1. Space News Update - May 6, 2016 - In the News Departments Story 1:
Falcon 9 succeeds in middle-of-the-night launch and landing
Story 2:
Pluto’s Interaction with the Solar Wind is Unique, Study Finds
Story 3: Einstein's Equivalence Principle Put to Test
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week

2. Falcon 9 succeeds in middle-of-the-night launch and landing
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. Pluto’s Interaction with the Solar Wind is Unique, Study Finds

4. Einstein's Equivalence Principle Put to Test

5. The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Friday, May 6
• Double shadow transit on Jupiter. Both Callisto and Io cast their tiny black shadows onto Jupiter's sunlit face from 12:38 to 1:42 a.m. EDT tonight (9:38 to 10:42 p.m. PDT).
• New Moon (exact at 3:30 p.m. EDT; 12:30 p.m. PDT).
Saturday, May 7
• Twenty or thirty minutes after sunset, try to catch the hairline crescent Moon just a few degrees above the west-northwest horizon, as shown here. Binoculars will help! Is this the youngest Moon you've ever seen? It's only about 28 hours from new as seen from the East Coast, 31 hours from new as seen from the Pacific time zone. (Calculate its age at the time of your sighting from the time of yesterday's new Moon, above.)
Aldebaran is a few degrees above or upper left of the delicate Moon. Which of the two is less difficult to see in binoculars? With the unaided eye?
Sunday, May 8
• The waxing crescent Moon hangs rather low in the west at dusk. Look left of it for orange Betelgeuse and lower right of it by a similar distance (from North America) for orange Aldebaran, as shown above.
Monday, May 9
• Mercury crosses the face of the Sun today for users of safely filtered telescopes across most of the inhabited world. See Get Ready for May 9th’s Transit of Mercury and May 9th Transit of Mercury: Everything You Need to Know.
• At dusk, the thickening Moon shines near Gamma Geminorum, the brightest star in the four feet of Gemini, as shown at top. Look below the star and Moon for Betelgeuse, the last of Orion's bright stars to sink away as winter recedes into the past.
Tuesday, May 10
• Three zero-magnitude stars shine after dark in May: Arcturus high in the southeast, Vega much lower in the northeast, and Capella in the northwest. They appear so bright because each is at least 60 times as luminous as the Sun, and because they're all relatively nearby: 37, 25, and 42 light-years from us, respectively.
Sky & Telescope

6. ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Sat May 7, 4:57 AM
4 min
18°
10° above S
14° above E
Mon May 9, 4:48 AM
3 min
45°
16° above SSW
32° above E
Tue May 10, 3:57 AM
22°
22° above SE
11° above E
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)
TBD, Monday, May 9 - Live Feed from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) of Mercury Transit of the Sun (NTV-2 (Education))
6 a.m., Monday, May 9 - Live Interviews with NASA Scientists (Alex Young, Yari Collado-Vega and Stephen Rinehart) about the Rare Transit of Mercury (NTV-3 (Media))
10 a.m., Monday, May 9 - Space Station Live (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-2 (Education))
10:30 a.m., Monday, May 9 - Live Panel Discussion on the Science behind the Mercury Transit (NTV-1 (Public))
NASA is inviting media and viewers around the world to see a relatively rare celestial event, with coverage of the Monday, May 9 transit of the sun by the planet Mercury. Media may view the event at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Mercury will appear as a small black dot as it crosses the edge of the sun and into view at 7:12 a.m. The planet will make a leisurely journey across the face of the sun, reaching mid-point at approximately 10:47 a.m., and exiting the golden disk at 2:42 p.m. The entire 7.5-hour path across the sun will be visible across the Eastern United States – with magnification and proper solar filters – while those in the West can observe the transit in progress after sunrise.
Exact time of NASA’s broadcast are TBD
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

8. Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar
May 06 - [May 05] Cassini, Titan Flyby
May 06 - [Apr 29] Space Day
May 06 - [May 06] JCSat 14 Falcon 9 Launch
May 06 - Comet C/2015 B2 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (3.370 AU)
May 06 - Comet 121P/Shoemaker-Holt At Opposition (3.890 AU)
May 06 - Atira Asteroid (2004 JG6) Closest Approach To Earth (0.825 AU)
May 06 - Robert Dicke's 100th Birthday (1916)
May th Anniversary (1896), 1st Successful Flight of a Large Unmanned Heavier-Than-Air Craft (Langley Aerodrome No. 5)
May 07 - Comet C/2014 M1 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (4.871 AU)
May 07 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults TYC  (11.9 Magnitude Star)
May 07 - Asteroid 2713 Luxemburg Closest Approach To Earth (1.805 AU)
May 07 - Asteroid 3534 Sax Closest Approach To Earth (2.117 AU)
May 07 - Asteroid 3106 Morabito Closest Approach To Earth (2.919 AU)
May 07 - Kuiper Belt Object (2004 GV9) At Opposition ( AU)
May 07 - Raymond Lyttlteon's 105th Birthday (1911)
May 08 - Moon Occults Aldebaran
May 08 - [May 06] Aten Asteroid 2016 JC6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.033 AU)
May 08 - Apollo Asteroid 2014 JG55 Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU)
May 08 - [May 03] Amor Asteroid 2016 HH19 Near-Earth Flyby (0.041 AU)
May 08 - Apollo Asteroid 2010 KP10 Near-Earth Flyby (0.076 AU)
May 08 - Asteroid Rosaparks Closest Approach To Earth (1.758 AU)
May 08 - Asteroid 1154 Astronomia Closest Approach To Earth (2.254 AU)
May 09 - [May 03] Mercury Transits The Sun
May 09 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #449 (OTM-449)
May 09 - Comet 100P/Hartley Closest Approach To Earth (1.043 AU)
May 09 - Comet 116P/Wild Closest Approach To Earth (1.340 AU)
May 09 - Comet P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (1.428 AU)
May 09 - Comet C/2016 B1 (NEOWISE) Closest Approach To Earth (2.996 AU)
May 09 - Comet P/2015 C1 (TOTAS-Gibbs) Closest Approach To Earth (2.999 AU)
May 09 - [May 06] Apollo Asteroid 2016 JQ5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.004 AU)
May 09 - [May 02] Amor Asteroid 2016 EE158 Near-Earth Flyby (0.100 AU)
May 09 - Apollo Asteroid 2063 Bacchus Closest Approach To Earth (0.878 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid 4690 Strasbourg Closest Approach To Earth (1.209 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid Ginkgo Closest Approach To Earth (1.499 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid 3140 Stellafane Closest Approach To Earth (2.282 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid 8958 Stargazer Closest Approach To Earth (1.761 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid Kalpanachawla Closest Approach To Earth (2.321 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid 3351 Smith Closest Approach To Earth (2.609 AU)
May 09 - Vance Brand's 85th Birthday (1931)
JPL Space Calendar

9. Food for Thought
MIT scientists compile list of potential gases to guide search for life on exoplanets

10. Space Image of the Week
55th Anniversary of Shepard’s flight; Computational Facility Named after "Human Computer" Katherine Johnson