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Space News Update
- April 1, 2016 In the News
Story 1:
Spitzer Maps Climate Patterns on a Super-Earth
Story 2:
Another Impact on Jupiter?
Story 3:
ALMA's most detailed image of a protoplanetary disc
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
Spitzer Maps Climate Patterns on a
Super-Earth
Another Impact on Jupiter?
ALMA's most detailed image of a
protoplanetary disc
The Night Sky
Friday, April 1
• Spring is here! Which means Arcturus shines brightly in the east, though still
not high. The Big Dipper, high in the northeast, points its curving handle to the
lower right down toward it. Jupiter shines very high far to Arcturus's upper right.
Arcturus forms the pointy end of a long, narrow kite pattern formed by the
brightest stars of Bootes, the Cowherd. The kite is currently lying on its side to
Arcturus's left. The head of the kite, at the far left, is bent slightly upward. The
kite is 23° long, about two fist-widths at arm's length.
• This evening, telescope users along a narrow path from the
Seattle/Vancouver area to Arkansas can watch for a 9.5-magnitude star
(located 10° northwest of the Pleiades) to disappear for up to 9 seconds behind
the invisibly faint asteroid 2892 Filipenko. Track map and finder charts for the
shadow path across the US, the star to be occulted, and times.
Saturday, April 2
• This is the time of year when Arcturus shines just as high in the east as Sirius,
the brighter Winter Star, shines in the southwest (as seen from mid-northern
latitudes).
Sunday, April 3
• Draw a line from Castor through Pollux and follow it farther out by a big 26°
(about 2½ fist-widths at arm's length). You're at the dim head of Hydra, the Sea
Serpent. In a dark sky it's a subtle but distinctive asterism about the size of
your thumb at arm's length. Through light pollution, binoculars show it easily.
Monday, April 4
• Double shadow transit on Jupiter for telescope users in central and western
North America. From 2:37 to 3:19 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, both Io and
Europa cast their shadows onto the planet.
Tuesday, April 5
• The huge, bright Winter Hexagon is still in good view at nightfall, filling the sky to the southwest and west. Start with brilliant Sirius
in the southwest, the Hexagon's lower left corner. High above Sirius is Procyon. From there look even higher for Pollux and Castor,
lower right from Castor to Menkalinen and bright Capella, lower left to Aldebaran, lower left to Rigel at the bottom of Orion, and
back to Sirius.
Sky & Telescope
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Fri Apr 1, 8:19 PM
6 min
67°
10° above WSW
10° above NE
Fri Apr 1, 9:58 PM
< 1 min
14°
14° above NW
14° above NNW
Sat Apr 2, 9:06 PM
3 min
20°
20° above NW
11° above NNE
Sun Apr 3, 8:14 PM
3 min
31°
30° above NW
11° above NE
Sun Apr 3, 9:50 PM
1 min
11°
10° above NNW
11° above N
Mon Apr 4, 8:58 PM
2 min
14°
13° above NNW
10° above NNE
Tue Apr 5, 8:05 PM
3 min
18°
18° above NNW
10° above NNE
Tue Apr 5, 9:43 PM
< 1 min
10°
10° above N
10° above N
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Time Zone)
1 p.m., Saturday, April 2 - Coverage of the Docking of the ISS Progress 63 Cargo Craft to the ISS (Docking
scheduled at 2 p.m. ET) (Starts at 1:15 p.m.) (all channels)
2 p.m., Monday, April 4 - NASA TV Presents “Earth Expeditions” Episode 1 - This Year NASA Takes You on
a Six-Month World Tour with Major New Field Research Campaigns to Study Regions of Critical Change from
the Land, Sea and… Air (all channels)
3:30 p.m., Monday, April 4 - NASA TV Presents “Earth Expeditions” Episode 1 - This Year NASA Takes You
on a Six-Month World Tour with Major New Field Research Campaigns to Study Regions of Critical Change
from the Land, Sea and… Air (all channels)
7:30 p.m., Monday, April 4 - NASA TV Presents “Earth Expeditions” Episode 1 - This Year NASA Takes You
on a Six-Month World Tour with Major New Field Research Campaigns to Study Regions of Critical Change
from the Land, Sea and… Air (all channels)
10 p.m., Monday, April 4 - NASA TV Presents “Earth Expeditions” Episode 1 - This Year NASA Takes You
on a Six-Month World Tour with Major New Field Research Campaigns to Study Regions of Critical Change
from the Land, Sea and… Air (all channels)
11:30 p.m., Monday, April 4 - NASA TV Presents “Earth Expeditions” Episode 1 - This Year NASA Takes
You on a Six-Month World Tour with Major New Field Research Campaigns to Study Regions of Critical
Change from the Land, Sea and… Air (all channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website
Space Calendar
Apr 01 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #445 (OTM-445)
Apr 01 - Comet 233P/La Sagra Closest Approach To Earth (1.762 AU)
Apr 01 - Comet 110P/Hartley Closest Approach To Earth (2.567 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults TYC 4991-00651-1 (11.9 Magnitude Star)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 1159 Granada Closest Approach To Earth (1.429 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 7495 Feynman Closest Approach To Earth (1.520 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 39566 Carllewis Closest Approach To Earth (1.769 AU)
Apr 01 - Asteroid 14702 Benclark Closest Approach To Earth (2.111 AU)
Apr 01-03 - [Mar 31] Contact 2016 Conference, Sunnyvale, California
Apr 02 - Comet 100P/Hartley Perihelion (2.011 AU)
Apr 02 - Comet 106P/Schuster At Opposition (3.716 AU)
Apr 02 - Comet 84P/Giclas At Opposition (4.249 AU)
Apr 02 - [Mar 31] Apollo Asteroid 2016 FV7 Near-Earth Flyby (0.056 AU)
Apr 02 - Asteroid 18458 Caesar Closest Approach To Earth (1.003 AU)
Apr 02 - Asteroid 2046 Leningrad Closest Approach To Earth (2.706 AU)
Apr 02 - 80th Anniversary (1936), Yurtuk Meteorite Fall (Hit House in Ukraine)
Apr 02 - Clement Ader's 175th Birthday (1841)
Apr 03 - Comet 333P/LINEAR Perihelion (1.116 AU)
Apr 03 - Comet P/2009 Q4 (Boattini) Closest Approach To Earth (2.071 AU)
Apr 03 - [Mar 31] Apollo Asteroid 2016 FX7 Near-E arth Flyby (0.026 AU)
Apr 03 - Aten Asteroid 2008 FX6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.070 AU)
Apr 03 - Asteroid 13609 Lewicki Closest Approach To Earth (1.600 AU)
Apr 03 - Gus Grissom's 90th Birthday (1926)
Apr 03 - Hermann Vogel's 175th Birthday (1841)
Apr 04 - [Mar 29] Cassini, Titan Flyby
Apr 04 - Asteroid 5748 Davebrin Closest Approach To Earth (1.698 AU)
Apr 04 - Asteroid 886 Washingtonia Closest Approach To Earth (3.035 AU)
Apr 05 - Comet P/2003 T12 (SOHO) Closest Approach To Earth (1.347 AU)
Apr 05 - Comet P/2015 B4 (Lemmon-PANSTARRS) At Opposition (3.606 AU)
Apr 05 - Comet C/2015 B1 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (5.044 AU)
Apr 05 - Asteroid 29470 Higgs Closest Approach To Earth (1.413 AU)
Apr 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 2014 FT71 At Opposition (46.874 AU)
JPL Space Calendar
Food for Thought
BEAM Inflatable Habitat to Launch to Space Station Next Week
Space Image of the Week
HERSCHEL REVEALS A RIBBON OF FUTURE STARS
Credit: ESA/Herschel/SPIRE/M. Juvela (U. Helsinki, Finland)