Newborn stars hide in a shroud of dust and gas, so they're difficult to photograph. Astronomers have used the infrared UKIRT telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii to peer through one of these envelopes to see a pair of newborn stars - probably only 100,000 years old. The stars are quite large; however, they weigh 10 times the mass of the Sun together. The surrounding disk of material probably has enough left over to create 100 Jupiter-mass planets.

Astronomers have known about a strange blue light coming from the heart of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) for many years, but they were never sure exactly what it was. Thanks to new observations from Hubble, they now know it's a ring of young hot stars which are whipping around the supermassive black hole in the middle of M31. The 400 stars are packed into a disk only 1 light-year across, which is nestled inside a larger ring of older, redder stars. Our own Milky Way might have a similar phenomenon, which means this could be the situation in most galaxies.

Of all the meteorites found around the world, on 45 formed before our Solar System. They provide a unique insight into the composition of the stellar nebula that went on to form our Sun and planets. These early rocks have very few volatile materials in them, like zinc, lead and sodium. So this "volatile depletion" must have been one of the first things to happen in the stellar nebula, and not during planetary formation as previously believed.

Astronomers from Case Western Reserve University have created the deepest, wide-view image of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, which shows the faint web of starlight that connects the different galaxies together. The image was built up over the course of 14 moonless nights using the newly refurbished 24-inch Burrell Schmidt telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. This web of stars is evidence of the violent collisions that galaxies go through as they merge together to form larger galaxies.

Researchers from Open University have uncovered that the Earth suffered a sudden, severe period of global warming approximately 180 million years ago. During this period, vast quantities of methane gas were released in three huge pulses when underwater stores of gas hydrate melted. This greenhouse gas warmed the Earth by 10 degrees C and resulted in the extinction of many species on land and in the oceans.

Scientists celebrated this week after finally seeing ghostly spokes in Saturn's rings. These spokes were first discovered by NASA's Voyager spacecraft 25 years ago, but so far, Cassini had failed to image them. These spokes are about 2,500 km long and 100 km wide (2,200 miles by 60 miles), and are believed to be created by Saturn's magnetic field interacting with the rings. Scientists thought that the visibility of the spokes depended on the angle of Saturn's rings to the Sun; the less sunlight, the easier it should be to spot the spokes.

Cassini has taken images of what seems to be an ancient shoreline cutting across Titan's southern hemisphere. The shoreline runs about 1,700 km long by 170 km wide (1,060 miles by 106 miles) and might still have liquid present. There is evidence for networks of channels that feed liquid - most likely liquid hydrocarbons - into this "ocean"; some might come from springs, while others will have to have been fed by rainfall. Cassini's next flyby is set for October 26, 2005.

Some people dream in black and white while others dream in techni-colour. Daydreamers wander the realm of possibilities just as well as the sleepers. Subjects of dreams differ as greatly as the dreamer. Engineers, particularly astro-engineers, probably have recurrent dreams of launching into a project destined for the stars. Well, if dreams don't come true, there's always the pen and paper. That's how the book The Rocket Company by Patrick Stiennon and David Hoerr seems to have risen. Using the literary licence of a fictional company, the authors bring a wealth of non-fictional detail to a pleasant little dream.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Let's begin the week early in the morning by watching Saturn dancing near the "Beehive", move into the night with the ISS and a great a variable star - Eta Aquilae. As the skies darken this week, we'll return to the Andromeda galaxy and hunt down the M30. Have you ever seen the "Saturn" or "Helix" nebulae? Don't think them too difficult to find, because a few simple tricks will turn you into a pro and you'll find Neptune as well! Hang on, it just gets better as the Aurigid meteor shower peaks and a new comet joins some old favourites. So turn your eyes to the skies, because...

Here's what's up!

NASA has unveiled more details about its upcoming series of missions to return humans to the Moon as early as 2018. The new crew vehicle will look very similar to the old Apollo module but it will be three times larger, allowing four astronauts to travel to the Moon at a time. Each ship can be reused 10 times, and NASA hopes to get as many as 2 launches a year, with astronauts spending 4-7 days on the surface. Eventually, once a lunar outpost is built at the southern pole, astronauts will be able to live on the Moon for 6 months at a time.

Planets in the inner Solar System suffered two devastating periods of asteroid bombardment. Scientists are fairly certain that the early period came from asteroids identical to the space rocks in the current main belt between Mars and Jupiter. The second period is a bit of a mystery, though. Scientists now think that there was a period at the end of planetary formation when the giant planets swept up leftover material and hurled much outwards, but also some towards the inner Solar System.

Researchers have had a few months to crunch through the data collected during Deep Impact's collision with Comet Tempel 1. The latest research published in the Journal Science used findings from three giant telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The observations determined that as much as 25 fully-loaded tractor trailer-trucks worth of material was excavated out by the impact. The comet seems to have a complex mix of silicates, water and organic compounds beneath its surface.

NASA has two new Earth Observation satellites in the final stages of preparation before their launch: CloudSat and Calipso. The two satellites will be launched together by a Boeing Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. They will be launched into a polar orbit, and maintain a close formation. CloudSat has an extremely powerful cloud-profiling radar, which can distinguish between cloud particles and precipitation. Calipso will be able to detect aerosol particles in the air, and can tell the difference between these particles and clouds to measure the amount of air pollution. They may launch as soon as October 26.

Since it's in my neighbourhood, globally speaking, I thought I'd mention that the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, which is located in Southeast British Columbia, will be having an open house on Saturday, September 24. They've got a 26-metre radio dish, and many other instruments. It would be a great opportunity to see the equipment and meet radio astronomers, so if you live nearby, put this on your calendar. (Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend... maybe next year).

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft arrived at Asteroid Itokawa earlier this week, and now it's sending back beautiful images. This image is a composite colour image of the asteroid taken on September 12 using red, green and blue filters. It's also possible to see its irregular shape. Hayabusa will eventually land on the surface of Itokawa, collect samples to be sent back to Earth. The probe's sample return capsule is expected to return to Earth in June 2007.

A team of Canadian engineers have developed a tiny 3.5 kg satellite that could unleash a whole new industry of microsatellites. The Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment 2 (CanX-2) is about the size of a shoebox, but it packs a mini-spectrometer that will measure greenhouse gasses - for only $1 million in development costs. Future missions will hope to demonstrate how fleets of inexpensive microsatellites might be able to serve the same function as satellites that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to design and manufacture.

The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a supermassive black hole without a surrounding galaxy. These black holes and their galaxies are usually linked, so it's an unusual discovery. One possibility is that the host galaxy was stripped away during a collision with another galaxy. Another possibility is that the black hole is surrounded by a large amount of material, it's just dark matter, so Hubble couldn't detect it.

In preparation for its arrival at Mars next year, NASA has begun putting the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter through its paces. Controllers pointed its three cameras at the Moon and the stars, They also tested the spacecraft's onboard Context Camera and Optical Navigation Camera, and also its high-gain antenna for transmitting back to Earth. MRO was able to send back 75 gigabits of data in less than 24 hours, which is a new record for communicating with a spacecraft. It will enter Mars orbit on March 10, 2006.

A recent conversation on the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today forum got me thinking. Member "parallaxicity" wanted to know where the next generation of unmanned probes should be sent. Should we investigate Europa, and dig through its icy skin? Or what about building a blimp that could float in Titan's thick atmosphere analyzing the surface in incredible detail? Let me just wipe the drool from my chin; some of these missions would be so cool. But you know, I'll have to take a pass. Right now, I think we need to focus on one thing...