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[Lively music]

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[Preston Dyches]
What's Up for July?

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Mars and Venus
go their separate ways,

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Saturn cruises with
a dusty young star,

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And it's prime
time for the Milky Way.

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You'll find Venus and Mars

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in the west
after sunset throughout July.

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The pair moved ever
closer in the sky during June,

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and they begin July appearing
quite near to each other,

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but it's time for them
to part company.

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You'll notice them trending
lower as the month goes on,

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with Venus in particular being
noticeably lower each night.

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And during the second week
of July, reddish-colored Mars

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will appear very close
to the blue-white star Regulus.

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Mars is quite distant
from Earth right now and appears

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at its dimmest for the year
in July and August.

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This month it appears at about
the same brightness as Regulus,

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and you should easily be able

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to see the difference
in their color

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with your eyes
or a pair of binoculars.

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They're closest together
on July 9th and 10th.

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And on the 20th,

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the Moon will pass through,
appearing just next to Mars.

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Mercury also pops up
quite low in the sky

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in the second half of July,

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for those with views
of the horizon.

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During July, 

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you'll have giant planets
Jupiter and Saturn

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keeping you company in the late
night and early morning hours.

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And notably, you'll find Jupiter
shining brightly

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beneath the crescent moon
on the morning of July 11th.

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Now Jupiter appears quite a bit
brighter than Saturn,

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and it's not just because
Jupiter is a little bigger.

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See, the farther away
something is in space,

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the fainter it tends to be,

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and Saturn’s certainly farther
away from Earth than Jupiter.

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But it's also farther
away from the Sun,

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and being more distant
means it

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receives much less sunlight
than Jupiter to begin with.

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So it's the combination
of being both farther

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from the sun
and farther from Earth

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that makes Saturn appear
so much fainter.

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Now Saturn cruises
across the sky 

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with bright star
Fomalhaut in July.

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At around 440 million years old,

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Fomalhaut is a
fairly young star.

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NASA's Webb Space
Telescope recently revealed

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new details in the dusty
debris disk that surrounds it.

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Webb showed
that there's much more structure

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in the disk
than was previously known,

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with three distinct belts
made of debris from collisions

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of larger bodies,

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probably not unlike the
asteroids and comets

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in our own planetary system.

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And researchers think the belts
most likely are carved

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by the gravitational forces
produced by unseen planets.

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It's a nice reminder
that most stars you gaze

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upon represent
entire planetary systems.

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Each one is a sun,
and most have a family of

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worlds in orbit around them.

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Finally,

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a reminder that
July is prime time for viewing

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the bright core of our home
galaxy, the Milky Way.

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The Milky Way core is visible
looking toward the south

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in July, as a faint

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diagonal band of light,
as soon as it's fully dark.

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Packed with enormous
numbers of stars

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along with dark clouds of dust.

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You can view its faint glow
with your own eyes

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from locations away
from bright urban centers.

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So if you have the opportunity
to go camping

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or skywatching away
from the city, it's truly

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one of the most awe inspiring
sights of the night sky,

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and not to be missed.

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Here are the phases
of the Moon for July.

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Stay up to date
with all of NASA's missions

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to explore the solar system
and beyond at NASA.gov.

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I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

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and that's
What's Up for this month.