Space News Update - January 5, 2016 - In the News Departments Story 1: NASA’s Chandra Finds Supermassive Black Hole Burping Nearby Story 2: What’s next for SpaceX’s recovered Falcon 9 booster? Story 3: Andromeda Galaxy Scanned with High-Energy X-ray Vision Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar NASA-TV Highlights Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

NASA’s Chandra Finds Supermassive Black Hole Burping Nearby In this computer graphic, NASA's Voyager 1 probe, moving toward upper left, nears the edge of the sun's influence, flying through a region of space dominated by a "magnetic highway" that helps mediate the flow of particles into and out of the solar system. The region includes particles from the sun's southern hemisphere that have been forced northward by the pressure of the interstellar wind. Voyager 1 is expected to cross the boundary into interstellar space sometime within the next few years if not sooner. (Credit: NASA)

What’s next for SpaceX’s recovered Falcon 9 booster?

Andromeda Galaxy Scanned with High-Energy X-ray Vision

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Tuesday, January 5 • Latest sunrise for the year (if you're near 40° north latitude). Tomorrow morning the 6th, the waning Moon stands above Venus, Saturn, and Antares, as shown here. Wednesday, January 6 • On Thursday morning the 7th, the waning crescent Moon stands left of Venus, Saturn, and Antares low in the southeast, as shown here. • Algol should be at its minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 10:31 p.m. EST. Thursday, January 7 • Before moonlight returns to the evening sky next week, explore some new sights in upper Eridanus with your scope — using Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders column, chart, and photos in the January Sky & Telescope, page 55. Do you know about the row of three 12th-magnitude galaxies in the field of Nu Eridani? And take apart famous NGC 1356 in Eridanus, "the definitive barred spiral galaxy," with Going Deep on page 58 of the January issue. Friday, January 8 • In the early dawn Saturday morning, spot brilliant Venus, the "Morning Star," in the southeast. Right next to it is Saturn, only 1/60 as bright. When seen from the Americas, they'll be 1/2° or less apart. That's about the width of a chopstick at arm's length. Binoculars give a fine view, and both planets will fit into a telescope's low- or medium-power eyepiece. They'll be at their very closest, a mere 0.1° apart, around 4h Universal Time: excellent timing for Europe. Sky & Telescope

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: No Information available. NASA’s Spot the Station website is down for maintenance. Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone) 1:30 p.m., Thursday, January 7 - Video B-Roll Feed of Expedition 47-48 Crew Training (all channels) 2 p.m., Thursday, January 7 - ISS Expedition 47-48 Crew News Conference (J. Williams, Ovchinin, Skripochka) (all channels) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Jan 05 - Aten Asteroid 2001 BB16 Near-Earth Flyby (0.056 AU) Jan 05 - Apollo Asteroid 2015 XT Near-Earth Flyby (0.079 AU) Jan 05 - Apollo Asteroid 2015 YU1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.095 AU) Jan 05 - Atira Asteroid 2012 VE46 Closest Approach To Earth (0.369 AU) Jan 05 - Asteroid 8373 Stephengould Closest Approach To Earth (0.819 AU) Jan 05 - Asteroid 3355 Onizuka Closest Approach To Earth (1.071 AU) Jan 05 - Asteroid 12373 Lancearmstrong Closest Approach To Earth (1.739 AU) Jan 05 - Asteroid 78453 Bullock Closest Approach To Earth (2.621 AU) Jan 06 - Comet 73P-T/Schwassmann-Wachmann Closest Approach To Earth (4.361 AU) Jan 06 - Apollo Asteroid 85990 (1999 JV6) Near-Earth Flyby (0.032 AU) Jan 06 - Apollo Asteroid 2013 BC70 Near-Earth Flyby (0.087 AU) Jan 06 - Teleconference: Review of Progress Toward the Decadal Survey Vision in New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics Jan 06 - 165th Anniversary (1851), Leon Foucault's Pendulum Experiment Demonstrates Earth's Rotation Jan 07 - Comet 162P/Siding Spring Closest Approach To Earth (1.564 AU) Jan 07 - Asteroid 13926 Berners-Lee Closest Approach To Earth (1.507 AU) Jan 07 - Binary Asteroid 617 Patroclus Closest Approach To Earth (4.564 AU) Jan 07 - 20th Anniversary (1996), Tsukuba Meteorite Fall (Hit Car Repair Shop in Japan) Jan 07 - Talgat Musabayev's 65th Birthday (1951) Jan 08 - Comet 81P/Wild Closest Approach To Earth (1.475 AU) Jan 08 - Apollo Asteroid 2015 WE2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.058 AU) Jan 08 - Apollo Asteroid 2015 XE261 Near-Earth Flyby (0.084 AU) Jan 08 - Asteroid 3356 Resnik Closest Approach To Earth (1.441 AU) Jan 08 - Walther Bothe's 125th Birthday (1891)   JPL Space Calendar

3-D Printed Ceramics Could Build Next-Gen Spaceships Food for Thought 3-D Printed Ceramics Could Build Next-Gen Spaceships

Space Image of the Week The Lagoon Nebula in Hydrogen, Sulfur, and Oxygen  Image Credit & Copyright: John Nemcik