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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 Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space 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
Friday, June 20
This 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 21
If 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.
Sky & Telescope
The Night Sky
Sunday, June 22
What 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 23
Can you still see Jupiter in the sunset? Look low in the westnorthwest 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.
Sky & Telescope
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max
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
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
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 23
10 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
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
JPL Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Five Things We’ll Learn from Orion’s First Flight Test
Space Image of the Week
Necklaces of Solar Activity