Mapping the Big Bang
Results from NASA's MAP satellite strengthen the new cosmology.
Winter Star Party '03: Sunshine, Starlight, and Sweat
Hundreds of astronomy enthusiasts gathered in the Florida Keys last week to socialize, shop, and observe.
Titan's "Great Lakes"
Recent radar probings reveal that much of Titan's southern hemisphere is covered by large bodies of liquid ethane and methane.
Beneath the Spiral
As seen through X-ray eyes, the spiral galaxy M83 is filled with diffuse hot glowing gas and pointlike binary star systems.Courtesy NASA/CXC/R.Soria and K.Wu. Buried deep within the spiral galaxy M83 is a dense and tumultuous star-making factory in a bagel-shaped volume around the galaxy's nucleus. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory…
Thank You!
Thank you for submitting your observing report to Sky & Telescope's AstroAlert service. If we have any questions about your data, we'll contact you by e-mail. Please note that at present we are interested only in reports following up a nearby-supernova alert. Observations in response to other types of alerts…
Astro News Briefs: February 39
California Amateur to Hunt for Exoplanets February 3, 2003 | A 52-year-old investment banker and venture capitalist from Newport Beach, California, will soon spend a night at Keck Observatory's control room in Hawaii as professional astronomers hunt for extrasolar planets. Walter W. Cruttenden won the seat by submitting the winning…
Space Shuttle Columbia Lost
Sky & Telescope sends our condolences to the families of the seven astronauts lost in the tragic break-up of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Do Globular Clusters Spit Out X-Ray Stars?
A new study suggests that a globular cluster spawned the night sky's brightest X-ray star.
Astro News Briefs: January 27February 2
Solar Sentinel Heads to Orbit January 28, 2003 | An aircraft-launched Pegasus rocket lofted NASA’s Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) into orbit on January 25th. This 290-kilogram satellite carries four instruments to study minuscule variations in the Sun’s energy output and will be operated by the Laboratory for Atmospheric…
Comet Kudo-Fujikawa Rounds the Sun
The comet has entered the field of view of the Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory's LASCO C3 coronagraph.
Crescent Moon Joins Three Planets at Dawn
The waning crescent Moon helps point the way to Mars, Venus, and Mercury before sunrise on Monday through Wednesday mornings.
The Moon's Youngest Crater?
The mystery surrounding a lunar flash seen and photographed by an amateur astronomer in 1953 may finally be over — but questions remain.
European Virtual Observatory One Step Nearer
Courtesy AVO During a press conference held at Jodrell Bank Observatory in the United Kingdom on January 20th, journalists, astronomers, and potential European Union financial backers got a real-time demonstration of the prototype Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (AVO) software. The groundbreaking event marked the conclusion of the first year of the…
Comet NEAT Outward Bound
Comet NEAT put on a fine show as it rounded the Sun. Now Southern Hemisphere observers wait for it to reappear in the west after sunset.
A Mistaken Case of Ring Around the Collar
The European Southern Obsevratory's Very Large Telescope Antu captured this view of the ringed ice giant Uranus.
Rosetta Grounded by Rocket Worries
Europe's Rosetta spacecraft was supposed to be on its way to Comet Wirtanen by now &$151; but a failure of its launch vehicle last month may keep this spacecraft grounded for years.
Astro News Briefs: January 1319
Planet-Hunting Auction Opens for Bids January 14, 2003 | Ever wanted to spend a night at the controls of one of the world's largest telescopes, searching for planets orbiting distant stars? Now you can join University of California, Berkeley, astronomer Geoffrey Marcy and his team for a night at the…
A Star Prepares to Blow Its Top
Easily found with the naked eye, 4th-magnitude Rho Cassiopeiae may be getting ready for an enormous mass ejection in the next few months.
Astro News Briefs: January 612
A Not-So-Hot Jupiter? January 9, 2003 | Hot Jupiters may not be so hot after all. These giant planets, orbiting sunlike stars at extremely close distances, ought to be strong infrared emitters because of their high temperatures. But a team led by Drake Deming (Goddard Space Flight Center) failed to…
Interstellar Reflections
New images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal unprecedented detail in a light echo expanding around an explosive variable star in Monoceros.