Space News Update - January 30, 2018 - In the News Departments Story 1: Dust Storms Linked to Gas Escape from Mars Atmosphere Story 2: NASA Alaska-Launched Rockets Study Space X-ray Emissions and Create Polar Mesospheric Cloud Story 3: Icy Worlds Like Europa and Enceladus Might Actually be too Soft to Land On Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Dust Storms Linked to Gas Escape from Mars Atmosphere 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)

NASA Alaska-Launched Rockets Study Space X-ray Emissions and Create Polar Mesospheric Cloud

Icy Worlds Like Europa and Enceladus Might Actually be too Soft to Land On

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Tuesday, January 30 Now Pollux and Castor are high above the Moon. Procyon shines to the Moon's left. Total eclipse of the Moon before or during dawn Wednesday morning the 31st for western North America and Hawaii. Farther east, in the Central and Eastern time zones, the eclipse is still only partial by the time the Moon sets (and the Sun rises). Wednesday, January 31 Full Moon (exact at 8:27 a.m. Eastern Standard Time). The Moon this evening shines between Cancer and Leo, well to the upper right of Regulus. Before dawn Thursday morning, about 1½ hours before your local sunrise time, Jupiter shines high in the south. Lower left of it by 12° is dimmer Mars, magnitude 1.2. Mars on Thursday morning is passing right between Beta Scorpii above it and the Omega Scorpii pair just below it. The four of them create an interesting, nearly vertical little line 1.2° tall. Binoculars give a fine view of it. Lower left of Mars by 8° is Mars-colored Antares. And if you draw a straight line from Jupiter through Mars and extend it another 30°, you come to Saturn glowing low in the southeast. Sky & Telescope Thursday, February 1 The waning gibbous Moon rises around the very end of twilight. Once the Moon is well up, look for Regulus to its upper right and Algieba farther to the Moon's upper left. These are the brightest two stars in the Sickle of Leo. Algol shines at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.3, for a couple hours centered on 11:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Friday, February 2 The sky's biggest asterism (informal star pattern) — at least the biggest that's widely recognized — is the Winter Hexagon. It fills the sky toward the east and south these evenings. Start with brilliant Sirius at its bottom. Going clockwise from there, march up through Procyon, Pollux and Castor, Menkalinan and Capella on high, down to Aldebaran, then to Rigel in Orion's foot, and back to Sirius.

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Tue Jan 30, 6:20 PM 4 min 18° 11° above WNW 11° above NNE Wed Jan 31, 7:07 PM < 1 min 11° 10° above NNW 11° above N Thu Feb 1, 6:13 PM 3 min 13° 10° above NW 10° above NNE Fri Feb 2, 7:00 PM 10° 10° above N 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, January 31 5:30 a.m. - Live Coverage of the Super Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse (all channels) Thursday, February 1 9:30 a.m. - ISS Expedition 54 Educational In-Flight Event with the Space Educators Conference in Houston and Flight Engineer Joe Acaba of NASA (Starts at 9:35 a.m.) (all channels) Friday, February 2 9 a.m. - SpaceCast Weekly (all channels) 9:30 a.m. - Coverage of the ISS Expedition 54 Russian Spacewalk 44 (Spacewalk scheduled to begin at 10:34 a.m. ET; Misurkin and Shkaplerov; expected to last 6 ½ hours) (starts at 9:45 a.m.) (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 Jan 30 - SES-16/GovSat Falcon 9 Launch Jan 30 - Comet 18D/Perrine-Mrkos Closest Approach To Earth (2.472 AU) Jan 30 - Comet 128P-B/Shoemaker-Holt Closest Approach To Earth (2.691 AU) Jan 30 - Comet 128P/Shoemaker-Holt Closest Approach To Earth (2.693 AU) Jan 30 - Comet 350P/McNaught Perihelion (3.751 AU) Jan 30 - Comet C/2015 D3 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (8.153 AU) Jan 30 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 BE6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.009 AU) Jan 30 - Aten Asteroid 2017 BG136 Near-Earth Flyby (0.078 AU) Jan 30 - Asteroid 3353 Jarvis Closest Approach To Earth (1.119 AU) Jan 30 - Apollo Asteroid 410777 (2009 FD) Closest Approach To Earth (1.198 AU) Jan 30 - Asteroid 6470 Aldrin Closest Approach To Earth (1.326 AU) Jan 30 - Asteroid 9965 GNU Closest Approach To Earth (1.568 AU) Jan 30 - Asteroid 9618 Johncleese Closest Approach To Earth (1.651 AU) Jan 30 - Asteroid 19148 Alaska Closest Approach To Earth (1.829 AU) Jan 30 - Symposium: Virtual and Augmented Reality for Space Science and Exploration, Pasadena, California Jan 30 - 2nd NASA Satellite Servicing Technology Transfer Industry Day, Greenbelt, Maryland Jan 30 - Lecture: Emerging Space Technologies - Opportunities for the Future, Glasgow, United Kingdom Jan 30 - Lecture: A Bird's Eye View of Extrasolar Planets, Ithaca, New York Jan 31 - 60th Anniversary (1958), Explorer 1 Launch (1st US Satellite) Jan 31 - Total Lunar Eclipse and Supermoon Jan 31 - Aten Asteroid 2003 CA4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.054 AU) Jan 31 - Aten Asteroid 2017 BB30 Near-Earth Flyby (0.098 AU) Jan 31 - Asteroid 64070 NEAT Closest Approach To Earth (1.440 AU) Jan 31 - Asteroid 1631 Kopff Closest Approach To Earth (1.698 AU) Jan 31 - Asteroid 60186 Las Cruces Closest Approach To Earth (1.733 AU) Jan 31 - Asteroid 2956 Yeomans Closest Approach To Earth (1.838 AU) JPL Space Calendar

What Scientists Can Learn About the Moon During the January 31 Eclipse Food for Thought What Scientists Can Learn About the Moon During the January 31 Eclipse

Space Image of the Week Venus at Night in Infrared from Akatsuki Image Credit: JAXA, ISAS, DARTS; Processing & Copyright: Damia Bouic