News

... from all of us here on the AstroMart staff...

This Near Earth Asteroid is currently swinging past us and will be at its closest on Christmas eve at only 5 Lunar distances.

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 22, 2004 – The Boeing [NYSE: BA] Delta IV Heavy made its first flight today achieving the major test objectives despite placing its demonstration satellite in a lower than expected orbit.

Asteroid 2004 YD5 was discovered December 21, and when back-plotted it was found to have whizzed by Earth (over Antarctica) at a distance less than 22,000 miles

The Cassini spacecraft completed a successful rendezvous with Saturn's moon Titan today. This was the last pass before the European Space Agency's Huygens probe is sprung loose from Cassini on Christmas Eve. Information gathered during this flyby will provide an opportunity to compare images from Cassini's first close Titan encounter on Oct. 26.

Launch and flight teams are in final preparations for the planned Jan. 12, 2005, liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., of NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. The mission is designed for a six-month, one-way, 431 million kilometer (268 million mile) voyage. Deep Impact will deploy a probe that essentially will be "run over" by the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 at approximately 37,000 kilometers per hour (23,000 miles per hour).

Discovered just this past summer, Comet Machholz continues to brighten toward being visible with the unaided eye in both the northern and southern hemispheres. This image was taken at the Kitt Peak Visitor Center Observatory on December 11, 2004.

Looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to celestial objects like galaxies and nebulas. These objects are so far away that astronomers cannot see their three-dimensional structure. The Helix Nebula, for example, resembles a doughnut in colorful images. Earlier images of this complex object — the gaseous envelope ejected by a dying, sun-like star — did not allow astronomers to precisely interpret its structure. One possible interpretation was that the Helix's form resembled a snake-like coil...

Larry Carlino's great style earns him yet another shopping credit to Anacortes Telescope and Wild Bird for his review of the Celestron 102mm Wide Field Scope.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have unveiled a fundamental change in the properties of matter. The theoretical finding, that bosons placed in two-dimensional harmonic traps will crystallize when the strength of their repulsive interactions is increased, appears in the December 3 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters (volume 93, article 230405, 2004)...

Two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have provided astronomers an unprecedented look at dusty planetary debris around stars the size of our sun...

One year after Mars Express’ arrival at Mars, the mighty rules of celestial mechanics have again set Christmas as the date for a major ESA event in deep space.

Stealing is a crime on Earth, but at Saturn, apparently it is routine. The Cassini spacecraft has witnessed Saturn's moon Prometheus snatching particles from one of Saturn's rings.

Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have measured the age of what may be the youngest galaxy ever seen in the universe.

Our intrepid author packs a TeleVue 85 for a journey to the amazing skies of Maui and Hilo and finds he made a good choice in traveling companions.