Space News Update - October 19, 2018 - In the News Departments Story 1: Collecting a sample from asteroid Ryugu is going to be dicey Story 2: Largest Galaxy Proto-Supercluster Found Story 3: NASA and Roscosmos trying to avoid an empty Space Station Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Collecting a sample from asteroid Ryugu is going to be dicey 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)

Largest Galaxy Proto-Supercluster Found

NASA and Roscosmos trying to avoid an empty Space Station

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Friday, October 19 • The waxing gibbous Moon at dusk forms a right triangle (as seen from North America) with Mars to its right and Fomalhaut below it. Later in the evening, the triangle turns clockwise as it wheels across the southern sky. • The medium-weak Orionid meteor shower should be active in the early-morning hours for the next few nights. Tonight you have a dark window of about three hours between moonset and the beginning of dawn. Each morning after that, the Moon sets about an hour later. In a really dark sky you might count a dozen Orionids per hour. Through light pollution, you'll see fewer. Saturday, October 20 • After dark, look upper left of the Moon by two or three fists at arm's length for the Great Square of Pegasus. It's standing on one corner, and it's a little more than a fist at arm's length in size. • Tonight is International Observe the Moon Night, and at least 752 public observing events are planned worldwide! Click the link to find the ones near you. • Algol is at its minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 10:39 p.m. EDT. Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. Sunday, October 21 • Around the very end of twilight, you'll find zero-magnitude Arcturus shining low in the west-northwest at the same height as zero-magnitude Capella in the northeast. When this happens, turn to the south-southeast, and there will be 1st-magnitude Fomalhaut at the same height too — if you're at latitude 43° north. Seen from south of that latitude Fomalhaut will appear higher; from north of there it will be lower. That bright point far upper right of Fomalhaut is Mars. Monday, October 22 • Draw a line from Altair, the brightest star very high in the southwest after dark, to the right through Vega, very high in the west and even brighter. Continue the line half as far onward and you hit the Lozenge: the pointy-nosed head of Draco, the Dragon. Its brightest star is orange Eltanin, the tip of the Dragon's nose, always pointing toward Vega. Sky & Telescope

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: No sightings for Denver through Oct. 23rd. 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) October 19, Friday 11 a.m. -  SpaceCast Weekly (All Channels) 2 p.m. – NASA in Silicon Valley Live: Meet NASA in Silicon Valley (Public Channel) 6 p.m., 8 p.m. - Replay of SpaceCast Weekly (All Channels) 7 p.m., 9 p.m. – Replay of NASA in Silicon Valley Live: Meet NASA in Silicon Valley (Public Channel) October 20, Saturday 8 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m. - SpaceCast Weekly (All Channels) 1 p.m., 5 p.m., 10 p.m. – NASA in Silicon Valley Live: Meet NASA in Silicon Valley (Public Channel) October 21, Sunday 9 a.m., 4 p.m., 9 p.m. - NASA in Silicon Valley Live: Meet NASA in Silicon Valley (Public Channel) 11 a.m., 7 p.m., 11 p.m. - SpaceCast Weekly (All Channels Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar Oct 10 - [Oct 08Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU) Oct 19 - [Oct 13] BepiColumbo Ariane 5 Launch (Mercury Orbiter) Oct 19 - [Oct 16] Comet 372P/McNaught Perihelion (3.815 AU) Oct 19 - Comet P/2015 M2 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (5.729 AU) Oct 19 - Apollo Asteroid 2009 UC19 Near-Earth Flyby (0.052 AU) Oct 19 - [Oct 18] Amor Asteroid 2018 TF6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.056 AU) Oct 19 - [Oct 14] Apollo Asteroid 2018 TA5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.064 AU) Oct 19 - Asteroid 2244 Tesla Closest Approach To Earth (1.345 AU) Oct 19 - Asteroid 6592 Goya Closest Approach To Earth (1.379 AU) Oct 19 - Asteroid 18725 Atacama Closest Approach To Earth (1.540 AU) Oct 19 - Asteroid 7934 Sinatra Closest Approach To Earth (1.705 AU) Oct 19 - Asteroid 5553 Chodas Closest Approach To Earth (2.124 AU) Oct 19 - Kuiper Belt Object 202421 (2005 UQ513) At Opposition (47.147 AU) Oct 19 - 10th Anniversary (2008), IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) Launch Oct 20 - International Observe The Moon Night 2018 Oct 20 - Asteroid 9012 Benner Closest Approach To Earth (0.997 AU) Oct 20 - Asteroid 3066 McFadden Closest Approach To Earth (1.244 AU) Oct 20 - Aten Asteroid 3362 Khufu Closest Approach To Earth (1.336 AU) Oct 21 - Orionids Meteor Shower Peak Oct 21 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults TYC 3719-01493-1 (10.1 Magnitude Star) Oct 21 - Amor Asteroid 2018 SR2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.064 AU) Oct 21 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 UG Near-Earth Flyby (0.100 AU) Oct 21 - Alfred Nobel's 185th Birthday (1833) Oct 22 - Comet 243P/NEAT At Opposition (1.498 AU) Oct 22 - Comet C/2016 Q4 (Kowalski) At Opposition (6.218 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults TYC 0073-00152-1 (12.3 Magnitude Star) Oct 22 - [Oct 16] Aten Asteroid 2018 TY5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.054 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 10044 Squyres Closest Approach To Earth (0.983 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 7032 Hitchcock Closest Approach To Earth (1.193 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 5223 McSween Closest Approach To Earth (1.747 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 5430 Luu Closest Approach To Earth (1.908 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 48300 Kronk Closest Approach To Earth (2.062 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 18024 Dobson Closest Approach To Earth (2.399 AU) JPL Space Calendar

Space Calendar Oct 10 - [Oct 08Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU) Oct 22 - 10th Anniversary (2008), Chandrayaan 1 Launch (India Moon Orbiter) Oct 22 - Ernst Opik's 125th Birthday (1893) Oct 23 - Uranus At Opposition Oct 23 - Comet 267P/LONEOS Closest Approach To Earth (0.811 AU) Oct 23 - Comet P/2015 M2 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (5.732 AU) Oct 23 - Amor Asteroid 2016 TS55 Near-Earth Flyby (0.086 AU) Oct 23 - Aten Asteroid 2014 UR Near-Earth Flyby (0.091 AU) Oct 23 - Atira Asteroid 413563 (2005 TG45) Closest Approach To Earth (0.424 AU) Oct 23 - Asteroid 5682 Beresford Closest Approach To Earth (0.756 AU) Oct 23 - Asteroid 3125 Hay Closest Approach To Earth (1.686 AU) Oct 23 - Kuiper Belt Object 308379 (2005 RS43) At Opposition (42.741 AU) Oct 23 - Ilya Frank's 110th Birthday (1908) JPL Space Calendar

How the seeds of planets take shape Food for Thought How the seeds of planets take shape

Space Image of the Week M15: Dense Globular Star Cluster  Image Credit & Copyright: Bernhard Hubl (CEDIC)