Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Jan 7
From: Stuart Goldman (stuartgoldman_at_aol.com)
Date: 01/08/05
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Date: 08 Jan 2005 02:50:20 GMT
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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - January 7, 2005 * * *
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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full text of stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are available on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided below. (If the links don't work, just
manually type the URLs into your Web browser.) Clear skies!
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SOME POINTERS ON THE USE OF LASER POINTERS
A recent addition to the backyard astronomer's toolkit has been flagged as a
possible weapon in the terrorist's arsenal. The humble laser pointer, used by
thousands of skygazers to show beginners the way to stars and constellations,
is coming under fire from US federal and state authorities following several
recent incidents in which laser beams have "painted" aircraft in flight.
In the most notorious case, on January 4, 2005, a New Jersey man was arrested
after allegedly shining a laser at a small passenger jet on approach to a
nearby airport. The suspect had been showing his daughter around the night sky,
using his laser pointer to direct her gaze at particular stars and planets. Now
he faces a possible jail term and six-figure fine. The incident sparked a media
frenzy, with many articles appearing alongside other news from the War on
Terror.
As often happens in situations of mass hysteria, the first thing to fall by the
wayside is the truth. Depending which newspapers you read or which television
stations you watch, you may hear that handheld laser pointers -- commonly
available for less than $100 from a host of retailers and online dealers -- are
perfectly harmless or capable of bringing down a jumbo jet. In reality, the
truth lies somewhere in between. Used properly, laser pointers are quite safe.
But used improperly or maliciously, they can be dangerous indeed.
Here is some basic information about the laser pointers typically used by
amateur astronomers, along with some tips on using them safely....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/article_1429_1.asp
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CATCH COMET MACHHOLZ AT ITS BEST
Comet Machholz, C/2004 Q2, is entering its glory days. For observers in the
Northern Hemisphere, all the circumstances are at their best in the first half
of January 2005. The Moon is conveniently approaching new phase just as the
comet shines at its brightest and makes its closest approach to Earth. And to
add to the fun, the comet is traversing one of the best-known and best-loved
areas in the night sky, passing 2 degrees west of the Pleiades on the night of
January 7th....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1423_1.asp
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IAPETUS ENCOUNTERED
Gian Domenico Cassini would be proud. On December 31st, the spacecraft bearing
his name made its first of two close encounters with Iapetus, the third-largest
moon orbiting Saturn and the first of the four moons that Cassini discovered
himself. Iapetus is a world of opposites -- one half is as reflective as snow,
the other half reflects light like schoolyard blacktop. Cassini, the craft, was
about 72,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) away from Iapetus when it snapped
high-resolution images of the pockmarked moon....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1426_1.asp
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A LOOK BACK AT 2004
When astronomers look back on 2004, it will be remembered for long-awaited
space missions, political controversy, and the arrival of an astronomical event
never seen by living eyes. It certainly began with a bang. In January, two
events rocked the scientific community and continued to reverberate throughout
the entire year: NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers successful mission to Mars and
NASA's announcement that the Space Shuttle would no longer service the Hubble
Space Telescope....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1420_1.asp
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AMATEURS DETECT POSSIBLE EXOPLANET RINGLIKE STRUCTURE
Amateur astronomers may have discovered a ringlike structure around an
extrasolar planet. The Hubble Space Telescope will reveal whether the
observations and analysis represent a landmark discovery or an as-yet
unexplained systematic error. But regardless of the outcome, the collaboration
showcases the growing capabilities of amateurs to acquire and analyze
high-quality data, form networks, and engage in cutting-edge research....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1419_1.asp
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EARTH SAFE FROM ASTEROID 2004 MN4
Throughout the Christmas holiday weekend, the astronomical community was abuzz
over the most significant impact threat to Earth yet found. As late as December
27th, the near-Earth asteroid 2004 MN4 was given a 1-in-38 chance (2.7 percent)
of hitting us 25 years from now -- on April 13, 2029, to be exact. But thanks
to prediscovery observations, astronomers can now say with total confidence
that the asteroid will miss our home planet....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1417_1.asp
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HUYGENS EN ROUTE TO TITAN
Cassini captured an image of the Huygens probe just 12 hours after it separated
from the mothership at 2:00 Universal Time on December 25, 2004. Huygens, built
by the European Space Agency, will remain dormant until it approaches Saturn's
cloud-enshrouded moon Titan on January 14th. After being woken by an onboard
timer, the probe will plunge through Titan's atmosphere, a journey that should
take 2 to 2.5 hours. If the probe survives all the way to the surface, its
batteries might last long enough to acquire images and data for an additional
hour....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1416_1.asp
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ASTRO NEWS BRIEFS
Solar Telescope Finds a Home
The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, a proposed 4-meter instrument led by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), will be built
atop Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The site selection committee
chose the location from 70 potential candidates after determining it to be the
best place to help astronomers fulfill the telescope's primary science
requirements. Scientists using the $161 million facility, set to begin
construction next year, will endeavour to understand solar variability, the
Sun's magnetic field, and the role that the magnetic field plays in solar
flares. When built, ATST will be the largest solar telescope in the world.
Swift Telescope Sees First Light
The Swift mission got off to a running start in December. Shortly after
astronomers turned on the telescope, its Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) spotted an
event on December 17th. The next day it saw three more gamma-ray bursts (GRBs),
and a fourth popped on December 20th. Around the same time the spacecraft's
X-ray Telescope (XRT) obtained first-light images of the supernova remnant
Cassiopeia A. The BAT saw first light during observations of Cygnus X-1, a
likely black hole orbiting a star in the Milky Way. The XRT observed its first
GRB afterglow on December 23rd.
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1428_1.asp
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY
* New Moon on Monday, January 10th.
* Saturn is at opposition on Thursday, January 13th. In fact, Earth is so
exactly between Saturn and the Sun at this opposition that an observer at
Saturn would see tiny Earth transiting across the face of the tiny Sun!
* Mercury and bright Venus (magnitudes -0.3 and -3.8, respectively) are just
above the southeast horizon when dawn is brightening.
For more details, see This Week's Sky at a Glance and Planet Roundup:
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/
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CRUISE TO TOTALITY (Advertisement)
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aboard the newly refurbished MV Discovery to witness April's total solar
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exotic Tahiti, meet descendents of the HMS Bounty's crew on Pitcairn Island,
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footsteps of the Inca in Peru. Add to all that the spectacular southern sky,
and you have the astronomical adventure of a lifetime.
> http://www.tq-international.com/SouthPacificTotal/SoPachome.htm
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Copyright 2005 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin is provided as a
free service to the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE
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http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/.
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which calls attention to noteworthy celestial events, go to this address:
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*-----------------------------------------------------*
| Stuart Goldman sgoldman@SkyandTelescope.com |
* Associate Editor StuartGoldman@aol.com *
| Sky & Telescope |
* 49 Bay State Rd. Sky & Telescope: The Essential *
| Cambridge, MA 02138 Magazine of Astronomy |
*-----------------------------------------------------*
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