20 September,2009 10:19 AM IST | | PTI
A celestial event awaits star gazers on Monday night with one of the ancient asteroids featuring a cameo in the sky.
On September 21, Juno, one of the first discovered asteroids and the parent of many meteorite showers on the Earth, will enjoy a cameo in the night sky theatre, and then it'll be at opposition, Space Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) Director CB Devgun said.
"Opposition of a heavenly body is a term used in positional astronomy to indicate when one celestial object is on the opposite side of the sky from the sun when viewed from the Earth," Devgun said.
Juno's silvery glint near the planet Uranus will be visible with a pair of binoculars, he added. The tenth largest asteroid measures about 234 kilometers in diameter or about one-fifteenth the diameter of the Moon.
The asteroid, which orbits the Sun on a track between Mars and Jupiter, will be at its brightest on September 21, when it is zooming around the Sun at about 22 kilometers per second (49,000 miles per hour), he said.
The extra brightness will come from its position in a direct line with the Sun and its proximity to Earth, he added. The celestial phenomenon will be brightest at 13:04, Devgun said.
