Space News Update - January 11, 2019 - In the News Departments Story 1: Complete Guide to the January 21st Total Lunar Eclipse Story 2: Astronomers foresee long future for Hubble Story 3: New Horizons in solar communication blackout, team studies first flyby data Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Complete Guide to the January 21st Total Lunar Eclipse 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) Illustration Credit: sky & Telescope

Astronomers foresee long future for Hubble

New Horizons in solar communication blackout, team studies first flyby data

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Friday, January 11 • As twilight fades this evening, how soon can you detect Mars glimmering above the Moon? They're about 18° apart (in early evening for North America). Mars is magnitude +0.6. • Orion is on display in the southeast these evenings, higher every week. But when the stars come out he's still lower, and his three-star Belt is still nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran and, even higher, the Pleiades. Down below, the Belt points to where Sirius rises around the time twilight fades away. Saturday, January 12 • Now Mars is only 5° or 6° to the Moon's upper right in the evening, as shown here. Mars is actually about twice as large as the Moon, but it's currently 240 times farther away. • For the next few mornings, Venus forms a roughly equilateral triangle with Jupiter to its lower left and fainter Antares more directly below it. See the illustration here. Sunday, January 13 • First-quarter Moon (exactly so at 1:46 a.m. on the 14th EST). In early evening the Moon is about a fist at arm's length left of Mars. Sky & Telescope Monday, January 14 • In this very coldest time of the year, the dim Little Dipper hangs straight down from Polaris in early evening — as if, per Leslie Peltier, from a nail on the cold north wall of the sky. The Big Dipper, meanwhile, is creeping up low in the north-northeast. Its handle is very low and its bowl is to the upper right. And Cassiopeia, a flattened letter M, is nearly overhead in the north-northwest, just beginning to tilt. Tuesday, January 15 • The Moon shines high due south shortly after dark. Below it by 7° (less than a fist at arm's length), can you see Alpha Ceti, magnitude 2.5? If so, can you detect the star's reddish orange tint? It's a giant of spectral type K7. • You may know where the center of our Milky Way galaxy is: in Sagittarius by the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. But that's for summer. How about the galactic anticenter, high in the winter evening sky? Pinpoint its location at the Taurus-Auriga border, near Beta Tauri, using binoculars and Matt Wedel's diamond-shaped asterism with his Binocular Highlight column in the January Sky & Telescope, page 43. Here, you're looking precisely outward away from the galaxy's center.

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Fri Jan 11, 5:37 AM 2 min 60° 58° above NNE 28° above ESE Sat Jan 12, 4:47 AM < 1 min 17° 17° above E Sat Jan 12, 6:20 AM 4 min 25° 18° above W 10° above SSE Sun Jan 13, 5:31 AM 38° 38° above S 10° above SE Mon Jan 14, 4:41 AM 10° Mon Jan 14, 6:14 AM 10° above WSW 10° above SW Tue Jan 15, 5:25 AM 10° above S 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) Subject to Change due to Government Shutdown January 13, Sunday, 3:15 a.m. SpaceX Dragon spacecraft departure broadcast (no commentary) from the International Space Station. Dragon release is scheduled at 3:36 a.m. January 14, Monday 10:05 a.m. – CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques and the Canadian Space Agency host in-flight event from aboard the International Space Station (All Channels) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Jan 11 - [Jan 09] Iridium Next 66-75 Falcon 9 Launch Jan 11 - Comet 59P/Kearns-Kwee Closest Approach To Earth (1.551 AU) Jan 11 - Comet 370P/NEAT At Opposition (2.132 AU) Jan 11 - Comet P/2017 S5 (ATLAS) Closest Approach To Earth (2.550 AU) Jan 11 - Comet 374P/Larson Perihelion (2.677 AU) Jan 11 - Comet 296P/Garradd At Opposition (3.308 AU) Jan 11 - Comet C/2016 X1 (Lemmon) At Opposition (6.653 AU) Jan 11 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults TYC 2887-946-1 (10.4 Magnitude Star) Jan 11 - Amor Asteroid 2018 VW6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.077 AU) Jan 11 - Asteroid 8621 Jimparsons Closest Approach To Earth (2.650 AU) Jan 12 - Comet 356P/WISE At Opposition (2.534 AU) Jan 12 - Comet 219P/LINEAR At Opposition (3.247 AU) Jan 12 - Comet C/2018 A3 (ATLAS) Perihelion (3.277 AU) Jan 12 - Comet C/2017 K6 (Jacques) At Opposition (3.760 AU) Jan 12 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults TYC 2887-2566-1 (11.5 Magnitude Star) Jan 12 - [Jan 07] Apollo Asteroid 2019 AK3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.013 AU) Jan 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 YU2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.014 AU) Jan 12 - [Jan 07] Apollo Asteroid 2019 AX2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU) Jan 12 - [Jan 11] Amor Asteroid 52387 Huitzilopochtli Closest Approach To Earth (0.262 AU) Jan 12 - Asteroid 1159 Granada Closest Approach To Earth (1.562 AU) Jan 12 - Asteroid 1618 Dawn Closest Approach To Earth (1.964 AU) Jan 12 - Asteroid 56678 Alicewessen Closest Approach To Earth (2.090 AU) Jan 12 - Asteroid 3202 Graff Closest Approach To Earth (2.527 AU) Jan 13 - Mercury Passes 1.7 Degrees From Saturn Jan 13 - Comet 139P/Vaisala-Oterma At Opposition (2.857 AU) Jan 13 - Comet C/2016 X1 (Lemmon) Closest Approach To Earth (6.652 AU) Jan 13 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults UCAC4 656-21932 (10.2 Magnitude Star) Jan 13 - [Jan 07] Apollo Asteroid 2019 AR2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU) Jan 13 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 XN Near-Earth Flyby (0.030 AU) Jan 13 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 AN2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.065 AU) Jan 13 - Asteroid 18458 Caesar Closest Approach To Earth (1.375 AU) Jan 13 - Asteroid 12790 Cernan Closest Approach To Earth (1.527 AU) JPL Space Calendar

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Jan 13 - Vasily Fesenkov's 130th Birthday (1889) Jan 13 - Wilhelm Wien's 155th Birthday (1864) Jan 14 - Comet 171P/Spahr Perihelion (1.772 AU) Jan 14 - [Jan 09] Comet P/2019 A2 (ATLAS) Closest Approach To Earth (2.588 AU) Jan 14 - [Jan 10] Aten Asteroid 2019 AU6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.007 AU) Jan 14 - [Jan 10] Apollo Asteroid 2019 AS6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.031 AU) Jan 14 - [Jan 07] Apollo Asteroid 2019 AG3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.033 AU) Jan 14 - Aten Asteroid 2340 Hathor Closest Approach To Earth (0.144 AU) Jan 14 - Asteroid 2598 Merlin Closest Approach To Earth (1.456 AU) Jan 14 - Asteroid 160105 Gobi Closest Approach To Earth (1.477 AU) Jan 14 - Asteroid 3354 McNair Closest Approach To Earth (1.566 AU) Jan 14 - 10th Anniversary (2009), Stardust-NEXT, Earth Flyby Jan 15 - Comet C/2018 M1 (Catalina) At Opposition (2.137 AU) Jan 15 - [Jan 09] Comet P/2019 A2 (ATLAS) At Opposition (2.589 AU) Jan 15 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults UCAC4 648-20336 (11.4 Magnitude Star) Jan 15 - [Jan 11] Aten Asteroid 2019 AG7 Near-Earth Flyby (0.010 AU) Jan 15 - [Jan 10] Apollo Asteroid 2019 AT6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.021 AU) Jan 15 - Aten Asteroid 2016 DL Near-Earth Flyby (0.053 AU) Jan 15 - Amor Asteroid 433 Eros Closest Approach To Earth (0.209 AU) Jan 15 - Asteroid 4970 Druyan Closest Approach To Earth (1.184 AU) Jan 15 - Asteroid 9523 Torino Closest Approach To Earth (1.253 AU) Jan 15 - Asteroid 25958 Battams Closest Approach To Earth (1.779 AU) Jan 15 - Asteroid 7079 Baghdad Closest Approach To Earth (1.862 AU) Jan 15 - Asteroid 109330 Clemente Closest Approach To Earth (2.261 AU) Jan 15 - Asteroid 991 McDonalda Closest Approach To Earth (2.608 AU) Jan 15 - 195th Anniversary (1924), Renazzo Meteorite Fall in Italy JPL Space Calendar

It looks like dark matter can be heated up and moved around Food for Thought It looks like dark matter can be heated up and moved around

Space Image of the Week A Portrait of a Beauty Copyright: ESO