Space News Update - October 21, In the News Story 1: MRO Spies Tiny, Bright Nucleus During Comet Flyby of Mars Story 2: First Photos of Water Ice on Mercury Captured by NASA Spacecraft Story 3: Story 3: Hubble Telescope Finds Potential Kuiper Belt Targets for New Horizons Pluto Mission Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar NASA-TV Highlights Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

MRO Spies Tiny, Bright Nucleus During Comet Flyby of Mars

First Photos of Water Ice on Mercury Captured by NASA Spacecraft

Hubble Telescope Finds Potential Kuiper Belt Targets for New Horizons Pluto Mission

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Tuesday, October 21  A challenge observation: as dawn brightens on Wednesday morning the 22nd, binoculars or a telescope may already show Mercury below the thin crescent Moon very low in the east, as shown here. Look about a half hour before sunrise.  Mercury is not only low but faint: a tiny crescent only magnitude 2.1. If you succeed, this may be the thinnest you ever see Mercury as a crescent: about 10% sunlit. Wednesday, October 22  Jupiter's moon Io fades away into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 2:43 a.m. Thursday morning EDT (11:43 p.m. Wednesday evening PDT). A small telescope is all you need to watch. Io is the satellite just west of the planet at the time. Thursday, October 23  A partial eclipse of the Sun happens this afternoon for most of North America. Seen from the eastern half of the continent, the Sun sets while the partial eclipse is still in progress. Westerners get to see the whole thing. Eastern New England misses out.  While we're at it, here's a preview of the great total solar eclipse that will cross the United States diagonally in less than three years: Americans Will See Total Solar Eclipse in Friday, October 24  As the stars come out this week, Deneb is nearly straight overhead for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes. Brighter Vega is west of the zenith. Altair is slightly farther from the zenith toward the south.

ISS Sighting Opportunities Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting InformationSatellite Sighting Information ISS For Denver : DateVisibleMax HeightAppearsDisappears Tue Oct 21, 8:03 PM2 min23°10 above NW23 above NNW Wed Oct 22, 7:14 PM3 min22°11 above NNW20 above NE Thu Oct 23, 8:01 PM2 min44°10 above NW44 above NW Fri Oct 24, 7:12 PM4 min46°10 above NW31 above E Sat Oct 25, 6:27 PM1 min21°21 above ENE11 above E Sat Oct 25, 8:01 PM1 min33°22 above W33 above SW

NASA-TV Highlights Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA websiteNASA website MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA Tuesday, October a.m. - Unberthing and Release of the SpaceX/Dragon CRS-4 Cargo Craft from the ISS (all channels) Wednesday, October 22 9 a.m. - Coverage of ISS Expedition 40 Russian Spacewalk # 40 (all channels) Thursday, October 23 8:25 a.m. - ISS Expedition 41 In-Flight Event for ESA with Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst (all channels) 1:45 p.m. - ISS Expedition 41 In-Flight Event with NASA Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore (all channels) Friday, October 24 6:15 p.m. - Video B-Roll of Orbital Sciences/Cygnus CRS-3 Processing (all channels) 6:45 p.m. - Coverage of the Launch of Orbital Sciences’ Antares Rocket and the Cygnus Cargo Ship to the ISS (Launch scheduled at 7:52 p.m. ET) (all channels) 9:30 p.m. - Orbital Sciences/Cygnus CRS-3 Post-Launch News Conference – WFF (all channels) (all times Eastern Time Zone)

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar  Oct 21 - Express AM-6 Proton M-Briz M LaunchExpress AM-6  Oct 21 - Orionids Meteor Shower PeakOrionids Meteor Shower  Oct 21 - Comet P/2014 M4 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (1.429 AU)Comet P/2014 M4 (PANSTARRS)  Oct 21 - Comet C/2014 R4 (Gibbs) Perihelion (1.813 AU)Comet C/2014 R4 (Gibbs)  Oct 21 - Comet 286P/Christensen At Opposition (2.146 AU)Comet 286P/Christensen  Oct 21 - Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak At Opposition (4.116 AU)Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak  Oct 21 - Comet PANSTARRS (C/2014 S1) Closest Approach To Earth (7.611 AU)Comet PANSTARRS (C/2014 S1)  Oct 21 - Asteroid 2010 VQ Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU)Asteroid 2010 VQ  Oct 21 - Asteroid 2340 Hathor Near-Earth Flyby (0.048 AU)Asteroid 2340 Hathor  Oct 21 - Asteroid Kilimanjaro Closest Approach To Earth (1.710 AU)Asteroid Kilimanjaro  Oct 21 - Asteroid 3834 Zappafrank Closest Approach To Earth (2.027 AU)Asteroid 3834 Zappafrank  Oct 21 - Asteroid 5405 Neverland Closest Approach To Earth (2.030 AU)Asteroid 5405 Neverland  Oct 22 - Asteroid 3674 Erbisbuhl Occults HIP (6.7 Magnitude Star)Asteroid 3674 Erbisbuhl Occults HIP  Oct 22 - Asteroid 2014 RQ17 Near-Earth Flyby (0.031 AU)Asteroid 2014 RQ17  Oct 22 - Asteroid 3066 McFadden Closest Approach To Earth (1.258 AU)Asteroid 3066 McFadden  Oct 22 - Asteroid 2933 Amber Closest Approach To Earth (1.543 AU)Asteroid 2933 Amber  Oct 22 - Asteroid 1279 Uganda Closest Approach To Earth (1.571 AU)Asteroid 1279 Uganda  Oct 22 - Asteroid 2521 Heidi Closest Approach To Earth (2.005 AU)Asteroid 2521 Heidi  Oct 22 - Asteroid 8373 Stephengould Closest Approach To Earth (3.156 AU)Asteroid 8373 Stephengould  Oct 23 - Partial Solar Eclipse, Visible from Eastern United StatesPartial Solar Eclipse  Oct 23 - Comet PANSTARRS (C/2014 S1) At Opposition (7.611 AU)Comet PANSTARRS (C/2014 S1)  Oct 23 - Asteroid 2014 SC324 Near-Earth Flyby (0.003 AU)Asteroid 2014 SC324  Oct 24 -Cygnus CRS Orb-3/ Flock-1d 1-26/ Arkyd-3 Antares-130 Launch (International Space Station)Cygnus CRS Orb-3Flock-1d 1-26Arkyd-3Antares-130 Launch  Oct 24 - Chang'e 5 CZ-3Z Launch (China Moon Orbiter)Chang'e 5  Oct 24 - Meridian 7 Soyuz 2-1A-Fregat LaunchMeridian 7  Oct 24 - Cassini, Titan FlybyCassini

Food for Thought Milky Way Ransacks Nearby Dwarf Galaxies, Stripping All Traces of Star-Forming Gas New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale

Space Image of the Week Rosetta's Selfie Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA