News

Record meteorite hit Norway

06/09/2006 05:24PM

Record meteorite hit Norway

If the meteorite was as large as it seems to have been, we can compare it to the Hiroshima bomb.

Mysterious Sagittarius A* -- The Supermassive Black Hole at Center of the Milky Way

06/08/2006 10:53PM

Mysterious Sagittarius A* -- The Supermassive Black Hole at Center of the Milky Way

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*, has a mass of more than 3.7 million times that of our sun. It is so dense that nothing can escape its gravitational pull, not even light. Therefore, Sagittarius A* cannot be seen directly, but its influence on nearby stars is clearly visible, and provides a signature as to what is happening inside the black hole according to researchers at Northwestern University and UCLA, who are performing the most comprehensive study of Sagittarius A* to date. Their work has provided the best evidence yet that a supermassive black hole does indeed exist at the center of the Milky Way.

This week's review contest winner helps us all win...

06/07/2006 07:00AM

This week's review contest winner helps us all win...

As this review of the new Astro Sky 10" f/6 shows, a positive give and take between reviewer and manufacturer can yield valuable plusses for the our whole community.

Spitzer Finds Hundreds of Distant Galaxy Clusters

06/07/2006 12:17AM

Spitzer Finds Hundreds of Distant Galaxy Clusters

University of Florida and JPL Astronomers have found the largest number of the most distant, youngest galaxy clusters yet -- a feat that will help us observe the developing universe when it was less than half its current age and still in its formative stages.

Magnetic Fields Sculpt Narrow Jets From Dying Star.

06/01/2006 07:00AM

Magnetic Fields Sculpt Narrow Jets From Dying Star.

Molecules spewed outward from a dying star are confined into narrow jets by a tightly-wound magnetic field, according to astronomers who used the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope to study an old star about 8,500 light-years from Earth. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

Hubble Captures First-ever Five-Image Gravitationally Lensed Quasar

05/31/2006 12:09AM

Hubble Captures First-ever Five-Image Gravitationally Lensed Quasar

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever picture of a gravitationally lensed five star-like image of a single distant quasar. Although many examples of gravitational lensing have been observed, this "quintuple quasar" is the only case so far in which multiple quasar images are produced by an entire galaxy cluster acting as a gravitational lens.

Is that the sky in your pocket?

05/30/2006 07:00AM

Is that the sky in your pocket?

This week's review contest winner thumbs through Sky and Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas and gives us the Ebert and Roper on this new publication.

Double Winners!!

05/24/2006 07:00AM

Double Winners!!

The editor is back in the saddle to oversee the review writer's weekly rodeo. We are pleased to Honor Timm Bottoni and Lee Spain for having cowboyed up a couple of fine reviews...

GAIA Space-Based Observatory to Record a Billion Stars

05/13/2006 02:49AM

GAIA Space-Based Observatory to Record a Billion Stars

GAIA will be the most accurate optical space-based observatory ever built. GAIA ’s measurement accuracy is so great that if it were on the Moon, it could measure the thumbnail of a person on Earth. Due for launch in 2011, GAIA will continuously scan the sky from a point in space located at about 1.6 million kilometres away from the Earth, in the direction opposite to the Sun.

Over a 1000 Miles Walked on National Astro Day!

05/13/2006 12:02AM

Over a 1000 Miles Walked on National Astro Day!

550 people of all ages each walked 2.2 miles in this unique true-to-scale solar system.

Time to slap some leather

05/09/2006 07:00AM

Time to slap some leather

A Shootout between the 7.5mm Celestron Ultima and the 8mm TeleVue Plossl hits the bulls-eye as this week's review contest winner.

Astronomy Day Fun for All

05/07/2006 03:25PM

Everyday folks wowed by celestial wonders

Deadly Nearby Gamma Ray Burst is Highly Unlikely

05/05/2006 11:23PM

Deadly Nearby Gamma Ray Burst is Highly Unlikely

Are you losing sleep at night because you're afraid that all life on Earth will suddenly be annihilated by a massive dose of gamma radiation from a close-by Gamma Ray Burst (GRB)? Well, astronomers at Ohio State University (OSU) have concluded that we can rest easy.

C this week's review contest winner...

05/03/2006 07:00AM

C this week's review contest winner...

Some notes on the venerable C8 OTA by Celestron.

Hubble Provides Spectacular Detail of a Comet's Breakup.

04/30/2006 07:00AM

Hubble Provides Spectacular Detail of a Comet's Breakup.

Hubble Space Telescope is providing astronomers with extraordinary views of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>