Space News Update- October 5, 2012 -

In the News

Story 1: NASA's Infrared Observatory Measures Expansion of Universe

Story 2: Curiosity gets the scoop on Mars

Story 3: NASA Aims to Trim Giant Deep-Space Rocket's Cost

Departments

The Night SkyISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV HighlightsSpace CalendarFood for Thought

Space Image of the Week

NASA's Infrared Observatory Measures Expansion of Universe

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Curiosity gets the scoop on Mars

NASA Aims to Trim Giant Deep-Space Rocket's Cost

The Night Sky

Friday, October 5· Lots of Jupiter happenings late tonight! Jupiter comes up over the east-northeast horizon around 9 or 10 tonight (depending on where you live), followed a half hour later by the nearly last-quarter Moon. They climb the sky together as night grows late, as shown here.· Jupiter's satellite Ganymede slowly disappears into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow at 12:32 a.m. EDT tonight, a little west of the planet. It then emerges from eclipse at 2:31 a.m. EDT even closer to the planet's edge, and finally disappears behind the edge at 5:29 a.m. EDT — just as Io is now fading into eclipse! Subtract 3 hours to get PDT. A small telescope will be all you need.Before all this, Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross the planet's central meridian around 11:47 p.m. EDT. For all of Jupiter's satellite events and Great Red Spot transits this month, good worldwide, see "Action at Jupiter" in theOctober Sky & Telescope, page 53.

The Night Sky

Saturday, Oct. 6· The bright eclipsing variable star Algol should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 11:32 p.m. EDT (8:32 p.m. PDT). Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. Click on the chart at right.Glance up at Algol at any random time, and you have a 1 in 30 chance of catching it at least 1 magnitude fainter than normal.Sunday, October 7· Vega remains very high in the west after nightfall this week. Look for fainter stars of the little constellation Lyra extending to its left, by roughly a fist-width at arm's length.· Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross the planet's central meridian tonight around 1:25 a.m. EDT.Monday, October 8· Even as the stars begin to come out in twilight, Cassiopeia is already higher in the northeast now than the sinking Big Dipper is in the northwest. Cassiopeia's broad W pattern is standing on end.

ISS Sighting Opportunities

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

For Denver:

SATELLITE LOCAL DURATIONMAX ELEV

APPROACH DEPARTURE

DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

ISS Fri Oct 05/05:46 AM 2 22 22 above SSW 10 above S

ISS Mon Oct 08/07:58 PM 1 18 11 above S 18 above S

ISS Mon Oct 01/05:45 AM 3 39 12 above NW 34 above ENE

ISS Fri Oct 05/05:46 AM 2 22 22 above SSW 10 above S

NASA-TV Highlights

Watch NASA TV on the Net by going to NASA website.

October 6, Saturday3 p.m. - NASA Science Briefing - KSC (All Channels)6 p.m. - SpaceX CRS-1/Dragon Pre-Launch Briefing - KSC (All Channels)

October 7, Sunday7 p.m. - Launch Coverage for the SpaceX/Dragon CRS-1 Mission to the International Space Station (Launch scheduled at 8:35 p.m. ET) - KSC (All Channels)10 p.m. – SpaceX/Dragon CRS-1 Post-Launch News Conference – KSC (All Channels)

Space Calendar

Oct 05 - Moon Occults JupiterOct 05 - European Southern Observatory's (ESO) 50th Birthday (1962)Oct 05 - Robert Goddard's 130th Birthday (1882)Oct 06 - Mercury Passes 3.5 Degrees From SaturnOct 06 - Comet 76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura Closest Approach To Earth (1.806 AU)Oct 06 - Asteroid 2009 TK Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU)Oct 06 - Asteroid 1604 Tombaugh Closest Approach To Earth (1.784 AU)Oct 06 - Asteroid 3317 Paris Closest Approach To Earth (4.312 AU)Oct 07 - [Oct 04] Dragon CRS-1/ Orbcomm 2-1/ CU-Sat 1 & 2 Falcon 9 Launch (International Space Station)Oct 07 - Moon Occults Asteroid 1 CeresOct 07 - Comet P/2005 T2 (Christensen) Perihelion (2.209 AU)Oct 07 - Comet C/2011 S1 (Gibbs) Closest Approach To Earth (6.158 AU)Oct 07 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults HIP 80159 (8.4 Magnitude Star)Oct 07 - Asteroid 241 Germania Closest Approach To Earth (1.791 AU)Oct 08 - Comet C/2009 F4 (McNaught) Closest Approach To Earth (5.536 AU)Oct 08 - Asteroid 2975 Spahr Closest Approach To Earth (1.470 AU)Oct 08 - 20th Anniversary (1992), Pioneer Venus' Burnup in Venus' Atmosphere

JPL Space Calendar

SpaceX Dragon at Cape Canaveral launch site. Launch is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 7, 6:35 p.m. MDT.

Food for Thought

1,000 mph Land Speed Record Car Fires Up Its Engines

Space Image of the Week

Credit and copyright: Stefan Christmann.