Space News Update- January 23, 2015 -

In the News

Story 1: Hilltop Panorama Marks Mars Rover's 11th Anniversary

Story 2: Rosetta Data Reveals More Surprises About Comet 67P

Story 3: NASA’s CATS Installed on ISS by Robotic Handoff

 Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

Space CalendarNASA-TV Highlights

Food for ThoughtSpace Image of the Week

Hilltop Panorama Marks Mars Rover's 11th Anniversary

Rosetta Data Reveals More Surprises About Comet 67P

NASA’s CATS Installed on ISS by Robotic Handoff

The Night Sky

Sky & Telescope

Friday, January 23The Moon, dim Mars, and bright Venus form a big diagonal line in the west in twilight, as shown here. And can you still detect tiny, faint Mercury? Bring binoculars.Three shadows on Jupiter. Late tonight Callisto, Io, and Europa are all casting their tiny black shadows onto Jupiter at once, from 1:27 to 1:52 a.m. Saturday morning EST (10:27 to 10:52 p.m. Friday evening PST). Then all three satellites themselves appear in front of Jupiter at once (and hence are practically invisible) from 2:08 to 2:12 a.m. EST.Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles will livestream the triple-shadow event from 8:30 to 11:00 p.m. PST (11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. EST, or 4:30 to 7:00 January 24 UT).

Saturday, January 24Brilliant Sirius, the Dog Star, glitters in the southeast after dinnertime. Look high above it for Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder, shining reddish-orange. To their left is Procyon, the Little Dog Star. It forms the equilateral Winter Triangle with them. Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon are 8.6, 500, and 11.5 light-years away, respectively. Here's some starwatching you can do through even the worst city light pollution.

Sunday, January 25Orion shines high in the southeast in early evening now. Orion is the showiest constellation, but his main pattern is surprisingly small compared to some of his dimmer neighbors. The biggest of these is Eridanus the River, enormous but hard to trace. Dimmer Fornax the Furnace, to Eridanus's lower right, is almost as big as Orion. Even the main pattern of Lepus, the Hare cowering under Orion's feet, isn't much smaller than Orion's main pattern.

Monday, January 26Earth to dodge a bullet! A relatively large near-Earth asteroid, 2004 BL86, is flying by our planet, passing us by three times the distance of the Moon. Tonight the asteroid will brighten to 9th magnitude as it crosses Cancer, nicely placed in the evening hours for telescope users in the Americas. See the article and detailed finder chart in the February Sky & Telescope, page 50, or our version online: Mountain-size Asteroid Glides Past Earth.

Tuesday, January 27"If I had to choose just one deep-sky object to demonstrate the appeal of binocular astronomy, it would probably be the Pleiades," writes Gary Seronik. The Pleiades are certainly a nice sight overall. But the cluster holds a secret in its center: the 8th-magnitude double star South 437, barely resolvable with 10× glasses. See Gary's column and chart in the February Sky & Telescope, page 45. The large black circle on his chart spans a 10× binocular's 5° field of view. Algol shines at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours tonight centered on 10:42 p.m. EST.

ISS Sighting Opportunities

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

ISS For Denver:

Date VisibleMax

Height Appears DisappearsSat Jan 24, 6:07 AM 3 min 60° 18 above NW 35 above ESun Jan 25, 5:17 AM 1 min 33° 33 above NE 20 above ESun Jan 25, 6:51 AM < 1 min 13° 11 above WNW 13 above WMon Jan 26, 6:00 AM 4 min 51° 32 above W 10 above SETue Jan 27, 5:11 AM 2 min 38° 38 above ESE 13 above SETue Jan 27, 6:46 AM < 1 min 10° 10 above WSW 10 above SW

NASA-TV Highlights

Monday, January 2612 p.m., Commercial Crew Program Status Briefing; Launch America: Commercial Crew's Path Forward (all channels)

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

(all times Eastern Daylight Time)

Space Calendar

JPL Space Calendar

Jan 23 - Comet 4P/Faye Closest Approach To Earth (1.816 AU) Jan 23 - Asteroid 2062 Aten Closest Approach To Earth (0.186 AU) Jan 23 - Asteroid 10552 Stockholm Closest Approach To Earth (1.502 AU) Jan 23 - Asteroid 8208 Volta Closest Approach To Earth (2.182 AU) Jan 23 - [Jan 23] Bill Progue's 85th Birthday (1930) Jan 23 - 145th Anniversary (1870), Nedagolla Meteorite Fall in India Jan 23 - Ernst Abbe's 175th Birthday (1840) Jan 24 - Comet 119P/Parker-Hartley At Opposition (2.411 AU) Jan 24 - [Jan 18] Asteroid 2015 AP44 Near-Earth Flyby (0.030 AU) Jan 24 - Asteroid 2014 QJ362 Near-Earth Flyby (0.083 AU) Jan 24 - Asteroid 100000 Astronautica Closest Approach To Earth (1.030 AU) Jan 24 - Asteroid 22824 von Neumann Closest Approach To Earth (1.556 AU) Jan 24 - Asteroid 5036 Tuttle Closest Approach To Earth (1.690 AU) Jan 24 - Lecture: Universe from the South Pole, Washington DC Jan 24 - 15th Anniversary (2000), Discovery of Dhofar 019 Meteorite (Mars Meteorite) Jan 24 - 25th Anniversary (1990), Hiten Launch (Japan Moon Orbiter) Jan 24 - 30th Anniversary (1985), STS-51-C Launch (Space Shuttle Discovery, DOD) Jan 25 - Comet 222P/LINEAR At Opposition (1.626 AU) Jan 25 - Asteroid 588 Achilles Occults TYC 6749-01372-1 (12.1 Magnitude Star) Jan 25 - [Jan 20] Asteroid 2015 BK4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.014 AU) Jan 25 - [Jan 18] Asteroid 2015 BF Near-Earth Flyby (0.024 AU) Jan 25 - Asteroid 1640 Nemo Closest Approach To Earth (1.775 AU) Jan 25 - Asteroid 20488 Pic-du-Midi Closest Approach To Earth (2.080 AU) Jan 25-28 - Workshop: Galaxies Inside and Out, Tehran, Iran Jan 26 - Asteroid 357439 (2004 BL86) Near-Earth Flyby (0.008 AU) Jan 26 - [Jan 18] Asteroid 2015 AK45 Near-Earth Flyby (0.012 AU) Jan 26 - Asteroid 5256 Farquhar Closest Approach To Earth (2.128 AU) Jan 26 - 10th Anniversary (2005), Mike Brown, et al's Discovery of Haumea Moon Hi'laka Jan 26 - 35th Anniversary (1980), Voyager 1's Discovery of Saturn Moon Epimetheus

Food for Thought

NASA, Microsoft Collaboration Will Allow Scientists to ‘Work on Mars’

Space Image of the Week

Chandra Celebrates the International Year of LightImage Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO