1. Space News Update - May 9, 2017 - In the News Departments Story 1:
Explaining An Oxygen Mystery on Comets
Story 2:
NASA Requests Information on Commercial Lunar Missions
Story 3: Space Weather Model Simulates Solar Storms From Nowhere
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
NASA-TV Highlights
Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week

2. Explaining An Oxygen Mystery on Comets
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)

3. NASA Requests Information on Commercial Lunar Missions

4. Space Weather Model Simulates Solar Storms From Nowhere

5. The Night Sky Sky & Telescope
Monday, May 8 • These spring evenings, the long, dim sea serpent Hydra snakes level far across the southern sky. Find Hydra's head, a rather dim asterism about the width of your thumb at arm's length, in the southwest. (It's lower right of Regulus by about two fists at arm's length. Also, a line from Castor through Pollux points to it 2½ fists away.) Hydra's tail stretches all the way to Libra, rising in the southeast. Hydra's star pattern, from forehead to tail-tip, is 95° long.
Tuesday, May 9
• At dusk, the Moon forms a nearly equilateral triangle, about 30° on a side, with Arcturus to its upper left and Jupiter to its upper right. Watch the triangle rotate clockwise as it moves across the sky through the night.
Wednesday, May 10
• Full Moon (exactly full at 5:42 p.m. EDT). The Moon rises around sunset and shines in Libra all through the night. Nearly 40° above it shines Arcturus.
Thursday, May 11
• A Jupiter double-shadow event for telescopes: Io and Europa cast their two tiny black shadows onto opposite sides of Jupiter's face from 9:59 to 10:05 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
• As evening grows late, look about 10° below the Moon for orange-red Antares twinkling away. Lesser stars of Scorpius are scattered around and upper right of Antares. By midnight, Saturn is glowing to the lower left of them all. Even later in the night, look for Saturn glowing steadily to the lower left of all of them.
Friday, May 12
• The Arch of Spring spans the western sky in late twilight. Pollux and Castor form its top: they're lined up roughly horizontally in the west-northwest, about three finger-widths at arm's length apart. Look far to their lower left for Procyon, and farther to their lower right for Menkalinan and then bright Capella. The Arch of Spring is the last departing section of the even bigger Winter Hexagon.
Sky & Telescope

6. ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Tue May 9, 3:30 AM
1 min
29°
29° above E
14° above ENE
Tue May 9, 5:03 AM
4 min
24°
11° above W
16° above NNE
Wed May 10, 4:12 AM
3 min
39°
29° above WNW
23° above NNE
Thu May 11, 3:22 AM
46°
46° above NE
23° above NE
Thu May 11, 4:56 AM
15°
11° above NW
12° above NNE
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

7. 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)
8 a.m., Tuesday, May 9 - ISS Expedition 51 In-Flight Event for ESA with Cite de L’Espace in Toulouse, France and Flight Engineer Tomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (NTV-1 with English interpretation; NTV-3 in native language) (all channels)
12:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 10 - ISS Expedition 51 In-Flight Educational Event with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA (starts at 12:40 p.m.) (all channels)
2 p.m., Wednesday, May 10 - ISS Expedition Crew News Conference (Acaba, Vande Hei, Misurkin) (all channels)
6:30 a.m., Friday, May 12 - Coverage of ISS Expedition 51 U.S. Spacewalk # 42 (Whitson and Fischer; spacewalk expected to begin at 8 a.m. ET) (all channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

8. Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar
May 09 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Daphnis, Pan, Pandora & Titan
May 09 - Comet C/2015 ER61 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (1.043 AU)
May 09 - [May 07] Amor Asteroid 2017 JY1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.023 AU)
May 09 - [May 04] Apollo Asteroid 2017 HZ49 Near-Earth Flyby (0.038 AU)
May 09 - Apollo Asteroid 1864 Daedalus Closest Approach To Earth (0.435 AU)
May 09 - Atira Asteroid (2004 JG6) Closest Approach To Earth (0.882 AU)
May 09 - Apollo Asteroid 2329 Orthos Closest Approach To Earth (0.936 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid 2554 Skiff Closest Approach To Earth (1.014 AU)
May 09 - Kuiper Belt Object (2004 GV9) At Opposition ( AU)
May 10 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 HP3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.050 AU)
May 10 - Apollo Asteroid Mjolnir Closest Approach To Earth (1.224 AU)
May 11 - Comet 194P/LINEAR Closest Approach To Earth (2.912 AU)
May 11 - Comet 204P/LINEAR-NEAT At Opposition (2.939 AU)
May 11 - Comet P/2012 TK8 (Tenagra) At Opposition (4.263 AU)
May 11 - [May 07] Apollo Asteroid 2017 JX1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.010 AU)
May 11 - [May 03] Aten Asteroid 2017 HU49 Near-Earth Flyby (0.014 AU)
May 11 - Asteroid Spencer Closest Approach To Earth (1.240 AU)
May 11 - Asteroid 3197 Weissman Closest Approach To Earth (2.159 AU)
May 11 - Friedrich Schmiedl's 115th Birthday (1902)
May 12 - [May 07] Apollo Asteroid 2017 JA2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.007 AU)
May 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 LJ49 Near-Earth Flyby (0.062 AU)
May 12 - [May 01] Aten Asteroid 2017 HZ4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.072 AU)
May 12 - Atira Asteroid 2012 VE46 Closest Approach To Earth (0.536 AU)
May 12 - Apollo Asteroid 4769 Castalia Closest Approach To Earth (0.751 AU)
May 12 - Neptune Trojan 2010 TS191 At Opposition ( AU)
JPL Space Calendar

9. How a Helicopter Drone Could Fly on Mars
New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale
New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale
Food for Thought
How a Helicopter Drone Could Fly on Mars

10. Space Image of the Week
Hail the Hexagon