Space News Update - August 25, In the News Story 1: Dawn Sends Sharper Scenes from Ceres Story 2: The Legend of Gaia Story 3: Story 3: Send Your Name to Mars on NASA's Next Red Planet Mission Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar NASA-TV Highlights Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

Dawn Sends Sharper Scenes from Ceres

The Legend of Gaia

Send Your Name to Mars on NASA's Next Red Planet Mission

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Tuesday, August 25  At nightfall, the waxing gibbous Moon shines above the tilting Sagittarius Teapot. The Teapot pattern is about as big as your fist at arm's length, with its spout to the right. Wednesday, August 26  As the stars begin to come out, look upper left of the Moon by about two fists at arm's length for Altair. How early can you see it? With the steady turning of the sky (or rather the Earth), Altair stands directly above the Moon by about 10:30. Thursday, August 27  The Moon after dark shines just above the dim boat- shape of Capricornus. Look about a fist to its right for dim Alpha Capricorni, a double star that's just resolvable with the naked eye. Binoculars show Alpha as a pair quite obviously. About half a binocular field below or lower left of Alpha is Beta Cap, a less easy double star for binoculars. Friday, August 28  By the time it gets fully dark now, Cassiopeia has risen as high in the northeast as the Big Dipper has sunk in the northwest. Midway between them, and a little higher, is Polaris. By the 29th, Venus edges up above the eastern horizon in early dawn to join faint little Mars. (This scene is drawn for latitude 40° north; for instance New York, Denver, Madrid. At other latitudes, the view will be tilted from this by the difference between your latitude and 40° N.)

ISS Sighting Opportunities Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting InformationSatellite Sighting Information ISS For Denver : No Sighting Opportunities through this Period

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA websiteNASA website MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA Wednesday, August 26  8 a.m. - ISS Expedition 44 In-Flight Event for JAXA with JAXA Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui and NASA Flight Engineers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren (NTV-1 and NTV-2 with English interpretation) (all channels)  1 p.m. - Simulated Airplane Crash Test to Determine the Survivability of Emergency Locater Transmitters – LaRC (NTV-3 (Media))  2 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 45/Visiting Crew Activities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan (includes activities from August 18-26) (all channels)  4 p.m. - Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Presents “STEM in 30” -- Time and Navigation: In This Episode of STEM in 30, We’ll Take a Look at the Challenges of Navigating at Sea, in the Sky, and even in Space (NTV-1 (Public), Thursday, August 27  6 a.m. - Live Satellite Media Interviews: NASA Outlook on Current Conditions and Future Projections of Sea Level Rise (NTV-3 (Media))  1 p.m. - Live Satellite Media Interviews: NASA Outlook on Current Conditions and Future Projections of Sea Level Rise (NTV-3 (Media)) Friday, August 28  2:30 a.m. - ISS Expedition 44 Soyuz TMA-16M Relocation from the Poisk Module to the Zvezda Service Module (Padalka, Kelly, Kornienko; undocking is scheduled at 3:12 a.m. ET and redocking is scheduled at 3:37 a.m. ET) (Starts at 2:45am) (all channels)  12 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 45/Visiting Crew’s Final Fit Check and Soyuz TMA-18M Preparations at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (all channels)  1 p.m. - Earth Right Now Roundtable: NASA Science from the Greenland Ice Sheet (all channels)

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar  Aug 25 - Northern Iota Aquarids Meteor Shower PeakNorthern Iota Aquarids Meteor Shower  Aug 25 - Comet 141P/Machholz Perihelion (0.761 AU)Comet 141P/MachholzPerihelion  Aug 25 - Comet 141P-A/Machholz Perihelion (0.761 AU)Comet 141P-A/Machholz  Aug 25 - Comet 318P/McNaught-Hartley At Opposition (1.560 AU)Comet 318P/McNaught-Hartley  Aug 25 - Apollo Asteroid 2005 QQ87 Near-Earth Flyby (0.084 AU)Apollo Asteroid 2005 QQ87  Aug 25 - Asteroid 4804 Pasteur Closest Approach To Earth (1.447 AU)Asteroid 4804 Pasteur  Aug 25 - Asteroid 2246 Bowell Closest Approach To Earth (3.283 AU)Asteroid 2246 Bowell  Aug 25 - Centaur Object 7066 Nessus At Opposition ( AU)Centaur Object 7066 Nessus  Aug 25 - Kuiper Belt Object (2004 PG115) At Opposition ( AU)Kuiper Belt Object (2004 PG115)  Aug 26 - Comet C/2015 GX (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (1.972 AU)Comet C/2015 GX (PANSTARRS)  Aug 26 - Comet C/2015 M3 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (3.554 AU)Comet C/2015 M3 (PANSTARRS)  Aug 26 - Comet 263P/Gibbs At Opposition (3.697 AU)Comet 263P/GibbsAt Opposition  Aug 26 - Comet P/2013 G4 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (4.295 AU)Comet P/2013 G4 (PANSTARRS)  Aug 26 - Apollo Asteroid 2015 OS78 Near-Earth Flyby (0.084 AU)Apollo Asteroid 2015 OS78  Aug 26 - Asteroid Oscarwilde Closest Approach To Earth (1.584 AU)Asteroid Oscarwilde  Aug 26 - Asteroid Astrometria Closest Approach To Earth (2.463 AU)Asteroid Astrometria  Aug 26 - Joseph-Michel Montgolfier's 275th Birthday (1740)Joseph-Michel Montgolfier's  Aug 27 - GSAT 6 (INSAT-4E) GSLV LaunchGSAT 6 (INSAT-4E)  Aug 27 - Comet C/2014 M1 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (5.572 AU)Comet C/2014 M1 (PANSTARRS)  Aug 27 - Comet C/2013 C2 (Tenagra) Perihelion (9.132 AU)Comet C/2013 C2 (Tenagra)  Aug 27 - Atira Asteroid (2008 EA32) Closest Approach To Earth (0.604 AU)Atira Asteroid (2008 EA32)  Aug 27 - Apollo Asteroid Mjolnir Closest Approach To Earth (1.059 AU)Apollo Asteroid Mjolnir  Aug 27 - Asteroid Geiger Closest Approach To Earth (1.143 AU)Asteroid Geiger  Aug 27 - Kuiper Belt Object (2007 OR10) At Opposition ( AU)Kuiper Belt Object (2007 OR10)  Aug 28 - Inmarsat-5 F3 Proton-M Briz-M LaunchInmarsat-5 F3  Aug 28 - Comet C/2014 C1 (TOTAS) Closest Approach To Earth (2.975 AU)Comet C/2014 C1 (TOTAS)  Aug 28 - Comet 82P/Gehrels At Opposition (3.439 AU)Comet 82P/Gehrels  Aug 28 - Asteroid 16 Psyche Occults HIP (6.4 Magnitude Star)Asteroid 16 Psyche Occults HIP 22850

Food for Thought New theory: If we want to detect dark matter we might need a different approach New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale

Space Image of the Week Meteors and Milky Way over Mount Rainier Image Credit & Copyright: Matthew Dieterich