ISS Sighting Opportunities Space News Update - July 17, 2018 - In the News Story 1: Dusk for Dawn: Mission of Many Firsts to Gather More Data in Home Stretch Story 2: New Research Raises Hopes for Finding Life on Mars, Pluto and Icy Moons Story 3: NASA Juno Data Indicate Another Possible Volcano on Jupiter Moon Io Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Dusk for Dawn: Mission of Many Firsts to Gather More Data in Home Stretch 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)

New Research Raises Hopes for Finding Life on Mars, Pluto and Icy Moons

NASA Juno Data Indicate Another Possible Volcano on Jupiter Moon Io

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Tuesday, July 17 • Starry Scorpius is sometimes called "the Orion of Summer" for its brightness and its prominent red supergiant (Antares in the case of Scorpius, Betelgeuse for Orion). But Scorpius passes a lot lower across the southern sky on July nights than Orion does in winter (for those of us at mid- northern latitudes.) That means it has only one really good evening month: July. Catch Scorpius due south just after dark now, before it starts to tilt lower toward the southwest. It's full of deep-sky objects to hunt out with a good sky atlas and binoculars or a telescope. Wednesday, July 18 • The Moon at nightfall shines to the upper right of Spica. Look very high above the Moon for brighter Arcturus. Far to the right of Arcturus is the Big Dipper. • The Cygnus Milky Way is high in the east after dark and passes overhead late at night. The Heart Star of Cygnus, and the center of the Northern Cross, is 2nd-magnitude Sadr (Gamma Cygni), smack in the Milky Way's midst. Binoculars will show the roughly heart-shaped ring of faint stars around and including it. Friday, July 20 • The waxing gibbous Moon shines over Jupiter this evening. Left of Jupiter by just 2° is the wide binocular double star Alpha Librae, magnitudes 2.8 and 5.1. The Moon is 1.3 light-seconds distant from us, Jupiter is 44 light-minutes in its background, and the two stars of Alpha Librae are 77 light-years behind them.

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Wed Jul 18, 00:32 AM 2 min 17° 17° above N 11° above NNE Wed Jul 18, 2:09 AM < 1 min 10° 10° above NNW Wed Jul 18, 3:45 AM Wed Jul 18, 5:21 AM 35° 10° above NW 35° above NW Wed Jul 18, 10:00 PM 6 min 42° 11° above SSW 10° above ENE Wed Jul 18, 11:37 PM 5 min 24° 11° above W Thu Jul 19, 1:16 AM Thu Jul 19, 2:53 AM 1 min 13° 13° above N Thu Jul 19, 4:29 AM 48° 12° above ESE Thu Jul 19, 9:09 PM 21° 11° above S 11° above E Thu Jul 19, 10:44 PM 38° 10° above WSW 11° above NE Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone) July 18, Wednesday 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)   July 18, Wednesday 12:25 p.m. – Space Station In-Flight Educational Event with the St. Louis Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor (All Channels) July 19, Thursday 9:50 a.m. – Space Station In-Flight Event with the Wall Street Journal Digital Network and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA Center (All Channels) 11:30 a.m. – Space Station astronauts Drew Feustel and Alexander Gerst talk with the Wall Street Journal Digital Network  (All Channels) TBD – Space Station astronauts Ricky Arnold and Serena Aunon-Chancellor talk with the Stennis Science Center at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi (All Channels) July 20, Friday 1 p.m. – Pre-launch Science Briefing for Parker Solar Probe (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 Jul 17 - Comet P/2018 L4 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (0.859 AU) Jul 17 - Comet 216P/LINEAR At Opposition (3.787 AU) Jul 17 - Centaur Object 10199 Chariklo Occults 2UCAC 20033219 (13.7 Magnitude Star) Jul 17 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 NM Near-Earth Flyby (0.004 AU) Jul 17 - Apollo Asteroid 9162 Kwiila Closest Approach To Earth (0.831 AU) Jul 17 - Asteroid 2362 Mark Twain Closest Approach To Earth (0.991 AU) Jul 17 - Asteroid 7984 Marius Closest Approach To Earth (1.458 AU) Jul 17 - Asteroid 9941 Iguanodon Closest Approach To Earth (1.564 AU) Jul 17 - Lecture: Moon, Mars and Beyond, London, United Kingdom Jul 17 - Webinar: Regional Climate Change Projections Science, Information and Services Jul 18 - Comet C/2016 N6 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (2.669 AU) Jul 18 - Comet 94P/Russell At Opposition (3.006 AU) Jul 18 - Comet 233P/La Sagra At Opposition (3.189 AU) Jul 18 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 NL4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU) Jul 18 - Amor Asteroid 2018 MH Near-Earth Flyby (0.072 AU) Jul 18 - Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury Closest Approach To Earth (1.735 AU) Jul 18 - Asteroid 9674 Slovenija Closest Approach To Earth (1.788 AU) Jul 18 - Jocelyn Bell Burnell Colloquium: A Graduate Student's Story - The Discovery of Pulsars, Sydney, Australia Jul 18 - Hendrik Lorentz's 165th Birthday (1853) Jul 19 - Comet 364P/PANSTARRS Closest Approach To Earth (0.236 AU) Jul 19 - Comet C/2017 T3 (ATLAS) Perihelion (0.825 AU) Jul 19 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 NQ1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.042 AU)

From an Almost Perfect Universe to the Best of Both Worlds Food for Thought From an Almost Perfect Universe to the Best of Both Worlds

Space Image of the Week The Extraordinary Spiral in LL Pegasi Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Domingo Pestana & Raul Villaverde