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Space News Update - October 21, 2014 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: 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 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 2017. 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. Sky & Telescope ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Tue Oct 21, 8:03 PM 2 min 23° 10 above NW 23 above NNW Wed Oct 22, 7:14 PM 3 min 22° 11 above NNW 20 above NE Thu Oct 23, 8:01 PM 2 min 44° 10 above NW 44 above NW Fri Oct 24, 7:12 PM 4 min 46° 10 above NW 31 above E Sat Oct 25, 6:27 PM 1 min 21° 21 above ENE 11 above E Sat Oct 25, 8:01 PM 1 min 33° 22 above W 33 above SW Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013 NASA NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone) Tuesday, October 21 11 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) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website Space Calendar Oct 21 - Express AM-6 Proton M-Briz M Launch Oct 21 - Orionids Meteor Shower Peak Oct 21 - Comet P/2014 M4 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (1.429 AU) Oct 21 - Comet C/2014 R4 (Gibbs) Perihelion (1.813 AU) Oct 21 - Comet 286P/Christensen At Opposition (2.146 AU) Oct 21 - Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak At Opposition (4.116 AU) Oct 21 - Comet PANSTARRS (C/2014 S1) Closest Approach To Earth (7.611 AU) Oct 21 - Asteroid 2010 VQ Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU) Oct 21 - Asteroid 2340 Hathor Near-Earth Flyby (0.048 AU) Oct 21 - Asteroid 10377 Kilimanjaro Closest Approach To Earth (1.710 AU) Oct 21 - Asteroid 3834 Zappafrank Closest Approach To Earth (2.027 AU) Oct 21 - Asteroid 5405 Neverland Closest Approach To Earth (2.030 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 3674 Erbisbuhl Occults HIP 42472 (6.7 Magnitude Star) Oct 22 - Asteroid 2014 RQ17 Near-Earth Flyby (0.031 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 3066 McFadden Closest Approach To Earth (1.258 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 2933 Amber Closest Approach To Earth (1.543 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 1279 Uganda Closest Approach To Earth (1.571 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 2521 Heidi Closest Approach To Earth (2.005 AU) Oct 22 - Asteroid 8373 Stephengould Closest Approach To Earth (3.156 AU) Oct 23 - Partial Solar Eclipse, Visible from Eastern United States Oct 23 - Comet PANSTARRS (C/2014 S1) At Opposition (7.611 AU) Oct 23 - Asteroid 2014 SC324 Near-Earth Flyby (0.003 AU) Oct 24 -Cygnus CRS Orb-3/ Flock-1d 1-26/ Arkyd-3 Antares-130 Launch (International Space Station) Oct 24 - Chang'e 5 CZ-3Z Launch (China Moon Orbiter) Oct 24 - Meridian 7 Soyuz 2-1A-Fregat Launch Oct 24 - Cassini, Titan Flyby JPL Space Calendar New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale Food for Thought Milky Way Ransacks Nearby Dwarf Galaxies, Stripping All Traces of Star-Forming Gas Space Image of the Week Rosetta's Selfie Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA