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Space News Update
- January 6, 2015 In the News
Story 1:
Kepler Candidate Planets Searched for Signs of Intelligent Life
Story 2:
SpaceX to Try Daring Rocket Landing on Ocean Platform Tuesday: Watch It Live
Story 3:
In an eerie scene, Chinese villagers visit rocket crash site
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
NASA-TV Highlights
Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
Kepler Candidate Planets Searched for
Signs of Intelligent Life
SpaceX to Try Daring Rocket Landing on
Ocean Platform Tuesday: Watch It Live
In an eerie scene, Chinese villagers visit
rocket crash site
The Night Sky
Tuesday, January 6
Watch lower left of the Moon for Jupiter and then Regulus to
rise in early evening. In early evening at this time of year,
the Great Square of Pegasus balances on one corner high in
the west. The vast Andromeda-Pegasus constellation
complex runs all the way from near the zenith (Andromeda's
foot) down through the Great Square (Pegasus's body)
almost to the western horizon (Pegasus's nose).
Wednesday, January 7
This evening you can finally see Comet Lovejoy in a
moonlight-free sky again — if you look within an hour or so
after dark. The comet is closest to Earth tonight, and it's also
entering its brightest two weeks at 5th or 4th magnitude.
The waning gibbous Moon rises about an hour after
darkness is complete. Brilliant Jupiter shines to its left, as
shown above. Although they look close together, Jupiter is
1,660 times farther away than the Moon — and 40 times
larger in diameter. Algol is at minimum light for a couple
hours centered on 8:56 p.m. EST. Mercury and Venus at
their closest together, Jan.10, 2015. Catch Mercury and
Venus shining closest together this as twilight fades on
Saturday evening the 10th. Little Mars looks on from their
upper left.
Thursday, January 8
Mercury and Venus are within 1° of each other, low in the
southwest in evening twilight, from now through next
Monday. Think photo opportunity! Mercury, Venus, and
Mars are all on the far side of the Sun from us now.
Friday, January 9
In this coldest time of the year, the dim Little Dipper hangs
straight down from Polaris after dinnertime.
Saturday, January 10
This evening Venus and Mercury are at their closest together
low in the sunset, 0.7° apart. Look for them above the
southwest horizon about 45 minutes after sundown. Bright
Capella high overhead, and bright Rigel in Orion's foot, are at
almost the same right ascension — so they cross your sky’s
meridian at almost the same time (around 10 p.m. now,
depending on how far east or west you live in your time
zone). This means that whenever Capella passes its very
highest, Rigel will always mark true south over your
landscape. Capella goes exactly through your zenith if you're
at latitude 46° north.
Sky & Telescope
ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Wed Jan 7, 6:09 AM
Thu Jan 8, 5:19 AM
Thu Jan 8, 6:55 AM
Fri Jan 9, 4:31 AM
Fri Jan 9, 6:04 AM
Sat Jan 10, 5:16 AM
Sat Jan 10, 6:49 AM
6 min
2 min
3 min
< 1 min
5 min
2 min
5 min
46°
24°
36°
11°
64°
44°
20°
11
15
12
11
22
44
10
above
above
above
above
above
above
above
Disappears
SSW
S
W
ESE
WSW
ENE
WNW
11
23
36
11
11
10
10
above
above
above
above
above
above
above
ENE
ESE
NW
ESE
NE
ENE
NNE
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Daylight Time)
5 a.m., Tuesday, January 6 - Coverage of the Launch of the SpaceX/Dragon CRS-5 Cargo Ship to
the ISS (all channels)
7:45 a.m., Tuesday, January 6 - SpaceX/Dragon CRS-5 Post-Launch News Conference – KSC (all
channels)
9:15 a.m., Tuesday, January 6 - ISS Expedition 42 In-Flight Interviews with the Associated Press
and KGO-TV, San Francisco (all channels)
4:30 a.m., Thursday, January 8 - Coverage of the Rendezvous and Grapple of the SpaceX/Dragon
CRS-5 Cargo Ship at the ISS (Grapple scheduled at appx. 6 a.m. ET) (all channels)
8:15 a.m., Thursday, January 8 - Coverage of the Installation of the SpaceX/Dragon CRS-5 Cargo
Ship to the ISS (all channels)
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website
Space Calendar
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[Jan 04] CRS-5 Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS)/ AggieSat 4/ Bevo 2/ SERPENS Falcon 9R Launch (International Space Station)
Comet 116P/Wild Closest Approach To Earth (2.233 AU)
Comet 180P/NEAT Closest Approach To Earth (2.259 AU)
Comet C/2014 Q6 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (4.223 AU)
Asteroid 6592 Goya Closest Approach To Earth (1.463 AU)
Asteroid 3752 Camillo Closest Approach To Earth (1.711 AU)
Asteroid 13752 Grantstokes Closest Approach To Earth (1.824 AU)
Asteroid 2329 Orthos Closest Approach To Earth (2.594 AU)
30th Anniversary (1985), La Criolla Meteorite Fall (Hit House in Argentina)
[Jan 01] Liisi Oterma's 100th Birthday (1915)
Jacques Etienne Montgolfier's 270th Birthday (1745)
Jacob Bernoulli's 360th Birthday (1655)
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) Closest Approach To Earth (0.469 AU)
Comet P/2014 U2 (Kowalski) At Opposition (0.624 AU)
Comet P/2014 X1 (Elenin) Perihelion (1.815 AU)
Comet C/2014 W3 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (5.481 AU)
Asteroid 2999 Dante Closest Approach To Earth (1.054 AU)
Asteroid 4559 Strauss Closest Approach To Earth (2.099 AU)
30th Anniversary (1985), Sakigake Launch, Japan Comet Halley Mission
405th Anniversary (1610), Galileo Galilei's Discovery of Jupiter's Moons Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto
Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #400 (OTM-400)
Comet 132P/Helin-Roman-Alu Closest Approach To Earth (1.801 AU)
Comet 187P/LINEAR At Opposition (4.087 AU)
Comet C/2013 W2 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (4.448 AU)
Comet C/2012 U1 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (4.982 AU)
Asteroid 34803 (2001 SW63) Occults HIP 41822 (5.4 Magnitude Star)
Asteroid 2010 AN61 Near-Earth Flyby (0.075 AU)
Asteroid 6135 Billowen Closest Approach To Earth (1.462 AU)
Gyula Fenyi's 170th Birthday (1845)
255th Anniversary (1760), Great Comet of 1760 Near-Earth Flyby (26.5 Lunar Distance)
Comet 106P/Schuster Closest Approach To Earth (1.509 AU)
Comet C/2014 J1 (Catalina) Closest Approach To Earth (1.959 AU)
Comet P/2012 O2 (McNaught) At Opposition (4.294 AU)
Comet 186P/Garradd At Opposition (4.558 AU)
Asteroid 2014 YZ8 Near-Earth Flyby (0.077 AU)
Asteroid 9781 Jubjubbird Closest Approach To Earth (1.899 AU)
Asteroid 4511 Rembrandt Closest Approach To Earth (2.089 AU)
25th Anniversary (1990), STS-32 Space Shuttle Columbia Launch (LDEF Satellite)
Comet P/2013 T1 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (3.752 AU)
Comet C/2014 B1 (Schwartz) At Opposition (10.064 AU)
Asteroid 2127 Tanya Closest Approach To Earth (2.339 AU)
JPL Space Calendar
Asteroid 1132 Hollandia Closest Approach To Earth (2.440 AU)
Food for Thought
How Did We Find the Distance to the Sun?
Space Image of the Week
At the Heart of Orion
Image Credit & Copyright: László Francsics