This sweeping view of Saturn's rings shows the incredible detail and grandeur of the system, from the outer F ring to the inner C ring. The difference in brightness at each spot in the rings highlights the different concentrations of ring particles. Cassini took this image from below the ring plane, looking up; the top is closer to the spacecraft, and the bottom is farther away. Cassini took the picture when it was 836,000 km (519,000 miles) away.

Cassini took this amazing photograph of Prometheus, one of Saturn's small shepherd moons as it's tugging material away from the planet's F ring. The F ring resolves into 5 separate strands, and you can see how tiny Prometheus has a stream of material flowing towards it. Prometheus is only 102 km (63 miles) across, and scientists still aren't sure exactly why it creates the different knots and breaks in the F ring.

A series of research papers about past water on Mars have been published in the Journal Science by various scientists involved with the Mars Exploration Rovers. Although the team went public with their discoveries many months ago, these research papers provide the full evidence from the Opportunity rover, and have been exhaustively peer reviewed. They hypothesize that the Meridiani Planum region was once saturated with liquid water for a long enough time to support life.

Scientists have used satellite photographs to track the movements of a relatively fast moving glacier in Greenland, and found that it's picking up speed, doubling its velocity in the last few years. While the glacier is speeding up, it's also thinning, losing ice at a rate of 15 metres (16.4 yards) in thickness each year. The amount of ice melting into the ocean is more than double the output that traditional climate models were predicting, and demonstrates that the world's ice caps and glaciers are much more sensitive to rising temperatures than previously believed.

Here's an interesting black and white image of Saturn's rings that I think makes a nice 1024x768 desktop wallpaper. The photograph was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on October 29, 2004 when it was 819,000 km (509,000 miles) away, and it shows the different rings and gaps in tremendous detail.

Alpha Centauri is the nearest star to our Earth and Sun. Often, science fiction novels extol its ability to nurture new life or expound it as a destination for humankind. Paul Gilster in Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration brings science and science fiction together in providing us with an up to date view on who's doing what to get people there, possibly starting as soon as this generation. He has only two exciting things to say about planning for the trip; it's here and it's now!

The early Universe was much dustier than astronomers were expecting, according to new data gathered by the Spitzer Space Telescope. This leads to the question, how did it get so dusty so early? Regular stars take billions of years before they star giving off large amounts of dust. But massive stars can form quickly and then explode as supernovae within 10 million years. The problem is that these explosions produce enormous amounts of hot dust, but very little cold dust, which is the kind found in the early Universe. So, the mystery continues.

Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics believe it's possible that our own Sun could have stolen some material from other stars billions of years ago. They came to this conclusion while trying to understand the orbit of Sedna, which takes 10,000 years to go around the Sun, in a highly elliptical orbit far beyond the Kuiper Belt. When our Sun was younger than 200 million years old, it could have swept past another star, disrupting the Kuiper Belt, and trading large objects (like Sedna) with each other.

Cassini took this image of the Encke Gap in Saturn's Rings. It's a small division 300 km (190 miles) wide near the outer edge of the rings. A tiny moon called Pan orbits within this region, maintains the gap, and ties the particles into this knotted shape with its gravity. The image was taken while Cassini was 807,000 km (501,000 miles) away from Saturn.

IRAS ? The Infrared Astronomical Satellite ? was launched in 1983 and was the first spacecraft to map the entire sky recording over 350,000 sources, and there were some early surprises in the data too. The bright star Vega in the constellation of Lyra was seen to have a cool accretion disk of a primordial Vega [solar] system in the process of formation. A decade later, astronomers discovered another larger accretion disk of dusty material, this time around the star Formalhaut in the constellation of the Southern Fish, and many more have followed since. Thereafter a new astronomical study was created with to examine primordial accretion disks around other stars. Here Richard Pearson talks to astronomer Michiel Min about stellar planetary systems.

The Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers discover the youngest known galaxy in the Universe. This baby galaxy, located 45 million light-years away seems to be only 500 million years old (our own Milky Way galaxy, like many galaxies in the Universe is 12 billion years old). Its interstellar gas is "nearly pristine", comprised mainly of hydrogen and helium, with only a sprinkling of the heavier elements associated with older galaxies. This discovery gives astronomers an opportunity to understand how galaxies first formed.

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory took this image of galaxy NGC 6118, located 80 million light-years away. A supernova was discovered exploding just north of the galaxy's centre on August 1, 2004. Astronomers now believe that it is a Type 1b or 1c, which means that it probably arose in a binary star system; a massive star whose hydrogen envelope was siphoned off by its stellar partner before it exploded.

Welcome back, SkyWatchers! With the Moon out of the way during the early evening hours this week, we will take this opportunity to further study with binoculars and telescopes the circumpolar constellation of Cassiopeia. Challenging double stars, splendid galactic clusters, nebula regions and two of the Andromeda Group galaxies await you! As the weekend approaches, you're invited to play comet hunter as several of our solar system "travelers" are within range of amateur equipment. For morning viewers, the planets and Moon continue to provide a fantastic display of the ecliptic plane and by Sunday both Venus and Mars will be approximately one degree apart. As always, you will find things here for all skill and interest levels. So go outside, tilt your head back, and open your eyes....

Because here's what's up!

When the NEAR spacecraft approached the Asteroid Eros in 2000/2001, scientists found much less small impact craters than they were expecting. Either there are less small asteroids in the Solar System than scientists were expecting, or something's happening on the surface of Eros to obscure the impact craters. Researchers from the University of Arizona think they have an answer: seismic shaking. Whenever Eros is struck by a small asteroid, it sets off shaking across the entire asteroid. Loose material creeps across the surface, down slopes, and can fill up older craters, obscuring them completely.

The crew of Expedition 10 completed maneuvers today to move their Soyuz spacecraft from one docking port of the International Space Station to another. They undocked the Russian-built spacecraft from the Pirs module at 0929 UTC (4:29 am EST), backed away about 100 feet (30 metres), and then moved it over to the Zarya docking point. The whole operation took about 20 minutes, and clears the way for the crew to use the Pirs compartment for two upcoming spacewalks, scheduled for early 2005.

Cassini took this amazing full colour picture of Saturn's moon Mimas set against the giant planet's rings. The bright swath next to Mimas is created by sunlight passing through the Cassini division; a gap in the rings. The dark band that stretches across the bottom of the picture is actually the shadow of Saturn's B ring, which is the densest. Cassini took this image when it was 3.7 million km (2.3 million miles) from Saturn.

NASA's Spirit Rover has just completed a long hard slog across difficult Martian terrain to reach the Columbia hills. The short journey of just a couple of kilometres has taken Spirit months. Imagine if it could thoroughly analyze an area and then just pick up and fly somewhere new? NASA has awarded a contract to a proprosal from Pioneer Astronautics, which envisions a vehicle that could land on Mars, refuel with local materials, and then fly hundreds of kilometres to explore; repeating this process over and over again - the Martian Gashopper Aircraft.

Protoplanetary discs surrounding new stars seem to have the building blocks for rocky planets right from the start, according to new research from an international team of researchers. The astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's VLT Interferometer to examine the discs around three young stars, which were similar to what our own Sun looked like more than 4.5 billion years ago. They found that the inner part of these discs is very rich in sand, ready to be clumped by gravity into larger and larger rocks until full planets form.

Cassini took this amazing photograph of Dione, one of Saturn's larger moons, on October 27 when it was 1.2 million km (746,000 miles) away. Voyager first saw the craters and bright, wispy streaks on its surface 24 years ago. Cassini is expected to do much much better, though, when it makes a close pass to the moon in mid-December, 2004.

NASA announced that the next crew of the International Space Station will be NASA astronaut John Phillips and Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. The crew of Expedition 11 is expected to launch to the station on board a Russian Soyuz rocket in May 2005. Both crewmembers have already visited the station. Phillips came aboard during the 12-day STS-100 mission in 2001 when helped install the Canadarm2. Krikalev was a member of the first crew to man the station, Expedition 1.

This is an image of impact Crater Hale, which is located in the Argyle basin in the southern hemisphere of Mars. The photograph was taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in June 2004. The crater and surrounding region have been heavily eroded over millions of years by a combination of wind and water. There is even evidence at the bottom of the picture of a network of fluvial channels, which were probably caused by running water.

Cassini's image team has released two new photographs taken by the spacecraft that show two of Saturn's moons in unprecedented detail: Titan and Tethys. The picture of fog enshrouded Titan is actually a mosaic of 9 individual images stitched together that were taken as Cassini approached. The photograph of Tethys is actually in natural colour, and shows how neutral the moon looks. Tethys has a density similar to water, so scientists believe the moon is mainly composed of water ice. Cassini will make a much closer approach to Tethys in September 2005.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this image of Saturn and one of its moons, Tethys. This image was taken on Oct. 18, 2004 when the spacecraft was 3.9 million km (2.4 million miles) away from Tethys, which is only 1,060 km (659 miles) across.

You may think that digital cameras are a tad expensive. But place them onboard a satellite and the cost (and camera!) go through the roof. So what does half a billion buy you? Andrew Johnston in his book, Earth from Space, gives the layman's perspective on this by presenting views from remote sensing satellite. The stunning results give a whole new appreciation of the complexity and beauty of the Earth's surface. Whether wonderful works of art or detailed technical disseminations these images capture stunning views of our altogether small world.

Professor Colin Pillinger is Head of Planetary & Space Sciences, Open University, and the UK principal investigator on the Beagle-2 project. Colin gained his PhD from the Open University, Wales, in the late 1960s, and became one of the lucky few Britons to work on the lunar samples brought back by the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission in 1969. Recently Colin talked to Richard Pearson about Beagle 2, the potential for life on Mars, and the state of the Beagle program.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! For those of you who like observing challenges, this week will provide many interesting opportunities to view occultations of bright stars by asteroids as well as three observable comets. We will explore lunar features for both binoculars and telescopes and look into "The Eye of the Bull". Although the Moon goes full this week, we can still have fun by learning to observe satellite passes and even chase the ISS! We will begin an in-depth look at the constellation of Cassiopeia by viewing and discussing some of its bright double stars and a galactic cluster. Just as predictable as the morning planets, there's always something fun to do, a bit of history and things to learn. So open your eyes...

Because here's what's up!

After several days of delays, NASA's Swift observatory was finally launched Saturday at 1716 UTC (12:16 pm EST) atop a Boeing Delta II rocket. Swift's job will be to scan the heavens for elusive Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), which astronomers think could be the birth cries of new black holes. GRBs are short-lived, lasting only seconds - a few minutes at most. Swift can locate an explosion, and turn the entire spacecraft in about a minute to focus sensitive instruments on the fading afterglow. If everything works as planned, the spacecraft should be able to find more than 100 of these explosions every year.

Astronomers now believe that all large galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centre, but it was believed that these black holes formed after the galaxy. The evidence is starting to point the other way, that these black holes formed soon after the Big Bang, and then the galaxies built up around them. New observations from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory show a distant quasar that formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang, and was already producing the same amount of energy as twenty trillion Suns.

Cassini took this image of Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon, on October 24, 2004 when it was about 1.7 million km (1 million miles) away. The photo clearly shows a bright bright impact crater near its eastern limb. Cassini will get another view of Rhea in January 2005 - but with 10 times better resolution - just after it releases the Huygens probe which will land on Titan.

This is a satellite photograph of one of the driest places on Earth: Chile's Atacama Desert, which only sees rain two to four times a century. The picture was taken by the European Space Agency's Envisat Earth observation satellite, using its Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS). There are even some spots in the desert where rainfall has never been recorded. Plants and animals and even people are forced to harvest water from the air itself, which sometimes forms a light fog. The European Southern Observatory is located in this desert, because of its high altitude and clear, dry air.

This image of Saturn and its tiny moon Mimas was taken on Sept. 25, 2004 by NASA's Cassini spacecraft when it was 7.8 million kilometers (4.8 million miles) from the planet. The photo shows a huge white storm which has formed in a band of clouds.

Japanese researchers using the Subaru Telescope have found a large galaxy caught in the act of consuming a smaller companion galaxy. It's a messy eater; there's a wispy trail of stars over 500,000 light-years long, which is the longest astronomers have ever seen. Examples of this kind of galactic destruction are hard to find because the consumed are usually dim dwarf galaxies. We have only indirect evidence of digested galaxies in our own Milky Way, like groups of stars traveling in an unusual trajectory.

Scientists believed they'd finally reached the limits of microbial life with the heart of the Atacama desert in Chile. This desert is so dry, parts of it only receive one rainfall every decade or so, and NASA uses it as a model for the search for life on Mars. But researchers from the University of Arizona have discovered that life's here too. They dug up soil samples from 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 inches) below ground, and then added completely sterile water and let the samples sit for 10 days. They were then able to grow unusual bacteria from the samples and analyze their DNA.

Early star formation is a bit of a puzzle for astronomers, since all the stars that we can see formed out of molecular gas and dust, which are produced in stars. How did the first ones form without any gas and dust? One class of galaxies, called Blue Dwarf Galaxies may offer some clues. They contain interstellar clouds which are similar to the material that would have been present in the early Universe. And these galaxies can have active regions of furious star formation. New research from the European Southern Observatory has targeted one of these Blue Dwarfs to try and understand the process better.

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously predicted that we'd see space elevators 50 years after people stopped laughing at the idea. Jerome Pearson has been thinking about space elevators since the early 1970s, and he's been watching the growing enthusiasm (and fading chuckles) with great interest. But he knows there are significant challenges in engineering and materials that still need to be overcome, so he's suggesting NASA build an elevator on the Moon first. And the agency is taking the idea seriously.

It?s the year 2027 and NASA?s Vision for Space Exploration is progressing right on schedule. The first interplanetary spacecraft with humans aboard is on course for Mars. However, halfway into the trip, a gigantic solar flare erupts, spewing lethal radioactive protons directly at the spacecraft. But, not to worry. Research by former astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman and a group of MIT colleagues back in the year 2004 ensured that this vehicle has a state-of-the-art superconducting magnetic shielding system that protects the human occupants from any deadly solar emissions.

The X-43A scramjet broke its own world record for air breathing engines on Tuesday, when it traveled at nearly 10 times the speed of sound. The prototype scramjet aircraft was dropped from a B-52 aircraft, and then boosted to Mach 4 by a Pegasus rocket. The aircraft detached from the rocket and then accelerated up to Mach 9.8 (11,265 kph or 7,000 mph). This flight was the last in a series of three test flights by NASA in the development of its Hyper-X program, which explores alternatives to rocket power for access to space.

NASA's Swift spacecraft is sitting on top of a Boeing Delta II rocket at Florida's Cape Canaveral, waiting for technical difficulties to be resolved with a piece of electronic equipment on the rocket. If everything goes well, Swift will lift off on Thursday, and head into space to search for the most powerful explosions in the Universe: Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), which could be the birth cries of new black holes. The observatory's gamma ray detector scans the sky looking for these explosions. When it finds them, the whole spacecraft will turn to focus on the source within 70 to 100 seconds, and analyze it with a suite of other instruments.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft took this photograph of a series of canyon systems on the surface of the Red Planet. The canyons are part of the Coprates Catena, which are at the southern end of the enormous Valles Marineris rift. Sections of the structures appear to have collapsed in on themselves at various points; a few landslides are visible. Scientists theorize that underlying ice or water was removed, which then caused the rock and soil to collapse.

NASA has pushed back the launch of its X-43A because of instrument trouble used up most of their launch window on Monday. Although they were go for launch at the end of the window, launch controllers decided to push the launch back until Tuesday. If all goes well, the innovative "scramjet" prototype will detach from a flying B-52 aircraft, and then accelerate to Mach 10 - 10 times the speed of sound, or 11,300 kph (7,000 mph).

The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft is no longer orbiting the Earth... it's orbiting the Moon! The spacecraft has been slowly raising its orbit using its efficient ion engine, and yesterday it passed within 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of the Moon, using its gravity to shift the spacecraft's trajectory. Its engine will now fire for 4 days straight to complete the orbital maneuver. It will continue lowering its orbit around the Moon until mid-January, when it'll get as close as 300 km (186 miles) and begin a scientific study.

TV host Sir Patrick Moore has popularized astronomy for almost half a century in the United Kingdom and around the world by presenting his monthly Sky at Night program without a break - a slight episode of food-poisoning earlier this year that meant Patrick missed a program, but he made a full recovery. Patrick has also written over a hundred books and thousands of papers on the subject, and was working on a new project when Richard Pearson caught up with him at his East Grinstead home.

Welcome back, fellow skywatchers! The "hot" news for this week is, of course, the Leonid Meteor Shower. Where will it happen, when will it happen and how many can we expect to see? The answers to that are all matters of calculation and a whole lot of luck! The predictions for 2004 look best for the early hours of November 19, but why wait? The random rate (thanks to a little help from the Andromedids) has been outstanding! We will also locate and explore globular cluster M30 and a beautiful asterism known as the "Coathanger". Want some color in your stars? Then come along as we locate and view Omicron 1 Cygni! We head south for the "Lonely Star" - Formalhaut, and salute Southern Hemisphere viewers with the finest "double" in the sky, Rigel Kentauris. We will examine lunar features and use the Moon to guide you to the outer planets. You'll find a bit of space history here as well as a lot of fun for the naked-eye, binocular and telescope observer. For now? Hope for clear skies and mark your calendars...

Because here's what's up!

In June, researchers from the University of Rochester discovered a planet around a star so young that it shouldn't exist according to existing theories of planetary formation. Further observations have backed up the discovery; there's definitely a planet there which is only 100,000 to 500,000 years old. This is much too young for either of the established theories of planetary formation. In the "core accretion" model, larger and larger chunks of rock smash together for 10 million years until a large planet is formed. In the "gravitational instability" model, a cloud of material pulls together into a planet by its own gravity; this is faster, but still not fast enough to explain how the planet got there.

Engineers at NASA knew they were taking a risk when they piloted the Opportunity rover into the stadium-sized Endurance crater because it has fairly steep walls. It looks like the planned eastward exit out of the crater isn't going to work; one part of the slope is too steep, and the other is covered in sand that the rover might not be able to cross. Opportunity will have to backtrack, and search out a new exit to the south, and maybe even go back out by retracing its entry path.

Although they were using the Hubble Space Telescope to analyze the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, an international team of astronomers were also able to discover a new asteroid that happened to drift through Hubble's field of view. The asteroid is 270 million km (169 million miles) from Earth, which probably puts it into the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter - it's only 2.4 km (1.5 miles) across. The asteroid's path is wavy because Hubble was orbiting the Earth as it took a series of long exposures, and the gaps come from times that Hubble's shutter was closed.

This photograph of Phobos, one of Mars' two tiny moons, was taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft when it was less than 200 km (125 miles) away during a recent flyby. The picture shows the strange parallel grooves that run around moon, and researchers might be able to tell whether they formed before or after the larger impact craters. Phobos is locked in a "death spiral" around Mars, and it'll eventually crash into the planet, or be torn apart and turned into a short-lived ring.