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what's up for March bright Saturn and a

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faint asteroid named leticia hello and

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welcome I'm Jane Houston Jones at NASA's

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena

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California this month Saturn is at

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opposition which is when the Sun is on

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one side of the earth and Saturn is

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directly on the opposite side Saturn is

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brightest at opposition and it's also as

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close to Earth as it ever gets in its

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orbit you can view Saturn all night long

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now it rises in the east at sunset and

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sets in the west at dawn if you face

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east in the late evening you can see two

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planets near the distinctive

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constellation Leo first look nearly

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overhead that reddish object you see up

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there is mars closer to the horizon the

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bright golden-hued object is Saturn

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Saturn is well placed for viewing from

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now through july this year Saturn's

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rings are slightly inclined they were

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tilted four degrees in January they'll

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dip to nearly edge-on in June and then

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tip up to 10 degrees by year-end the

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solar system was a violent place to

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start with there were many crashes in

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which small bodies broke into pieces and

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reformed the study of asteroids helps us

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understand a lot more about the early

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solar system history of the millions of

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asteroids in our solar system only a few

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have been observed up close near the

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middle of the constellation Leo is the

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challenging to see and faint main-belt

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asteroid 21 latisha you'll need a good

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star chart and a medium to large

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telescope plus dark skies to glimpse

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this small 12th magnitude asteroid

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if you don't see Leticia that's okay

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because the European Space Agency's

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Rosetta spacecraft will pay its second

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visit to this interesting object in July

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passing within three thousand kilometers

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of the asteroid rosetta had its first

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look at Leticia in January of 2007 the

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Osiris camera imaged the asteroid

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passing through its field of view during

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the spacecraft's approach to Mars for a

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gravity assist Rosetta's instruments

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will collect enough information to

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create a resume of the asteroids past

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where it was born how it got started on

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its asteroid career and if there were

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any mid-course Corrections the Cassini

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spacecraft has been studying Saturn it's

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rings and moons since arriving in 2004

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Cassini's seven years solstice mission

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extension to the year 2017 presents an

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opportunity to follow the seasonal

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changes of an outer planet all the way

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from its winter to its summer during its

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155 orbits around Saturn including 55

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flybys of the moon Titan Cassini will

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fly by the icy moon Enceladus 11 more

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times you can learn more about Cassini

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and other NASA missions at WWDC gov the

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NASA contribution to esa's rosetta

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mission can be found at rosetta JPL nasa

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gov that's all for this month I'm Jane