5421–5440 of 6,045 results

Astronomy & Observing News

Astro News Briefs: August 16–22

Two New Moons for Saturn August 18, 2004 | Saturn's family just got a little bigger. While examining Cassini images on his laptop computer during vacation, Sebastien Charnoz (University of Paris) discovered two small Saturnian moons, raising the ringed planet's tally to 33. The moons, temporarily designated S/2004 S 1…

Astronomy & Observing News

Sedna's Origin Solved?

An artist's conception of the large object, informally named Sedna, discovered last year at more than twice Pluto's distance from the Sun.Courtesy NASA / JPL / Caltech / R. Hurt. Last year astronomers discovered what’s probably the biggest body found in the solar system since Pluto in 1930, and they…

Astronomy & Observing News

Astro Image in the News:
A Martian Mountain Vista

Spirit is climbing the Columbia Hills and looking down upon Gusev Crater.

Astronomy & Observing News

Astro News Briefs: August 2–8

MARSIS Delayed August 4, 2004 | Europe's Mars Express orbiter completed its formal scientific commissioning on June 3rd, but the mission has run into a problem with one of its main science instruments. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) was set to use long radio waves…

Astronomy & Observing News

Solar Spicule Mystery Solved

Upward jets of gas appear as a 'lawn' of short, dark spicules on the right side of this false-color image, taken in red hydrogen-alpha light on June 16, 2003. This wavelength shows detail in the chromosphere, the lower atmosphere silhouetted on the Sun's bright surface below. Visible at upper left…

Astronomy & Observing News

New Class of Low-luminosity GRBs

The ESA spacecraft XMM-Newton captures an X-ray light echo from gamma-ray burst (GRB) 031203. This GRB, which occurred 1.6 billion light-years away, is one of the closest and faintest bursts ever detected. The light echo is an optical illusion caused by gamma-rays from the burst scattering off dust in the…

Astronomy & Observing News

Hubble Spectrograph Fails

A component failure leaves the Hubble Space Telescope unable to record cosmic spectra.

Astronomy & Observing News

Stellar Vibrations Missing

New spacecraft results suggest that Procyon might not experiencing pulsations after all.

Astronomy & Observing News

Bringing the Universe into the Classroom

About 200 teachers, educators, and scientists gathered in Massachusetts for a three-day symposium called Cosmos in the Classroom.

Astronomy & Observing News

Mercury Bound!

NASA's Messenger spacecraft is finally on its way for a close look at the innermost planet, Mercury.

Astronomy & Observing News

Astronomy Day 2004 Efforts Lauded

This year's celebration of Astronomy Day involved hundreds of organizations around the world and drew huge crowds.

Astronomy & Observing News

Lensing Star Weighed

Astronomers have a new set of scales for measuring the masses of stars — by watching the way a star's gravity bends the light of a distant background star.

Astronomy & Observing News

Does Clarissa Have a Moon?

In spite of recent indications that asteroid 302 Clarissa has a moon circling around it, evidence now suggests that the object may be alone in the cosmos after all. On June 24th, four observers in the northeastern United States watched as the asteroid occulted the star SAO 118999. Astronomers predicted…

Celestial News & Events

Sunspots Visible

After weeks of having a face free of large blemishes, the Sun now sports a Jupiter-sized spot, large enough to be visible without magnification if you use a safe solar filter.

Astronomy & Observing News

Is the July 31st Full Moon Really "Blue"?

Is July 31st full Moon, the second one in the month, really a Blue Moon?

Astronomy & Observing News

Astro News Briefs: July 5–11

Mount Graham Fire Stabilizes July 9, 2004 | The wildfire threatening the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) at Mount Graham, Arizona came within 650 meters of the observatory on July 6th, but firefighters halted its progress by carrying out a controlled burn ahead of the fire's path. Now, the worst seems…

Astronomy & Observing News

Stringy Holes: Hawking Concedes Defeat

The famed British physicist joins the mainstream in believing that black holes preserve information.

Astronomy & Observing News

Marathon Mystery Explained?

Astronomy historians have re-dated the 26-mile dash in ancient Greece that led to today's sport of marathoning.

Astronomy & Observing News

Mars Rovers Find More Evidence of Water

As Spirit and Opportunity visit new science targets, they continue to make important discoveries.

On the Road with David Levy

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9: A Decade Later

This week marks the 10th anniversary of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting the clouds of Jupiter. Sky & Telescope contributing editor and SL9 codiscoverer David Levy reflects on some of the events surrounding the Great Comet Crash.