Want to know where new galaxies are going to be born? Just look for clumps of dark matter. Although dark matter is completely invisible to any kind of detector we have today, this mysterious substance can warp radiation by its gravity. Astronomers have used Hubble and the Subaru Telescope to map out the distribution of dark matter in an area of sky 5 times larger than the full Moon. Wherever dark matter is at its thickest, galaxies are likely to form.

If you're going to fly in space, you need some kind of propulsion system. Chemical rockets can accelerate quickly, but they need a lot of heavy fuel. Ion engines are extremely fuel efficient but don't generate a lot of power, so they accelerate over months and even years. A new thrusting technology called the Helicon Double Layer Thruster could be even more efficient with its fuel. Dr. Christine Charles from the Australian National University in Canberra is the inventor.

After years in space, and having successfully collected samples from a comet, NASA's Stardust spacecraft is almost home. If all goes well, the spacecraft will release its sample capsule on January 15, 2006. Four hours after it's released, the sample container will enter the Earth's atmosphere at a velocity of 46,440 kilometers per hour (28,860 miles per hour). The container will land at the US Air Force Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City.

High energy electrons are a menace to space travel. They can disrupt satellite electronics and pose a serious threat to the health of astronauts. Over the past 5 years, ESA's Cluster spacecraft have revealed how these electrons are given so much energy by the Earth's magnetosphere. Scientists now know that intense solar storms can cause the magnetosphere to wobble, releasing a flood of high-energy electrons.

Scientists think they might have finally found the wreckage of the ill fated Beagle 2 Mars mission. Grainy photographs from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor show what could be the spacecraft and protective airbag system. Instead of landing flat on the surface of Mars, it looks like it bounced into a crater and rolled around inside. Even though the lander was designed for a rough landing, this was probably more than it could have handled.

Italian and French researchers are about to spend a full year in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth: Antarctica. But it's paradise compared to what astronauts would face if they stepped out on the surface of Mars. As part of its Aurora Exploration Programme, ESA is considering a human mission to Mars by 2030. One stage of this exploration program is the Concordia station in Antarctica, which simulates many of the conditions and constraints that astronauts would face living on Mars.

Cassini has captured this amazing image of two Saturian moons: Mimas and Helene, hiding behind the planet's ringplane. The large, bright moon is Mimas, illuminated on its right side by the Sun. The tiny dot to its left is the tiny Trojan moon Helene. This moonlet is only 32 kilometers (20 miles) across, and shares the same orbit as Dione. This image was taken on November 2, 2005.

Even though they explode in an instant, the after effects of supernovae can be seen for hundreds of years. Astronomers have observed the remains of three supernovae that flashed in our skies hundreds of years ago. Careful image analysis found concentric arcs of light moving outwards from where the supernovae exploded. Light from these explosions has bounced off of clouds of interstellar gas, and is now visible to astronomers like an echo can be heard when sound bounces off a distant object.

One of the big problems with Earth-based observatories is our own atmosphere. It distorts the light from distant objects, always making them a little blurry. The giant W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii uses a laser to create a bright virtual star in the sky so astronomers can calculate and remove these distortions to create amazingly clear views of the night sky. Its latest target is the centre of our own Milky Way which is thought to hide a supermassive black hole.

Astronomers have used the ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the stellar vibrations of a nearby star. The team studied Alpha Centauri B, one of our closest neighbours - only 4.3 light-years away - and relatively similar to our own Sun. Churning gas in the star's outer layers creates low-frequency sound waves that bounce around inside the star and cause it to pulse in and out slightly. The star only changes about a dozen metres every four minutes, but that makes enough of a change in the wavelength of light we see to be able to detect it.

NASA's Grace Earth observation satellite has created the first, comprehensive survey of the entire Greenland ice sheet. The spacecraft found that the volume of ice is decreasing by 162 cubic kilometres per year (39 cubic miles), which is higher than all previously published estimates. This ice melt is contributing 0.4 millimeters (.016 inches) per year to global sea level rise. Grace was also able to measure detailed changes in the surface of the sea floor after the Sumatran earthquake and resulting tsunami that happened almost a year ago.

Tom Gwilym took this picture of M42 from his backyard observatory in Renton, WA. Tom used Orion 80ED with Canon 10D DSLR and IDAS light pollution filter.

Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today.

Mike Salway took this collection of planetary images over the year 2005 . Mike's planetary imaging includes pictures of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter.

Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today.

NASA is in the final stage of preparations for the launch of its New Horizons spacecraft, destined to lift off for Pluto in January 2006. If all goes well, New Horizons will blast off January 17, 2006 atop an Atlas V rocket; the launch window extends until February 14, 2006. The spacecraft will make a gravity slingshot past Jupiter in 2007, and arrive at Pluto as early as mid-2015.

The physical constants of the Universe are thought to have remained unchanged since the Big Bang; many predictions made by cosmologists depend on it. An international team of researchers are using the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to see if things really have gone on unchanged for billions of years. They're looking to measure two universal constants: the ratio of mass between protons and electrons, and something called the fine structure constant.

Equality is a rallying call for many. The emancipation of women gave ladies the right to vote, obtain education, achieve gainful employment and have an equal chance at being a national leader. However, this freedom doesn't extend to all nations nor to all industries. In the book Women in Space by David Shayler and Ian Moule, we read how women have made many startling contributions to aerospace and are also well on their way to being an accepted part of space programs. By listing their many achievements, the authors demonstrate that women can equally contribute, but only if and when society lets them.

This beautiful photograph shows Saturn's moon Rhea, partially obscured by the rings. The material surrounding the ring is probably on the planet's equatorial plane, extending farther out from the ring's main core. This image was taken on Oct. 30, 2005, at a distance of approximately 689,000 kilometers (428,000 miles) from Saturn.

Instruments on board Cassini have confirmed that Saturn's faintest ring is being created by particles emitted by its icy moon Enceladus. Scientists are amazed that this tiny, supposedly dead moon has such active volcanoes. Some unknown process is heating up the interior of Enceladus, especially near the southern pole, causing this plume of ejected material. Most of the larger particles probably reimpact the moon, but the smaller ones are pushed into orbit around Saturn by sunlight.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers... I hope you have your shopping done, because this is going to be one exciting week! We'll start off with awesome barred spiral NGC 1300 and move on to study both a white and red dwarf star. We'll pass through the Delta Arietids meteor stream, reach Winter Solstice and search out new cluster Collinder 62. The next morning we'll pass through the stream of comet 8/P Tuttle and hunt down Mercury. But the early morning excitement hasn't ended as the Moon will occult Beta Virginis and Venus comes to a standstill. Not enough? Then hang on as we explore multiple system Theta Orionis and watch as asteroid Vesta slides by bright star Delta Geminorum. Still up for more? Then enjoy a very special Christmas morning as the Moon occults Spica and the night brings around the one and only "Christmas Tree Cluster!" It's time to dance among the winter stars, because...

Here's what's up!