Space News Update - August 1, 2017 - In the News Departments Story 1: Chasing the Total Solar Eclipse from NASA’s WB-57F Jets Story 2: Large, Distant Comets More Common Than Previously Thought Story 3: ESA, NASA’s SOHO Reveals Rapidly Rotating Solar Core Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Chasing the Total Solar Eclipse from NASA’s WB-57F Jets 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)

Large, Distant Comets More Common Than Previously Thought

ESA, NASA’s SOHO Reveals Rapidly Rotating Solar Core

“Teapot” of Sagittarius The Night Sky “Teapot” of Sagittarius Credit: EarthSky.org Sky & Telescope Tuesday, August 1 The waxing gibbous Moon this evening forms a triangle with Antares to its lower left and brighter Saturn more directly to its left.   Wednesday, August 2 Now the Moon poses with Saturn. Although they look close together, Saturn tonight is is 3,500 times farther away: 81 light-minutes distant, compared to the Moon's 1.3 light-seconds. Thursday, August 3 Saturn shines right of the Moon at dusk, and lower right of it as night grows late. Friday, August 4 As soon as it's dark, look lower right of the bright Moon for the Teapot of Sagittarius. It's about the size of your fist at arm's length, tilting to pour to the right from its spout. Saturday, August 5 The Moon shines low in the southeast as the stars come out. How early can you spot Altair, three fists at arm's length to the Moon's upper left? How about brighter Vega, nearing the zenith from the east?

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Tue Aug 1, 9:44 PM < 1 min 10° 10° above N Tue Aug 1, 11:21 PM 16° 16° above N Wed Aug 2, 8:52 PM 1 min Wed Aug 2, 10:28 PM 2 min 14° 12° above N 14° above NNE Thu Aug 3, 9:36 PM 12° 10° above NNE Thu Aug 3, 11:12 PM 17° 17° above NNW Fri Aug 4, 8:43 PM Fri Aug 4, 10:20 PM 22° 17° above N 22° above NNE Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone) 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) Wednesday, August 2 7:30 a.m. - ISS Expedition 52 In-Flight Interview with Italian Media for the European Space Agency and ESA Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli (NTV-1 with English interpretation; native language on NTV- 3) (Starts at 7:35am) (all channels) Tue May 30, 9:16 PM 1 min 14° 14° above N 10° above NNE Tue May 30, 10:53 PM < 1 min 10° 10° above N Wed May 31, 00:30 AM 18° 18° above N Wed May 31, 10:01 PM Wed May 31, 11:38 PM 2 min 15° 14° above NE Thu Jun 1, 9:09 PM 11° 11° above N Thu Jun 1, 10:45 PM 12° 12° above N 10° above NE Fri Jun 2, 00:20 AM 17° 10° above NW 17° above NNW Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Aug 01 - Optsat 3000/ Venus/ Samson 1-3 Vega Launch Aug 01 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Prometheus, Pandora & Pan Aug 01 - Alpha Capricornids Meteor Shower Peak Aug 01 - Comet 77P/Longmore Closest Approach To Earth (2.573 AU) Aug 01 - Comet P/2001 H5 (NEAT) At Opposition (4.188 AU) Aug 01 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 KV4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.081 AU) Aug 01 - Asteroid 2161 Grissom Closest Approach To Earth (1.533 AU) Aug 01 - Asteroid 3140 Stellafane Closest Approach To Earth (1.829 AU) Aug 01 - Asteroid 22739 Sikhote-Alin Closest Approach To Earth (2.033 AU) Aug 01 - Asteroid 29132 Bradpitt Closest Approach to Earth (2.168 AU) Aug 01 - Asteroid 1125 China Closest Approach To Earth (2.736 AU) Aug 01 - Kuiper Belt Object 2013 AT183 At Opposition (63.416 AU) Aug 01-04 - Workshop on Astrophysical Opacities, Kalamazoo, Michigan Aug 01-04 - Workshop: Precision Spectroscopy - Towards Earth 2.0, Sao Paulo, Brazil Aug 01-04 - 1st International Workshop on Small Satellites for Space Weather Research and Forecasting, Washington DC Aug 01-08 - Heliophysics Summer School 2017: Long-term Solar Activity and the Climates of Space and Earth, Boulder, Colorado Aug 02 - Comet 163P/NEAT At Opposition (3.638 AU) Aug 02 - Asteroid 20488 Pic-du-Midi Closest Approach To Earth (1.363 AU) Aug 02 - Asteroid 30441 Curly Closest Approach To Earth (1.641 AU) Aug 02 - Asteroid 9997 COBE Closest Approach To Earth (1.644 AU) Aug 02 - Colloquium: Radio Galaxy Zoo - Citizen Science, Machine Learning, and Serendipity, Sydney, Australia Aug 02-04 - Conference: U.S. Radio/Millimeter/Submillimeter Science Futures III, Berkeley, California Aug 02-05 - Workshop: The Circle of Life - Connecting the Intergalactic, Circumgalactic, and Interstellar Media, Kruger Park, South Africa Aug 03 - Comet 73P-AS/Schwassmann-Wachmann Perihelion (0.960 AU) Aug 03 - Comet C/2015 H2 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (4.618 AU) JPL Space Calendar

An Earth-like Atmosphere May Not Survive Proxima b’s Orbit New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale Food for Thought An Earth-like Atmosphere May Not Survive Proxima b’s Orbit

Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis Space Image of the Week A Sagittarius Triplet Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis