Transcript Mars-Bound Comet Siding Spring Sprouts Multiple Jets Eastern

Space News Update
- March 28, 2014 In the News
Story 1:
Mars-Bound Comet Siding Spring Sprouts Multiple Jets
Story 2:
Eastern Range Radar issue delays upcoming Cape launches
Story 3:
New discovery may redefine solar system's outer frontier
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
Mars-Bound Comet Siding Spring Sprouts
Multiple Jets
Eastern Range Radar issue delays upcoming
Cape launches
New discovery may redefine solar
system's outer frontier
This is an orbit diagram for the outer solar system. The Sun and Terrestrial planets are at the center. The
orbits of the four giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, are shown by purple solid circles. The
Kuiper Belt, including Pluto, is shown by the dotted light blue region just beyond the giant planets. Sedna's
orbit is shown in orange while 2012 VP113's orbit is shown in red. Both objects are currently near their
closest approach to the Sun (perihelion). They would be too faint to detect when in the outer parts of their
orbits. Notice that both orbits have similar perihelion locations on the sky and both are far away from the giant
planet and Kuiper Belt regions.
The Night Sky
Friday, March 28
The huge, bright Winter Hexagon nearly fills the southwestern sky at dusk.
Start with bright Sirius in the south, marking the Hexagon's lower left corner.
High above Sirius is Procyon. From there look even higher to Pollux and Castor
with bright Jupiter below them, then from Castor farther lower right to
Menkalinen and Capella, then lower left to Aldebaran, then duck around lower
left to Rigel at the bottom of Orion, and back to Sirius. Within the Hexagon shine
Jupiter and Betelgeuse.
Saturday, March 29
You can tell winter is gone for good, astronomically speaking: As soon as the
stars come out, the Big Dipper is already higher in the northeast than Cassiopeia
is in the northwest.
Sunday, March 30
This is the time of year when the dim Little Dipper juts to the right from Polaris
(its handle-end) during evening hours. The much brighter Big Dipper curls over
high above it, "dumping water" into it.
New Moon (exact at 2:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).
Monday, March 31
It's getting to be Virgo Galaxy Cluster time, as Virgo climbs up in the
southeast through the evening. North of Gamma Virginis (Porrima), explore the
area around the giant galaxy M49 with your telescope using Sue French's DeepSky Wonders article in the April Sky & Telescope, page 56.
Tuesday, April 1
The biggest and brightest asteroids, 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta respectively, are
only about 2° apart in eastern Virgo, some 12° northeast of Mars. They've
brightened to magnitudes 7.1 and 5.9, respectively. They'll be at opposition in
mid-April.
Sky & Telescope
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Sat Mar 29, 4:26 AM
1 min
12°
12 above N
11 above NNE
Sat Mar 29, 6:01 AM
4 min
37°
10 above NW
33 above ENE
Sun Mar 30, 5:12 AM
3 min
25°
11 above NNW
22 above NE
Mon Mar 31, 4:25 AM
1 min
18°
18 above NNE
17 above NE
Mon Mar 31, 6:00 AM
6 min
83°
10 above NW
11 above SE
Tue Apr 1, 5:12 AM
5 min
55°
22 above NW
11 above ESE
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Daylight Time)
April 1, Tuesday
12:30 p.m. - Deep Space Network’s 50th Anniversary NASA Social - JPL (NTV-1, NTV-2)
April 3, Thursday
8:15 a.m. - ISS Expedition 39 In-Flight Interview for JAXA with TV Tokyo (native language on NTV-3) - JSC
(All Channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website
Space Calendar
Mar 28 - [Mar 22] Asteroid 2014 FF Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU)
Mar 28 - Asteroid 11365 NASA Closest Approach To Earth (1.404 AU)
Mar 28 - Asteroid 4659 Roddenberry Closest Approach To Earth (1.870 AU)
Mar 28 - Asteroid 2099 Opik Closest Approach To Earth (2.142 AU)
Mar 28 - Asteroid 15417 Babylon Closest Approach To Earth (2.899 AU)
Mar 28 - Asteroid Grand Challenge Virtual Seminar
Mar 29 - Asteroid 38086 Beowolf Closest Approach To Earth (1.117 AU)
Mar 29 - Asteroid 10866 Peru Closest Approach To Earth (1.136 AU)
Mar 29 - Asteroid 1430 Somalia Closest Approach To Earth (1.872 AU)
Mar 29 - Asteroid 10799 Yucatan Closest Approach To Earth (1.942 AU)
Mar 29 - Asteroid 17768 Tigerlily Closest Approach To Earth (2.124 AU)
Mar 29 - Asteroid 2866 Hardy Closest Approach To Earth (2.448 AU)
Mar 29 - Asteroid 588 Achilles Closest Approach To Earth (4.257 AU)
Mar 29 - 40th Anniversary (1974), Mariner 10, 1st Mercury Flyby
Mar 30 - European Summer Time - Set Clock Ahead 1 Hour (European Union)
Mar 30 - BelarusSat 1 CZ-3B/E Launch
Mar 30 - Comet 46P/Wirtanen Closest Approach To Earth (2.022 AU)
Mar 30 - Comet 138P/Shoemaker-Levy At Opposition (3.602 AU)
Mar 30 - Asteroid 2012 EA Near-Earth Flyby (0.036 AU)
Mar 30 - Asteroid 2009 FW25 Near-Earth Flyby (0.071 AU)
Mar 30 - Asteroid 9000 Hal Closest Approach To Earth (1.429 AU)
Mar 30 - Asteroid 469 Argentina Closest Approach To Earth (1.689 AU)
Mar 31 - Cartosat 2C/IMS 1B/NEMO-AM/ SRE-2/ CAN-X4/CAN-X5 PSLV Launch
Mar 31 - Comet 135P/Shoemaker-Levy Closest Approach To Earth (1.948 AU)
Mar 31 - Come 6P/d'Arrest At Opposition (2.389 AU)
Mar 31 - Comet C/2013 J3 (McNaught) At Opposition (4.270 AU)
Mar 31 - Asteroid 2362 Mark Twain Closest Approach To Earth (1.613 AU)
Mar 31 - Asteroid 2022 WestiClosest Approach To Earth (1.979 AU)
Mar 31 - Asteroid 30826 Coulomb Closest Approach To Earth (2.548 AU)
Mar 31 - Asteroid 5661 Hildebrand Closest Approach To Earth (3.479 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 3902 Yoritomo Occults HIP 26571 (6.5 Magnitude Star)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 2009 SA100 Near-Earth Flyby (0.044 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 2010 GD35 Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 2009 FD Near-Earth Flyby (0.101 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 3297 Hong Kong Closest Approach To Earth (2.584 AU)
JPL Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Orbiting Solar Panels Beam Energy From Space
Space Image of the Week
Shadow Portrait of NASA Rover Opportunity on Martian Slope