A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
The planetary conjunction - in which planets appear closer because of their positions in relation to the Sun - has been visible for days and will continue until at least the end of the week. The planets are best seen before sunrise and are expected to appear closest together on Thursday. The next time the planets will come together will be in January 2021. The planets can be seen without equipment towards the east. The best time to see them is just before sunrise because at this time they are high in the skyline but it is dark enough to see them. Binoculars and telescopes can be used to see the planets in more detail. The easiest planet to see, and the one that appears largest, is Venus, which is about 12 times brighter than Jupiter, which appears second largest. Mars is the sky's faintest planet and is some 250 times less bright than Venus. To see Mars it may be necessary to get up an hour before sunrise. He added that all parts of the UK should have at least one ...