Jupiter, Moon Align in Christmas Skywatching Treat

As darkness falls on Christmas night, check out the east-southeast sky. Shining brilliantly to the upper left of the bright, nearly full moon will be a silvery "star" with a steady glow. But that's not a star, or Santa returning to the North Pole. Rather, it's the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, serving as a sort of holiday ornament with Earth's nearest neighbor to cap off a year of interesting skwyatching events. As viewed from the eastern and central United States, the moon and Jupiter will appear closest together during the late afternoon or early evening hours on Tuesday (Dec. 25). From New York, they’ll be closest together at 6:25 p.m. EST (2325 GMT); from Chicago, it’ll be 5:18 p.m. local time (2318 GMT). Jupiter will appear just a bit over one-half degree from the limb of the moon. (One-half degree is roughly equal to the moon’s apparent width). In the western United States, the closest approach will come before sunset, but moon and planet will still appear to be quite close together as darkness falls. [Video: Jupiter and the Moon Converge on Christmas] The pair will be slowly separating as Tuesday night shifts to Wednesday morning; the moon moves across the sky at roughly its own diameter each hour. Jupiter will remain a bold light high in the east-southeast at nightfall. This week, it doesn't set in the west until around 5 a.m. local time. Appearing brighter than any nighttime star, Jupiter is now levitating in front of the constellation Taurus (the Bull), not far from the famous V-shaped Hyades star cluster and despite the nearby presence of the orange 1st-magnitude star, Aldebaran, which fills this region of the sky with overbearing brightness. What kind of telescopic observation can be made of the gas giant now? Almost every kind. From mid-northern latitudes you can even watch a full rotation of Jupiter, with the cloud features of every longitude displayed, during a single nightlong vigil. And as always, a fascinating dance of Jupiter's four large Galilean satellites will await viewers on any night who watch with a small telescope or even steadily held binoculars. As darkness falls over the eastern U.S. on Tuesday, you'll see two Jupiter moons — Ganymede and Callisto — on one side of the giant planet, while a third, Europa, hovers by itself on the other side. As the evening progresses, Ganymede and Europa will gradually pull away from Jupiter. Then, at 7:15 p.m. EST (0015 GMT Wednesday), the fourth Galilean satellite, Io, will emerge from Jupiter's shadow and appear on the side of the planet occupied by Europa. Slowly, as Tuesday night wears on, Io will become easier to see as it moves away from Jupiter and toward Europa. At 11:40 p.m. EST (0440 GMT Wednesday), you’ll see Io passing Europa. And Jupiter itself will continue to be a great target throughout the entire winter season for those who got binoculars or a telescope as a holiday gift. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

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Revealed: Rudolph Really Did Have a Red Nose

Most people know Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose — but why? Medical researchers say they've now found the answer. The secret to Rudolph's rosy schnozzle is the dense network of blood vessels in his nose. Reindeer, it seems, have 25 percent more capillaries carrying red, oxygen-rich blood in their nasal architecture than humans, say the scientists from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the University of Rochester in New York. "In colder climates and also when they are higher up in the atmosphere pulling Santa's sleigh, the increase in blood flow in the nose will help keep the [nose's] surface warm," Dr. John Cullen of the University of Rochester told MedPage Today. The dense network of blood vessels in reindeer noses is also essential for regulating the animal's internal body temperature — like many mammals, reindeer don't sweat. The researchers took advantage of high-tech instruments like hand-held intravital video microscopes to compare the blood vessels of two reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) with those of human volunteers (five healthy humans and one with nasal polyps). One of the human volunteers was examined after inhaling 0.0035 ounces (100 milligrams) of cocaine, "a drug routinely used in ear, nose, and throat medicine as a local anaesthetic and vasoconstrictor," the researchers write in the British Medical Journal this week. "We're kind of glad they didn't do the same thing with the reindeer, because the last thing we would want is reindeer on cocaine, pulling Santa around the sky," said Cullen. Their results showed reindeer noses do turn a rosy red; after a treadmill test, the reindeer's nose showed up as red (warm) in a thermographic image. In addition, they found glandlike structures in the nasal mucous membrane of reindeer and humans; the structures were surrounded by capillaries, and the researchers suspect, at least in humans, they secrete mucus. "These results highlight the intrinsic physiological properties of Rudolph's legendary luminous red nose, which help to protect it from freezing during sleigh rides and to regulate the temperature of the reindeer's brain, factors essential for flying reindeer pulling Santa Claus' sleigh under extreme temperatures," they write.

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The Hottest Climate Change Stories of 2012

Perhaps the most unavoidable climate story of 2012 was the warmth that gripped much of the United States, and to a lesser degree, the planet, throughout the entire year. Heat waves brought "spring in March" to parts of the country, and broke all-time high-temperature records in a number of places. This, inevitably, led to a discussion of global warming and the degree to which it contributes to some types of extreme weather, in this case heat waves. In fact, prominent climate scientist James Hansen, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and colleagues published research saying recent heat waves "were a consequence of global warming, because their likelihood in the absence of global warming was exceedingly small." Some other climate scientists, however, disagreed about the degree to which heat waves can be attributed to climate change. Meanwhile, many of the top climate stories this year have become something like annual rites recently, as people around the world grapple with human-caused climate change, and attempt to address it and its effects. [7 Hottest Climate Change Stories of 2012] Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy (actually a hybrid storm) this year like others last year, have sparked discussion of the connection between climate change and increased risk for some extreme weather events. A majority of Americans also seem to be making the connection between extreme weather and climate change, according to surveys by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. In reality, attributing any single weather event to global warming is tricky, though some scientists said the planet's increasing temperatures may have worsened Sandy. "The climate influences on this are what we might call the 'new normal,' the changed environment this storm is operating in," Kevin Trenberth, who heads the climate analysis section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told LiveScience at the end of October. For instance, the warmer ocean surfaces — which fuel hurricanes — may increase the risk that a storm will become more intense, Trenberth said. In addition, rising sea levels worsen the risk of flooding, the cause of much of the devastation Sandy wrought. Likewise, global climate talks moved forward slowly, as they have in the last few years, against warnings that nations must curb the planet's rising greenhouse gas emissions or face dramatic consequences. This year also brought some milestones. Arctic sea-ice cover retreated to a record low in September. As with unusually warming temperatures, the record sea-ice retreat did not come out of the blue. In recent years, the sea-ice cover has fallen below the average extent for 1979 to 2000, and, likewise, the first decade of this century was the warmest decade ever recorded in all continents of the globe, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Scientists who study sea ice have blamed a combination of natural fluctuations and human-caused warming for the increased loss of ice, although some differ as to how much humans have contributed, Claire Parkinson, a senior scientist who studies climate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in September. Early in the year, the United States, once the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, saw its carbon-dioxide emissions from energy use drop to the lowest level since 1992, a decline the Department of Energy attributed to a mild winter, a shift from coal to natural gas and a slow economy. In 2011, the United States contributed 16 percent to the world's emissions from fossil fuel use, behind the 28 percent contribution from the top emitter, now China, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project.

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Broadway musical 'Chicago' to enter history books

The musical "Chicago" is about to swagger into the history books again. Thursday night's performance of the edgy musical will be its 6,681, meaning it becomes the third longest-running show in Broadway history. It snatches that title from "Les Miserables." The only shows that have run longer are "Cats," with almost 7,500 shows, and "The Phantom of the Opera," which is still going after more than 10,300 performances. It was only last year that "Chicago" took over third place on the list, beating out "A Chorus Line." Set in the 1920s, "Chicago" is a scathing satire of how show business and the media make celebrities out of criminals. It has skimpy outfits, a rotating cast of celebrities and killer songs such as "All That Jazz."

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Lady Gaga takes youth foundation on the road

Lady Gaga is taking her Born This Way Foundation on the road. The singer announced Thursday that the Born Brave Bus Tour will tailgate outside her upcoming U.S. concerts and provide a space for 13- to 25-year-olds to learn more about local resources on anti-bullying, suicide prevention and mental health services. Her foundation focuses on youth empowerment and self-confidence. Organizations like The Trevor Project, Campus Pride and the National Association of School Psychologists will assist on the bus. Participants will not need a ticket to the show to partake. The Born Brave Bus will be open ahead of each Gaga concert for several hours. The U.S. leg of the Born This Way Ball Tour kicks off Jan. 14 in Tacoma, Wash.

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Halle Berry, Chaka Khan among 2013 BET Honorees

Actress Halle Berry and musician Chaka Khan will be honored at the 2013 BET Honors. The network announced Thursday that basketball star Lisa Leslie, music executive Clarence Avant and religious leader T.D. Jakes will also be celebrated at the Jan. 12 event in Washington at the Warner Theatre. The special airs Feb. 11. BET Honors highlights African Americans performing at top levels in the areas of music, literature, entertainment, education and more. Maya Angelou was among the honorees at this year's BET Honors. First Lady Michelle Obama presented her award. Actress Gabrielle Union will host the special. Performers will be announced at a later date.

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Heart joins select class with Rock Hall induction

The journey to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can be a long and winding road for some acts. For Heart, it took more than a decade, and sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson admitted they were losing hope. "(The) running joke in the band was (we) would never get in," Ann said. But all that changed when the group made the class of 2013, announced this month. "Well, it just goes to show you that just when you think you know the shape of rock 'n' roll, it changes shape on you," Ann said. "This is really more than thrilling." Her younger sister, Nancy, was glad the speculation over whether they'd make it was finally put to rest. "We feel like we deserve it, so we're happy to be here," Nancy said. Since their seminal 1976 release "Dreamboat Annie" that spawned the classic hits "Magic Man," and "Crazy on You," the band went on the sell more than 30 million albums worldwide. They took time off in the 1990s so Nancy, then married to director Cameron Crowe, could raise her family, but have been performing and touring for the last several years. This year, they released their 14th studio album, "Heart Fanatic," and also released the book "Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll." Their most recent tour resumes on Jan. 25 in Worcester, Mass. With their induction, they are part of only a few rock bands in the hall fronted by women (others include Jefferson Airplane with lead singer Grace Slick. Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie with Fleetwood Mac, and Chrissie Hynde with the Pretenders). Neither sister feels she was an inspiration to other women that eventually played in rock 'n' roll bands. "Boys invented rock to get girls, so when girls came into it they had to make a new universe," Ann joked, before adding: "I'm just looking forward to the time when we don't have to have a gender designation on music. To me, that will really be the time when we've done something." The 28th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on April 18. Other acts who will be part of the 2013 class are Rush, Donna Summer, Randy Newman, Public Enemy and Albert King. They're proud to be among the more senior rock acts still touring today (Ann is 62; Nancy is 58). "Rock 'n' roll does not have an age limit as long as it's authentic. Rock and roll is just as beautiful as when Keith Richards plays it as jazz would be when Thelonious Monk would play it," said Ann. "But the key to all that is that it has to be the real deal. It can't be some old washed up dudes thinking ... 'Let's go out and do it some more.' No. It has to still be vital."

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