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Following the Dust Trail

On March 13, 1986, the ESA probe, Giotto, had a close encounter – a close encounter with a visitor from the Oort cloud spewing 18 metric tons of gas every second and pouring 30 metric tons of dust from its nucleus. It’s name? Comet Halley… And following its trail was one of the world’s foremost experts on cometary dust properties – Dr. Jochen Kissel. “Historically comets have always been unusual bodies, as they seemed to appear out of the nothing and also disappear like that. ” But the real mystery is the dust.

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Audio: Unlikely Wormholes

Wormholes are a mainstay in science fiction, providing our heroes with a quick and easy way to instantly travel around the Universe. Enter a wormhole near the Earth and you come out on the other side of the galaxy. Even though science fiction made them popular, wormholes had their origins in science – distorting spacetime like this was theoretically possible. But according to Dr. Stephen Hsu from the University of Oregon building a wormhole is probably impossible.

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What’s Up This Week – May 23 – May 29, 2005

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! The week might begin with a full Moon, but we’ll have plenty to explore as we learn about the anti-twilight arch and the “Belt of Venus”. We’ll watch as the Moon occults Antares, locate globular clusters, visit the planets and pinpoint asteroids. The weekend brings early dark skies along with challenges for all observers, so get ready to grab a comet by the tail, because…

Here’s what’s up!

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A SWIFT Response to Gamma Ray Bursts

Think astronomy is a boring task of poring over data or staring at star chart after start chart? Sometimes, it can get downright exciting, like when a worldwide alert goes off signifying a new gamma ray burst in the sky. Monday, May 9, 2005 saw not one, but two, gamma ray bursts as NASA’s HETE-2 and SWIFT x-ray satellites each managed to sound the alarm from low-earth orbit. One of these events may prove to be just the breakthrough needed to help astrophysicists better understand just how such highly explosive events actually come about. But they’ve really got to hustle to get the objects imaged before they fade away, and take all their secrets with them.

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Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower Peaks on May 6

Skywatchers are in for a treat tonight as the eta Aquarid meteors will be putting on a show. Observers in the southern hemisphere should be able to see 15-60 meteors an hour depending on the darkness of the skies. Those in the northern hemisphere won’t be so lucky, seeing only about 10 meteors an hour. Look to the constellation of Aquarius, towards the East in the early morning of May 6, and you should see a more than a few meteors. Be patient, dress warmly, and bring a friend or two..

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What’s Up This Week – May 2 – May 8, 2005

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers.This week’s early dark skies will promote plenty of deep space action as we view the M51, M94, M53, and M64. Mid-week will provide some excitement as the reliable children of Comet Halley streak across our atmosphere during the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. In two months, Deep Impact will have reached Comet Tempel 1 – but why wait until then to view it? You can see it now! The call goes out to observers to help in scientific study and the week ends with a special treat. So grab your binoculars and telescopes and head out under dark skies…

Because here’s what’s up!

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Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, April 24

There’s going to be a partial lunar eclipse on Sunday, April 24; unfortunately, the Moon will only pass through the faint penumbral shadow, and only dim slightly. Most observers would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. The eclipse gets going at 0955 UT (5:55 am EDT) and ends about 2 hours later. Observers in the Americas should be able to see the eclipse, with the best view for folks in the West.

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Fundamental Aspect of the Universe has Remained Unchanged

Researchers from UC Berkeley have looked into the past to confirm that a fundamental aspect of the Universe – the fine structure constant, or alpha – has remain unchanged for at least 7 billion years. This constant shows up in many formulae dealing with electricity and magnetism, and helps describe how radiation is emitted by atoms. This conflicts with a recent announcement from Australian researchers that described a change in alpha over time.

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Probing the Large Scale Structure of the Universe

Thanks to data collected by NASA’s WMAP probe in 2001 and 2002, plus the hard work of astrophysicists, we now know that the Universe is 13.7 billion years of age – give or take a few hundred million years. And thanks to the way distant galaxy clusters interacted with the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) some 7 billion years ago, we may soon be able to peel away layers of time and better understand irregularities in the shape of the universe as it is today.