Space News Update - August 9, 2019 - In the News Departments Story 1: Hubble’s New Portrait of Jupiter Story 2: ALMA dives into black hole's 'sphere of influence' Story 3: Dark matter may be older than the Big Bang Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Hubble’s New Portrait of Jupiter 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)

ALMA dives into black hole's 'sphere of influence'

Dark matter may be older than the Big Bang

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Friday, August 9 • The waxing gibbous Moon shines near Jupiter this evening, as shown here. But Jupiter, 40 times larger than the Moon, is currently 1,830 times farther away. Jupiter's own four big moons, roughly as big as ours, are pinpoints in a small telescope or good, steadily braced binoculars. They're lined up east and west of the planet. This evening you'll find Europa to Jupiter's east and Io, Callisto, and Ganymede to its west, counting outward. Saturday, August 10 • Narrow windows for good Perseid viewing. The annual Perseid meteor shower is predicted peak late on the night of August 12-13, but the waxing gibbous Moon won't set that night until just before the beginning of dawn. You may do better a day before that, on the morning of the 12th, if you catch the hour or so of dark sky between moonset and the start of dawn (for North America). And, there's a possibility this year of a second peak in the meteor rates due right around then for North America (around 10h UT August 12th). A day earlier on the morning of the 11th — late tonight, in other words — we get twodark hours before dawn, but the meteor rates will probably be low. However, there are indications that this year's Perseid shower is bringing some unusual early fireballs. Not sure when dawn begins? At this time of year it's about 1 hour 45 minutes before your local sunrise time if you're in the world's midnorthern latitudes (near 40° N.) Here's the International Meteor Organization's near-real-time graph of Perseid activitythis year, based on scientific, standardized-method meteor counts coming in from visual observers around the globe. Sunday, August 11 • The Moon shines with Saturn tonight, 3° or 4° to Saturn's right as seen during evening in North America. Physically Saturn is 35 times as large as the Moon (not counting the rings), and tonight it's 3,500 times farther away. Saturn's own largest satellite, Titan, is 1.5 times as large as our Moon. A small or medium-size telescope shows it tonight as an 8.5-magnitude orange pinpoint, about four ring-lengths to Saturn's west. Monday, August 12 • It's supposed to be peak Perseid night, but you'll have the bright light of the waxing gibbous Moon washing the sky, so only the brightest meteors will show through. Best time: the later in the night the better, right up to the beginning of Tuesday's dawn. Not sure when dawn begins? It's about 1 hour 45 minutes before your local sunrise time if you're in the world's mid-northern latitudes (near 40° N.) Tuesday, August 13 • The nights around full Moon, such as now, are traditionally considered the worst for lunar observing. But not if your interest is crater rays! These show best under high, shadowless illumination.

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: No sightings for Denver 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) August 9, Friday 11 a.m. – SpaceCast Weekly (All Channels)  1:15 p.m. – International Space Station Program In-Flight Educational Event with the Slover Library in Norfolk, Virginia, and NASA astronaut Nick Hague (All Channels) August 13, Tuesday 2:10 p.m. – International Space Station Program In-Flight Event for the European Space Agency with the Stockholm Culture Festival and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (Public Channel with interpretation, Media Channel in native language)   Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Aug 09 - Mercury At Its Greatest Western Elongation (19 Degrees) Aug 09 - Comet P/2006 W1 (Gibbs) Closest Approach To Earth (2.053 AU) Aug 09 - Comet C/2018 V2 (ATLAS) Closest Approach To Earth (2.601 AU) Aug 09 - Comet C/2018 EN4 (NEOWISE) At Opposition (4.050 AU) Aug 09 - Asteroid 9134 Encke Closest Approach To Earth (1.805 AU) Aug 09 - Asteroid 5471 Tunguska Closest Approach To Earth (1.826 AU) Aug 09 - Asteroid 2069 Hubble Closest Approach To Earth (2.708 AU) Aug 09 - Asteroid 10063 Erinleeryan Closest Approach To Earth (3.065 AU) Aug 09 - Kuiper Belt Object 470559 (2008 OG19) At Opposition (37.763 AU) Aug 09 - Lecture: Small Worlds, Big Science, Pasadena, California Aug 09 - 15th Anniversary (2004), Franck Marchis, et al's Discovery of Remus, Moon of Asteroid 87 Sylvia Aug 09 - Jose De Queiroz's 65th Birthday (1954) Aug 09 - Jonathan Lane's 200th Birthday (1819) Aug 10 - Aten Asteroid 2006 QQ23 Near-Earth Flyby (0.050 AU) Aug 10 - Apollo Asteroid 525364 (2005 CL7) Near-Earth Flyby (0.068 AU) Aug 10 - Asteroid 1278 Kenya Closest Approach To Earth (0.789 AU) Aug 10 - Jupiter Trojan 1143 Odysseus At Opposition (4.586 AU) Aug 10 - 5th Anniversary (2014), ISEE-3, Earth Flyby, Successful Aug 11 - Comet 331P/Gibbs Closest Approach To Earth (1.991 AU) Aug 11 - Comet 331P/Gibbs At Opposition (1.991 AU) Aug 11 - Comet 367P/Catalina Closest Approach To Earth (2.320 AU) Aug 11 - Comet C/2019 L1 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (2.890 AU) Aug 11 - Asteroid 3761 Romanskaya Occults HIP 92984 (6.6 Magnitude Star) Aug 11 - Asteroid 16 Psyche Closest Approach To Earth (1.701 AU) Aug 11 - Asteroid 12760 Maxwell Closest Approach To Earth (1.778 AU) Aug 12 - Moon Occults Saturn Aug 12 - Moon Occults Dwarf Planet Pluto Aug 12 - Perseids Meteor Shower Peak Aug 12 - Asteroid 21 Lutetia Occults UCAC5 449-000914 (11.1 Magnitude Star) Aug 12 - Apollo Asteroid 454094 (2013 BZ45) Near-Earth Flyby (0.044 AU) Aug 12 - Atira Asteroid 2013 JX28 Closest Approach To Earth (0.640 AU) Aug 12 - Asteroid 1855 Korolev Closest Approach To Earth (1.375 AU) Aug 12 - Asteroid 4457 van Gogh Closest Approach To Earth (1.964 AU) Aug 13 - Comet P/2002 S7 (SOHO) Closest Approach To Earth (2.081 AU) Aug 13 - Aten Asteroid 2017 QK18 Near-Earth Flyby (0.076 AU) Aug 13 - Apollo Asteroid 5143 Heracles Closest Approach To Earth (0.673 AU) Aug 13 - Asteroid 10799 Yucatan Closest Approach To Earth (1.080 AU) Aug 13 - Aten Asteroid 5381 Sekmet Closest Approach To Earth (1.292 AU) Aug 13 - Asteroid 19367 Pink Floyd Closest Approach To Earth (1.319 AU) Aug 13 - Asteroid 48472 Mossbauer Closest Approach To Earth (1.429 AU) Aug 13 - Anders Angstrom's 205th Birthday (1814) JPL Space Calendar

Food for Thought What Are Light Echoes? Using Reflections Of Light To See Even Further Back In Time

The Rosy Glow of a Cosmic Seagull Space Image of the Week The Rosy Glow of a Cosmic Seagull