Space News Update - July 9, 2019 - In the News Departments Story 1: Hayabusa 2 Cleared for Second Touchdown on Asteroid Story 2: Methane Vanishing On Mars: Researchers Propose New Mechanism as an Explanation Story 3: A New Plan for Keeping NASA's Oldest Explorers Going Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Hayabusa 2 Cleared for Second Touchdown on Asteroid 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)

Methane Vanishing On Mars: Researchers Propose New Mechanism as an Explanation

A New Plan for Keeping NASA's Oldest Explorers Going

The Night Sky Tuesday, July 9 • Now Spica shines below the Moon during and after dusk. • Saturn is at opposition, shining upper left of the Sagittarius Teapot late these evenings at magnitude +0.1. This week it's highest in the south for best telescopic viewing from about midnight to 2 a.m. daylight-saving time. Wednesday, July 10 • After nightfall, Altair shines in the east- southeast. It's the second-brightest star on the eastern side of the sky, after Vega high to its upper left. (Jupiter and Saturn don't count.) Above Altair by a finger-width at arm's length is little orange Tarazed. A bit more than a fist- width to Altair's lower left is little Delphinus, the Dolphin, leaping leftward. Thursday, July 11 • One hour after sunset, as twilight is fading and the stars are coming out, you'll find the two brightest stars of summer, Vega and Arcturus, equally near the zenith: Vega toward the east, Arcturus toward the southwest (depending on your location). Friday, July 12 • The Moon this evening forms a triangle with Jupiter to its lower left and Antares under it. Sky & Telescope

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Wed Jul 10, 1:26 AM < 1 min 15° 15° above NE 10° above NE Wed Jul 10, 2:59 AM 2 min 14° 10° above NW 13° above N Wed Jul 10, 4:38 AM 11° 10° above N 11° above N Thu Jul 11, 2:11 AM 1 min 17° 17° above NNW 16° above N Thu Jul 11, 3:48 AM 10° 10° above NNW Fri Jul 12, 1:23 AM 18° 18° above NNE 10° above NNE Fri Jul 12, 2:59 AM Fri Jul 12, 4:36 AM 14° above N No Sightings in Denver through Friday Apr 26th 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) July 9, Tuesday 7 a.m., 2 p.m., 10 p.m. – Apollo 11 50th Anniversary – Moonwalk-1 Series: The Day Before (All Channels) 9 a.m., 6 p.m. – Apollo 11 50th Anniversary - Documentary: For All Mankind (All Channels) 4 p.m., 8 p.m. – Apollo 11 50th Anniversary - Crew Interviews with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (All Channels)   July 10, Wednesday 7 a.m., 2 p.m. – Apollo 11 50th Anniversary – Moonwalk-1 Series: The Day Before (All Channels) 10:45 a.m. –International Space Station Expedition 60 In-Flight Interviews with BBC World News and WRAL- TV, Raleigh, N.C., NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch (All Channels) 10 p.m. – Apollo 11 50th Anniversary – Moonwalk Series (All Channels) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Jul 09 - Saturn At Opposition   Jul 09 - Saturn At Opposition Jul 09 - Amor Asteroid 2019 MB4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.002 AU) Jul 09 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 NO56 Near-Earth Flyby (0.021 AU) Jul 09 - Apollo Asteroid 3200 Phaethon Closest Approach To Earth (0.810 AU) Jul 09 - Asteroid 15402 Suzaku Closest Approach To Earth (0.966 AU) Jul 09 - Asteroid 5899 Jedicke Closest Approach To Earth (1.014 AU) Jul 09-11 - IAA Regional Symposium of Space Debris Observations from Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Jul 09-11 - Workshop on International Cooperation in Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy, Rome, Italy Jul 09-11 - Workshop: Stellar Magnetism - A Celebration of the Contributions of J.D. Landstreet, London, Canada Jul 09-12 - Conference: High Energy Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows VII (HEPRO VII), Barcelona, Spain Jul 09-13 - Strings 2019 Conference, Brussels, Belgium Jul 10 - Comet 209P/LINEAR Closet Approach To Earth (0.668 AU) Jul 10 - Comet P/2012 K3 (Gibbs) Closest Approach To Earth (1.105 AU) Jul 10 - Amor Asteroid 2019 NN3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.002 AU) Jul 10 - Comet C/2019 L2 (NEOWISE) Closest Approach To Earth (1.271 AU) Jul 10-12 - John Glenn Memorial Symposium: Powering Innovation From the Sky to the Stars, Cleveland, Ohio Jul 10-12 - 7th Workshop on Directional Dark Matter Searches (CYGNUS 2019), Rome, Italy Jul 10-17 - European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP), Ghent, Belgium Jul 11 - Hayabusa 2, 2nd Sample Collection of Asteroid Ryugu Jul 11 - Lecture: Apollo 50th Anniversary, Pasadena, California Jul 11 - Colloquia: Disentangling Nature from Nurture - Tracing the Origin of the First Black Holes, Barcelona, Spain Jul 11-17 - NASA Planetary Volcanology Workshop in Hawaii: Analogs to Volcanic Features and Processes in Satellite and Rover Images, Hawaii Jul 12 - Spektr-RG (SXG) Proton-M/DM-03 Launch Jul 12 - Amor Asteroid 2016 NJ33 Near-Earth Flyby (0.038 AU) Jul 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 KD3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU) JPL Space Calendar

Food for Thought Cyanide Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life

Cosmic Fireworks in Ultraviolet Space Image of the Week Cosmic Fireworks in Ultraviolet Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona, Tucson), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute, New York)