If humans are going to be spending longer periods in space, on the Moon, or even on Mars, it's just a matter of time before they'll need surgery. Can delicate surgery even be done in the weightlessness? Doctors from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency think so. They're working out a series of experiments where surgeons will attempt procedures in weightless situations, like underwater or in a special aircraft that simulates weightlessness. They believe that future missions will have at least one surgeon and several of the crew will be trained in surgical techniques as well.

At first glance, this hazy view of Saturn seems largely featureless, but if you look closely, you can see great oval-shaped storms churning through the planet's clouds. The lines extending away from the storms indicate that there isn't much horizontal mixing between layers. This photograph was taken on January 2, 2006 when Cassini was 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn.

Spitzer has uncovered an unusual pair of colliding galaxies whose hearts are surrounded by tiny crystals that resemble crushed glass. These crystals look like sand, and were probably shed from massive stars before and while they exploded as supernovae. Although these crystals have been seen in the Milky Way, this is the first time they've been found outside our galaxy. They won't last long, however. Scientists think the crystals will get heated up again and again by multiple supernova blasts and eventually melt back into a shapeless form.

Astronomers have used the light from a distant quasar to discover a metal-rich hydrogen cloud that would have otherwise been invisible; the quasar is 9 billion light-years away, but the cloud is only 6.3 billion light-years away. By analyzing the spectrum of this galaxy, astronomers have discovered that it contains 4 times more metal than what's contained in our Sun. If more of these clouds are discovered, it might help account for why the Universe seems to contain less metal that cosmologists have predicted it should.

When NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory took this photograph of the supernova remnant Puppis A, it revealed a how a cloud of nebula is being torn apart by the shockwave from the supernova explosion. The oval structure of the cloud with an empty region inside, closely matches experimental simulations done here on Earth, where a shockwave blasts past a cloud of vapourized copper. The cloud briefly compresses, and then rapidly expands leaving a cavity inside.

NASA astronomers have discovered an unusual solar system about 500 light-years away where the inner planets are going one direction, and the outer planets are going in the opposite direction. This newly forming system is quite different from our own Solar System, where the planets and the Sun all turn in the same direction. It's possible that the system formed from two different clouds of material, which were rotating in opposite directions.

Scientists are tracking a gigantic electrical storm raging on the surface of Saturn. This storm is the size of the United States, and the most powerful of its type ever seen. The origin of these storms is unknown, but researchers think it might have something to do with Saturn's warm interior. Cassini is expected to get much closer to Saturn in the next few weeks, so scientists will get a much better view.

A team of French scientists have successfully recreated the structure of primitive interstellar particles in their laboratory. This material is a silicate glass that contains embedded metal and suphides, and astronomers believe it's created in protostellar nebulae. The team heated up particles of olivine under high vacuum and temperatures ranging between 500 to 700ºC, and the resulting material closely matched this interstellar dust. This helps scientists understand some of the processes that occur in stellar nebulae.

Cassini was only 14,500 km (9,000 miles) from Saturn's moon Telesto when it took this photograph. Telesto is tiny, only 24 km (15 miles across), and it appears to be covered in fine, icy material that obscures ancient meteor strikes. This is quite different from many of Saturn's other moons, which look quite pockmarked in comparison.

Researchers at the University of St. Andrews and the Free University of Brussels think they have a solution that "fine-tunes" Einstein's groundbreaking theory of gravity to help account for the effect of dark matter. Dr Hong Sheng Zhao and Dr Benoit Famaey have created a new formula that allows the strength of gravity to vary over galactic distances, perfectly matching observations made by astronomers.

One of the best places to look for life on Mars might be underneath its surface, in vast underground fields of ice. A new mission is being considered that would smash a projectile at high speed into the Martian surface, to reveal the subsurface environment. The Tracing Habitability, Organics and Resources (THOR) project could launch in 2011, and would dig a crater 10 metres (30 feet) deep when it struck. An observer spacecraft would watch the debris plume, looking for any evidence of life.

This Cassini view of Saturn's moon Titan shows its hazy atmosphere. The photo was taken by combining red, blue, and green spectral filter photographs and has been greatly contrast-enhanced to show some subtle structures in the northern hemisphere. Cassini captured this image on December 26, 2005 when it was approximately 193,000 kilometers (120,000 miles) from Titan.

Scientists from Ohio State University think they know what created the famous "Man on the Moon" feature. They think that a large object impacted the Moon on the far side, which sent a shock wave through its core and fractured the opposite side. The team used gravity fluctuations measured by NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector spacecraft to map the Moon's interior. The data shows that the asteroid impact was so catastrophic, the resulting scar passes clear through the Moon's mantle and core.

ESA scientists are observing Earth from space using the Integral gamma ray observatory to find out how the continuous, high energy of cosmic radiation is originally produced. Earth itself isn't the main target of Integral; instead, it's looking at what can be seen as the Earth passes in front of these radiation sources. This diffuse, high-energy radiation is known as the 'cosmic X-ray background', and astronomers think it's produced by deep space supermassive black holes.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! The Full Snow Moon holds court as the week begins, making it a great time to spot some atmospheric phenomena. That won't stop us from seeing "double" as we meet the "twins" of Gemini and hitch a ride with the celestial charioteer - Auriga. Get out your scopes and binoculars. The sky is the limit and all you need to know is...

What's up!

Hollywood has a long love affair with battles involving huge ships at close quarters both on the sea and in deep outer space. Always a crowd pleaser, these action packed scenes pit the destiny of each crew against the other as their vessels approach and often collide in a burst of smoke and pyrotechnics. Somewhat similar situations occur throughout the cosmos when two island universes approach and are drawn together, not by testosterone induced aggression but by the attractive force of gravity with explosive effects that occur on a galactic scale!

Take a look through any book on our Solar System, and you'll see beautiful photographs of every planet - except one. Eight of our nine planets have been visited up close by a spacecraft, and we've got the breathtaking photos to prove it. Pluto's the last holdout, revealing just a few fuzzy pixels in even the most powerful ground and space-based telescopes. But with the launch of New Horizons in January, bound to arrive at Pluto in 9 years, we're one step closer to completing our planetary collection - and answering some big scientific questions about the nature of objects in the Kuiper Belt. Alan Stern is the Executive Director of the Space Science and Engineering Division, at the Southwest Research Institute. He's New Horizon's Principal Investigator.

If the Winter Olympics were held on the Moon, the best spot would be on the Lunar Alps. This is a region of the Moon similar in size and shape to Europe's Alps. Of course, with 1/6th the gravity, skiers could do some amazing tricks. Unlike Europe's Alps, which formed over millions of years, the lunar Alps were formed in a relative instant 4 billion years ago when a gigantic asteroid struck the Moon, and carved out Plato crater.

This photograph shows the amazing pits and ?grabens? in the Phlegethon Catena region of Mars. These are regions of terrain that have sunk down relative to their surroundings, but planetary geologists aren't exactly sure why. One possibility is that the subsurface eroded away and the surface fell into the pits that were created, or it might be from tension cracks in the region causing it to collapse. The photograph was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft.

This false-colour view taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the surface features and color variation on the moon Telesto. Similar to Pandora, the smooth surface of this Trojan moon suggests that it's covered with a mantle of fine, dust-sized icy material. The small moon Telesto is about 24 kilometers (15 miles) wide. Cassini captured this image at a distance of approximately 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) with its narrow-angle camera on December 25, 2005.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered potential solar systems surrounding two massive stars, 30 and 70 times the mass of our Sun. These stars generate intense solar winds, so it's surprising that disks of material could last near them long enough to form planets. Astronomers believe these disk contain massive quantities of icy material, similar to the Kuiper belt in our own Solar System, but extending out 60 times more distant than Pluto's orbit.

Being a messiah can't be easy. For one thing, you have to have many disadvantaged people to lead. As well, you'd need some extraordinary skills to convince them to follow and to make your leadership a success. Just becoming a messiah isn't any easier as David Lynch shows in Dune ? Extended Edition, his cinematic version of Frank Herbert's book. For here, not only do messianic images need to appear but they must do so for a society living thousands of years in the future, on another planet. And this is the story of Dune, of a distant messiah who arrives on a distant planet where people are waiting for a saviour.

This photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the pinwheel-shaped galaxy NGC 1309. Some of the interesting features are the bright blue areas of star formation in its spiral arms, the ruddy dust lanes in its structure, and yellowish central population of older stars. NGC 1309 is also home to Type Ia supernovae SN 2002fk, which astronomers are measuring to help determine the rate of expansion of the Universe.

At some point in the distant past, our own Milky Way robbed the low-mass stars from globular cluster M12. This cluster is about 23,000 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus, and it's known to contain about 200,000 stars. What's unusual is that they're nearly all 20 to 80% the mass of our Sun; a surprisingly high ratio compared to the rest of the Milky Way. Astronomers estimate that M12 has ejected more than a million stars into the galactic halo, never to see them again.

It's easy to see the "wrinkly" features on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. This actually means that portions of its surface are relatively young, and largely clear of impact craters. Its geologically active southern polar region is seen at the bottom of the image. This photo was taken on December 24, when Cassini was 108,000 kilometers (67,000 miles) from Enceladus.

As rockets go, the Saturn V will remain as the champion of its century. A concerted engineering effort brought theory into the hard cold realm of facts, figures and data sheets. Alan Lawrie and Robert Godwin in their book Saturn V go back to the testing phase of these leviathans and recall the glories when modules passed tests or the tragedies of failures. For behind the roar and the flame of the rocket's exhaust, were countless validations and verifications that ensured this man-rated rocket performed 'nominally'.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! The Moon is back in style and this week we'll be studying lunar features as well a bright stars and open clusters. For viewers in western North America, hope for clear skies as the Moon occults the Plieades! Time to get out your scopes and binoculars and turn an eye towards the sky, because....

Here's what's up!

New Chandra observations of spiral galaxy NGC 5746 have revealed a large halo of hot gas surrounding the optical disk of the galaxy. This halo extends for more than 60,000 light years, but the galaxy itself doesn't seem to show any sign of active star formation. Computer simulations show that the hot gas is probably from the gradual inflow of intergalactic material left over after the galaxy first formed. Halos like this had been predicted on computer, but not seen around a galaxy until now.

Cassini captured this image of Saturn's moon Hyperion during a distant encounter in December, 2005. Hyperion is only 280 km (174 miles) across, and is covered with closely packed pits, giving it a spongy appearance. This photo was taken when Cassini was 228,000 kilometers (142,000 miles) from Hyperion.

This is an image of the Claritas Fossae region on the surface of Mars. The photograph was taken by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, and shows a region approximately 200 km x 1150 km (125 miles by 715 miles). The area is located roughly south-east of the Tharsis volcano group, and shows evidence of ancient tectonic and volcanic activity, as well as many meteor strikes.

In the Northern hemisphere, winter solstice marks the shortest period of daylight during the year. The long nights host an annual parade of familiar constellations and stars, like Orion the hunter, Taurus the bull, brilliant Sirius and ruddy Aldebaran. But to star gazers and astrophotographers alike, the Northern winter also signals the opening of galaxy season; when some of the brightest and most interesting island universes are poised above the horizon for much of the evening.

Paleobiologists have produced 3-D images of ancient fossils - 650 to 850 million years old - embedded within rocks. This astounding accomplishment uses a technique called Raman spectroscopy, which allows scientists to see the structure of these ancient fossils in three-dimensions. This could be useful for future rock samples returned from Mars since would allow scientists to detect and analyze microfossils without actually damaging them.

Astronomers have confirmed that the newly discovered 10th planet is larger than Pluto. Nicknamed 2003 UB313 for now, the new planet has a diameter of 3,000 km (1,850 miles) which is 700 km (435 miles) larger than Pluto. These new observations were made using a sensitive sensor on the IRAM 30-m telescope that measured the heat emitted by the new object, and found it had a similar reflectivity to Pluto. This allowed them to calculate its size.

UC Berkeley researchers have performed a detailed analysis on a binary pair of asteroids circling near Jupiter's orbit, and believe they're mostly water ice covered with a layer of dirt. These objects probably started out as small Kuiper belt objects, and then were captured at one of Jupiter's Trojan points - a gravitational eddy in space where solar system material can collect.

For many years astronomers have known that massive, bright stars are usually found to be in multiple star systems. But a recent study by Charles Lada of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggests that most stars are actually all alone. A new study on low-mass stars - such as red dwarfs - has found that these stars rarely occur in multiples and that they are more abundant than high-mass stars, such as the Sun. Since planets form more easily around single stars, they could be more common than previously thought.

Scientists think they're closing in on the cause of gamma ray bursts: merging neutron stars. It was originally believed that this happened when huge stars in a binary system both turned into neutron stars, and eventually smashed into each other. But astronomers think that neutron stars in globular star clusters could eventually pair up. The stars are packed so closely together, that they often exchange partners; a neutron star could swap a regular star out for another neutron star.

This Cassini photograph highlights tectonic faults and craters on Saturn's moon Dione. This enhanced-colour view was created by merging ultraviolet, green and infrared photographs into a single image which was then superimposed over top of clear-filter image. The photographs were taken on December 24, 2005, when Cassini was 151,000 kilometers (94,000 miles) from Dione.

Having successfully delivered its fragile payload of comet and interstellar dust samples, Stardust is a spaceship without a purpose. This week, NASA controllers sent a series of commands that put the ship into a hibernation mode. With every system turned off, except it solar arrays and receive antenna, Stardust should be able to remain in good health for years. NASA is considering future missions they could give the spacecraft.

When the Apollo astronauts returned to their lunar landers, they all noticed that the moondust - which had clung to their boots and suits - had some interesting properties. For starters, it smelled like spent gunpowder; as if someone had just fired a gun in the lander. Apollo 17's Jack Schmitt came down with a brief case of extraterrestrial hay fever. It could be that the relatively damp interior of the lander causes particles from the solar wind to evaporate into the air.

Greetings fellow SkyWatchers! The week begins as we have a look into the "Fishmouth" - M43. Then it's time to get Sirius as we learn how and when to look for a white dwarf star. As the Moon returns, we'll have a look at its features as well as some bright sky objects. So keep an eye on the sky, because...
Here's what's up!

Young hot blue star - the supermassive black hole has spoken, it's time for you leave the galaxy. When binary stars stray too close to the centre of the Milky Way, they're violently split apart. One star is put into an elliptical orbit around the supermassive black hole, and the other is kicked right out of the galaxy. Dr. Warren Brown from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics was one of the astronomers who recently turned up two exiled stars.

This false colour image shows subtle variations across the surface of Dione, one of Saturn's moons. Scientists created this view by combining ultraviolet, green and infrared images into a single photograph that highlights the different regional colour differences. The images were taken on December 24, 2005 when Cassini was 597,000 kilometers (371,000 miles) from Dione.

Ask any farmer - if you want to grow prize winning produce you have start with nutrient rich soil. The same holds true if you have your sights on raising suns.

On the 3rd of February the strangest satellite ever constructed will be launched into orbit by astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS). The satellite, called SuitSat, is an empty old spacesuit. It's equipped with 3 batteries, a radio transmitter and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power. The satellite will continuously transmit its conditions to Earth while orbiting it. SuitSat will be broadcasting a radio signal that can be easily heard from the ground using an FM radio tuned to 145.990 MHz.

This enhanced colour image of Rhea shows how this Saturnian moon has been pounded by impacts over millions of years. The two large impact basins at the top of Rhea are very old because they're overprinted by many smaller impacts. The ray like structure on the moon's eastern side comes from a relatively recent impact that sprayed material across Rhea's surface. Cassini took this image on December 23, 2005.