February, 2005

Monday, February 28th, 2005
Martian Ice Pack?
 An exciting image by The European Space Agency's Mars Express
Astronomers are intrigued by the notion that the blocks in this image look remarkably similar to blocks in Antarctica's ice pack. Interestingly, this image was taken near the Martian equator. Checkout the Astronomy Picture Of the Day for more details.

Sunday, February 27th, 2005
Moon & Jupiter
 The Moon & Jupiter as imaged by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies
The Moon & The Planet Jupiter passed closely this morning (just over 1.5°). The Moon is continuing its eastward march relative to the planets and stars. It'll pass about 5° from Mars next weekend. Click here to view some previous conjunctions.

Saturday, February 26th, 2005
Sweet Shot of Saturn
 A sweet shot of Saturn as imaged by Cassini
The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft took this gorgeous shot of planet Saturn. Made from numerous frames, it is the most detailed image of the ringed planet ever taken. Checkout NASA's Planetary Photo Journal more info and hi-res versions.

Friday, February 25th, 2005
Saturn's Dragon Storm
 A large, bright storm on Saturn as imaged by Cassini
Take a good look at this sweet Cassini image of Saturn. Just above and to the right of center is an odd shaped storm dubbed The Dragon Storm by The Cassini Imaging Team. This strong source of radio waves was imaged in near infrared this past September using filters that detect the presence of methane. Checkout the Cassini Imaging Teams Diary for all the details on this fabulous shot.

Thursday, February 24th, 2005
Dark Galaxy Found
 A dark galaxy as imaged by the Isaac Newton Telescope
A team of international astronomers has found the first-ever dark galaxy... consisting of no stars at all. This oddity of the laws of physics had been predicted by theory, but this is the first ever found. Its made up almost entirely of dark matter... strange (as yet unidentified) particles that interact with their surroundings in unseen ways. Anybody who's ever gone out looking at galaxies with a telescope knows that they're not the easiest targets. Imagine looking for a galaxy that lacked even the faint starlight of typical galaxies. Wow! For more information on this exciting discovery, checkout Nature.com.

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005
Snow Moon Tonight
 The full moon as imaged by Brian Jolley
Head outside tonight as the sun is setting and look to the east, you'll see the Snow Moon rising. This is the name given by Native Americans to the February Full Moon.

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2005
Frozen Sea Below Martian Surface?
 A watery Mars
Observations by Europe's Mars Express spacecraft indicate that an ocean may exist under the Martian surface in the form of pack ice. Checkout Mars Daily for more info.

Monday, February 21st, 2005
Giant Solar Filament
 A huge solar filament as imaged by Greg Piepol
One of the largest solar filaments ever seen is currently stretched across the face of our star. Measuring over 300,000 miles from end to end, this tube of dense gas is cooler than its surroundings, hence its dark appearance. This sweet shot was captured by Greg Piepol.

Huge Cosmic Explosion
 A cosmic explosion
An enormous explosion halfway across our galaxy briefly altered Earth's upper atmosphere in December. The powerful event was triggered by an explosion on a Magnetar, a special kind of neutron star spinning on its axis ever 7.5 seconds. No bigger than a large city, Magnetars are incredibly dense objects, containing the mass of a star in this highly compact space. Checkout Space.com for more info.

Sunday, February 20th, 2005
New Shuttle Crew Picked
 The crew of the space shuttle, Discovery
NASA has announced that May15th will mark the return to flight of the grounded shuttle fleet. On that day, the space shuttle Discovery will lift off with a 7 person crew. Checkout NASA's Return to Flight website for more details.

Saturday, February 19th, 2005
12 New Planets Discovered
 The twin Keck Telescopes
Astronomers using the Keck & La Silla Observatories announced the discovery of 12 new extra-solar planets. This raises the total to 145 planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. Checkout NASA's Planet Quest website for more details on this exciting discovery!

Friday, February 18th, 2005
Along The Lunar Terminator
 A view along the lunar terminator as imaged by Anthony Arrigo
The Moon is now dominating the night sky. So… don’t fight it. Break out the moon filters and spend some time examining Earths nearest celestial neighbor. You’ll be glad that you did. The moon offers up far more detail to observers than any other celestial object. Its mountains, valleys, craters and lava flows are all easy targets in even the most modest of telescopes. The Moon will pass just north of Saturn this weekend… yet another reason to break out your scope! Saturn is simply spectacular to view in a telescope. Its beautiful ring system is visible in all telescopes and the faint details in its cloud tops are visible in most. Be sure to point your scope towards Saturn while you have it out.  Use the moon as a guide on Saturday night… or the bright stars of Gemini… Castor and Pollux on other nights.

Thursday, February 17th, 2005
Saturn-Shine Lights Mimas
Saturn-shine illuminates the night side of Mimas in this Cassini image
Saturn-shine... light reflected off of Saturn... illuminates the night side of the moon Mimas in this sweet Cassini image. Saturn-shine is just like Earth-shine, whereby sunlight reflected off the Earth lights the night side of the Moon. Checkout NASA's Planetary Photo Journal for more information

Wednesday, February 16th, 2005
Celestial Alignment Tonight
Venus alongside The Pleiades Star Cluster as imaged by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies
A waxing gibbous Moon will pose nicely tonight just east of The Pleiades and The Hyades star clusters in the constellation Taurus. The accompanying shot captured Venus passing by The Pleiades in April of 2004.

Tuesday, February 15th, 2005
75th Anniversary Celebration
Pluto as imaged by The Hubble Space Telescope
It's been 75 years since Clyde Tombaugh discovered the most distant planet in our solar system... Pluto. Since that time, many objects have been discovered beyond the orbit of Pluto in a area known as the Kuiper Belt. Pluto has as much in common with these Kuiper Belt Objects as it does with the other planets of the solar system. There has even been a move to try to demote Pluto from planetary status. Confused? That's not surprising. This is a topic debated intensely among astronomers... both on technical and historical grounds. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE for more details.

Monday, February 14th, 2005
Celestial Flower
M57 as imaged by The Spitzer Space Telescope
The Spitzer Space Telescope recently released this sweet Valentine's Day Flower... an infrared version of an old friend, M57... The Ring Nebula. Checkout this NASA Press Release for more details.

Sunday, February 13th, 2005
Liftoff
An upgraded Arian-5 rocket lifts off
An upgraded Arian-5 rocket successfully lifted off from French Guiana and placed to satellites into orbit. Checkout Yahoo!News for more details.

Saturday, February 12th, 2005
Sunspot Activity Resumes
Sunspots on our Star as imaged by SOHO
A group of large sunspots has rotated onto the face of the Sun. The largest of these is more than 3x the size of our planet Earth! Will they continue to grow? Will they hurl Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) our way? We'll just have to keep any eye on our star. The Sun is fascinating to watch. Put a solar filter on your telescope or try out these Safe Solar Viewing Techinques.

Friday, February 11th, 2005
Mimas Sings The Blues
Mimas against a blue Saturnian background as imaged by Cassini
Saturn's Moon Mimas is seen in this Cassini image against the cloudless, blue skies currently over Saturn's northern hemisphere. The stripes seen on the planet are the shadows of the planets rings. Saturn is current rising in the mid-afternoon, allowing for ideal viewing throughout the night.

You're Out!
Our Milky Way Galaxy as imaged by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies
After a run-in with a black hole, a hapless star is in the process of being ejected from our Milky Way Galaxy. Since the encounter, the star has accelerated to over 1.5 million mph... more than twice the escape velocity of our galaxy. This is the fastest have ever seen a star move. The star is now traveling through the outer reaches of our galaxy... in an area known as the halo.  Checkout CNN.com/Space for all the details.

Thursday, February 10th, 2005
Diamond Planets?
HD 28185 b
The rocky inner planets in our solar system are silicon based worlds. A new paper recently concluded that planets orbiting other stars might be carbon based. These could conceivably have a layer of diamonds covering their surfaces. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE for more details.

Wednesday, February 9th, 2005
Tiny Crescent Moon
A tiny crescent moon as imaged by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies
The Moon was new yesterday, meaning that it was not visible in the sky. The Moon will grow in phase over the next couple of weeks. Tonight, it'll be a tiny waxing crescent phase with a mere 1% of the visible lunar surface illuminated. That's about the size of the moon in the accompanying image. Can you find such a skinny crescent? If not, it'll grow a little larger each night. Look for the Moon low and in the western sky shortly after sunset.

Tuesday, February 8th, 2005
Hubble: Out
The Hubble Space Telescope
Tight budgets and new priorities appear to be leaving the legendary Hubble Space Telescope with the short end of the stick. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE for more details.

New Age of Space Exploration: In
 Vision for Space Exploration
According to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe "NASA's 2006 budget reaffirms the President's commitment to the Vision for Space Exploration and provides us the next step in implementing it". Checkout this NASA Press Release for more details.

Monday, February 7th, 2005
Moonrise Over Gooseberry
Gooseberry Moonrise as capture by Don Brown of Utah Skies.
This interesting sequence of images were captured Saturday morning when the 16% crescent Moon rose in Southern Utah. The Moon will be New on Tuesday...

Friday, February 4th, 2005
Hotspot On Saturn
 A hotspot on Saturn's south pole as imaged by the WM Keck Observatory
This sweet shot of Saturn was taken by the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii. It is the sharpest infrared image ever taken, and shows temperature variations on the giant planet. The most interesting thing to note is the sharp increase in temperature at the very tip of Saturn's south pole. This was highly unexpected and has raised at least as many questions as the image itself will answer. Checkout this Keck Press Release to find out more.

Thursday, February 3rd, 2005
First Light For Swift Telescope
 M101 as imaged by SWIFT
The orbiting Swift Observatory took this sweet "first light" image of M101, The Pinwheel Galaxy with its UVOT (Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope). Swift is a NASA led program designed to study gamma-ray bursts. Swift maintains a battery of 3 telescopes designed to image these powerful blasts as soon as they are detected. Checkout RedNOVA for more details.

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
In The Shadow Of A Giant
 Saturn as imaged by The Cassini Spacecraft
Its now summer in Saturn's southern hemisphere and the giant planet casts a long shadow across its rings in this sweet Cassini image. Checkout the Cassini-Huygens website for more details. Saturn is now rising around 4pm and is well placed for observing all night long among the stars of Gemini.

Tuesday, February 1st, 2005
Saturn in Stripes
 Saturn as imaged by The Cassini Spacecraft
Stripes are definitely in this season as can be seen in this incredible shot of the ringed planet taken by the Cassini Spacecraft. The stripes are created by sunlight filtering through Saturn's delicate ring system. Checkout the Cassini-Huygens website for more details. Saturn is now rising around 4pm and is well placed for observing all night long among the stars of Gemini.