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Excerpts from JPL mission updates are provided as a public service as part |
Background screen credits:NGC5775 -Imaged March 21/22, 2001 using the 16" Kitt Peak Visitors Center telescope as part of the Advanced Observing Program.
| Planetary Highlights for April - Early this month, look for Mercury and Venus together in the evening sky soon after sunset. In the south, look for Mars as the brightest object in the constellation of Cancer the Crab. Just before dawn, watch Saturn set in the west as Jupiter rises in the east. Near the end of the month, look for Neptune rising at the tail end of the constellation of Capricornus near the approximate position that it was discovered in 1846. | |
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Mercury - 
Is at greatest eastern elongation (19° above the western horizon) on the 8th. Mercury is stationary on the 18th. Mercury is in inferior conjunction on the 28th. Look for Mercury in the evening sky early in the month. Mercury sets about 7:51 p.m. on the 1st and disappears into the twilight glow about midmonth. Mercury moves from the constellation of Pisces into Aries this month shining at magnitude 1.2. |
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Venus - Has returned to the evening sky this month setting soon after sunset. Look for Mercury and Venus within 3° of each other during the first week of April. Venus sets at 7:59 p.m. on the 1st and about 10:10 p.m. by month's end. Venus will appear higher and higher in the southwest as the month progresses. Venus moves from the constellation of Aries into Taurus this month shining at magnitude -3.9. |
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Earth - N/A. |
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Mars - 
Sets at 3:08 a.m. on the 1st and about 2:35 a.m. by month's end. Mars is in the constellation of Cancer shining at magnitude 0.4. |
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Jupiter - Has returned to the morning sky this month. Jupiter rises about 4:52 a.m. on the 1st and about 4:10 a.m. by month's end. Look for Jupiter low in the east before sunrise. Jupiter is in the constellation of Aquarius shining at magnitude -2.1. |
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Saturn - 
Rises at 5:14 p.m. on the 1st and about 4:07 p.m. by month's end. Look for Saturn in the evening in the east. Saturn should be high enough above the eastern horizon to be visible soon after sunset. Saturn is visible for most of the night. Saturn is in the constellation of Virgo shining at magnitude 0.5. |
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Uranus - Has returned to the morning sky, trailing Jupiter by less than a half hour. Uranus rises at 5:15 a.m. on the 1st and about 4:21 a.m. by month's end. Uranus is in the constellation of Pisces shining at magnitude 5.9. |
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Neptune - Can also be found in the morning sky, preceding Jupiter by less than an hour or so. Neptune rises at 4:01 a.m. on the 1st and about 3:05 a.m. by month's end. Neptune is in the constellation of Aquarius this month shining at magnitude 7.9. |
Dwarf Planets |
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Ceres - Is stationary on the 7th. Ceres rises at 1:45 a.m. on the 1st and about 11:57 p.m. by month's end. Ceres is in the constellation of Sagittarius this month shining at magnitude 8.4. |
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Pluto - Is stationary on the 6th. Pluto rises at 12:44 a.m. on the 1st and about 11:41 p.m. by month's end. Pluto is in the constellation of Sagittarius shining at magnitude 14.0.
As always, good luck at spotting these two, a large telescope and dark skies will be needed. |
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Meteor Showers
For more information about Meteor Showers, visit Gary Kronk's Meteor Showers Online web page. |
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Comets
Catalina crowns a sparkling star cluster (from Astronomy Magazine, April 2010, p. 42)"Spark your love for observing with an evening cruise to Catalina. All you need to capture Comet C/2009 O2 (Catalina) is a 4-inch telescope under a rural sky. The comet gracefully arcs above the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters on its way to Orion. Make sure it's near the top of your observing list because it sinks quickly into the western horizon haze after darkness falls. Astronomers expect this modest comet to glow around 9th magnitude. That's faint enough that you'll want to schedule your observing around the Moon, which means the first half of April will be prime comet-hunting time. If you return to Catalina the weekend of April 16, the small fuzzball contrasts nicely with the spread-out sparkles of distant star cluster NGC 1647."
For more information about Comets, visit Gary Kronk's Cometography.com webpage. |
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Eclipses
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Ocultations
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Asteroids
(From west to east)
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Observational Opportunities
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Cassini - March 29, 2010 1980s Video Icon Glows on Saturn Moon
 "PASADENA, Calif. -- The highest-resolution-yet temperature map and images of Saturn's icy moon Mimas obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot regions that resemble 'Pac-Man' eating a dot, and striking bands of light and dark in crater walls. "Other moons usually grab the spotlight, but it turns out Mimas is more bizarre than we thought it was," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It has certainly given us some new puzzles." Cassini collected the data on Feb. 13, during its closest flyby of the moon, which is marked by an enormous scar called Herschel Crater and resembles the Death Star from "Star Wars." For the latest mission status reports, visit Cassini Mission Status web page. The speed and location of the spacecraft along its flight path can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" webpage. |
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New Horizons - March 04, 2010 New Horizons Team Sees 'Opportunity' for Public Engagement "Unmanned Spaceflight.com gives its first "Opportunity Award" for public engagement to John Spencer and the New Horizons Jupiter Flyby Planning Team, for seeking and using public suggestions for Kodak-moment imaging opportunities during the New Horizons flyby of Jupiter." For more information on the New Horizons mission - the first mission to the ninth planet - visit the New Horizons home page. |
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Dawn - No new news since November 13, 2009 Dawn Enters Asteroid Belt -- For Good "ASTEROID BELT -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft re-entered our solar system's asteroid belt today, Nov. 13, and this time it will stay there. Dawn first entered the belt (whose lower boundary may be defined as the greatest distance Mars gets from the sun (249,230,000 kilometers, or 154,864,000 miles) in June 2008. It remained within the belt for 40 days before its carefully planned orbital path brought it below the asteroid belt's lower boundary. This time around, Dawn's flight path will remain above this hypothetical lower boundary for the rest of the mission and for the foreseeable future - Dawn will become the first human-made object to take up permanent residence in the asteroid belt." For more information on the Dawn mission, visit the Dawn home page. |
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MESSENGER - March 18, 2010 One Year until Mercury Orbit Insertion "One year from today — starting at 12:45 a.m. UTC — MESSENGER will transition from orbiting the Sun to being the first spacecraft ever to orbit the planet Mercury." For more information on the MESSENGER mission, visit the MESSENGER home page. |
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Pack Your Backpack Calling all explorers! Tour JPL with our new Virtual Field Trip site. Stops include Mission Control and the Rover Lab. Your guided tour starts when you select a "face" that will be yours throughout the visit. Cool space images and souvenirs are all included in your visit. |
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Past, Present, Future and Proposed JPL Missions - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions Visit JPL's mission pages for current status. |
Mars Missions
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Mars Odyssey Orbiter - March 01, 2010 Mars Odyssey Still Hears Nothing From Phoenix "PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander showed no sign during February that it has revived itself after the northern Mars winter. NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will check again in early April. The solar-powered Phoenix lander operated for two months longer than its planned three-month mission in the Martian arctic in 2008. It was not designed to withstand winter conditions. However, in case the return of abundant springtime sunlight to the site does revive Phoenix, Odyssey is conducting three periods of listening for a transmission that Phoenix is programmed to send if it is able. The second listening period, with 60 overflights of the Phoenix site from Feb. 22 to Feb. 26, produced the same result as the first listening period in January: no signal heard." "A simulated fly-through using the newly assembled imagery is available online. The fly-through plus tools for wandering across and zooming into the large image are at THEMIS."
Daily Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images The Odyssey data are available through a new online access system established by the Planetary Data System. Visit the Mars Odyssey Mission page. |
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Mars Exploration Rover Mission (Spirit and Opportunity) - March 24, 2010
SPIRIT UPDATE: Solar Energy Levels Dropping - sols 2204-2210, March 16-22, 2010: "In position for the fourth winter, embedded at "Troy" on the west side of Home Plate, Spirit continues to execute a single seven-sol plan each week, as long as power permits. The seven-sol plan contains a single X-band uplink and a single Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) downlink. The activity on each sol consists simply of a brief wakeup, an atmospheric opacity (tau) measurement, and then a shutdown for the rest of the day and night. The last downlink from the rover was on Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). From that downlink, Spirit was still under master sequence control and all systems were green. Energy production was down to 134 watt-hours per sol. Solar array energy production levels will continue to drop, leading to widening energy deficits and decreases in battery state of charge. The solid-state power amplifier (SSPA), as a proxy for the rover electronics module (REM), reached a new record low temperature of minus 41.5 degrees Celsius (minus 42.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Spirit continues to get colder. A change was noticed on Sol 2203 (March 15, 2010), in the behavior of the battery survival heaters. The implications are not known, but it is being investigated. The plan for this week is to sequence another seven-sol plan to be uplinked this Friday with a single UHF downlink by early next week. Spirit could enter low-power fault at anytime and become quiet for an extended period of time to charge her batteries. As of Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010), the rover solar array energy production was to 134 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.353, as measured on Sol 2209 (March 21, 2010). Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles)." OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: 20 Kilometers and Still Rolling on Mars - sols 2186-2191, March 18-24, 2010: "Opportunity has passed 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) in odometry! She has been driving, driving, driving and driving on the path to Endeavour crater. The rover drove four times in the last week totaling over 260 meters (853 feet) of progress. On Sol 2186 (March 18, 2010), Opportunity, driving backwards to the southwest covered about 64 meters (210 feet) of distance. Next, on Sol 2188 (March 20, 2010), the rover headed south covering almost 71 meters (233 feet). Then, on another drive due south on Sol 2190 (March 22, 2010), the rover covered just over 63 meters (207 feet). With the 67-meter (207-foot) drive on Sol 2191 (March 24, 2010), Opportunity passed 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) of total odometry. Opportunity will rest from driving on Sol 2192 (March 25, 2010), to recharge her batteries. As of Sol 2191 (March 24, 2010), the solar array energy production was 257 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.418. Total odometry is 20,043.30 meters (over 20 kilometers, or 12.43 miles)." Visit the Mars Exploration Rover page. |
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission - March 31, 2010 NASA Mars Spacecraft Snaps Photos Chosen by Public "PASADENA, Calif. -- The most powerful camera aboard a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars has returned the first pictures of locations on the Red Planet suggested by the public. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is nicknamed, "the people's camera." Through a program called HiWish that began in January, scientists have received approximately 1,000 suggestions. The first eight images of areas the public selected are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/images20100331.html."
MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES More information about the MRO mission is available online. |
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Mars Missions Status
New Mars missions are being planned to include several new rover and sample collection missions. Check out the Mars Missions web page and the Mars Exploration page. |
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