RSS: SkyWatch - It's a big sky -- someone has to watch it.

Show 183: Venus Rising

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0400

The planet Venus is now visible very low in western sky right after sundown. This evening appearance of Venus will become even better in coming weeks as the planet rises higher and higher each night throughout the fall and winter. The brilliant “evening star” will be at its brightest on Feb. 19.

Show 182: Stellar Streams

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0400

The Milky Way galaxy is part of a group of galaxies, including several small “dwarf galaxies,” that interact with one another. The outer portion of the Milky Way, called its “halo,” is filled with clouds of gas, star clusters, dark matter and streams of stars gathered from those dwarf galaxies by the power of the Milky Way’s gravity. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) revealed these multiple, previously unknown streams.

Show 181: Clusters in a Cluster

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0400

About 54 million light-years from Earth, roughly 2,000 galaxies have ganged up in a gravitational grouping called the Virgo Cluster. Centering that cluster is a massive galaxy that is itself surrounded by many clusters-in this case, star clusters. But this massive galaxy has more of these star clusters than astronomers expected it to have. Could it be stealing from its neighbors?

Show 180: Hubble Hits 100,000 Orbits

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0400

In August, the Hubble Space Telescope completed its 100,000th orbit around Earth. Understandably, the venerable observatory is due for a little maintenance. In October, astronauts will be returning to Hubble to install two new science instruments, repair two other instruments, and upgrade other critical components on the telescope.

Show 179: HubbleWatch for August 2008

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0400

Hubble celebrated a new milestone in August – 100,000 orbits around the planet Earth. Scientists think they know why a certain galaxy has more globular clusters than its neighbors. And a black hole-inhabited galaxy is sending tendrils into the universe.

Show 178: Cassini and the Jets

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0400

The Cassini spacecraft performed a daring flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on March 12, flying about 15 kilometers per second (32,000 mph) through a geyser-like jet spurting from the moon’s surface. It captured sample molecules from the jet.

In August, it used special techniques to get pictures of the jets. Scientists want to know where the jets come from and whether Enceladus has water.

Show 177: Water from a Rock

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0400

Could Earth’s Moon have water locked up inside its rocks? Samples brought back from the Apollo Moon mission may indicate that the answer is yes. Water may be locked up in volcanic glass beads within the rocks.

Show 176: Giant Lurks in Kuiper Belt?

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0400

The Kuiper Belt is a region past Neptune, full of icy, comet-like objects. Pluto is the most famous Kuiper Belt object. Some of these objects have odd orbits that don’t fit with our knowledge of the solar system. A computer model suggests that the region may contain a really large body — 30 to 70 percent as massive as Earth — that affects the orbits of objects around it.

Show 175: New Moon?

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0400

The Moon may be younger than originally thought – by about 30 million years. The Moon is thought to have formed after an object hit the Earth, partially melting the planet and propelling material into space. Because the Earth and Moon formed around the same time, this also brings up questions about our planet’s formation.

Show 174: Two for the Price of One

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0400

The Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project scans the skies for asteroids in an attempt to find 90% of all the asteroids larger than 0.6 mile (1 km) in diameter by the end of 2008. In January 2008, LINEAR found an object now called Asteroid 2008 BT18. Original calculations suggested the asteroid was going to pass nearby the earth. Asteroid orbits can be altered by the Earth’s gravity, so the trajectory was uncertain. Luckily the object passed almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon. But astronomers got a good look at the object, which turned out to be a lot more interesting than originally thought — it’s a binary asteroid.

Show 173: HubbleWatch for July 2008

outreach@stsci.edu — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0400

A cluster of stars boasts no less than three different ages. Open clusters of stars are usually easy to date, but this one is confusing scientists with mixed messages.
Scientists have new information about the bars of stars that develop in the centers of galaxies. Barred spiral galaxies are common in today’s cosmos, but were scarce in the universe’s early history.

Show 172: The Moon's Bullseye

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0400

A new, Earth-based radar has examined material ejected from a massive impact on the Moon. The impact early in the Moon’s history, by an asteroid 20-40 miles in diameter, created the crater known as Mare Orientale, a huge basin 600 miles across. Its study may help us better understand the early impact history of both Moon and Earth, and the role these impacts played in our planet’s evolution.

Show 171: Black Hole Appetites

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0400

Black holes incredibly dense objects that can form at the end of a massive star’s life. Scientists thought that because black holes range in size from several times to several billion times the size of the Sun, their behavior would differ as well. But multiple observations of the black hole at the center of the galaxy M81 prove otherwise.

Show 170: Catch Some Rays

outreach@stsci.edu — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:00:00 -0400

The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) launched on June 11. This observatory will scan the universe for the most powerful form of radiation known, possibly shedding light on dark matter, microscopic black holes and other cosmic mysteries. Gamma rays have the most energy of any type of light, and are created by some of the most violent events in universe.