Few celestial events attract such widespread media attention as what is inappropriately named a planetary alignment. Because of their orbits and distances from the sun, the planets do not actually line up. Occasionally however, two or more planets do appear to gather close together in the sky as seen from here on Earth. An event such as this is known as a planetary conjunction. Late June offers observers, especially those in the northern hemisphere, a chance to witness just such a conjunction of Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Vacation time's arrived. You're in the car driving to your little piece of heaven. Then, from the depths of the back seat you hear those dreaded words, "I'm bored". Then comes the exchange of verbal barbs that may or may not end with you turning the car around. There are alternatives. Keep your eyes on the road and your mind flying with space books. John Starke's Glow in the Dark Planets and Melanie Melton Knocke's From Blue Moons to Black Holes are just what you need to shrink travel time.

The New Horizons mission to Pluto has been called ?The First Mission to the Last Planet,? and it?s the first mission to venture to a ?new? planet since the Voyager missions nearly 30 years ago. While New Horizons includes proven technology and a superior launch vehicle, it could be considered to be a ?throw-back? mission. Some of the scientific instruments on board are named after characters from the 1950?s television show, ?The Honeymooners,? and the project?s Principal Investigator, Dr. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, says the mission makes him feel like he?s back in the heyday 1960?s or 1970?s of space exploration because this mission is all about exploring planets for the first time.

Physicists at MIT have successfully created a new form of matter in their laboratory; a gas that shows superfluidity at higher temperatures. Superfluid gasses, which can flow without resistance, have been created before, but only at very cold temperatures just above Absolute Zero. Matter like this could exist in the Universe's most extreme places, like at the heart of black holes, neutron stars, or in the early stages of the Big Bang.

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a detailed image of a narrow, dusty ring around nearby star Fomalhaut. Although they can't see it directly, astronomers think a planet has been tugging at the ring with its gravity. According to researchers, the shape and position of the ring couldn't exist without a planet. This is similar to the twists and knots that NASA's Cassini spacecraft has photographed in Saturn's rings, which are caused by its shepherd moons.

Astronomers have discovered a binary system of a blue giant and a pulsar that operate as a natural particle accelerator, raising the energy levels of simple photons to some of the highest possible energies. The discovery was made by while watching how the pulsar periodically passes through disk of material ejected by the rapidly spinning blue giant. Each time the pulsar sweeps through this material, its intense magnetic field interacts with the ejected material and boosts photons from regular visible light into the range of super-high gamma rays which blast out in all directions. Some of this radiation interacts with our atmosphere, which is why we can detect it here on Earth.

All three MARSIS booms on Mars Express are now fully deployed, and the spacecraft is ready to begin searching Mars for underground sources of ice and water. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) consists of two 20-metre (66 foot) and one 7-metre (23 foot) boom. Controllers turned on the radar and performed a brief test, but they're still planning on an extensive commissioning phase until July 4, when the instrument will be ready for full operations.

New images taken by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft show the actual nucleus of its target, Comet Tempel 1. The nucleus is the heart of the comet, and largely composed of ice and rock. Surrounding that is a halo of gas and dust that largely obscures the view. Tempel 1 isn't a sphere, but an oblong potato-shaped object, 14 km (9 miles) long by 4.8 km (3 miles) wide. By continuing to watch the nucleus as it approaches, Deep Impact will provide scientists with a better idea of the comet's rotation and orientation, so they can fine tune the final collision on July 4.

Biographies of peoples lives can come off as a dated list of achievements and events. With a subject like Story Musgrave, who has more awards and accomplishments than most, such a list almost clamours to be made. Ignoring this call, Ann Lenehan in her book Story - The Way of Water, presents the person behind the awards. The emotions, philosophy and wishes of an over achiever and a very sensitive, warm individual.

When you look into the night sky with your eyes, or through a telescope, you're seeing the Universe in the spectrum of visible light. Unfortunately, this is a fraction of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from radio waves to gamma radiation. And that's too bad because different wavelengths are better than others for revealing the mysteries of space. Technology can let us "see" what our eyes can't, and instruments here on Earth and in space can detect these different kinds of radiation. The submillimeter wavelength is part of the radio spectrum, and gives us a very good view of objects which are very cold - that's most of the Universe. Paul Ho is with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and an astronomer working in world of the submillimeter. He speaks to me from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Although the Moon will be full, there will be plenty of excitement as we start the week with Mars and end with a wonderful conjunction of Saturn, Venus and Mercury. But that's not all, for there are two comets and two galaxies to study as well a meteor shower. This will be a great week for all observers, so open your eyes to the skies because...

Here's what's up!

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this image of Saturn's F-ring, with one of its shepherd moons, Pandora also in view. Pandora is only 84 km (52 miles) across, but it clearly has a powerful effect on the ring, causing ripples, knots and twists in the ring from afar. You can see the entire shape of Pandora in this picture, because reflected light from Saturn illuminates the moon's dark side.

Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe? This question continues to puzzle scientists, but now Professor David Catling at Bristol University thinks that significant oxygen in the atmosphere and oceans of a distant planet are required for complex organisms to evolve. The fact that it took almost 4 billion years here on Earth means that other planets might not have a lot of time to evolve complex life. Since our Sun still has another 4 billion years before it dies, life has time to flourish, but planets around other, more short-lived stars might not be so lucky.

The unpiloted Progress 18 cargo ship docked with the International Space Station on Saturday, delivering a fresh batch of supplies. The spacecraft nearly connected automatically to the Zvezda Service Module, but Commander Sergei Krikalev had to take over because of communications problems between ground control and the Progress.ship. It's loaded up with food, propellant, oxygen, water, spare parts, and experiment hardware. It also brought along the new camera system that will help astronauts inspect the space shuttle for damage when it docks.

Named after Harvard University astronomer Bart Bok, Bok globules may not be the most romantic sounding phrase in astronomy, but they are widely accepted as an important step in the formation of new stars. Now a team of fourteen astronomers - headed by Ryo Kandori of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan - reports examining ten globules in near-infrared and radio-frequency light along with previously detected data from four others, to determine how many of them are stars in the making...

Which came first, galaxies or the supermassive black holes at their centre? Most cosmologists now think the two are inextricably linked, each depending on the other. And according to researchers, including famed astronomer Sir Martin J Rees, these supermassive black holes got big, fast. By reviewing quasar data in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the team has calculated that many supermassive black holes had reached 1 billion times the mass of our Sun in a very short period of time. Even for the largest, most voracious black holes in the Universe, that's an amazing feat.

The reentry module of the European Space Agency's unmanned Foton-M2 mission has returned to Earth, landing in Kazakhstan, close to the Russian border. The Foton-M2 contained 39 space experiments, including fluid physics, biology, crystal growth, meteoritics, radiation and exobiology. It remained in space for 16 days, and then was de-orbited and landed safely. The spacecraft is being returned to Europe so the various experiments can be returned to the investigators.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has successfully deployed its second MARSIS 20-metre (66 foot) radar boom; without a hitch this time. Learning their lesson from the first boom, which partially locked up during deployment, ESA controllers put Mars Express into a slow spin so that the boom and its hinges would be evenly warmed by the Sun as it extended. The shorter third and final boom will be deployed on June 17. Once the three booms are extended, Mars Express will be able to scan underneath the surface of Mars for deposits of water and ice.

The space shuttle Discovery has returned to launch pad 39B at Florida's Cape Canaveral to continue preparations for its July launch. The shuttle recently had its external fuel tank replaced with one that would minimize ice buildup. NASA is planning to launch Discovery during its July 15 - 31 flight window. During the 12-day mission, seven astronauts will test new hardware and techniques designed to improve the safety of the space shuttles, and they will also dock with the International Space Station and deliver supplies.

Many of the Earth's volcanic rocks might have come from melted asteroids, according to researchers from the UK's Open University. The scientists have discovered that many early asteroids were quite volcanic and would have had large magma oceans. These asteroids would have become layered with lighter rock forming near the surface while denser rocks were deeper inside. The Earth probably grew from the accumulation of these melted asteroids.

When the recent discovery of a planet orbiting Gliese 876 was announced by astronomers, much of the interest focused on how "Earthlike" it is. So, just how like our home planet is it? Well... not very. For starters, the planet orbits only .021 the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and whips around its star once every 2 days. It has 6-8 times the mass of the Earth, so the gravity would be crushing for any potential life, not to mention the terrible radiation exposure from being so close to its parent star.

Jets of material seem common in the Universe; blasting away from black holes, neutron stars, the hearts of galaxies, and even newborn stars. Unfortunately, the source of these jets are usually obscured by thick dust. Astronomers using the submillimeter array have been able to peer through this dust and see right down the throat of a nearby jet in a young star system called Herbig-Haro 211. It will eventually become a low mass star similar to our Sun, and help explain the stages stars go through in early life.

Astronomers have built up a map of neutrinos that existed when the Universe was very young, and have found that ripples in the distribution of these particles match predictions about the Standard Model of the Big Bang. Neutrinos are particles that are difficult to measure because they have little mass, and barely interact with anything else. The discovery was made by combining data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

July 4th is Independence Day In the United States, and Americans typically enjoy their holiday with a few fireworks. But up in space, 133 million kilometres away, there's going to be an even more spectacular show... Deep Impact. On July 4th, a washing machine-sized spacecraft is going to smash into Comet Tempel 1, carve out a crater, and eject tonnes of ice and rock into space. The flyby spacecraft will watch the collision from a safe distance, and send us the most spectacular pictures ever taken of a comet - and its fresh bruise. Dr. Lucy McFadden is on the science team for Deep Impact, and speaks to me from the University of Maryland.

In the brutal environment of the Orion Nebula, where temperatures soar to 10,000-degrees C (18,000-degrees F), and the stellar winds blow at 3.2 million kph (2 million mph) you'd think that newly forming planetary systems would just get torn apart. But according to new research using the Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, astronomers have found that protoplanetary systems can actually hold onto their dust and form planets, despite their stormy environments.

Astronomers have found the most Earthlike extrasolar planet discovered so far. This new planet is about 7.5 times the mass of the Earth, and has twice the radius of our own planet. It whips every two days around a nearby star called Gliese 876, which is only 15 light years away - this star also possesses two additional giant, Jupiter-class planets. This is the first time that a rocky (or terrestrial) planet has been discovered around another star.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! The week starts with the zero equation of time, but there's still time for you to locate Comet 9/P Tempel 1. We'll explore lunar features, try for Pluto, view colorful double stars, watch as Jupiter and the Moon pair up, chase meteors and follow our planetary trio as they move closer together. Open your eyes to the night skies, because...

Here's what's up!

The Jeopardy TV game show challenges people to answer trivia questions about minutia. Being successful requires a contestant to fill their brains with facts and figures. For someone less inclined to memorization, books are the answer. The Apogee book Deep Space - The NASA Mission Reports edited by Robert Godwin and Steve Whitfield is just the one for facts and figures of NASA's missions to explore the depths of space.

French chefs are helping the European Space Agency develop recipes that could be used to make food grown in space tasty as well as nutritious. How about a tasty snack of Martian bread and green tomato jam or potato and tomato mille-feuilles? The menus were based on nine main ingredients that could be grown in future space-based greenhouses. The dishes could be made with 40% of these ingredients, and the remaining 60% could come from Earth-based ingredients.

All the planets in our solar system have been visited by a spacecraft, except one... Pluto. The spacecraft that will complete the collection, New Horizons, arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for pre-flight testing. If all goes well, New Horizons will launch atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket in January 2006, and reach Pluto and its moon Charon in 2015. The spacecraft will remain at Goddard for the next three months, where technicians will put it through a range of tests to make sure it's ready to ride a rocket.

In 1572, astronomer Tycho Brahe witnessed the supernova that created the stellar remnant Cassiopeia A. All that remains from this powerful explosion is a cloud of debris expanding away from a neutron star. New images from NASA's Spitzer space telescope show that this neutron star isn't out of action yet, though, in fact, it might have fired out a blast of energy 50 years ago, which is now lighting up the surrounding material. This recent activity might mean that the neutron star is actually an exotic magnetar, which regularly release bursts of gamma rays.

This image, taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft shows a region of Mars' Valles Marineris canyon system called Coprates Catena and Coprates Chasma - roughly at the centre of the gigantic gash. This photograph is a perspective view, calculated by the terrain imaged by Mars Express. Scientists are sure what caused the Valles Marineris, but some believe that the formation of the Tharsis uplift and volcanoes, west of the canyon caused this area to fracture.

A new high-speed camera has been mounted to the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. This ultra fast camera is called ULTRACAM, and it's capable of recording some of the most rapid astronomical events. It's capable of taking 500 pictures a second, so it will be used to watch any object that can change quite rapidly, like black holes, gamma ray bursts, white dwarfs or cataclysmic variables.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has discovered an aurora in the Martian atmosphere. In addition to Earth, auroras have been discovered on Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, but not Mars... until now. Mars has no intrinsic planetary magnetic field, so the aurora formed above a pocket of rock that was still magnetic. This aurora was only 30 km (19 miles) long, and very faint. An astronaut on Mars would probably see the aurora as very faint and blue, if at all.

Scientists have found what looks like a volcano on the surface of Titan, which could contribute to the methane in the moon's atmosphere. NASA's Cassini spacecraft imaged the area in infrared during a flyby last year, the region seems to show an "ice volcano" dome. The volcano looks to be about 30 km (19 miles) across, and appears to be built up from overlapping flows. At its centre is a feature that clearly looks like a volcano caldera. Future Cassini flybys will help scientists understand if the moon has enough tidal energy to generate volcanoes like this.

The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft has discovered deposits of calcium on the Moon for the first time. The discovery was made using the spacecraft's D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer, which can detect various elements on the lunar surface. SMART-1 is actually still in its calibration phase of its various instruments, so it should provide even more detailed results once it begins full operations.

Stars - like people - are born, grow, mature, and die. But out of stellar death comes new life, as matter freshly minted within such stars flies outward to join gases previously boiled off during its hey day. Based on extended Chandra observations of the oldest supernova discovered using X-ray technologies (SN 1970G), astronomers think we might be watching a star in the transition phase between its old life as a giant blue star that went supernova, and its new life as a supernova remnant.

The European Space Agency is moving forward to deploy the second of Mars' Express radar booms. The 20-metre (65 foot) boom is set to unfurl between June 13 and June 21. The deployment was delayed because of a problem with the first boom, which didn't unfold perfectly, so engineers had to devise a solution to warm it in the Sun to get it to fully lock into place. Once its three booms are extended, Mars Express will be able to search for underground sources of water and ice on the Red Planet.

Asteroids have been roughing up the Earth since it formed 4.6 billion years ago. Hundreds of thousands of potentially devastating asteroids are still out there, and whizzing past our planet all the time. Eventually, inevitably, one is going to score a direct hit and cause catastrophic damage. But what if we could get a better idea of where all these asteroids are or even learn to shift their orbits? Dr Edward Lu is a NASA astronaut, and a member of the B612 Foundation - an organization raising awareness about the threat of these asteroids and some potential solutions.

Greetings, fellow Skywatchers! The week begins with a New Moon and an opportunity to study the rich galactic region around the M84 and M86. The June Arietid meteor shower peaks and we'll check in on Comet 9/P Tempel 1. As the Moon returns, we'll keep watch on the planets as they move toward a splendid conjunction, begin our studies of the M13, practice radio astronomy with everyday equipment and round out the week with the Ophiuchid meteor shower. Hope for clear skies and get out your binoculars and telescopes, because...

Here's what's up!

Diaries hold the accounts of some of the dearest, most precious moments of our lives. The pleasure of a first kiss, the euphoria of wining a medal or the satisfaction from a commendation all get entered. Ed Buckbee, with Wally Schirra, in their book The Real Space Cowboys share emotional highlights of their own and others from the early U.S. space program. Given that they both have many years of first hand involvement, there are many exciting, warm and funny moments to share just like in reviewing an old diary.

When supernova 1987A blew up in the Large Magellanic Cloud, it was the closest supernova in over 300 years, and a great opportunity to study this rare occurrence close up. A neutron star or black hole should have formed at the centre of the expanding ring of debris, but so far, nobody can find it. A neutron star could be there, but it just isn't emitting any radiation, or sucking in any material from its surroundings, so it's invisible from here. If the neutron star had an accretion rate of even 1/5th the mass of the Moon every year, we'd be able to detect it.

When Opportunity got its wheels stuck in a sand dune more than a month ago, operators had no idea it would be so difficult to get it moving again. So they were relieved this weekend when Opportunity finally maneuvered its way out. It was very difficult for the rover to get any traction in the ripple-shaped dune, and its spinning wheels traveled the equivalent of 191 metres (629 feet). Scientists now want to analyze the sand dune to understand why this one bogged down the rover, unlike dozens of other dunes it's rolled across without a problem.

Even through large levels of ozone were destroyed in the Earth's atmosphere this winter, NASA's Aura spacecraft detected that the ozone layer is actually looking quite healthy above the arctic, and did its job stopping harmful ultraviolet radiation. This strange paradox is explained by a very unusual winter in the Arctic, where stratospheric winds brought in large quantities of ozone from the Earth's middle latitudes. This was the first winter monitored by Aura, which was launched in 2004.

Cassini took this beautiful photograph of Saturn, shrouded behind its own rings. This image was taken in visible light on April 26, 2005, when Cassini was approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Saturn. The photograph not only shows the A, B, and C rings, but they're also casting shadows onto the planet's atmosphere.