From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Sat Apr 05 2003 - 07:23:47 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: bulletins_at_SkyandTelescope.com
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 7:43 PM
To: ljk4_at_msn.com
Subject: S&T's Weekly News Bulletin for April 4
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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - April 4, 2003 * * *
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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full text of stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are available on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided below. Clear skies!
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MONSTER GAMMA-RAY BURST
If you live in western North America and were watching the constellation
Leo early on the morning of March 29th, you just might have been able to
see a titanic explosion 2 billion light-years away -- with your naked
eyes.
At 11:37 Universal Time (3:37 a.m. PST), the afterglow of a powerful
gamma-ray burst on the back of the Lion may have brightened to something
like 5th magnitude. GRB 030329, named for the date it happened, ranks as
the nearest and probably the optically brightest classical gamma-ray burst
ever observed.
The burst was first detected by the suite of gamma- and X-ray detectors on
board NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer 2 (HETE-2). Described by the
HETE team as a "monster GRB," it lasted some 50 seconds and briefly
emitted more energy toward us than everything else in the universe
combined....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/current/article_914_1.asp
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HUBBLE CAPTURES A PROTOPLANETARY DISK
The Hubble Space Telescope's new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has
captured a detailed image of spiral rings in a distant protoplanetary
disk -- the pancake-shaped cloud of gas and dust around a young star in
which planets are expected to condense. But contrary to earlier
suggestions, the intricate structure of this particular disk is probably
caused by a nearby companion star rather than by embedded planets starting
to form.
HD 141569A is a very young type-A star 320 light-years away in Libra.
Shining at 7th magnitude, it is visible in binoculars. An excess of
infrared radiation, attributed to a dusty circumstellar disk, showed up in
a survey by the US-Dutch Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in the
early 1980s. Four years ago by a team led by Alycia J. Weinberger
(Carnegie Institution of Washington) presented images of a dark gap in
this disk, obtained with Hubble's NICMOS infrared camera, as possible
evidence for planets within it (SKY & TELESCOPE, April 1999, page 18).
Now the more sensitive ACS paints a different picture....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/current/article_911_1.asp
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NATIONAL DARK-SKY WEEK
While many amateur astronomers bemoan the loss of the night sky due to
light pollution, few do much to actively combat the problem. But making
the public aware of the growing problem just got easier -- thanks to the
efforts of a high-school student in Midlothian, Virginia. Last year
Jennifer Barlow created National Dark-Sky Week. This year the idea has
attracted widespread attention.
Through April 8th, Barlow asks that everyone in the country turn off all
non-essential lighting from 10 p.m. until 12 a.m. in the Eastern and
Mountain time zones, 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. in the Central, Pacific, and
Hawaiian time zones....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/current/article_912_1.asp
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY
* Daylight saving time, observed in most of North America, begins at 2:00
a.m. Sunday morning April 6th. Clocks "spring ahead" one hour.
* Saturn shines just below the Moon on April 7th.
* First-quarter Moon on April 9-10.
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/
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SPRINGTIME STARGAZING II (Advertisement)
Here's another sneak preview of some of the new items highlighted in our
upcoming Spring Catalog.
Seeing in the Dark
by Timothy Ferris
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/campaigns.asp?id=346
The Backyard Astronomer's Guide Revised Edition
by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/campaigns.asp?id=347
21st Century Astronomy
By Jeff Hester et al.
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/campaigns.asp?id=348
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Copyright 2003 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin is provided
as a free service to the astronomical community by the editors of SKY &
TELESCOPE magazine. Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as
long as our copyright notice is included, along with the words "used by
permission." But this bulletin may not be published in any other form
without written permission from Sky Publishing; send e-mail to
permissions_at_SkyandTelescope.com or call +1 617-864-7360. More astronomy
news is available on our Web site at http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/.
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To change your address, unsubscribe from S&T's Weekly News Bulletin, or
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