Space News Update - May 11, In the News Story 1: Story 1: NASA Dawn Mission Reveals Secrets of Large Asteroid Story 2: Story 2: Hidden Alien Planet Revealed by Its Own Gravity Story 3: Story 3: Surprise! IBEX Finds No Bow ‘Shock’ Outside our Solar System Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

NASA Dawn Mission Reveals Secrets of Large Asteroid

Hidden Alien Planet Revealed by Its Own Gravity

Surprise! IBEX Finds No Bow ‘Shock’ Outside our Solar System

The Night Sky Friday, May 11 · Brilliant Venus is dropping lower in the west- northwest every evening this month. A telescope shows it enlarging and waning in phase, as shown here; it's swinging ever closer to the line between us and the Sun. Look a little to its right for the much fainter star Beta Tauri (not shown here). As of tonight the planet and star are 1½° apart. Saturday, May 12 · Last-quarter Moon (exact at 5:47 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). The Moon rises in the middle of the night, looking lopsided and awkward in dim Aquarius. Sunday, May 13 · Use Venus, the bright landmark point in the west- northwest at dusk, to identify stars in the May twilight. Capella is to Venus's upper right. Pollux and Castor are farther to Venus's upper left, and Procyon is lower left of Pollux. These four stars form the enormous Twilight Arch of Spring. Monday, May 14 · The pair of points you'll find shining fairly high in the southeast at nightfall are Saturn and (to its lower right) Spica. Look to their lower right for the four-star pattern of Corvus, the Crow. Look farther to their upper left for brighter Arcturus, the "Spring Star."

ISS Sighting Opportunities Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting InformationSatellite Sighting Information For Denver: SATELLITELOCALDURATION MAX ELEV APPROACHDEPARTURE DATE/TIME(MIN)(DEG)(DEG-DIR) No Sightings for Denver until Friday, May 18th.

NASA-TV Highlights Watch NASA TV on the Net by going to NASA website.NASA website May 11, Friday 12 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 31/32 Crew Activities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan - JSC (Public and Media Channels) 4 p.m. - Replay of Video File of the ISS Expedition 31/32 Crew Activities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan - HQ (Public and Media Channels) 5 p.m. - Replay of NASA Science News Conference -- Dawn Asteroid Global View - HQ (Public and Education Channels) May 13, Sunday 12 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 31/32 Soyuz TMA-04M Rocket Mating and Rollout to the Launch Pad in Baikonur, Kazakhstan - JSC (Public and Media Channels) May 14, Monday 12 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 31/32 Final Pre-Launch Crew News Conference and Russian State Commission Meeting in Baikonur, Kazakhstan - JSC (Public and Media Channels) 10 p.m. - ISS Expedition 31/32 Soyuz TMA-04M Launch Coverage (Launch scheduled at 11:01 p.m. ET; includes video B-roll of the crew's pre-launch activities and launch replays at 10:15 p.m. ET) - JSC via Baikonur, Kazakhstan (All Channels)

Space Calendar May 11 - Comet C/2012 H2 (McNaught) Closest Approach To Earth (1.653 AU) May 11 - Asteroid 28 Bellona Occults HIP (6.5 Magnitude Star) May 11 - Asteroid 1420 Radcliffe Occults HIP (6.8 Magnitude Star) May 11 - Asteroid 2012 HB25 Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU) May 11 - Asteroid 2005 SQ9 Near-Earth Flyby (0.085 AU) May 11 - Asteroid 6135 Billowen Closest Approach To Earth (1.169 AU) May 13 - Comet 60P/Tsuchinshan Perihelion (1.618 AU) May 13 - Asteroid 6470 Cronkite Closest Approach To Earth (1.583 AU) May 13 - Asteroid 3125 Hay Closest Approach To Earth (1.679 AU) May 14 - [May 09] Soyuz TMA-04M Soyuz FG Launch (International Space Station 30S) May 14 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #321 (OTM-321) May 14 - Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro Closest Approach To Earth (1.863 AU) May 14 - Comet P/2011 FR143 (Lemmon) Closest Approach To Earth (3.519 AU) May 14 - Asteroid 3850 Peltier Closest Approach To Earth (1.265 AU) May 14 - Asteroid Nagano Closest Approach To Earth (1.387 AU) May 14 - Asteroid Apache Point Closest Approach To Earth (1.486 AU) May 14 - Asteroid 7273 Garyhuss Closest Approach To Earth (2.131 AU) May 14 - Asteroid 2069 Hubble Closest Approach To Earth (2.369 AU) May 14 - Asteroid Germantitov Closest Approach To Earth (2.425 AU) May 14 - Asteroid 9661 Hohmann Closest Approach To Earth (3.202 AU) JPL Space Calendar

Food for Thought End of the World Averted: New Archeological Find Proves Mayan Calendar Doesn’t End

Space Image of the Week Credit: Russia’s Elektro-L weather-forecasting satellite