Two stars have been spotted streaking out of the Milky Way, never to return. These stars are part of a new class of objects which astronomers have dubbed "exiles". These are stars which were once part of a binary system that strayed too close to the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. The pair is torn apart, and the exiled star is fired off on a trajectory that will take it out of our galaxy. These events occur about once every 100,000 years.

Did 2005 feel like a scorcher? Well, you're right. According to NASA researchers, 2005 was the warmest year for planet Earth in more than a century. Scientists have used weather stations on land, ships on the ocean, and satellite measurements from space to keep track of average global temperatures. Over the last 100 years, temperatures have risen on average by 0.8° C or about 1.4° F. And the five warmest years were 2005, then 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Two of Saturn's moons are captured in this Cassini image, Tethys and tiny Atlas which is at the centre of the image, just outside Saturn's A ring. At 1,071 kilometers (665 miles) wide, Tethys is much bigger than Atlas, which is a mere 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide. A couple of faint ringlets are also visible in the Encke Gap on the right. This image was take on December 21, 2005, at a distance of nearly 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Tethys.

Even through life has flourished on Earth for billions of years, it doesn't seem to make much of an impact on our planet's landscapes. A team of scientists from UC Berkeley did an extensive survey of landscapes across the planet, and couldn't find any place that was obviously modified by lifeforms; from large grazing animals to microscopic bacteria. The only effect seems to be that lifeforms will tend to round off sharp hills. So landscapes once covered with life on Mars might have a higher chance of being smoother and less jagged.

Astronomers have discovered an extrasolar planet only 5 times larger than the Earth orbiting a star in the Sagittarius constellation. They used a technique called microlensing, where a star briefly passes in front of a more distant star, acting as a lens that magnifies its brightness. In this case, the planet passed in front of the star as well and created a second brightening that allowed astronomers to measure its mass. The planet is likely very cold, as it orbits about three times the distance of the Earth to the Sun, and its parent star is a colder red dwarf.

Two of Saturn's moons, Prometheus and Dione, are visible in this photograph taken by Cassini. Prometheus is the tiny, irregularly-shaped speck embedded inside Saturn's F ring. Dione, off to the left, is 1,123 kilometers (700 miles) wide. Cassini took this photograph on December 20, 2005 when it was approximately 2.5 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Dione and 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Prometheus.

Mars, both God of War and seductive planet. Its reddish hue bathes us in tempestuous delight, stirring our minds and our passions. Drawing us onto this beckoning delight is a collection of papers, stories and songs compiled by Frank Crossman and Robert Zubrin under the title, On to Mars - Volume 2. Each contributing author adds their own little ray of hope that soon Mars will have been visited by people.

NASA's Opportunity rover began its third year of operations on the surface of Mars today. Opportunity and its partner Spirit are now working through their extended missions that last through September 2006. The rovers are a little worse for wear; however. Spirit's rock abrasion tool is so worn down, it can't actually grind down rock layers, and the steering motor on Opportunity's front right wheel has broken down.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! If it's been awhile since you've stepped outside to view the stars, be sure to have a look at the beautiful combination of Mars, Aldeberan and Betelguese. If what's happening hasn't made you see "red" yet, then watch as the Moon steals away Antares by mid-week! Come along as we explore the Sun and take on deep sky studies. Get out your scopes and binoculars - or just turn your eyes to the skies, because...

Here's what's up!

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this photograph of Saturn's small icy moon Epimetheus as it faded away behind Saturn's rings and atmosphere. This image was captured by Cassini's narrow-angle camera on December 20th from a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Epimetheus.

A new computer model has been developed to help scientists explain the strange weather systems on Saturn's moon Titan. Images of Titan have been built up over the last few years by observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, as well as photographs taken from Earth-based telescopes. These models accurately predict how ethane and methane clouds form in Titan's atmosphere; especially near the moon's southern pole.

NASA recently shut down its Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) program, wrapping up 6 years of operations. During its lifetime, the spacecraft was used to measure the structure and dynamics of the Earth's external magnetic field. It was launched in March 2000, and it stopped responding to commands from the ground in December 2005. Engineers believe that its power supply subsystems failed, shutting it down entirely.

For anyone who's managed a program, they know that the best time to consider options is before the program begins, long before. Rick Tumlinson and Erin Medlicott present their book Return to the Moon at the start of the US's program to return to the Moon and Mars. In it, they offer a choice selection of articles by very experienced specialists, all whom have the same ambition. All these people want to see this US program put people on the Moon successfully and to the greatest advantage of all of us. Their other desire is that this program contain the right mix of government and private initiatives that will maintain people in space for a long time.

Photographs taken of the surface of Mars show evidence that glaciers once scoured away at its surface. Since the Red Planet is so dry, where did they come from? Scientists think that Mars' tilt towards the Sun changes very rapidly, and there was a time only a few million years ago when parts of the planet got much warmer during the summer. Glaciers could form on the flanks of the planet's larger mountains, and grow to be several hundred metres thick after just a few thousand years.

Europeans have begun funding what will eventually become the world's largest telescope: the Square Kilometre Array. The first step is a four-year study that will consult astronomers and engineers from around the world to decide what will make the best design. It will then be developed in stages, with parts coming operational over the next decade, and completion by 2020. Once complete, this extremely sensitive radio telescope will help probe the nature of dark matter, confirm Einstein's predictions about relativity... and let us watch television shows broadcast from nearby stars.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finally launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 19th. Travelling away from Earth at a speed of 13 kilometers per second (8 miles per second), the small piano-sized spacecraft will encounter Pluto on July 2015 after a long 9-year journey. Along its way, New Horizons will pass by Jupiter in 2007 and continue its journey to the Kuiper belt after investigating Pluto and its moon Charon.

After launch, spacecraft are on their own. They have no way to repair damage from the tiny micrometeorites that inevitably chip away at them. But now researchers at ESA are working on a protective seal that could give spacecraft a self-healing mechanism. This seal is made of glass fibres containing an adhesive material. Once a meteorite pierces the glass coating, the liquid adhesive and a separate hardener flow out to seal the wound and then turn solid.

In this photograph taken by Cassini, two storms are visible raging across the surface of Saturn; they're reaching out and interacting with each other. The larger storm, on the left, is at least 2,500 km (1,600 miles) across, and the smaller storm is about a quarter of its size. They have long threadlike arms reaching out to each other, and it's expected that they merged a few days after this photo was taken.

Paul Verhage has some pictures that you'd swear were taken from space. And they were. Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning allows individuals to launch functioning satellites to "near space" at a fraction of the cost of traditional rocket launch vehicles. Paul's balloons have been as high as 35 km, and the photographs he's taken are out of this world.

Astronomers think they've found evidence that an asteroid broke up about 8.2 million years ago, scattering dust around the Solar System. The discovery was made by US and Czech Republic researchers who found a layer of helium 3 in oceanic sediment - this isotope is normally quite rare. This evidence matches computer simulations on a group of asteroid fragments in the asteroid belt that were once part of a larger object called Veritas. It was likely the biggest asteroid break up or collision in the last 100 million years.