Transcript The View from New Horizons: A Full Day on Pluto

Space News Update
- February 13, 2015 In the News
Story 1:
The View from New Horizons: A Full Day on Pluto-Charon
Story 2:
A New Way to View Titan: 'Despeckle' It
Story 3:
Exploded Star Blooms Like a Cosmic Flower
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
The View from New Horizons: A Full Day
on Pluto-Charon
Click image to view video on YouTube
A New Way to View Titan: 'Despeckle' It
Exploded Star Blooms Like a Cosmic Flower
The Night Sky
Friday, February 13
After dusk at this time of year, four carnivore constellations climb
upward low in a row across the northeast to southeast. They're
all seen in profile, with their noses pointed to the upper right and
their feet (if any) to the right: Ursa Major in the northeast with the
Big Dipper as its brightest part, Leo in the east, Hydra the Sea
Serpent in the southeast (Jupiter shines midway between the
heads of Leo and Hydra), and Canis Major in the south.
Saturday, February 14
Zenith star. If you're in the world's mid-northern latitudes, bright
Capella passes straight overhead, or nearly so, around 7 or 8
p.m. (depending on how far west or east you are in your time
zone). It goes exactly through your zenith if you're at latitude 46°
north: for example Portland, Oregon; Montreal; central France.
And whenever Capella passes highest, Rigel in Orion's foot is
always due south.
Sunday, February 15
Mid-February is when Orion stands highest in the south after dinnertime. His eastern shoulder, orange-red Betelgeuse, forms the Winter
Triangle with brilliant Sirius far below and Procyon to their left.
Monday, February 16
The Winter Triangle, or rather one side of it, is also part of a much bigger asterism: the Winter Hexagon. This fills the sky toward the
southeast and south these nights. Start with brilliant Sirius at its bottom. Going clockwise from there, march through Procyon, Pollux and
Castor, Capella very high, Aldebaran over to Capella's lower right, down to Rigel in Orion's foot, and back to Sirius.
The eclipsing variable star Algol will be at its minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1 (in other words a third of its normal
brightness) for a couple hours centered on 12:19 a.m. Tuesday morning EST (9:19 p.m. Monday evening PST). Algol takes several additional
hours to fade and to rebrighten.
Tuesday, February 17
Venus and Mars are now just 2° apart in the west-southwest at dusk. They'll remain at least this close for the next nine days.
The shadow of Jupiter's moon Io crosses Jupiter's face from 6:13 to 8:31 p.m. EST, following along sixteen minutes behind less conspicuous
Io itself. Around 9:10 p.m. EST, Callisto disappears into occultation behind Jupiter's western limb. Then from 10:35 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. EST
Europa's shadow crosses Jupiter, following thirty-five minutes behind Europa itself.
And, Jupiter's Great Red Spot comes into view around the planet's celestial eastern edge by midnight EST, to reach the planet's central
meridian around 1:47 a.m. EST.
Sky & Telescope
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Fri Feb 13, 6:12 PM
2 min
11°
10 above NNW
10 above NNE
Sat Feb 14, 6:57 PM
1 min
10°
10 above N
10 above N
Sun Feb 15, 6:04 PM
< 1 min
10°
10 above N
10 above N
Sun Feb 15, 7:40 PM
< 1 min
10°
10 above NNW
10 above NNW
Mon Feb 16, 6:47 PM
2 min
12°
10 above NNW
12 above NNE
Tue Feb 17, 7:30 PM
1 min
18°
11 above NNW
18 above NNW
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Daylight Time)
8:15 a.m., Saturday, February 14 - Coverage of the Undocking of the “Georges Lemaitre”
Automated Transfer Vehicle from the ISS (Undocking scheduled at 8:40 a.m. ET) (all channels)
5:45 a.m., Tuesday, February 17 - Coverage of the ISS Progress 58 Launch (Launch scheduled
at 6 a.m. ET from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan) (all channels)
10:30 a.m., Tuesday, February 17 - Space Station Live (all channels)
11:30 a.m., Tuesday, February 17 - Coverage of the ISS Progress 58 Docking to the ISS
(Docking scheduled at 12 p.m. ET) (all channels)
12:30 p.m., Tuesday, February 17 - Women in STEM: STEM in the Global Science Community
(all channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website
Space Calendar
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Feb
13 - Comet 4P/Faye At Opposition (1.874 AU)
13 - Comet 72P/Denning-Fujikawa At Opposition (1.963 AU)
13 - [Feb 10] Asteroid 2015 CO Near-Earth Flyby (0.052 AU)
13 - Asteroid 2202 Pele Closest Approach To Earth (1.548 AU)
13 - Asteroid 263251 Pandabear Closest Approach To Earth (1.547 AU)
13 - Asteroid 9253 Oberth Closest Approach To Earth (1.836 AU)
13 - Asteroid 51823 Rickhusband Closest Approach To Earth (2.216 AU)
13 - Asteroid 804 Hispania Closest Approach To Earth (2.251 AU)
13 - Asteroid 3360 Syrinx Closest Approach To Earth (3.173 AU)
13 - 35th Anniversary (1980), Venera 12 Observes Comet Bradfield
14 - [Feb 07] Rosetta Flies 6 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
14 - Comet C/2015 A1 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (1.711 AU)
14 - Comet 160P/LINEAR At Opposition (4.227 AU)
14 - Asteroid 2015 AA44 Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU)
14 - Asteroid 2015 BV4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.066 AU)
14 - Asteroid 3124 Kansas Closest Approach To Earth (1.971 AU)
14 - 15th Anniversary (2000), NEAR, Asteroid Eros Orbit Insertion
14 - 25th Anniversary (1990), Voyager 1, Family Portrait Images
14 - 30th Anniversary (1985), Solar Maximum Mission Launch
15 - Galileo Day
15 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #404 (OTM-404)
15 - Comet C/2014 W9 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (1.587 AU)
15 - Comet C/2014 A5 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (4.062 AU)
15 - Comet 276P/Vorobjov Closest Approach To Earth (4.076 AU)
15 - Comet C/2013 E1 (McNaught) At Opposition (7.651 AU)
15 - Asteroid 8 Flora At Opposition (8.8 Magnitude)
15 - [Feb 11] Asteroid 2015 CS Near-Earth Flyby (0.009 AU)
15 - Asteroid 2015 AZ43 Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU)
Feb
15 - Asteroid 736 Harvard Closest Approach To Earth (1.571 AU)
Feb
15 - Asteroid 2409 Chapman Closest Approach To Earth (1.669 AU)
Feb
15 - Asteroid 1677 Tycho Brahe Closest Approach To Earth (1.782 AU)
Feb
15 - Asteroid 6227 Alanrubin Closest Approach To Earth (2.578 AU)
Feb
15 - Roger Chaffee's 80th Birthday (1935)
Feb
15 - Mildred Shapley Matthews' 100th Birthday (1915)
Feb
16 - Comet P/2009 L2 (Yang-Gao) At Opposition (1.388 AU)
Feb
16 - Asteroid 23638 Nagano Closest Approach To Earth (1.193 AU)
Feb
16 - Asteroid 4589 McDowell Closest Approach To Earth (1.847 AU)
Feb
16 - Asteroid 7328 Casanova Closest Approach To Earth (2.048 AU)
Feb
16 - Kuiper Belt Object 55565 (2002 AW197) At Opposition (44.879 AU)
17 - [Feb 11] Progress M-26 Soyuz U Launch (International Space Station 58P)
17 - [Feb 11] 50th Anniversary (1965), Ranger 8 Launch (Moon Impact Mission)
17 - Eutelsat 115 West B/ ABS 3A Falcon 9 Launch
17 - Comet 309P/LINEAR Perihelion (1.740 AU)
17 - Asteroid 2015 BF511 Near-Earth Flyby (0.028 AU)
17 - Asteroid 2000 AC6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.064 AU)
17 - Asteroid 6677 Renoir Closest Approach To Earth (2.588 AU)
17 - Asteroid 767 Bondia Closest Approach To Earth (2.658 AU)
17 - Asteroid 1134 Kepler Closest Approach To Earth (2.922 AU)
17 - Asteroid 3552 Don Quixote Closest Approach To Earth (5.953 AU)
JPL Space Calendar
Food for Thought
NASA Study Finds Carbon Emissions Could Dramatically
Increase Risk of U.S. Megadroughts
Space Image of the Week
An Extremely Long Filament on the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Oliver Hardy