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[Music]

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what's up for february

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jupiter makes its exit

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venus at peak brightness and the

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star-forming cloud next door

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with the departure of saturn and venus

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over the past two months jupiter is the

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only bright planet left in our twilight

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skies in february and it's on its way

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out the giant planet stands alone low in

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the western sky after sunset in february

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by mid-month it's setting only about an

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hour after the sun

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once jupiter departs at the end of

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february the post-sunset sky will be

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essentially devoid of naked eye planets

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until august when saturn will start

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rising in the east around sunset

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there's a short period though in april

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and may when you might be able to spot

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mercury as it pops briefly above the

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horizon

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you'd have to go back four years to

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march of 2018 to find twilight skies

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with no bright planets

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so catch jupiter before it's gone and

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look for it to become a morning planet

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in april

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speaking of morning skies the planet

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venus will be at its brightest for the

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year in february around mid-month

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it rises with mars around 4am and is

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visible low in the southeast until

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sunrise venus is the brightest of all

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the planets in our solar system because

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of the highly reflective clouds that

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completely cover its globe

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but its brightness in our skies varies

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depending on how far it is from earth

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and on its phase

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turns out venus is brightest not when

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it's closest to earth but when it's

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almost at its closest and still shows us

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a large bright crescent phase

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so enjoy the crescent venus that is the

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planet at its brightest and look for

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venus to form a trio with the moon and

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mars on the morning of february 26th

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february is a perfect time to enjoy one

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of the most popular and well-studied

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sights in the night sky the great nebula

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in orion

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the orion nebula is an enormous cloud of

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gas and dust where thousands of stars

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are being born

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in fact it's the nearest large

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star-forming region to our solar system

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and around 1500 light years away

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the bright central region of the orion

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nebula is a giant cavity in the cloud

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being carved out by the intense

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ultraviolet light from a handful of

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extremely massive young stars

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finding the orion nebula is easy in

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february as the constellation orion will

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be high in the south around 8 or 9 pm

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look for the three stars of the hunter's

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belt and then find the stars that hang

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below it forming orion's sword in the

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center of this line of stars is one that

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looks kind of fuzzy that's the nebula

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it's visible to the unaided eye under

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relatively dark skies and is easily seen

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with binoculars as a faint haze

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and through a telescope it's a sight

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you'll never forget

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here are the phases of the moon for

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stay up to date with all of nasa's

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missions to explore the solar system and

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beyond at nasa.gov

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i'm preston dykes from nasa's jet

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propulsion laboratory and that's what's