Space News Update- March 7, 2014 -

In the News

Story 1: Hubble Telescope Watches Asteroid Disintegrate in Space

Story 2:Bolden downplays impact of Ukraine crisis on NASA

Story 3: Mystery of Planet-forming Disks Explained by Magnetism

Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

Space CalendarNASA-TV Highlights

Food for ThoughtSpace Image of the Week

Hubble Telescope Watches Asteroid Disintegrate in Space

Bolden downplays impact of Ukraine crisis on NASA

Mystery of Planet-forming Disks Explained by Magnetism

The Night Sky

Sky & Telescope

Friday, March 7 Look below the Moon this evening for orange Aldebaran, an orange giant star 65 light-years from Earth. Far off to their left is Betelgeuse in the top of Orion. Less far to their right are the Pleiades.

Saturday, March 8 As the stars begin to come out, the first-quarter Moon shines above Orion standing in the south. Daylight-saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday morning for most of North America. Clocks spring forward an hour.

Sunday, March 9 Jupiter shines above the Moon this evening, as shown above. Although they look fairly close together, Jupiter is almost 1,800 times farther away — and 40 times larger in diameter. Episode 1 of the reborn Cosmos series airs tonight (Fox network, 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 Central).

Monday, March 10 The Moon forms a distorted rectangle with Jupiter, Castor, and Pollux this evening. In addition, the Moon and Jupiter form a bent line of three with Procyon to their lower left.

Tuesday, March 11 Late twilight is when Sirius now stands due south, and twilight is also a time when the atmospheric seeing sometimes steadies. So it may be a good time to try to detect the faint white-dwarf companion of Sirius, now 10.2″ east of dazzling Sirius A. 

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 Mar 11, 6:15 AM 3 min 20° 10 above S 19 above ESE

NASA-TV Highlights

(all times Eastern Time Zone)

March 8, Saturday12:40 p.m. - ISS Expedition 38 In-Flight Event with the South x Southwest Conference in Austin, TX - JSC (All Channels)  March 9, Sunday4:55 a.m. - ISS Expedition 38/39 Change of Command Ceremony (Ceremony begins at 5 a.m. EDT; Kotov hands over ISS command to Wakata) - JSC (All Channels)   March 10, Monday4:30 p.m. - ISS Expedition 38 Farewells and Hatch Closure Coverage (hatch closure scheduled at 4:45 p.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)7:45 p.m. - ISS Expedition 38/Soyuz TMA-10M Undocking Coverage (undocking scheduled at 8:02 p.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)10:15 p.m. - ISS Expedition 38/Soyuz TMA-10M Deorbit Burn and Landing Coverage (Deorbit burn scheduled at 10:30 p.m. ET; landing near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan scheduled at 11:24 p.m. ET) - JSC via Kazakhstan (All Channels)  March 11, Tuesday1:30 a.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 38/Soyuz TMA-10M Landing and Post-Landing Activities - HQ (All Channels)2 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 38/Soyuz TMA-10M Landing and Post-Landing Activities; scheduled to include post-landing interviews with Expedition 38 Flight Engineer Mike Hopkins of NASA and the return of Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy to Chkalovsky Airfield near Star City, Russia - JSC (All Channels)

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

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

Space Calendar

JPL Space Calendar

Mar 07 - Comet 52P/Harrington-Abell Perihelion (1.773 AU)Mar 07 - Comet 112P/Urata-Niijima At Opposition (1.894 AU)Mar 07 - Comet P/2010 T2 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (4.589 AU)Mar 07 - [Mar 02] Asteroid 2014 DJ80 Near-Earth Flyby (0.050 AU)Mar 07 - [Mar 07] Asteroid 2014 DH10 Near-Earth Flyby (0.075 AU)Mar 07 - Asteroid 2014 CP13 Near-Earth Flyby (0.079 AU)Mar 07 - Asteroid 9342 Carygrant Closest Approach To Earth (1.673 AU)Mar 07 - Asteroid 43844 Rowling Closest Approach To Earth (2.234 AU)Mar 08 - Comet P/2013 W1 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (1.416 AU)Mar 08 - Asteroid 2013 YR2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.076 AU)Mar 09 - Daylight Saving - Set Clock Ahead 1 Hour (United States)Mar 09 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults 2UCAC 30015632 (12.2 Magnitude Star)Mar 09 - Asteroid 357622 (2005 EY95) Near-Earth Flyby (0.068 AU)Mar 09 - Asteroid 163693 Atira Closest Approach To Earth (1.040 AU)Mar 09 - Asteroid 4252 Godwin Closest Approach To Earth (1.439 AU)Mar 09 - Asteroid 4337 Arecibo Closest Approach To Earth (2.089 AU)Mar 09 - Yuri Gagarin's 80th Birthday (1934)Mar 10 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #374 (OTM-374)Mar 10 - Comet C/2014 C2 (STEREO) Closest Approach To Earth (0.643 AU)Mar 10 - Asteroid 425 Cornelia Occults HIP 14514 (6.1 Magnitude Star)Mar 10 - Asteroid 7554 Johnspencer Closest Approach To Earth (1.323 AU)Mar 10 - Asteroid 4628 Laplace Closest Approach To Earth (1.380 AU)Mar 10 - Asteroid 9937 Triceratops Closest Approach To Earth (1.854 AU)Mar 10 - Asteroid 8353 Megryan Closest Approach To Earth (1.890 AU)Mar 10 - Asteroid 1143 Odysseus Closest Approach To Earth (4.073 AU)Mar 11 - [Mar 07] Uragan-M #42 (GLONASS-M, 14F113) Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M LaunchMar 11 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults TYC 4897-01045-1 (11.9 Magnitude Star)Mar 11 - Asteroid 275677 (2000 RS11) Near-Earth Flyby (0.035 AU)Mar 11 - Asteroid 10957 Alps Closest Approach To Earth (2.141 AU) 

Food for Thought

If the Moon Were Only One Pixel: a Scale Model of the Solar System

Space Image of the Week

NGC 1333 Stardust Image Credit & Copyright: Al Howard