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Astro News Briefs: May 6–12
Interstellar Antifreeze May 9, 2002 | Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's 12-Meter Radio Telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona, have discovered ethylene glycol in molecular clouds in Sagittarius. The molecule, according to team members Jan M. Hollis (NASA/Goddard), Frank J. Lovas (University of Illinois), Phillip R. Jewell (National Radio Astronomy…
A Cyclic Universe?
Maybe the Big Bang wasn't the beginning, but only the latest in an endless cycle of destructions and rebirths.
Hubble's New Camera: Picture Perfect
Astronomers are delighted with the first images from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
New Hubble Images on the Way
On Tuesday, April 30th, NASA will release the first images from the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in early March.
Fading White Dwarfs Confirm the Age of the Universe
Observations of cooling white dwarfs in the globular cluster M4 have given astronomers an important clue to determine the age of the universe.
Astro News Briefs: April 22–28
McDonald Observatory Opens New Visitor Center April 25, 2002 | About 130,000 visitors annually come to McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas, to attend the popular star parties and constellation tours and to enjoy some of the darkest night skies in the continental U.S. Unfortunately, the observatory, a research unit…
Making Millisecond Pulsars
A three-hour long burst on a neutron star has confirmed many long-suspected fact about the dense, spinning stars.
Are Dormant Quasars Throwing "Baseballs" at Us?
Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays may come from quasars that were thought to be retired.
Closing In on Neutrino Properties
The heart of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is an acrylic sphere filled with heavy water and surrounded by photomultiplier tubes. These detect flashes of light produced when neutrinos interact with the water. This fisheye view was taken from beneath the sphere before the bottom panel of detectors was installed.Courtesy Ernest…
June's Transpacific Solar Eclipse
Most of North America is in line to see the partial phase of June's annular eclipse of the Sun.
May's Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
On May 26th skywatchers in the Pacific Rim region can watch the Moon pass through the outer fringe of Earth's shadow.
Asteroid Chasers Are Seeing Double
Once considered virtually impossible, binary asteroids are turning up everywhere — especially in Earth's vicinity.
Yuji Hyakutake (1950–2002)
Famed comet discoverer Yuji Hyakutake died on April 10th of a heart aneurysm.
Comet Borrelly: Dry and Hot
The experimental spacecraft Deep Space 1 caught some lucky breaks when it plunged deep into a comet's coma last September.
Quark-Matter Stars Said Found
Two groups of astronomers say they have found superdense objects even smaller and weirder than neutron stars, and made of a substance like nothing else in the universe.
Dance of the Planets Concludes
The grand and beautiful planetary lineup is drawing to a close as Venus approaches Jupiter in the western sky at dusk.
Astro News Briefs: April 8–14
Editor's Note: This week astronomers from around the world have gathered at Bristol University in Bristol, England, for the annual United Kingdom National Astronomy Meeting. The following Astro Briefs highlight news items reported at the conference. All Black Holes Sing the Same Song April 9, 2002 | Using the Rossi…
A Pretty Pair of Fuzzies
Comet Ikeya-Zhang and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) make a pretty pair in this image acquired on April 4th. Although not visually obvious, the comet sports a (blue) gas tail as well as a dust tail. North is up.Courtesy Gerald Rhemann. On April 4th Comet Ikeya-Zhang paid a visit to the…
Threatening Asteroid Aids Planetary Prognosticators
Asteroid 1950 DA may have a 1-in-300 of hitting Earth in 2880, and in deriving those odds dynamicists have learned much about all the factors that affect those long odds.
Astro News Briefs: April 1–7
Asteroid Population Doubles April 5, 2002 | Observations made in 1996–97 by the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory show that the asteroid belt contains about twice as many objects as previously thought. The new census involved tallying up the main-belt asteroids spotted in selected locations, then extrapolating those counts…
