1. Space News Update - January 4, 2019 - In the News Departments Story 1:
New Ultima Thule Discoveries from NASA's New Horizons
Story 2:
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Enters Close Orbit Around Bennu,
Breaking Record
Story 3: Dark Matter on the Move
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
NASA-TV Highlights
Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week

2. New Ultima Thule Discoveries from NASA's New Horizons
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’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Enters Close Orbit Around Bennu, Breaking Record

4. Dark Matter on the Move

5. The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Friday, January 4
• Here is is January, and the Summer Triangle is still in view — if you look early after dark. Vega is its brightest star, low in the northwest. The brightest star above that, and perhaps a bit left, is Deneb. Look for Altair farther to Vega's left and perhaps lower (depending on your latitude).
• In the late-arriving dawns of early January, watch Venus close in on Jupiter and Antares from morning to morning, as shown here.
Saturday, January 5
• As we enter the very coldest time of the year, the dim Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) turns to hang straight down from Polaris after dinnertime — as if, per Leslie Peltier, from a nail on the cold north wall of the sky.
The Big Dipper, meanwhile, is creeping up low in the north-northeast. Its handle is very low and its bowl is to the upper right.
And Cassiopeia, a flattened letter M, is nearly overhead in the north-northwest, just beginning to tilt.
• New Moon (exact at 8:28 p.m. EST).
Sunday, January 6
• Orion stands in the east-southeast after dark, higher every week, but in early evening his three-star Belt is still nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran and, even higher, the Pleiades.
Down below, the Belt points to the horizon where Sirius rises around 6 or 7 p.m. (depending on how far east or west you live in your time zone). Just after Sirius clears the horizon, it twinkles slowly and deeply through thick layers of low atmosphere. It twinkles faster and more shallowly as it gains altitude, and its flashes of vivid color blend into shimmering whiteness.
• Venus is at greatest elongation on this date, 47° west of the Sun in the morning sky.
Monday, January 7
• You may know where the center of our Milky Way galaxy is: in Sagittarius next to the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. But that's for summer. I bet you've never located the galactic anticenter in the winter sky! Pinpoint its location near Elnath, at the Taurus-Auriga border, using binoculars and Matt Wedel's diamond-shaped asterism in his Binocular Highlight column in the January Sky & Telescope, page 43. Here, you're looking precisely away from the galaxy's center.
Sky & Telescope

6. ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Fri Jan 4, 6:48 AM
4 min
15°
11° above NNW
10° above NE
Sat Jan 5, 5:57 AM
2 min
12°
11° above N
Sun Jan 6, 6:41 AM
24°
15° above ENE
Mon Jan 7, 5:50 AM
3 min
17°
15° above N
10° above ENE
Tue Jan 8, 5:00 AM
< 1 min
11°
11° above NE
Tue Jan 8, 6:33 AM
46°
10° above NW
35° 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) January 8, Tuesday
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)
January 8, Tuesday
TBD – NASA astronaut Anne McClain hosts in-flight educational event aboard the International Space Station with the Kranz Junior High School in Dickinson, Texas (All Channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

8. Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar
Jan 04 - Comet 175P/Hergenrother Closest Approach To Earth (1.840 AU)
Jan 04 - Apollo Asteroid 2014 AD16 Near-Earth Flyby (0.033 AU)
Jan 04 -[Jan 03] Apollo Asteroid 2018 YP2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.036 AU)
Jan 04 - Apollo Asteroid 2004 XP14 Near-Earth Flyby (0.073 AU)
Jan 04 - Asteroid DNA Closest Approach To Earth (1.833 AU)
Jan 04 - Asteroid 671 Carnegia Closest Approach To Earth (1.921 AU)
Jan th Anniversary (2004), Mars Exploration Rover A (Spirit), Mars Landing
Jan 05 -[Dec 29] 50th Anniversary (1969), Venera 5 Launch (USSR Venus Atmospheric Probe)
Jan 05 - Comet 357P/Hill At Opposition (1.974 AU)
Jan 05 - Comet 31P/Schwassmann-Wachmann Closest Approach To Earth (2.521 AU)
Jan 05 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults UCAC  (11.5 Magnitude Star)
Jan 05 -[Jan 03] Apollo Asteroid 2018 YR2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.023 AU)
Jan 05 - Asteroid Joshuatree Closest Approach To Earth (1.836 AU)
Jan 05 - Asteroid Sydney Closest Approach To Earth (2.188 AU)
Jan 06 -[Dec 30] Partial Solar Eclipse (Visible in Eastern Asia & Northern Pacific Ocean)
Jan 06 -[Dec 29] KH (Crystal 17, NROL-71) Delta 4H Launch
Jan 06 - Venus At Its Greatest Western Elongation (47 Degrees)
Jan 06 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 XO4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU)
Jan 06 - Asteroid Harperlee Closest Approach To Earth (2.734 AU)
Jan 07 - Iridium Next 66-75 Falcon 9 Launch
Jan 07 - Comet C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons) Closest Approach To Earth (2.228 AU)
Jan 07 - Comet C/2016 N6 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (2.414 AU)
Jan 07 - Comet 236P/LINEAR Closest Approach To Earth (2.675 AU)
Jan 07 - Comet 139P/Vaisala-Oterma Closest Approach To Earth (2.852 AU)
Jan 07 - Comet C/2017 U5 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (4.164 AU)
Jan 07 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults TYC  (10.4 Magnitude Star)
Jan 07 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 AZ8 Near-Earth Flyby (0.030 AU)
Jan 07 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 MZ Near-Earth Flyby (0.096 AU)
Jan 07 - Asteroid 3594 Scotti Closest Approach To Earth (1.528 AU)
Jan 08 - Comet C/2018 L2 (ATLAS) Closest Approach To Earth (2.355 AU)
Jan 08 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults UCAC  (10.9 Magnitude Star)
Jan 08 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults UCAC  (11.0 Magnitude Star)
Jan 08 - Asteroid 2575 Bulgaria Closest Approach To Earth (1.474 AU)
Jan 08 - Asteroid 3174 Alcock Closest Approach To Earth (1.680 AU)
JPL Space Calendar

9. Quadrantid Meteors Kickoff a Busy January 2019
Food for Thought
Quadrantid Meteors Kickoff a Busy January 2019

10. Space Image of the Week
The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared  Image Credit: R. Kennicutt (Steward Obs.) et al., SSC, JPL, Caltech, NASA