Space News Update - March 28, In the News Story 1: Story 1: Mars-Bound Comet Siding Spring Sprouts Multiple Jets Story 2: Story 2: Eastern Range Radar issue delays upcoming Cape launches Story 3: Story 3: New discovery may redefine solar system's outer frontier Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar NASA-TV Highlights Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Mars-Bound Comet Siding Spring Sprouts Multiple Jets

Eastern Range Radar issue delays upcoming Cape launches

New discovery may redefine solar system's outer frontier This is an orbit diagram for the outer solar system. The Sun and Terrestrial planets are at the center. The orbits of the four giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, are shown by purple solid circles. The Kuiper Belt, including Pluto, is shown by the dotted light blue region just beyond the giant planets. Sedna's orbit is shown in orange while 2012 VP113's orbit is shown in red. Both objects are currently near their closest approach to the Sun (perihelion). They would be too faint to detect when in the outer parts of their orbits. Notice that both orbits have similar perihelion locations on the sky and both are far away from the giant planet and Kuiper Belt regions.

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Friday, March 28  The huge, bright Winter Hexagon nearly fills the southwestern sky at dusk. Start with bright Sirius in the south, marking the Hexagon's lower left corner. High above Sirius is Procyon. From there look even higher to Pollux and Castor with bright Jupiter below them, then from Castor farther lower right to Menkalinen and Capella, then lower left to Aldebaran, then duck around lower left to Rigel at the bottom of Orion, and back to Sirius. Within the Hexagon shine Jupiter and Betelgeuse. Saturday, March 29  You can tell winter is gone for good, astronomically speaking: As soon as the stars come out, the Big Dipper is already higher in the northeast than Cassiopeia is in the northwest. Sunday, March 30  This is the time of year when the dim Little Dipper juts to the right from Polaris (its handle-end) during evening hours. The much brighter Big Dipper curls over high above it, "dumping water" into it.  New Moon (exact at 2:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Monday, March 31  It's getting to be Virgo Galaxy Cluster time, as Virgo climbs up in the southeast through the evening. North of Gamma Virginis (Porrima), explore the area around the giant galaxy M49 with your telescope using Sue French's Deep- Sky Wonders article in the April Sky & Telescope, page 56. Tuesday, April 1  The biggest and brightest asteroids, 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta respectively, are only about 2° apart in eastern Virgo, some 12° northeast of Mars. They've brightened to magnitudes 7.1 and 5.9, respectively. They'll be at opposition in mid-April.

ISS Sighting Opportunities Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting InformationSatellite Sighting Information ISS For Denver: DateVisibleMax HeightAppearsDisappears Sat Mar 29, 4:26 AM1 min12°12 above N11 above NNE Sat Mar 29, 6:01 AM4 min37°10 above NW33 above ENE Sun Mar 30, 5:12 AM3 min25°11 above NNW22 above NE Mon Mar 31, 4:25 AM1 min18°18 above NNE17 above NE Mon Mar 31, 6:00 AM6 min83°10 above NW11 above SE Tue Apr 1, 5:12 AM5 min55°22 above NW11 above ESE

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Daylight Time) April 1, Tuesday 12:30 p.m. - Deep Space Network’s 50th Anniversary NASA Social - JPL (NTV-1, NTV-2) April 3, Thursday 8:15 a.m. - ISS Expedition 39 In-Flight Interview for JAXA with TV Tokyo (native language on NTV-3) - JSC (All Channels) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA websiteNASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Mar 28 - [Mar 22] Asteroid 2014 FF Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU)Asteroid 2014 FFNear-Earth Flyby Mar 28 - Asteroid NASA Closest Approach To Earth (1.404 AU)Asteroid NASA Mar 28 - Asteroid 4659 Roddenberry Closest Approach To Earth (1.870 AU)Asteroid 4659 Roddenberry Mar 28 - Asteroid 2099 Opik Closest Approach To Earth (2.142 AU)Asteroid 2099 Opik Mar 28 - Asteroid Babylon Closest Approach To Earth (2.899 AU)Asteroid Babylon Mar 28 - Asteroid Grand Challenge Virtual SeminarAsteroid Grand Challenge Virtual Seminar Mar 29 - Asteroid Beowolf Closest Approach To Earth (1.117 AU)Asteroid BeowolfClosest Approach To Earth Mar 29 - Asteroid Peru Closest Approach To Earth (1.136 AU)Asteroid Peru Mar 29 - Asteroid 1430 Somalia Closest Approach To Earth (1.872 AU)Asteroid 1430 Somalia Mar 29 - Asteroid Yucatan Closest Approach To Earth (1.942 AU)Asteroid Yucatan Mar 29 - Asteroid Tigerlily Closest Approach To Earth (2.124 AU)Asteroid Tigerlily Mar 29 - Asteroid 2866 Hardy Closest Approach To Earth (2.448 AU)Asteroid 2866 Hardy Mar 29 - Asteroid 588 Achilles Closest Approach To Earth (4.257 AU)Asteroid 588 Achilles Mar th Anniversary (1974), Mariner 10, 1st Mercury FlybyMariner 10 Mar 30 - European Summer Time - Set Clock Ahead 1 Hour (European Union)European Summer Time Mar 30 - BelarusSat 1 CZ-3B/E LaunchBelarusSat 1 Mar 30 - Comet 46P/Wirtanen Closest Approach To Earth (2.022 AU)Comet 46P/WirtanenClosest Approach To Earth Mar 30 - Comet 138P/Shoemaker-Levy At Opposition (3.602 AU)Comet 138P/Shoemaker-LevyAt Opposition Mar 30 - Asteroid 2012 EA Near-Earth Flyby (0.036 AU)Asteroid 2012 EANear-Earth Flyby Mar 30 - Asteroid 2009 FW25 Near-Earth Flyby (0.071 AU)Asteroid 2009 FW25Near-Earth Flyby Mar 30 - Asteroid 9000 Hal Closest Approach To Earth (1.429 AU)Asteroid 9000 Hal Mar 30 - Asteroid 469 Argentina Closest Approach To Earth (1.689 AU)Asteroid 469 Argentina Mar 31 - Cartosat 2C/IMS 1B/NEMO-AM/ SRE-2/ CAN-X4/CAN-X5 PSLV LaunchCartosat 2CSRE-2CAN-X4/CAN-X5 Mar 31 - Comet 135P/Shoemaker-Levy Closest Approach To Earth (1.948 AU)Comet 135P/Shoemaker-LevyClosest Approach To Earth Mar 31 - Come 6P/d'Arrest At Opposition (2.389 AU)Come 6P/d'ArrestAt Opposition Mar 31 - Comet C/2013 J3 (McNaught) At Opposition (4.270 AU)Comet C/2013 J3 (McNaught)At Opposition Mar 31 - Asteroid 2362 Mark Twain Closest Approach To Earth (1.613 AU)Asteroid 2362 Mark Twain Mar 31 - Asteroid 2022 WestiClosest Approach To Earth (1.979 AU)Asteroid 2022 West Mar 31 - Asteroid Coulomb Closest Approach To Earth (2.548 AU)Asteroid Coulomb Mar 31 - Asteroid 5661 Hildebrand Closest Approach To Earth (3.479 AU)Asteroid 5661 Hildebrand Apr 01 - Asteroid 3902 Yoritomo Occults HIP (6.5 Magnitude Star)Asteroid 3902 Yoritomo Occults HIP Apr 01 - Asteroid 2009 SA100 Near-Earth Flyby (0.044 AU)Asteroid 2009 SA100Near-Earth Flyby Apr 01 - Asteroid 2010 GD35 Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU)Asteroid 2010 GD35Near-Earth Flyby Apr 01 - Asteroid 2009 FD Near-Earth Flyby (0.101 AU)Asteroid 2009 FDNear-Earth Flyby Apr 01 - Asteroid 3297 Hong Kong Closest Approach To Earth (2.584 AU)Asteroid 3297 Hong Kong

Food for Thought Orbiting Solar Panels Beam Energy From Space

Space Image of the Week Shadow Portrait of NASA Rover Opportunity on Martian Slope