Space News Update - November 27, 2018 - In the News Departments Story 1: InSight Is Catching Rays on Mars/MarCO Farewell to Mars Story 2: How scientists are working together to solve one of the universe's mysteries Story 3: First SpaceX Crew Dragon test flight set for January Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

InSight Is Catching Rays on Mars/MarCO Farewell to Mars 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)

How scientists are working together to solve one of the universe's mysteries

First SpaceX Crew Dragon test flight set for January

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Tuesday, November 27 • Whenever Fomalhaut is "southing" (crossing the meridian due south, which it does around 6 or 7 p.m. this week), the first stars of Orion are just about to rise above the east horizon. And the Pointers of the Big Dipper stand upright low due north, straight under Polaris. The waning Moon shines with Regulus in early dawn on Thursday the 29th, then steps farther east under Leo the next two mornings. Wednesday, November 28 • On these moonless dark evenings, the faint asterism that marks the chained hand of Andromeda is near the zenith. Use its arc of three faint stars to arc your way to the site of NGC 7686, marked by a 6th-magnitude orange foreground star — as charted in Matt Wedel's Binocular Highlight column in the November Sky & Telescope, page 43. Behind this star and its fainter companion is a sparse, 1/4° scattering of much fainter specks requiring a dark sky. Thursday, November 29 • Last-quarter Moon tonight (exact at 7:19 p.m. EST). The half-lit Moon, in Leo, doesn't rise until about midnight. Once it is up you'll see that it's lower left of Regulus and a trace farther below Gamma Leonis, Algieba, which is only a little fainter than Regulus. You can probably fit your fist at arm's length in this triangle of the Moon and two stars. By the beginning of dawn on Friday the 30th, the triangle will be high in the south with the stars now to the Moon's right or upper right. • Algol should be at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours tonight centered on 1:04 a.m. EST; 10:04 p.m. PST. Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. Friday, November 30 • Two faint fuzzies naked-eye: The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Perseus Double Cluster are two of the most famous deep-sky objects. They're both cataloged as 4th magnitude, and in a fairly good sky you can see each with the unaided eye. They're located only 22° apart, very high toward the east early these evenings — to the right of Cassiopeia and closer below Cassiopeia, respectively. But they look rather different, the more so the darker your sky. See for yourself. Find them with the all-sky constellation map in the center of the November or December Sky & Telescope. If your sky is too bright, try binoculars. Sky & Telescope

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Tue Nov 27, 5:16 PM 4 min 68° 44° above WSW 10° above NE Tue Nov 27, 6:52 PM < 1 min 13° 10° above NW 13° above NW Wed Nov 28, 5:59 PM 3 min 20° 12° above WNW 16° above N Thu Nov 29, 5:08 PM 30° 22° above WNW 11° above NE Thu Nov 29, 6:45 PM 10° 10° above NNW Fri Nov 30, 5:52 PM 14° 11° 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) November 27, Tuesday 4 p.m. – Video File of the Space Station Expedition 58 Crew’s Pre-Launch Activities at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, includes material recorded from Nov. 19-27 via Baikonur, Kazakhstan (Media Channel) November 29, Thursday 9:10 a.m. – NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor, currently aboard the International Space Station, is Interviewed by CBS News and KUSA-TV, Denver (All Channels) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Nov 27 - Comet C/2018 V1 (Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto) Closest Approach To Earth (0.668 AU) Nov 27 - Comet 73P-Q/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.395 AU) Nov 27 - Comet 73P-BS/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.421 AU) Nov 27 - Comet 73P-AI/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.433 AU) Nov 27 - Apollo Asteroid 2008 WD14 Near-Earth Flyby (0.019 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 3769 Arthurmiller Closest Approach To Earth (1.046 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 8088 Australia Closest Approach To Earth (1.051 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 4536 Drewpinsky Closest Approach To Earth (1.315 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 19631 Greensleeves Closest Approach To Earth (1.367 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 12477 Haiku Closest Approach To Earth (1.746 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 1322 Coppernicus Closest Approach To Earth (1.854 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 1095 Tulipa Closest Approach To Earth (2.064 AU) Nov 27 - Asteroid 31319 Vespucci Closest Approach To Earth (2.311 AU) Nov 27 - Charles Hastings' 170th Birthday (1848) Nov 28 - Comet 73P-W/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.477 AU) Nov 28 - Comet 135P/Shoemaker-Levy At Opposition (3.915 AU) Nov 28 - Comet C/2014 E1 (Larson) At Opposition (4.047 AU) Nov 28 - Apollo Asteroid 2001 WO15 Near-Earth Flyby (0.035 AU) Nov 28 - Aten Asteroid 2013 BT18 Near-Earth Flyby (0.072 AU) Nov 28 - Asteroid 78577 JPL Closest Approach To Earth (1.667 AU) Nov 28 - Asteroid 1791 Patsayev Closest Approach To Earth (2.103 AU) Nov 28 - 35th Anniversary (1983), STS-9 Launch (Space Shuttle Columbia, Spacelab) Nov 29 - International Cosmic Day Nov 29 - [Nov 22] HySIS PSLV Launch Nov 29 - Comet 73P-AE/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.533 AU) Nov 29 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 VA9 Near-Earth Flyby (0.052 AU) Nov 29 - Atira Asteroid 164294 (2004 XZ130) Closest Approach To Earth (1.047 AU) Nov 29 - Asteroid 1279 Uganda Closest Approach To Earth (1.828 AU) Nov 29 - Kuiper Belt Object 386723 (2009 YE7) At Opposition (49.817 AU) Nov 29 - Benjamin Markarian's 105th Birthday (1913) Nov 29 - Kurt Heinrich Debus' 110th Birthday (1908) JPL Space Calendar

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Nov 29 - Christian Doppler's 215th Birthday (1803) Nov 30 - Comet 73P-BL/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.562 AU) Nov 30 - Comet 73P-AQ/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.584 AU) Nov 30 - Comet 73P-AG/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.587 AU) Nov 30 - Comet 73P-AR/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (3.587 AU) Nov 30 - Amor Asteroid 2018 VE4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.039 AU) Nov 30 - [Nov 20] Amor Asteroid 2018 WL Near-Earth Flyby (0.081 AU) Nov 30 - Amor Asteroid 2018 VW5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.084 AU) Nov 30 - Aten Asteroid 2008 WT62 Near-Earth Flyby (0.087 AU) Nov 30 - Apollo Asteroid 428694 Saule Closest Approach To Earth (0.498 AU) Nov 30 - Asteroid 128 Nemesis Closest Approach To Earth (1.519 AU) Nov 30 - Asteroid 2864 Soderblom Closest Approach To Earth (1.651 AU) Nov 30 - Asteroid 37683 Gustaveeiffel Closest Approach To Earth (1.740 AU) JPL Space Calendar

Researchers are 3D-printing fake Moon dust into useful hardware Food for Thought Researchers are 3D-printing fake Moon dust into useful hardware

Space Image of the Week Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars  Image Credit: Viking Project, JPL, NASA; Mosaic Processing: Edwin V. Bell II (NSSDC/Raytheon ITSS)