|
|
| What's Up This Week - December 12 - December 18, 2005 |
Dec 12, 2005 - Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! It's "mid-time of night and the stars in their orbits shone pale through the light of the brighter cold Moon." But, be sure to take the time to "gaze for awhile on her cold smile"! There will be a brief opportunity this week to hide from that light to catch the Geminid meteor shower, as well as plenty of time to check out bright planets, stars and clusters. So turn your eyes to the skies, because...
Here's what's up! (Full Story) |
|
|
|
|
|
| Detailed Dark Matter Maps |
| Dec 11, 2005 - Even through scientists have no idea what dark matter really is, they're able to see its effect on regular matter, and use this data to build a map of where it's clustered. Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to map the dark matter in two very young galaxy clusters. Their observations lend evidence to the theory that galaxies form at the densest regions of dark matter. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
|
|
| Dione and Rhea in the Same Frame |
| Dec 11, 2005 - Two of Saturn's moons, Rhea and Dione posed for Cassini in this photograph. The lower moon is Dione, which has been much more geologically active in the past than Rhea. Dione has a smoother surface and linear depressions, while Rhea looks quite pummeled by impacts, like our own Moon. When Cassini took this image, Rhea was 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) away, and Dione was 1.2 million kilometers (800,000 miles) away. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
|
|
| Northern Lights on the Move |
| Dec 11, 2005 - For more than 400 years, the Earth's magnetic North pole was in a roughly stable position, but now it's on the move, having drifted nearly 1,100 km (680 miles) in the last century. At this rate, it'll move out of Canada, and into Siberia in the next 50 years. If that happens, Alaska and Northern Canada may lose the beautiful Northern Lights, which are caused by the interaction of the magnetic pole and the solar wind. It could be that this is a normal oscillation of the magnetic pole, or it might be that the Earth's magnetic poles are getting ready to flip. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
|
