space news update - january 27, 2015 - in the news story 1: five things about nasa's smap story...

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Space News Update - January 27, 2015 - In the News Story 1: Five Things about NASA's SMAP Story 2: Gullies on Vesta Suggest Past Water-Mobilized Flows Story 3: Big Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Has Its Own Moon Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar NASA-TV Highlights Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

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Space News Update- January 27, 2015 -

In the News

Story 1: Five Things about NASA's SMAP

Story 2:Gullies on Vesta Suggest Past Water-Mobilized Flows

Story 3: Big Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Has Its Own Moon

Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

Space CalendarNASA-TV Highlights

Food for ThoughtSpace Image of the Week

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

Five Things about NASA's SMAP

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

Gullies on Vesta Suggest Past Water-Mobilized Flows

1. Ratchet Wrench ‘E-mailed’ to Space Station

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

Big Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Has Its Own Moon

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

The Night Sky

Sky & Telescope

Tuesday, January 27

• If I had to choose just one deep-sky object to demonstrate the appeal of binocular astronomy, it would probably be the Pleiades," writes Gary Seronik. The Pleiades are certainly a nice sight overall. But the cluster also holds a secret in its center: the 8th-magnitude double star South 437, barely resolvable with 10× glasses.

• Algol shines at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours tonight centered on 10:42 p.m. EST.

Wednesday, January 28

• Look for the Pleiades over the Moon at nightfall, as shown above. The scene rotates clockwise as the evening advances.

Thursday, January 29

• The Moon shines near Aldebaran and the Hyades at dusk, as shown to the right.

Friday, January 30

• The waxing gibbous Moon shines above Orion this evening. It's near Zeta Tauri, the fainter of the two stars that mark the tips of Taurus's long horns.

• Algol is at minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 7:31 p.m. EST.Saturday, January 31

• With a small telescope, you can watch Jupiter's inner moon Io fade away into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 10:45 p.m. EST (7:45 p.m. PST). Io will be just barely off Jupiter's western limb when the eclipse happens. That's because we're only 6 days from Jupiter's opposition.

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

ISS Sighting Opportunities

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

ISS For Denver:

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Tue Jan 27, 5:11 AM 2 min 38° 38 above ESE 13 above SE

Tue Jan 27, 6:46 AM < 1 min 10° 10 above WSW 10 above SW

Wed Jan 28, 5:54 AM 2 min 20° 20 above SW 11 above S

Thu Jan 29, 5:05 AM < 1 min 16° 16 above SSE 11 above SSE

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

NASA-TV Highlights

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013NASAMAVEN Launch November 18, 2013NASAMAVEN Launch November 18, 2013NASA

Tuesday, January 27

4 p.m. - NASA SMAP Mission Prelaunch News Conference – VAFB/KSC (all channels)

4:45 p.m. - NASA ELaNa CubeSat News Conference – VAFB/KSC (all channels)

Wednesday, January 28

9:25 a.m. - ISS Expedition 42 In-Flight Interviews with the Air Force Times and the Houston Chronicle with ISS Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (all channels)

12:30 p.m. - SMAP NASA Social (Includes SMAP Mission/Applied Science Briefing) – VAFB/KSC (all channels)

1 p.m. - STEM in 30: Composites (all channels)

4 p.m. - STEM in 30: Composites - NASM (all channels)

Thursday, January 29

7 a.m. - SMAP Mission Live Launch Coverage and Commentary (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-3 (Media))

8:50 a.m. - Live NASA Edge coverage of the launch of SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) Mission (NTV-2 (Education))

(all times Eastern Time Zone)

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

Space Calendar

JPL Space Calendar

Jan 27 - Comet 132P/Helin-Roman-Alu At Opposition (1.850 AU)

Jan 27 - Comet 102P/Shoemaker At Opposition (3.011 AU)

Jan 27 - Asteroid 2015 BQ Near-Earth Flyby (0.072 AU)

Jan 27 - Asteroid 2015 BM Near-Earth Flyby (0.087 AU)

Jan 27 - Asteroid 228029 MANIAC Closest Approach To Earth (2.005 AU)

Jan 27 - Asteroid 48300 Kronk Closest Approach To Earth (2.064 AU)

Jan 28 - Comet P/2014 V1 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (2.521 AU)

Jan 28 - Comet P/2010 N1 (WISE) At Opposition (2.978 AU)

Jan 28 - Comet C/2012 U1 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (5.007 AU)

Jan 28 - Asteroid 69263 Big Ben Closest Approach To Earth (0.941 AU)

Jan 28 - Asteroid 916 America Closest Approach To Earth (1.578 AU)

Jan 28 - Asteroid 128 Nemesis Closest Approach To Earth (1.860 AU)

Jan 29 - Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP)/ GRIFEX/ ExoCube/ FIREBIRD C & D Delta 2 Launch

Jan 29 - Comet 156P/Russell-LINEAR Closest Approach To Earth (2.134 AU)

Jan 29 - Comet P/2007 R2 (Gibbs) At Opposition (2.506 AU)

Jan 29 - Comet 172P/Yeung At Opposition (3.414 AU)

Jan 29 - Comet 65P/Gunn At Opposition (3.646 AU)

Jan 29 - Asteroid 2015 BE92 Near-Earth Flyby (0.008 AU)

Jan 29 - Asteroid 2015 BG92 Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU)

Jan 29 - Asteroid 2014 BA3 Closest Approach To Earth (0.534 AU)

Jan 29 - Asteroid 4758 Hermitage Closest Approach To Earth (2.645 AU)

Jan 30 - Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke Perihelion (1.239 AU)

Jan 30 - Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) Perihelion (1.290 AU)

Jan 30 - Comet P/2013 T2 (Schwartz) At Opposition (3.297 AU)

Jan 30 - Comet P/2006 G1 (McNaught) At Opposition (4.046 AU)

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

Food for Thought

Oldest Planetary System Discovered, Improving the Chances for Intelligent Life Everywhere

New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the ScaleNew Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale

Story #2

Story #1

Story #3

The NightSky

ISSSightings

NASA-TV

Food forThought

Image ofthe Week

SpaceCalendar

Space Image of the Week

A Hubble Sweep of the Dust Filaments of NGC 4217Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: R. Schoofs