Space News Update- June 20, 2014 -

In the News

Story 1: NASA's Swift Satellite Tallies Water Production of Mars-bound Comet

Story 2: NASA Announces Latest Progress, Upcoming Milestones in Hunt for Asteroids

Story 3: Hubble Finds Dwarf Galaxies Formed More Than Their Fair Share of Universe's

Stars

 Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

Space CalendarNASA-TV Highlights

Food for ThoughtSpace Image of the Week

NASA's Swift Satellite Tallies Water Production of Mars-bound

Comet

NASA Announces Latest Progress, Upcoming Milestones in Hunt for

Asteroids

Hubble Finds Dwarf Galaxies Formed More Than Their Fair Share of

Universe's Stars

The Night Sky

Sky & Telescope

Friday, June 20This is the time of year when the two brightest stars of summer, Arcturus and Vega, shine equally high overhead as evening grows late: Arcturus in the southwest, Vega toward the east. Arcturus and Vega are 37 and 25 light-years away, respectively. They represent the two commonest types of naked-eye stars: a yellow-orange K giant and a white A main-sequence star. They're 150 and 50 times more luminous than the Sun — which, combined with their nearness, is why they dominate the evening.

Saturday, June 21If you have a good dark sky, look east as the final glow of twilight fades away. All across the low eastern sky on any clear night now, the starry, mottled band of the Milky Way is looming up. It rises higher through the night and crosses straight overhead around 3 a.m.The June solstice occurs at 6:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. This is when the Sun reaches its northernmost point in the sky for the year and begins its six-month return south. Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere, where today is the longest day. In the Southern Hemisphere, this is the start of winter and the longest night.

The Night Sky

Sky & Telescope

Sunday, June 22What is the oldest thing you've ever seen? The Earth, Sun, Moon, and planets are 4.6 billion years old. The age record for people who occasionally glance at the sky might be Arcturus, about 7 billion years old.But with a pair of binoculars, you can pick up the 7.2-magnitude star HD 140283 in Libra, the constellation that houses Saturn these evenings. This star is in competition for the title of the oldest known, with an age recently measured at about 13 billion years. That means it formed just several hundred million years after the Big Bang. Spot it using the finder chart with Gary Seronik's Binocular Highlight column in the June Sky & Telescope, page 45. This is almost certainly the oldest thing you will ever see.

Monday, June 23Can you still see Jupiter in the sunset? Look low in the west-northwest about 45 minutes after sundown. If the air is clear it shouldn't be hard. Jupiter is heading away into conjunction with the Sun.

Moon and Venus at Dawn Tuesday. The waning crescent Moon forms a beautiful close pair with Venus in Tuesday's dawn, as seen from the Americas. Look low in the east, as shown at the top of this page. Look early enough, and you can see the Pleiades to their upper right. From other longitudes around the world, the Moon and Venus appear farther apart at the local time of dawn.

ISS Sighting Opportunities

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

ISS For Denver:

Date VisibleMax

Height Appears Disappears

Fri Jun 20, 10:06 PM 3 min 43°21 above WNW

29 above S

Sat Jun 21, 9:17 PM 4 min 84°45 above WNW

13 above SE

Sun Jun 22, 10:04 PM

3 min 15° 11 above W 13 above SSW

Mon Jun 23, 9:15 PM 4 min 27° 18 above W 10 above SSE

NASA-TV Highlights

(all times Eastern Daylight Time)

Friday, June 20 – 1 p.m., Replay of NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Update (all channels)4 p.m., Replay of Orion Flight Test Prelaunch Progress Event at the Kennedy Space Center (6/18/14) (all channels) Monday, June 2310 a.m., “Fifty Years after the Landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964: ”Impact on the Nation and NASA” (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-2 (Education))11 a.m, Space Station Live (NTV-3 (Media))

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar

JPL Space Calendar

Jun 19 - [Jun 16] Deimos 2/ KazEOSat 2/ SkySat 3/ AprizeSat 9 & 10/ UniSat 6/ Perseus-M1 & M2/ QB50P1/ QB50P2/ Tigrisat/ Duchifat 1/ TabletSat-Aurora/ BugSat 1/ SaudiSat 4/ Hodoyoshi 3/ Hodoyoshi 4/ BRITE-Toronto/BRITE-Montreal/QuadPack 1 & 2/AeroCube 6/ANTELSAT/Lemur 1/Serpens/NanoSatC-Br 1 Dnepr Launch Jun 19 - Asteroid 719 Albert Closest Approach To Earth (1.337 AU) Jun 19 - Asteroid 8146 Jimbell Closest Approach To Earth (2.364 AU) Jun 20 - [Jun 14] Orbcomm 2 (FM45-FM50) Falcon 9 Launch Jun 20 - Comet 87P/Bus At Opposition (1.456 AU) Jun 20 - Comet 15P/Finlay Closest Approach To Earth (1.626 AU) Jun 20 - Comet C/2012 LP26 (Palomar) At Opposition (6.200 AU) Jun 20 - Asteroid 37655 Illapa Closest Approach To Earth (1.113 AU) Jun 20 - Asteroid 51828 Ilanramon Closest Approach To Earth (2.125 AU) Jun 20 - Ilan Ramon's 60th Birthday (1954) Jun 21 - Summer Solstice, 10:51 UT Jun 21 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #383 (OTM-383) Jun 21 - Comet C/2012 K8 (Lemmon) Closest Approach To Earth (6.120 AU) Jun 21 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults TYC 0853-00204-1 (10.1 Magnitude Star) Jun 21 - Asteroid 9620 Ericidle Closest Approach To Earth (1.573 AU) Jun 21 - Asteroid 6433 Enya Closest Approach To Earth (1.715 AU) Jun 22 - Comet 61P/Shajn-Schaldach At Opposition (2.661 AU) Jun 22 - Comet 224P/LINEAR-NEAT At Opposition (3.303 AU) Jun 22 - Asteroid 6063 Jason Closest Approach To Earth (1.508 AU) Jun 22 - Asteroid 2118 Flagstaff Closest Approach To Earth (2.064 AU) Jun 23 - Comet 294P/LINEAR At Opposition (0.855 AU) Jun 23 - Asteroid 35334 Yarkovsky Closest Approach To Earth (2.112 AU) Jun 23 - Asteroid 1489 Attila Closest Approach To Earth (2.158 AU) Jun 23 - Centaur Object 944 Hidalgo At Opposition (7.852 AU) Jun 23 - 5th Anniversary (2009), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Lunar Orbit Insertion

Food for ThoughtFive Things We’ll Learn from Orion’s First Flight Test

Space Image of the Week

Necklaces of Solar Activity