫 we need answers

A couple of weeks ago, I asked:

The answer is… bubbles.

🤔 until next week…

What appears at the beginning of entropy and at the end of the Universe?

Answer comes next week. See you then! x