SUNSET: 
Sky & Telescope August 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Catch a Fallen Star For the first time, scientists spotted an asteroid before it hit Earth — and then, incredibly, found pieces of it on the ground.By J. Kelly Beatty What's Wrong with Our Sun? The Sun has gone more than a year without sunspots. Astronomers are wondering…
Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet
This is a sample of one of the many videos you'll get on the Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet DVD from Sky & Telescope. With this DVD, you can explore the Red Planet from the comfort of your chair, and view hundreds of images and videos selected by Dr.…
Sky & Telescope July 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Uncovering Mars's Secret Past A new generation of rovers and orbiters is mapping the Red Planet's minerals — telltale clues to its watery history.By Jim Bell Searching for Exoplanet Moons Astronomers may soon find moons around extrasolar planets, and amateurs might beat the professionals to the puch.By David…
Abell 2199
Abell 2199 contains hundreds — maybe even thousands — of galaxies. We have selected 72 particularly prominent members to display in the chart on page 61 of the July, 2009, issue of Sky & Telescope. You can view data for these galaxies in one of two forms:: A tab-separated text…
Sky & Telescope June 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Ice Worlds of the Ringed Planet NASA's Cassini mission has solved long-standing mysteries about Saturn's icy moons, but raised new ones in their place.By Emily Lakdawalla Lunar Fireworks If all goes as scheduled, in late August two NASA spacecraft will slam into the Moon in the hope of…
Sky & Telescope May 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES The Day the Moon Stood Still Scientists on a supersonic flight experienced 74 minutes of totality during the solar eclipse of June, 1973.By L. Robert Morris Secrets of the Big Bang Europe's Planck satellite will try to determine how inflation powered the universe into existence.By Thorsten Dambeck The…
First Earth-Size Exoplanet
S&T IllustrationIn early February, European astronomers broke new ground in the search for extrasolar planets. They announced the discovery of the first planet outside the solar system with a well-measured diameter that can be described as “terrestrial” in size. The planet is less than twice Earth’s diameter, and it orbits…
Sky & Telescope April 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Shedding New Light on Dark Matter Two instruments may have seen telltale signs from the strange stuff that makes up the bulk of the universe's mass.By Govert Schilling A Worldwide Astronomy Marathon Early April will be amateur astronomy's time to shine for the International Year of Astronomy 2009.By…
Imaging the Orion-Eridanus Superbubble
Click above to download the full 3-megabyte JPEG.Dennis di Cicco / Sean WalkerIn the April 2009 issue, beginning with the photographic spread on pages 66-67, Sean Walker (S&T’s Imaging editor) and I describe our efforts using commercially available equipment and image-processing software to create a huge mosaic covering nearly 10%…
Cosmic Cataclysms
Joan Centrella poses with a scale model of one of the three LISA spacecraft, which are designed to detect gravitational waves from black-hole mergers.Bonny Schumaker (JPL) What are the most energetic events in the universe since the Big Bang? If you ask an astronomy aficionado, there’s a good chance the…
Sky & Telescope March 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Exoplanets Imaged at Last Two teams of astronomers have finally achieved one of astronomy's holy grails.By Robert Naeye Solar Impact Variations in the Sun's output influence Earth's climate in ways scientists are still trying to discern.By Kristina Grifantini Mercury Gets a Second Look The Messenger spacecraft's return visit…
Solar Impact: The Sun-Earth Connection
Solar physicist Judith Lean (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) studies how solar radiation affects Earth's weather and climate.Judith LeanAstronomers have long known that sunspot numbers vary over a cycle that averages about 11 years. But do these cycles influence Earth's climate? And what about the longer term? Could the measured global…
What's a Planet?
David Grinspoon is Curator of Astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.David GrinspoonWhat makes a planet a planet? In 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a definition of "planet" that from its outset, sparked controversy. The IAU defined a planet to be: A celestial body that (a)…
Sky & Telescope February 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Going Over the Dark Side If dark energy is Einstein's cosmological constant, the universe will expand forever at an accelerating rate. If it's not, all bets are off.By Richard Panek Living with Light Pollution Don't let city lights squelch your love of stargazing.By Tony Flanders S&T Test Report:…
Is Dark Energy Bad for Astronomy?
In 2007 Simon White (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany) wrote a controversial paper titled “Fundamentalist Physics: Why Dark Energy Is Bad for Astronomy.” Let us know what you think about this subject.
The Mystery of Dark Energy: An Interview with Richard Panek
Robert Naeye, editor in chief of Sky & Telescope, interviews Richard Panek, author of the Dark Energy feature in the February 2009 issue of S&T.
Sky & Telescope January 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES The Race to Find Alien Earths No longer are planet hunters just turning up giant Jupiters and Neptunes around other stars. They're now collecting weird super-Earths. And the first actual Earth-size worlds are probably just a few years away.By Camille M. Carlisle Hot Products for 2009 Our 11th…
Galaxy Archaeology with Amateurs
Using off-the-shelf equipment, R. Jay GaBany was a key team member in the discovery of galaxy star streams surrounding NGC 5907.R. Jay GaBanyAstronomers investigating the origin and evolution of galaxies have discovered clues to these fundamental studies with the help of an unlikely source: backyard astrophotographers. David Martinez-Delgado of the…
The Hunt for Alien Earths
Astronomers are building the tools to find extrasolar planets of ever-lower masses — from giants like Jupiter down to exo-Neptunes and even super-Earths. Soon they'll be finding planets as small as our own. The ultimate goal is to examine these for signs of life. Exoplanet researchers Sara Seager and Dimitar Sasselov, featured in the January 2009 Sky & Telescope, tell about this exciting work.
Sky & Telescope December 2008
FEATURED ARTICLES Titan: Earth in Deep Freeze Saturn's largest moon has remarkably Earth-like mountains, lakes, and dunes — yet their compositions couldn't be more different.By Jason Barnes The Great Total Eclipse of 2009 The century's longest solar eclipse sweeps across China and the Pacific next July 22nd.By Fred Espenak &…
