Universe Today

I don't want to get you worried, or even mildly concerned. No need to panic. In fact, just read this little piece, and remark with interest that an asteroid is going to get really really close to the Earth on October 31, 2041. It might – I repeat might – have a small, insignificant chance of hitting the Earth and causing regional devastation. Like a 1 in 40,000 chance. Those are pretty good odds when you think of it.
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The debut launch of the Soyuz 2-1b rocket carried ESA's COROT space telescope into orbit today. The rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan at 1423 GMT (9:23 am EST). The Fregat upper stage successfully put the spacecraft into its final orbit about 50 minutes later.
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It's a holiday week and even the stars are celebrating! Are you ready to join me in the last week of the 2006 observing season? Then head out into the night, because…

Here's what's up!
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We see the Universe in visible light with our photon detecting eyes. We can feel infrared heat with our photon detecting hands, and we get sunburns with our ultraviolet photon detecting skin (ouch). But there's a whole spectrum of photons out there, from radio waves to gamma rays that astronomers use to understand the Universe. It's time to see the whole picture.
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Astronomers have discovered a ring of metal-rich gas surrounding a relatively nearby white dwarf star that gives us a glimpse at the future of our own Solar System.
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To see any distance in space, you need some kind of telescope. We've got some pretty powerful ones here on Earth, but nature has us beat with gravitational lenses. This is a phenomenon when a relatively nearby object passes directly between us and a more distant object. The gravity from the nearby object acts as like a telescope lens to bend light and magnify the more distant object.
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I'm not sure why, but the European Southern Observatory has decided to give their web servers and bandwidth a real workout with their latest photo release. But I'm glad they did.
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The Moon has always held a fascinating role in our existence. Visiting it was surely the most amazing feat we've done. Catherine Thimmesh's book Team Moon relives the days of Apollo when NASA first reached the Moon. She emphasizes the vast number of everyday people who helped Apollo and gives notice that an equally large and varied workforce will be necessary for the success of future manned missions to other planets.
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The recently launched Japanese Hinode spacecraft is turning in some amazing new photographs of the Sun as part of its checkout phase.

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We finally get organized enough deal with several listener questions: isn't dark matter just regular stuff we can't see? how can parts of the Universe be expanding faster than the speed of light? what will Betelgeuse look like when it explodes as a supernova? what's the speed of gravity? All these and more questions are answered.
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Step aside Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, there's a new space telescope ready for launch. On December 27, 2006, the European Space Agency is planning to launch its planet hunting, starquake finding COROT satellite.
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I know we normally like to see pictures taken by telescopes, but here's cool set of pictures of telescopes. Okay, it's actually several pictures of one telescope, the Gemini North telescope, located atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano. The timelapse photographs were all taken during a single night of telescope operations.
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After 8 days docked together, and 4 spacewalks, the astronauts on board the International Space Station and the space shuttle Discovery big farewell to one another and closed the hatch. Discovery then detached from the station and drifted slowly away. Astronauts on board captured a series of photographs of the station as they pulled away.
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The Earth has almost returned to its same relative location about our Sun as when I last prepared a summary of my book reviews. While facing the daily ritual of rising, getting dressed and undertaking the day's tasks, I try to snatch moments to think about this marvel. We are all spinning madly about the Earth's iron core, which itself orbits ceaselessly about a great fusion reactor that constantly bathes us with warmth. All the while, seemingly through nothing, we hurtle further and further from something called the galactic centre, toward somewhere else. The books I review help me with this perspective of our existence and also help me keep in balance with all the daily news coming in.
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My friend and forum co-admin, Phil Plait, reminded me that today marks 10 years without Carl Sagan. His son, Nick Sagan has been organizing an online memorial to commemorate his life and influence on science.
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